Seeking advice about my doctor regarding an upcoming hair transplant for both the hairline and eyebrows

[Brizmore]

Hey everyone, first post

I suppose I am a bit of an outlier around here. I have no history of male pattern baldness or a receding hairline. My hairline is actually pretty solid. Rather, I am a young patient (early twenties) seeking a transplant to repair damaged hair follicles near my widows peak and my eyebrows. It's a bit embarrassing, but the backstory is that as a teenager I was insecure about my widow's peak because a barber told me it was ugly and suggested that I shave it off. As a result, I started overzealously tweezing my peachfuzz to prevent regrowth. Now I can see years later how I've created a gap and can see scalp through my hairline.

For my eyebrows, I had a pretty traumatic experience at a waxing salon because a worker botched the job while she was waxing my eyebrows. While they mostly grew back and are still thick, it left numerous bald spots that created a less harmonious look and made me feel very self conscious.

I'm seeking out Dr. Champagne in California because he is pretty renowned for handling eyebrow transplants. It's one of his most popular procedures and he seems to have great success rates with both ordinary and celebrity-level clients. As a Beverly Hills surgeon, he also happens to do hair transplants for men. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have an extensive record on hair transplantation, and most of his history is restricted to his social media. While it would be ideal to have all of my work done with him at once, I'd like to get some second opinions.

My main goal (aside from repairing my brows) is to have the gap in the center of my hairline filled in. He has explained that he can achieve this with an FUT transplant of around 100 grafts. While he stated he cannot guarantee 100% density restoration, he feels confident that I should see significant improvement.

I'll attach some screenshots below of what the damage of my hairline currently looks like. It contains side-by-side photos of incandescent, florescent, and direct sunlight hitting my hair as a means to display what it looks like in different settings. 

That said, I'm debating whether or not it's worth it to cut this part of the procedure out with him, and go find a more professional/world-class hair transplantation surgeon. Or, since it's a small procedure (<100 grafts) to give him credence and proceed with having everything done with him all at once. I'm a fairly low-income student, so getting this done is pretty taxing for me and my family -- so there's also the financial aspect to consider as well if you guys think I should delay this until I can find someone else.

Thank you all, and I look forward to hearing from you guys soon.

Briz

 

Edited October 16, 2020 by Brizmore

[Britanium]

FUT for such a small amount? Why not FUE? Although to be honest in your position I don’t see that anything is needed. Truly none of us have perfect hair. There is  always a risk that you shock hairs out from the surrounding area. That’s the last thing you want at your age, chasing such small imperfections.

I can’t see anything wrong with your eyebrows. 

Edited October 16, 2020 by JohnAC71

[Brizmore]

13 hours ago, JohnAC71 said:

FUT for such a small amount? Why not FUE? Although to be honest in your position I don’t see that anything is needed. Truly none of us have perfect hair. There is  always a risk that you shock hairs out from the surrounding area. That’s the last thing you want at your age, chasing such small imperfections.

I can’t see anything wrong with your eyebrows. 

Hard to see with the camera angle. But here are some side shots of my face that shows the sparse spots a little more clearly.

 

They never used to look like that. 

 - Here is an example of their prior appearance before the botched job.

I could certainly ask him about FUE though. He provides both.

With regard to shock loss, I'm not sure what would happen to be honest. I'm not a doctor, so someone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But I believe that shock loss is more prevalent with people who have weaker hairlines due to MPB or Recession, so I imagine I shouldn't face that much of a risk from shedding hair? Never had an issue with hair loss my whole life. Again, I could be wrong

As a side note, I’m based on the east coast if it matters

 

Edited October 16, 2020 by Brizmore

[BDK081522]

An FUT for 100 grafts? Any clinic that even suggests that is worth running away from. You're a Norwood -1. I understand that you may see flaws but it is not worth going through surgery to fix what you perceive as deficient. Nobody else would notice it. Don't waste the money or risk of a botched surgery with subpar surgeons for such a miniscule change. A couple dashes of toppik and you could never tell.  

[Brizmore]

Could you tell me why FUT for 100 grafts would be frowned upon? Is it due to the risk of shock loss? I was under the impression FUT was the more preferred option since it allows surgeons to be more precise and the best chance for the hair to survive

[1978matt]

You would have to trim your eyebrows weekly for the rest of your life.  Really not worth it based on the pictures you linked

Hairline, maybe. Have a look at Gabel, Mohebi  and Carmen if confined to the West coast.

