HairCenter

Visiting another doctor may help but it really is best practice to go back to your original doctor to get his or her opinion on what is going on. Aside from that you should try to understand that this is a process and no two people will have identical results at the same time in their recovery. You have a lot of time to go before you can say you have your final result so try to be patient and I'm sure that improvements will be seen.

You represent an ideal anterior response for medical therapy. Well done and congratulations for taking the slow route and not jumping on the surgical bandwagon at the first signs of trouble.

I think that you should travel to the clinics you are considering for in person consultations, regardless of procedure, because your donor area looks questionable. The majority of the photos show a strong donor zone but I see patches in areas where patches should not exist. For example, the posterior donor area at the nape and higher seems far thinner than it should be. What appears to be the right side of your scalp near your ears also shows a patchy area so you may have a donor that is less consistent than what would be considered optimal. Online consultations are great as long as the photos are very detailed and considerate of angles and lighting but nothing beats a one on one consultation with the doctors you are considering.

Your comments about the quality of Dr. Cooley's results are appreciated. We may not get as many mentions as some of the other clinics on the forums but we do often hear from our patients that they come to see us because they feel we are the best for their particular situation, which is the way it works for any patient of any clinic, really. At least this is the case when one does enough research of course and we find that our patients tend to do a lot research. I'm happy to say that we do have something exciting in the works with regards to our results. I can't say much now but we're preparing for something that hasn't been seen in the hair transplant world before. Stay tuned to Welcome Page - The Hair Center!

Thank you for your comments. The patient is very happy, but I think that is obvious:)

Hi 911fan, Thank you for your comment. I'll check with the doctor to see if we have donor area photos.

This patient came to see Dr. Cooley to address his NW6 pattern of loss. Note that the area was not completely devoid of hair but the pattern and loss is clear. Dr. Cooley started the patient on medical treatment first then scheduled a procedure when itineraries aligned. 4693 grafts were moved in one procedure. Due to the large area of 200 cm2 for placement the crown was not address with as much hair as the frontal zone.

thatoldchestnut, the patient was 25 years old at the time of this procedure.

Thank you, RadioRunner.

Thank you all for your comments on this case.

I didn't seen any photos in your profile but I must caution you with regards to your graft estimate. Temple points can indeed take a small number of grafts to make an effective improvement. However, many times temple points can require more grafts than one may realize. Some cases can require 500 grafts or more per side simply because the act of recreating a temple point means that additional work may be necessary for tying the temple point in to the temple and the hairline. In hairlines, if one area is addressed, it can cause a change in the appearance for the entire frame of the face. As stated by others, temple points are not to be taken lightly and few doctors can perform temple point work that looks natural and compliments the entire hairline design. Insist on seeing multiple examples of temple point work from any doctor that you consider.

Hi Mia45, I know your post is a week old but I felt the need to chime in. Donor are tenderness will vary from patient to patient but by this time the majority of the tenderness should be gone. There will be some residual tenderness but shortly this will subside. If you have any questions whatsoever you are welcome to call the clinic. It doesn't matter how long after your surgery you have a question, we are here for you. KeithJagger, Thank you for your updates. You're a source of great information as every patient that shares is also educating.

This latest Dr. Cooley hairline result was the result of one FUSS procedure which yielded 1756 grafts. The patient had already been on finasteride with positive results for one year and was seeking a strengthening of his hairline. The result shown is nine months post with PRP ACell treatment used for the crown which showed a mild improvement as well.

With all due respect, Sutureless, your comments are unusual given that you made much more positive comments about a case with a similar number of grafts. http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/178085-dr-hakan-doganay-4290-grafts-over-2-days-13-01-15-14-01-15-jan-3.html I can appreciate that everyone has their own opinions but it's preferable to see opinions that are consistent. Thank you everyone for your comments. The patient is indeed very happy.

Thank you for your comments, Gambler. These secondary issues that can present themselves with female hair restoration are not uncommon. With the increased popularity of various forms of cosmetic surgery, including facelifts, we have developed quite a bit of experience with the challenges they can present when hair restoration is desired. Thankfully, Dr. Cooley is not only an excellent surgeon, but an excellent researcher that has developed methods to help address these issues.

Armaan123, Please understand that this thread is almost seven years old. PRP is not dangerous and has shown to be effective for some patients, especially those that are diffused thinners. However, not all PRP is the same as there are many variables that contribute to it's success that are not considered to be standard practice from clinic to clinic. It is imperative to research the success of any single clinic's use of PRP and look at the background and track record of those that offer it.

I think that the temple points indeed do a lot to help frame the forehead and the face overall. Unfortunately this is not always possible because the hair itself can be your worst enemy as texture is one of the insurmountable issues that hair restoration surgeons deal with. If you have coarse and thick hair shafts then it is difficult to make the temple points look natural. By all means, if you are only a few months post-surgery then you should let this result mature and then speak to your doctor about temple points. I recommend you speak with multiple clinics that have shown a consistency for temple point work. By the way, temples are the recessed corners on either side of your hairline. Temple points are the triangular tufts of hair that reside behind and are slightly higher than each eyebrow.

