Can I get a hair transplant without it being noticed?

[whatisthis]

Hi, 

My hair has started thinning over the last few years and it is obviously  getting worse, that is why I'm thinking about getting a hair transplant, to fix the current thinness and hopefully have it last for the future as well. 

One think that is very important to me though is to keep it quiet and that people wouldn't know I did it. I would like to hear from other people if they think it is possible or not and to hear if other people here have done it and succeeded. 

My plan is:

1. I will get a HT while only shaving the back of my head. 

2. A day before the transplant I will got to the hair dresser and ask them to give me a hair cut that looks reasonable with my donor are in a buzz cut and my recipient area stays longer. 

3. I can take 2 weeks off work max.

4. I currently talked to a doctor that said I need a hair transplant with 3000 graft, so this is what I currently am planning. 

 

Do you think it is reasonable that within two weeks my donor+recipient area heal good enough for it not to be noticeable that I got a hair transplant? 

I would love to hear what people here think. 

Thank you. 

[hairlossPA]

your donor will look fine post op 2 weeks. recipient may look red/pink and noticeable after 2 weeks. 

[BuddyX]

I'm surprised that no one is talking you OUT of having a transplant !  Really surprised.

It's quite clear that you are thinning, but your hair is by no means in a state where a transplant is your only option.

You could quite easily cover that up with a small amount of concealer (hair fibres) and no one would be able to notice it at all.

In the meantime jump on some medication.  Finasteride, Minoxodil, etc.

See how that goes.  You'd have a great chance of bringing that thin area back to decent (if not full) thickness.

Do keep in mind, that if you have a hair transplant in an area where you already have thin/miniaturised hair, then you run the risk of losing that hair.

Seriously, get on the medication for at least 6 months and reassess things after that.

Good luck. 

 

 

[whatisthis]

hairlossPA 

How long will the redness in my recipient area will last? Do you know? 

spex

No, I am just planing to shave my donor area and not my recipient. And have an FUE transplant.

BuddyX

I know, and it is something I thought about. The problem is that I am afraid of the side effects. Some people say Finestride is relatively safe and others don't. I am not sure what to believe, but I have read stories of people that needed months to come back from it after they stopped and it seems like a significant amount of people expirence side effects and that scares me. 

If I could get a hair transplant without it being noticed and if there is a good chance it could solve me problem (or at least most of it) for good I do think it's a good course of action. But I am not sure of that and that is the reason I'm consulting people here. 

Thank you all for your input

 

[BuddyX]

3 hours ago, whatisthis said:

I know, and it is something I thought about. The problem is that I am afraid of the side effects. Some people say Finestride is relatively safe and others don't.

Try Minoxidil then and/or topical Fin.

Surprising that you're not paying attention to the 'stories' of permanent shock loss in the recipient area, which should also be a concern to you.

Regardless, if you're not willing to try 'any' medication before jumping into a hair transplant (which should ALWAYS be the last option), then you're probably just going to be going in for touch ups for the rest of your life.  By the time you've recovered from 1 transplant, you'll have lost ground with your native hair and will need another, and so on and so on.

Obviously the situation would be different if you'd already lost a fair amount of hair, but you haven't.  At this stage, you can still recover without a hair transplant if you act now.

Good luck.

[1978matt]

It's going to be Dr dependent and if you had said 1500-2000 max then you may have been able to get away with it. Hoping to hide 3000+ will be a struggle after only 2 weeks.  With such a high number of grafts you really want to consider shaving the lot off for the best results.

Also agree with the other replies.

21 hours ago, whatisthis said:

Hi, 

My hair has started thinning over the last few years and it is obviously  getting worse, that is why I'm thinking about getting a hair transplant, to fix the current thinness and hopefully have it last for the future as well. 

One think that is very important to me though is to keep it quiet and that people wouldn't know I did it. I would like to hear from other people if they think it is possible or not and to hear if other people here have done it and succeeded. 

My plan is:

1. I will get a HT while only shaving the back of my head. 

2. A day before the transplant I will got to the hair dresser and ask them to give me a hair cut that looks reasonable with my donor are in a buzz cut and my recipient area stays longer. 

3. I can take 2 weeks off work max.

4. I currently talked to a doctor that said I need a hair transplant with 3000 graft, so this is what I currently am planning. 

