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1,120 grafts via FUE - bad result?


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Hi All

I am a newbie looking for some help and advice please. Long story (sort of short) I got an HT procedure 7 months ago and to be honest so far I am not happy at all with the results even though I know there is still time to go up to 12 months post-op I am struggling to see how it will improve. I rushed into it and did not research it enough, which I know now and sadly it seems this is all too common.

I am not going to name the clinic just yet to be fair to them but if it becomes clear that it is a disaster and does not improve then I will do, as the last thing I want is for someone else to end up like I have, although I unfortunately know that plenty of people have and will make the same mistake. I am already looking at getting it repaired and have looked at Dr Ball at The Maitland clinic who seems pretty good and Dr Feriduni who is another good Dr. If only I had gone to either of these first! Contacted both of them but they both said I should wait until more time has passed, which is fair enough. My questions are:

1) As stupid as this sounds I am not an expert and don't know what I'm looking for and neither is my Mrs - why exactly does it look bad? Hair angles, multi hair grafts, too straight, or all of them!?

2) What in your opinion would it take to fix it? Am I looking at getting some more FUs inserted to break up the straight line and increase the naturalness? Or is it a matter of having to get grafts extracted and re-implanted (My biggest fear!).

I will also say that it looks far worse to me in person than it does in photographs for some reason? Sorry they are quite large, I included a mixture with some wet and some dry and from various stages of recovery to give you a good overview. Again it doesn't quite come across how straight it looks in pictures. I'll see if I can take some more if it is not clear.

They are all with the hair combed back to try and show you the hairline, however, I wear my hair in a fringe most of the time and when I do, you can see the hard 'line' under my native hair and it just does not seem to blend, although the difference in length doesn't help. Anyway please let me know what you think?

Lastly...thanks in advance!

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  • Senior Member

Hi,


You are only at 7 months so potentially depending on your speed of growth you could have up to another 5 months of growth to look forward to. Also your hair will likely take up to 18 months to mature into it's natural state unlike the wispy/wirey/haywire appearance it has now.

No one ever received an end result at 7 months so you need to stop being self critical about your hair until you at least let your journey take its course. Judge it after 12 months. Be positive for now.

Edited by Shera
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I have to agree with Legend. It appears to be at least partly a density issue caused by too few grafts planted. You will probably see futher improvement, but maybe not enough.

Why don't you measure the area and divide by 1200 FU? Then you know for sure.

If Legend and me are right this is the best outcome of a bad transplant you can have: No wasted grafts and easily fixed with a touch up transplant. Wait for some month and then decide.

Another point: The hair behind you hairline looks thin as well. Are you on meds? If not, I recommend to consider FIN as otherwise I see bigger problems down the road.

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I’m having surgery about the same area as u,. N it be 2000 grafts just to give u perspective .. but don’t feel bad .. I was about to get 1200 grafts on my hairline 8 months ago .. good thing it was canceled at the last minute .. my hair loss progressed , n I’m more knowledgeable now , so u probably also .. take ur time to plan ur next step..  don’t go chasing ur hairline .. wait a few years . let the hairloss progress further, then come back to dense pack the hairline , n other areas that have lost hairs.. 

n if u don’t go on meds like gasthore said ,, u going to have issues ,, u have a lot of hair that’s very precious right now .. n they likely to go away if u don’t take care of them .. 

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Hi All, thanks for your comments your input is very much appreciated. It has made me feel a little better to be honest. Perhaps I was panicking a bit too much and too soon in the recovery process. I'm sure many of you will know it's a tense time waiting for it to grow!

The density issue is interesting I hadn't thought about that before, but yes if it was denser that might help and is perhaps contributing to it as you say. I am considering more grafts but will at least wait until 12 months to see how things pan out and as you say how my MPB progresses or doesn't!

At least you think the work looks clean and there are not multi FUs in the hairline etc, which was my fear. I know it sounds stupid as it's my own head! But you can't always see when it's yourself looking in the mirror.

I agree the hair in my mid-scalp looks thin although it does look worse when wet but I have been on FIN for about a year and it looks to have stabilised and hasn't got worse as far as I can see. That may be something I choose to fix in future but not for now.

I will let you know how I get on and will post updates as things progress.

