Multiple Smaller sessions

[micga]

One of my concerns is the post operation expierience. I really do not want people knowing what I did. Wife, close friends fine but collegues, etc.. no! I am a NW 3 about and I would say to give me the appearance of having no hairlosss at all, about 2000 grafts would do it. However, I was thinking of just doing two 500 graft procedures. One at a time. My expectations are not to gain a full head of hair but basically to improve my appearance by say 20-30%. Therfore, if I do 500 grafts each time and take 2 weeks off from work, nobody should know I had anything done. I realize it is more cost effective to do megasessions. By doing a smaller session first, one can see how it turns out instead of doing a big session that turns out bad that can not be covered up. 500 grafts is easy to cover up if it goes bad and it is less likely anyone will notice you had anything done.

 

Thoughts?

[micga]

One of my concerns is the post operation expierience. I really do not want people knowing what I did. Wife, close friends fine but collegues, etc.. no! I am a NW 3 about and I would say to give me the appearance of having no hairlosss at all, about 2000 grafts would do it. However, I was thinking of just doing two 500 graft procedures. One at a time. My expectations are not to gain a full head of hair but basically to improve my appearance by say 20-30%. Therfore, if I do 500 grafts each time and take 2 weeks off from work, nobody should know I had anything done. I realize it is more cost effective to do megasessions. By doing a smaller session first, one can see how it turns out instead of doing a big session that turns out bad that can not be covered up. 500 grafts is easy to cover up if it goes bad and it is less likely anyone will notice you had anything done.

 

Thoughts?

[gillenator]

Hi Micga,

 

Welcome to the HTN forum! Well you certainly make some good points about doing smaller sessions. Yes, there are a fair amount of folks who prefer a "slower" transition in their restoration without producing any dramatic changes to their appearance. It is a matter of personal choice.

 

You should not be taking any real risks however if you chose a competent proven HT doctor and you do not have any other medical condition which would preclude you from success. Also, be sure your scalp is always tested for adequate laxity between procedures.

 

What about the potential of future hairloss? Are you on Propecia (finasteride)? If you continue to lose natural hair, you will need more procedures in the future. Best wishes to you!

[HairBeThere]

micga,

 

Don't put yourself through 2 procedures. If you are taking 2 weeks off of work, go for 1000 grafts.

 

There is camofluage that you can buy to hide the redness. Dermamatch, and Prothick should do it.

 

Also, styling your hair different, and tanning for a few weeks prior will also help.

 

I would not recommend going for only 500 grafts, because you will pretty much have the same amount of redness with 500 and 1000.

 

After 2 weeks, all scabs should be gone. So there really isn't anything that should stand out without a little camo. if needed, telling people what you did.

[hairworthy]

I have to agree with HBT, don't put yourself through this twice if you think you can achieve what you want in one go. It is still surgery and you have the pre-op, the stress of the op, the post-op, the long wait for results... do yourself a favour and get your 1000.

 

As HBT says, whatever the number, there won't be much difference during the weeks imediately following the HT. I had over 3000 FUs and nobody ever noticed anything (including my mum) BUT I was wearing a baseball cap for the 1st 4 to 5 weeks, which everyone took as some new fashion. As for my wife, she knew beforehand. I don't think I would have been able to hide it from her anyway: I had severe shock loss in the donor area, my scar was showing and so were the staples. Hard to hide all that especially with your hair wet. My kids didn't notice though.

 

Finally, there's no way to know how your own scalp will react, and the kind of redness/swelling/shock loss you'll actually have, whatever the number of grafts. It also depends on the doc and the method used. I've had 2 HTs with 2 different docs... and 2 completely different reactions!

 

Good luck anyway.

[Smoothy]

Micga-

Welcome. First you make valid pts that alot of patietns consider-- including myself when I started 15 yrs ago. First if you need a lot of grafts say 3,000+-which you said you dont, only 2,000-- then it might make since given your reasons to have 2 seperate 1500 graft sessions. But I would not have 3 seperate 500 grafts sessions not because of reciepent area which will do fine and be the same regardless of the number of procedures but for the donor area-- the more scar tissue the more tramua to your permant hair.

I myself took the conservative route and started HT before I started going bald (just thinnig) in order to avoid people for noticing and it worked having several procedures over the years-- but 500 session is really too small and in my opinion not worth it unless it is done FUE without strip.

My suggestion would be to consult a TOP NOTCH surgeon and get some opinions given your goals. If you really want multiple procedures and you only need 2,000 FU, I would go for two 1,000 grafts procedures instead of 3- 500.

With todays FU and lateral slit technology you will not be able to tell anything was done 7-10 days after surgery. My last one was 1500 FU along frontal 1/3rd, and after 5 days the scabs were gone, after 7 days only a little redness and after 10 days 99.9% unnoticable. (the key is to get on the meds, follow pre/post op directions and use GraftCyte for 10 days)

Best of luck.

[gillenator]

Micga,

 

Is a slower transition in density or new hair growth part of your concern? In other words are you trying to subtlely add more hair a little at a time so no one notices a more dramatic increase in your appearance?

 

I have worked with several patients who held high visual/public positions and insisted on smaller sessions for a more gradual appearance transition. Some of them wanted to spread the sessions out over several years, to insure no detection and I am not referring to post-op redness, swelling, etc. Just appearance in coverage.

[Ailene]

The best thing to do is to go to a few consults and get a recommendation from a physician as to what you truly need.

 

It has already been mentioned but future hair loss must be considered. Propecia can very effectively help to thicken the top and crown. It will not "regrow" frontal hair but will help preserve it. Preserving the existing hair in the recipient area and also the donor hair need to be accessed.

 

One important aspect that has not been addressed is that certainly you can opt for several transplants to make the transition very subtle but this can compromise the recipient area to a degree. Even using small needles for the incisions there is still some trauma to the recipient zone. The point is that your first transplant into "virgin" skin is always the best result.

 

Actually if you have existing hair the healing is very unnoticable usually. The scabs are ready to shed by the 7 day mark and we always offer the patient the option of coming in at this point for a "clean up". This is where we debride the area of the skin, scabs and anything that needs to come off. Most people really like this. Mostly if they truly soak their heads and do daily shampoo's the scabs will almost be gone on there own.

 

Another point is that the cost of a small procedure is always a little more. The healing time is however, the same. Not sure if that is a good trade.

 

Hope this helps! Good luck!!

 

Ailene

Dr. Jerry Cooley's assistant

[micga]

Thank you all for your very usefull information. I think I will opt for the 1000 graft procedure. The main reason being that the post op redeness, swelling, etc are virtually the same whether I do 500 or 1000 grafts so why not just do the 1000.

 

Can you guys give me feedback as to how long after surgery the scalp will look as though nothing had been done (redness, swelling, etc)?

 

What is the lateral slit technique?

 

Thnaks