29 yr old Crown : HT or SMP?

[livinla]

Hi Guys,

 

First of all , thanks to all the forum users and moderators for the wealth of information here. Really helps all of us guys in here.

 

Coming to myself - I'm 29 years now from India and I have had thinning since early 20s. I had transplant to the front of about 1800 grafts for the hairline and the result is mildly satisfying. It's neither great nor worse. I am a diffuse thinner with fine hair. Now I look back after an year of transplant - I see my crown has had thinned a lot and there's a considerable bald spot which has been bothering me quite a bit and has taken a hit on my confidence.

 

I will post the pics of my crown currently in various lightings. Could you guys please see and suggest if FUE on crown is the way to go for me and also suggest how many grafts would be great for a decent coverage. With toppik fibres currently , none gets to know that my crown is thinning but using it daily and with rains/ wind - there is always this fear of losing the mask.

 

I come a culture where traditionally hair is seen as something very important and is probably an aspect when I plan to marry. So really appreciate what you guys would think and would be the best way to go .

 

Here are the options I am exploring currently :

 

1. Get 1000-1200 grafts to the crown with no-shave FUE from Dr Bhatti

2. Get SMP done with long hair done from A's clinic to conceal the thinning and plan an HT in future

 

The end goal is to not worry about hair for atleast 2-3 years down the lane again.

 

 

What do you guys think. Any input is appreciated. I am really confused and looking for answers

[Speegs]

How short or long do you intend to wear your hair?

[MrGio-WHTCClinic]

Hi Guys,

 

First of all , thanks to all the forum users and moderators for the wealth of information here. Really helps all of us guys in here.

 

Coming to myself - I'm 29 years now from India and I have had thinning since early 20s. I had transplant to the front of about 1800 grafts for the hairline and the result is mildly satisfying. It's neither great nor worse. I am a diffuse thinner with fine hair. Now I look back after an year of transplant - I see my crown has had thinned a lot and there's a considerable bald spot which has been bothering me quite a bit and has taken a hit on my confidence.

 

I will post the pics of my crown currently in various lightings. Could you guys please see and suggest if FUE on crown is the way to go for me and also suggest how many grafts would be great for a decent coverage. With toppik fibres currently , none gets to know that my crown is thinning but using it daily and with rains/ wind - there is always this fear of losing the mask.

 

I come a culture where traditionally hair is seen as something very important and is probably an aspect when I plan to marry. So really appreciate what you guys would think and would be the best way to go .

 

Here are the options I am exploring currently :

 

1. Get 1000-1200 grafts to the crown with no-shave FUE from Dr Bhatti

2. Get SMP done with long hair done from A's clinic to conceal the thinning and plan an HT in future

 

The end goal is to not worry about hair for atleast 2-3 years down the lane again.

 

 

What do you guys think. Any input is appreciated. I am really confused and looking for answers

 

The crown is a difficult area to restore, especially if your hair line continues to recede.

[livinla]

How short or long do you intend to wear your hair?

 

Definitely not short. I want to keep as long as its shown in pics

[livinla]

The crown is a difficult area to restore, especially if your hair line continues to recede.

 

 

I understand that but the hairline is pretty stable now and what do you think of transplant / SMP for crown in the current situation?

[livinla]

Guys , Any inputs or suggestions on this? I do not want to take a bad step at this crucial juncture

[Bill - Seemiller]

livinla,

 

I'm not sure if you said this or not, but did you undergo strip/FUT or FUE in the front for the 1800 grafts? In my opinion, unless you are very concerned about wearing your hair incredibly short on the sides and back of your head, I would undergo FUT/strip for the crown. You are going to need a large number of grafts for the amount of thinning you have while saving some in reserve for future thinning. I personally would go with FUT/strip assuming you are a good candidate for it and get as many grafts as possible to fill in the thinning areas. Later down the road, you can always get FUE to add more grafts once you have no more available via strip or even fill in the FUT scar if you are concerned about it. But even most FUT/strip scars are very thin and you can still wear your hair quite short without anyone noticing a scar.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[aWidowsPeek]

Livinla have you tried Finasteride and Rogaine foam? Give those a shot before you get a ht on your crown. SMP is a joke in my opinion.

