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Advice needed... I'm sure mine is an all too familiar tale!!!


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Hey guys, 

First of all, kudos for running an awesome, informative and helpful forum!!!

I'm a 37 year old south asian guy currently living in Singapore. My hair started thinning around the age of 19-20 and progressively got worse in my early 20s. I have a family history of hair loss from my dad's side. My dad, uncles and grandad all lost their hair in their early 20s with fairly advanced balding. 

As a reaction to my initial thinning of hair, I impulsively opted for a HT in 2008. I'm afraid I can't provide details about the HT except that it was an FUT. Ten years on, my hair loss continued to a point where the HT became quite ineffective, as can be seen from my pictures. If I could do it all over again, I would've skipped the HT and lived with a completely shaved head. But here we are...

So given my current state of hair loss, I'm looking for advice on whether there's any point in pursuing further surgical options. If there was an option to cover my FUT scar to an extent where I can shave my head completely, I would definitely go for that. But my research shows that there is no sure shot way to do this (SMP, etc.). Happy to be corrected here. 

Given my current state, would another HT improve my look significantly? I'm realistic about possible outcomes and know that I will never have a full head of hair. But I would be keen to explore ways to 'improve' my current look.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Than2.thumb.jpeg.09cd6166444d75ad9bf9bb7b25775630.jpegks!

 

 

 

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I'm not trying to hijack your thread here, but I have close to the same problem and would really like to hear if there is any solution. 

In my case, I had a HT years ago (like many years ago).  It was fine until about 5 years ago when my hair loss accelerated.  I would just as soon shave my head at this point except the donor area scars are obvious even without shaving and I need to do something and wearing a hair piece is not one of the options I want to entertain.

Any input for MusicMan's issue and mine would be most appreciated.

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15 hours ago, TonyX said:

I'm not trying to hijack your thread here, but I have close to the same problem and would really like to hear if there is any solution. 

In my case, I had a HT years ago (like many years ago).  It was fine until about 5 years ago when my hair loss accelerated.  I would just as soon shave my head at this point except the donor area scars are obvious even without shaving and I need to do something and wearing a hair piece is not one of the options I want to entertain.

Any input for MusicMan's issue and mine would be most appreciated.

In your case we need to evaluate :
1. If transplanted hair are lost
2. Or pre-existing hair in the recipient are lost 
3. Or there is diffuse miniaturization 

Based on that we can decide further course of action.

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It all depends on if you have some decent beard and chest hair. If you can get about 3000 to 4000 beard and chest grafts and another 1000 or more scalp grafts, then you may be able to get some OK coverage over a lot of the area. I'm in a very similar situation and so far I've had about 3550 beard and chest grafts done over several sessions. I'm still waiting for the last one to grow in. The coverage isn't as great as I wish it was, but there's definitely improvement and considering the large area I have to cover (I wanted the lower crown area covered, the sides built up, and the frontal third). There really isn't any other option as I can't shave my head due to all the scars and I'm not a head shaving guy because I hate that look or else I wouldn't have had a hair transplant in the first place. 

 

Edited by BeHappy

Al

Forum Moderator

(formerly BeHappy)

I am a forum moderator for hairrestorationnetwork.com. I am not a Dr. and I do not work for any particular Dr. My opinions are my own and may not reflect the opinions of other moderators or the owner of this site. I am also a hair transplant patient and repair patient. You can view some of my repair journey here.

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@BeHappy

Many thanks for your reply. I have a few questions:

1. Why did you choose to get the beard and chest grafts done over several sessions as opposed to one or two big sessions? Were you keen to try see some results first before committing to more extractions from your donor area?

2. How well has your beard donor area healed? My research seems to indicate that even FUE scars at the back of the head are noticeable to an extent where you can't completely shave down. Doesn't this apply to the beard donor area as well? Or is the extraction process different?

3. For someone like me, who already has a FUT scar, would you recommend that any further hair transplants also utilise the FUT? The reason I ask this is because I understand that FUT yields more grafts. Moreover, choosing FUE in order to wear the hair shorter is not an option for me because of my existing scar. Am I thinking on the right lines here? 

