Is a 'No Shave' transplant pointless?

[Richie888]

Evening all

From what I have seen from various successful HT's, not only does opting for 'no Shave' leave you with a pointless tuft of hair that cannot be styled, it also costs you more for the pleasure of keeping it?! 

Surely if you are going in for a procedure you want to see what lurks beneath before you jump head first into a transplant. I did consider this option early on but obviously surgeons are not barbers and there never seems to be much left to be styled! Am I missing something? FYI I am going in to get mine done at the end of this month and as much as I won't suit a shaven head it just seems essential to assess it at the point of surgery. 

Thanks!

[Melvin- Admin]

In my opinion it’s pointless. It’s harder for the doctor and really shaving your head is a small sacrifice, the means justify the ends. 

[Britanium]

Never seen the point in it either. For me I want to make the Drs job as easy as possible! If that means a total shave then so be it.

And if you do get a partial shave isn’t that still going to be just as noticeable? Your donor area has to be shaved no matter what. 
 

[Richie888]

Yeah I would have to agree, it seems a tough enough job as it is doing the transplanting so I would imagine having hair still in place would add to the difficulty. 

[deitel130]

Agreed, if you have existing native hair there are higher chances of damage to them. Also, there is a compromise in clear visibility. We all have limited donor hair which money cannot buy once used. It's better to do all you can to get the most out of the surgery.

[DenverBuff1989]

10 hours ago, Richie888 said:

leave you with a pointless tuft of hair that cannot be styled

@Richie888 what do you mean the hair can't be styled?

 

8 hours ago, deitel130 said:

there is a compromise in clear visibility

@deitel130 what do you mean about the visibility part?

 

thanks. 

[Gatsby]

I think doing anything that makes it more difficult for your surgeon to work with and may in anyway compromise your results should be done away with. Shave your head for best results in my humble opinion.

[Al - Moderator]

It depends on where you are to start with. If you have some hair and just need to thicken it up or if you have a decent center tuft and need to transplant around it or if you already had a transplant and you are going for some thickening then it can definitely be better not to shave your head. You can sometimes get back to having the transplant work not noticeable in less than a week. I've gone to work as soon as 6 days later with nobody knowing I had anything done. Smaller procedures, of course, are much easier to conceal. If you tend to grow your existing hair very long it can be even easier to cover the work done. Check out Legend007 who did have the area being worked on shaved, but had enough existing hair that was left long, so he could cover the area and get back to work with nobody knowing anything.