I recently had a mega session with Dr Umar. I’ve been a victim of bad scalp reductions and strip surgery in the early 90’s. I was pretty much butchered, but at the time in my early twenties I wanted to beat the inevitable. Unfortunately, the scalp reductions left me with a giant scar down the back of my head, strip scars, and depletion of my donor hair in the back. I’ve had what is called a Z-plasty to fix the direction of the hair in the back and breakup the wide scar. This involved placing two balloon like devices under the scalp that have a port to inject a fluid into it that slowly expands the scalp so that it can stretched to manipulate it and cut out the bald areas. This is done over 6-8 weeks getting injections twice a week. This method has also been used to expand out someone’s entire scalp if they are bald on top and create flaps and bring the side and back hair altogether. It’s not the most fun process. While it dramatically helped the appearance of the scalp reduction scar, there is still some stretch back and you have all the remaining scars from the flap incisions. I had it done twice and that’s it for me. The old graphs used on top of my head did not cover enough and created an odd ridging appearance. With the multiple scalp reductions, this created a nightmare. The hair in front got pulled up too high and the hairline gets pulled in. The hair from my temples was pulled back, stretching out that area and over time/nature fell out. I’m relegated to wearing a hairpiece. I basically had given up hope until I met Dr. Umar. I had a session with him in July and it offers a lot of hope. He was able to fix the ridging and pluggy look in the front and offers hope to cover and fix the crown, temples, and scars on my head. You will be hard pressed to find too many people with a worse condition than mine, but I believe BHT could be the answer. I can say after the pain of all the other procedures, Dr. Umar’s technique was easy. No staples, deep stitches, head expanders, etc. First, the guy is about the nicest guy you can meet. Second, he really cares. Third and most importantly, he is very skilled and I think has the best results and is the most trustworthy person to perform BHT. My first day there was from 7:30am to 3am with Dr. Umar repairing bad graphs and getting me started in the right direction. The next four days were from around 10am to 2am. I’m confident in his abilities and I know there are a lot of doubts out there, but if anyone is considering getting a hair transplant I would definitely go with Fue/BHT over strip. With all the incisions/stretching I’ve had to the back of my head, my scalp will never feel the way it was. If I can save anyone from doing this, then having my case followed may give hope to others and confidence to those considering Fue/BHT. Having been promised results before and read other blogs about pictures and lighting, I decided to have all my progress documented by an independent plastic surgeon, the one who did both my Z-plastys. He will take the post-op photos and follow my progress of Dr Umar’s work. This doctor is well respected within the industry, he often speaks at conferences and many doctors serve fellowships with him. He does not perform BHT himself, he does a strip method so he is very interested in monitoring the outcome. This doctor told me every year a BHT doctor says they are bringing some results to a conference to show them off, but it never happens. Dr. Umar has never met him and welcomed the opportunity to have another doctor monitor the progress. Dr Umar will post the pictures and he can explain my case. As with anyone who posts here, none of this is easy to share, but if I can help someone from making the same mistake and/or a better decision then it is worth it. If this type of forum existed before, I would have been spared a lot of pain. I have a ways to go and will post updates, but I believe Dr Umar is finally the one who can offer me hope and restore some dignity regarding this ordeal in my life.

Dr Umar says.."The case of Flash is indeed a most unfortunate scenario of medical procedures gone bad. A series of invasive scalp reduction and strip HT surgeries have resulted in a most regrettable cosmetic outcome.

The foregoing photos should give an idea of the situation.

In summary:

1. A severely reduced crown has resulted in an oblong with unnaturally angled hair on the periphery. Simply implanting hair to the area was not a viable option. Rather tissue expansion followed by a Z plasty was done by another practice to address this.

2. Pluggy, pitted and unnatural island of transplanted hair in the frontal scalp

3. The temples have been pulled to unnaturally meet vertex just above the ears.

4. Ravaged scalp donor areas

5. Bald scarred crown (Now area between Z plasties and frontal/midscalp

Flash’s BHT repair work will be done in 2-3 steps. He has completed the first step that entailed the removal of several pits and plugs as well as softening of the frontal/midscalp with BHT grafts. A bit of temple work was done as well.

Next 2-3 steps would entail, a radical refinement of frontal and temple hair lines as well as repletion of the ravaged scalp donor areas, as well as grafting to the strip and Z platy scars (Donor supply permitting)

Flash follows up with his Plastic surgeon regularly with photos sessions on each visit. This has presented a unique opportunity for an independendent/peer assessment of BHT outcome in Flash."

Before STep I BHT repair -Photos:

Reduced Crown before Z Plasty by another practice

Note the oblong crown and the unnaturally angled hair around it.


Crown photos after repair by Z-plasty by another practice

The oblong shaped crown is gone, and some semblance of hair direction restored.

Sides:

Note the point at which the temples meet the top


Top Photos:

Pluggy, pitted and unnatural island of transplanted hair in the frontal scalp


Scalp donor area:

During Step I BHT repair -photos

Removal of plugs and pits:

Egregious plugs and pits have been removed. Follicles salvaged from this process were redistributed


Side/ Temple:

in this 1 of 2-3 Step BHT repair process, an attempt has been made to restore some normality to the temple area. In the next visit, this area will be revisited most decisively.


Some Donor photos:

Follicles for BHT were derived from the back of the neck, shoulders, deltoid areas, chest and abdomen.

2 weeks after Step I BHT repair -photos

 Detailed forum discussion for these pics can be found at:

http://www.hairsite4.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=12&topic_id=45512&mode=full