We hope everyone had a fantastic holiday! Our first case for the new year is a female restoration case. This woman is in her late 50’s and came in seeking a hair transplant to camouflage face lift scars. Usually the plastic surgeon will pull the cheek skin upward and outward, which usually destroys the sideburn. In this case, the plastic surgeon attempted to save the sideburn but unfortunately it backfired, because the scar spread and was impossible to hide. First, the spread scar was surgically revised and ACell was implanted simultaneously. Then we performed a hair transplant moving 1,888 grafts via FUSS. She is shown 10 months post op. I would like to do another smaller session to fill in the area more, but the patient is completely happy so that is all that matters. Singles-651 Doubles-8733 Triples-308 Quads-56) Total - 1888 Scar revision and Acell. During surgery. As always, if you have any questions about this case, please don't hesitate to ask.

The patient expressed a need to have as little visible impact to his appearance as possible. Yes, most patients have this desire but the professional obligations of this patient made it mandatory. In a case like this there is more care necessary to prevent the destruction of what hair remained, which admittedly was not much, but it was enough that shaving would be an obvious change to those around him. The difference is that it takes longer to perform a procedure on a non-shaven patient. In general a non-shave patient will not experience any more shock loss than a shave patient but the threshold must be realized before any surgery is attempted. It takes years of experience to be able to understand what this threshold is and when shaving is an absolute requirement. Many patients can get away without shaving, but some cannot.

I agree that nearly 4300 grafts went further than one would expect. I believe this has to do with the use of PRP/Acell during the surgery. We see that it not only helps to return some diameter to existing miniaturized hairs but the quality of the hair seems higher early in the regrowth phase as well. A second procedure will help with density, indeed, but the great thing now is that it is simply an option to consider and not a necessity.

While shaving the recipient area does provide some advantages, it is not feasible for many of the patients who come to see me. Most of my patients plan to take 7-10 days off from work with minimal detectability upon return. This patient is in his mid-40’s and came to us with type V hair loss. We started him on finasteride and performed non-shaven FUT consisting of 4,289 follicular units. We also performed PRP/ACell to strengthen the miniaturizing follicles that were still present on his scalp. Placement immediately after surgery. He is shown 17 months after the procedure. Given the large area of baldness he started with, he was very pleased with the result. He is contemplating a second procedure to add increased density that 4200 grafts on such a large area simply cannot provide.

Thank you for the great comments! 911fan, The photos are taken in an area of the clinic that is set up for photos. We have constant lighting, use no flash, and we are sure to have lighting that surrounds the patient so that there are no shadows or opportunities for tricks. We had outside help in setting this up so that we could eliminate inconsistencies as much as possible. We are also getting ready to produce patient results on video so we can show more of our work.

To say that redness goes away in a matter of a few weeks, across the board, is simply wrong. Redness can take several months to disappear or it can be a matter of a one to two weeks. This is not dependent solely on the skin tone of the patient but also the degree of density that incisions are made. The close the incisions are made the more bruising will occur so if you are pale skinned and had a procedure that involved dense packing then you have the highest change of experiencing a lingering redness for several months. If you have olive or tanned skin, being Mediterranean or SE Asian, or even African, redness will be of little to zero consequence. These are the facts and they should be understood by every patient and should be explained by every clinic. This helps patients to better plan their recovery period and creates less surprises.

Hi thatoldchestnut, Thank you for your comments. The patient was started on finasteride shortly before his procedure with Dr. Cooley. I don't have the exact time frame for his medical usage but it was short, no more than a few weeks. Hello Johnboy71. Yes, he does appear to be quite happy. His appearance has been improved to the point that he looks like he is barely over 30 but his age is between 40 and 45.

Transplanted hair that has the appearance of growth for a few weeks after they are transplanted is an illusion. The transplant procedure induces the catagen then telogen phase of the growth cycle. The catagen phase is when the hair shaft is detached from the follicle. While this is happening the nourishment that the hair gets dwindles to nothing before the detachment. This is why the hair may look like it has a rougher, maybe even kinkier texture before it falls out but this varies from person to person. Once the hair shaft detaches it then works it's way out of the follicle and the scalp tissue. A hair shaft/follicle will be anywhere from 3.5mm to 5mm in length so as it works it's way out of the scalp before it sheds it appears to be longer. It is longer but only on the surface of the scalp. The actual length of the hair shaft is unchanged. There may be some slight growth before this occurs but it stops fairly soon after the hairs are physically transplanted and is not necessarily enough to be visible to the naked eye. There are some cases where hair does not shed at all, or at least very little, and the "ugly duckling" phase is averted entirely.