Al - Moderator

There are several factors other than which Dr to go to that can affect how many grafts you can get on a 2nd procedure. 1. The amount of grafts taken on the first procedure. It's going to be less likely to get a large number of grafts on a 2nd procedure if you had 4500+ grafts taken on the first procedure than if you had 3000 or less grafts on the first procedure. 2. Scalp elasticity. Some guys have tighter scalps and aren't going to get as many grafts than someone with a lot of elasticity and loose skin. 3. the width of the first scar. Since the Dr has to cut out the previous scar you will get less grafts if the scar is wide than if the scar is very thin because with a wide scar he will be extracting more scar and less grafts.

If the Dr is telling you that he thinks the scar may be too deep for FUE to grow plus you want to put a few grafts in other areas then I think the best thing to do is excise the scar and take a small amount of good hair with it to use as the grafts for you eye brows.

Do not get a second scar unless absolutely necessary due to improper placement of the first scar and even then you should try to use as much of the first scar as possible and only veer off of it in places where necessary. I'm guessing that you were told something like: We can get 2500 grafts if we go along the existing scar, but we can get 3000 if we create a new scar below it. If that's the case then go for the 2500 grafts along the original scar. DO NOT CREATE A NEW SCAR. Two reasons why you should not create a new scar: 1. It will be harder to hide the scars because you will have two of them. You basically doubled the amount of scar area. 2. What happens if you eventually need a 3rd hair transplant? Where will you get the grafts from? The best, "safe zone" hair to use would be the hair between the two scars, but you can't excise the first scar and use hair just below that because you will be running into the lower scar creating one very wide scar. If you excise the lower scar and use hair below that you could be getting into the nape area that may be experiencing some retrograde which makes that hair unusable. Go for the lower graft count and use the first scar.

You are not currently shaving our head. It's the men who have buzzed or shaved heads that have a much tougher decision to make because if they don't get enough coverage they were OK with shaving it if they had to and they'd rather shave than only have partial coverage. If buzzing/shaving is not something you want to do then the decision becomes much easier. With the frontal half filled in with hair you will look much better than you do now even if you don't get the crown done. If you are thinking that you may shave it down if it gets worse then you should try that first before making a decision to see if you can easily deal with that. If that look is not for you then get the transplant.

I like that you created a small widows peak in the center. It gives it a more natural look than if the hairline just went straight across.

During my FUTs years ago the area just above my ears is where I had a dull pain on and off for a long time. Most of the time it wasn't much of an issue, but It would come on if I tapped the area with my finger and if I really bumped my head anywhere I'd get a searing pain in that area above and towards the back of my ears. It took a long time for that to go away.

The front half is almost all transplanted hair now. You probably have been losing any remaining native hair over time and that's why it is thinner, so I wouldn't worry much about permanent shock loss in the front half since that should almost all be good, strong transplanted hair. I'd probably opt for putting 2000 grafts throughout the front half into the mid scalp and scatter 1000 throughout the crown. With only 1000 spread out in the crown your chances for a lot of shock loss there are much lower than if you put 2000 there. Even though 1000 in a crown isn't much it will make sure you aren't completely bald there if you continue losing native crown hair over the years and can't (or just don't) get any more work done. This is just my opinion and probably what I would opt for (although I don't know any other details) if it was me. You could also go for a smaller 2000 graft session with 1000 in the front half and 1000 in the back which will give you some extra grafts for future use.

If you are considering doing half now and then going back in a few months to finish the second half then you should ask about having donor only taken from only one side on the first procedure and then use the other side for the 2nd procedure. The reason to do this would be because if the entire donor is used in the first procedure, donor area shock loss could make it not possible or practical to do another round until the hair lost from shock grows back which could take 9 months or more.

I had this happen to me a few times. Usually it's just a few grafts. I think there are several different scenarios. This is my opinion based on having many hair transplants, but I'm not 100% sure of these. 1. Some of them will just suddenly start to grow after about 6 months to a year. I think these are the ones that never shed in the first place and just hang around. 2. Some of them will eventually shed on their own after 6 months to a year and then a new hair will start growing soon after. It's as if they wait until the next hair cycle to kick into normal growth 3. Some will hang around and never grow even after a year. At this point you should try plucking a few out with a tweezers and see what happens and take a close look at them. If they come out very easy and you see the root end bent upwards then this is a dead graft that the root got bent or ruined during implantation or perhaps it never had an intact follicle and was never a good graft to begin with. If it takes some effort to pull it out and the end looks normal then it is probably a good graft that just got stuck in the healing process. This one will probably grow a new normal hair soon.

Looks like it's growing in very well.

If it really is stress related hair loss then a hair transplant won't work. You need to eliminate the stress. However without knowing any additional information and reading that it has lasted for 4 years or more I will say that odds are that it is not stress related and is male pattern baldness. Instead of stopping minoxidil you should think about adding finisteride.

Gatsby, How much hair loss did you have when you had your first hair transplant? What would you change? Would you go with the hair piece sooner than you did?

It looks rather normal to me. A lot of people's hair is thinner above the ears than it is elsewhere.

