Will my husband’s hair grow back after this surgery mishap?
Asked by
JLeslie (
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February 9th, 2021
from iPhone
My husband had some surgery on the top of his head. A dermatological thing, no one is seriously injured or dying.
The suturing was terrible. There were dissolvable interior stitches and regular near the surface stitches. Shortly after they removed the outer stitches the wound opened up at both ends. He had 2 craters, the larger one about 4 millimeters by 7 millimeters and 2–3 millimeters deep. The smaller only slightly smaller. They became infected, we have spent 6 weeks now nursing it, and finally it is close to completely healed. It’s not completely smooth, but it’s better than I thought it would end up, I really thought he would have more of a “pox” type of mark left, especially where the bigger wound was.
I’m hoping his hair will grow back, but so far it hasn’t where the wound was and even immediately adjacent to the area.
My question is, where does the hair follicle live? Is it near the surface and since the wound opened up, the tissue that holds hair follicles is not in that area anymore? Does the hair grow from deeper?
I had an injury years ago that scraped hair off of my head and it did grow back. I don’t remember how long it took. I was fairly disabled for 2 months from the accident so I wasn’t really aware of how long the hair took to start sprouting again.
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13 Answers
I have a scar that goes from my forehead into the hairline. The hair did not grow back along the line of stitches.
I don’t believe hair can grow back on scar tissue. The follicles die.
Ya I have a couple of scars on my head and no hair where there was scar tissue.
But I’m bald on the top of my head where the scars are so it doesn’t matter for me.
As other folks on this thread have suggested, scar tissue doesn’t support hair growth.
Any wound that causes scaring usually destroys hair follicles in the area of the injury, and restricts normal blood flow to the scalp around the scar.
But there is a transplant procedure that can be successful in a majority of cases :
https://www.healthline.com/health/hair-transplant-on-scar
I had a ski injury a few years ago that tore my helmet off & skidded me head first into some trees. No life threatening injuries but it did leave an almost 2 inch scar in my scalp above my right ear. The transplant was something I opted for and it worked.
It’s usually pricey though since it’s considered cosmetic and most standard insurance won’t cover it. But – from what you’re saying it sounds like you could have a case against the hospital for negligence, which may mean they would be responsible for any related costs.
Good luck.
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@JLoon Do you remember more or less how much it cost for the small area? Hundreds? Thousands?
That sounds terrible.
My oldest scraped his head on a branch while riding his bicycle. He had a long cut from the front to back of the top of his head requiring a lot of stitches. This was probably a decade ago. When his hair is buzzed, you can see the scar (meaning no hair). When his hair is longer, you can’t see it, but he can feel the ridge.
I’m sorry you guys are dealing with this. Sounds like they could have done a better job sewing him up.
@JLeslie – Cost-wise, for me it was about $4500 out of pocket. That was 2012 pricing at a specialty clinic in Utah.
It may be more than that now depending on where you’re located. But it might also be less – I told them to give me the deluxe package & make me beyootifull ;D
@JLoon That seems crazy expensive. Did it take a long time that it warrants such a fee? Or, they just know people will pay a lot like most cosmetic procedures.
@JLoon Hopefully you got a majorly munificent refund from the Sonny Bono Ski School! ;-o
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