Burn Victim Hair Regrowth

Emermouse · Sep 25, 2017

I thought maybe there was already a recent thread with information regarding burns and what victims go through, but I couldn't find it. Hence why I started a new thread.

Anyway, I have a character who was badly burned on one side after surviving a bombing. The bombing turned his hair into black, brittle clumps, which promptly fell out, leaving him bald.

Obviously in the aftermath, there are more important things to worry about than his hair, but I was wondering if months later, after he's been treated, would he still be left bald as a result of all this. For those wondering, these are pretty horrific burns with the scar tissue to match. Is it possible for hair to grow from scar tissue or would my character pretty much be left bald on one side?

MaeZe · Sep 25, 2017

There are no hair follicles in the scars that form after third degree (full skin thickness) burns.

But one can apparently get hair follicles in engineered grafted skin: Hair Follicle Regeneration in Skin Grafts: Current Concepts and Future Perspectives

The possibility of using tissue-engineered skin grafts for full-thickness wound repair is a promising approach.

But this appears to be in pre-human trial stage of research.

What year is your story in?

MaeZe · Sep 25, 2017

You should look into current technologies:

Optimizing Skin Grafting Using Hair-derived Skin Grafts: The Healing Potential of Hair Follicle Pluripotent Stem Cells.

METHODS:
Approximately 23% of the total wound was treated using punch grafts (PGs) harvested from different locations on the body based on hair density using the "stick and place" method.
RESULTS:
One month later, a 56% reduction in ulcer size was observed, especially in the area that received hair-bearing skin.
CONCLUSION:
Punch grafts from hair-bearing skin are a viable source of follicular stem cells and may be superior to PG from nonhair-bearing skin for the treatment of chronic wounds.

Old Hack · Sep 25, 2017

I'd consider the description of the hair turning into "black, brittle clumps". I've lost the hair on my arms a couple of times while loading our biomass boilers: each time the hair was burned away and just disappeared, while my skin remained unburned and unaffected. I suspect that if the heat was high enough to burn skin, the hair just would not be there. But do check.

Emermouse · Sep 27, 2017

Sorry I was thinking of King of the Hill, after Luann is pulled from Mega-Lo-Mart after it exploded. I suppose a cartoon isn't the most accurate source of information on these sort of things.

Burn Victim Hair Regrowth

Emermouse

MaeZe

MaeZe

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Emermouse