How easily can a HT be spotted?

[el guapo]

There has been some interesting discussions regarding HT detectability on other forums lately.

Thought I'd get your opinions on this:

(Only for those who have had HT)

 

When looking at the photos presented by doctors, most HT's look exactly like real hair. Those that have met HT patients and inspected the results up close usually say that the photos lie.

And even if the good HT's are great they do look fake on close inspection.

 

Have any of you HT patients here noticed this?

Have people asked you if you have a HT?

 

What if your girlfriend would pull her hand through your hairline.

Would she notice?

[el guapo]

There has been some interesting discussions regarding HT detectability on other forums lately.

Thought I'd get your opinions on this:

(Only for those who have had HT)

 

When looking at the photos presented by doctors, most HT's look exactly like real hair. Those that have met HT patients and inspected the results up close usually say that the photos lie.

And even if the good HT's are great they do look fake on close inspection.

 

Have any of you HT patients here noticed this?

Have people asked you if you have a HT?

 

What if your girlfriend would pull her hand through your hairline.

Would she notice?

[Bill - Seemiller]

el quapo,

 

I doubt that the hair transplant novice would be able to spot a quality hair transplant even from close up IMO. I also doubt that your girlfriend would notice if she ran her fingers through your hair.

 

Of course a lot of this depends on the quality of the transplant (which would come from the quality of the physician), the density, it's naturalness, etc.

 

People who have a trained eye know exactly what to look for and may be able to spot even a quality hair transplant however those eyes that are trained are those who have received hair transplantation themselves.

 

Bill

[MrJobi]

Ditto here.

 

If you would have asked me how the results would have turned out I was cautiously optimisitc. At 5 months plus post op from #3 , I am absolutely amazed on the overall naturalness. It is honestly better than my original hair as when the doctors create the illusion of density, the hair is strategically "textured or thinned" which makes my hair (wavy and a bit coarse) managable

 

 

No way someone could spot it unless they studied my hair for about 5 minutes or so . I think wavy or curly hair assists in this

[Guest wanthairs]

hey man...

 

Im 4 months post op with my hair cropped down to a 0.5 noone on earth would be able to tell i had a hari transplant by looking at the hair. Now when they see the scar, thats another thing but I dont care abotu that being shown. The results so far, which are probably at about 30% look ONE THOUSAND percent natural.

[el guapo]

Thats great news.

 

I am considering FUE/FIT with Feller or Cole sometime after Xmas.

 

How long do you guys think I should plan to "hide".

 

I am just concerned about the naturalness cause I have yet to see a good HT in person and I am a bit worrie its gonna look like crap.

I have medium thin blonde hair, NW4

[its752]

el guapo, I bet you could accidently expose your HT, like I did, and others are'nt even paying attention and they could care less! Just wear a hat anyway so your grafted area doesn't get sunburned. Nobody will ask-- 100% guaranteed or I'll pay for your HT.

[el guapo]

its752

 

Great I'll take you up on that, 4000 FUE with Dr Armani coming up

 

Michaellovesnyc:

 

In what way is it noticable?

Is it because the hairs are different at that stage or due to redness etc?

 

Can you guys slick your hair straight back and it still looks natural?

[stillhere]

Never had a problem before, people just look at me differently now that I actually have a hairline, but they don't say anything, it looks and feels real, because it is real, not the same density, but no one will ever wonder if it's a transplant, not even the scar is noticable.

[Guest deed-is-done]

el guapo,

I am 14 month post op. In my experience, the first 3 months I did a combover, which no one can see my transplanted area. Then, after my redness faded and my new hair started to grow, I cut all my hair short and presented my new self. Absolutely no one noticed as far as I can tell. I went to several hair stylists and no one commented at all (not even the scar line). When I look closely at myself, I can no longer tell which is transplanted and which is natural. The only thing is maybe the HT hair is thinner (I think I have about 40 graft per cm).

 

I can assure you, a good HT is 99.99% undetectable unless you go from a Bruce Willis look to a Brad Pitt look. And even then, ppl will notice only because they remembered how you looked.

 

deed-is-done

[youngsuccess]

And you are already starting off with one advantage: because you have blond hair, there should be less contrast between your skin color and the transplanted hair, which could make it even more undetectable, especially in the hairline.

[Guest]

El Guapo

 

I noticed you want to go with Fue(which I am also looking into), have you had any consultations? If so, how many grafts are you going for?

[el guapo]

Hi tb

 

I have sent my photos to some Dr's.

Feller and Cole.

I have seen Woods in person as well.

 

Woods thinks I need about 1500 for a conservative hairline.

 

Feller and Cole I am still waiting to hear back from.

I believe that 3000 is more realistic.

 

I have to say I did like Woods and his no nonsense approach.

He is possibly the best, he is certtainly the most experienced.

Very pricy though.

[calvinmd]

Pick anyone you know, brother, friend, GF, whatever.

 

Now, do you think you could correctly pick their hairline out of a lineup of hairlines in similar colors & shapes?

 

No way in hell.