Thanks again! 

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On 1/23/2019 at 11:11 AM, Musicman said:

1. Why did you choose to get the beard and chest grafts done over several sessions as opposed to one or two big sessions? Were you keen to try see some results first before committing to more extractions from your donor area?

Several reasons. I had an email consultation with Dr Umar in California who wanted to do 6000 grafts in a 4 day session. This would have cost me $50,000 or more all at once which would have been a major hit to my finances. Also I probably would have had to take about 2 months off from work since my entire head would have been shaved with 6000 grafts all over and shock loss from all that. I couldn't get that much time off and really did not want to chance having to go back in only a few weeks. I was also worried about scars showing on my beard area.

Contrast that to Dr Dorin in New York Who is only 2 hours away from me rather than over 3000 miles. They do smaller sessions without requiring me to shave the recipient area and since the donor was from my chest, I didn't have to shave any area of my head. That enabled me to go back to work a week after the transplant without anyone knowing.  I tried chest hair first, so I could see how the scarring went before trying beard hair. I figured if I get scars on my chest, nobody will see it anyway in most situations, plus the small session made it easier to go unnoticed only a week after transplant. It also only cost me an average of $7500 per session which I was able to save up and pay as I went, so I never took anything out of my savings.

I would have preferred something in between, meaning somewhat larger sessions than Dr Dorin has done, but not as large as everything in one shot, but I have been able to continue working without hitting my bank account, so it's not so bad. I could have had a larger session on the first one if I had gone with both chest and beard hair at first, but as I said I was afraid to try the beard until I saw how the scarring was from FUE on my chest.

Edited by BeHappy
Quoting issue and some spelling

Al

Forum Moderator

(formerly BeHappy)

I am a forum moderator for hairrestorationnetwork.com. I am not a Dr. and I do not work for any particular Dr. My opinions are my own and may not reflect the opinions of other moderators or the owner of this site. I am also a hair transplant patient and repair patient. You can view some of my repair journey here.

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2. How well has your beard donor area healed? My research seems to indicate that even

FUE scars at the back of the head are noticeable to an extent where you can't completely shave down. Doesn't this apply to the beard donor area as well? Or is the extraction process different?

The beard area seems to heal better than the head. You can see this from other pictures of beard transplants. When I first started there weren't many Drs doing it yet. It's also not as easily noticed because the grafts are taken from under the chin which is harder for people to see unless they really get up close to examine you because the area is not facing them straight on as it would be on the side or back of your head.

Edited by BeHappy

Al

Forum Moderator

(formerly BeHappy)

I am a forum moderator for hairrestorationnetwork.com. I am not a Dr. and I do not work for any particular Dr. My opinions are my own and may not reflect the opinions of other moderators or the owner of this site. I am also a hair transplant patient and repair patient. You can view some of my repair journey here.

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3. For someone like me, who already has a FUT scar, would you recommend that any further hair transplants also utilise the FUT? The reason I ask this is because I understand that FUT yields more grafts. Moreover, choosing FUE in order to wear the hair shorter is not an option for me because of my existing scar. Am I thinking on the right lines here?

Generally I would say yes you should do FUT, but since you don't have a large donor area left to use I'm not sure if that is the best choice. I think you should consult with some Drs who do both FUT and FUE and see what they say.


(sorry about three seperate posts. I had a tough time with the quoting on here.)

 

Al

Forum Moderator

(formerly BeHappy)

I am a forum moderator for hairrestorationnetwork.com. I am not a Dr. and I do not work for any particular Dr. My opinions are my own and may not reflect the opinions of other moderators or the owner of this site. I am also a hair transplant patient and repair patient. You can view some of my repair journey here.

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@BeHappy

Thanks again for your detailed responses; they are quite helpful!

Yes, next step for me would be to reach out to a few doctors. I wanted to solicit some informal views from the knowledgeable gents on this forum so that I can compare with the doctors’ inputs. 

I will research doctors primarily based in South East Asia for now given I’m  based in Singapore. But in order to get the best results, I’m open to traveling further away as well.

I will report back on this thread with what I hear from the doctors.

Thanks!

 

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