mattj

Like many people, I flew across the Atlantic for my procedure. I definitely wouldn't limit my choice to within driving range.

I can see both points of view - on the one hand your hair looks great and not unlike an 'after' photo for someone who started at a higher NW stage and had conservative work done. On the other hand, that desire to improve oneself is hard to ignore. Most doctors would consider you to be a good candidate, considering your age and slow rate of loss. Your donor looks good too. It has to be said that there is a chance that your hairloss will advance in the future. It's impossible to put any kind of percentage figure on that, but you would need to be aware that a second procedure might be necessary one day. I think your plan is sound. The line you drew isn't too low. When you say you want symmetry, I don't take that to mean exact symmetry. A transplanted hairline frames the face better but (if done right) there will be irregularities that stop it from looking man-made and unnatural. Most hairline procedures involve planting hair within areas of existing hair. It's routine.

I had my procedure at 32. It's a good age as you've got through your twenties without your hairloss advancing too aggressively. Regarding the overseas travel: that worried me but I tell you, it's so much easier than you'd think. I'd never flown transatlantic before but it was a breeze.

You seem certain that they are transplanted hairs rather than native hairs that could have been lost due to the shockloss phenomenon. I agree that they probably are, but I wouldn't call this a second shed. It's more of a late shed. It isn't unheard of to shed transplanted hairs at this postoperative stage and you will most likely find that they fell because new hairs are about to push through. I'll be very interested in hearing how things are going in about a month's time.

The infamous Cathy Newman interview? I saw that.

Re. Uploading photos. Below the box you type into you'll see a button that says "manage attachments". This will bring up a new window where you can upload pics. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like both consultations with the doctor in question were done via photos. It's possible that your latest photos show your donor better than the original photos did, especially if you included a video this time. Perhaps the clinic has changed its approach to the type of larger session that you require, but I have no idea if that is the case. Ultimately, you can't expect total harmony or any kind of consensus between the different clinics as they all have different ways of doing things.

Like all of the list of post-op 'don'ts', preventing your recipient area from being exposed to the sun is important, but small mistakes normally won't make any difference.

Sounds like it. Some Hairs detach from the follicles quite soon and might be held in my the crusting for a while. Washing loosens them.

The reality is, we all have access to the same HT doctors. The elite are available to all. Most rich and famous people live in big cities or spend a lot of time in them and likely pick a doctor on the basis of who has the most visible advertising in that city. If they have assistants find them a doctor, the assistant probably doesn't do anything more than a quick local search.

This 25-year-old female patient wanted to feminize a receding hairline and close the temple angles. This was done with 3410 grafts via FUT and the patient is super happy with the outcome and styling options now available. She is pictured before surgery, 2nd and 5th days and then 10 months after surgery. Surgery Type: FUT Recipient Area Treated - 67cm Total Grafts - 3410 Total Hairs - 6988 Recipient Graft Density - 51 grafts/cm Recipient Hair Density - 104 hairs/cm Graft Breakdown: Single Hairs - 680 grafts Two Hairs - 1893 grafts Three Hairs - 826 grafts Four Hairs - 11 grafts Average Hairs Per Graft - 2.05

As long as it's got a good charge and not struggling to cut the hair, and therefore snagging Hairs, then it's ok. Even if it was to snag I don't really think it's much of a big deal TBH.

I see you're in Australia and it's summer there. Is the sun very strong at 10am? Basically the skin tends to be extra sensitive after a transplant and more susceptible to burning and burning can potentially harm grafts. If you don't feel that you have burnt at all then no need to worry. Are you wearing a hat outdoors normally?

Grafts will be fully secure by now. You're safe to do what you're doing and you're right that the hairs are shedding as to be expected. You can't do a lot to harm the grafts at this stage. Avoiding sun exposure is the main thing now.

Often the treatments can be working without us realising it. 2000 might be enough but I would say that anything less might not be enough.

That's rather a short period of time for Rogaine to work for. Presumably you have been consistent with it. This uncertainty over the crown would be another reason to avoid transplanting to the area.

Would you say that your hairloss has slowed to the point of being stable? You appear to have good donor plus favourable hair characteristics. You'd probably be looking at at least 4000 grafts. Fewer if just addressing the very front. Basically (and obviously) the higher the number the larger the area that can be covered and the best thing is to work back from the front. Complete crown coverage might not be advisable as the hairloss pattern can 'expand' outwards.

I am familiar with Peterson and have seen many of his videos. I noticed that his hairline looked transplanted but until now I hadn't seen any images of how he used to look. Well spotted!

How long have you been losing hair for? Of course it's never a bad idea to wait, but if you're keen to go ahead with a procedure then I'd say around 2500 grafts would do it. That would reconstruct your hairline and beef up the front. I don't think a surgeon would want to go too far back as your hair, although visibly thinning, is still quite dense at the midscalp area.

I agree that concealers would work wonders with your hair as it is in the photos. It would be night and day. But I know that not everybody is happy using them (I wouldn't be) so SMP could be a good option. However, you still have a lot of hair and, crucially, an intact hairline to frame your face, so I don't think you'd necessarily need SMP at this stage. Buzz it and see.

I agree that this isn't normal. What has your doctor said? While it isn't normal, it also isn't outside of the range of issues that can occur and should be something that will calm down over time and cease to be a problem.

It is my opinion that higher Norwoods are better off having FUE spread out over two procedures. It's a safer way of managing the donor area This patient had two procedures covering a lot of ground with a total of 5754 grafts. http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/189104-dr-rahal-video-presentation-5754-grafts-fue.html It can be done in such a way that the first procedure stands alone. Of course it's important that your donor area can support a nigher number of extractions as not everybody's can.

As the others have said, there could be several reasons for this. It could be that you're paying more attention now and are noticing the normal daily shedding of hair. It could be shockloss due to the trauma of the surgery, which can happen sometimes. Healthy hair normally come back but hairs which are affected by MPB and are in a weakened state could be lost permanently. They were already on the way out. I'm guessing that if the hairs are longer then they have not been shed from an area that was treated during the transplant, in which case shockloss is unlikely to be the cause.

It isn't all that unusual to see nobody else in your family with the same hairloss pattern.

I would start a new thread to separate your diary from your initial question and worry.

I've found that even if you edit a thread title, it still shows the original one. Perhaps the mods can help?