[livinla]

livinla,

 

I'm not sure if you said this or not, but did you undergo strip/FUT or FUE in the front for the 1800 grafts? In my opinion, unless you are very concerned about wearing your hair incredibly short on the sides and back of your head, I would undergo FUT/strip for the crown. You are going to need a large number of grafts for the amount of thinning you have while saving some in reserve for future thinning. I personally would go with FUT/strip assuming you are a good candidate for it and get as many grafts as possible to fill in the thinning areas. Later down the road, you can always get FUE to add more grafts once you have no more available via strip or even fill in the FUT scar if you are concerned about it. But even most FUT/strip scars are very thin and you can still wear your hair quite short without anyone noticing a scar.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

 

 

Thanks for the reply Bill. I did undergo FUE before.

 

How many grafts do you think would give a better coverage? The only problem going aggressive coverage now is if the baldness in the crown expands and transplanted hair stands in between.

 

 

@aWidowsPeek : I am on fin at the moment for the past 2 months which stabilised the hairfall but Rogaine gave me too much itchiness and pimples. I was also apprehensive about SMP with long hair but the clinic after reviewing the pics said that it would be definitely possible to mask the baldness.

[Melvin- Admin]

Here's the dilemma your crown has not expanded yet, but it will, so filling it up now could prove to be a problem in the future where you could potentially have a donut hole of hair, here's my advice, change your hairstyle, I was doing a side part with the crown fully exposed, I got a procedure for the crown last year which was successful but I only got 1,300 grafts which was spread out to the crown and midscalp. Since then I've switched to slicking my hair back, this provides full coverage at the back, because the strong hairs layer over the crown, if you're worried about rain, switch to dermmatch.

 

I made a video on YouTube when I was on vacation in Bali, I did water rafting, water tubing, parasailing, I had my hair under water, the dermmatch with hair spray and pomade was So hard to get out of my hair, even after I took a shower with shampoo it was still in my hair. The only time it came off was white water rafting when the right helmet made my hair clump together thus exposing more scalp.

 

Check it out I would hold off for now if concealers are working for you

 

 

[livinla]

Here's the dilemma your crown has not expanded yet, but it will, so filling it up now could prove to be a problem in the future where you could potentially have a donut hole of hair, here's my advice, change your hairstyle, I was doing a side part with the crown fully exposed, I got a procedure for the crown last year which was successful but I only got 1,300 grafts which was spread out to the crown and midscalp. Since then I've switched to slicking my hair back, this provides full coverage at the back, because the strong hairs layer over the crown, if you're worried about rain, switch to dermmatch.

 

I made a video on YouTube when I was on vacation in Bali, I did water rafting, water tubing, parasailing, I had my hair under water, the dermmatch with hair spray and pomade was So hard to get out of my hair, even after I took a shower with shampoo it was still in my hair. The only time it came off was white water rafting when the right helmet made my hair clump together thus exposing more scalp.

 

Check it out I would hold off for now if concealers are working for you

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply HTSoon. I have closely followed your entire thread on crown procedure . Its great to have you reply here . I will try the comb over to see if it has any effect. Right now , the concealers are doing the trick for me but the idea is to cover balding spots in the crown conservatively for now with about ~1000 grafts ( Dr Bhatti's estimate) . But I am also worried about the expanding crown in future and an unusual donut of hair. I will message you personally on your experience for more details

[mattj]

I'm a big fan of what I see coming out of the SMP clinics, but what is the main thing you notice about SMP patients? They're keeping their hair buzzed very short. If you plan on keeping your hair at the length in the photos I don't see SMP as a solution for you.

[livinla]

Thanks mattj.. I also have seen great results of SMP with buzz cut but I heard it also can be used for giving a dense effect for long hair . Probably I am not suitable candidate in that case either given that the existing hair is very thin

[Shampoo]

I think you should consider doing BOTH....transplant & SMP....and I predict you probably will end up doing both.

 

Get the transplant....in a 1-1.5 years post transplant you can determine how much coverage the transplant provided....then get the SMP to further "thicken" the look and you will know exactly where to place the SMP.

 

The crown is a challenge, but elite surgeons are better these days at spreading the hair across the crown so even if further loss happens in most cases it won't be the extreme donut look.

 

I would like to further thicken my crown with SMP, but am still concerned about the ink being in my bloodstream and lingering in my lymph nodes.

[mattj]

Thanks mattj.. I also have seen great results of SMP with buzz cut but I heard it also can be used for giving a dense effect for long hair . Probably I am not suitable candidate in that case either given that the existing hair is very thin

 

The SMP does darken the scalp in the areas treated, which can in a way act like a concealer product in some cases. But with your fairly low density in the crown area, if you had SMP (and kept your hair at the length in the photos) you would have an unusual contrast between the stubble effect of SMP and the longer hair surrounding it.