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I don't think you should get FUT now, unless you, as a 5a-6 at 26 years of age, really believe you can get a mega-wow result with strip and grow out your hair long, and be happy with that. Right now, perfectionist you are, you are not in that mind space. Who knows you might be one day. The advice you are getting from people with Dr. Bisanga and Joe is dangerous IMO, even though I respect them both. Here is what I mean. Let's bare in mind, 1) You are happy with buzz 2) 26 3) NW class 5a - 6 Route A Conventional "wisdom" is this, "You need too many grafts for FUE. You betta get strip" Route B My idea is this, "Don't try for the big hair. FUE for hairine and temples. Maybe SMP in between" BUT in the short term, a voice will tell you that all things being equal(say next 5-10 years) assuming you have the funds you will look better with route A 1) Straight in front of the mirror 2) On your facebook profile 3) On your resume And, !!You will get more girls initially interested in you with ROUTE A !!You will get a better job, sell more cars, get more votes, get more sympathy in a courthouse with ROUTE A So why route B Cause I think you are already on your way to accepting not big hair and that your own identity may have manifested itself inside that short haired head. And in ten years you can buzz it off anyway. Yep, and he'll say that you don't have the available grafts. He has seen overharvesting and he has a strict protocol. But he is also primarily a strip clinic with FUE for 'small jobs' . Ironically, I see those parameters, 5a-6 , 26yrs, as pointing to FUE and away from strip. Just because people have amazing laxity is not a reason to get themselves an ear-to-ear smiley scar! You are 26 and 5a!! I don't want to screw your mind up and I know what you are going through. If Joe can convince you that you can get a lot of grafts, and you are steady on medication, you might be so happy in a years time, you won't look back. FUE does work, but a lot of the results we see here aren't great IMO. This site and others like it, strongly represent strip. You really have to dig into the FUE-only clinics to get results to compare. Dr. Umar now posts on here, but we have seen very few genuinely all-head FUE results from him. Mostly bodyhair and nape hair augmented results. It has happened to me!! At work! It is not a memory. It is part of my mental DNA now!! Yes, so, I would be wary of SMP. So far I like HIS but you need to grow hair WITH the ink, and I'm not convinced they are confident about that. There are others and I think we can believe it will get better, but a lot of bad work is yet to created as the industry explodes. Don't let yourself be a bunny! i'm sorry I can't be helpful. I am hemmed in by utter contempt for balding guys giving themselves a strip scar and i draw flak for it. there are so many satisfied strip patients out there, with hair and some can even shrug off a balding crown. I can't.

Azazelgs, Thanks for posting this!! I am looking at SMP, or whatever acronym they call it, for an exit from this life of hair blues, but without a scar I would not be here in the first place so I always try to tell people not to get a strip scar if they are balding, even it their head is made of rubber and they could stretch it over a New York giant pizza. But I respect your decision and you will probably get good growth if you go to the right doc, so much so, the buzz may not even be in the picture for a decade, if ever. Chicks dig hair afterall. As for a strategy, getting strip scar then filling it with ink and hair, well, it might work for you, but I think you shouldn't bank on being able to buzz it right down as low as an FUE. If the ink is a tone that matches, say a 4# then, what are the odds it will hide a scar with your hair twice or half that length? It might for a while, and might not later. i'm still researching these companies. Pretty exciting but frustrating too. The latest Good Look Ink vid I saw is instructive. They show a guy with strip scars in the before shots. The scars are nicely shown, mid- distance, and then close up, for a full ten seconds. Then in the after shot, the scar gets barely two seconds at mid-distance, and that from a head that quickly rotates upwards, taking the scar down and out of screen. It is obviously an imrovment and I think the guy looks decent overall, but it is hardly an endorsement for the approach. Don't get me wrong, I am wishing badly, sometimes desperately that this kind of treatment is a reality for people with strip scars. On the otherhand. How about FUE plus SMP? Out of the question? It is far easier to disguise FUE dots with SMP than a linear line and the uneven planes of skin that meet at the strip in some portions of the arc that characterize many strip jobs. That way, you could keep the buzz IMO. but then of course, you haven't got the long locks that might be great to have.

