finallyfree

Watching the results of a hair transplant is like watching grass grow. You look at it daily and you can not make out the growth. But its there all the same. Taking pictures at regular intervals helps to discern the real, albeit slow, initial growth. Good luck.

The amount and duration of redness depends on your Fitzpatrick skin type, your skin color as well as the degree of trauma. If you are a Caucasian and plan to go for a 2000+ graft session in the front scalp regions, you are more likely to get discoloration that may take as less as 3 weeks to as long as 4 months to subside. Can you wear a cap?

1000 is not megasession. Anyone who can place 4000 grafts (that qualifies for megasession nowadays) can place 1000-1500 if you need just that many. But if they consider 1500 a megasession, then they may not be the best choice IMO.

I think its a bit early to have the stitches removed. How many grafts did you go for? With whom? The marks you see are likely to be scabs with clots. Try using some cotton dipped in warm saline solution to wet it regularly. That way the scab will soften and fall off easily.

Thank you Dr. Feller. I am pleasedto see that you are taking a balanced view of BHT. BHT is doable. For people with the correct body hair characteristics, its a godsend.

Really?! And just how did you reach that all encompassing conclusion? No benefit of doubt even? Frankly, I do not like to get into the politics of the forums. But your comments are too biased, in my opinion. Dr. A has, probably, the most number of BHT to his credit. He has contributed handsomely to the field by his innovations. That is why, when you talk of BHT, his name is bound to crop up. But each time his name comes up, do we have to come up with "he stole pictures" thingy. Lets grow up people. If some people do not want to give credit where its due, no problem. Atleast, give the benefit of doubt. There are doctors who have inflicted horrors on numerous people. They are the ones that need to be vilified. Not Dr. Arvind, about whom the worst available is that his web designer "may" have, with his knowledge, posted pictures on his old website that belonged to others. And thats a big MAY. If he says that he was not in the know, a benefit of doubt is the least that he deserves, IMO. I know Pat is not likely to change his mind, but I had to say my mind. So there it is. Period. For the record, I do not work for Dr. Arvind, nor am I compensated in anyway. Please do not insult me in this fashion. I beleive in BHT and fuller hair restorations.

Pat, BHT works. Yet, there are doctors that suggest that it does not, just because they can not perform it themselves. Even to patients who have virtually no scalp donor. Maybe, you will form a thread with "Ethical issues with these doctors". In your eyes Dr. A is guilty till proven otherwise. Sorry to have to say this. But this is the way it seems to me. Whether Dr. A was aware of the pictures pasted by the webdesigner on his earlier website or not, you have chosen to actually defame a doctor on your site. You have acted as the policeman, lawyer, jury and judge. Why?

A case in point, if you forgot to see, is 69sting's repair HT that was carried out using 5000 FINE body hair grafts. The grafts being transplanted into mostly scar tissue area. This is his picture 9 months after his BHT taken in sunlight. 69sting can actually comb his hair up and back and get photographed in bright sunlight. That is what BHT can accomplish.

Arfy, you are right to a certain point. Full restoration is not possible for most patients, primarily because there are not enough doctors willing to undertake the big BHT question. But is that reason enough to ask people to settle for less? I do not think so. The more people strive for a fuller restoration, the more doctors will be forced to learn and practise it. BHT is not an impossibility. Successful growth has been demonstrated time and again by some doctors. Then again other doctors have not had the same measure of success. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it is early days yet and different doctors probably perform BHT in different manners. A full restoration, if one has sufficient and suitable body hair, is no longer unattainable, in my opinion. Its RARE. But increasingly POSSIBLE.

Finally, there are people getting above 10,000 grafts, albeit with the use of body hair. I think in an years time the graft estimates will have been drastically upgraded. Now, if only there are more doctors learning/performing BHT. 69sting's recent 9 months post 5000 BHT results are enough to amaze the most die hard critic of BHT.

