Do Hair Transplants Look Natural?

[Melvin- Admin]

Alright guys,

This is a common question I get about every day, people want to know do modern hair transplants look natural. Are there times when they won't look natural. For example, there's a pretty popular place selling old hair plug procedures and renaming it as their last name. They have a big channel too, I won't mention any names. What do you guys think?

 

Do Hair Transplants Look Natural?

[CosmoKramer]

If you would have asked me back in 2015...my answer would have been no way do they look natural, my only example of an HT was a Senator from my state (Schumer) whom I would see on TV and in person and was the reason why I said to myself I would never get an HT, I did not want unnatural looking plugs and the thought of going through surgery like FUT that looked barbaric (now I know better when done professionally by a talented doc) was done for me...until...late 2016 when I started seeing a few average guys posting their ht journey progress vlogs on YouTube, and those of the FUE technique, which made it more bearable to me as I’m no fan of surgery/needles, their progress and results opened my eyes that good natural results were possible...and now there’s even more good guys posting their HT journey progress vlogs on YT than ever before...showing that it’s not something to be ashamed or embarrassed about doing if it’s individually important to someone. So, with more HT choices now more than at any previous time, and many good to great ones, I’d say yes, a natural look can definitely be achieved.

Edited December 3, 2020 by CosmoKramer

[Future Hair Doc]

Yes, they can look natural depending on the skill of the surgeon and his team. The ones that don't look natural are usually where the hairline is lowered beyond a mature hairline and it throws the whole proportions off. 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Dr. Suhail Khokhar

[Melvin- Admin]

6 hours ago, CosmoKramer said:

If you would have asked me back in 2015...my answer would have been no way do they look natural, my only example of an HT was a Senator from my state (Schumer) whom I would see on TV and in person and was the reason why I said to myself I would never get an HT, I did not want unnatural looking plugs and the thought of going through surgery like FUT that looked barbaric (now I know better when done professionally by a talented doc) was done for me...until...late 2016 when I started seeing a few average guys posting their ht journey progress vlogs on YouTube, and those of the FUE technique, which made it more bearable to me as I’m no fan of surgery/needles, their progress and results opened my eyes that good natural results were possible...and now there’s even more good guys posting their HT journey progress vlogs on YT than ever before...showing that it’s not something to be ashamed or embarrassed about doing if it’s individually important to someone. So, with more HT choices now more than at any previous time, and many good to great ones, I’d say yes, a natural look can definitely be achieved.

Schumer had a HT 🤯 he went complete opposite and got a hairline halfway in his head, mature hairlines are one thing, but this...

[Mycroft]

It can go either way. I've seen some good work that holds up even in person, and then there are others I look at and know right away that some work was done.

Hairlines that are too straight, low, or pluggy are things that often come to mind for us, as well as density being too low. I would also say density being too HIGH in some areas disproportionate to the rest of the scalp is also a big sign. I often think of one guy who was Norwood 6/7 and worked on by a reputable doctors who does good work, but for some reason after a good first pass the guy had a second pass to add a bunch of hair into the frontal third or so with lighter coverage elsewhere. The difference in volume was crazy and looked very artificial, like he was wearing a high density hair piece that only covered his frontal-temporal area.

That's no shade directed at the doctor either. Just a case of a patient who probably wouldn't listen to what was good for him.

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Mycroft

[Melvin- Admin]

44 minutes ago, Mycroft said:

It can go either way. I've seen some good work that holds up even in person, and then there are others I look at and know right away that some work was done.

Hairlines that are too straight, low, or pluggy are things that often come to mind for us, as well as density being too low. I would also say density being too HIGH in some areas disproportionate to the rest of the scalp is also a big sign. I often think of one guy who was Norwood 6/7 and worked on by a reputable doctors who does good work, but for some reason after a good first pass the guy had a second pass to add a bunch of hair into the frontal third or so with lighter coverage elsewhere. The difference in volume was crazy and looked very artificial, like he was wearing a high density hair piece that only covered his frontal-temporal area.

That's no shade directed at the doctor either. Just a case of a patient who probably wouldn't listen to what was good for him.

 

 

 

Yea, I agree, I think a more balanced lower density looks more natural than a hairline with no thinning and a bald crown. A fine balance, I’d rather look slightly thinning, then have a disproportionate head of hair.

