Is The Flap Method A Good Hair Restoration Option?

Q:

Hi Dr. Mohebi,
I saw on Channel 4 News a new type of hair restoration called the Fleming/Mayers flap method. What is your opinion on this procedure vs FUT?

A:

The Fleming/Mayer Flap method used to be one of the more solid options for treatment of frontal hair loss in patterned baldness, but with today’s more advanced methods of microscopic follicular unit transplantation, flap surgery does not have any place compared to hair restoration surgery. The result is unnatural, causing an awkward hair angle and unusually high density in the narrow strip at the front. There is an exposed linear scar on the front of your hairline.

There might be some occasions when the flap surgery might be beneficial, but for a routine patterned hair loss hair, restoration it is not recommended anymore. In fact, we do repair the scar of the patients who had a flap surgery in the past and create a transitional zone consisting of single and double hair grafts in front of the flap (this is only possible if the flap is placed high enough). Unfortunately in cases that the flap is not high enough we cannot do much to repair them and at times we have to remove some hair from the flap area to thin it out and make it look more normal.