2250 grafts total HT with Dr. Wong.

[ILikeMyHair]

OK I think nothing is going to give me density I need and make both my sides look even. I had traction alopecia mostly on my right side from wearing a turban and went to Dr. Wong for my first surgery in Mar 2012. I had 1550 grafts put into my hairline mostly on the right side because that's where I had most of my hair loss. I thought that would be enough to cover it up because the area wasn't too large. Unfortunately the first surgery gave pretty decent result on the left side, but my right side lagged behind considerably. At first I thought I was a late grower because by 6 month the result looked very weak, but I can confidently say there was no improvement from 6 month onwards. I think only 50-60% grafts that were placed grew. The density was too low and gave a see through look on the right side. So I went to Dr. Wong after a year and he offered to do a free touch up of 450 grafts. So I got my 2nd surgery in Feb 2013 and hair growth was slow just like in my first surgery. Again only 50-60% grafts seemed to grow. A year after the 2nd surgery, the right side was still see through and there was still considerable difference between the right and left side. The 2nd surgery improved things only slightly. So went back to Dr. Wong again in Jan 2014. He said "We put in hair there. The right side just won't take." He offered to do a 3rd and final touch up of 250 grafts. It's been 3 months and 1 week now since my 2nd touch up and the future looks as bleak as the first two surgeries. I think I experienced some shock loss after 3rd surgery and the area looks pretty bad right now. Worse than it looked before the touchup. I am surprised because the shock loss hair came back within 3 months for the first two surgeries. This time it seems like most of it came back, but the hair still looks worse than after the 2nd surgery. I have pretty much given up any hope of getting a good result now and regret my decision to get the HTs done and put my life on standstill for >2 years. Should've just shaved it. It's distressing to see other people here with much more advanced hair loss getting great results whereas after putting 2000 grafts in a small area for me still gives me a see through look. I don't know what went wrong and why the grafts won't grow. Don't even know what my options are at this point. Can't shave it anymore. I don't know if I should go to any other doctor for an HT since H&W are supposed to be top notch and are put on a pedestal on this site. Anyways here are some pictures. The last 10 pictures are taken today 3 months and 1 week after the 2nd touchup.

 

Please comment and let me know what you guys think of the result.

Edited May 31, 2015 by David - Moderator

[hsrp10]

the last pics with your hair styled look like a cosmetic improvement was achieved, and you say you're still around 3 months post-op second touchup so it's too early at all to make a judgement there.

still time for more growth.

 

I wouldn't overly chase a 100% perfectly symmetrical hairline either, asymmetrical hairlines are quite common and natural.

[ILikeMyHair]

the last pics with your hair styled look like a cosmetic improvement was achieved, and you say you're still around 3 months post-op second touchup so it's too early at all to make a judgement there.

still time for more growth.

 

I wouldn't overly chase a 100% perfectly symmetrical hairline either, asymmetrical hairlines are quite common and natural.

 

That pic doesn't look too bad. The lighting and the angle makes it look good. I realize it's only 3 months, but I'm not expecting too much from a 250 graft touch up when 450 graft touch up before didn't do much. I am only expecting the 50% grafts to grow just like before which will make things only slightly more bearable. I would be satisfied with a slightly asymmetrical hairline, but the difference is too great for it to look natural.

[hdude46]

Hopefully jotronic can chime in.

 

The good news is that you don't have mpb and still have a boatload of grafts left to fix this if it bothers you still.

 

After two failed surgeries in your words with the same doctor I'm not sure why you thought the third time would be different. H&W have a great reputation but I have also seem some less than stellar results from them from time to time.

 

Maybe go see a different doctor next time around?

[ILikeMyHair]

Hopefully jotronic can chime in.

 

The good news is that you don't have mpb and still have a boatload of grafts left to fix this if it bothers you still.

 

After two failed surgeries in your words with the same doctor I'm not sure why you thought the third time would be different. H&W have a great reputation but I have also seem some less than stellar results from them from time to time.

 

Maybe go see a different doctor next time around?

