One year after transplant, need some advice on what to do next

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Hi everyone. I've been reading the forums for a couple of years now but this is my first time posting as I could use some advice from the community.

 

Here's the current situation. I'm 29. I've been on finasteride for about five years and basically stopped my hair loss. Unfortunately, I stopped it a little too late, so I had a ~2,000 graft FUT operation about a year ago and the procedure went well. While I'm happy with the improvement, the coverage wasn't quite as thick as I'd hoped. (I think I expected more density than could be achieved in a single operation.) I started a little bit better than a Norwood IIA and now I have much improved density. It's just not enough. I've managed to hide the loss for years using Toppik, and I still have to do that to make it look like I have a full head of hair. I really want to stop doing this, but I'm not sure what the best course of action is going forward. Here are the options I have to choose from:

 

1) Get another FUT operation of 1,500 grafts, which I've been advised will be sufficient. I have two main concerns with this: the scar may or may not get worse, and I'm not sure I can hide a second operation from the people in my life. I don't want anyone to know, and I was able to hide the first operation, but for several reasons that would take awhile to get into I don't think I could do it again. I can't get away for a couple of weeks, but after that I'd have to be able to appear perfectly normal again. I'm not sure that'd be possible, especially if the donor area has to be shaved (I was told it wouldn't have to be last time but then that changed on the day of the surgery).

 

2) Opt for FUE instead of FUT. Since I've already had a FUT operation this seems like a bad idea, seeing as a scar is present and shaving any area of my head would be tough to conceal. I've heard of "stealth" operations (on this forum and elsewhere) that involve around 800 grafts at a time, but I'd then need two of those and that would involve two recovery times. This doesn't seem like a good option.

 

3) Be glad I have more hair than I did and slowly stop using Toppik so it looks like I lost my hair naturally. If I could cut my hair shorter I'd be more inclined to try this, as it looks a bit better when everything else is short, but I can't do that because of the scar.

 

Right now #1 seems like the best option, but I don't want to pull the trigger unless I can be sure that 1) there isn't a better course of action and 2) I'll only have to hide the operation for about two weeks and then can be sure nobody will know.

 

What do you think I should do?