FACIALTEAM coronal approach w/transplants vs traditional hairline approach.

[Ashley3]

As I think many of you already know, FACIALTEAM has a technique for forehead reconstruction via a coronal incision, which avoids a hairline scar, while at the same time reuses hair from the coronal incision area—which would typically be lost with a coronal approach—as donor hair to fill in the hairline which gets pulled back some (made slightly higher or more receded) due to the nature of a coronal incision approach for forehead work.

As well, most of you already probably know that many other FFS surgeons use the traditional hairline incision approach which avoids hair loss at the expense of a hairline scar which, if done correctly, is usually not visible after recovery so long as the hair is not held back (i.e., as with a ponytail), perhaps even requiring for the hair to be in a bangs style or the like. I also hear it's not uncommon for such patients to go through subsequent transplant procedures to fill in the hairline at some later date. I'm not sure, but this seems as though it would cost more, require more procedures, and lengthen the overall time to reaching a completed post-OP outcome. I'm betting, though, there are cases where this is a more optimum approach...

I'm trying to get a sense for when each approach is optimum or not, or to hear what folks think generally, either from experience or researching these procedures.

More specifically, I'm trying to weigh the viability of both approaches for older patients with a decent head of hair and mild "3V" hair loss.  (Search for "baldness scale" and see resulting images to understand 3V.)

On the surface, FT's approach seems like a dreamy panacea for issues with the traditional approach, but I'm guessing it is not always viable. When is that? Or any general thoughts, warnings, compliments regarding these two general approaches?

Thanks for any thoughts on this!

[michelle82]

I just had the surgery with a Coronal Incision and immediate hair transplants. I was originally worried because once the incision is close the strip causes the hairline to be slightly raised. Most people think that a higher hairline is more masculine but this is actually not the case. I'm very happy with the incision being hidden and using that coronal strip to feel in my corners.

In my case I had only hair loss mainly in my corners that wasn't very severe. I think Facial Team will give you an honest opinion on which method will work better for you, and will not simply try and sell you the coronal+transplants if it is not a good indication for surgery. I think the hairline has to have quite a significant recession in the front for them to indicate a hairline incision. Atleast that seems to be the case in their before/after examples.