What THEY Dont Tell You

[usedandabused]

Your pre-surgery state was far worse than mine. Again, I was a NW2 with slight temple thinning, you looked like a NW3+. I am not blaming the procedure in general, if you are bald or balding, and you are aware and fine with the LIMITATIONS of what a hair transplant can offer, then by all means go for it. A HAIR TRANSPLANT IS NOT MEANT FOR SOMEONE WITH A RECEDING HAIRLINE with otherwise, thick healthy hair, and any doctor that says that it will THAT THEY CAN IMPROVE YOUR SITUATION WITH MINIMAL RISK is not being honest. Hairlines recede due to miniaturization, and if you have an actively receding hairline, that means you have active miniaturization and all the hairs that plan on falling out in the next 10 years will be lost. This procedure advanced my hair loss by 10 to 20 years so I have the same amount of hair now as I was supposed to at almost 60 years old...and probably less because it made the hair I was keeping with propecia to fall out as well.....AND the grafts that were placed DID NOT GROW. AND the strip cut out of the back of my head depleted blood supply and made the back of my hair thinner therefore not allowing me to cut my hair as short as the doctor said I would be able to and not allowing me to get another procedure. So there you have it....one day.....my physical appearance and confidence shattered.

[usedandabused]

By the way, please do not confuse the issue of my thread just because you are satisfied with your results...im happy for you, great....this thread was made to warn people...there are many other posts that you can cut and paste your pitch to, thanks

[RegretDoingIt]

usedandabused is correct to warn those of you considering a hair transplant.

 

Like usedandabused, I am dissatisified with my hair transplant. Just remember that you are going in for a procedure that can change your life.

 

Make sure that you are willing to accept a permanent scar across the back of your head. Remember that you will NEVER be able to cut your hair short in back.

 

Make sure that you are going to a surgeon that has a lot of successful results posted on these forums. Don't even think about going to a surgeon unless he has a lot of examples posted on the internet and a lot of positive reviews from commenters.

[wb280]

Abused, i really feel sorry your HT din work out for u, but i dun concur with some of your Q&A. Getting into a verbal war is not what i am after but i thought i should express some of my opinions in case some potential HT goers get scared off and suffer in silence about their hair loss when they can actually do something about it!

 

1. If you have been on propecia for many years and it was helping to hold on to the weaker hair, does it make sense to expose your scalp to MAJOR trauma of a surgery and lose all of that retention or gain? NO, IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.

 

Wb280 : I am not getting u right here. Why will the weaker hair drop off after HT surgery? As far as i am concerned, i had bad frontal loss and temporary shock loss after the surgery but i am sure they grew back. Very few patients suffer permanent shock loss under the hands of a good doc and team.

 

2. A major cause of hair loss is reduced blood supply to the hair. Does it make sense to cut a huge slice out of your head near major arteries, severing veins and nerves? NO IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.

 

Wb280 : again, i do not understand. Yes a huge chunk of my rear was being sliced off as per a standard FUT but reduced blood supply to the hair? I presume u are talking about your donor area. Did u have an issue? You did not post photos hence i cant tell, but my shock loss has recovered and my rear looks exactly the same as pre-op, plus a pencil thin scar line.

 

3. I had a slight receding hairline. Hairlines recede when hairs become miniaturized and eventually the diameter at the shaft becomes so fine its falls out. So HOW could it look natural when you cut out hair follicles in the back of your head where the hair shaft is the largest in the entire scalp, and transplant them in to an area that they are the smallest? IT DOESN'T

 

Wb280: I have a receding hairline and while i lament the density ( at this point of time ), those hair that grew are the single hairs and they looked perfectly natural. The thicker and double, triple hairs should be transplanted deeper into the hairline.

 

2. You have been in the water and your hair dries and looks like a rats nest.

 

wb280: seriously? i m sorry man but no, i dun think my HT hair looks like that when dry.