 

If it was any other doctor I wouldn't have even gone for the 2nd surgery, but the reputation of H&W on this site was a factor. Also the fact that I can't afford a surgery for another 2 years since I'm a student so I decided to get the free touch up they offered until I can afford to go to a different doctor which will probably be thousands of km away. The possibility of getting a refund in cases like this seems to be close to 0% so I figured I might take what I can get.

[Spanker]

I would argue that you are far too young to say you don't have MPB genes, so I would not go crazy with the grafting as you may need them in the future.

 

It doesn't look that bad in the pics but I can see the spots you are concerned about.

 

I wonder if you could have permanent blood flow issues from the traction alopecia?

 

I you are still pretty young, so I would take solace in the fact that you have time to fix it and that as you age, if you don't have MPB, your friends will keep getting balder and this is the worst it will get for you, and as you age, you'll have more hair than most people you know.

[ILikeMyHair]

I would argue that you are far too young to say you don't have MPB genes, so I would not go crazy with the grafting as you may need them in the future.

 

It doesn't look that bad in the pics but I can see the spots you are concerned about.

 

I wonder if you could have permanent blood flow issues from the traction alopecia?

 

I you are still pretty young, so I would take solace in the fact that you have time to fix it and that as you age, if you don't have MPB, your friends will keep getting balder and this is the worst it will get for you, and as you age, you'll have more hair than most people you know.

 

I'm sure I will have MPB in the future as my dad has a receded hairline and so do my uncles on my mom's side. I can already see miniaturization in the hair that fall out. The hair thickness in the hair that fall out ranges from very thin to normal. It's been happening for 3 years now, but I haven't noticed much of change in the appearance of my hair overall. I'm becoming more convinced as I do more research that my hair fall isn't normal and I do shed a bit more than normal people. My hairline on the left side hasn't receded and the hair looks good overall. I think it'll be a slow loss since my dad is probably NW 3-4 and seems to have stopped there with some hair loss in the crown. His hair looks weak everywhere though so he shaves it which I don't have the option to do anymore.

 

I don't think it'll be a good idea to get more hair planted into the right side even from a different doctor because if I do have MPB I might need the grafts for other places which makes me despair that I can't get this hairline fixed anymore because of the uncertainty of the future. I think I only have 3-4k grafts left.

[Since21]

Wish I had your hair. Have to agree with hsrp10, the last pics look like cosmetic improvement was achieved.

[ILikeMyHair]

Wish I had your hair. Have to agree with hsrp10, the last pics look like cosmetic improvement was achieved.

 

I never said cosmetic improvement wasn't achieved. I called this a poor result not a failure. I'm still really disappointed in the result because it's nowhere close to what it should be for the amount of grafts that were placed in such a small area. The graft yield was way too low. And if I knew I was going to achieve 'cosmetic improvement' like this I wouldn't have gone with the surgery. No sane person would want 'cosmetic improvement' like this for the cost involved. This result was nowhere good enough to warrant a lifelong scar on the back of my head.

 

And my hair will only get worse in the future. I'm only 24 right now.

[Since21]

Still too early to make a full assessment. Try to relax and give it time. I'm a little further along than you and still have a see-through look in my entire frontal third. I'm not sweating it yet, it's still early days. If hair transplants were meant to be evaluated at 4-6 months, the entire industry would be an abysmal failure. It can take a year or more for full results to come in. You chose well with your surgeon. Try to have a little faith.

[bonkerstonker]

Far too early to make a assessment at 3 months I doubt your new hairs have barely broken through the scalp.

 

It may turn out that for some reason you can't grow ht hairs well on that side due to blood flow or scalp issues but no way a Dr could know that.

 

Also never compare your self to other people's ht everyone grows differently and has different types of hair quality, particularly don't compare your hair to ht photos on here too because photos are very misleading I could show you pictures of my hair looking amazing and really bad.

 

Worth saying too a Ht is not a way of getting your hair back to full density it's a illusion that you have to style right and grow right to the best length that works for you. I've had over 11000 grafts and I'm no where near a full head of hair and I can not have my hair anyway I want.

