1978matt

You will never get a full head of hair restored but you can get the illusion of having decent hair since restoring only 35-50% original density can be enough to achieve a good look. If you have a very loose/elastic scalp and are prepared to have a reasonably conservative hairline then you never know, the hair on the top of your hair could be a good density all over. I see you're in Sweden. You could always book a long weekend and visit the Belgium surgeons...

Really nice outcome.

Dwight, Enjoyed your post a lot. I plan on internet dating once grown out, as it will be an interesting experiment to have done it with and without hair.

The positives: You appear to have a confined hairloss pattern (I would rank it close to a NW5 although the picture is not great). You have blond hair which appears to be decent calibre (not too fine). The negatives: Still quite young. Not willing to take meds. I think you may be able to get a great result that covers the front half of your head for a relatively low number of grafts, perhaps 3000-3500. Seeing as you are not prepared to take meds I would forget about covering the crown (unless you have an amazing donor area) and just save a '2nd session' until you really need it. For me it is all about getting a decent front as this is what people look at when you are talking to them and what you see in the mirror. I think the cost would be roughly between US$10,000 - 14,000 based on FUT for a North American Surgeon.

"The vast majority of surgeons on HTN actually rarely practice FUE. Where are Konior's FUE results? Where are Arocha's? Where are Carman's? Wong's? Hasson's? Feller's? Farjo's? They predominantly perform strip." I didn't know you had a mole in their operations as you seem to know a lot about the work these docs are doing day to day and the proportion of FUE procedures they are performing. Is his one of those 'blanket statements' I keep reading about? Was there not a statistic somewhere saying that 40% of procedure last year were FUE? If it's not HTN doctors who are doing them then who exactly is???! The only Drs I know for sure who are FUT exclusive are H&W and that is because Jotronic has stated it in other threads. Do you not think the reason they dont post FUE results is that there general philospophy is that strip delivers more consistent results? That is their belief based on 10 years at medical school and 10+ years practicing hair transplants, learning about the latest techniques and research etc. I know my Dr's general views on FUE/Strip but I'm not going to attempt to state them here but you can email him and ask if you like! He's very accessible and I'm sure would be delighted to reply and give his opinion based on his 30 years experience:). "I find it funny that surgeons like Lorenzo have proved that FUE's place is far larger where surgeon's like Feller and Konior relegate it to minor recession at best. So if Lorenzo, Erdogan, Hakan, De Reys, Umar etc have proved that FUE can treat Norwood 5s(donor dependent) then why are the North American doctors not using it to treat norwood 3s and 4s? I believe it comes down to laziness and not wanting to learn a new method." The results they post are great but show me 10 dramatic transformations (NW6 to NW2) on people who are not Spanish or Turkish. There just aren't many out there. The fact remains that a lot of Spaniards/Turks have much better hair/skin characteristics for 6000+ FUE to work. Where are all the pale faced Norweigns and Swedes who have had great multiple FUE restorations with these doctors? "I find it ethically wrong for strip surgeons to perform strip on guys who are norwood 1,2 and 3 really, when a less invasive method can usually treat them." You say that but I'm sure, like me, you object to surgeons like Armani who dense pack average hair NW2-4 patients with 3000+ FUE leaving them very sparse donor for future recession. Yes, it might work for some people if they are lucky and don't lose further hair, and that's the whole point: FUE is great for some and not for others. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with doing strip on any norwood number as long as the patient knows that head-shaving will be out of the question. In fact it would be far better if the said patient is likely to turn out a NW5 or 6, otherwise you end up with the Armani situation of expending all you FUE donor, then having to move on to BHT. Yes, they could throw the towel in and 'shave their head' but as Gillenator said there is no guarantees that the FUE scars are invisible. Unfortunatley as Spanker has said, until the holy grail of cloning can be found there will always be a place for strip surgeries amongst some patients.

I had 32 days post op away from work and have been back 2 weeks now. To my surprise no one suspects a thing although I remain a bit paranoid about the mild redness and DermMatched scar at the back. I'm probably a grade 4 all over. I sit within a team of 80 and have had maybe had 5 or 6 comments from amongst the team. I just laugh it off as the 'jason statham look'! One guy from another floor said "that's a bit severe! Have you 'given up' (i.e. shaved due to baldness). Another female colleague from another floor sent me an instant message saying "just wanted to say I like your new hair!". I'd only seen her from a distance and not spoken since being back. So far so good and no one has said the dreaded: "Have you done a Rooney?"

Pretty much every HTN strip surgeon on here does FUE although they do not feel the need to heavily advertise it. Perhaps they came to the conclusion that both methods have their place :-) Its only really Turkey, Umar, Lorenzo, Vories and that crazy guy in Atlanta who have ditched Strip. Hardly a massive 'non' to the strip method. Didnt Bisanga learn FUE in Atlanta and yet he does both at his own practice. Lorenzo also believes not everyone is an FUE candidate and wont agree to a procedure if that's the case.

