janna
Moderator
Hi Tommytwo,
2500 is an approximate number - we've done procedures without shaving for up to 2800. You never know the type of patient you are dealing with until the actual surgery is at hand. By this I mean they may be a bleeder, their scalp is tight, they have slippery tissue, etc that may slow a procedure down. So if you add another hinderance of not being able to see very well because you have native hairs in the way, this could be a major factor in completing a procedure in a reasonable time frame. I am not saying you need to complete within 4-5 hours but I think within 8-10 hours is optimal. It's good for the patients, the staff, and the little grafts that we're dealing with.
As for shaving or not shaving.......
It is possible we simply feel more comfortable working with unshaved hairs compared to many physicians because we've worked between hairs for years. It's only been in the last few years with the session sizes getting bigger where we started asking patient if they would be receptive to shaving their hairs. Did we compromise the native hairs (shock loss) prior to shaving? I think our work and results speak for themselves. We feel if a patient allows us to cut the hairs there is no question it opens up the field for more optimal work environment. But it may not be needed in all circumstances. There are various scenarios. If we are working down between a uniformed density of 20-25FU's or more, there's no doubt we need to cut the hairs in order to work on the patient. If the density is just under 20-25FU's and we are seeing scalp through the hair, we could work down between the hairs, but it may decrease the amount of work we can ultimately do, possibly by 10-15%. It may prevent us in finding all the spaces and there may be a bit more risk to native hair as we cannot see things quite as well. Then there is a scenario when we are seeing more scalp then hair in regard to density, and we generally can go down between the hairs and do the same quality of work with no compromise to density or native hairs. It just makes it harder for us, but we can do it by taking more time during the incision making and planting process. Lastly, if it is quite thin to bald, it just doesn't really matter at all. So it really depends on how thick or thin the native density is prior to surgery and whether the doctor is willing to work with the longer hairs despite a longer procedure time.
2500 is an approximate number - we've done procedures without shaving for up to 2800. You never know the type of patient you are dealing with until the actual surgery is at hand. By this I mean they may be a bleeder, their scalp is tight, they have slippery tissue, etc that may slow a procedure down. So if you add another hinderance of not being able to see very well because you have native hairs in the way, this could be a major factor in completing a procedure in a reasonable time frame. I am not saying you need to complete within 4-5 hours but I think within 8-10 hours is optimal. It's good for the patients, the staff, and the little grafts that we're dealing with.
As for shaving or not shaving.......
It is possible we simply feel more comfortable working with unshaved hairs compared to many physicians because we've worked between hairs for years. It's only been in the last few years with the session sizes getting bigger where we started asking patient if they would be receptive to shaving their hairs. Did we compromise the native hairs (shock loss) prior to shaving? I think our work and results speak for themselves. We feel if a patient allows us to cut the hairs there is no question it opens up the field for more optimal work environment. But it may not be needed in all circumstances. There are various scenarios. If we are working down between a uniformed density of 20-25FU's or more, there's no doubt we need to cut the hairs in order to work on the patient. If the density is just under 20-25FU's and we are seeing scalp through the hair, we could work down between the hairs, but it may decrease the amount of work we can ultimately do, possibly by 10-15%. It may prevent us in finding all the spaces and there may be a bit more risk to native hair as we cannot see things quite as well. Then there is a scenario when we are seeing more scalp then hair in regard to density, and we generally can go down between the hairs and do the same quality of work with no compromise to density or native hairs. It just makes it harder for us, but we can do it by taking more time during the incision making and planting process. Lastly, if it is quite thin to bald, it just doesn't really matter at all. So it really depends on how thick or thin the native density is prior to surgery and whether the doctor is willing to work with the longer hairs despite a longer procedure time.
