Hair Transplant for Scars
Hair transplant for scar areas is possible in selected cases but requires cautious planning. Scar tissue has reduced blood supply, so low density, staged sessions, and careful assessment of scar maturity are essential to improve graft survival and achieve stable results.
Scar tissue is a different recipient bed, not just a marked one. It carries fewer vessels than normal scalp, and grafts placed into it depend on a blood supply that is already reduced. Survival is therefore lower and, more importantly, less predictable — two scars that look identical can behave completely differently.
This is why a test session exists. A small number of grafts is placed and left for a full growth cycle. What grows answers the question no examination can: whether this particular scar will support hair, and at what yield. Committing a large number of grafts before that answer is a bet placed with donor that cannot be recovered.
| Scar type | Main consideration |
|---|---|
| Strip or surgical line | Thin, often the most cooperative; watch closure tension nearby |
| Burn | Thickest and least vascular; lowest expected yield |
| Traction or traumatic | Depends on whether follicles at the margin are still active |
Density is set low, and deliberately. Packing grafts into compromised tissue competes for the little circulation there is, so scar work is planted sparsely, often over two staged passes, with the second placed between the survivors of the first.
Angle has to be invented. There are no native hairs left in a scar to follow, so direction is reconstructed from the surrounding field rather than read off the site itself.
Related terms
- Hair transplant scarring
- Keloid risk
- Poor graft growth
- Beard to scalp hair transplant
- Scarring alopecia
For camouflaging a scar with pigment instead, see scalp micropigmentation. For corrective work after a previous procedure, see revision hair transplant.
