Step 2: Preparing and Shaving the Donor Area

The more hair that has to be moved to accomplish our desired goal, both now and in the future, the more important the plan for the donor area. The donor area leaves a fine surgical scar after the 1 centimeter (slightly less than 1/2 inch) wide band of hair is removed for making your grafts and the area from which it came is closed with suture. The width of the scar is as wide as a line made by a dull pencil.

Dr Reed currently is using a new closure called a trichophytic closure to try to minimize the scar width. With this technique, the lower margin of the donor wound is beveled very superficially so that its hairs, when the donor is sutured closed, slip just beneath the upper wound margin. This encourages these hairs to grow up through the resulting donor scar to result in an even finer scar. This technique has been around for some time in plastic surgery and has been used to minimize the scar when brow lifts were done at the hairline.

Dr. Reed usually prefers to keep only one scar in the donor. This means that if you have had previous procedures, the scar of the procedure(s) is contained in the ellipse of the new procedure. This often means that the number of hairs obtained after the initial procedure are fewer.