Yes, all will fade to a certain degree. Not completely however.

Still keeping an eye out. ...and basically I feel like I am still a dumb ass and if I went ahead with it, it would be faith based, not fact based!! But for what it's worth. 1) Tangibles - the facts as I see 'em from my peep hole (I have grossly simplified here - buyer beware!!) FIRSTLY = ALL TATTS will seem a tad blue, some more than others All tatts will fade That said.. a) HIS think hair plus tatts is crap, (HIS stands for Head Is Skin lol) b) GLI and Rassman say hair plus tatts is cool. c) Artistry Concepts??? AC e) HIS say they (can) graduate colors or shades..note can. f) GLI do not g) AC?? h) AC and GLI had a legal battle. GLI lost. See National Arbitration Forum. i) Rassman gives you lovely pain killers cause they're docs. Who knows maybe throw in some valium? j) They cost about the same h) HIS insist on breaking the procedure into 3 (or more) steps with at least 4-5 days between each one. GLI will treat you primarily on one day, touch you up next and send you home, but despite the drive-thu style, they say the first procedure only gets u 60% of the way. Rassman, mmn I dunno. i) They all SUCK at doing natural temples!!!! and hairlines!! but if your skin is more colored, then better for you. Intangibles - Assumptions and Impressions a) Shallow depth fast fade = HIS. It's a good model, cause it keeps them outta trouble with blurring blue messes showing up, but it also means, the shade is so light it can't help much with hair with any length b) Love some of the vids on GLI but some questionable ones too. Latest is a scarred up dude who got tatts, but the after pics forget to show scars?? Why? c) HIS seem to the Model T Ford of the business. One model, one color, mass production. All skin head. But they are pretty damn good at it, by the looks of it. Their admin is hopelessly unsettled and inconsistent which is understandable given the rapid expansion, but despite the chaos seem at least on the one page d) but damn it, I want hair for the hairline. I want none of the tatt to show in the hairline so, I'm on the fence with more work to do I love the Utube thing with the smiling caring doc with a sparkle in his eyes!! But seriously, I think a lot of people were dubious and are now considering it, but it maybe a desperate act, I don't know. If I had no scars, I would be off to HIS for the full treatment, and then grow my hair anyway. But with scars I need more hair, much more!! Yes, you can laser off most of it. But u might wanna ask about particular inks. Laser hurts though and takes several visits staggered over a few months Touch ups are necessary and I figure that each successive touch-up will blur the thing more, cause no way in the world are they gone find the same cell to pop ink into. Basically I can't ad much, but just wanna say I'm still in this looking for answers and please, others chime in.

So you can predict hairloss based on family history? Certainly? Just sayin.. FUE has issues with robust graft survival and careless extraction. I agree that strip gives you profound and satisfying short-term returns.

Why tell him to shave it if it's strip! Some of you guys have had FUE and shaving for that is fine, but for strip, shaving it is just asking for trouble with a capital 'T'. Do you want him to be a walking advertisement for his efforts to conceal the 'dangerous truth' about having to 'resort to' having a hair transplant? Let them stitch you or staple you up and ask them to have the hair shortish near the scar, but long enough to hide it. The staples might still be visible through the hair, but once they are out it will look good. The scar is usually good for the first six to ten weeks ('pencil thin') but even so, during that time, you will be grateful for that strip of hair covering it. As for the rest, a lot of guys do cut it really short soon after, and with shock loss and loss of the transplanted hair, that makes sense too, but with redness and the fact that you will look much worse than pre-op for a while, I don't know if it is wise, unless you can expertly cut the whole thing very short and yet somehow conceal the scar.

