Will Attaching a Hair System with Adhesive Affect the Success of a Hair Transplant?

This question, from a member of our hair loss social community and discussion forums, was answered by Coalition hair transplant surgeon Dr. William Lindsey:

I have a receding hairline. I have two bald areas in the front (just above the forehead). I am planning to have hair transplant surgery in 1 yr. Until then I plan on using a hair system to cover the baldness in those areas. The wig will be attached to my skin with adhesive or tape.

I will have to apply adhesive or tape on the skin where the transplant will be performed in the future. It will stay there for many hours until I wash it at night (and again apply next morning).

Will this “seal off” or “clog” the pores through which hair may grow in future or somehow make that area of scalp  unhealthy and thereby reduce the success of hair transplantation in that area, in the future? Or, is the hair transplantation procedure completely unrelated to this and will not be affected by applying adhesive/tape on the scalp?

Absolutely. We had two guys wearing systems who promised not to use the adhesive in the area of our transplant. Both ended up with several areas of virtually no hair growth. In every picture we have over two years, its clear the scalp in 2 or 3 specific areas was red and irritated and appeared to have adhesive that had melted or oozed into that area. Despite pictures clearly suggesting that, these fellows didn’t change their application procedure and ended up with spots of no growth, we did a touch up on one of the guys at a year or so, and the same exact thing happened a second time.

So at our office, wearing a system post-op is not necessarily a deal breaker, but this little story and pictures showing this have resulted in no further system wearers post-op. Several guys have gone elsewhere, two have come in for repair but still would not get rid of the system and have not yet proceeded. And several guys have thrown their system in the trash the morning of their case. So far, allL of those guys said they just felt “relieved” to be starting a new course.

Dr. William Lindsey
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David
Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q & A Blog.

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