 

Lastly, u seem agitated and rightfully so. There is nothing worse than a HT surgery than to go backwards from where u started. Once again, i am sorry mate. I just thought some opinions from u are tad little biased.

[usedandabused]

Look...this was based on my experience....hence the description of this section of the site "HAIR TRANSPLANT EXPERIENCES" I prefaced all of my points with "WHAT IF THIS HAPPENS" because these are things that DO happen and DID happen to me.

 

I think you need to do some more research...

 

read: (promotional link removed)

 

Just like i told the other guy....if you are satisfied with your result then thats great, but don't pick apart the facts of what happened to me and try and confuse the issue for other people that deserve to know facts about what could happen. If you want to talk about yourself and how great your results were, then please write it somewhere else.

 

THE FACTS ARE:

 

IF YOU ARE A NW2-NW3 WITH A LOT OF EXISTING HAIR, THEN YOU RUN A VERY COMMON RISK OF SHOCK LOSS

 

IF YOU ARE A NW2-NW3 WITH A LOT OF EXISTING MINIATURIZED HAIR THEN YOU INCREASE THAT RISK

 

IF YOU ARE A NW2-NW3 WITH A LOT OF EXISTING MINIATURIZED HAIR AND HAVE BEEN TAKING PROPECIA AND HAVE BEEN SEEING NEW GAIN, NOT ONLY COULD YOU LOSE HEALTHY AND MINIATURIZED HAIR, BUT YOU WILL MOST LIKELY LOSE THE GAINED HAIR AS WELL.

 

YOU ONLY HAVE A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF BLOOD SUPPLY IN YOUR SCALP THAT FEED THE HAIR YOU HAVE, IF NEW HAIR IS PLACE IN A NEW AREA WITH DIMINISHED BLOOD SUPPLY, SOMETHING WILL SUFFER

 

EVERY INCISION IN YOUR SKIN CREATES SCAR TISSUE COULD DECREAS CIRCULATION IN THAT AREA. CUT VEINS AND VESSELS CAN DECREASE CIRCULATION AS WELL. CUTTING A CHUNK OUR OF YOUR SCALP AND SEWING IT BACK TOGETHER TIGHTER COULD DO THE SAME THING.

 

SUMMARY: THESE ARE WELL KNOWN ISSUES. IF SOMEONE GOES TO A DOCTOR AND PRESENTS THEMSELVES AS A NW2-3 WITH A LOT OF HAIR, AND A GREAT DEAL OF MINIATURIZATION, AND THE DOCTOR DOES SAYS THAT THEY ARE A LOW RISK, FOR COMPLICATIONS, THEN THEY ARE LYING TO YOUR FACE.

[baldingbro]

I too agree that people who are NW2/NW3 shall be very careful with hair transplant. They should understand the risk of shockloss before proceding for HT. But we have seen great results in this forum.

[lorenzo]

If somebody goes to France, has a great time and enjoyed the people and the culture. They are going to speak highly about there experience. In contast if somebody has a horrible time is treated badly and does n't enjoy the culture, they will speak bad.

The same works with hair transplants. If you had a great experience, great result you will have trouble understand the negativities about hair transplant. I only reason I know about the negativities is because I have met many patients that have come to H&W to get repaired.

If my experience was the same as usedandabused I would probaly feel the same way as him. Since my experience are the complete opposite I am not in the position. Hair transplant has alot to do with the doctor you choose rather than the procedure.

This is my experience and my opinion.......

[wb280]

hi there, no i do not need to do more research thanks for your suggestion. I understand u are pissed off with your results or whatever but that does not give u the right to feel angry towards everyone. I nvr for once agree that a NW 2 at age 34 should go for HT. Bear that in mind. However, i am just questioning some of the logic that u make. Mate, by just making a sweeping statement, u r hindering the chances of potential patients of fixing their problem and getting on with their lives. Imagine someone suitable for HT doing research and coming across your post, he might chicken out and continue to suffer in silence in which he could actually choose a good doc and have a satisfactory result and live happily ever after.

