Looking to go under again...but need some advice

[BaLdEnStEiN]

Hi everyone! I had work done back in 2010 (4000 grafts) with Hasson & Wong thanks to this forum and now 7 years later I'm looking to get more work done (FUE this time round). I was interested in either going to Turkey or Thailand due to significant cost savings but I'm not sure if this is the best idea...

 

Anyway, after contacting the office of Dr Erdogan, I was told that since I've already had a procedure done that they cannot perform FUE and I'm ineligible. Is this right? I've seen lots of patients go in for multiple procedures and I don't know why they said this. I have attached a few pictures to this thread for your guys' advice.

 

If you have any suggestions for where to get great quality FUE, please let me know! Thanks as always!

[Shera]

Hi everyone! I had work done back in 2010 (4000 grafts) with Hasson & Wong thanks to this forum and now 7 years later I'm looking to get more work done (FUE this time round). I was interested in either going to Turkey or Thailand due to significant cost savings but I'm not sure if this is the best idea...

 

Anyway, after contacting the office of Dr Erdogan, I was told that since I've already had a procedure done that they cannot perform FUE and I'm ineligible. Is this right? I've seen lots of patients go in for multiple procedures and I don't know why they said this. I have attached a few pictures to this thread for your guys' advice.

 

If you have any suggestions for where to get great quality FUE, please let me know! Thanks as always!

 

Hi,

 

Looking at your pictures,that's quite a large area to cover, personally I think you will need to utilise body hair(beard & chest) as well as your limited scalp donor hair. This may well be the reason why the other clinic turned you down for surgery.

 

That's also some scar you've got there, in your shoes I would probably grow my hair a bit longer at the back to hide it, if it bothers you of course.

 

As already mentioned, your scalp donor is a bit sparse but I think you could get between 2000-2500 grafts from there using FUE.

 

This will thin out your already thin scalp donor area and will make hiding the linear scar more difficult. It is important that you are aware of this. However, there are ways to attempt to somewhat mask the scar.

 

A further 500-1000 grafts can be obtained from your beard and chest area (if available, will need to see pics).

 

That's a possible 3500 grafts which coupled with your existing hair which I take it is implanted, will in my opinion give you a good aesthetic result, IE. creating the illusion of a full set of hair.

 

You will have the option of maybe going back for a 3rd session of roughly half the above mentioned grafts in order to increase density.

 

I hope that is useful for you, feel free to contact me anytime if you wish me to elaborate on anything.

Edited September 18, 2017 by Shera

[BaLdEnStEiN]

Sigh...that's unfortunate. Guess I'll just have to wait it out and see what's possible within the next few years

[Spanker]

I've seen lots of patients go that to. But, I would look at getting an in- person consult. If it were me, I may at least inquire about a scar revision. I also agree you would be looking at about 2500 grafts your first session with FUE. But with your hair cut so low, I'm not sure what you are going for. What are your goals?

[Wem1]

Hi BaLdEnStEiN,

 

I hope you don't mind me asking (still learning) as I am researching looking at your photos it would seem a lot of the 4000 grafts have not lasted the 7 years till now. How long did they last?

 

I thought a hair transplant if all goes well should be for life or am I wrong do they have a life span? From what I have seen on here Hassan & Wong seem incredible just has me thinking...

 

The only things I know of (still learning) that might affect the new grafts lasting are bad aftercare, someone with dupa hair loss, or hair that has been taken out of the safe zone

 

If Dr Erdogan saw the 4000 grafts did not last 7 year it wouldn't make sense to do the same again would it?

 

I am looking at the above with the thoughts of no native hair on top at the time of surgery 7 years ago.

[dan26]

If you're def set on FUE and looking to do the most possible with the amount of grafts available, I'd try a consult with Dr Lorenzo. He's usually up for a challenge and also takes body hair. Takes 3-4 weeks to hear back after you do the online consult though so keep that in mind.

[Sean]

Imo, FUT it all the way till you can. If you cant get FUE by a surgeon who does all the work in bits and pieces using only MANUAL punch then consider the other option. This is from someone who has had a lot of experience with FUE. It can become a nightmare and leave your donor jacked up with halos. Esp with surgeons that are wreckless with the extraction process, patterns, and unnecessary use of higher number of grafts, their surgical protocols, etc..

 

Do not risk yourself or your donor zone. Look at all the pluses and minuses and evaluate very carefully. Starting to think it isnt that straightforward as it seems. Best of luck.

[BaLdEnStEiN]

I've seen lots of patients go that to. But, I would look at getting an in- person consult. If it were me, I may at least inquire about a scar revision. I also agree you would be looking at about 2500 grafts your first session with FUE. But with your hair cut so low, I'm not sure what you are going for. What are your goals?

 

It's never been this short since I had the first procedure. It's actually a haircut blunder on my part for trying to do it myself haha. Normally it's a lot longer and styled differently with topic as filler. Goals was just more density since I've been losing my transplanted hair gradually and a bit faster than normal the past two years or so. It's a lot more difficult to achieve that appearance of fullness that I've enjoyed all these years.

