Slickers

Most will agree you shouldn't let local convenience be a factor. Have a look at the various results on here and other forums. Have a look at the clinics results and also, and most importantly, patients results. Get yourself a shortlist of doctors whose work you like and take it from there. You might end up back at the original doctors you've shortlisted but your starting point being they're in your home town is the wrong way round in most peoples view.

Go with an exclusive top FUE surgeon to have them removed. I removed around 50 double grafts out of 200 from my hairline with Dr. Hakan Doganay. It looks great now and scars are almost invisible. Just make sure he is an exclusive FUE doctor who practices this method 100%. It needs patience and super talent.

Hariri did you get them re-implanted, and if so did they grow ok? Really interested in this as I have a random outliers from my Armani HT. I didn't want to complicate matters by getting Rahal to extract them but something I would consider down the line....

Hehe even i thought about what day mine should be on. I didnt want a friday because most people are dying to go home and rush things and i didnt want a monday because most people are down from the weekend.

Glad I'm not only one

Doubles can and often are unknowingly implanted into the hairline by any doctor. Why would this happen? Explanation:

 

-When a multi-hair graft(2,3,4) is in the dormant(sleeping) phase, not all the hairs contained in the graft are necessarily dormant. One hair of a 3-hair graft may be dormant, 2 hairs out of a 4-hair graft may be dormant or 2 hairs out of a 2-hair graft etc. This can be misleading and cannot be detected even under powerful microscopes. So a 2-hair graft can appear as a single hair graft, and placed into the hairline.

 

This is often the reason why we see multi-hair grafts in the hairline. I have a triple hair graft which I pluck right at the very front. However clinic negligibility can also be a factor. Who is to say a tech wasn't busy thinking about their marital problems whilst separating the 1s from the 2-hair grafts for even 5 seconds? Truth is we will never really know which reason it is.

I think this sounds plausible, I don't know about it happening often though. I don't see many results these days, very few in fact where there are obvious doubles in the hairline. It might be easier to accept this is what could've happened if there was a good yield, but combined with the obvious spareness, a seemingly poor scar to boot, the overall conclusion just seems to be poor quality work.

It's funny you say about the human element though, this is obviously crucial but frequently overlooked. I thought about this a lot when I was booking my surgery. Even in my own work place I just thought of how differently motivated people can be on Mondays (sometimes poorly, BBQ's on sunday maybe, drinking, hungover from family events) and on Fridays, looking forward to the weekend, mind elsewhere perhaps.

This is why I elected to have my surgery on a Wednesday. My thinking was on the balance of probability people are fully into their working week, nobody really does anything on a Tuesday night so *hopefully I'm getting everyone at their peak performance. Somewhat OCD perhaps, who knows but the logic appealed to me.

The growth looks superb for just 6 months, no problems there. And your pics are brutally honest, unlike how many clinics post their post-ops with the hair combed to the side to make it look even fuller. A bit of styling, some hair products and you would never have guessed you had ever experienced hairloss.

The scar/ shock loss however is disappointing and I feel for you. Do you have any pics of your original scar from your first procedure?

I will be doing another at some point. I can't do it for quite some time so I am trying to think of a more temporary fix. Plucking a couple of them that stick out in my mind feels like a good approach, but I don't want to be drastic.

 

I didn't put the clinic's name in the post because the rules on the forums suggest that I confront the doctor with concerns first. I have, and they have been trying to fix the issue along with a poor scar. They are very hesitant to say that there are doubles in the hairline even though we both know the truth. I don't have any time off that I can use to do the surgery so basically I am just waiting. Even though the clinic would do a fix for free I am reluctant to go back after such poor communication that resulted in doubles in a hairline in the first place. But that's besides the point here - I just want to know how to temporarily roll with the situation.

You can't post the name of the clinic? What, Bill?

Is it a coalition doctor/ clinic? I certainly wouldn't be going back there. It's 2013 ffs, who is still putting doubles in hairlines. They can be 'hesitant' about it all they like but your hairline says otherwise. How many grafts did you get (or pay for)?

Dr Dorin

Interesting. I had concerns about this following my procedure and this seems to confirm my concerns. It feels like I got the 'B' rate service while paying for the master mechanic and getting the apprentice.

 

Rahal didn't do my extractions nor did he place any of my grafts. It also seems that my grafts/cm2 was low according to the comments on the forum. Not to sure what to make of all this

Fue I wouldnt sweat it. For many clinics it's typical for a tech to do the extractions. I think people get too caught up in this but the extraction process is a replicable, repetitive process once a technique is developed. People obsess about this stuff but you don't need a medical degree for every individual task. Frankly I don't care what qualifications that person has as long as they have excellent dexterity and have done it competently thousands of times before.

Here you go.

Same doc but I opted for FUT

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/170591-uk-ottawa-few-days-rahal-2000-grafts-fut.html

Hey Slickers, when you click on the photos they are named based on the time they were taken... so you may be looking at my one weeks... which still have the grafts in tact and yes it looks like growth but unfortunately it's not

 

Those all shed and the last one shows me at about one month... my 3 months I haven't updated yet. Will do so in about two weeks time as well as my donor.

Lol, sorry fella. That's skim reading for you! Well, hopefully it's a pretty good indicator of where you'll end up. Looking forward to your (actual) 3 month pics then. I'm only 3 weeks behind you. This stage sucks it really does.

Fue that's some impressive growth for just 3 months. Cosmetically it makes a big difference, you really suit the buzzed look. It must be a relief to have that much growth so early, congrats!

Wow, it just blocked him again. It was AP

I'm sure Bill will explain soon enough!

Matt glad to hear it. Hope the personal matters are way behind you. Good to see you back on here posting.

