NW4recession

I had my procedure this past Friday and ended up with 1322 grafts. Dr. Paul and the staff were wonderful and I am very pleased with the experience. I will try and post some pics when I get a chance. I did not want to lower my hairline too aggressively to start out with, so for me, this amount of grafts is perfect. If my hairloss looks stable in a few years, then I can always go back for a more aggressive hairline. The hairline that was designed by Dr. Paul does help frame my face better and assuming I get a good yeild will make a cosmetic difference. The density was 50-55 grafts/sqcm, so I think it should blend in nicely with my native hair. Wish me luck!

Bigonefive, I have 5 weeks before I start a new job, so my plan is to live with the bad haircut during that time and hope that I look somewhat normal when starting my job. I where a scrub cap most of the time at work, so it should be ok. I had 3-4 doctors that I was considering and one of the reasons I decided on SMG was that I felt like the recipient area would return to normal the fastest. If you look at a lot of the patient postings, SMG patients are significantly less red in the recipient area 1 month postop compared to a lot of other top docs. It will be weird though, because I never buzz my hair.

I am scheduled for 1200-1400 fue with SMG this month. See my preop pics attached and let me know your thoughts. I have been researching having a HT for over 5 years now. I have decided to go with fue because I am 34 years old, my hairloss is minimal and very slow progressing at this point. There is still a chance that my hairloss may progress in the future and I am not committed to taking propecia for the rest of my life (I stopped taking it 10 months ago). Because of this I wanted to start with fue and avoid the strip scar for now. I am not opposed to having strip surgery down the road if I need to in order to maximize my donor supply, but for now I want to see if I am happy with the results that fue will give me. I picked SMG because of their reputaion, recent success with fue and I really like how their patients seem to have much less post op redness in the recipient area. Do you guys think I will achieve a significant cosmetic improvement with 1200-1400 grafts?

You are right, there are a few areas that look like they have slightly weaker growth, but overall I think it looks great and your pictures increase my confidence in going to Rahal. If you compare your preop pictures to your current pictures, the difference is quite remarkable. Also it is possible that you will have a slight improvement going forward. Possibly a little more density and increased diameter of the transplanted hairs.

Looks great for 5 months. The transplanted hair looks a little wiry, but that should tame down in the next few months. You may get some more growth and certainly the existing hairs will continue to thicken. I think even with the current density, you will be able to style it just about any way you want in a few more months. Good luck.

I think you are right, I think in this situation, the minimal contrast between hair and scalp has helped a lot, plus the hairstyle does allow for slightly less density. My hair is very dark with slick bald temples, but a thick, intact forelock. I think I was quoted 2200+ grafts because it would take a density of 60 grafts/cm to allow the transplanted hair to blend in with native hair.

Awesome result. How long after surgery were you able to go out without redness and visibility of the scar?

I have to express some skepticism here. I have slightly less, but almost identical hairloss as this patient and have received quotes from 3 top docs between 2200 and 2700 grafts. The desired hairline that I showed in my pictures was just as conservative, if not more conservative than shown here. Sorry, but I just don't believe 1000 grafts can do that.

Umm, Are you serious? I really need to know. I have been under the impression that 2500 grafts in that size of transplanted area should yield more coverage. If this is an average result please speak up because if this is the case, then this community can save myself and many others trouble down the road.

If Abedogg is satisfied with the result,then I believe him. Also, he has said that he has shown his result in the harshest possible way. It is hard to show what a result looks like with pictures. There have been some Rahal patients where their pictures look amazing, but the patients have been stated their concerns about gaps and not enough thickness.

That is interesting that Dr. Shapiro has his patients use Graftcyte. If you notice, his patients have the best early recoveries of any of the doctors and don't have the lingering pinkness that you often see in the recipient area.

I think Dr. Alexander is a good doctor, but it appears something went awry here. I hope he is just a slow grower and everything turns out great. The thing that is confusing to me is that Dr. A's photos look totally acceptable and even like a good result, but TTP's pictures seem to really reveal how sparse the result really is. The only way to determine for sure is to see TTP in person or see a video with a comb going through the hair. I commend TTP for benefiting the community the way he has by sharing his experience and at the same time keeping a cool head and not finding fault prematurely with Dr. Alexander.

I think that is what you can expect for 2200 grafts, all those short wispy hairs are going to thicken up by the 12 month mark and give you a luxuriously thick hairline. Oh wait a minute, I just saw that Bosley did your procedure, um, yea.... I actually don't think you got a very good yield. Seriously though, I am sorry that things did not turn out well. I think you could explore some repair options with a top doc. You will likely need a very conservative hairline, but their is hope for you that this can be fixed.

Your hair looks really good. Awesome volume in the frontal 3rd and great coverage in the crown.

I don't agree that 80% of the grafts grew and am shocked that Dr. A would claim that. Look at the post op pics. It looks pretty dense-packed at the hairline area, but all that grew in was a few very sparse hairs. Am I off base here?