NW7 Only 5000-6000 grafts available

[BeadHead]

Need some advice. I had a doctor look at my donor and he said I probably only have 5000, maybe 6000 max in my donor area. Rated my donor hair a 4 out of 10 in terms of thickness. I have always had fine thin straight dirty blonde hair. He suggested FUT then down the line do a 2nd procedure of FUE. Or do a FUT/FUE combo in 1 procedure.  Do I have enough donor hair to make it worthwhile? I'm age 41 and basically a NW6 headed to a NW7 with diffused thinning. Not sure if i'll get a decent enough result and it will still look way to thin even after 2 procedures.

 

I'm considering just doing a FUE and wearing a hair piece behind it. If I did that whats makes the most sense to fill in? The front 1/3? The front 2/3 but leave the crown?

Edited February 5, 2021 by BeadHead

[Britanium]

Yes that’s a good option. Fill as much as you can at the front. How is your body hair ? Do you have a good beard and even chest hair ? 

[BeadHead]

Just now, JohnAC71 said:

Yes that’s a good option. Fill as much as you can at the front. How is your body hair ? Do you have a good beard and even chest hair ? 

I have a thick beard. Tons of chest hair and abdomen hair

[Britanium]

Beard hair in particular is a great “filler” out of curiosity who are the clinics your considering ? Is Eugenix one of them ? They do awesome work with higher Norwoods such as yourself. 

[BeadHead]

10 minutes ago, JohnAC71 said:

Beard hair in particular is a great “filler” out of curiosity who are the clinics your considering ? Is Eugenix one of them ? They do awesome work with higher Norwoods such as yourself. 

I'd prefer to stay in North America so I'm only considering Wong if I decide to try to fill my entire head. If I only do the front I'll go with Konior.

[Britanium]

Excellent choices 👏 both superb Drs. 

[SLA]

I'd head straight to Eugenix. You could get a full head of hair with 5-6k scalp and 3-4k beard. They do this all the time.

[kramer79]

5 hours ago, BeadHead said:

Need some advice. I had a doctor look at my donor and he said I probably only have 5000, maybe 6000 max in my donor area. Rated my donor hair a 4 out of 10 in terms of thickness. I have always had fine thin straight dirty blonde hair. He suggested FUT then down the line do a 2nd procedure of FUE. Or do a FUT/FUE combo in 1 procedure.  Do I have enough donor hair to make it worthwhile? I'm age 41 and basically a NW6 headed to a NW7 with diffused thinning. Not sure if i'll get a decent enough result and it will still look way to thin even after 2 procedures.

 

I'm considering just doing a FUE and wearing a hair piece behind it. If I did that whats makes the most sense to fill in? The front 1/3? The front 2/3 but leave the crown?

I am assuming he said you have 5000-6000 grafts total (FUT+FUE), right?

Did he see your donor in person or video consult ?

5000-6000 FUT is often done in one procedure by Dr Wong.

Did he break down procedure sizes? Expectations?

[kramer79]

2 hours ago, SLA said:

I'd head straight to Eugenix. You could get a full head of hair with 5-6k scalp and 3-4k beard. They do this all the time.

Eugenix actually uses 3000-4000 grafts from the beard?

Do they routinely do this without visible scarring and good graft viability? 

[SLA]

Yes they do. Scarring looks invisible to the naked eye in cases I have seen. Check out the journeys of @Zoomster @paddyirishman @budhair@harin@BlackPantherfor a few high norwood successful cases from Eugenix in which beard hair was used in large quantities.

[Britanium]

49 minutes ago, kramer79 said:

Eugenix actually uses 3000-4000 grafts from the beard?

Do they routinely do this without visible scarring and good graft viability? 

A decent beard could give 3000 grafts. And yes I have yet to see noticeable scarring on anyone posting their results.

Edited February 5, 2021 by JohnAC71

[Melvin- Admin]

What are your expectations? It all depends on your expectations. 5,000-6,000 grafts will rebuild the front with a little in the middle and nothing in the crown. Could you share pictures of your donor?

[kramer79]

Wow 3000-4000 beard grafts is insane. I thought it was more along 1500-2000.

Just imagine the hair one could have going FUT and then FUE (scalp and beard), assuming the person has a strong beard.

[SLA]

Here is a good example of a NW7 challenging case. In 2 sittings 6k grafts were used (~4k from scalp and ~2k from beard). I think they remarked that he had thin hair as well.

They got into the crown, but as you can see, it is very light. In the video notes, they mentioned that they recommended to the patient that if he got ~2k additional added to the crown, it would make much fuller.

 

 

[kramer79]

I believe this is an example where if he had started with FUT and then done FUE using both scalp and beard hair, his crown would be much fuller. This would have allowed him to address the crown as well especially where it dips down into his donor region.

Nonetheless, this is a great transformation and beard hair grafts can really give someone the ability of having a 'full head of hair' when used as an addon.

I wonder if doctors in North America would ever start using beard hair more often. Seems like they aren't too crazy about it.

[Melvin- Admin]

2 hours ago, kramer79 said:

I believe this is an example where if he had started with FUT and then done FUE using both scalp and beard hair, his crown would be much fuller. This would have allowed him to address the crown as well especially where it dips down into his donor region.

