A one-off stand alone HT feasible?

[jharte12]

Hi,

 

I am a 31 year old male. Diffuse thinning on top, NW4. Still have a reasonable amount of hair. I have been thinking about a one- off 2500 graft HT FUE. I cant take propecia/finasteride due to side effects. I can only afford one transplant as in the next few years I have a lot planned house, family etc and will not have the money for future. So my thought is a 2500 HT which will be plenty for me at the moment, if I keep most of my hair greta...it works, if I lose all the native hair because of the Fue I can buzz shave my head still and still have an amount of hair. Either way I will surely get 4,5 maybe 10 years of it looking good?

 

Thoughts on my plan??

[Mikey1970]

if you ask 10 different people you might get 10 different answers, but to my way of thinking HT surgery is quite a dramatic step & not something I would do if I wasn't going to be on meds.

 

it is traumatic when you wake up & begin seeing hair loss behind the transplants.

[Dolph1969]

Hard to tell without pictures. You could possibly get a reasonable amount of coverage, but not a lot of density with a one off procedure of 2500.

[Sean]

One-off stand alone transplants could be possible, but only in surgeons that are willing to perform surgery with a surgical protocol focused on patient safety. If a surgeon has your safety in mind, they can carefully perform a procedure that wikk make sure you have better chances of yield/growth. Not many docs follow such guidelines and it is imperative you look for those docs that dedicate their work and the entire surgery day for you. Good luck.

[chris39]

Go away and take your gibberish with you ( that's not to the OP by the way ! )

[Melvin- Admin]

One and done surgeries are 99.9% never the case, especially if you're a diffuse thinner, I know I'm a diffuse thinner too, you'll likely need 3-4 maybe in 5 surgeries in the course of your lifetime to achieve the desired look. There is also hair greed, you look good, then you think what if I looked even better, this scenario almost always happens.

[thisguy1]

Hi,

 

I am a 31 year old male. Diffuse thinning on top, NW4. Still have a reasonable amount of hair. I have been thinking about a one- off 2500 graft HT FUE. I cant take propecia/finasteride due to side effects. I can only afford one transplant as in the next few years I have a lot planned house, family etc and will not have the money for future. So my thought is a 2500 HT which will be plenty for me at the moment, if I keep most of my hair greta...it works, if I lose all the native hair because of the Fue I can buzz shave my head still and still have an amount of hair. Either way I will surely get 4,5 maybe 10 years of it looking good?

 

Thoughts on my plan??

 

It really depends on your goals. You wont be getting a full head of hair but you can work on addressing areas 95% of people view you from (the front).

 

If you are 31 and NW4 you are probably headed for 5/6 in a decade at which point 1 surgery over life wont satisfy you I imagine. Even with finasteride it would basically slow down the situation not stop it. So it might give you 5 years of stabilization and then a slower rate of loss after that. But off the medicine you probably will just follow the normal hair loss pattern - I was prob NW4 til mid 30s and then progressed from there (also not on any medicine at that time).

 

What I would suggest is plan for 2500 now and focus on the hairline, front half of scalp with conservative hairline. Then live with the idea you will lose hair in the back/crown. In 10 years hopefully you will get the house, family things set in place and maybe have some money saved for a second procedure. 2500 can do a lot of good to give you 5-6 years of a very good cosmetic effect.

 

A picture would help because if you are diffuse vs recession hair loss its a different game plan to a degree.

[Rashid36]

Good advice given, problem is if the donor area is limited and after 2000-3000 grafts max you don't have anymore.

 

Most talk about the back of the head for donor but what about the sides?

 

Also is there a difference between 3000 graft transplant and 3000 hairs transplant?

[chris39]

Good advice given, problem is if the donor area is limited and after 2000-3000 grafts max you don't have anymore.

 

Most talk about the back of the head for donor but what about the sides?

 

Also is there a difference between 3000 graft transplant and 3000 hairs transplant?