[Mycroft]

2 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Yea, I agree, I think a more balanced lower density looks more natural than a hairline with no thinning and a bald crown. A fine balance, I’d rather look slightly thinning, then have a disproportionate head of hair.

Yeah, it all depends on what you have to work with. There are really only a handful of options the way I see it.

1. You have a higher pattern and need to choose how to appropriately distribute your grafts to achieve something that will look aesthetic to you but also mimic a natural pattern of thinning.

2. You have a lower pattern and ample donor supply so you can achieve a true full restoration.

3. You can go for the hairline/hair system combo like a case that was posted recently and get the appearance of a full restoration as a compromise.

All of this also assumes some other things like you not having weird physiological complications that make you have poor growth despite good work by surgeons, or excessive scarring well beyond what the average person should have, etc.

[Yogesh Mander]

On 12/3/2020 at 2:11 PM, CosmoKramer said:

If you would have asked me back in 2015...my answer would have been no way do they look natural, my only example of an HT was a Senator from my state (Schumer) whom I would see on TV and in person and was the reason why I said to myself I would never get an HT, I did not want unnatural looking plugs and the thought of going through surgery like FUT that looked barbaric (now I know better when done professionally by a talented doc) was done for me...until...late 2016 when I started seeing a few average guys posting their ht journey progress vlogs on YouTube, and those of the FUE technique, which made it more bearable to me as I’m no fan of surgery/needles, their progress and results opened my eyes that good natural results were possible...and now there’s even more good guys posting their HT journey progress vlogs on YT than ever before...showing that it’s not something to be ashamed or embarrassed about doing if it’s individually important to someone. So, with more HT choices now more than at any previous time, and many good to great ones, I’d say yes, a natural look can definitely be achieved.

 

On 12/3/2020 at 9:46 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

Alright guys,

This is a common question I get about every day, people want to know do modern hair transplants look natural. Are there times when they won't look natural. For example, there's a pretty popular place selling old hair plug procedures and renaming it as their last name. They have a big channel too, I won't mention any names. What do you guys think?

 

Do Hair Transplants Look Natural?

If hair transplant is done successfully then its almost look natural but if someone look more carefully then minor difference can be seen. I think transplant hair has no comparison with natural born hair.

[Melvin- Admin]

3 hours ago, Yogesh Mander said:

 

If hair transplant is done successfully then its almost look natural but if someone look more carefully then minor difference can be seen. I think transplant hair has no comparison with natural born hair.

I agree to an extent, will a hair transplant be better than nature? No. But it can come damn close. 

[Yogesh Mander]

Yes it's true. They looks like natural and main thing people who loose there confidence due to baldness hair transplant is boon for them.

[Al - Moderator]

On 12/3/2020 at 1:13 PM, Mycroft said:

I would also say density being too HIGH in some areas disproportionate to the rest of the scalp is also a big sign. I often think of one guy who was Norwood 6/7 and worked on by a reputable doctors who does good work, but for some reason after a good first pass the guy had a second pass to add a bunch of hair into the frontal third or so with lighter coverage elsewhere. The difference in volume was crazy and looked very artificial, like he was wearing a high density hair piece that only covered his frontal-temporal area.

I agree. Too many people and Drs continue to insist that the frontal third is the most important and you shouldn't worry about the crown because people see you from the front. I have always said that makes no sense. What you just described is a situation where the patient believed what everyone keeps saying about the front being the most important, yet you can see that it didn't turn out well to do that.

 

[Melvin- Admin]

On 12/5/2020 at 1:24 PM, BeHappy said:

I agree. Too many people and Drs continue to insist that the frontal third is the most important and you shouldn't worry about the crown because people see you from the front. I have always said that makes no sense. What you just described is a situation where the patient believed what everyone keeps saying about the front being the most important, yet you can see that it didn't turn out well to do that.

 

The front is the most cosmetically important, but not everything. There needs to be balance. If you have a Norwood 2 front and Norwood 7 back, that’s not balanced, and will not look natural. 

[Wicky]

Ive thought this too, seeing so many hairlines from transplants that look "unnatural" but than I started looking at the people around me and I realized the majority of hairlines look unnatural 😅

[UnbaldEagle]

3 minutes ago, Wicky said:

Ive thought this too, seeing so many hairlines from transplants that look "unnatural" but than I started looking at the people around me and I realized the majority of hairlines look unnatural 😅

Where do you live then, Hairtransplandia? 😁 By unnatural you probably mean "asymmetrical", "irregular", etc., but we've seen like 150,000 of these throughout our lives so it's only natural (pun intended) that our brain registers them as gifted by mother nature and not surgery. A Drake hairline looks kinda nice and symmetrical and all but give that to a 50 year old white dude and it's tragicomical. 