ta ta.. DISCALIMER - I too have queries about overharvesting FUE and poor yield. This post is MERELY to show why docs recommend strip!! ..even Dr. Feller bla bla... (someone else adds) Guys, of course they will recommend FUT!! Guys, come on! ALL docs recommend strip if they do it, and if they are set up for it. Put yourself in THEIR shoes for a moment. It's 9AM at the Happy Hair Clinic and under the big sign that says, 'Welcome 'cause we do both' (FUE and FUT)' sits Dr. Feelgood sipping on his morning coffee. His eyes drop to peruse the morning's consults. Mnn..let's see now.. Billy Balding, 27, NW3, wants FUE, Dad is bald, hates the idea of a scar, wants to be a NW2 and a widow's peak. Mnn, well, we've seen this guy 10 times this week already. Here we go again. Are you ready, Roger Rep? You got so damn good at dealing with this, that guy's eyes 'gonna be poppin when when we show him the pics of 'Mr Moth' alongside those stellar strips where we pull the grown out hair back at the scar seam and it seems invisible. He will be so impressed he wont think about what it looks like shaven. And his ears are gonna be ringing why him, and just him is not suited to FUE... and that FUE suits SMALL jobs. Who is to say, he won't lose more hair!! and need more grafts! He won't even wanna think about buzzing when he gets the growth form our strip! In the back room wait four cutters. The four most reliable and genuinely conscientious types you could image. They cut those strips up in no time, with hardly any transection and a smile Dr. Feelgood gets up and a small creak in his back reminds him of playing with the kids last night. Damn sure no way in the world am I leaning over that guys head to today for eight hours drilling out 1500 measily grafts, while my cutters sit idle in the back room. I suppose I could ask them to doing cleaning. He ambles into the consult room where Roger Rep had already been softening Billy for the blow. Forgets glasses. Eyes getting strained lately, since he did that damn FUE two weeks ago, damn it. 'Hey Billy' 'Doc, I can't tell you how much I've waited for this. I did my research and I want FUE, cause who knows, I might wanna opt out of the HT route when I'm older, you know' Roger and Doc exchange a knowing glance and warm smiles. 'Billy...oh.. Billy, we understand how you feel. We've been in this business since ...a damn long time..but in your case, we are going to recommend a 3500 strip, with a trico closure. You'll be done in no time and be a lot a happier sooner with the solid and rapid growth strip affords. Let me check that laxity now' Eh,,yes, let's see. I think we can even do 3800 Roger' 'Nice one Doc', chips in Roger before adding, Doc, Billy is concerned about the scar. "Well of course he is. Everyone is but we get some pretty damn fine scars, show Billy, Roger. Billy, trust me, with hair, you won't even think about it" And the money and time you will save...FUE is over rated!! Yield is poor. It suits little jobs, that's all. Billy looks anguished and asks, 'But if it's good for small, why isn't it good for big? What about all the hairs in that are in resting phase within the strip? How about...Billy in desperation now, throws out a dozen questions. Some of them ridiculous, some valid. In the end, the doc and Rog just have to reassure him by answering the easiest. An hour later. Doc is back in his room having taken out the strip, checking his mail. Back out to do the recipient sites for another 40 minutes. Done.. Billy has signed the disclaimers and is a drug induced delirium as the cutters are busy. Later, Billy posts. I wanted FUE, but in the end I chose FUT and I am glad. Guys, FUE is hype!! End. The message is simple. Strip (call it FUT to make it sound better) , is economical for the clinic. Strip exposes the clinic to less risk Strip is easier on the doctor's hands, eyes and mind Strip is simple Strip puts the onus on the patient to 'recover' properly and buys the clinic 'time'. (The patient of FUE is expecting FAST recovery!) Strip distributes the technical burden more evenly among the staff of the clinic Strip is faster for all Please, don't take this as an endorsement for FUE, just wanted to illustrate the process and mindbending that goes on in my humble opinion. I have plenty of doubts about all HT including FUE, especially yield and that included the condition of the follicles that regrow And I am not anti- HT either. Hair is freakin great and everyone is happy to see it grow back.

If you don't already have a strip scar, don't even think of getting one and later filling it with FUE and expect to get the 'best of both worlds'. Doesn't work. I had a strip scar filled with thigh hair once and it looked pretty damned good, but no way in the world did it give the consistent texture of an even spread of hair. The scar was still visible. But if I held my head to the light, at the 'correct' angle, the scar dissappeared. Don't let the pics fool you. Add in the fact that coloration of the scar can also mess up the picture. Strip scars are unpredictable, yet relatively more predictable in the right hands. FUE yield is same. But poor to fair FUE yield with a good extraction pattern, can be buzzed. A strip means you have to grow. But..if you are an actor, don't you have the perfect legitimate excuse for wearing a piece? Even for the folio of mug shots you create for agents? Dunno where you get them though.

