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My bad - I had a thread similarly titled from around the same time as folically-challenged - got e-mail notification and assumed the thread was mine! Sorry for the confusion!

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Donor hair is usually harvested from the safe zone - the hair follicles that live in this zone are resistant to androgenic alopecia - so using Rogaine on this area is superfluous. With FUT the donor area can be harvested from more than once depending on the laxity of the scalp. Typically a couple of transplants via strip harvesting are possible (I've had two). They will cut out the old scar, excise a new strip, and sow it up together. The second surgery will not typically yield the same number of grafts for the same length of strip due to existing scar tissue. I had 40% less yield the second time around. Not sure what you mean by hair that has been transplanted acting like a donor site. Typically the transplanted hairs are not re-transplanted.

The problem is that a simulation will never accurately predict the final outcome; graft count alone is only one variable, everybody's hair characteristics are different and everyone heals differently. Which is why surgeons don't normally use simulations in their practice. It would likely lead to a lot of disappointed patients. At your norwood level you have to keep your expectations realistic. There is just too much ground to cover and not enough donor hair to cover it all. If I were in your shoes I would focus on the frontal 1/3rd and pack as much hair as possible into that area. That would frame your face from the front and make a big difference visually. I would likely extend only as far back as the mid scalp with decreasing density as you go back to try to maintain the appearance of a natural progression of hair loss. Definitely get more opinions, but be aware that there are doctors out there that will operate on just about anybody. That's not always a good thing. Regardless of what you end up doing or where you decide to go, I wish you the best of luck.

Blake_Bloxham, I have sent you a PM. thanks.

Thanks rev333. I am back on the minoxidil now (foam this time) and will stay the course this time.

I agree BUSA, I am still seeing maturation at 16.5 months post op, just keeps getting better. Now that I've restarted minoxidil I should see some more regrowth within the next few months as well. In any case I will keep this thread updated up to 24 months to see the difference between 12 and 24 months post op. If the result is much better at 24 months than 12 months (which is looking to be the case so far) than I would consider that a big win, considering that I am not taking any DHT inhibitors.

Yeah, some docs prefer to do mega sessions in order to cut down on more surgeries in the future. The problem with this approach in your case is that your hair loss has not advanced to the point where this would be a good idea. Your balding pattern has not yet been clearly established yet, so if you take 5k grafts and pack them densely into the thinner areas now, it may look good for a few years until your hair loss advances to the point where you need more grafts, leaving you with a very unnatural looking balding pattern. The other issue is that you have plenty of healthy native hairs right now, many of which may be lost to permanent shock loss, leaving you with a net hair count lower than expected. The best approach in your case is to wait until hair loss progresses further before doing anything. The second best approach is to start with a smaller surgery and work your way back. I think 3000 for the hairline is overkill.

~2000 grafts into the frontal 1/3rd should be plenty. You could do that to start with if you want to address the hairline, and then work your way back to the mid scalp and crown as the loss progresses

It will hasten growth, I would wait minimum 2 weeks post surgery before applying it though

2000 grafts would be enough in the short term, likely not long term though. I echo the sentiment that you should not do anything yet, your hair now looks as good or better than a lot of people get post HT. Have you tried using minoxidil?

Maybe the better term to use is perceived density. If you extract 4k with strip you are still short 4k, but the overall donor area is now smaller, so perceived density does not change (provided that the scar stays thin of course)

So it would be advantageous for a patient like me (average/less than average donor density but good scalp laxity) to go with another FUT procedure before I do FUE? A FUE surgery was next on my list as I did not want to get cut open again, but I am reconsidering if it means I would be able to harvest more grafts in the long run by doing another FUT.

In the sense that with FUT the hair is excised in a strip and closed, leaving the surrounding hair at the same overall density as before (provided that the scar does not stretch), whereas with FUE grafts are extracted all over, diluting the overall density of the hair in the donor area.

I have already had one FUT surgery, roughly 2500 grafts. I would imagine something like FUT, FUT, FUE would yield more hair than FUT, FUE, FUE since you are excising the strip of hair and not diluting the overall density - which then allows for FUE once scalp laxity becomes problematic with FUT. Or is my thinking flawed and FUT or FUE order does not affect the potential grand total graft yield?