At time I receive inquiries from patients who have previously received transplant surgery at other facilities where they received a pluggy hair transplant, and are dissatisfied with their results.  I recently had a patient in my San Francisco hair restoration office with a lot of pluggs from his old transplantation from years ago.  He was wondering what repair transplant procedure I can do to help correct his previous surgical mishaps. I inform this patient of the repair hair transplant surgery we perform regularly.

It is important to have a consultation with a hair transplant surgeon to see what the best method is to repair the pluggy looking area. It is important for us to make a few observations. If there is a hairline which is high enough and the donor hair numbers are sufficient, no plugs need to be removed. The hair line can be lowered and a transitional zone in front of the plugy hairline will be created with a heavier density to cover the plug visibility.

If the hair line cannot be lowered because there is a lack of room from the original surgery, then plug removal is done by thinning them out (for denser plugs), or those micro and mini grafts could be removed. Follicular units need to be placed between the plugs giving a more even balance to the transplanted area. Adequate density is added to the transplanted area, thus minimizing the pluggy look.

I always emphasize the importance of being evaluated by a quality hair transplant surgeon, who can determine the proper route to take after a close examination. Repair in itself, appears to be simple, but there are challenging cases which might require multiple transplants for the best overall results.

Many patients that come in to my office have a common complaint; hair shedding (some even bring in a ball of hair they have collected from their brush and bathroom floor) and in most cases they are women with long hair. For the most part hair shedding alone is not a sign of hair loss. Shedding is losing thick hair that has completed its growth phase and started its resting phase.

• Examples of Normal Hair Shedding

All humans experience a level of hair shedding. It can be up to 100 to 200 hairs per day. Hair shedding is sometimes more exaggerated in people who have had a large surgery, trauma, experienced physiological or emotionally stressful events and women who have recently delivered a child. This is called Telogen Effluvium (excessive temporary loss of telogen hair). In most cases hair shedding is typically temporary and the affected hair will grow back within a few months. There is no cause for concern, unless you have a more visible scalp or thinning of the scalp hair. In which case, you should come in to see a certified hair restoration surgeon.

• The 3 Stages of Human Hair Growth

1. Anagen ( Growing stage)
2. Catagen (Transitional stage)
3. Telogen ( Resting stage)

• Active Hair Loss Determined by Miniaturization Study

Almost every patient that visits US Hair Restoration will have a miniaturization study performed on them, to evaluate their degree of the fineness of their scalp hair which are signs of active hair loss, or in other words scalp hair miniaturization. People with active hair loss show 20-30% more thinning hair than the average person who experiences normal hair shedding. If you feel that you are experiencing active hair loss, we recommend you come into one of our five offices in California( San Francisco, San Diego, Orange County, Beverly Hills and Encino), for a free consultation.