Let me re-phrase because it may have sounded pessimistic. Yes, you CAN buzz an FUE and it DOES look and it, IMO, is the BEST reason to get FUE, but the caveat is IF the hair lies flat and doesn't spike up. Get the doc to understand that first!! Beat it into him/her!! They don't listen! Having the option to buzz is definitely a plus for a balding guy and having a strip scar and losing the top or crown is a miserable place for many - including me. Also, coloring the hair helps, although it is a pain in the ass to do it with shorter hair. I have been over harvested with FUE and strip scarred (3 long visible scars) but the 'dots' represent no dilemma to me. The gaps between hairs, are a problem at certain lengths. From a week post-buzz to nearly a month, it looks crap. I went to a budget HT hair clinic for my first FUEs and I got the results tally with that. Nevertheless, for all my FUE misadventures, it is still the horizontal lines of the strip scars that have done me in, not the FUE. So don't blow off the idea of FUE and short hair!! But remember, that it has to be done 'right'. So what can you do to make absolutely sure you made the right steps to achieve that it is done right? That is the question.

It can look natural if the hair is transplanted to lie flat on the scalp, and not spike up. HT surgeons seem to plant on the spikey so when it is buzzed down it looks terrible alongside the softer, and often thinning, native hair. Natural doesn't always look good though. I saw a guy with a NW6 + sparse FUE + buzz this the other day on another site, and to be frank, it didn't look too good. He just didn't have enough grafts, or he had the native hair on the sides too long. Whatever, but he did look natural, nobody would give him a second glance and wonder. So the flatter the hair, the more coverage you get for the buzz look, and the better it will blend in.

Did I imply unhappy? Maybe I did, but it is just my intention to offer something positive (for a change lol) In this case, to show HTs, plus correct hair length and bleaching combine to create incredible results!! Incredibly GOOD results!! ..(not my favorite hairstyle, gotta say, but bang-for-buck volume) ..and on the other hand, to be careful about the deception. I feel I am boss of it sometimes, like I control of the deception and yet somehow, the deception can become boss of me!! Hence, I over react and buzz it off!! When the crown is so thin and empty, it is easy to rationalize this move. For now, I'm looking at SMP to help me out, whether I go for Mr Blonde or Mr. Pink -goes- Mr. Rocking Buzz in the near or distant future. Thanks guys!!

If I had any sizable donor left, I'd do FUE to eek every last one of them out. I would definitely avoid strip. Second last procedure, three years ago, against my better judgment, I let the doc open up one the existing strip scars for another strip. Why? For a few hundred extra grafts that I would have achieved with FUE. I would miss those few hundred now for sure, but I was stupid. I had repaired that particular scar extensively already with leg hair and it was looking pretty damn good. I had worse strip scars that I could of let the doc take out, but he refused to touch them, instead opening up the one good scar. It is now the worst scar. Despite, double layering and trico closure, a very slow and steady hand and a great doc, I ended up creating a bigger problem. But it's academic now. I possibly have 100 or 200 at max left in below my temples. Really not worth the trouble. I say, considering I was NW4 at 24 in the 80s, it could be worse. Maybe I should be more pissed off than I am, I don't know. Anyway, I never post pics, for a change, I just wanted to show you guys what HTs can do. I think the left pic is pretty damn good and just shows what bleach and the 'sweet-spot-length' can achieve. What's underneath that is like the what's behind the false ceiling! But as I say, SMP is a possibilty.

Thanks Yes, MP is exactly is what I am now looking at. I am pretty sure I am a very good candidate for pigmentation+hair on top, maybe a little shorter, but definitely a propsect IMO. The strip scars, make or break the deal regarding the buzz. Will the tatts sufficiently disguise them? That is the million dollar question. Of course, as with HTs, the same promises and disclaimers apply, and it is not until you are in the chair, when you really asking yourself, 'Did they just remind me again it may not work out as hoped, for a reason?' Fighting, Thanks. Yes, I have cut the back down, back there. Not a pretty sight. But with the crown fading (it would work 'with products' a few more years) I am looking at options for shorter hair -alas! When the front grows out and is combed up and back, as you can see it really is natural and bulky. I look 10 years younger and better, but it feels lame - I still can't explain why, but probably because it looks like a comb over to me.