Right, so you are transplanting twice as I said. I don't mean you are moving the same hair twice. You are taking hair from the donor area and transplanting it to the top/front. Then you are taking body hair and transplanting it to the donor to replace the donor hair you removed earlier. It just seems to me like you would be much better off not taking so much donor hair in the first place and just transplanting the body hair to the top/front. If you're worried that the body hair may not grow then what happens if it doesn't grow in the donor area that you depleted? Wouldn't you be worse off in that case? For someone who didn't purposely deplete their donor area, but end up overly depleted anyway then yes, I'd use body hair to increase the donor area hair, but I wouldn't have a plan to purposely deplete the donor area and then replace it with body hair. Just use the body hair as the donor.

Everyone always says gray hair hides the thinning better if you have light skin since there is less contrast, but I always see the opposite on myself. When I let my hair start getting too much gray I look much more bald.

I don't see any scarring, so that's a very good thing. You placed the removed grafts into the current hairline and back a bit is that right? If so then that area should thicken up over the next few months and it should all look excellent by then.

Yes! Exactly what I'm saying. Thank you. However JayLDD insists that #2 can not be possible and I'm simply pointing out that he is wrong. And while he won't believe me unless I can somehow prove it while insisting any of my proof doesn't count, he hasn't even tried to prove his side at all.

Wow. Getting some extra benefits than just adding hair. Not a bad place to be.

Then go back to the top of this thread and look at the pasted thread of azza. You guys are misunderstanding me. I'm not against hair transplants. Yes you are right if I was 22 today and having it done now it would be much better. I've stated that in other places on this board. All I'm saying is JayLDD is wrong when he says NW 7s can be knwon early on in the balding process by looking at their hair. That's all. Let's do it this way. Would you agree that when I was 12 or 13 I had thick hair with no miniaturization? If so then what about when I started noticing a thin spot in my crown. Do you think I suddenly had miniaturized hair throughout the entire NW 7 zone at 15? How about this. Let's take a guy who has a miniaturized frontal hairline of maybe 2 or 3 centimeters with thin wispy hair. Do you think all men who have that have miniaturization throughout their entire top and crown? If they don't then how do they lose more hair later if you can only lose hair where it's miniaturized from the very beginning of hairloss? Here's another one. Almost everyone who is 80+ years old has miniaturiztion and thinning in the donor area. How can they have that if they didn't have it at 30 when they had a hair transplant for just a receding hair line and it's still holding up? This one should make it pretty obvious that JayLDD must be wrong and miniaturization can occur later.

I never said everyone was going to be a NW 7. I'm not against hair transplants. I don't post on here telling everyone they shouldn't get one because it doesn't work. Sure I tell a few people my opinion that they should not get one for various reasons like maybe they still have too much hair, maybe they are already NW 6 and are happy shaving but want hair and think they can get all their hair back, etc. but that's pretty normal for anyone here who has been dealing with hair loss and hair transplants for a while and tries to give honest opinions. My only argument in this thread is about how hairloss occurs in NW 7s. You think it must be able to be known very early on if the Dr checked for miniaturization and I disagree and think you can't always tell early on because just because the pattern seems well defined it may not stay that way. That's basically it. I was not arguing at all about how many people will become a NW 7. In fact you were the one saying it's nearly impossible for anyone to get there which I also think is wrong. What I was disagreeing with you on is you claiming that azza must have had underlying medical conditions to end up NW 7 with thinning sides in his early 30s. We are all dealing with hair loss. Just because someone is losing hair faster and more severe than you are does not mean he has some other medical conditions. It means he has more aggressive hair loss than you.

This is really looking awesome. It's a huge difference from where you started.

I hated wearing a hair system. I felt like I had a mop on my head and always felt like it looked fake even if it looked great that day. There was a constant feeling that the edges or hairline was showing. It made me sick to my stomach anytime someone looked at me. I was 20 years old, but I felt like a 45 year old bald man with a toupe. It was a horrible feeling. If I was starting over and had to wear a hair system I would transplant the front and wear a hair system for the crown. That's the only was I can picture myself being able to actually lie with it because that would at least make the front look and actually be real hair.

Cool. Good to know. Thanks.

JayLDD, Here is the one I was looking for. You can see from the hair that was transplanted years earlier that he wasn't a NW 7 at the time. It looks like he was maybe a NW 5, but his bald area greatly increased in size over time eventually making him a NW 7, but according to you it's not possible to be a NW 5 and then become a NW 7 later. Oh and look he still has hair on his sides and back. How can that be? It can't be true because you never saw this in real life. Maybe you just aren't looking. Here's a question for you. How many NW 7 men have you tracked their hair loss since when they were teenagers? Oh and look. This man was able to get more grafts even though it's not possible according you you because his hair would be too miniaturized.

JayLDD, So you're saying these guys don't exist. I'm posting pics of two different men I just found by doing an internet search who had hair transplants years ago and which you can obviously see that the area expanded and they still have hair on the sides and back. There are plenty of men that this has happened to and a lot of them have gone back years later and gotten more grafts to fill in the expanded areas, but according to you it's not possible because they wouldn't have thick enough hair in the donor area to do it because they HAD to be thinning in the donor area if they end up with a larger pattern than they had at some point earlier. Melvin posted a picture of an example of this just recently and I wish I could find it. Melvin! Help me out!