questions

[thinkingaboutit]

I have made an appointment for consult w/ Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Rose in Minnesota on the 19th of July.I am excited and looking forward to it. I hope to also meet w/ Dr. Cooley sometime this summer and in so doing I will know that I will have done my DD and will have met with 3 of the best, perhaps the best in the profession.

 

I appreciate this board and all the posters. It is your consul and information that has helped direct me to who I am sure are the best practitioners and if I decide to go ahead with the procedure given the many undesireable complications that could result, I will know that it is not because I was taken in and victimized by some Scharlatan Group.

 

Still, I am apprehensive about the procedure itself and am not yet convinced that it has evolved to a level of quality to yield consistently beneficial results.So I will continue to ask this board for help with questions that you might consider,...stupid.

 

Is the texture of transplanted hair different from other hair?

 

Would I have to be as equally careful about how I style my hair after a transplant ( to hide or disguise flaws ) as I do now to cover receeding areas?

 

Are the numbers of corrective procedures being performed to fix old punch graft procedures or are there an equally large number being done to fix total FUT procedures?

[thinkingaboutit]

I have made an appointment for consult w/ Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Rose in Minnesota on the 19th of July.I am excited and looking forward to it. I hope to also meet w/ Dr. Cooley sometime this summer and in so doing I will know that I will have done my DD and will have met with 3 of the best, perhaps the best in the profession.

 

I appreciate this board and all the posters. It is your consul and information that has helped direct me to who I am sure are the best practitioners and if I decide to go ahead with the procedure given the many undesireable complications that could result, I will know that it is not because I was taken in and victimized by some Scharlatan Group.

 

Still, I am apprehensive about the procedure itself and am not yet convinced that it has evolved to a level of quality to yield consistently beneficial results.So I will continue to ask this board for help with questions that you might consider,...stupid.

 

Is the texture of transplanted hair different from other hair?

 

Would I have to be as equally careful about how I style my hair after a transplant ( to hide or disguise flaws ) as I do now to cover receeding areas?

 

Are the numbers of corrective procedures being performed to fix old punch graft procedures or are there an equally large number being done to fix total FUT procedures?

[terry mitchell]

Thinkingaboutit, obviously you have been doing your homework. As to your first concern, transplanted hair, over a period of months, should thicken and not be discernable from your pre- op hair. I'm 8 mos. post-op and my transplanted hair has thickened considerably. I have had favorable comments about my hairline from people who did'nt know I had a ht. As to your second concern, if you have a competent Dr. do your surgery, you may not have anything to disguise. My opinion on repair surgeries: I think most repair work today involves less than state of the art procedures and shoddy work by less than competent docs. These are only my opinions. My advice: Go with the best. Good luck to you. Terry.

[Smoothy]

If this is your first and your going to Shapiro, your hair will be just like your orginal in texture (initially first 6 months it might be a little more "stiff" but with good conditioner it evens with the orginal hair in after 6 months.

YOu will have to style your hair to cover/camoflauge the surgery for the first 3-4 weeks-after that the pinkness should be gone.

Yes most of the corective procedures are from older techniques not microscopic disection FU's like Shapiro uses.

Best of luck as you are using one of the Best-- nobody will ever know you had a HT>>>

[arfy]

Is the texture of transplanted hair different from other hair?

It is different than the existing hair in the balding zone. Transplanted hair is typically coarser than the hair that was replaced. In some cases it's an issue, in some cases it's not an issue. The hair you may still have up top is probably thin and fine, while the transplanted hair from the back of your head is sturdy and coarse. A very few handfull of doctors know how to convincingly simulate the soft transitions of the hairline. From what I hear, Dr Shapiro is one of the few. I don't recall hearing ANY complaints about his work... ever.

 

Would I have to be as equally careful about how I style my hair after a transplant ( to hide or disguise flaws ) as I do now to cover receeding areas?

Yes, that is pretty much the routine. People who say you can "style your hair any way you want" are full of crap. Sure, go ahead and style your hair any way you want, you may look terrible but you styled it the way you wanted to, right? You will most certainly pick a hairstyle that conceals and covers the maximum amount.

 

Remember that a transplant only simulates coverage, it doesn't restore a full head of hair. The only guys with massive amounts of hair after a transplant, are the guys who barely had any hair loss to begin with... in which case their decision to get a transplant is often questionable in the first place. MOST guys will pick a sensible hair style that gives good "layover" and covers the most. It's probably the style you went into the clinic wearing, but hopefully better in the end (since you are probably currently styling your hair using that strategy). If you have specific desires and goals for styling, then you need to discuss this with the doctor before surgery (before signing up for surgery, ideally). You can probably forget about radical spiky hairstyles, extremely short hair, parting your hair down the middle, and so on. Think COVERAGE.

 

A successful transplant for many guys will end up looking like they have "some" hair loss, but they managed to halt it, and if the doctor is especially good then hopefully nobody knows it was a transplant. Most doctors are NOT especially good and their work looks like a transplant, to anyone who is not walking around with their head in the clouds. You're on the right track with Shapiro.

 

Are the numbers of corrective procedures being performed to fix old punch graft procedures or are there an equally large number being done to fix total FUT procedures?

 

Most doctors are NOT doing all FUT transplants. The big hair mills like Bosley, MHR, PAI and NuHart put FU grafts in the front, and mostly Minigrafts everywhere else. Their "logic" is that only the hairline needs to look totally natural. Sorry but in my opinion the WHOLE HEAD needs to look natural. Clinics love to use a lot of Minigrafts because it's faster, so they can crank out more guys that way. Try to find a clinic that uses all microscopically-dissected FU grafts, where you are the only patient the doctor works on that day. You don't want a clinic that cuts corners, for speed's sake.

 

LOTS of guys with Minigrafts are going in for repair work. Obviously guys with the big plugs want repair work too. The transplants that look most natural are the all-FU transplants. I hear that on some guys, Shapiro will use a small smattering of Minis to create certain zones of extra density (ask him, I am curious). This is totally different than the approximately 70% Minigrafts 30% FU graft tranplants that the chain clinics use.

 

My recommendation is to request "all-FUs" (and of course, NEVER get a strip excision transplant at a place that doesn't use stereo microscopes to dissect the grafts). FU grafts look more natural than Minigrafts. The single MOST important thing is that the grafts look natural, and that's even more important than "coverage". If your grafts don't look natural you're in deep trouble!!!