Good Donor Hair for FUE? Advice Needed

[zbhair]

Hi,

 

I am about to take the plunge on booking an FUE procedure with Dr. Vories. How does my donor region look? I am looking at getting between 3500-4000 grafts done.

 

I am a little worried that this may thin out my donor are too much. What do you all think?

 

 

I greatly appreciate any help.

 

Z

[Britanium]

Your actual donor zone seems ok for such a procedure. Whats your long term goal though? as it would appear your Crown is already going?

How is the rest of your head?

[Britanium]

Are you only wanting to go FUE. in your position I would max out on FUT first. You would not get any thinning in the area your worried about. This is the route I took. And I still can now tap in to BHT if needed.

[Melvin- Admin]

Donor region looks good, it seems you have thick caliber hair too, I don't recommend getting 4,000 grafts FUE at once, it's better to do FUE in sessions, how old are you? Are you on any hairloss prevention fin or minoxidil?

[zbhair]

Are you only wanting to go FUE. in your position I would max out on FUT first. You would not get any thinning in the area your worried about. This is the route I took. And I still can now tap in to BHT if needed.

 

Yes i currently only want FUE, as i like to keep my hair relatively short.

 

Donor region looks good, it seems you have thick caliber hair too, I don't recommend getting 4,000 grafts FUE at once, it's better to do FUE in sessions, how old are you? Are you on any hairloss prevention fin or minoxidil?

 

currently Im progressing to a NW VI, I have attached a pic of the top of my head(lighting is pretty bad) . Why do you not recommend going with 4000 at once?

 

I'm not currently on anything(Never have taken Fin). I used lipogaine for a period of 6 months, but stopped over a year ago and noticed a good amount of loss since then.

 

Greatly appreciate your help.

 

Z

[Britanium]

Your most likely to get a better result in doing less FUE in one sitting. Don't forget you still get tiny scars from FUE too. That a large area you have to cover. I would personally look at FUT if you go to a decent Dr this scar would be miminal (hopefully) I have scars from my FUT and also from multiple FUE - I had similer area to cover. I was able to get 10,000 + grafts by doing both FUT then FUE - my FUE and FUT scars are both visible if my hair is too short.

[thatoldchestnut]

Agree with John tbh, you're 27 with relatively advanced hairloss. In all likelihood you're going to need future procedures and it'd be in your best interest to maximise your potential donor. I would probably give some serious thought to FUT/FIN. Just my opinion though, all the best with whatever you decide

[zbhair]

Agree with John tbh, you're 27 with relatively advanced hairloss. In all likelihood you're going to need future procedures and it'd be in your best interest to maximise your potential donor. I would probably give some serious thought to FUT/FIN. Just my opinion though, all the best with whatever you decide

 

Thank you for the suggestion, I'm still in the process of deciding. I just really dont want to have to deal with a scar. I usually keep my hair at a 1 or 2 guard, so the scarring from FUT really bothers me. I haven't used fin yet, so I am going to start suing Fin/Minox to try and slow down the loss.

[Melvin- Admin]

Get back on lipogaine asap, I don't recommend FUE mega sessions because transection rate i.e grafts cut in half is much higher, that is the only benefit FUT has over FUE in my opinion, you can cut a huge slab of meat and dissect thousands of grafts safely at once, you can't do this with FUE, I've done two sessions of FUE firs session was midscalp 1,850 grafts, second session was 2,120 grafts to the hairline total of 4,000 grafts, take a look at my profile my hairloss was pretty much like yours. I also don't believe that FUT preserves the donor region anymore than FUE, 4,000 grafts taken via FUE or FUT our gone forever no matter what. The thought that somehow those grafts taken FUT don't change your donor area or that it's still considered virgin is ridiculous, personally I would take an overall thin donor area then a scar from ear to ear, but that's just me if you don't care about scars go FUT.

[MrGio-WHTCClinic]

The contrast between your light fair skin and dark hair color is a significant factor. Your donor density looks weak because your hair is fine and straight. There are no guarantees that you can restore even 80% of what you may lose as a class IV, potential class VI.