 

I am not arguing with u over this again, and i made it clear its not rattling on abt my good results, but some facts which u mentioned are not true and i have to state out the other side of the story

 

Your post as follows

 

THE FACTS ARE:

 

IF YOU ARE A NW2-NW3 WITH A LOT OF EXISTING HAIR, THEN YOU RUN A VERY COMMON RISK OF SHOCK LOSS

 

WB280 : As i said, i do not disagree. In fact i had plenty of shock loss, but that was TEMPORARY. Everything grew back.

 

IF YOU ARE A NW2-NW3 WITH A LOT OF EXISTING MINIATURIZED HAIR AND HAVE BEEN TAKING PROPECIA AND HAVE BEEN SEEING NEW GAIN, NOT ONLY COULD YOU LOSE HEALTHY AND MINIATURIZED HAIR, BUT YOU WILL MOST LIKELY LOSE THE GAINED HAIR AS WELL.

 

WB280 : Dude, why do u keep saying that? Is that scientifically proven? that HT causes your healthy and miniaturised hair to drop? Maybe it does hasten some miniaturised hair to fall out but they are going out anyway, but in place are beautiful natural hair taken from the back of your head!

 

Anyway i will not argue with u on this anymore, as thats not my agenda, but my only worry is that some suitable patients might be scared of by your statements hence my post. I wish u all the best if u choose to go for a repair. Trust me, i know how its like to have a bad result cos i have been worrying that it might turn out bad and i would not be able to take it. Cheers mate,

[lorenzo]

IF YOU ARE A NW2-NW3 WITH A LOT OF EXISTING MINIATURIZED HAIR AND HAVE BEEN TAKING PROPECIA AND HAVE BEEN SEEING NEW GAIN, NOT ONLY COULD YOU LOSE HEALTHY AND MINIATURIZED HAIR, BUT YOU WILL MOST LIKELY LOSE THE GAINED HAIR AS WELL.

 

 

 

Complete and 100% bulls***!

Edited February 15, 2011 by Future_HT_Doc
language : (

[usedandabused]

Complete and 100% bulls***!

 

 

Then how is it that it happened to me and many other people that have responded and messaged me privately on here. People like you are part of the reason why no one can get an accurate picture of how common major risks are. I have been through a lot in my life and what happened to me this this whole hair transplant thing would send the average person into major depression and self-isolation.

 

You think I just want to sit around on a sunday night and make up false claims to post on some hair transplant website because I enjoy it? Get back to reality man.

 

Do your research, I have been through this with the heads of all the major organizations in this industry as well as the top doctors and they all agree with EVERYTHING I have said. What are your credentials anyway?

Edited February 15, 2011 by Future_HT_Doc

[usedandabused]

It is also important to note that surgery should always be your last resort after all attempts to stop the progression of your hair loss have been exhausted.

 

If you are under the impression that having small surgeries to "keep up with your hair loss" is a practical way to address your hair loss issue you are sorely mistaken.

 

Patients with a significant amount of hair on their scalps run the risk of "shock loss" of some or much of their existing hair caused by the trauma of the surgical procedure. In some cases this lost hair will not return and you could be left with thinner hair than before the procedure. This is just one reason why understating whether or not you are a good candidate for the procedure is so important.

 

The best candidates for hair restoration surgery are:

Men who have been losing their hair due to MPB for more than five years or who have progressed to a Norwood class 3 or above.

Men with realistic expectations and who understand that their hair loss might continue to progress even if they are taking prescription medication to stop the progression.

Men who have been balding for many years and who's pattern has stabilized and are interested in just adding some hair to provide a more youthful appearance.

Men and women who have lost hair due to trauma or burns

Men and women who have lost hair due to other cosmetic procedures such as face-lifts.

 

 

(promotional link removed)

[lorenzo]

Maybe there are correct on their own experiences. My experiences are completely different.

