African American with Diffusion: Strategies for how to blend density?

[didit07]

Hi everyone, there arent too many African Americans who have posted on this sub and I'm hoping I can shed some light on my upcoming journey.

I plan to go to Turkey for my HT. Primary reason being cost and second I feel there are more doctors in that region who have had more surgeries ith my hair type.

 

I'm 28 now and my hair loss has been steady since 2013 and rapidly increased in the past year. My hair line is still relatively in tact as our my temples. I would like to add 1cm frame of grafts along hairline and temples but I primarily want density.

My question is how, will it be difficult to add density considered how uneven my hairless is across my scalp?

 

 

Edited August 22, 2019 by fabofly
More context

[LaserCap]

Not the best set of photos.  Have someone else take them.

Working through unevenness is not a problem for an experienced doctor. That's not the question.  The question is, what is causing your hair to be growing in in patches.  There could be a medical condition other than a hereditary one causing the issue.  The first thing I would do is go to a dermatologist and have them biopsy the area.  You can also go to a couple of consultations with hair transplant professionals and see what they have to say.  Right now you should be in the gathering info stage...forget transplants for a minute.

Not sure if it's the style you've chosen to wear but it seems from the photos, that you may be experiencing global thinning.  Have this checked.

Lastly, if you've lost, you will continue losing.  Get on a medical regimen to help you retain the native stuff and maybe even reverse the miniaturization.  (Propecia, Rogaine, Laser and PRP).  Do as many as you can. Give them a year.  Take plenty of photos and repeat every 6 months.  If everything goes well, you can then consider transplants.

Doing transplants at this time is probably the worst thing you can do.....

[didit07]

3 hours ago, LaserCap said:

Not the best set of photos.  Have someone else take them.

Working through unevenness is not a problem for an experienced doctor. That's not the question.  The question is, what is causing your hair to be growing in in patches.  There could be a medical condition other than a hereditary one causing the issue.  The first thing I would do is go to a dermatologist and have them biopsy the area.  You can also go to a couple of consultations with hair transplant professionals and see what they have to say.  Right now you should be in the gathering info stage...forget transplants for a minute.

Not sure if it's the style you've chosen to wear but it seems from the photos, that you may be experiencing global thinning.  Have this checked.

Lastly, if you've lost, you will continue losing.  Get on a medical regimen to help you retain the native stuff and maybe even reverse the miniaturization.  (Propecia, Rogaine, Laser and PRP).  Do as many as you can. Give them a year.  Take plenty of photos and repeat every 6 months.  If everything goes well, you can then consider transplants.

Doing transplants at this time is probably the worst thing you can do.....

Hi there, thanks for your opinion. Your point about going to the dermatologist is a good idea. Balding is not hereditary and it's been quite a shock how much I have thinned.

 

I'm not interested in any orals so that is a non started for me personally. Could you elaborate what global thinning is? I am surprised you feel so strongly that a ht would be an absolutely terrible decision. Regardless I aiming for next August for the ht.

 

I'll have someone else take the pictures and upload.

[LaserCap]

Global thinning refers to loss throughout the entire head, including the donor. Thus, if there is hair thinning in the donor area, it will thin wherever it is placed.

If not interested in anything internal, give some thought to Rogaine, Laser and PRP.

 

[didit07]

1 hour ago, LaserCap said:

Global thinning refers to loss throughout the entire head, including the donor. Thus, if there is hair thinning in the donor area, it will thin wherever it is placed.

If not interested in anything internal, give some thought to Rogaine, Laser and PRP.

 

Hi lasercap,

That makes sense. My thinning is control to the typical areas. As you can see in my pictures my donor area is completely in tact.

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2019 by fabofly

[LaserCap]

Could be that your hair is cut so tight.  Let it grow for a week or two.  Do you intend to wear it the same way once the transplant is completed?

[didit07]

7 hours ago, LaserCap said:

Could be that your hair is cut so tight.  Let it grow for a week or two.  Do you intend to wear it the same way once the transplant is completed?

i hope to wear my hair like i did when i was younger as in picture below. I typically cut my hair at 1.5 or a 2.

 

[LaserCap]

Nice.  The problem is the length of your current hair.  It's so short it is hard to tell where exactly the loss is.  Perhaps you can let the hair grow for a week?  Then post the photos again.  This should give us a better idea of what exactly you are dealing with.

[Jwillis1083]

My hairloss pattern is almost extactly like yours. Curious to see what your dermatologist tells you

[Melvin- Admin]

On 8/21/2019 at 8:55 PM, fabofly said:

i hope to wear my hair like i did when i was younger as in picture below. I typically cut my hair at 1.5 or a 2.

 

I'm gonna be honest with you, with those expectations I'm not entirely sure you should go the HT route. I mean, I wish I could have the hair I had before I went' bald, but it's not realistic. You have to have really good density to pull off those waves. Hair transplants are more of an "illusion of density" than actual density, especially when you have a high degree of hair loss like you do. I know because I had a similar pattern. 

Here's the good news, Afrocentric hair is usually very thick and coarse, which means that if grown out a little bit, it will cover the scalp easier. Realistically, I would say that a hairstyle like this is more realistic, and it would cover any strip surgery scars. I do think that FUE is harder to perform on Afrocentric hair because the angles and direction change. That said, you may be able to do waves if you use hair fibers, but you shouldn't expect to take off a wave cap and have that hair without any concealer. 

[didit07]

19 hours ago, Jwillis1083 said:

My hairloss pattern is almost extactly like yours. Curious to see what your dermatologist tells you

Hey ma, went to a local hair transplant doctor and they said it was standard hair loss and mpb.  I should book an appointment with a dermatologist and get their opinion but I'm already 100% set on a ht.

 

Can you post your pics?