Should I Just Consider This A Failed HT...

[NewHare]

I guess I have just resigned myself that after a year and a half this is what I am left with.

 

I set out to try to conceal a harsh pluggy hairline and hopefully fill in behind it further concealing it and adding some density to the frontal third.

 

Though I see little to no change in density, no softening of the hairline and now I have what appears to be haphazardly placed hairs in front of a hairline which I must now try to hide. The hairs seem to create a discolored band around the edge of the hairline which is noticeable further away.

 

Placing a few single hairs in front of the plugs leaving a large gap between the hairs and the hairline has only drawn more attention to something I had asked to conceal.

 

I feel the grafts were placed too low with nothing behind them. Had they been placed closer to the hairline they may have aided in softening the plugs as opposed to drawing more attention to them.

 

I am now at a total lose as to what to make of this. Was I just a poor candidate ? Was this bad planning ?

 

I chose a 'Recommended Doctor' from this group, spoke with him often, made it clear what I wanted to achieve and yet I am left with this.

 

I need to understand what went wrong before I can move forward. I am hoping that those members here who are very skilled at looking over photos can shed some light as to what they see and what they make of this. Or possibly a doctor could shed some light on this. And if this should have been approached differently ?

 

Sadly I have to admit after all the time and money I invested I am embarrassed by this and find myself having to hide under a hat. The exact thing I wanted to get away from. From the few family and friends that I told, they have all said it does not look good at all.

 

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

NH

[mikeyhwk]

do you have before pics, any how many grafts went in, and how many did you have available. It doesn't sound like this is your first procedure unless im reading wrong, so just clarifying.

[Speegs]

How long after the surgery are these pics? Can we see pre op pics? How many grafts were placed?

[Spanker]

I would have to get an immediate post op pic to tell, but it is definitely low density below your previous hairline. it does look like it achieved the goal of softening the hairline, but if they were all placed below your old hairline, it doesn't look like it quite yielded 1500 grafts.

[TrixGlendevon]

Which doctor was it? How many grafts? FUT or FUE? Do you smoke or have you ever? Do you have an circulation/blood pressure problems?

[mattj]

To me it doesn't look like a failed HT, it just doesn't look very dense. I don't see any sign of any plugs. It would help to see how you looked before this procedure to determine whether the procedure was actually a failure or not. The result you have certainly doesn't look like a total disaster.

[NewHare]

Thanks guys... The procedure was 1500+ FUT about a year and a half ago. The photos are at a year. Nothing has changed since then.

Sorry I don't happen to have pre op photos. No I don't smoke or have a cardiac history. I am 60 though if that matters. And no, this is not my first procedure.

 

My concern is I requested to conceal the hairline and thicken immediately behind it. I don't see that that has been achieved. As for the pluggy hairline to me it is all too obvious, though I may not be the best judge of that. When it's us, we are usually far more critical of ourselves. I feel it is very obvious and easily seen, something this procedure IMHO did nothing to correct.

[mrfivehead]

Nothing wrong with the tramsplant result.

 

 

Thin hair requires more transplants for coverage.

[gillenator]

NewHare,

 

Some of the new grafts appear a bit mis-angled. It also appears that some of the prior grafts were mini-grafts to build your hairline. Many of them appear to larger than single hair grafts.

 

In addition, you have a wide color contrast which makes the larger grafts more noticeable.

 

Not sure how much donor that you have left but using an adequate amount of single hair grafts between the prior larger grafts would help a lot to soften it instead of having single hair grafts placed in front of it or below it.

[Bill - Seemiller]

NewHare,

 

Thanks for sharing your photos and your concerns on this forum. I think it would be helpful if you share a little more with this community. For instance, can you tell us how many grafts you had? When was the date of your procedure? When were these pictures taken? Can you take some additional photos showing multiple angles of your scalp?

 

It's weird because when I look at the thumbnails it looks rather "pluggy" but when I blow it up, it looks like a very thin looking hairline that suddenly thickens into a "second" hairline if that makes sense. It makes me wonder if you had more natural hair in the area of the "first" hairline that were "shocked" or eventually fell out, leaving you with only the transplanted hair in that area.

 

Admittedly, I wouldn't be happy with the look of the hair transplant at this stage however, I don't think it's fair to call it a "failed" hair transplant without knowing more. That said, what would make the transplant look much better would be to fill in the area between the "first" and "second" hairline which would smooth everything out so that there is only one and not two hairlines.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[NewHare]

NewHare,

 

Thanks for sharing your photos and your concerns on this forum. I think it would be helpful if you share a little more with this community. For instance, can you tell us how many grafts you had? When was the date of your procedure? When were these pictures taken? Can you take some additional photos showing multiple angles of your scalp?