 

 

Then how is it that it happened to me and many other people that have responded and messaged me privately on here. People like you are part of the reason why no one can get an accurate picture of how common major risks are. I have been through a lot in my life and what happened to me this this whole hair transplant thing would send the average person into major depression and self-isolation.

 

 

 

Private messaged are irrelivant in my opinion. Its like a doctor that states that I have done many celebraties this can never be proven. I dont doubt that you have been burned and I have alot of sympathy for you. I almost had a hair flap surgery so at the end I would probaly in your shoes and have more understanding. People like me? You want me to lie??

Your opinion is one sided and probaly will remain that way. I have seem people that have been burned that come to get repaired. I see the crap that alot of doctors do but that is not the case with the top docs. If you want to be one sided I understand. I have seem 100's of people life changed to the positive all because of a hair transplant.

I once again feel for you. There is enough resources out there for anyone to make a proper decision.

 

 

What are your credentials anyway?

 

I can only base my opinion and my experience on what I have seen. I dont care what any head of any orginization says. Years ago the same heads were saying you can't graft more than 30 /square cm it wont grow. You cant do more than 3000 grafts in one session or it wont grown. Megasessions causes wider scar its better to go many session rather than one.

This has been proven to be incorrect. But I do understand where a doctor based on their own experience are unable to do this. Rather than say I cant do it they say its not possible.

I understand that you want to be an advocate against hair transplants and based on your experiences you are correct, but in reality you are incorrect. The same narrowmindness by doctor that cause horrible disfigurements is the same way of thinking as you have in this topic. You can only see one way because you have been burned and your story should be told but maybe you should be openminded on the true reality of hair tranplants done by top doctors.

Regardless I wish you the best and will agree to disagree with you.

 

 

.

[wb280]

Lorenzo, i think its pointless to argue anymore with abused. I gather that u and i just want to point out some untrue facts that abused has posted, just to help potential patients in recognising the truth. I still do not understand how come he insists that the native hair will be permanently shocked after HT. Maybe his surgeon did a bad job, but that does not mean everyone who goes under a HT will suffer that. Imagine if i had seen his post prior to my surgery, honestly i might chicken out and continue to suffer in misery abt my hair loss. I have been through the surgery and NO, permanent shock loss did not occur to me. I just worry for those on the fence who do not understand and not sure who to believe

 

However, from all these arguments, i can safely concur on one issue. Selecting a good and responsible physician is of top priority.

[lorenzo]

WB280 your right. Its hard to understand what abused is going through since we cant relate at all. In his world he is right.

[kman001]

I have to agree with a lot of what usedandabused said in his posts about the possible downsides to HT's. These downsides are sometimes minimized in the rush to finding "permanent" solutions for hairloss. We shouldn't be resistant to discussing them and making newbies aware of this side of things.

 

Hairloss is progressive and if it is just starting, which is usually the case with most Norwood 2's, you need to be careful about transplants. Hairloss can continue even with use of propecia and minoxidil, although maybe the pace of loss is slowed greatly with these meds. Even so, time marches on and you could eventually find yourself with a gap between your transplanted hairline and your natural, and receding, hairline. This is one of the reasons why HT doctors do not like to work on young hairloss sufferers.

 

The concern is that we can't be certain when hairloss will accelerate and it is not always in our early 20's. Sometimes a better guideline than age is your Norwood classification. If you still have lot's of hair you may want to wait and see what happens or be prepared for additional HT's if your hairloss continues.

 

I had my first HT(1200 grafts) around 10 years ago with a non coalition doctor. I was 40 and felt that my hairloss had done its worst. I had the hairline restored to something age appropriate. Unfortunately, my hairloss slowly continued and around 4 years later i had a gap between the transplanted hairline and my natural hairline. I had to have a 2nd HT and i went to Dr. Rahal for 2500 grafts. By this time i also had some difusse thinning on top and so he fixed the hairline area up and placed some grafts back to the mid point on my scalp. I haven't had any concerns since but as i age my hairloss could continue even with the meds.

