Can a “Pluggy” Hair Transplant Be Corrected?

You hoped a hair transplant would be the ticket to covering up your hair loss, but it didn’t turn out the way you imagined. Perhaps you had a “pluggy” look from the start, or some unnatural hair patterns and lines started to criss-cross your scalp over time. 

The good news? Hair restoration has come a long way since those early procedures. Our team of board-certified dermatologists at Vivida Dermatology uses the most advanced hair restoration technique available — follicular unit extraction (FUE) — to create a natural look that won’t scream that you’ve had work done.

Here’s what we want you to know about hair transplantation and how we can correct a pluggy look.

Behind bad hair transplantation

Hair transplantation has been around for decades, helping millions of men and women who experience hair loss. By the age of 50, between 30% and 50% of men encounter hair loss. Similarly, about half of women experience thinning hair as they get older. 

Unfortunately, older techniques — as well as inexperienced practitioners — have left a good number of people with poor results, including:

• A patchy, pluggy appearance from older hair transplants that used larger grafts
• Uneven coverage caused by poor placement and follicles facing the wrong direction
• Linear scarring from older follicular unit transplantation techniques that used strips 
• Additional hair loss around previous implants, creating an unnatural pattern

We see these common issues at our practice and, in many cases, correct them with our advanced FUE technique.

FUE to the rescue

Using FUE, we excise groups of 1-4 follicular units at a time from areas where you have hair to spare, such as around the back of your head, as well as from your beard or chest, if those areas have good coverage.

This approach minimizes scarring and creates a far more natural look because it meticulously removes hair follicles individually rather than in large strips, which could lead to unnatural results and significant scarring.

By working in small areas, FUE can also even out patchy hair for a more uniform look. 

Correcting a pluggy hair transplant

Whether or not we can correct a pluggy or otherwise poor hair transplant depends on the condition of your scalp and hair follicles. For FUE, you’ll need viable donor follicles we can use to restore your hair coverage.

Furthermore, if you have significant scarring from a previous hair transplant, correcting it may be more challenging, as we can’t transplant follicles into scar tissue. 

Rest assured: If FUE isn’t available to you, we can discuss other techniques, such as tattooing.

Has your hair transplant gone awry?

Come in and sit down with one of our hair restoration experts to review your options. Simply contact one of our offices, located in Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada, or St. George, Utah, to schedule an appointment.