 

 

 

 

Bill,

 

I received 1528 grafts as per the doctors paperwork. The procedure was in Jan of '16 and the photos were at the one year mark more or less. Don't recall exactly when. I will though take more photos and post them shortly.

 

 

 

It's weird because when I look at the thumbnails it looks rather "pluggy" but when I blow it up, it looks like a very thin looking hairline that suddenly thickens into a "second" hairline if that makes sense. It makes me wonder if you had more natural hair in the area of the "first" hairline that were "shocked" or eventually fell out, leaving you with only the transplanted hair in that area.

 

 

 

Yes I totally agree Bill, the thumbnails strangely are more representative of what my hairline actually looks like. The thumb nails are what I see when I step back and look into a mirror.

 

I'll try to clarify. I had my first procedures in late 80's or early 90's. They used the punch plug technique. (hideous at best).

 

Now here is what you are seeing... the "second" hairline as you said that "suddenly thickens" are the 80's plugs. The hairs in front of the plugs ( the "first hairline" as you said) are from the procedure I just had. There may be a few of my own original hairs mixed in there but the bulk are from the last procedure.

 

So in other words, I had a thick wall of plugs (from a procedure done in the late 80's) and now the doctor in my recent procedure placed the hairs you called the 'first' hairline in front of the plugs (as well as throughout the frontal third and in the crown). However as I had said, he left gaps between the plugs from the 80's and the hairs that he recently placed that look weird and draw more attention to the plugs. When something is out of place, the eye is drawn to it.

 

Or actually as you had mentioned it seems to look as if I have two ("first" and "second") hairlines. If I understood you correctly.

 

Had he placed them closer to the plugs leaving no gaps and maybe filling in between the plugs I believe it would look much better. As it stands now I can not say it looks good at all, especially with such an obvious difference between what was done back in the 80's and what he did last year.

 

To further clarify I re-posted the photos with a line separating the previously implanted plugs from the recent work.

 

 

 

Admittedly, I wouldn't be happy with the look of the hair transplant at this stage however, I don't think it's fair to call it a "failed" hair transplant without knowing more. That said, what would make the transplant look much better would be to fill in the area between the "first" and "second" hairline which would smooth everything out so that there is only one and not two hairlines.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

 

 

 

I agree, I am not happy either with the results. Had he placed them closer to the plugs softening them instead of further away creating what appears to be 'two hairlines' the end results would not have been so poor.

 

Knowing I had prior work and knowing I had a very limited amount of donor hair left I do not believe this was appropriate at all.

 

Also I'll just add I feel he put me in a worse position in that now what ever hairs I may have left will be spent/wasted trying to fill in the gap he created by dropping the hairline lower instead of being used more judiciously to soften the plugs. Which is what I had originally requested. In that I'm sorry to say I do feel it was a failure.

 

Regards, NH

[NewHare]

NewHare,

 

Some of the new grafts appear a bit mis-angled. It also appears that some of the prior grafts were mini-grafts to build your hairline. Many of them appear to larger than single hair grafts.

 

In addition, you have a wide color contrast which makes the larger grafts more noticeable.

 

Not sure how much donor that you have left but using an adequate amount of single hair grafts between the prior larger grafts would help a lot to soften it instead of having single hair grafts placed in front of it or below it.

 

 

 

Gil,

 

Would you mind clarifying what you meant by "you have a wide color contrast which makes the larger grafts more noticeable".

 

Yes, the prior grafts are actually 80's style plugs. I had questioned the doctor as to if they should be 'broken up' but he felt he could camouflage/soften them by just placing grafts.

 

Well considering I've had prior procedures I don't believe I have all that much donor hair left. I think now I may have to use what I have left to fill in the gaps left by the last procedure instead of using them to soften the plugs. Which is what I had originally set out to achieve.

 

 

NH

[NewHare]

I attached current photos taken in the last few days. This would make it 1 1/2 years since my procedure.

 

I believe they clearly still show the harsh pluggy hairline I previously had and what the doctor did to soften, camouflage and blend it into the sides. Which I believe did little to nothing to correct my problem.

 

I do hope this is not what I should expect if I decide to move forward with another doctor and procedure.

 

I compare (from the side view photos) my side temple hair which appears soft and natural to the harsh rigid hairline. This tells me that this last procedure did nothing to blend in and soften the hairline at all.

 

I would think a good HT would have blended the hairline to the sides softening it to the point where you wouldn't notice a difference between the two. Am I wrong ?

 

I would like to know what I need to do at this point to correct this situation since I find it difficult to go out in public looking like this.

 

Which doctor(s) would best be suited to correct this ?? I am reluctant though, as this was a 'coalition' doctor I went to. I'm hoping for better next time.

 

NH