 

I am glad i had my HT's as my hair is still quite thick, but you always have to consider what the future may bring and be prepared for additional work. Personally, i would not get a HT if i were only a Norwood 2 or early 3. I would wait.

 

Btw, i understood that when transplanting hair from the back that they split the grafts and use single hairs in the hairline and save the 2 and 3 hair grafts for other regions behind the hairline.

 

All the best,

[baldingbro]

kman,

This is how most of the men who started balding shall deal with their HTs. Go conservatively keeping in mind that they have to go for multiple HTs. Going for multiple HTs is The ways nobody notices that you are getting bald or you have HT done. Going to a good Dr is important to minimize the schockloss and any other side effects. Good docs can usually plan well keeping in mind what is coming in the future.

[moses0324]

Below are a series of photos: 1) one of my hair at 1/2" length at the 8 month mark 2) one of my pre surgery condition 3) one of 3 months post-HT showing native hair growing back normally 4) two of my scar area at 8 months post-op after a #3 clip haircut, in very bright daylight 5) one of my scar at 8 months post op (#3 clip) with a little Toppik sprinkled around it, under harsh indoor flourescent light

 

If what you were saying was true about all HTs no matter who the doctor/clinic then a patient like myself could simply not exist. For the record I had a 4496 graft megasession strip surgery on May 20, 2010. The strip was 30 cm long and 2.5 cm wide in some places!

 

Name your doctor and upload CLEAR before and after photos if you expect your post to have any real significance. Naming your doctor and showing photos is 10X more important than anything you can write, and the truly educated posters here are aware of this.

 

When I was researching I was constantly looking for failed HT patients like yourself; it was practically an obsession of mine since being a hardened sceptic by nature inclined me to doubt all the positive stuff I was seeing online about modern HTs. Ironically, the one common theme among the majority of these unhappy patients was that they wanted to blame HTs in general and not the doctor or clinic they went to for the failure of their procedure. They found it very emotionally difficult to consider that they just did not do enough research and chose a sub par doc/clinic, or that their particular physiology was just not conducive to a successful outcome. Instead, they were adamant in the belief that the only fault was that HTs in general will inevitably result in failure because the procedure itself is flawed.

 

Had I believed them then I would still be half bald today, which would be a travesty due to intentional misinformation.

 

while your hairline looks fantastic...your scar can be detected from a mile away given the length of hair you are wearing...which is the primary reason why i am not undergoing surgery at the moment. the limitation of a HT is wearing short hair. that sucks. once the incision is made, you gave up shaving and any short hairstyles for life. not something i am willing to do at the moment.

[multiplier]

your scar can be detected from a mile away given the length of hair you are wearing...which is the primary reason why i am not undergoing surgery at the moment.

 

Keep in mind that 1% of the population has any idea what a hair transplant donor scar is or what it looks like. If you see small patches in the back of someone's head, you're not going to notice for more than a second or two and likely assume they're just parts of the scalp that lack density, a bad haircut, etc. I wear my hair medium-short and have average density and you cannot notice a scar unless the hair is wet and you're standing behind me very close up staring directly at the back of my head. How often does that scenario occur?

[RockZ]

I'd like to see some empirical evidence in a controlled sample and sound study demonstrating permanent shockloss occurs in a statistically significant amount of patients who were previously NW2 or NW3 pre-op. While I understand this does happen I don't think we are not really going to get an objective picture here in this forum from just a few experiences to make such a broad generalization. I remember before I had LASIK there were the exact same issues in those forums because most of the people who had great results never really followed up but the ones with poor results did as it affected their obviously lives to a greater degree.

 

And concerning the scar issue, that obviously does not apply to FUE the same way as FUT. There is no strip scar issue with the former and you have a better chance of being able to cut your hair short.

