Do I appear to have good chest hair for HT?

[silent]

Hi there,

Here are some photos of my chest and stomach areas https://imgur.com/a/bCnsoFQ

I am only 25 and my hair already is already diffuse thinning in all of the top and crown leaving very little donor hair. https://imgur.com/0a6MJS0

If I am going to become NW7, I was hoping I could make use of my body hair to add some density through HT. I am not expecting thick juveline hair from a transplant, but I would want some reasonable coverage and not have to do a complete "combover". How good do you think my body hair is?

Thank you

Edited September 21, 2018 by silent

[Melvin- Admin]

Do you mind attaching the pictures, they will automatically embed in the post.

[silent]

updated link

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2018 by silent

[Melvin- Admin]

Honestly, body hair is not a very good source of donor hair, the texture is completely different than scalp hair and the hairs life cycle is different. You have plenty of body hair, but I am not sure how good it would look transplanted. Additionally, body hair does not survive as well as head hair.

[gillenator]

Any reason why scalp hair donor not being used?  Have you used it all up in prior procedures?

[silent]

@Melvin-Moderator @gillenator I am only 25 and have lost most of the hair all over the top (diffuse thinning). I am quite positive I will stabilise at a high norward level (NW6 or NW7) in 5-10 years. I've also seen this pattern in lots of men in my family. You can see how even the lower part of my crown is thinning.

In my position, doctors want me to stabilise my hair loss with Finasteride which I tried but it didn't go well on me. I am not willing to take Finasteride again. The only option I can act upon is to assume that I will reach an NW7 and plan transplants to cover the top completely. That's why I became hopeful if my body hair can be used as a source of donor hair given how I have very little donor hair otherwise.

Thank you

[Melvin- Admin]

You’re better off using beard hair, chest hair doesn’t grow long like head hair, but beard hair can grow long.

[silent]

Well I don't have a lot of beard hair surprisingly. Also I don't want the hair to grow super long. I just want it to serve as a filler amidst other donor hair.

From my photos and my age 25, do you think I can get a transplant done right now? I don't want to wait until it's a full NW6 because I can't enjoy my hair right now anyway. I just want it to stabilise and give me a "final look" without having to take Finasteride. I can't struggle with getting "worse" everyday. Would I be a suitable HT candidate?

[JayLDD]

Unless you're a fan of 50 grand + to get results that won't give you full coverage and are likely to look unnatural if you go the body hair route, you should skip hair transplants all together, especially considering you're not on finasteride and look to have thinning in the full NW6 area with a family history of high norwoods. That photo of your current state on top is more coverage than body hair will ever give you.

"The only option I can act upon is to assume that I will reach an NW7 and plan transplants to cover the top completely."

Especially when you say this your expectations of what hair transplants can do isn't viable. A bald head is going to look better than unnatural chest hair growth with poor density.

You should look at as many body hair cases that you can find because it typically looks awful unless its specifically beard hair to be mixed in with majority scalp grafts in the crown or midscalp, and it tends to grow very poorly. With aggressive hairloss, no finasteride, a lack of beard hair, what looks to be a poor donor thinning in the NW6 area and being 25 year old, you are one of the worst surgical candidates imaginable.

The only quick fix solutions that aren't going to be money sinks with almost certain poor results are the hairpiece route or scalp micro pigmentation (basically temporary hair tattoos). Unfortunately hairloss is something that you will 100% experience getting worse every day without finasteride. 

Edited September 22, 2018 by JeanLDD

[silent]

Hi @JeanLDD

Thanks for the reply. That was sort of my understanding too  The doctors I visited prescribed Finasteride and Minoxidil. One said I could have an HT if I wanted to. I didn't believe him fully because they didn't answer me properly on what would happen with age. The other said he would feel comfortable doing HT after it "stabilises".

I have attached some more pics here for your opinion of whether I'm headed towards a high norwood. What do you think?

The last pic is of beard. It's not quite dense.

> "That photo of your current state on top is more coverage than body hair will ever give you."

Well to be honest I am ok with my current state being my final state.

If:

1. I just want to look like how I am now, 
2. I will reach a NW6 or 7 in 5 years
3. I don't want to take Finasteride
4. Have sparse beard hair
5. I have a fairly high budget for this and can afford to spend $5-$8 per graft if I need to

Would it be worthwhile pursuing a HT?

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much!

 

Edited September 28, 2018 by silent

[JayLDD]

In the current circumstance it actually looks like you have a reasonable amount of hair left and a decent crown, most would agree when you aren't on finasteride there is a very high risk of shock loss and inevitably with progressive loss regardless it would be very difficult to obtain a result in the current situation that looks good long term.  I suspect if you had surgery now you could end up looking worse than you are now in 12 months.

The body hair in my opinion is a flat bad idea, other surgeons and people have different opinions but I've never seen it look good when used in large numbers. 

It's a shame you can't take finasteride, almost undeniably I would say the best option at this point is to wait until the loss progresses further and the safe zone of your donor becomes more obvious.

[silent]

Thanks the feedback man.

My ray of hope was from watching this video. This guy was also an NW6 and did not take Finasteride. He had 10,000 hair transplanted and I am willing to do that with a good surgeon if I can look like that. But I think it's an unusually exceptional result. No?

This is how he looked before (link starts at 2:32) I had posted a video, but I think the mods removed it.

 

Edited September 26, 2018 by silent

[gillenator]

Being that you are not on finasteride, the risk of shock loss is extremely high if you were to have a HT procedure.

If you are eventually headed for a class 7, I think a high quality hair system can be a good option.

Hair systems have come a long way from what they used to be.

