I_cogitate

Thanks for the input everyone. Unfortunately it’s more than inconvenience for me, it would be a breach of professionalism at my job to suddenly shave my head. If the consensus is that shaving is always going to yield better results, I’m confused why internationally renowned surgeons like Dr Wasserbauer recommend AGAINST shaving to be able to better see the native hair and blend more effectively. What is the incentive of someone like this recommend not if it really yielded significantly worse results and is significantly harder for the surgeon ? Thanks!

Thanks for the info!! So you think it would be possible to do FUT without shaving recipient? Yeah I don’t want an FUE it’s prohibitively expensive and also many docs can’t do 4000 in one FUE surgery. thanks!

Thanks for the response! Do you mean shock loss to the existing hair or do you mean that it may cause some of the transplanted hairs to fall out?

Title pretty much says it all! I've gotten mixed answers from doctors I've consulted with so far. Dr. Blumenthal at natural transplants has told me that while he can do it, not shaving the recipient area affects yields as some of your existing hairs can "attach like velcro" to the newly transplanted grafts and cause them trauma while they are "setting". However, Dr. Sara Wasserbauer, a highly reputable surgeon, says the opposite--that shaving the recipient area is NOT preferred, because it does not allow the surgeon to properly place grafts in a way that will blend in naturally with existing hair. Do most surgeons require you to shave recipient areas? I was told I would need upwards of 3500-4000 grafts (Norwood 4). Has anyone done this type of "mega session" without shaving recipient area? I wear my hair medium length, and use concealer daily, such that it is pretty much unnoticeable that I have almost any hair loss--I look like a Norwood 2. For me to shave my entire head, or shave a perfect circle on my crown, would be a drastic change to my appearance that would require some explanation, not to mention the fact that I wouldn't look great bald (I'm only 28). I am a psychotherapist in training getting my doctorate in clinical psyche, and will be actively seeing patients within 1 month of a procedure. I am afraid it will be too much of a disruption to the therapeutic process to have to answer tons of questions about why I suddenly decided to shave my head or get a hair transplant, and about the fact that I've clearly been concealing significant balding for years it is generally frowned upon at my training institution to drastically change one's appearance while in training as a therapist--it creates a disruption to the therapeutic relationship and takes the focus off of the patient and onto you. For this reason, it would be highly desirable to do the surgery without shaving recipient area. Any thoughts experiences, or names of doctors that would do this without charging a ridiculous amount extra would be amazing. Thanks!