Q: I had a hair transplant in 2004 of mostly plugs. The plugs are in an angle which doesn’t really look natural, far from it. I have lost a lot more hair since I did the hair restoration procedure. I regret ever doing a hair transplant. I prefer to reverse the surgery. I have read a lot about repair work on the net, and I have come to the conclusion that using FUE to take the plugs out, and put them back into the scar might be an option, but it may just make it worse on top. Also I can do electrolysis to remove the plugs, might be better because the possibility of scarring is smaller, and as I already have a lot.

A: If you had plugs, then a graft excision with suturing will generally give a better result than FUE, since a graft excision removes the underling scar tissue as well as the plug. FUE only removes the follicles, but leaves the underlying scar tissue. In addition, the shape of the follicles in scar tissue is often distorted, making extraction difficult and leading to more transaction (damage to follicles).

Q: I would like to have the donor area from an old hair transplant repaired so it does not show the scar when I cut my hair shorter. What are my options?

A: Widened scars can be improved in two ways: they can be re-excised to make the scar finer, or hair can be placed into the scar to make it less visible.

Q: I was wondering if it was possible to use Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) on the old plugs instead of graft excision.

A: Graft excision generally works better than FUE in removing old plugs and mini-grafts. In these grafts, the hair is not aligned due to the scar tissue that forms from the large recipient sites. Because the hair direction is altered from the scar tissue, there is much more damage when the grafts are removed with FUE.

Q: Can dermabrasion help eliminate the circular edges of raised plug grafts caused by old hair transplants? Is this similar to the suturing and excision look? A: Although dermabrasion can flatten elevated edges, it will not eliminate the round, white circular scars that results from old punch graft hair transplants. The scarring in these procedures [...]