[Sean]

Trust me on this one, body hair (including chest hair), beard hair, nape hair should be a very last resort.  Even when spending over 50,000 with this type of hair, I do not think it looks natural at all and in fact is less dense then other hairs.  Beard hair can be dense but it will look off next to less caliber hair.  Angulation may be different too and again, these other hairs are not normall found in 2, 3, 4, hair groupings to create a natural dense result. Right now, id avoid it unless you have tons of money and nothing on your scalp and want just a stubble look (if that) with a crewcut shaved head.  Scalp hair is the best hair and that too if you have the right characterstics and if it is strong to withstand some of the harsher extraction devices.  

It isnt fun at all and definitely can be detrimental to a good looking hairline and design.  

Be very very weary of putting any hair into existing hair.  Surgery can be a risk but this act can make it much more risky.  

I hope you are able to stabilize it, but be thankful your scalp isnt scarred.  

 

Wish you the best and I hope you get what you seek.

[silent]

Thanks everyone!

My expectations are quite low tbh. Even I look like this guy below I'd be ok. But I want it to stay stable and permanent. That's why I'm not too worried about shock loss. Shock loss is of hair that will fall off anyway (since I am not on Finasteride). 

I don't care if it gets worse than now after getting a HT in one year. But after 10 years, if my hair looks like this, I would call it a success.

I don't want to focus on my hair forever. I just want to reach a okayish state and stay there until I age. The worst part of this is feeling low because of how it's worse month after month. That's why I started looking into HTs. It's so hard to figure out a) if this is possible and b) when I should act.

Edited September 26, 2018 by silent

[Melvin- Admin]

Don’t do anything your hair looks better now than iniesta, if you’re not happy now, I highly doubt you’ll be happy with that, also you’ve mentioned other consultants who’ve had 10,000 grafts, an amount of grafts that very few ever reach. 

Honestly, I think you’re expecting to fully cover your head with a body hair and scalp combo and what we’re saying is its not really viable. Believe me, if body hair was viable than every surgeon would be trying incorporate it in to their practice.

Moreover, I have seen body hair transplants where the guys head looks like a hairy knee cap, believe me when I say it is better to be bald. Being bald is natural, but having a scalp that looks like an armpit is not, in the end its up to you, but ask yourself have you actually seen quality results from guys who’ve gone that route? 

 

[silent]

Yeah my hair looks better than Iniesta (in that photo) now but it will look worse than him (in that photo) in 3 years.  Do you think with a good amount of money, no Finasteride, a NW7 head (in a few years) after an HT, I can look like Iniesta in that photo forever? That's all I want.

I don't know why HT surgeons don't show off a result that looks like Iniesta. Most HT videos / photos I see are:

a) hair line improvement (obviously with Finasteride)
b) very diffuse HTs on balder people with good hairlines. No one seems to like the idea of a final state like Iniesta where the balding is still evident, but it looks better than a clean shave

And yeah, I was merely toying with the idea of body hair HT. Body hair HT is unheard of and it's virtually impossible for me to find someone who has got it in. There are just a handful of videos on Youtube which are perhaps the "best cases".

 

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

In most cases BHT is done as a last resort when no scalp donor hair is available. The results are often sub optimal and the costs are generally very high. 

[AB2000]

Someone correct me if I am wrong but using Finasteride causes body hair to diffuse?  In other words if you were to have chest hairs transplanted into your receding hairline and you also started to use Fin, you'd cause your grafts to vanish.

[Curious]

I had chest hair transplanted to my scalp and used finasteride for a while, the body hair did not fall out.  It probably depends on the person.  I would not put chest hair on the hairline, but would blend it with scalp hair to provide density.

[Al - Moderator]

I took finisteride for years and my body hair was definitely decreasing while I was on it. I stopped taking finisteride some years back because I knew I was going to get some body hair tranplanted at some point. My body hair has been growing and increasing since, except for what has been removed due to the body hair transplants.

 

 

[gillenator]

I would never use BH in a high impact visual area such as the hairline unless the blend ratio was 70% scalp to 30% BH or lower.

[Melvin- Admin]

9 hours ago, BeHappy said:

I took finisteride for years and my body hair was definitely decreasing while I was on it. I stopped taking finisteride some years back because I knew I was going to get some body hair tranplanted at some point. My body hair has been growing and increasing since, except for what has been removed due to the body hair transplants.

 

 

Given the severity of your hair loss, did finasteride work for you?

[Al - Moderator]

6 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Given the severity of your hair loss, did finasteride work for you?

 

Well if I hadn't had a hair transplant I was already a NW 7 for several years before starting on finisteride, so there was probably not a lot it was going to do. I was hoping to gain a bit of hair on top, get some growth around the edges of the sides and back to decrease the size of the bald area, and make and keep the donor area thicker (which would have also helped the top since that was transplanted from the donor areas). 

I think it did slow down the loss or maybe even increased the growth slightly the first few years, but after a few years of use several things happened.

1. I didn't want to be on medication forever. I still don't take any other medication regularly and would rather not be taking anything.

2. My hairloss had started increasing which means the finisteride was never going to give me any more hair than I had at that time.

3. Body hair transplants were starting to be done and I thought that was promising.

4. Finisteride seemed to be decreasing my body hair which I was going to need if I went to the BHT route which looked like the only possible way forward.

So I stopped using it.

 

[silent]

Hi @BeHappy

I saw your pictures. Do you think you could have gone with lesser coverage and more density instead? I expect to reach the same state of hairloss as you in the future and wanted to know if I personally chose to look like this instead of having a perfect hairline, would it be possible?

Thanks