 

Did the surgeon tell you what your donor density measured? The available medications might stabilize you and allow you to better calculate where you will be on the hair loss scale. You want to do surgery with a more conservative approach. Pursue surgery with the mindset that it will continue until you can better plan for the full extent of your progressive hair loss. What is important is the future, not 12 months from now.

 

The surgery should be your last resort. You should consider using lipogaine with finasteride for at least a year, and at that point, your doctor and you might better manage your donor resources for the future. I would prioritize your goals and research the doctor's long-term plan for the future. Also find out what density is planned for the areas of concern. The crown will expand, so you should expect it to be bald and the frontal third to have a certain measure of density, depending on how your prioritize goals.

 

Surgery is usually a long-term commitment, as well as medical therapy. A 'one and done' view point is not realistically the case with solely hair transplantation as the treatment plan for hair loss.

[JohnCasper]

"Zbhair", I've had two procedures with Dr. Vories. The first was a mega-session (5,125) grafts over several days in 2012. I then had 2,000 more grafts done in January of this year. My results were fabulous. As a matter of fact, I was on display in Chicago during the Live Model session at the International Hair Restoration Conference a couple months ago. At the conference the surgeons were most impressed with my results and especially how good my donor area recovered. You cannot tell I've lost any of the +7,000 grafts, in fact, several docs told me to have another procedure to thicken the crown area. Every patients donor area is different but Dr. Vories has great judgment on what, where, and how many grafts to extract based on your balding pattern and age.

 

Like you, I too...did not want the lengthy linear scar on the back of my head from FUT. Also, my pictures of the donor area prior to my second procedure showed no visible scarring. Clearly, there are tiny scars from the original extractions but even with a nearly shaved head, they are indistinguishable.

 

Best of luck, you will be very pleased with Dr. Vories professionalism and certainly his artisan type precision. Best of luck, you have a lot to look forward to.

[zbhair]

Thank you all for the responses! All of this information has been extremely helpful. I have been in contact with various doc's recommended by this site, and all of them (minus Dr. Vories) have told me I have a weak donor area(based on photos). Very unfortunate, but as they say you have to "work with what you got"

 

Who do you all think is the best FUE surgeon in the US?

[hairlosscpa]

Your donor looks very similar to mine. Dr. Konior was willing to perform FUE on me (approx 2000 grafts). I ended up going with Vories (2500 grafts). I am 2 months post-op and my donor area does look thin right now but it's all hopefully part of the healing process.

 

From the pic you first posted I can't see why all doctors minus Vories says its too thin. Maybe due to the much larger area you need covered compared to what I needed.

[Melvin- Admin]

Pictures can be deceiving, I think the best thing you can do is set up a consult with a good doctor in your area and have him/her look at your donor density and measure it, they can also check for minituarization, this is the best way to go about things, my donor was like yours and I've done 4,000 grafts thus far and it looks thinner yes, but not terrible this is what it looks like at a 1 guard.

[zbhair]

Pictures can be deceiving, I think the best thing you can do is set up a consult with a good doctor in your area and have him/her look at your donor density and measure it, they can also check for minituarization, this is the best way to go about things, my donor was like yours and I've done 4,000 grafts thus far and it looks thinner yes, but not terrible this is what it looks like at a 1 guard.[/Q

 

Yeah that does not look bad at all. I like to keep my hair short on the back and sides and would not mind having the same result you have. I think you are right about the in person consult, and miniaturization.

[August]

A generally good advice to anyone graduating towards NW6 is to consider abstaining from hair transplants and instead try a hairpiece -especially if your donor is not above average. Using a hair piece you would transform a NW6 toNW1 instantly and without the hazzle of transplantations. If you find yourself happy with a hairpiece except the issues with the hairline, then you can transplant just the hairline and use a hairpiece behind it.

Definitely worth considering in your case.

[JohnCasper]

"zbhair", if you check out my blog site you can see what to expect. I only use this site for before and after photos of both of my surgeries with Dr. Vories. This HTN forum is great for the conversations. My site is ... myfuehairtransplant.com Look at the archives and see what you can expect going forward. Best of luck to you.

[MrGio-WHTCClinic]

Having your density checked and monitored is the best way to know what is happening. You seem to have a good amount of hair on top, so surgery should not be the only option to consider as beneficial.