Which is the before pic? Just wanted to show you how HTs are magic, but when they are cut short, all kinds of stuff can happen. So bear?-bare? that in mind when making your HT plans. Good Luck keeping your hair guys. I'm just about done because a crown dying on me aint gonna help that nice Mr. Blonde anymore:) Answer: Mr Blonde 12 months ago. Mr Buzz 6 months ago.

Dr. Beehner's comments are interesting in respect to your case Jimmy, especially the portrayal of crown balding being tricky to predict, or at least more dicey than frontal recession. I think you are bordrline OK, but if you cut really short to disguise it, you might open a can of worms. But having nice hair elsewhere and a dying crown sucks! But what I am really curious about is how many doctors have steered you away from proceeding with the crown, 'at this stage' on account of doing harm to the existing hair in that region. This kind of shockloss is rarely spoken about - or should I say written about - because it is bad advertising, but I have found over the years, despite docs and reps assurances on message boards, come consultation time, an ugly prospect rears it's head (sorry about pun) . That is the doc, saying, 'sorry, pal, I wouldn't go in there, you might lose what you have now, forever'. It's almost as if you have to live with feeble minatirizing hair on your crown, until they have almost gone, and then the docs proceed to plant there. I wonder, how often, if often, have the docs told you this?

I agree, and thanks for the comment. And same too for N-6, thanks. I agree. I'm almost ready. I'm satisfied I have enough DHT - resistant hair, growing the right way, in the key areas to pull it off and look very good at the moment if I wear my hair at the correct lengths. And I'm OK about the dots blurring into a vague greyish blob over the years and with it fading as my hair whitens. The danger, I see is, with my crown. Whilst I'm doing barely OK with fin and growing the minaturized hair a little longer back there, if I lose much more I will need to buzz all of it off, and I instantly look 10 years older, (without pigmentation). Now, in that case, the ink may work well at #0 for the crown, but will the scars be sufficiently covered? That scares me but if the worst comes to worst, and the scars don't blend, I'll have to grow the dreaded horseshoe a bit longer at the scars. Better ask that "Will it Blend" guy on youtube!! lol As I've said before, ink is not a regulated industry, so any cowboy can mix ink and call it what ever he or she wants, including 'Specially designed for Scalp Micropigmentation'. Same with instruments. The companies are spinning of course, knowing that no one has a way to falsify their claims yet without a regulatory body and few exposed stories.It's very hard to get any technical information out of them too, and they are coy about their 'special process' for obvious reasons. So I post here, on the off chance someone knows something and sees it. Thanks again for your responses.

Good question. Why don't you ask Dr. Rassman on his blog or through a direct email? He clearly supports the idea of putting ink on 'white dots'.

Yes, and so had Dr. Shapiro. Exactly, as Dr. Diep says, "we don't need as much hair as we normally do" He also says, "Micropigmentation without hair will still look like a tattoo" "The good part is that it will give the appearance of better density if you have hair, but if you don't have hair, it will look very awkward and abnormal" "the color of the ink will never stay the same" " ..the ink will move because the microcytic cell will ingest the micropigmentation and the microcytic cell moves too ..through the years...it will get more smear(ed) ..the pigment dot will not be as strong...it will get worse through the years" But having said that, he goes on to say how good it can be, And there are many encouraging comments and overall his impression of SMP is positive, the caveat is it MUST be combined with hair. (ref: go utube, search Diep, pigmentation for informative videos) And from Dr. Rassman's FAQ on SMP, The hint of blue /green color comes from the filtering out of red light through the layers of skin and cannot be avoided, "unless the laws of physics have changed, there will always be a slight change in perception of color" (ref:see FAQ, NHI- SMP) The director of Good Look Ink in Minnesota has precisely what I want*. Short hair and pigmentation. I don't like skinheads with SMP because the hairlines look too harsh, but Rassman's info stress the need for very short hair, whilst posting pics of guys with longer hair. Mysterious, but seems to me that the industry is still finding its feet and so contradictory information will be easy enough to find for a while yet.

