Are hair transplant 'slow growers' really a thing?

[Transhair]

Looking through other hair transplant patients, I've never really seen anyone that fits the slow grower definition where someone doesn't grow until late and then booms with hair at 6+ months. The people that get told they're a slow grower almost always look disappointing in the final result.

Looking at my own head at 6 months, I seem to have 30 grafts/cm in the best of areas, 10 grafts/cm in worse bits and even a spot which has grown no hair at all. So my hair count is 50% at best and gets much worse towards the middle of my head.

I was told that the final result is to be seen at 9 months, but I just don't see it improving much...

 

Is it really realistic to expect much more hairs to suddenly start growing past this point in time?

[Spanker]

I've seen a lot of cases that there is a very nice difference from 6 months to 12 months. Look at some if doctor Alexander's posts that he has a 6 month case and updates at 12.

 

There was one guy on here that had very underwhelming results at 8 months and he was very happy after 12, so the short answer is yes.

[KO]

I have not seen a case with disappointing results at 9 that turned out well.

[fisher4man]

I have not seen a case with disappointing results at 9 that turned out well.

 

You have seen....... (you found yourself and brang the first page :rolleyes:)

 

And, do you say Bill is a liar?

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/177535-heartbroken-mental-breakdown-what-all-i-have-say-7.html

 

Originally Posted by Bill, Managing Publisher; But it's also possible that you are a late bloomer and that you have a lot more growth to come. Some hair transplant patients experience new growth up until the 18 month.

[Loags79]

I have had secondary shedding from 5 months on. In other words the early growing hairs have shed and I am experiencing growth in the late bloomers. The net effect is a "perceived" non growth or no difference from 5 months vs 7 months. I would expect shedding of the late bloomers at 9-10 months.

Hair growth after ht has a cycle. People show allow at least 12 months to pass judgement.

 

transhair. You have better growth at 6 months than the average I've seen. I'm certain at 15 months you'll see the results. Also keep in mind you ht will not be as dense as your native hair. You have dense but thin native hair which is tricky to blend with only 1 HT. You may need a 2nd pass imo.

[Transhair]

I understand it won't be as dense as my native hair, but it should look pretty close.

About 70 grafts per cm compared to 98-110 grafts/per cm of my native hair if I remember my normal hair correctly.

[Cryingoutloud]

As I said in another thread, I think the slow grower thing only applies in very rare instances. I genuinely believe that it's wheeled out in cases where, putting it bluntly, a surgeon has botched the procedure and he tells the patient to wait a full 18 months for the final result. The fact that this practice is now echoed almost uniformly by the surgeons, their reps, the moderators and the cheerleaders is further reason to take it with a drum of salt.

 

As I said elsewhere, I had a very disappointing result from a procedure with a highly-revered and respected surgeon recommended by this forum. I had waited 8 months before I saw sparse, weak growth and went back to the doctor for an explanation. He suggested I was a "SLOW GROWER" and asked me to give it the full 12 months which I duly did.

 

At 12 months, I took it back to the surgeon who told me to wait the full 18 months after which, if I wasn't happy, he would give me another 500 grafts free of charge. I waited the 18 months like an idiot and then declined because I simply didn't think he could get me to where I wanted to be.

 

I got a refund and went to another coalition surgeon.

 

I half expected to wait another 8 months for growth to start so imagine my amazement when - just like the guys with the killer results on this forum - my growth started in month 4 and it's still going strong 6 months post op.

 

I thought, "Wait a minute; didn't my first surgeon say I was a slow grower? Oh yeah, of course; that was pure, unadulterated bullshit because here I am growing like champ".

 

I concede that the slow grower DOES exist but the SMART patient will be getting the ball rolling on a refund as soon as he's 6 months post op with crap growth.

 

I realise that refunds are a very contentious issue but considering the surgeons and their reps are happy to be perceived as knocking results outta the park 98% of the time, they ought to open the till and sort people out in the paltry 2% of cases they'd have us believe are failures.

[KO]

You have seen....... (you found yourself and brang the first page :rolleyes:)

 

And, do you say Bill is a liar?

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/177535-heartbroken-mental-breakdown-what-all-i-have-say-7.html

 

Please explain where I have found one?

[KO]

Hey transhair, I assume you are an M ==> F transgender. Did you see any noticeable regrowth from the estrogen taken? Some people claim that topical estrogen provides good regrowth, but I have yet to see these.

[mikeey]

I totally believe in the Refund story becos if the surgeon has 98% results then he / she is already earned from the 98% clients , so they can easily spare the Money back to the Poor guy who is a rare among the 2 % ppl whose Transplant failed , Not only will the 2 % Guys feel Happy it will also Nourish the Name of the Doctor , and will atleast make the Unhappy Patient feel somewhat Happy if at all !

 

The Moderators on this forum shud get this in writing from all the Doctors that are "Recommended" Here , Make it a Rule , After all these Docs are getting simply SUPER Publicity without Paying a Dime ! and they get Huge Businesses along with experience and Respect !

 

If I recall the Female ( Transgender ) is Dr. Radha's Patient , I believe she shud call up Radha , in all Respect I am 100 % she will do as much as she can . she is a Ace doc here anyways !

[fisher4man]

Please explain where I have found one?

 

Please reply my question first.

 

Is Bill a liar?

 

Then I will remind you 2 examples of late growers you have already known but seem to forget.

[Transhair]

Yes, I'm mtf transgender.

When I emailed radha I was told that growth isn't expected in 6 months and I should wait until month 9 for the full result.