[ILikeMyHair]

Here are some new pictures 1.5 years after the last touchup. You can see that my hairline on the left is still thinner than the left side and I have to do a combover to hide it. After 2250 grafts being placed into the hairline, here are the final results.

 

First picture before any HT

 

Final pictures after 2250 grafts.

 

 

I am going to Dr. Wong's clinic tomorrow to show him the results and hopefully he'll take pictures there that I can post. I still feel like getting the hairline more denser with another 500 grafts, but fear that I may lose more hair in the future because I'm only 25. Don't know what to do. When comparing my results with other people that had similar level of hairloss and similar number of grafts placed, mine seems to be a poor result. I think 25-35% of grafts did not grow. I don't know what happened. Maybe I should've used rogaine after HT to bring more blood flow into the grafts. My hair looks better than before, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to use haircuts where I would have to hide the hair loss. Oh well.

Edited May 27, 2015 by ILikeMyHair

[Lloyd]

For the 2nd touch up 3 month post op seems too early to judge the final outcome. Hope everything works out for in the end.

[ILikeMyHair]

For the 2nd touch up 3 month post op seems too early to judge the final outcome. Hope everything works out for in the end.

 

The latest pictures I posted are 1.5 years after the 2nd touchup.

[needmoarhair]

Looks pretty good to me! I will swap you what looks like a full head of hair IMHO for my NW 3.5.

[ILikeMyHair]

Looks pretty good to me! I will swap you what looks like a full head of hair IMHO for my NW 3.5.

 

Well it's OK I guess. I just had higher expectations seeing how my hairloss wasn't too advanced and seeing how other people with similar degree of hair loss and similar number of grafts done had much better results as if they never lost hair. I still look like I have thin hair and can only go for a combover haircut. I was thinking I could live a normal life without having to worry about hair at all like most other 25 year old. Now i still gotta worry about the see through look when the wind blows, under the sun or if hair gets wet.

[Noodles123]

These pictures make it really hard to gauge your true improvement. Take a few steps back from the camera and try to recreate the lighting.

[Garageland]

I like my hair,

 

I am sorry that you have expressed you are not entirely happy with the density of your hairline. Unfortunately sometimes expectations and actual results of hair transplant surgery are not always aligned. I am not familiar with your case but will make myself so and provide some further feedback.

 

In the meantime I see you have started a new thread asking for feedback I think it would be helpful for you to post the photos that Doug took following your meeting with Dr Wong this week on this thread rather than starting a new one.

[ILikeMyHair]

Edited May 29, 2015 by ILikeMyHair

[ILikeMyHair]

I just want to make clear that I'm not bashing or blaming Dr. Wong in this thread. Dr. Wong and his staff were very professional and offered to do 2 free touch ups without me asking them. I was just not happy with the density of it, but I am happy that I did the HT anyways because the hairline looks better than before. I had just thought that the hair wouldn't be see through which they are on the right side and that's what I'm not entirely happy with. I don't really expect Dr. Wong to do anything more for me because I know that results vary among patients and you don't always get what you expect. Also Dr. Wong ended up adding 1000 more grafts than what I paid for so he was very generous with me.

 

I don't know whether the see through look is because the density is missing or because my hair is naturally fine. Dr. Wong said that there is no more space to put more grafts in there so that probably means that I just have fine hair and that's why it seems a bit see through.

[MAGNUMpi]

I don't know whether the see through look is because the density is missing or because my hair is naturally fine. Dr. Wong said that there is no more space to put more grafts in there so that probably means that I just have fine hair and that's why it seems a bit see through.

I think HT hair is a generally a little "see though" in different lighting. Also having thin hair is going to make it even more so.

I was watching a movie last night (Someone Marry Barry) on netflix and I swear the lead guy "Barry" had a HT because in the wedding outdoor scene his frontal 3rd looked complete but also was pretty see through.

"see though?" might be a good new thread to start to have some feedback on the subject.