 

Yes , the no. of hairs transplanted will depends on the no. of hairs per graft . An average would be 2 hairs per graft , but range from usually 1 to 4 hairs per graft. So , if you're average , a 2000 graft procedure would equal 4000 hairs .

[YouOnlyLiveOnce]

To OP:

 

Like others have mentioned. Its hard to offer any real advice without pics.

 

Hair quality, type, caliber, color etc etc all need to be factored. Then of course, what you expect to realistically achieve. 2500 is not a lot of grafts though, when covering that much area.

 

I advise you to do some online consultations and see what the docs suggest.

 

 

Good advice given, problem is if the donor area is limited and after 2000-3000 grafts max you don't have anymore.

 

Most talk about the back of the head for donor but what about the sides?

 

Also is there a difference between 3000 graft transplant and 3000 hairs transplant?

 

The back and the sides are usually included in the estimate. They both are within the 'safe zone'.

 

If you don't have the donor bank, then you might not be the best candidate for surgery. It's unfortunate, but its true. Who gave you that estimation of 2k-3k grafts? If you watch the video I've linked below Dr. Erdogan explains why FUE might be best for someone like you. Its spreads the overall hair more evenly so it blends better. He seems to be a really good surgeon so you might consult with him and see if he has any options for you.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mpa1pSLPXQ

[Rashid36]

Another Harley street sales person, long story but they would not give a graft number they said we work on hair number.

 

I just watched the video some of the people in the video have more hair loss than me and they are been treated and it appears the back donor has also gone down.

 

Dear Mr.Rashid,

 

Thank you for your interest to our clinic. Dr.Koray examined your photos, according to his opinion, you have very large receding area and your donor capacity is not enough to perform this operation for you.

 

Thank you for understanding.

 

Best Regards,

 

 

I'm just thinking / hoping i would get a different opinion in person then the photos but they and others sound so sure?

[YouOnlyLiveOnce]

Whatever you do, don't go for the one Doctor that says yes, because the rest have said no. ESPECIALLY if its an unknown doc. The ones saying no might be saving you a lot of headache, heartache, and money.

 

Good luck, man.

[Indi9]

If you do it once, more than likely you will have to do it again. At the same time you have to preserve the rest of your remaining naturally grown hair which would obviously diffuse continuously leaving you with a very patchy looking head.

 

Best is to avoid it. Go ahead only if you can take medicines(bare minimum finasteride & multivitamins and minerals supplements) you can avoid minoxidil. The HT surgeon will prescribe these even after the surgery for the first 6 months at least to promote growth. I have known of FUE cases where folks who did not take the medicines did not get good growth.

 

Look for non surgical treatmemts and commit to HT only if you can take atleast one more shot at it. That said the pics will help!

[Rashid36]

Top advice,

The reasons for NO far out weigh a possible Ht and much safer.

Got to respect the men of the trade.

Rather be sad now then sorry in future!

[jharte12]

Here are pictures?

 

Opinions please.

 

I cant take finasteride due to sides. I do use Minoxydil and Nizorol Shampoo and the Lasercomb.

[Indi9]

Can u upload a frontal hairline pic? From the two pics u uploaded...you seem to be a good candidate for ht. The crown thinning can be controlled with minox, nizoral, saw palmetto n biotin.And based on your frontal receding ... You could go for 1500 to 2500 grafts.

 

I think u can go for it!

[thisguy1]

Here are pictures?

 

Opinions please.

 

I cant take finasteride due to sides. I do use Minoxydil and Nizorol Shampoo and the Lasercomb.

 

You are in a lot better shape than I assumed from your original post. When I think NW4 I think a lot of hair loss but you are diffuse but not super diffuse. From the back you dont look like you are losing any hair at all. Your sides look to be very high. Your forelock from this angle looks strong - some small % of guys keep their forelock no matter what even if they go NW5/6. Which looks really weird - but is a great thing if you get a HT as that saves a ton of grafts you'd have to use.