I am a firm beleiver in aiming for full restoration. Therefore, those satisfied with thin combovers may consider me biased. If you think 2000 or so grafts are enough for a NW 5, please skip my post. Else, please read on. When we lose hair and want to do something for it, our deepest desire is a complete or near complete restoration. Not a thin illusion of coverage. Newbies often get fooled by graft estimates that are handed around as if they were gospel truth. Nothing could be farther. All graft estimates over the past few decades have been forwarded to get the unwary started on the road of hair transplants. Graft estimates more often than not reflect upon the limit of the doctor's ability rather than the patient's "requirement". There was a time when people were supposed to feel satisfied with a 1000 graft "megasession". Anyone not satisfied, was supposed to have unrealistic expectations. HTN has contributed in a good way by loading a graft estimator/calculator. It gives some idea of the real numbers needed to reach a bald man's goals. There's another objective method to calculate the real graft requirements. Calculate the sq cms of the area of hair loss and multiply it with 50 grafts per sq cm. For most people with any respectable degree of hair loss (NW5 and above), the numbers will end up being way more than what can be obtained from the scalp donor areas alone. Even over multiple HTs. Given the average huge requirement of grafts, body hair can form a useful adjunct to completing the restoration. I think, the use of body hair should no longer be considered a novelty. More like a necessity, IMO. Doctors (Dr. A & Dr. Woods) have demonstrated on their patients that BHT works in the right hands. What remains is for more doctors to learn the specifics of it. Agreed that it will be always way more work than scalp only HTs. But the follicular unit transplant was similarly lots of work compared to putting plugs. I think if more and more people demand it, we will get more doctors learning and perfecting BHT. I look forward to a day when people will be getting a real full head of hair and the graft estimates will include a proportion of body hair grafts routinely.

I am a firm beleiver in aiming for full restoration. Therefore, those satisfied with thin combovers may consider me biased. If you think 2000 or so grafts are enough for a NW 5, please skip my post. Else, please read on. When we lose hair and want to do something for it, our deepest desire is a complete or near complete restoration. Not a thin illusion of coverage. Newbies often get fooled by graft estimates that are handed around as if they were gospel truth. Nothing could be farther. All graft estimates over the past few decades have been forwarded to get the unwary started on the road of hair transplants. Graft estimates more often than not reflect upon the limit of the doctor's ability rather than the patient's "requirement". There was a time when people were supposed to feel satisfied with a 1000 graft "megasession". Anyone not satisfied, was supposed to have unrealistic expectations. HTN has contributed in a good way by loading a graft estimator/calculator. It gives some idea of the real numbers needed to reach a bald man's goals. There's another objective method to calculate the real graft requirements. Calculate the sq cms of the area of hair loss and multiply it with 50 grafts per sq cm. For most people with any respectable degree of hair loss (NW5 and above), the numbers will end up being way more than what can be obtained from the scalp donor areas alone. Even over multiple HTs. Given the average huge requirement of grafts, body hair can form a useful adjunct to completing the restoration. I think, the use of body hair should no longer be considered a novelty. More like a necessity, IMO. Doctors (Dr. A & Dr. Woods) have demonstrated on their patients that BHT works in the right hands. What remains is for more doctors to learn the specifics of it. Agreed that it will be always way more work than scalp only HTs. But the follicular unit transplant was similarly lots of work compared to putting plugs. I think if more and more people demand it, we will get more doctors learning and perfecting BHT. I look forward to a day when people will be getting a real full head of hair and the graft estimates will include a proportion of body hair grafts routinely.

Even the bad ones have some good results. So, do not turn pessimistic. You may turn out to be their rare good result.

FIT and fue are one and the same. If you can go down to no. 2 and no one comes to know of your scar, then its not much point to try to go for fue'ing the scar in total. Much better you get it broken down. Grafts placed intermittently so that there is no tell tale straight linear scar.

I think it is very important that you see a Dermatologist, who does NOT perform hair transplants. Let him evaluate your condition. Maybe perform a biopsy. It seems extreme caution is called for, since you always had the bald spot but have now noticed fine hair growth after massaging the area. A HT doctor may not be the best person to consult as the first step. A dermatopathologist would be. Whatever you do, be doubly careful.

Did not spend nothing compared to you people, but then I guess that is because of the locational advantage I have. Joke- Go for a german car, a french cook, an Indian wife and an american paycheck. Do not go for a german cook, a french car, an Indian paycheck and an american wife. Now, if only the Chinese communist party took more interest in HTs, we may have the next HT revolution.

I do not think you are losing hair that were transplanted. Seems to me that you may be developing sebaceous deposits in the pits created following HT (happens in some transplants). Just a thought.

Lateral slits are supposed to give a more natural and dense result, because the pressure does not accumulate resulting in graft popping etc. Vertical slits may often result in the hair standing - pointing to the skies. I had all my graft placed in coronal incisions, a variant of the lateral slits.

Have you tried some smaller or lighter weaves? They give you an amount of freedom. I doubt you will get the sort of density with ahir transplants that you are used to with your wig/weave.

I disagree with you in some respects. Let me put it this way. A few years down the line as more doctors start providing bht, you may be faced with 2 choices. Treat only the hairline and forget the rest. Or treat the hair loss to the fullest extent possible. With generous use of body hair, of course. I think there will be very few who will settle for the first option. Right now, body hairtransplants are in their early stages. But I speak from personal experience. Body hair grows and does not look unnatural. Body hair grows in the hands of the right doctors. Unfortunately, as yet, there are too few of them doctors. So, in a strange way, you may be right. You go to your nearest hair transplant doctor and most probably your body hair may not grow.