 

Do you think it is reasonable that within two weeks my donor+recipient area heal good enough for it not to be noticeable that I got a hair transplant? 

I would love to hear what people here think. 

Thank you. 

 

[whatisthis]

Hi BuddyX, 

First, Thank you for challenging my opinion about HTs, this is exactly why I opened this thread. Maybe I should reconsider the use of Finestride, I'm really not sure.

It is though a very unfair comparison between Finestride side effects and risks of complications of HTs. If you just read any thread in this forum about Finesteride you see that it looks like the majority of people us in Fin are having side effects. Most of them managable and they live with it. But it looks like taking Finestride basically guarantees some side effects as opposed to HTs, which very rarely end with complications.

[newpatient99]

Some doctors can do no shave for the recipient area but you will have to shave the donor no matter which doctor you go with. If the doctor does clean work and you respond well to the surgery, you should look fine in about 10 days. However your scalp will be red and then gradually fading to pink for at least 5 months

[BuddyX]

1 hour ago, whatisthis said:

Hi BuddyX, 

First, Thank you for challenging my opinion about HTs, this is exactly why I opened this thread. Maybe I should reconsider the use of Finestride, I'm really not sure.

It is though a very unfair comparison between Finestride side effects and risks of complications of HTs. If you just read any thread in this forum about Finesteride you see that it looks like the majority of people us in Fin are having side effects. Most of them managable and they live with it. But it looks like taking Finestride basically guarantees some side effects as opposed to HTs, which very rarely end with complications.

Or you could look at it another way: Most people who have had problems with hair transplants are too embarrassed to post on forums, and most people who have had success with finasteride don't feel the need to post on forums to shout about it. 

I wish you luck in whatever you decide to do. Please remember though, it's not just finasteride that I mentioned in terms of medication. 

[Shera]

Any more than 1500-2000 grafts then you really should consider shaving the lot off, it'll be a a lot easier for the surgical team working on a blank canvas and it'll be a lot easier for you to manage post surgery. Also no shave is a lot easier if you are just having implants in an area where you can grow hair longer in other parts to cover the surgery area, in your case that will be challenging.

Also there is a risk of shock loss to the native hairs in and around the implantation area, the worst case scenario being you will end up looking much the same as you are now sooner rather than later post op with your implanted hairs replacing your shocked native hairs.

If you are prepared to take Finasteride pre op then this will give your native hairs a better chance of survival. For you to achieve the best aesthetic result then surgery coupled with meds will be best in my opinion.

Also as mentioned already, Finasteride usage over just a few months might recover your hair to an extent where you deem surgery a redundant option altogether for the time being.

I understand your concerns about the drugs but I know many users of Finasteride who do not appear to have any side effects. I'm sure drinking excessively and smoking are far far worse for you yet these are perfectly accepted as the norm, yet would they be approved by the FDA if they were medicines........I think not.

Finally, if you do go ahead, and you can squeeze another week out of your employer (if your'e in the US then taking blood out of a stone may be easier), then after 3 weeks you might be able to get away with some clever use of hair fibres.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Shera

[Lochtide7]

3 hours ago, newpatient99 said:

Some doctors can do no shave for the recipient area but you will have to shave the donor no matter which doctor you go with. If the doctor does clean work and you respond well to the surgery, you should look fine in about 10 days. However your scalp will be red and then gradually fading to pink for at least 5 months

Wow so fades to pink in 5 months! darn that is a long time...too long for me, for someone who wants to get hairline lowered by 1800 or so grafts. I wonder if its possible to wear like a hair system over the pink areas for 4 to 5 months?

[newpatient99]

1 hour ago, Lochtide7 said:

Wow so fades to pink in 5 months! darn that is a long time...too long for me, for someone who wants to get hairline lowered by 1800 or so grafts. I wonder if its possible to wear like a hair system over the pink areas for 4 to 5 months?

Sorry for the confusion. What I meant was, it will take at least 5 months for the pinkness to go away. From my personal experience, my recipient was red for about 2 months and then slowly faded to pink, I'd say it took 6 months before the redness/pinkness to go away. Even now at near 9 months, my recipient still isn't the same color as the rest of my scalp but it's not noticeable unless you look at it really close.