Shaving recipient area after FUE?

[gxm100]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm a young guy (23) losing pretty significant hair. I'd put myself at about a NW3, but things seem to continually get thinner. Anyway, I've got two questions. First off, I will soon begin propecia. If you don't respond to it and keep losing hair anyway, are you just SOL as far as hair transplants are concerned. In other words, will doctors not be able to/willing to help you? Second, if I respond to propecia and am able to get a HT in a couple of years...what would it look like if you were to shave the recipient area after FUE? I know the donor area has a spotted look, but I've never heard much about what the recipient zone would look like.

 

Thanks for the help!

[Letitgrow]

after about 6 weeks, i stared to shave my recip area because some of the hair didnt ever fall out and it just looked ugly, then as it SLOWLY started to grow in, it still looked really ugly. I kept shaving it until the 5 months mark. It definitely still looked ugly a few hours after the shave, like a 5 o clock shadow for your hairline, but decidely less ugly than the sporadic, pathetic cluster of random hairs that would have been there.

 

If you wait at least 6 weeks and use a clean razor/shaving cream, i dont think it should be harmful. my new hair is finally coming in full enough for me to just buzz everything down to a 2. I'll probably wait until the 7-8 month mark to start going for a hairstlyle.

 

long story short, youre going to look pretty ugly after FUE/FUT, ESPECIALLY if youre restoring your hairline, since that is what is out front in plain view. shaving the recip area til you see satisifactory growth seemed like the least of all evils to me.

 

background: I was basically born a NW II. it seems to run along my maternal side that we get early receded corners, but not much thinning behind it until 60 or so, making us unusually optimal candidates for an early (young age) transplant. but to answer your question, it definitely looks spotted after shaving. I'm pretty excited for the next 5 months.

[Brockstar]

I'm currently 3 weeks post op- 2500 grafts in the hairline. I personally thought I was going to be able to shave the recipient area and everything would blend together. It doesn't blend at all. The transplanted hair is much darker and the individual hairs are thicker than the native hair.

This is shaving with no guard on.

[gillenator]

Everyone responds differently both in terms of healing and regrowth. The recipient area heals rather quickly for most individuals (roughly 4-6 weeks). The spotted look from the scabs is usually gone in one month.

 

If you have a wide color contrast, meaning dark hair color against a fair complexion, the grafts may seem darker and thicker as they grow out as Brockstar mentioned.

 

But as everything grows out in length, the new hair and native hair blends together well in most cases.

[gxm100]

Hi guys,

 

thanks for the responses! However, really what I'm wondering is this - if I were to get a HT now, at the age of 23, and say in 5-10 my remaining native hair doesn't look great. If I decided at that point that I was okay with going bald, could I just shave the recipient area and buzz the rest of my hair? Or would there be scars where the hair was received.? I always read about how HTs are a bad idea at a young age and to the best of my understanding this is because you're most likely going to need further procedures if you want to keep your hair for life. However, considering I'm balding early, just making it to my 30s would be a huge win. All things considered, at that point, I think I'd be more willing to rock the bald look. Any input on this?

[gillenator]

Not sure why you would shave the recipient area and buzz the remaining native hair. It would probably be best to just sport a buzz cut evenly through the scalp.

 

And you would have to arrive at that point in life before knowing just how things would look.

 

As far as visible scarring goes, it really depends on two things. First, the skills and instrumentation of the surgeon, and second, how well you heal.

 

If there was a chance that some of the recipient incisions would show some slight scarring, this is where wearing a buzzed cut versus shaving down to the bare scalp would be better, visually speaking.

[gxm100]

Gillenator - very good point! haha. I guess I just kind of was under the impression that transplanted hair may look a bit odd if cut too short.