mattj

It's early days yet. It's usually the next couple of months where things really start to take off.

I'd say an early NW2. It looks like you've thinned a bit across the hairline.

Thinning at the back and sides does happen, but if you look around I think you'll find that it's quite rare for these areas to really thin down to a point where a (well executed) strip scar would be glaringly obvious. Does anyone disagree with that?

One of the all-time great results. Jotronic, did your original plug job every look remotely passable? Presumably there was more hair surrounding the grafts when they were placed as you say that they became progressively more visible. Do you have any photos from back then?

A #3 cut should be able to hide a well-executed strip scar. Your hairdresser has obviously seen a few bad transplants and never a good one. Or perhaps he has seen some good transplants without realising it. I've heard reports from patients who've amazed their hair stylist when they've mentioned that they've undergone a hair transplant.

It would be interesting to know how grafts take to being traumatised for a second time. Do you have any problems with poor growth when grafts are recycled in this way?

I know Dr Rahal attended the last DOUCHE meeting. (Doctors for the Obfuscation and Undermining of Cloned Hair Experimentation).

At a guess I would assume that you are looking at crown work. How's the hair up front? The photo is overexposed and could make things look worse than they are, but depending on how much ground needs to be covered towards the front of the scalp, you're probably looking at quite a large procedure. It's difficult to tell with that photo, really.

Great design. Fairly high but intact, just the way I like them. That's a very small number of grafts for a modern strip though.

Bill, the answer was in the quote. The doctor has that control and can vary it depending on the individual. I have no ball in this game but I wanted to point that out.

It's interesting to see a good result from that far back. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to see other results from the past. The older the better.

Dr Rahal is not very forward in asking patients if he can make their results public, so it's probably more a case of this being one of the few who, somewhere along the line, let it be known that they're fine with their photos being shared. I'm not sure exactly how these things come to be. I think it's fair to say that this case represents a possible result with a patient with these particular characteristics. That might be stating the obvious, but that's all any surgeon can say of each individual result with so many variables at play. I do think though that most would agree that the result we see here isn't unusual for Dr Rahal.

The photos are a bit small but we can get a rough idea. The loss is quite extensive (as you know) but it looks like you still have plenty left throughout the balding area to combine with the transplanted hairs to achieve a good result. The sort of numbers Megatron mentioned are probably right. How long have you been losing hair? Are you using any medication to improve your chances of keeping the hair that you still have? As for package deals, cost, etc, you are best off doing a lot of looking around at the results from different doctors, finding a number who produce results that you like and then contacting them.

It does like like the early stages of MPB. It's not uncommon for the hair loss to be uneven at the temples, with one side appearing thinner or more recessed than the other. Being at the beginning stage does mean that should you start to use finasteride, and perhaps minoxidil too, you do have a chance of keeping what you have, which I think is still a great head of hair. The thinning areas might even thicken up with both of those medications.

The reason I asked that is because, looking at the photos, I see what appears to be recession in the typical male pattern. Does anyone else share my view?

Would you say your hairline is still the same as it was when you were very young and first noticed the bald patches?

Yes, that's a lot of coverage for such a low number of grafts. It doesn't look like he had much native hair left up there either. Good stuff.

You say that someone pointed it out to you. Do you think there's been a change? If you hadn't noticed it before and then you were suddenly provoked into paying closer attention then the 'problem' might have always been there, and might not be a problem at all. The variation in hair texture you mention could be making the difference. Straighter hair will allow you to see more scalp, as will hair that is sticking up. I recently got a mirror in a new position in my bathroom and I noticed my hair looked a bit see-through on top, but I realised it was because my hair was short and it's very straight and the light hit it in the right direction to show scalp. I examined my hair with a strong light, shining it on the sides and combing the hair out straight and I could see just as much skin as on the top. I also believe that African hair is less dense than European. By less dense I mean less hairs per square inch.

It's hard to know which thread to reply to! Perhaps the mods can shift posts into one? I can see why stripped wanted to add density along the front, even though he hadn't receded too far. Stripped, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you? What age were you when hairloss struck for the first time?

Do you plan to go back to the same doctor if you go ahead with HT#2? Perhaps you should see what they think.

As well as those already mentioned, I think Dr. Keser in Turkey is doing some great work. I know Turkey isn't in Europe, but it's close enough that Europeans who don't want to hop across the ocean should consider the country as a convenient HT destination.

Absolutely. If this patient had a twin, and he received half as many grafts over the exact same area, I dare say that under some lighting/camera conditions the hair would look the same. But it wouldn't be, and under more careful scrutiny the differences would be clear.

Sad news. RIP.

The same area could have been covered with half as many grafts but it wouldn't have been nearly as dense. It wouldn't look as good under all lighting conditions. That's some wild hair!

Julius, you seem very fixated on this issue. I understand that you would want a transplant to look as close as humanly possible to a head of dense, natural hair, but really, unless a transplant is below average in density is will be thick enough to convince people that you have good hair. I don't remember seeing your photos (if you've posted them) but surely if you're looking into getting a transplant then the realistic, achievable results are going to be an improvement on your current hair situation.