Advice on next hair transplant

[Ronnie99]

Hello folks,

 

 

 

Firstly thanks to everyone who provide their opinions regularly on this forum, although this is my first post many of you have provided me with a lot of useful information over the past couple of years.

 

 

 

My story: Currently 22 years old male from London, started losing my hair at a very young age, got an FUE transplant at the age of 21!! In this thread I do not want to say who was my chosen surgeon, as I am going to write a full thread on my experience and before/after pictures etc. So at the time of my transplant I was on propecia, but unfortunately I had to stop taking the drug due to sides 6 months ago. I now use Finasteide gel (topical). Anyway, I had 3000 FUE grafts and it was an amazing result, however my hair loss is progressing and it doesn't look as good now. I use toppik and with that it looks good.

 

 

 

My plans: So I think a few people will think that my best option would be to wait, but I am planning on getting another hair transplant. My donor area is no longer plentiful, but I have been told I have 3,000-4,000 scalp hair remaining. I am thinking about going to Dr Umar for a transplant consisting of 1/3 scalp and 2/3 beard grafts, and adding density to the whole top of my head. I would keep the hair buzzed down and combine it with temporary smp. Dr Umar said that from the pictures, he estimates this could be achieved with 3,000-4,500 grafts (1/3 scalp, 2/3 beard). My thinking is that, say if I got 4,500 grafts, that would bring my total up to 7,500 grafts. This should provide adequate coverge in the nw5 area, right?

 

 

 

The purpose of this thread was to get impartial advice, I am already grateful for all that I have learned from this forum, and would appreciate some advice on my specific case.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Ronnie

[Ronnie99]

Hi spex, thanks for your comment.

 

My question would be, I understand that hair loss is progressive, but if I cover the top of my head in grafts, would this not cover me for a nw6 in the future?

 

I would prefer to act before I’m left looking unnatural.

 

Cheers

[Ronnie99]

Also Spex,

 

Do you find that beard grafts are inconsistent in terms of survival? Or inconsistent in aesthetic appearance? (eg too coarse/wiry etc).

 

 

Thanks again for the help

[JayLDD]

Dr. Umar BHT results are usually cosmetic improvements but they never look natural or what I would consider acceptable results in the general sense. If you were happy with the first result I don't know why you wouldn't go back there. Beard grafts are a last resort, not something to play around with to jerk off the egos of some of the Dr. Frankensteins in the transplant industry to prove they know how to get beard grafts to yield.

Edited March 26, 2018 by JeanLDD

[Sean]

Beard, nape, chest hairs should be a last resort. It does not look natural at all imo. Im talking from experience. My hair looks terrible right now. I am hoping it is rectified soon. Yield is off and it looks worse.

 

Definitely, should re-evaluate eveything.

 

If you get body hairs, beard, nape, chest, etc, you probably need to forfeit propecia forever. Not only that, you wont be able to take certain supplements for health.

 

Best of luck

[Shera]

Hi Ronnie,

 

Beard and chest hair grafts are best in making up the shortfall of scalp donor grafts. These are best used alongside scalp grafts behind the hairline and midscalp in a 4:1/5:1 ratio, the body hair simply acts as filler alongside the scalp grafts. Also you need to take into account that the vast majority of beard and chest grafts will be single haired unlike scalp grafts that average about 2.2 hairs per graft.

 

As you have already had 3000 scalp grafts implanted then you would be looking at another pass over the previously implanted area.

 

You could really do with posting another pic of your scalp donor with the hair grown out for 7-10 days. As already mentioned it does look very thin in the pic and certainly doesn't look like it will give you the stated 3000 - 4000 grafts.

 

Other factors you need to take into account is your family balding history. It is possible that the implanted hairs are not entirely bald proof themselves. So you may over time come to regret any hasty decision you make now.

 

Your hair right now looks good to go with Toppik, if you can get away with using this or similar for a few more years then you should do so. Hopefully in the next few years, your hair loss will stabilise and you will have a better picture of your requirements allowing you to plan more for the longer term.

 

Right now, it may prove to be too much of a gamble.

Edited March 26, 2018 by Shera

[Ronnie99]

Hi thank you all for your replies! I actually made a misteake in my post, I was actually only 20 years old when I had my procedure, not 21!

 

JeanLDD I won’t go back there because they overharvested my donor area.

 

Sean + Shera, you both mention that beard/body hairs don’t look natural most of the time. However I plan on buzz cutting my hair once I’ve had a transplant using them grafts. Hopefully that would eliminate the unnatural appearance/wiry nature of the body hairs?

 

 

It seems from your comments that my best option for the moment is to wait a while. Although this isn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, I will consider it.

[mattj]

The good thing is that it looks natural. You currently look like someone who is thinning on top and you can make the most of that. With concealers I imagine it looks like a full head of hair. I would enjoy that for now and hold off on taking any other surgical steps. You're still very young, you need to see how this is going to progress.

[Ronnie99]

Thank you all for the advice. I’ve decided to give it a couple of years to see how things progress.

 

Can I ask, if I was to get a strip procedure in the future, where would they take the strip from? Would they stick within the fue extraction sites? Or would they take the strip from the area above?

 

Cheers

[mikeyhwk]

Beard, nape, chest hairs should be a last resort. It does not look natural at all imo. Im talking from experience. My hair looks terrible right now. I am hoping it is rectified soon. Yield is off and it looks worse.

 

Definitely, should re-evaluate eveything.

 

If you get body hairs, beard, nape, chest, etc, you probably need to forfeit propecia forever. Not only that, you wont be able to take certain supplements for health.

 

Best of luck

 

interesting Dr Konior posted fairly recently about using nape hair for hairline softening. He thought they were valuable in many cases and not a last resort option. Beard and chest hair I would agree should be a last resort in the event your scalps no longer viable.

[mattj]

Thank you all for the advice. I’ve decided to give it a couple of years to see how things progress.

 

Can I ask, if I was to get a strip procedure in the future, where would they take the strip from? Would they stick within the fue extraction sites? Or would they take the strip from the area above?

 

Cheers

 

The FUE extractions would have been taken from across the whole donor area, so there will be no option but to take the strip from the same area.

[harryforreal]

"Beard, nape, chest hairs should be a last resort."

 

I agree with beard and chest hairs, but how does nape hair look unnatural, Sean? I have had some discussions on this site with Dr. Konior who says he uses it sometimes to "soften" hairlines.

 

Can you provide some images of nape hair transplants? thanks!