So im waiting, but not extremely hopeful

 

Also dutasteride, cyproterone acetate and estrogen caused no regrowth at all for me unfortunately.

[KO]

Please reply my question first.

 

Is Bill a liar?

 

Then I will remind you 2 examples of late growers you have already known but seem to forget.

 

Yes bill is a liar. Now show the examples.

[fisher4man]

Yes bill is a liar. Now show the examples.

 

Write Bill's name correct, not bill , write " Bill-Managing Publisher is a liar."

 

Examples are ready, do not worry about them.

Edited November 28, 2014 by fisher4man

[KO]

Write Bill's name correct, not bill , write " Bill-Managing Publisher is a liar."

 

Examples are ready, do not worry about them.

 

Bill-Managing Publisher is a liar.

Edited November 29, 2014 by David - TakingThePlunge

[fisher4man]

Bill-Managing Publisher is a liar.

 

You did not need to answer my question saying that. You had a lot of possibilities, explanations as an answer, but you have simply selected that. So I assume this is your honest reply and reflect your objective idea about the forum moderator.

 

At this point, I am asking you, would you like to change or delete your answer? You can do this and we can forget all. But, if you stay behing your word, you should accept that this would be your voluntary statement and genuine opinion about our forum moderator Bill.

 

Are you behing your overt word about Bill-Managing Publisher ?

 

Note: I simply asked you an answer to my question and even you change it, I will have to give your answer.

[KO]

Goodbye troll, you remind me why there needs to be an "ignore" button.

[TakingThePlunge]

As to whether or not there are really slow growers, the answer is yes. How do I know? I was a slow grower and you can read all about it in my blog. See the link below.

 

It can be maddening waiting for hair growth after surgery. Lots of guys latch on to the 3 month or 6 month milestones and expect dramatic results. I was quite disappointed with my own growth at 8 months post-op. So much so that I decided to quit updating until 10 months. What I saw during that interval was a substantial change.

 

I continued to see improvement beyond the one year mark. I have n o reason to believe I'm unique as I've heard others share similar experiences.

 

I keep hearing the Internet conspiracy theorists/alarmists accusing doctors of using this as an excuse to get out of addressing the issue but I've never seen that happen. Instead, what I see are doctors urging patients to be patient and wait out the universally agreed upon time frame for hair transplant maturation. Yes, it takes one full year for a hair transplant to mature. Yes, some will see results sooner than that. Yes, some will continue to see improvement beyond that. What is wrong with waiting full term if the physician has already committed to addressing the problem if the result truly turns out to be subpar.

 

I want to clarify there that I am by no means stating that a transplant that appears to be a complete failure at 9 months is going to blossom into a successful result in 3 more months but why not wait it out?

[Sean]

i think 6 to within 12 months timeframe is realistic. however, ive been told by the clinic, since i am a repair patient, it may take a little longer since i have not seen any changes yet, and i had my repair procedure july 2014.

[Cryingoutloud]

 

I want to clarify there that I am by no means stating that a transplant that appears to be a complete failure at 9 months is going to blossom into a successful result in 3 more months but why not wait it out?

 

There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with waiting it out. All I'm saying is that one should already have begun laying the ground work for a follow-up procedure (if you still have faith in the surgeon) or some kind of refund (if you don't).

 

I'd be interested in your theory as to how, in my case, I was a "slow grower" for one doctor but a normal grower for another.

[Bill - Seemiller]

I am really confused as to why and how I am being called out here. It also looks like a post under the "KO" account came from one of our moderators?

 

KO,

 

The above said, if you think I'm a liar you need to get your facts straight. Ask any quality hair transplant surgeon about delayed growth and slow growers. The phenomenon is a real thing and does happen. I have personally seen several cases where late bloomers ended up satisfied with their results. That said sometimes cases that we hope are late bloomers simply are cases of poor growth. Clearly that happens too.

 

But if you are going to call me a liar, I think you better get your facts straight or clarify your position since you are clearly wrong. Just because you haven't seen or don't recall cases of late growth doesn't mean it doesn't happen especially when every hair transplant surgeon will agree with me and many have seen cases like this occur.

 

Bill

[TakingThePlunge]

I'm not sure what happened with my response to KO. Somehow I managed to place it in his post rather than as a response. I must have hit edit instead of reply.

 

In response to KO's comment,

Yes bill is a liar. Now show the examples.

 

I asked for clarification and expressed that I'd hoped this was not his true opinion.

 

KO provided clarification in a private message explaining that his comment was not to be taken literally and was simply a response to fisher4man.

 

Thank you for clearing that up. Although I had suspected as much, it may not have been as clear to everyone else as it was to you. I suggest using emoticons to underscore the feeling behind such comments.

[Cryingoutloud]

Still, I thought the statement that patients are still sprouting new hairs 18 months post op was a bit of a stretch.

[Loags79]

this topic has escalated into something stupid, can't make sense what people are arguing about really.. moving on.

 

Transhair, I looked at your 6 months and your recipient area is still pink. This indicates to me that you have not completely healed in that area yet. My recipient area was back to normal at 4.5 months. With this in mind, expect significant growth only when the pinkness goes away completely. Also in term of graft density, I don't think you'd have much more than 50/60 grafts per cm2 as I don't think Radha does high density packing as this runs the risk of graft necrosis. You're HT growth so far looks good, just be patient at wait it out til 12 months.

[hadenough2014]

this topic has escalated into something stupid, can't make sense what people are arguing about really.. moving on.

 

This is the definition of most internet discussions