[BaLdEnStEiN]

Hi BaLdEnStEiN,

 

I hope you don't mind me asking (still learning) as I am researching looking at your photos it would seem a lot of the 4000 grafts have not lasted the 7 years till now. How long did they last?

 

I thought a hair transplant if all goes well should be for life or am I wrong do they have a life span? From what I have seen on here Hassan & Wong seem incredible just has me thinking...

 

The only things I know of (still learning) that might affect the new grafts lasting are bad aftercare, someone with dupa hair loss, or hair that has been taken out of the safe zone

 

If Dr Erdogan saw the 4000 grafts did not last 7 year it wouldn't make sense to do the same again would it?

 

I am looking at the above with the thoughts of no native hair on top at the time of surgery 7 years ago.

 

Hi. The majority of the grafts are pretty much gone, and after comparing pictures from pre-op to the ones I posted, there are very little differences. After experiencing some side effects of fin, I had stopped taking it years ago, but the hairloss didn't really happen/accelerate until the past two years or so. Not quite sure why or how, but I was looking to get a chance to stretch this out for a while longer with another procedure.

[BaLdEnStEiN]

Imo, FUT it all the way till you can. If you cant get FUE by a surgeon who does all the work in bits and pieces using only MANUAL punch then consider the other option. This is from someone who has had a lot of experience with FUE. It can become a nightmare and leave your donor jacked up with halos. Esp with surgeons that are wreckless with the extraction process, patterns, and unnecessary use of higher number of grafts, their surgical protocols, etc..

 

Do not risk yourself or your donor zone. Look at all the pluses and minuses and evaluate very carefully. Starting to think it isnt that straightforward as it seems. Best of luck.

 

I was looking to avoid getting cut up again and dealing with either a bigger scar or a second one (is this how it works?). But now that you mention this, perhaps holding off until some future tech breakthroughs might be the way to go. Or possibly contacting that company in the UK who currently clones follicles and reduces damage while increasing grafts. Who knows really. Maybe I'll just stick with the buzzed look...but with special attention to covering the scar lol

[mattj]

Having had a procedure before shouldn't rule out having another one, whether it be FUT or FUE. That isn't an acceptable reason to say no to surgery. However, your donor density doesn't look great and you do have a large area to cover. It's possible that a second FUT procedure would be the best way forward, allowing you to wear your hair longer to cover the scar.

[Wem1]

Hi Matt and Sean,

 

After reading old threads on here and seeing many posts by you both I am hoping you could please give me your thoughts on the below (or anyone else who can please steer me in the right direction) as trying to get my head around things to choose a DR.

 

If I had a hair transplant with one of the best hair transplant centres in the world and my first and only HT of 4000 grafts all pretty much fell out as BaLdEnStEiN said his has 5 to 7 years later I belive my fist port of call would be to the surgeon who gave me HT to see why they have fallen out and also to see what they can do to fix this.

 

It doesnt make sense having another HT (when the first one which would probably at a guess have used the best grafts in the doner area) the same thing might happen again?

 

10 to 14 years later your left with a lot of scaring 10,000 hairs missing and nothing to show for it.

 

I am asking as I thought if a HT was a permanent solution not a quick fix.

 

Q1) if this happened to me Would I be wrong to go back to the surgeon 7 years later if the grafts fell out to get them to fix it?

 

Q2) In this type of situation are the grafts not supposed to be permanent?

 

I hope I'm not coming across as a pain in the you no what as that's not why I am asking and I hope BaLdEnStEiN does not mind me asking in his thread (please let me know if I should not be asking this here and I will delete this post).

 

 

Hi. The majority of the grafts are pretty much gone, and after comparing pictures from pre-op to the ones I posted, there are very little differences. After experiencing some side effects of fin, I had stopped taking it years ago, but the hairloss didn't really happen/accelerate until the past two years or so. Not quite sure why or how, but I was looking to get a chance to stretch this out for a while longer with another procedure.

[BaLdEnStEiN]

No problem at all werm, great questions. I too was under the impression that the transplant was a permanent solution; especially since I had lost the bulk of my hair from the top

[pkipling]

No problem at all werm, great questions. I too was under the impression that the transplant was a permanent solution; especially since I had lost the bulk of my hair from the top

 

Tbh, this is quite puzzling to me as well. Generally speaking, the transplanted hairs are taken from the "safe zone", meaning they're hairs that most likely won't be susceptible to MPB and they shouldn't fall out once transplanted. The fact that yours seem to have fallen out makes me wonder if you're one of the few guys who doesn't have a "safe zone" and are pre-dispositioned to lose all of your hair regardless, in which case, you may want to reconsider moving forward at all. This is something you should definitely address with a surgeon, preferably in an in-person consultation before you make a final decision.