I suggest u wait.Do a bit more research. If you are a nw3, you may lose more hair over period of time. What if you end up a nw6. With 2000 grafts already used up for your hairline where do you get more grafts to fill the very large void behind. Always consider the worst possible scenario when starting off with your first hair transplant.

If there are too many minis, and they are properly angled, you may do well to get fu grafts filled all round them. No point trying to increase the surgical trauma. If the minis are improperly directed, best to have them excised. They can be used, after dissection, as individual follicular units. Can u post a picture to show what they look like?

Try using a steroid based lotion for the recipient area redness after consulting your doctor. I have heard of redness lingering in some people. Post operative sunexposure may be a cause. Whatever the cause, I have not heard of the redness being permanent. Whysoever did you go for only 500 grafts?

The past few weeks, I have seen a plethora of posts for and against body hair transplants and donor sealing. I have shared my experience and pictures previously. I do not like to participate in the rampant politics that goes on in these and other forums. So, I will not talk about the recent controversies. But I want to talk about some facts relating to body hair transplants. Many are aware of my history. As you know, I am in favor of complete hair restorations, not half way measures. I am, therefore, also in favour of body hair transplants. That is because there is no other feasible method, as of today, that can give a person anywhere near as many grafts that he wants. The 2 big questions when it comes to body hair transplants are - Yeild and Donor area scarring. Donor area scarring is an issue that is presently being discussed. So, I will like to share my experience and thoughts. I am not a doctor, so all I state is only from what I have experienced and seen in myself and some other patients and what I have read up. Here goes. -Patients should consider their skin type/color. Whether they are white or colored. Do they plan to tan their skin? -Nobody says that there will be no body donor scarring. All you have is doctors trying to minimize/eliminate the visible scarring. There will be,specially if you have a colored skin, hyperpigmentation, redness and maybe brownish spots for months. They will take time to fade. In my case, the first time the chest hair were extracted, I had brownish raised spots. They persisted for months. But at the 1 year post op mark, I examined the area very carefully. I could not make out any spot or raised areas. I know another patient. He noticed a complete resolution in as little as 6 months. I do not know why he had a better response than me. I also noticed that the 2nd time I had my chest hair grafts taken, the healing process completed in just 8 months. I do not know whether it was due to a different chest area that was chosen or some other factor. I had grafts taken from my abdomen and my pubic areas too. Donor sealing was performed on the abdomen but not in the pubic areas. However, the visible healing proceeded along similar lines.I noticed hyperpigmentation (brownish discoloration) in both the areas as well as raised areas. Ultimately, they became level and skin colored. I do not think that the hyperpigmentation or the raised areas has any correlation to donor sealing. I had a few grafts taken out from where the donor sealant fell off. That was from my forearm. The donor sites again followed a similar course. The hyperpigmentation was a bit more. Maybe because the arm was exposed to sunlight. But even today, more than a year later, those donor sites are visible as white spots. I do not know for sure why the armpit and the pubic areas did not develop white spots even though no donor sealant was applied to them, but the forearm did. The only reason I can think of is that the armpit and the pubic area donor sites closed on their own because of the skin being lax in those areas. The forearm skin could not close by itself because it was not lax. Now, after my most recent bht, a mere 2 and a half months ago, I notice a remarkably faster resolution in the donor sites. I see things happening this time round at 2 month mark, that previously happened at the 6 month mark. Is it due to the new non punch method used by Dr. A? I can not answer for sure. What I do know is that the body donor extraction sites healed and became non visible, the first time round as well as the second time round. The only problem I ever faced was with the few donor sites on the forearm, where the donor sealant fell off. Now when I see all sort of speculations going around, I think it is apt to remind people that there as as many as 3 generation of bht extraction methods. 1st generation being where the donor extraction are punch based as well as no donor sealant is applied. 2nd generation being where the extractions are punch based but donor sealant is applied. 3rd generation is where the non punch methods are being used (with and without donor sealant depending on the areas in question). If the 1st generation methods are used for extractions, and the patient is not very fair, the resultant white spots will stand out. To say that since the doctors performing the 3rd generation extraction methods are not using donor sealant in certain cases and donor locations, so the 1st generation techniques do not require it, is irresponsible and dangerous. My experience, for all that it is worth.

I second that. I think some moderators forget that they are moderator and end up creating and supporting a hoodlum force of posters with a particular agenda. There are some good things in all forums and some bad ones. I hope this forum retains and magnifies its good qualities. Since its alright, the other forums are hairlosshelp (the one I find too agenda filled and dictatorial), hairsite, hairlosstalk and (if u know german) alopezie.de