I'd like to know more about the companies involved and their techniques. Any comments or suggestions please. My starting points are, 1) That I want to combine very short hair with pigmentation, and use my real hair to define the hairline, not the tattoo. 2) All pigmentation dots will fade and somewhat dissolve or blur to some degree. But maybe that is not a deal breaker if you have some hair.

Some docs do row harvesting in FUE. I think Dr. Harris might?? Anyway, with row harvesting, they basically shave narrow horizontal, parallel strips of hair across the DHT-safe donor zone, which allows you to cover up with the hair immediately above the strips. There is a noticeable difference in depth for us hair nerds, but after a few weeks, it should be OK. It means you have to go back, IMO, to get the unharvested areas to match the harvested ones. I've seen at least one poster concerned enough to post pics of his 'stripes' . It's probably OK, but I'd go with a full shave and let them get at it all. Problem is, I guess, U gotta a smiley scar and you don't want to advertise your strip just yet, so I guess the row harvesting is your best bet unless you can paint the strip with eyeliner or some kinda chicks makeup for a few weeks. Personally, I'd do the latter in your position

ah..that should be translated in Latin!! I don't know if it's possible as it is desirable. Sounds so easy!! Sorry Ethahunt, not helping any, just loved the comment. If you don't mind a HTscar on the back of your head with a short haircut, you are different from me, and ahead of me, or the way I am now, but I can relate to anonymity on forums. Good luck on the journey!! Oh, and yeah, you will lose hair, and depending on the state of the minatization, a good portion of what you lose will come back. I've always suspected that a lot of the regrowth joy we get, and the extended period that nowadays is supposed to reflect "HT results" is in fact, our relief as the shocked hair comes back. I've always wondered about the cycle of the hair too. On a clock, lets say your resting phase is between 10 to the hour and the hour (o'clock) on a particular hair. You get your head split open at twenty past the hour. ("procedure" day) The hair is traumatized. Do the hormones or whatever chemicals trigger the signal, 'reset' the clock? Fast forward to 50minutes? I have no idea. Just wonder.

I assure you they know more than me, much more, but they are running a business. And they answer these kinda queries appropriately day in, day out, or else they are not in business -at least among the esteemed 'ultra-refined' group we promote here. I think the prognosis is good. They can plant flat and if , and I say if, you have enough hair behind, the hair planted flat will splay out from the corners of your temples giving that big forehead a lot of cover. Maybe some receding behind the planted zone with shocked out hair. If they make the slits at a flat angle they have to go extremely close to the hair behind, some of which will be weakened by DHT. Trade -off, but I guess, it would be worth it. If you lose a lot of hair behind and then buzz, you might have an overly dense area where they planted the DHT resistant hair. That has happened to me. If they plant for a swept back look, that can work too, and has the bonus of giving you a lot more coverage behind. My guess is the surgeries will steer you that way for safety's sake, but both ways would potentially work. If your crown is going, you may wanna know whether you can keep the front area swept back with a balding crown. Many do and can and some of us hate the idea. meh...nothing I'm saying just here is that surprising or shocking.

No, it's illusion. You wouldn't want the original density. Remember, the native hair on the periphery was different in texture even when it is was growing without being attacked by DHT. By the time you are getting an HT, the peripheral hair is finer, quite possibly with different pigment qualities and most definitely at a higher density and lower diameter. Having the hair planted at the same density would look bad, beside waste grafts. HTs are illusion, even at the buzz level. Having the thicker course hairs lie flat and interlocking with each other can (case-by-case) be good for blending with the buzz, but it isn't perfect. Having them point upwards is awful. And orientation of the grafts is critical too, much more so than for longer styles. You can make a slit at the perfect angle and slide a graft in the wrong way so it grows out like a banana. No good. When it comes to quotes about numbers, I can't say anything with any confidence. I hear/see numbers, but I really don't know, so what I am saying is conjecture. I suspect that - and only suspect - that some apples fall off the cart along the way Below - think density value A = largest number per/cm , going to 'D', the least > 1) We, the clinic, can plant 'A' /cm > 2) But in your particular case we actually planted 'B' /cm > 3) Of which 'C' /cm grew > 4) Of which 'D' /cm grew at the original diameter, the remainder at a lesser diameter* (*happens in FUE, I suspect) Oh, and note that docs always say, (good ones) we always plant at the same angle as the surrounding hair, in order to avoid transection of nearby follicles, but do/can they really? - on a shaven scalp, they can certainly see the hair a mm below the surface of the skin if the color contrasts are right. I don't think they can really, and then once you add another variable - the slight deviations and twists in the orientation of the grafts into these slits, you have got a recipe for hair growing all over the place. Once again, the longer the hair, the easier it is to disguise and HT surgeons often say 'the hair will settle' which is a bit, eh..em, in my opinion.