Edited February 16, 2011 by RockZ

[mi1406]

Hi useandabused! I was thinking to undergo a strip operation to lower my hairline becouse i have a big forehead. I prefer to not disturb the front area of my scalp which became a little bit thin in some areas by transplanating hair in these areas. Do you think that these areas will still be affectet by the operation which aims to give me a lower hairline? will i in this case also suffer off a hairloss?

Thank you for your reply!

[Shadow of the EMpire State]

I too agree that people who are NW2/NW3 shall be very careful with hair transplant.

 

In my experience those are really the only people who should be getting a hair transplant. Once you go beyond NW 3, the chances of achieving a good result decline precipitously.

[baldingbro]

I just meant to be careful to chose right doctor to avoid shock loss. Higher NW has less possibility of shock loss because there is less hair and easy to get around it.

Though temporarily it may be easy to achieve a good result on NW3, It looks very ugly once you loose more hair, that is why it is important to not consume all the donor right away. Proper planning by the Dr is required if the final baldness pattern is not yet established

[Shadow of the EMpire State]

Though temporarily it may be easy to achieve a good result on NW3, It looks very ugly once you loose more hair, that is why it is important to not consume all the donor right away. Proper planning by the Dr is required if the final baldness pattern is not yet established

 

Well, I think we can make very educated guesses as to what the final baldness pattern will be. There are no guarantees, of course, but if you're 35-40 and a NW 3A or less, the chances that you'll progress to the upper Norwood levels are actually very small.

 

Should we live our lives to avoid "any" possibility of a negative outcome? I don't think so.

[moses0324]

Keep in mind that 1% of the population has any idea what a hair transplant donor scar is or what it looks like. If you see small patches in the back of someone's head, you're not going to notice for more than a second or two and likely assume they're just parts of the scalp that lack density, a bad haircut, etc. I wear my hair medium-short and have average density and you cannot notice a scar unless the hair is wet and you're standing behind me very close up staring directly at the back of my head. How often does that scenario occur?

 

idk about you but the example cited in this thread...his scar is very noticeable from every angle. its almost as bad as a toupe line...if he wore his hair longer I agree it would go away but not all people like to wear longer hair. especially in the back.

[kman001]

I was around a NW 3a and 41 years when i had my first HT of approx 800 grafts. My father had mostly a full head of hair in his early 60's so I assumed most of my hairloss had run it's course and this would be my only HT. My 2nd HT of 700 grafts was needed a couple years later to fill in between the transplanted hairline and further recession that continued. These HT's were NOT done by a coalition doctor and i was given an impression back then that my first HT would be it. They even seemed surprised(?) when i came back after the first HT with further recession and a gap behind my hairline.

 

Knowing what i know now, I'm surprised they did not consider this nor advise me of this possibility.

 

My 3rd HT was done by Rahal and he did a thorough job of explaining all the implications, present and future. Dr. Rahal also went back to my mid scalp to add some density as i was also starting to have diffuse thinning on top. He gave me approx 2500 graphs about 4 years ago and i haven't noticed any increased hairloss since. Still, I may need to go back again as hairloss is progressive. Meaning, unless you lose most of it early on, you likely could continue to have thinning in your 40's, 50's, 60's and beyond. Maybe you won't care by then, maybe, but just consider it.

 

FYI, my youngest brother lost most of his hair on top in his early 20's. My oldest brother didn't start having diffuse thinning on top until his early 40's and another brother only started seeing some thinning in his temples and crown in his late 40's. That's quite a range of hairloss timelines among brothers so be careful with any assumptions made about future hairloss.

 

This is why i personally would not consider a HT until my hairloss went beyond a certain NW stage, and not simply based on my age and an educated guess as to future hairloss.

 

Having said that, it's tough holding back when the hairline starts receding. Just make sure you use a knowledgeable HT surgeon and be prepared for additional work down the road.

 

I don't intend to offend anyone who has already made the decision. I just want to provide additional thoughts to consider.