James;
Some doctors actually use skin graphs in the main area of concern. I understand that to be shaving skin layers so thin and then rejoining them. That way, hair follicles do not line up and it becomes impossible for hair to grow. The moisture and darkness of the area is also not really conducive to hair growths. As I tell my clients, it boils down a lot to which physician one goes to for surgery.

I agree, one doesn't really know what each doctor intends to do, nor what the track record of that method might be. One can only make sure to do as much research as possible.

I don't get this; my toughest hairs are planted in those moist and (typically) dark regions! If the folicular "holes" were misaligned, wouldn't a crop of ingrowns be the result? I just cannot imagine this treatment is not significantly damaging to the skin if it were to really have an impact on the follicles.

Tex, I only know what my Doctor told me. The layers are too thin to support hair growth when the skin has been grafted. I do know that I do not have any hairs in that region, and that I did not have to have electrolysis down there. Actually, that skin down there is so wonderful soft.
I do know that some doctors want the area cleared of hair, and others say that it does not matter.

So, maybe I should get a grafting rather than hours of electrolysis? Really! Could I just have targeted surgical treatment (without the SRS) to have the skin grafted or scraped to remove the hair and skip over hours of treatments and a year of time?

Hey Tex, that's a very interesting idea! I would think if someone could do that six or so months ahead of their SRS date they would be way ahead of the game and the surgeon wouldn't have to spend valuable operating room time on hair removal. From what I understand, a surgeon will spend an hour or more on that task during SRS. Instead of skin grafting, they could simply pull the skin back and scrape off the folicles where required, and this could probably be done in their office with local anesthesia on an outpatient basis. Hmmmm.

Katie

I'm going to bring this up with my psychiatrist at my 3rd appointment on Feb 5th, as I've been advised to get it started asap. As this gives me time prior to my GRS to see if any regrowth takes place, so it can be dealt with in time before my main surgery.

Stephanie