Many thanks again :) 

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I’m assuming the first picture is your most recent picture right? If so it looks good, natural and perhaps you could get more density, but it is certainly good work. 

Warm regards- Melvin


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Hi Melvin, yes the top one is my most recent one. Thanks for the encouraging words, it's good to know the work has been done well. Perhaps just a little on the straight side or lacking a bit of density but that is something I can address. Looking forward to the 12 month mark to see how it looks! :)

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Another issue not mentioned apart from density is that this type of overly high and conservative hairline does not look natural when this rounded. Men in virtually no circumstances have hairloss akin to this shape, the surgeon (and this goes more broadly because I see it all the time) should have created a lower but more receded hairline with a peak rather than a high rounded hairline which doesn't exist in nature, especially in Caucasian men.

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Thanks Spanker

JeanLDD and Gasthoerer thanks for your comments, that is food for thought and is something to consider. So my hairline is too high and rounded? What could be done to rectify this do you think? Would the addition of a slight widows peak help? The only thing is, as far as I can remember I never had a widows peak naturally back when I had my original native hairline. Perhaps I could lower it a bit to help make it more natural and it's something I'm thinking about. Roughly how many grafts might this take? How many would a widows peak take? I know it's hard to say. Thanks - P

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21 hours ago, PDHolmes85 said:

Thanks Spanker

JeanLDD and Gasthoerer thanks for your comments, that is food for thought and is something to consider. So my hairline is too high and rounded? What could be done to rectify this do you think? Would the addition of a slight widows peak help? The only thing is, as far as I can remember I never had a widows peak naturally back when I had my original native hairline. Perhaps I could lower it a bit to help make it more natural and it's something I'm thinking about. Roughly how many grafts might this take? How many would a widows peak take? I know it's hard to say. Thanks - P

 

This in my opinion is a good and natural looking result for a "conservative" hairline:

 

A high hairline but significantly more square rather than rounded, with clear recession and a thinner, staggered frontline and differing layers of density in the area.  For me personally this is an overly conservative result and he would have been far off going with a surgeon capable of a significantly larger FUE megasession that covered the entire balding area with a more aggressive hairline, but in terms of naturalness it is spot on, exactly how a receding hairline should look. What you have with your result is a high hairline with no recession, no staggered frontline and uniform density which is not how male pattern baldness or a natural untarnished hairline looks like full stop.

Because of Joe Ts videos on what makes a natural hair transplant people on the forums are far to focused solely on the issue of single hair grafts in the hairline, which is incredibly simplistic and absolutely not the be all and end all. The design and density matter just as much as the issue of single hair grafts in the frontline, a conservative hairline should reflect how a receding hairline naturally forums, which is why your result looks odd because it isn't.  Joe Ts transplant has the same issue too in my opinion, anyone can see it. It doesn't look freakish like someone with a low, squared off hairline with multigrafts, but it doesn't look "normal" either.

Single hair grafts in the frontline are essential and how hair naturally grows out of a hairline but if you're going conservative consider the fact that in nature someone with a receding hairline will have have lost their frontline naturally exposing multis behind it, with miniaturisation in the very front, a central tuft forming and differing levels of density in the area like in the Farjo result above.

Definitely like you say I think the best approach would be to lower it overall and give a slight peak reflecting natural recession. Without knowing the actual proportions or how far back the low density area goes I'm guessing 2000-2500 grafts. Doesn't need to be ultra-aggressive but redesigning it in this sense will be the easiest fix.

Like others have said it isn't a disaster result and it doesn't look bad, it just lacks any level of artistry and is too conservative in regards to density.

 

Edited by JeanLDD
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Hi Jean

Thanks that is an interesting post with some good points to consider. I'm going to have a look at that chap you linked to above who went to Farjo. I will probably wait it out until 12 months to see how it looks and then consider my next move. I will probably lower it further and perhaps add in a peak as you suggest, which is something I'd thought about before anyways.

I have heard it said that adding in a widows peak and temple points gives you a lot of 'bang for your buck' in terms of not needing a huge number of grafts but making a large visual difference and making your forehead look smaller. Even though I have had my hairline lowered by 1cm making it 6cm from eyebrows to hairline (which I understand is about average for a Caucasian) my forehead still looks huge lol!

I also did not have anything done to my temple points, so when I get another HT that is also on my to-do list. Thanks again for your input.

P

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