[BDK081522]

3 hours ago, Brizmore said:

Could you tell me why FUT for 100 grafts would be frowned upon? Is it due to the risk of shock loss? I was under the impression FUT was the more preferred option since it allows surgeons to be more precise and the best chance for the hair to survive

Because with the extraction techniques of today there is no benefit to take a strip out for such a small procedure. It would leave a small linear scar that might not allow you to cut the sides short. FUE would spread out the extraction sites thereby allowing shorter hair. All that being said if you're adamant about it go to a top surgeon and get their honest assessment of your situation. My guess is most will advise not to undertake surgical intervention at this point. Don't trust a Hollywood celebrity surgeon that probably only wants your money. 

[Gasthoerer]

I agree to the previous posters: Do not drink this champagne 😉

Honestly, risk to benefit ratio is very poor in your case. If you still want to do this, there are better options and most likely better + cheaper options available.

Do not go to this "celebrity"-clinics...select out of clinics with real patients results in here. 

 

Questions: Are the 100 graft FU for the eyebrow transplant? For a hair transplant this is borderline criminal for such a small procedure. There is specialized long hair FUE for eyebrow transplants too. 

Edited October 16, 2020 by Gasthoerer

[Brizmore]

1 hour ago, Gasthoerer said:

I agree to the previous posters: Do not drink this champagne 😉

Honestly, risk to benefit ratio is very poor in your case. If you still want to do this, there are better options and most likely better + cheaper options available.

Do not go to this "celebrity"-clinics...select out of clinics with real patients results in here. 

 

Questions: Are the 100 graft FU for the eyebrow transplant? For a hair transplant this is borderline criminal for such a small procedure. There is specialized long hair FUE for eyebrow transplants too. 

The 100 graft FUT was the suggestion for the gap in my hairline. I mentioned that earlier in the original post.

[Brizmore]

3 hours ago, 1978matt said:

You would have to trim your eyebrows weekly for the rest of your life.  Really not worth it based on the pictures you linked

Hairline, maybe. Have a look at Gabel, Mohebi  and Carmen if confined to the West coast.

 I’m on the east coast, but I wouldn’t mind traveling a few states for some decent surgeons

[Gasthoerer]

8 minutes ago, Brizmore said:

The 100 graft FUT was the suggestion for the gap in my hairline. I mentioned that earlier in the original post.

I read it, but I could not believe it and therefore tried to give a possible explanation which you have missed when talking to the clinic.  

If the FUT is only for the hairline ---> RUN, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN FROM THIS CLINIC. 

[Brizmore]

1 minute ago, Gasthoerer said:

I read it, but I could not believe it and therefore tried to give a possible explanation which you have missed when talking to the clinic.  

If the FUT is only for the hairline ---> RUN, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN FROM THIS CLINIC. 

He mentioned that he offers FUE. I have yet to discuss this with him. However, I’ve researched that FUE can be less reliable with keeping hair intact after it’s been inserted into the hairline. I believe this is why he prefers FUT over FUE due to the survivability chances for the follicles. Is there another reason, besides scarring, for why FUT is not ideal? I think he said the scar would be just about a centimeter 

[Gasthoerer]

There is an everlasting discussion if (!) and why FUT has higher growth rates and lower transection than FUE. Literally thousands of post and threads about it in here. There is a thread almost 100 pages long. But not even the biggest FUT supporters in the world (check out their videos) like Feller and Bloxham would recommend FUT for 100 grafts for a hair(!)transplant.

For eyebrows it is (or was) a different story. 

Edited October 16, 2020 by Gasthoerer

[BDK081522]

You're missing the point of our advice. Any clinic that suggests this as the number 1 approach should be avoided. Even if they do FUE they aren't portraying the clinical judgment that is needed in your situation. This will no doubt translate into their surgical technique. It's essentially  a warning sign that they're either unethical in their approach to surgery or incompetent with today's standard for hair restoration. 

[Brizmore]

1 hour ago, BDK081522 said:

You're missing the point of our advice. Any clinic that suggests this as the number 1 approach should be avoided. Even if they do FUE they aren't portraying the clinical judgment that is needed in your situation. This will no doubt translate into their surgical technique. It's essentially  a warning sign that they're either unethical in their approach to surgery or incompetent with today's standard for hair restoration. 

Thank you for clarifying this. I believe you all answered my question and helped me make a good decision. I'll be taking the images down for now for privacy. I'm on the east coast and will seek out a consultation with Dr. Konior.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Brizmore