Seeking opinions about Transplant after 16 months

[JerryCornelius]

Hi all,

 

I had a hair transplant performed 16 months ago in October 2015 by Dr Martinick in Sydney. It was a FUT procedure of 2500 grafts to fill in the crown and the temples and I'd love to get some reactions from the folks here before I make any further decisions. I'll put a few photos in this post but there's more in the photo album.

 

I'm 43 now and my hair loss started at least 10 years ago. I was on finasteride for several years but stopped due to side effects. My hair loss seems stable - I quit the finasteride 4 years ago and because I didn't really notice any more thinning during that time I decided to opt for a transplant.

 

However after 16 months I don't feel that the outcome has been as successful as it should have been. While it's certainly an improvment there's still a lot of scalp showing through in any kind of normal lighting situation.

 

The Dr explained that the thinness in the scalp was due to several factors - the fact that my hair is quite fine, the fact that there is a high degree of contract between the hair and the scalp and also because of the way the hair had to be placed to re-create the swirl on the crown. (You can see in the first of my pictures the red dot on my scalp where the swirl begins.)

The temples also have a somewhat see-through appearance which doesn't seem right to me.

The Dr offered to thicken the scalp with a further 800 grafts at half price. So I guess my questions are:

 

Is the amount of growth reasonable for 2500 grafts after 16 months? Was I expecting too much from one procedure or am I right to have expected more growth?

 

Would another 800 grafts thicken the crown up?

 

Would you take that offer based on the results in the photos? Half price is a significant saving, of course but it seems from looking through this site that the general recommendation for Australians is to have the procedure done somewhere else. Maybe this would be a better use of my money and my donor hair! On the other hand the actual surgery with Dr Martinick was a very professional, pain-free and straight forward process. I'm having trouble deciding my next move. Any opinions would be welcome!

[aWidowsPeek]

I wouldn't do another strip especially for a measly 800 grafts. I do think that 800 would fix your crown though. What side effects did you have on finasteride?

 

I've never seen a great result from Dr Martinick so my opinion is to look elsewhere. Travel and get some great fue work done. Your hair looks good for being 43

[JerryCornelius]

The finasteride lowered my libido - it happened very slowly, though. I was on it for around 2 and half years so I didn't notice the process. At some point I just realised that things were not as they used to be and it seemed the finasteride was the culprit. I went off it and the libido returned to normal after about three weeks, thankfully!

 

I was fully expecting to go quite bald once I stopped the meds, but to my extreme relief it my hair loss seemed to be stable.

[aWidowsPeek]

I think our hairline design looks great it might just need a little more density. Maybe try rogaine foam on the crown? I'd personally just get some fue done on it.

[robc]

Just curious if the libido returned after you went off the Fin? If not, maybe is issue was just getting a little older.

I know my Libido started to wane around 40.

 

The HT looks very good, like said could maybe do a small FUE for the crown if desired.

[JerryCornelius]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

The libido actually did return, thankfully. Although it's true it has waned a bit since I turned 40.

 

Seems like FUE is the way to go. Does it produce better results than FUT? Or is it more that it's a less intrusive procedure?

[Spanker]

Imo, your probably wasting money in the crown not being on fin. The surgery doesn't look bad and this is probably a case of too few grafts for the area, especially since temple corners were closed.

 

I'd get a few consults, in person preferably.

[Mick50]

Trouble is it's difficult to know how much the crown is going to expand might be better off holding off for a while although i realise how annoying crown balding can be, when I first started losing my hair the crown pissed me off more than the front , in saying that I can see the sense in getting the front and mid-scalp done as priority to frame the face etc.

[JerryCornelius]

It's so true about the crown - that's the thing that makes me feel "balding" more than any thing else.

[Davis91]

Hello. It is actually hard to give full advise because the graft breakdown would be good (how many in front vs crown). That said it seems from the album photos that the docs did ok to go in the crown with grafts extending into zones that will be thinner later. So that spread out the grafts more and indeed likely 800 more into the crown would help a decent amount.

 

However the thin parts on the temples are not (based on photos) a satisfactory result. Unclear what happened here but either some grafts did not grow, or not enough placed. Also it looks like some double hair grants MAY have been used in the front of the temples vs singles which is not acceptable to produced a feathered effect. If you trust this doc and want to sty local then he should stand by his work and fix the front for free, and maybe you pay for the crown portion. Good news is your donor looks very good. You are actually in good shape hair wise for 43. It doesn't hurt to get a consult or two, and its possible some docs on this site in N. America or Canada can do an online/skype consult with you as a first step.

[Speegs]

I'd get a consult with your past surgeon, assuming you liked his work, crowns are tricky, and seem to require more work to cover than you might think.