Hair transplants and shaving

I'm occasionally asked if a person who has had hair transplant surgery can shave their head without showing a lot of scarring. Unfortunately, I don't know, but I did find a comment about this on the hairlosshelp.com website given by a Dr. William Rassman, answering a specific query from a 32-year-old who had this type of surgery 7 years previously:

"Shaving your head will bring attention to any scarring that is now covered by your existing hair. More significant than the recipient area will be the point where the hair was harvested from (assuming that the work is modern work). If the grafts were the older type plugs, then shaving your head may show cobblestonning of the skin and some white plaques of skin where the old plugs were placed. You might get a good opinion from someone who is an expert in this business before you shave your head. I would hate to see you stuck with a baseball hat until the hair grew in again."

If you're considering hair transplant surgery, keep the scarring issue in mind. A lot of guys end up shaving their head later anyway when they become dissatisfied with the results of the surgery. Better to shave it right off the bat, in my opinion, than to spend the money on surgery.