Hairline, recessions, and temples filled in with one H.T. pass; Dr. Beehner

[Dr. Michael Beehner]

This patient is the first in a series of 4-5 that I will bunch together to go along with my application to be included in the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

 

A few words about our general philosophy: For patients with a relatively small area of hair loss that needs filling, such as with this man I am presenting here, my first choice is dense-packing FU grafts. I let the patients know that we will be trying for a "home run," that is, to accomplish satisfactory density with only one pass. Obviously that judgement is subjective and different patients will only be satisfied with certain levels of density. We tell them that they have about a 25% chance of that occurring, but much more than likely, we will have to "go between the cracks" with a second session to get the density that will match that of the hair behind it so it looks uniform.

For that large group of patients who are clearly heading for a Norwood VI pattern of hair loss, which is the typical U-shaped area of hair loss on the entire top of the head and scooping down the back in the vertex, I am most comfortable using DFU's in the front-central area in order to create a better gradient of density. I feel these grafts block light better, they survive at a higher percentage (100% in all research studies to date), and are more economical for the patient. We usually use 1000-1500 FU's in addition to these at each session, so that all visible borders are filled in with FU's exclusively, with all 1-hair FU's at the front and rear edges. We also, even for these Norwood VI patients, tell them they have the option of having all FU's, usually in the 2500-3500 range. I will be including in this group of presented patients two who had fairly substantial hair loss and very large bald areas on top, who did ask us to use all FU's and over 3000 were placed. Most of the all-FU cases I do in the 2500+ range are men with a fair amount of visible hair on top who are starting to miniaturize and want to catch it early and fill it in before it thins further, and so we will put around 2500 FU's all through the top of the scalp. Obviously, the photos of such men aren't very dramatic and are hard to appreciate any change, so I won't bother including any of them.

 

This male in his late 30's presented for filling in of the deep recessions and bringing the temple hair forward and creating strong temporal points. He had a coarse caliber of hair and lots of 2-hair and 3-hair FU's. Grafts were placed in 20g, 19g, and 18g needle sites. He was pleased with the density of one surgery and did not feel the need presently to pursue any further transplanting. The "after" photos were taken 11 months after the surgery.

 

Mike Beehner, M.D.

[chrisdav]

Big Improvement and looks great.

[NEWHAIRPLEASE]

And your not in the coalition yet?? Great work DOC!!

[Spanker]

Can't decide how I feel about this one as his above shot shows a lot of scalp in the implanted area.

[Shampoo]

Can't decide how I feel about this one as his above shot shows a lot of scalp in the implanted area.

 

it does?

[hairthere]

There are two areas beyond the hairline where you can see some scalp. That is the reality of a HT--the top view is normally less forgiving. I happen to think this is a huge improvement and looks really good, though. Spanker, would you be happy with his head of hair?

[orlhair1]

I agree....looks like a huge improvement.....no doubt that top view photos are less forgiving. Top view photos are great for looking at results, but it is not the view most people have of your hair......In my opinion if it looks really nice from the front side and back views, that is more important than the top view.

[Spanker]

it does?

 

You did not underline the other important part of that sentence, which was "in the implanted area".

 

There are two areas beyond the hairline where you can see some scalp. That is the reality of a HT--the top view is normally less forgiving. I happen to think this is a huge improvement and looks really good, though. Spanker, would you be happy with his head of hair?

 

If you look at it, it looks like the solid area in the shot from above is hair laid over from the bangs on both sides. Would I be happy with that head of hair is not a fair question because we are not giving our opinions on his natural hair, which is quite nice, we are giving opinions on the work that the patient received. Judging from the above shot, the work can be see though.

 

I am not saying this is a bad HT at all. I just would not put a gold star on it. I see a lot of posters will give shout outs to work that I think is average. Or at least average for the company that they are in.

 

Pretty much all of the docs on this forum do really good work, when compared the an average HT doc, but we should not hold the work posted here to an average doctor's standard. If we say that work is "excellent" or "great", then it should be, in my opinion. I think this doctor does nice work, but that does not mean that we have praise all work as great.

[hairthere]

Spanker, Fair and good points. However, the criteria I would use to judge an HT as excellent would be a) Naturalness b)Density c) Amount of area covered. Then there are other factors, such as the scar, future planning (I do not think a NW6 with a natural, dense front and totally bald vertex/crown looks good), etc.

 

I think this HT hits the first two marks dead on. As far as the third, the limits of this are obviously based on donor availability and are often times beyond the doctor's control.

 

I do agree though that we should not feel obligated to heap praise upon all results posted on this forum just because the patient looks "better/improved" or because of who the doctor is. And obviously every forum member is free to form and voice their own opinion regardless of what others think.

 

Dr. Beehner, Do you have any immediate post-op pictures of this patient?

Edited February 10, 2012 by hairthere

[Shampoo]

Dr. Beehner I think this result looks excellent.