Should I Have Hair Transplants Before Or After A Skull Implant?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I’m interested in a custom skull implant. In particular, i’d like occipital augmentation to mitigate the mild flat head appearance that I have. I would like to ask, do you use PEEK as material for this procedure or is it only done with silicone. Also, I am considering getting an FUE hair transplant sometime in the foreseeable future. Would having a skull implant reduce the viability of FUE? Finally, I would like to know rough cost range for custom occiput implants. Thank you in advance.

A: 1) I have no particular preference for the material used in skull implants, But the material chosen will have a major influence on the cost of surgery and how small or large the scalp incision needs to be to get it placed.

2) While having a skull implant does not preclude having an FUE harvest later, given the value and limited supply of donor hair, it can be argued that hair transplantation should be done before skull augmentation. But this was more of an issue when the traditional donor harvest of a strip grafts was done. Today with FUE harvest there is less compelling need for the order of a skull implant and hair transplantation.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana