Patient 20

This patient was previously treated medically at another facility without benefit before she came to see me. She styled her hair with tight braids for most of her life, so based on her history and the exam, it was clear that she had lost her hairline from traction alopecia. With traction alopecia, there is still evidence of sparse hair follicles, unlike frontal fibrosing alopecia, in which the skin is very smooth with the hairline receding and no evidence of hair follicles showing the original hairline.

We discussed treatment options. With traction alopecia, there is usually not enough hair left to respond to pure medical treatments to achieve close to normal density, and this was the case here. However, traction alopecia does respond well to a hair transplant to correct the problem.

So we discussed proceeding with a FUT hair transplant. She had about 61 sq cm to fill in, and I planned to place the grafts at a density of 50 grafts/sq cm. The total number of grafts transplanted was 3068.

Age:

Surgeon:

Dr. Gray

Treatment:

FUT Transplant, Hair Follicle Regeneration

Result:

She returned 14 months after the transplant and was very happy with the results. However, despite my counseling after her procedure to not put traction on the new grafts, a hair stylist did just that, so there was thinning again on one side. She did not return to that stylist and understands she must avoid stressing the new grafts with traction.