Speegs

Welcome, realistically if you want cosmetically appealing density, you're looking at two procedures and probably close to 6000 grafts. 2400 sounds awfully conservative for the amount of real estate you have to cover, 2400 would be appropriate only if you had a receding hairline or frontal thinning. Stay on the meds, and possibly investigate Viviscal Professional, a hair supplement many docs and dermatologists recommend to strengthen hair and encourage its life cycle.

So I'm nearing one month post op, and would venture to say out of 1800 plus grafts, only 200 or 300 have shed, the majority are there...and unless my mind is playing tricks, the hair appears to be getting longer, I can see the shaved down hair emerging from the scalp as well, but it is substantially shorter than the new grafts that have retained the follicle. Is it unheard of for 80 percent of new grafts to start growing right away? This is interesting to me, as this is my third HT, by this time in the other two i shed most the follicles from the grafts.

When you pick a hair transplant surgeon you're really picking a team, a good surgeon will assemble an experienced and qualified team.

A scrupulous doctor won't have untrained people placing your grafts or helping him cut your donor and close your suture, or cut your grafts. Truly dedicated doctors will even place some of the grafts themselves, in my experience Dr. Steven Gabel is one of those people.

PS get on finsteride and try out Viviscal Professional, and do it promptly to try and stunt any further hairloss. Another two or three years and you'll be Patrick Stewart if you don't.

An elite surgeon can give you 90 to 95 percent graft survival with FUT if you take care of the grafts in post op as they tell you to do. Whereas even elite FUE surgeons like Feller will tell you that 70 to 75 percent graft survival is not an uncommon result for a large FUE procedure. Careful surgeons don't like to exceed 1500 with FUE per session, it's a very laborious process, the grafts stay out of the body longer, and there is more opportunity for transection...all the more reason to shy away from a large FUE procedure. To satisfy your present hairloss, my unprofessional estimate is that a 5,000 to 6,000 graft case is at hand for you, probably broken into two separate procedures. You do appear to have a nice donor area, however.

Thanks, i found a silicon based scar cream with a roller at my local pharmacy, it includes cosmetic surgery scars among the things it is appropriate to use for, so if this isn't appropriate for an HT scar then i don't know what is.

Given your advanced hair loss, FUT will more efficiently harvest larger donor strips, be more cost effective, and likely yield greater growth results. Graft transection is less common with a strip than with attempting to harvest a large amount of grafts via FUE. Reality is you're going to require at least 6000 graft to get coverage for what you have, and it will likely take two or three procedures to do it.

Can you be specific, is there a brand that's off limits.

Alan Feller or bust if you're not willing to travel outside of the Northeast in my opinion. Be very selective and deliberate, PM me if you want my personal physician opinions in depth. There's only about five doctors i would let touch me. I had my first HT at 26 as well.

Anyone have any good luck with things that help mitigate scar appearance and smooth down scars a few weeks after surgery and sutures are out? There are the usual over the counter suspects in CVS and Walgreens, but do they work, is there any caution against them? Fire away, I'll hang up and listen.

I just finished transplant three, 1800 grafts, my existing hair in the frontal third is from two other transplants from 2011 and 2010. 2300 and 2700 grafts respectively, shaved down to make room for the 1800.

The vast majority of men will become a norwood 2 by middle age. it is the exception to the rule to look like Ronald Reagan late in life. And Bill Clinton does have thinning and temporal recession.

That's not true at all, natural recession comes with maturity, a juvenile hairline is called a juvenile hairline precisely because it is exclusive to a juvenile. Having a mature hairline isn't baldness, it's simply aging.

That's a gag he's been doing for years, his hair is real.

On another note, do you think it can help curb shock loss in post op?

I think it's bad tanning and hair coloring. There are more pictures that suggest it to be transplanted...but that's not a flattering interpretation of a transplant, that it's a wig or hair piece.

Not to invite the political, though perhaps that's unavoidable with this person at this time, but he has said he will slick his hair back if elected president and cease with this ridiculous comb over mop. Donald Trump reveals he will ditch his infamous hair style if elected president | Daily Mail Online

Sly's hair has always bothered me in recent years, he was visibly receding in the 90s, and whoever did his hairline in the last decade or so made it more aggressive and juvenile than it was when he was playing Rocky back in 1976. Frankly it looks rather ridiculous and age inappropriate...nor is it really that stellar of a job at refined realism, perhaps it's the use of hair coloring and the preposterous positioning of the hairline on a 60 plus man, but it looks artificial. I don't know for certain who did his HT, but Craig Ziering seems to hint heavily that it was him (attached in an instagram post of his). And celebrity or not, I would not call it a calling card of good work. Discuss...

Thank you for the insight, I didn't think it would, but it was worth asking just the same.

If you're a young patient and not committed to prevention therapies such as either finasteride, rogaine, saw palmetto, or all of the above, then it is an expensive fool's errand to do anything surgically cosmetic with your hair, you're better off shaving it bald or exploring hair systems. These are the cold hard facts.

Upon my physician's recommendation, I began taking Viviscal Professional as a potential hair growth supplement along with the finasteride I take daily. I'm also 17 days post op from a third HT to my frontal third, so this isn't my first rodeo, and it dawned on me if the use of Viviscal has the potential to aid graft growth or even encourage early growth. Is there any evidence to this by anyone? Both anecdotal or scientific? Granted, my physician made no such claims it would encourage early growth or help the grafts emerge, but i didn't ask him either... Thoughts? Opinions? Insults?

Finasteride can slow if not full on halt and retard hair loss. Its side effects are few and have only been reported by a near outlier of people that take the medication. Without committing to take finasteride, exploring any surgical restoration is a moot point.

i advise you to reconsider the local bent, but Arocha is a competent doctor, the only one in Texas that is, but his pricing is not as competitive as comparable doctors if you're willing to travel. I received 2700 grafts with Dr. Alexander in 2010 in the front third, i opted for a second procedure as my density was not the best it could be, I received 2380 from Dr. Gabel just six weeks ago, so in nine months time I should have excellent density. i live in Austin and found it more affordable and beneficial to travel. Every patient is different, since I have fine hair reconstructing a good density requires more grafts, but it looks more natural than course hair, which provides better density, it is the trade off. Many people have two procedures, often the first one does great improvement but the second one tweaks it to your expectations. I was a norwood 3a with advanced frontal thinning and recession, in six to nine months i will look like i have a full head of hair. Why LA? What in LA has appealed to you? if you're headed out west you might as well look at Gabel and Alexander, both have competitive pricing and great skill.

Spend the next six months researching, consulting doctors on this forum and patients. Don't rush this and don't feel obligated to stay local to seek a doctor. I just turned 28, had a HT a month before turning 27 and a second one the day after turning 28, I can answer any questions you might have since I'm basically your age.