Does Cutis Verticis Gyrata (CVG) Lead to Hair Loss and Is it Treatable?

This question, asked by a member of our Hair Loss Social Community and Discussion Forums, was answered by Coalition hair transplant surgeon Dr. Cam Simmons:

I suffer from Cutis Verticis Gyrata. The dermatologists I’ve been to have been clueless about it and printed off information for me to read which was the same info I had already found. Has there been any progress into treatments of CVG as it’s causing a lot of stress.

First let me say that I do not have a lot of experience with CVG.

After seeing a CVG patient in consultation and seeing email photos of another a couple of years ago, I realized that I had done a hair transplant a couple of years ago on someone with very mild CVG. He had 2 sagittal, slight indentations that could be felt at the time of his hair restoration surgery but not really seen. I wondered at the time if he had a couple of childhood scars he didn’t remember. I since saw him in follow-up and his hair transplant grew well. I believe that his hair loss was caused by androgenic alopecia (male pattern balding). He had a classic 5 pattern on the Norwood Scale and the indentations were most easily felt where his hair was thickest in the band across the mid-scalp. His CVG likely had not progressed.

For patients who see thinning in an area affected by CVG, it is possible that hair is being spread apart more in the ridges and not spread apart in the furrows. Also, the way the skin thickens, the hair direction will tend to fan out from side to side on the tops of the ridges and will crisscross in the bottom of the furrows. That will also make the hair look thicker in the furrows and thinner in the ridges.

I could not find much about treatment for CVG. There was a report about subcision to reduce the depth of the furrows, which is basically undermining under the furrows with a needle through multiple entry points. In the accompanying photos there was some evening out of the skin but it wasn’t perfect. There were other reports of scalp reductions and flap rotations to remove more pronounced ridges and furrows.

My patient had barely noticeable CVG and his hair transplant grew quite well. I don’t know about the effect or more pronounced CVG on hair transplantation. If I find some colleagues with experience with CVG I will ask them to reply.

Dr. Cam Simmons

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David (TakingThePlunge)
Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q & A Blog.

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