You have a mullet to kill for Spanker. You're the guy that guys like me look at and think, man I wish I was born with hair like that. :eek: That and 2000 grafts from the incredibly talented Dr K to refine and that's a smokin head of hair. Congrats mate

Very nice Mick.

Promise not to derail this thread

It's just some scabbing attached to the hairs. Def nothing to worry about.

In fact (feeling a bit more rationale today) I've never seen any correlation in how the hair sheds and good/ bad results. And grafts don't just fall out of your head. With the exception of the vastly ridiculous perhaps (injury/ trauma to your scalp), what happened on the day of your surgery will determine the success of your HT, not so much the countless things we fret over in the weeks that follow.

Haha cheers guys. It's amazing no matter how much research you've done, been through it before etc how easy is it to over-analyse things when you're just waiting for things to happen. Roll on the next 6 months...

The hook-shaped hairs are very normal......and indicate (when they shed) the hairs that were transplanted!!! Everything is right on track!!! You'll have some pretty exciting things to look forward to in three months. Congratulations on your procedure, and happy growing!

 

 

Mike

Hi mate. Were all or the majority of your hairs hook hairs? I had quite a few hook looking ones but a lot were just normal hairs, others with bulbs at the end. All sorts really. I didn't really analyse it at the time but now wondering if there should've been more hook/ transplant ones on my pillow! .... I'm prob also just having one of those doldrums moments where you worry about everything... :eek: ha

Then I guess I should buy Couvre then. I do live in Egypt though and it's July, meaning it's extremely sunny down the street. Would the serum be noticeable on my head under such lighting? I'm also blond so the sun already manages to make me look completely bald in the hair loss area, would a blond color Couvre manage to hide the hair loss in the sun?

Concealers are trial and error. Some guys swear by Dermatch, others Toppik, Nanogen, Couvre or Caboki.... it depends on lots of things, hair characteristics mainly, where the loss is.. frontal, vertex, hair colour etc (some mention Toppik medium brown for example has a greenish tint).

In my case I used a small dab of Couvre as a base and used Toppik to thicken the hair and brushed it through. It looked really good, no one could ever tell I had anything in my hair (at least they never said so, my girlfriend never even knew I used them). I would add though that I think you need to have decent length to your hair to make them work. Do be patient though, the trick is to persevere with them until you get it looking right.

Instead of going and spending a fortune though, go to YouTube and search vids on each of them. Find guys with loss akin to yours and narrow it down that way. Best of luck.

Guys you can compare my results which is 2500 grafts FUT one year with this patient who is 2400 grafts FUE and 6 months post OP only.

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/164456-2500-fut-dr-rahal-hairline-repair.html

 

 

Now you will realize that Dr. Hakan utilized the 2400 grafts in a great way.

Or you could also compare it to Sirius' 2500 FUT result

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/163482-2500-grafts-dr-rahal.html

For the sake of balance it's also worth highlighting that you were a repair case.

This is the importance of seeing results from patients. I like what I've seen from Dr Doganays clinic. However I look forward to seeing more patient experiences as well.

Looks excellent. That's a cracking result for that amount of grafts.

Congrats Throwaway. Look forward to seeing your write up and your pics. Good luck with healing up.

My question was as simple as, hair is shedding so is currently week. Wouldn't putting a concealer on it enforce more strain on the strands? That's all.

 

 

It depends on the type of concealer. Couvre and others which are dabbed onto the scalp, I can understand why they 'could' contribute to hairloss through breakage and the friction action of applying them. Although I have to say I used Couvre for years and it was superb for me. I never noticed any worsening of the area I applied it to. My approach was to use it as sparingly as possible which still gave me what I needed. And since I was using minox at night on the area I felt I was offsetting any impact the Couvre 'might' have had. Again I don't think it worsened the problem in my case, in fact it was a life saver.

Hair fibres like Toppik, Nanogen and Caboki I think even less so. UNLESS there really is some ingredient that causes your hair to fallout as Hairklepto speculates. The actual application and the way in which the concealers work however........i.e. fibres bonding to the hair, I fail to see how this can be any more traumatic for the hair than simply brushing it or combing it. In fact if your hair falls out because of this and doesnt recover, in all probability that's hair that is falling out no matter you do.

This is the problem with anecdotal evidence. One guy can report it and who knows what other factors were involved.

I would take comfort in the fact that very few people report losing more hair because of concealers, I have yet to see any...... if however you are ultra cautious and it would affect your peace of mind you might want to give them a miss.

Can you take one of the donor area?

 

If it were me I'd go for the maximum FUT with H&W. It looks like you will progress beyond a NW5 at some point and it is easier to switch from FUT to FUE than the other way around. FUE could be your insurance policy if the sides drop in the future.

 

I guess it depends how important a short hairstyle is to you. I personally never go beyond grade 4/5 on the sides an with a shaved head I'd look like an extra from StarTrek.

I agree with Matt. Given your donor, how you wear your hair i.e. the length you wear it at the sides and your level of loss I think you should seriously consider H&W or Rahal. Both are in Canada and have scores of patient cases of this size of session. Clinics posting results is all well and good but of the doctors you've mentioned how many actual patients results / threads have you seen? No clinic bats 100% so clearly the more patient posted results you can see, especially cases very similar to your own the better.

Also based on Reddy's average price stated on here, a procedure of that size would set you back circa $40,000 canadian. Food for thought.

Best of luck with your decision.

Thanks for the tip! As I said, I'm really worried that being 2 weeks off Rogaine will ruin a lot of what I've done over the past 8 years. Is there any truth to this? I don't want to have new hair only to ruin the hair I've been maintaining for the past 8 years - kind of like two steps forward, one step back.

Are you on Fin as well? Regardless, two weeks off minox won't make that much difference.