mattj

One of the best pieces of advice a potential transplant patient can be given is to not limit themselves by geography. Many patients fly all around the world to visit the best doctors and don't necessarily spend more by doing so. I don't believe you'll find much support for the two examples you gave. The only UK clinic recommended by this website is the Farjo Medical Centre. http://www.hairtransplantnetwo...list.asp?StateAbr=UK

Dr. Feller, when examining the grafts extracted via FUE. do you often have reason to reject them and discard them? By being extra careful like this, would you say that graft yield with FUE matches, or comes close to matching, that which you can achieve with strip?

I'm actually intrigued by the "Bosley guarantee" and wonder how they determine whether a transplant was genuinely successful or not.

I didn't realise you were talking about your own transplanted hair. If the transplanted hairs stand out as incorrectly angled in comparison to the native hairs then I think your own observations are more important than any opinions that others might have on what is or isn't correct. Are your problem hairs a significant proportion of the hairline or are they just the occasional trouble-maker?

It's also going to depend on how low the reconstructed hairline is going to be. Hairs seem to angle forward towards the very front, especially where the downward slope of the forehead begins, but they often angle upwards at a point slightly further back.

I can only imagine what a massive relief it must be to be able to put a butchering like that behind you and get on with life looking normal.

It's not that these products are aimed at treating crown loss, it's that they are more effective in this region of the head and were tested for this area, and that's all the drug companies could legally claim in their marketing. I believe more recent studies have told us what many hairloss sufferers already knew, that rogaine and propecia can be effective for frontal loss. A minority do regrow hair at the hairline, and many more - perhaps a majority, I'm not completely sure - find that their hairloss is slowed down significantly by the drug. Personally I never got on board with the rogaine as I didn't like the idea of applying it every night, and hairs gained while on it are dependent on continued use of the product. It is true that some men experience side effects with propecia, but I believe you made a mistake by letting this stand in the way of trying it for yourself. Those who have a bad experience are always more vocal than the majority of us who continue to do fine on it.

I think the end result looks pretty weird for many of those patients, especially the males.

Can you provide any examples of aesthetically pleasing results of this procedure?

I think there are hairs visible in the before photos which look darker and thicker.

It's obviously an impressive result, but he's moving it around so fast that it's impossible to get a proper look. It also doesn't look like very strong sunlight.

Did someone comment that they thought you were thinning at the crown, or have you actually noticed some sort of change yourself? If the studies are anything to go by the hair is less dense at this area than at other parts of the scalp, and the way the hairs grow cause the skin to be exposed to an extant. From what I can see it looks like nothing is amiss.

Well, to create a softer hairline single hairs are usually placed at the very front, with the groups of 2 to 4 hairs used further back where the increased density is welcome. I don't think nature does this. You'll find follicular units containing the full range of hairs at any point on the scalp. My own hairline is thin, and I can see groupings of hairs in there which kind of give an appearance that would be considered 'pluggy' if it were the result of a transplant. They only look 'pluggy' because of the reduced density at my hairline. If they were surrounded by more hair they would blend in. I believe the larger follicular groups are considered unsuitable for the very front of a hairline because the transplant generally won't give 100% density, causing these groupings to stand out - as they do on my thin but natural hairline - like saplings among reeds. That's just been my observation. I don't see this sort of thing discussed very often and if anyone disagrees they should speak up.

Look at where the small, square centimetres are in the photo. They're right at the very front of the hairline where the hair peters out, and the man in the photos doesn't look like he has a totally intact hairline. I would imagine that men with the kind of perfect, thick heads of hair that many of us hold up as ideal have considerably higher average densities. The mean age of men in the study was 41. The FU/cm2 range was 38-78 at the hairline. The younger men involved probably had densities at the higher end of the range, but also in those cases remember where the areas of study were - at the very front of the hairline. I'd be interested in a study of density, say, 1cm back into the hairline. Also remember that singles are generally placed at the front of a transplanted hairline. In nature they are more often grouped.

Yes, that tuft should work well with the hairline as a whole. This will surely be a case to watch.

I've looked down at passing children and noticed see-through hair if the lighting is right and the hair is styled in such a way that lets the light in. Needless to say that the same is true of adults.

Thana, you know now it's possible that she thinks you wear a hairpiece. That's probably the go-to position for someone who notices that a guy has vastly improved hair.

I had to go and find Shuffle... He has an amazing result, but he wears his hair quite long and all that mass of hair provides a barrier to the light hitting his scalp. With shorter hair, combed through slowly and filmed closer up under strong sunlight, I think you'd see through it to an extent.

I doubt if you'll get an answer from him. I'm sure he's off enjoying his hair. That's the million dollar question right there. I think that strip is undeniably best for cases where there is a lot of scalp to cover, while FUE would be the most sensible option for the very small cases. Some people don't like the idea of having a strip scar while others don't mind. There are cost differences to take into account too. Also it is widely thought that grafts have a better survival rate when they are dissected from a strip under magnification versus punched straight from the scalp. I think that some of the recent FUE megasession failures are probably a result of that. Different doctors have different tools though. Some might be better than others.

Interesting subject. I've often thought that it would be worthwhile to put together a set of photos of hairlines of men without any hair loss. They'd be great for comparison purposes. For anyone who might have missed Dr. Keene's study, here is her blog where it can be found. http://www.hairrestore.com/blog/ The man in the first photo does appear to me to have some recession at the hairline.

Those 4000 - 4500 grafts you mention - are they your own estimate or the estimate of a doctor?

At the moment Dr Rahal offers just the strip method. Have you shown Dr Rahal your photos yet? If you do go ahead I hope you'll tell us how it goes.

As you have no hairloss at all (I don't consider James Dean to have been a NW2) and you also have no family history of hairloss, I would put all thoughts of it out of your mind. Just monitor your hair and look out for changes, but don't obsess over it.

Now I wish I'd dropped in here years ago!

You seem to be putting the most emphasis on your dissatisfaction with you job and your social life, rather than your hair. Do you feel that your hairloss is somewhere at the root of your problems? I think it sounds like you've got it good in some ways, what with having a well-paying job (at a time when many people are struggling in that department) and good physical health. I guarantee that your self-hating attitude is going to be much more of an obstacle to finding a girl than your hairloss is. I can say that with 100% certainty despite never having seen the condition of your hair (which is probably not bad anyway considering how many grafts you said you're getting - I hope you've researched the topic thoroughly though) because women don't like that sort of an attitude in a man. It's about as off-putting as it gets. You're 27. There are many decent women out there in the right age bracket who won't care about your hair. Trust me. If the work is giving you stress then maybe you should ditch the contracting you do on the side and replace the boost to your finances with something that will increase your well-being. Voluntary work, perhaps. It carries less responsibility and you can find something that will widen your social circle. At this moment you're just a small amount of effort away from coming into contact with people who are worth knowing. Just take a few chances.