Nonetheless, this is a great transformation and beard hair grafts can really give someone the ability of having a 'full head of hair' when used as an addon.

I wonder if doctors in North America would ever start using beard hair more often. Seems like they aren't too crazy about it.

There are doctors that use beard hair, but it’s less predictable than scalp hair. For example, Dr. Sethi told me his success rate is around 80-90% depending on the patient. Not a horrible number, but keep in mind he’s a BHT expert. For a novice the success rate might be half, even less. Same reason why it took a lot of North American doctors a long time to add FUE. 

[kramer79]

47 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

There are doctors that use beard hair, but it’s less predictable than scalp hair. For example, Dr. Sethi told me his success rate is around 80-90% depending on the patient. Not a horrible number, but keep in mind he’s a BHT expert. For a novice the success rate might be half, even less. Same reason why it took a lot of North American doctors a long time to add FUE. 

If it is feasible to use 3000-4000 grafts (assuming the patient has a good beard) then having 2400-3200 (80% survival rate) extra grafts is huge in my opinion.

It literally gives hope to many cases, from repair, to NW6/7 and to people who just want to be able to move as much hair as possible over their lifetime.

I hope there are more doctors who eventually are willing to practice and start incorporating beard hair as it's thickness can really help achieve a fuller density in the crown.

Does eugenix also do FUT as well ?

Edited February 6, 2021 by kramer79

[Melvin- Admin]

14 hours ago, kramer79 said:

If it is feasible to use 3000-4000 grafts (assuming the patient has a good beard) then having 2400-3200 (80% survival rate) extra grafts is huge in my opinion.

It literally gives hope to many cases, from repair, to NW6/7 and to people who just want to be able to move as much hair as possible over their lifetime.

I hope there are more doctors who eventually are willing to practice and start incorporating beard hair as it's thickness can really help achieve a fuller density in the crown.

Does eugenix also do FUT as well ?

No, they only do FUE. 

[Britanium]

Yep only FUE/BHT from Eugenix. 

[BeadHead]

On 2/5/2021 at 9:50 AM, kramer79 said:

I am assuming he said you have 5000-6000 grafts total (FUT+FUE), right?

Did he see your donor in person or video consult ?

5000-6000 FUT is often done in one procedure by Dr Wong.

Did he break down procedure sizes? Expectations?

It was a in person consult. Yes between FUT+FUE he said he could get 5000-6000. 

If I went to Eugenix and they took 5000 FUE from my donor then took around 2000 FUE beard grafts I think I could get a solid result in 1 session. But doesn't everyone say to maximize my grafts I should do a FUT then a FUE? I'm a NW7

[Melvin- Admin]

Just now, BeadHead said:

It was a in person consult. Yes between FUT+FUE he said he could get 5000-6000. 

If I went to Eugenix and they took 5000 FUE from my donor then took around 2000 FUE beard grafts I think I could get a solid result in 1 session. But doesn't everyone say to maximize my grafts I should do a FUT then a FUE? I'm a NW7

Getting BHT isn't mutually exclusive to FUE. You could get two strips, then go to eugenix to get the rest out with FUE and BHT. You would probably get an extra 3K grafts according to Dr. Shapiro.

[BeadHead]

1 minute ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Getting BHT isn't mutually exclusive to FUE. You could get two strips, then go to eugenix to get the rest out with FUE and BHT. You would probably get an extra 3K grafts according to Dr. Shapiro.

That makes sense. If I went with strips beforehand would I have them spread that hair out over the entire scalp or something like just the front? Are doctors able to inplant hair around already inplanted hair to increase density?

[Melvin- Admin]

18 minutes ago, BeadHead said:

That makes sense. If I went with strips beforehand would I have them spread that hair out over the entire scalp or something like just the front? Are doctors able to inplant hair around already inplanted hair to increase density?

I would probably do it in sections. Like the saying goes, a little of everything turns out to be nothing. Better to do the front and midscalp, then address the crown later with FUE and BHT.

[kramer79]

30 minutes ago, BeadHead said:

That makes sense. If I went with strips beforehand would I have them spread that hair out over the entire scalp or something like just the front? Are doctors able to inplant hair around already inplanted hair to increase density?

I agree with Melvin.

Implanting between hairs takes a very experienced and confident doctor in order to avoid shock loss.

I hear Dr. Wong is someone who is good in those situations and that he takes them on, hence why he has such a good reputation as a repair surgeon.

Did Dr Wong mention how much of the 5000-6000 grafts would be FUT and how many FUT's you can do before switching to FUE ? I'm guessing he commented on your laxity...

[SLA]

11 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I would probably do it in sections. Like the saying goes, a little of everything turns out to be nothing. Better to do the front and midscalp, then address the crown later with FUE and BHT.

What Eugenix does so well is incorporating BHT from the get go in the midscalp which allows for more scalp hair to be used in the crown. My concern is that someone will get a couple of strips using scalp hair to cover the front and midscalp and only be left with a little scalp donor, so mostly BHT will be needed for the crown. 

Might this look visibly awkward with predominantly BHT in the crown rather than better distributed throughout the midscalp and parts of crown?