A few questions about hair transplants

[delancey]

Firstly, I would just like to thank everyone who contributes to this forum. Without these type of patient based forums, who knows where I would have had my hair transplant. So a big thanks to everyone who posts results and shares information.

 

I am 28 years old and am a Norwood 5 going on 6. I have been losing my hair since 24-25, but really lost a significant amount just over the last year. I have already had one in-person consultation with a recommended surgeon, where it was estimated that I have approximately 8000 grafts available. I have blonde, medium-fine hair.

 

I have a few questions about hair transplants:

 

1) How common is poor growth with a top surgeon? That is, someone has say 4000 grafts transplanted, but only an insignificant amount actually grows? Any statistics available?

 

2) Why does this occur?

 

3) Also, should poor growth occur, is it possible to place grafts in the scar, to the point where it becomes invisible to an untrained eye at 3 mm?

 

 

4) I have medium-fine, blonde hair. The contrast between my skin tone and hair color is low. Since my hair is relatively fine, does this mean that I will need more grafts per cm2? Or will my low contrast allow for a natural result with fewer grafts? How much does one's contrast contribute to the "illusion of density"?

 

Thanks again. :cool:

[augustya]

1. There are a lot of factors that contribute to poor growth. With a Top surgeon the risks are minimised but then the patients body response as they say physiology also comes in to play. So even with top surgeon the risks are there, maybe 1-10% but is not 100% sure success !!

 

2. Grafts dying while dissecting, keeping exposed in the atmosphere for more then 10-15 secs, taking more time like within 6 hours all grafts should go in the scalp in the recipient site.

 

3. Possible, I have seen people grow hair on burn scars which is mind boggling !

 

4. Finer the hair, more the grafts need to be densely packed hence more grafts required but the biggest plus point fine hair have is, results look more natural then say coarse hair ! Because of the texture !

[Spanker]

1) I would say that this is fairly uncommon. If I were made to put a number on it, I would say that 3 to 5 percent have poor growth. I would not that not all recommended surgeons are at an equal level of skill, so there will be some that have a higher level of success than others. If you get 4000 grafts, you want more than a significant amount of growth, you want as close to 4000 planted in a artistic and natural manor.

 

2. Sometimes it is physiology which is evident when a top surgeon does more than one procedure on a pt and it doesn't take, and sometimes it is surgical protocol, which to me is evident when a pt has had a surgery with one doc that did not take and one doc that did.

 

3. Yes, in most cases I believe that 3mm is a realistic goal.

 

4. Low contrast definitely helps with the illusion of density and the naturalness of the result IMO. However, no one is going to be able to give you a good answer on this. How fine of hair? How much contrast? I imagine if you gave a quantitative number to both you could get an answer. The diameter of hair is very important, think (3.14)r2(h), which gives you the volume of your hair, which in turn is what covers your scalp. So as you can imagine, it would be very hard to place one over the other with just vague description. If I had to pick though, I would probably choose coarse hair with high contrast over low contrast and fine hair. Many Asians fall into the first category and seem to have great results on average.

[delancey]

Brilliant, thanks for the replies.

 

 

1) Out of 3-5% of patients who experience poor growth, is this over the entire transplanted area or just in certain areas? In other words, out of these 3-5% of patients, how many experience 80% growth, 70% growth, etc? How common is poor growth, defined as only a very small amount of the grafts growing?

 

2) When poor growth is a result of physiology, what exactly does this mean?

 

I was a smoker for several years, but have stopped 5 months ago. However I still consume nicotine. I plan on stopping this all together about 1 year before my surgery.

 

3) Since I am heading towards Norwood 6, I was thinking that a test FUE may be possible of say 200 grafts, just to ensure that these grafts actually grow. Is this something that may be possible/recommended? Where should these be transplanted?

 

I have been on Propecia for 3 weeks, and all initial side-effects have disappeared.

 

Thanks:cool:

[delancey]

One more question:

 

Is there a correlation between poor growth and age, high blood pressure or lack of physical exercise?

[1978matt]