 

 

Nobody really notices the finer details of hairlines but us. When it comes to the hairline quality, just go to a good doc and make sure to get at least 1/2 original density and single-hair grafts there. The hairline will be undetectable as long as the rest of your head doesn't give the HTs away with a lack of density or something.

 

 

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[TheHairLossCure]

Good HT work should be undetectable, even on close inspection.

 

Pictures do lie sometimes, but this is more in terms of density. If you have substantial hair loss, you can only realistically build higher density in limited areas (hairline, frontal 1/3). In other areas of the scalp, there may be only a dusting of grafts for light coverage. Interestingly, light coverage can look quiet full in certain light or with certain styles. When this is captured in a still image, a picture can lie. The opposite is true too; a thick plant can be made to look thin in certain situations.

 

Still, I feel that naturalness is conquerable and should be your expectation. You just need to be picky about your doc.

[calvinmd]

I agree.

 

Bad hairlines gave away a lot of bad HTs in previous decades. But these days, the hairlines from any of the top docs are good enough to no longer be the giveaway.

 

At this point in the top-doc HT world, IMHO you're better off splurging on the frontal density than the hairline work itself. Strong density and a mediocre hairline seems to usually look a lot better overall than a weak frontal density that's paired with even the best hairline.

 

 

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[Ryan32]

Originally posted by Michaellovesnyc:

No one; ABSOLUELY NO ONE, ever spotted my HT or even my "scar line". Not one barber ever suspected it and I went to several barbers. Even when I attempted to show them the scar line, no one could see it. No one ever suspected that I had it done. They thought that it had grown by some magic. I purposely made escuses not to see some people, including my family, for six months. Everyone commented on how much weight I lost and how good I looked but no one ever realized I had a HT. When I told people they could not believe it and everyone touched my hair to see if they could feel a difference. You have to go to a good doctor to get these type of results. I have a blog where you can see the results including close up pictures.

 

Needless to say, anyone that didn't know me never knew until I told them and you simply can not tell the difference. There is no difference since it is your own hair anyway.

 

My operations:

 

Dr. Feller

2500 Grafts January 2006

2100 Grafts August 2007(Not shown yet in blog)

 

 

 

Scars though are a bit different. Most people have no idea what they are from. The true test is like what you said, that barbers who deal with hair all day cannot notice or tell the difference! Sounds like your HT was a great success!

[Ryan32]

Originally posted by wanthairs:

hey man...

 

Im 4 months post op with my hair cropped down to a 0.5 noone on earth would be able to tell i had a hari transplant by looking at the hair. Now when they see the scar, thats another thing but I dont care abotu that being shown. The results so far, which are probably at about 30% look ONE THOUSAND percent natural.

 

 

 

Nice job! I would not worry to much about the scar. You can always make up a good story for that. The real deal is with the result. That is what makes a good HT and makes you happy about the product per say.

[troy]

its been a while since Ive been on here. I documented my first year pretty good in my blog. im coming up on 2 years since my HT dec 1st. I wondered prior to having a ht, would anyone know how real would it look. To date noone has ever known and Ive dated a bucket load of women in the last year and a half, maybe 30- I have recieved lots of compliments. My one friend said "we are lucky we stay in shape and have a full head of hair" noone has a clue. Ive lots of girls play with my hair, its thin I have very fine hair but it looks like a full head of hair. Having a ht was the best thing ever for me.

[el guapo]

Troy

 

>Your HT look very good.

On the other hand you were barely thinning before..

 

My hairloss is a bit more substantial, a NW4 at least with thinning all over the top.

 

To me it seems as if the good results are from those with minimal loos wether those who have lost more get average see-through hair.

 

Any Nw4-5s here with undetectable HTs?

[scooping around]

Like others have mentioned, nobody really cares about your hair, even if you're balding. I'm 27 and work with a bunch of guys in their early twenties, and occasionally they make fun of my bald spots(I'm 3 months post op). Prior to the surgery it'd offend me slightly, but now I just laugh it off with them because I know it'll only be a matter of time before the new hair starting to thicken up. One of the guys even suggested me to get a HT jokingly, after staring at my bald spot from about 1 foot away...so I'm pretty comfortable that it's undetectable.

If you go to the Photo Album section you'll find my album, and I'm around a NW4-5, but the pics only show up to a 1.5 month post op progress...I'll be posting my 3.5 month progress soon.

[Gorpy]

NW-4 here. I don't think my HT is detectable, other than the fact that I have a lot more hair now. It causes some strange stares from people that knew me pre HT, but I'm confident it's from just having a bunch more hair than before. Everything looks very natural to me.

 

There really is nothing detectable about this HT. You could inspect all you want and it would not be obvious to you. Is there a level of thinness? Yes (It's not as thick as my native hair). But over-all it's pretty thick and gives me a good look.

 

 

Look here to see my pre-HT look.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Gorpy,

 

Looking good my friend!

 

Bill

[TheHairLossCure]

Gorpy,

 

I second Bill - very natural looking work you got there.

[Gorpy]

Thanks Bill and HairLossCure.