[PizzaWolf]

Is there an appropriate way for a surgeon to determine proper density of a transplant? Lack of density seems to be the most common complaint I see, but most surgeons advertise the 50 Grafts/cm2 as some kind of universal happy density.

[Wicky]

3 minutes ago, UnbaldEagle said:

Where do you live then, Hairtransplandia? 😁 By unnatural you probably mean "asymmetrical", "irregular", etc., but we've seen like 150,000 of these throughout our lives so it's only natural (pun intended) that our brain registers them as gifted by mother nature and not surgery. A Drake hairline looks kinda nice and symmetrical and all but give that to a 50 year old white dude and it's tragicomical. 

I mean unnatural by it not looking natural, not 'asymmetrical' or 'irregular' . Either someone's hair is too good (like with your drake comment) or its too bad (like a 18 year old looking dude thats a NW 5). some people look natural with asymmetrical hairlines while others dont. some may look weird with an irregular hairline while it fits others face better. naturalness is in the eye of the beholder type deal.  

[UnbaldEagle]

8 minutes ago, PizzaWolf said:

Is there an appropriate way for a surgeon to determine proper density of a transplant? Lack of density seems to be the most common complaint I see, but most surgeons advertise the 50 Grafts/cm2 as some kind of universal happy density.

For sure, a good surgeon measures the density of the adjacent parts first and transplants accordingly. That's what Dr. Maras did in my case, and then transplanted evenly in the frontal areas, kinda everywhere so that it would match the areas behind it. 

I heard Bisanga does the same. Well, I guess pretty much all the elites. 

[UnbaldEagle]

7 minutes ago, Wicky said:

I mean unnatural by it not looking natural, not 'asymmetrical' or 'irregular' . Either someone's hair is too good (like with your drake comment) or its too bad (like a 18 year old looking dude thats a NW 5). some people look natural with asymmetrical hairlines while others dont. some may look weird with an irregular hairline while it fits others face better. naturalness is in the eye of the beholder type deal.  

I hear what you're saying. Sure, it's very complex, that's for sure. I think as long as it's not Turkish kebab cheap botchery most HTs pass as "natural", at least to the layman. We're more critical because we've seen 100s of HT results and can discern the difference. Again, it's how our brain registers a set number of hairlines as "natural" or "transplant-suspect", etc. 

For instance, I have a colleague who had the same kinda hairline for years, absolutely no ongoing recession, but that crown is sure thinning. I'm not sure why I couldn't tell it's probably HT, but now that I sneak-peeked his hairline a couple of times, I can see Turkey. Hair of Instanbul most likely. 

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, PizzaWolf said:

Is there an appropriate way for a surgeon to determine proper density of a transplant? Lack of density seems to be the most common complaint I see, but most surgeons advertise the 50 Grafts/cm2 as some kind of universal happy density.

I’ll post Dr. Bisangas thoughts on this, he explained it very well. 

[PizzaWolf]

10 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I’ll post Dr. Bisangas thoughts on this, he explained it very well. 

That would be great.

[BLE123]

I've never seen a hair transplant in person so can only go by pictures but here are my thoughts.

To me a natural result doesn't necessarily come down to hairline placement or shape, even if you go for a high and conservative hairline it can still look fake. The transition between skin to hair is the most important part. If you're going from skin(forehead) to a block of hair it's just jarring and unnatural, that's why irregularities in the hairline are a must as it creates a soft transition phase. It doesn't matter whether the hairline is straight, angled, curved or receded, if it's too linear/perfect in its design then that's where it starts to look "off". Sometimes I will see a transplant result and it's almost like I can still see the line that the doctor drew on the patient's head, even a year later, does anyone else know what I mean by that? Another "no no" is when the patient has clearly thinning/receding sides but a strong frontal hairline, it just doesn't match. Also low density in general is obviously the other clear indicator of a transplant.

I have seen guys who are pretty much entirely bald at the vertex but still with the hairline intact, it's an uncommon balding pattern but still a natural one so if you do get to that point in the future after having a transplanted hairline then I don't think it comes off as entirely unnatural(assuming the hairline itself has been done well).