I've been reading on "miniaturized hairs" and can't understand.

[danielx111]

Hello everyone, I'm 20 years old and planning to perform an HT in 2 years from now. I just read at dr Wesley thread about hair miniaturized and I want to make sure I understand it right. As long as you have hair miniaturized it means the ht won't stay for ever or...? I'm really confused and not even sure what it means, if anyone can give more details it would be great. By the way, the area I want to cover is just the hairline and cover the rest with hair system.

[Spanker]

The point he was making is that if you have a lot of miniaturization in your donor zone, those hairs may not be DHT resistant and may fall out eventually after being planted, or even if they are never moved. A person with (from what one of the doctors on the board said) more than 20 percent miniaturization in the donor zone is not a good candidate for transplantation. However, an in-person exam is by far the best way to determine this, and with a goal like yours, which is somewhat different than the average person, I would definitely do an in-person consult.

[danielx111]

The point he was making is that if you have a lot of miniaturization in your donor zone, those hairs may not be DHT resistant and may fall out eventually after being planted, or even if they are never moved. A person with (from what one of the doctors on the board said) more than 20 percent miniaturization in the donor zone is not a good candidate for transplantation. However, an in-person exam is by far the best way to determine this, and with a goal like yours, which is somewhat different than the average person, I would definitely do an in-person consult.

 

Thanks a lot for your answer, everyday I log in this forum and see how you help to people so thanks! So basically what you say is: If I have more than 20% miniaturized hairs I'm not a good candidate? How can I find out? I just found out many people complained that 3-4 years after they have done the surgery the ht was fallen! Not the none transplant place. Is it common or it has something to do with the miniaturized donor? Thanks!

[Nick153452]

You can find out by going to a dermatologist to evaluate your scalp; especially the occipital region of your head (the safe zone), where most people have DHT resistant hair follicles. Usually donor miniaturization occurs later on in life. As far as people complaining about transplanted hair falling out 3-4 years down the road, I'm not entirely sure about. Theoretically, the transplanted hairs should be permanent and should not fall out in 3-4 years. Unfortunately, most follow-ups photos are taken after 1 year post op and then we rarely hear from the patient. There are also numerous examples of patients after 3-10 years also who have retained their results. Moreover, there are many patients on this forum who have had transplants for many years who still have retained their results.

[Spanker]

You can find out by going to a dermatologist to evaluate your scalp; especially the occipital region of your head (the safe zone), where most people have DHT resistant hair follicles. Usually donor miniaturization occurs later on in life. As far as people complaining about transplanted hair falling out 3-4 years down the road, I'm not entirely sure about. Theoretically, the transplanted hairs should be permanent and should not fall out in 3-4 years. Unfortunately, most follow-ups photos are taken after 1 year post op and then we rarely hear from the patient. There are also numerous examples of patients after 3-10 years also who have retained their results. Moreover, there are many patients on this forum who have had transplants for many years who still have retained their results.

 

Nick, are you going to do a 4 month update? I see your hairiversary is coming up.

[danielx111]

Well I also thought hair transplanted should be permanent and when I googled I could see many people starting to lose their hair after 3-4 years and some at 2 years so I'm wondering does it worth that? It was my last hope but if my hair will just fall out after 2-4 years I don't know if its worth that:( I also was thinking to my self that its really impossible to have hair transplanted permanent since you can see on 40 years people, they don't have the same donor when they were 20 years old.. What you guys think?

[CaddyTad77]

You will be okay, wait a while, your still very young. And do not worry about donor area on a fourty year old being thin, I am 40 and my donor area is just as thick as when I was 20. The top however is the problem, those hairs are weaker and slimmer than the hair on the sides and back of my head, hence the need for a transplant.

[danielx111]

You will be okay, wait a while, your still very young. And do not worry about donor area on a fourty year old being thin, I am 40 and my donor area is just as thick as when I was 20. The top however is the problem, those hairs are weaker and slimmer than the hair on the sides and back of my head, hence the need for a transplant.

 

Oh I see, I'm just curious why dr's are saying ht is permanent when you actually read online that many patients actually started t lose thei transplanted hair after 2-4 years.. It's just scary

[xtatic5]

Oh I see, I'm just curious why dr's are saying ht is permanent when you actually read online that many patients actually started t lose thei transplanted hair after 2-4 years.. It's just scary

 

 

Sometimes people think they are losing transplanted hair when they are actually losing their native hair. This can happen when hair is transplanted into a region with existing hair. That existing hair continues to miniaturize leaving behind only transplanted hair.

 

Another possibility is hair loss NOT due to DHT. If the initial reason for the hair loss was an unhealthy scalp the hair loss will continue until the illness is addressed.

[ScienceHair]

Daniel,

 

I had a HT 9 years ago when I was 35. Since then, the rest of my native hair has fallen out, but the transplanted hair is still there and still healthy.

[danielx111]

Daniel,

 

I had a HT 9 years ago when I was 35. Since then, the rest of my native hair has fallen out, but the transplanted hair is still there and still healthy.

 

Wow I'm glad to hear that. Could you add some photos ? Thanks in advance!

[ScienceHair]

@Caddy - I've only taken propecia once and that was for 10 months following my ht. I really didn't even want to take it then, but my doctor told me it would be best if I did. Had I kept taking it, I may have been able to keep my native hair on top.

 

I know this probably isn't a popular opinion on this forum, but I don't like drugs and I especially am very wary about drugs that suppress or mess with your hormones. I suffered no side effects from propecia at any point, but my concern is what are the long term effects of taking this drug daily over a 10, 20, 30 year period of time. I don't think anybody really knows.

 

This is strictly a personal decision for me and I certainly wouldn't preach against finasteride to anyone. I would only tell someone to thoroughly research it and decide if it's right for them.

 

I definitely had more native hair than what was transplanted and I think I may have permanently lost some of that hair in my crown area during the transplant.

 

@Daniel - I haven't posted any pics on this forum as of yet but I'll see if I can get a few up over the next few days.

 

Something to keep in mind if you look at my pics. My ht was performed by an unskilled surgeon. My grafts are sparse and they all stick straight up, so I'm quite thin across the top of my head and honestly, it doesn't look very good (one of the reasons I came here, to find a skilled surgeon to fix me up).

 

That being said, I would say that all my transplanted hair that was there at 1 year post op is still there 9 years later and it's still healthy hair, which is what you were concerned with.

 

One last thought about people saying that their transplanted hair fell out. I'm sure that it does happen to some people but when your native hair starts falling out, it's easy to think it's your transplanted hair. I know because at one point I thought mine was falling out only to realize that it was my native hair and the transplants were still there.

[ScienceHair]

Here ya go, a few pictures of the noggin. They aren't the best quality, but you can still get a good idea of what's going on.