Plenty of examples of your own posts being positive about people fresh out of surgery. What's the difference here?! Anyone would think you had a grudge against Rahal...

Nice post. Sounds like you are switched on and have done your homework. I'm coming off the back of a similar procedure to what you have planned, albeit I am older and lost more hair. It's all about getting a decent looking front half. As far as the procedure goes it will be fine. You will look like a Bollywood star 12 months later! As for the hairline position, I would have it somewhere very close to your exisiting (but thin) hairline.

These photos look familiar:D. As SOTES says, the later you can delay a transplant the better... ..but if it is bothering you and you have a decent enough donor supply then 2000-2500 to even out the hairline could work wonders.

Book an appointment with one of these Doctors: Hair Transplant Clinics in Texas The one good thing is you (hopefully) won't have spent too much money on "100" grafts and it should be easily repairable. These Docs above should be able to tell you if the work is likely to pass muster.

Looks like you're well on your way. A shame Dr Reed retired. He seemed a decent guy and a quality operator and at a decent price point (for N. America).

Looking good for 7 months post op.

I did 2 months of excercises and feel that they made a difference, even after just a couple of weeks. I think my laxity was good before, perhaps very good on the sides and decent on the back. Post operatively I only felt tension right at the back but elasticity seemed to improve a lot between weeks 2-3. That's not to say I don't take care about head movements anymore, but I don't worry about it too much and normal day to day stuff is fine.

A very nice density change greatjob. Have always enjoyed reading your logical and well thought out posts. Keep up the good work!

Hello mate, It looks like you will end up at least a NW6 at some point in your life, judging by your crown shot. You can kind of see the pattern where density has already started to go. Two scenarios: 1)You could keep it short and kind of accept the inevitable and perhaps consider a big HT procedure later in life. Maybe a megassession in your early 30s(?) Depends on how your donor area holds up. At that stage you're probably going to be more likely to afford it (unless you are wealthy early in life). 2)Use Finasteride/Minox combo for life and maybe hold on to most of your hair for the next 10 years, then maybe consider a smaller HT in late 20s/early 30s. Personally I'd take the second option as many people just don't get any side effects. I got some mild ones myself but I have to say that on a lower dose they have subsided considerably the last 9 months.

Looks like a nice change Nick! I think those hairs rest between 2-6months on average so there's bags of time for it to even up.

Thanks mate. The doc said he wasnt going to save the hairs in my front half as they were miminiaturising and not worth implanting around. So all those frontal hairs are probably new except for a few that may have survived. I'm back at work now and no one seems to have noticed anything. I'm using a bit of Nanogen in the crown-mid area.

I'm done on this thread but here's a picture of Billy Zane aged mid-20s when he was about a NW2/3 and then another of him in his early 40s. I'll let you decide which donor area is the more permanent. But hey ho, this might not happen to you but it is something to bear in mind if you're likely to become a high Norwood.

Fair enough, but it is still rare and when the hair grows back around the scar, who cares.

1 example...and it's what the hair looks like when it is grown out is what matters

Not sure what this fixation is with being able to shave down to a grade 0. I got a tranplant to get hair and to have a hairstyle. If I wanted to shave my head I would have done so years ago and saved my money. My goal is to get the best quality and safest donor hair and replant it at the front of my head. The fact of the matter is that big FUE harvesting is from all over the back of the head in areas that are generally less safe than the FUT safe zone. (If I recall correctly, the safe zone was determined by the early HT doctors examining the backs of pensioners heads) I suspect that in 10-15 years time all those 25 year old NW3-4s who had 4000+FUE, and are destined to be NW6/7s, will wonder why all their transplanted hair is starting to disappear, especially if they are not on meds. The whole disruption of hair direction thing happens in multi-stip cases and is very rare. Just as rare as a stretched strip scar from a good surgeon. ...and I can't say I've ever looked at any FUT case and thought "wow look at those misaligned hairs in his Trico closure!" A total non-issue in my opinion.

It didn't go fast for me! Yeah, some kept growing, some shed and started growing straight away and more and more have started to appear. At first I thought it might be native hair but some I identified a couple of weeks ago was in previously bald areas!

So today is my one month anniversary. Pretty much all the shedding has happened and I think this is the baldest I will get. Just in time for my return to work! Some hairs just kept growing and I can see a lot more begining to appear - don't get me wrong I know it will still take at least another couple of months to see a decent change but the signs are positive. I've just buzzed down further than in the photos as I made a mistake with the trimmer setting and had no choice:eek:. Luckily the scar can still be covered with DerMatch (you have to blend it in a bit either side). I thought I'd point out a couple of products I've found to be pretty good for preventing pimples and at the same time gentle on the skin. The foaming wash contains Salicylic Acid which is good stuff from what I've read.

We can't answer that, only a doctor can after looking at your scalp. Get the opinion of 3 or 4 in person and see what they all say. Then if you still want to go ahead with it then go with the one you trust the most.