 

2000-2500 will do a lot of good for you, your top back of scalp is actually the worse spot right now and you can fill in any temple weakness and populate some in the mid scalp as well. Doctor will probably try to fill in behind your current hairline since you are not on fin and you will probably face some regression there in future. But with how little diffused you are in some spots you will get a really nice cosmetic result for I imagine 6-7 years and then maybe in a decade you might want to consider another. If your forelock is still around then, you may just need a small followup.

[Indi9]

You are in a lot better shape than I assumed from your original post. When I think NW4 I think a lot of hair loss but you are diffuse but not super diffuse. From the back you dont look like you are losing any hair at all. Your sides look to be very high. Your forelock from this angle looks strong - some small % of guys keep their forelock no matter what even if they go NW5/6. Which looks really weird - but is a great thing if you get a HT as that saves a ton of grafts you'd have to use.

 

2000-2500 will do a lot of good for you, your top back of scalp is actually the worse spot right now and you can fill in any temple weakness and populate some in the mid scalp as well. Doctor will probably try to fill in behind your current hairline since you are not on fin and you will probably face some regression there in future. But with how little diffused you are in some spots you will get a really nice cosmetic result for I imagine 6-7 years and then maybe in a decade you might want to consider another. If your forelock is still around then, you may just need a small followup.

 

Agree! Great advice

[Shera]

Hi JHarte, I would also agree with the previous poster, 2000-2500 grafts will make a big difference. You're not half as bad as you described yourself in your initial post.

 

Your donor looks really good, you appear to be a very good candidate for a hair transplant.

 

Feel free to PM me if you need any other advice and guidance.

[jharte12]

Here is a frontal pic....

 

If I was to get a good look for 6-7 years that would do me just fine.

 

After that I would probably just shave my head...I don't want to keep going back again and again...that's why I want FUE as it gives me the option of shaving my head after.

[Melvin- Admin]

You should shave down now to see if it's something you could live with, you may shave your head and realize you look good and not even need a transplant, or you could shave down and realize it's not something you may want to do in the future, I shaved my head for a year before getting a transplant, the only way I'll ever shave my head again is if I reach Norwood 7 and my donor is completely spent.

[jharte12]

Ive been looking at your pictures. They are impressive. Are you on finasteride??What was your total grafts...4000??

[Melvin- Admin]

Ive been looking at your pictures. They are impressive. Are you on finasteride??What was your total grafts...4000??

 

Nah not on finasteride only lipogaine and nizoral 2% I got about 4,000 total two surgeries.

[jharte12]

Nah not on finasteride only lipogaine and nizoral 2% I got about 4,000 total two surgeries.

 

Ya me neither.Im lloking at people who have had HTs without finasteride...you seem to have got a good look with 4000 grafts.congrats

[Garageland]

With the way that you wear your hair you can disguise your thinning areas quite easily I am sure at the moment. When I look at the hairline photo the front is going but the mid scalp is holding strong and I think the crown looks ok.

 

I don't think in your case there is such a thing as a stand alone ht without the use of meds. If you are looking at this as a short term thing to get a number of years with a good head of hair and then shave down then the front would be the way to go but I don't think you have enough loss here to provide a pattern that would be natural should you loose all you hair in the future.

 

To do this you need to establish coverage with a transplant throughout the frontal half of the scalp to tie up to the lateral humps. If you place 2000-2500 just in the front hairline it won't look natural long term if it all goes behind I have seen this many times and placing it behind the mid scalp would leave a even more unnatural pattern of hair.

 

I would bet good money that you will want to have a second surgery over the years as your hair loss continues. Even with FUE it is not just as simple to say ok I am done and shave it off. As HTsoon says if that is in your mind then try it first before having surgery you might like it and decide that is a good and much cheaper option, you might dislike it but at least you know whether this is a possibility for the future. Good luck in what you decide but keep doing your research before jumping in.