It is not designed to have a negative effect, obviously. As I said earlier, 1) If it's slightly more vertical on top, it helps build the illusion of density at the lengths that the traditional (strip) HT industry consider standard for good pics. Here lies the key reason IMO. All HTs are an illusion. There never has been any attempt, and never will be, to replicate the density hair surrounding and within the balding zone - no matter what they tell you. It is simply impossible to achieve those kind of numbers and the subtle variations in hair diameter that make up that appearance. But the miracle effect happens when the certain length is reached - as Jotronic calls it, 'the sweet spot', and bang! suddenly you have rocking hair! But here is the key bit and it is most pertinent to shorter (FUE?) hair. You CAN get a really cool style with flat hair, and you can have very short hair and take ADVANTAGE of the length an FUE donor zone would allow you to pull off. The strip guys never go for it. They wanna tell you to GROW your hair and cover that damn strip scar, come on to a website like this and tell everyone how great it is. So they go for BIG hair. And volume. 2) Technical reasons. Now here I am simply guessing. It might be easier to poke the knife in slightly more vertically, it might be safer? a) ?? less likely to puncture the hair behind, on the periphery of the recipient zone, b) ??Docs may feel that circulation will be better deeper in. c) ??That's how they used to do it, and there is still a lag, a kind of inertia where you just do it as you do it. 3) Planting flat for coverage ala roof slate style is relatively new. I personally think that in this age of FUE and micropigmentation, we will see a revival of smaller transplants where getting huge numbers and 'wow effect' results is less a priority. Instead, less volume, but more natural at short length will be more common and angles will be more talked about. But that said, H&W etc. will still be churning out 5000+ strips. 3) Clinic routines, protocols, lack of communication, safe bets, covering ones on ass in case of failure..etc., all good reasons, docs, techs and reps say stuff to patients like , 'yes, yes, we will do that for you' and do other things, and when you are in that drug induced delirium-bliss having finally arrived at the big moment you will swallow it. I've been there many times, and the amount of BS I digested with a smile on my face in that condition - all I can say is duhhh... But it can go the other way. More than once I came to a clinic with a 'better' plan that the docs. Once, one of them gleefully accepted my proposition, carried out the work and it was awful. I should have followed his original idea.

If you are going for a shorter look, and your hair is fine and straight make sure they plant the hair flat. Think venetian blinds, open them and the light comes right through, close them and they lie flat on one another. Usually, for the illusion of density, and perhaps for other technical reasons, the docs plant more vertical. When the hair gets past an inch long that works well to build density, but cut it short and it's a disaster - it will look like a banana plantation after a fire swept through, with plenty of soil on show! So you have to tell them to plant flat. And just because they say, yeah, yeah doesn't mean they will do it, because they often follow routines and well or trodden paths to reduce risk. Sometimes, even the docs think we don't know what's good for us and plant vertically anyway. But that said, if you get the hair planted flat, you will get more coverage and get away with very short hair at lower density than native as well as blending better with your existing minaturizing hair. It will limit your hairstyle somewhat but with products you can still mess it up and make it look good. But as I said, be wary when they agree to do something that's different form their usual way. I can't see how they can plant 70 per cm2 but they say they can. I would think 50 at flat angles would be OK, but too many variables to generalize, I suppose. It would seem that fine hair should help reduce transection all tings being equal, because they'll still use the same punch anyway.