8 Years After 1st FUT my hair looks worse than before - FUT ~2,400 grafts Dr. Rahal

[Phab]

I hope someone here has had the same experience I'm having.

I've had my 1st and only FUT ~2,400 grafts about 8 years go with Dr. Rahal when I was 30, I'm an NW 6 but I was still a NW2/3 back then due to finasteride (took it for 10+ years before the HT).

One year after, it looked great in the broad daylight, great density.

Stopped taking fin (due to side-effects, I'm not going back to it) and I've been losing more and more hair over time. It makes sense I'd loose in the back but my question is about the recipient area in the front, that looks worse than before the HT. I can see through in very low light. Concealers are not helping anymore.

I thought the transplanted hair wouldn't fall anymore. Is it because I'm losing the non-transplanted hair and the HT hair was mixed with non-transplanted hair? If yes, seems like I should have waited and just used toppik at the time, until I lost more hair so the HT would have been done with more available area and thus with higher density to begin with?

What's the usual density of a HT? Is it normal to have 2 surgeries for more density? Would another HT create more density?

I'm also exploring exosomes and PRP but if my non-transplanted hair is gone, then this won't help and I should prob have another HT.

I'm going to pay for a consultation soon but thought I should ask here first cos all clinics I inquire wants to charge me a fee. And would be good to have different opinions. I'm also e-mailing a patient advisor from Dr. Rahal and will post here updates.

Thank you

 

EDIT: Photos before HT in 2012, and a photo today 2021 - sorry if it's not good quality. Unfortunately I don't have any photos after HT where I can show the head full of hair but trust me, it was full of hair, no complains, I was very happy with it

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Phab

[Britanium]

Unfortunately yes it will be your native hair which your now losing. The Fin would have helped retain, but when you stop taking it then your hair would resume its loss. 
2400 grafts via FUT should have left you with a lot of donor area left. Approx another 4600 (rough guess) you could always do a virtual consult through the forum for Dr Rahul:

https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/physician/Ontario/H-Rahal/376

[aaron1234]

Pics please?  If you're destined for NW6, then yeah it's too bad you had to stop fin. 

[asterix0]

@Phab In some patients, the recipient area is too androgen sensitive for the donor hair without finasteride. There are quite a few hair transplant patients over the forums mentioning this. You can also find this information on google scholar and from other sources.

 

[asterix0]

Here is a video from Eugenix about the matter:

https://youtu.be/rJctY_jvd6U

Edited March 14, 2021 by asterix0

[Melvin- Admin]

I would love to see some pictures before surgery, right after surgery and then most recent pictures.

[Future Hair Doc]

Please share pics as Melvin mentioned. I think the lack of finasteride did you in. Can you try a topical solution of dutasteride/minoxidil? 

[TorontoMan]

Please share photos, this would be good information for everyone to have. I dont think you're losing transplanted hairs, because its likely that Dr. Rahal was implanting between hairs as back then to give you density. Now that those native hairs are gone, its exposing the limitations of transplants and the density. 

[Phab]

Thanks for the responses.

Please look at my original post. I edited it with photos. Now I'm looking to do PRP/Exosomes and my second HT. I appreciate any insight

Edited March 14, 2021 by Phab

[AB2000]

11 hours ago, JohnAC71 said:

Unfortunately yes it will be your native hair which your now losing. The Fin would have helped retain, but when you stop taking it then your hair would resume its loss. 
2400 grafts via FUT should have left you with a lot of donor area left. Approx another 4600 (rough guess) you could always do a virtual consult through the forum for Dr Rahul:

https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/physician/Ontario/H-Rahal/376

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't fin stop working after some point of time, even if you keep using it?

If so a person has to plan their hair transplant with what their eventual hair loss looks like in mind and not just fix what's going on at present.

[aaron1234]

26 minutes ago, AB2000 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't fin stop working after some point of time, even if you keep using it?

I've been on Fin for 14 years, and while I still continued to lose hair I believe Fin has prevented the worst case scenario for me; i.e. lateral humps and crown dropping.   

@Phab You definitely lost native hair, you might have transplanted hair (impossible to say).  Either way, you due for round 2.  Be prepared for more surgeries as you are a high NW. 

 

[Phab]

@aaron1234 Thanks

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Phab

[MissMyLongHair]

On 3/14/2021 at 8:38 PM, aaron1234 said:

I've been on Fin for 14 years, and while I still continued to lose hair I believe Fin has prevented the worst case scenario for me; i.e. lateral humps and crown dropping.   

@Phab You definitely lost native hair, you might have transplanted hair (impossible to say).  Either way, you due for round 2.  Be prepared for more surgeries as you are a high NW. 

 

 

How well did Fin maintain your hair over those years? As in, did you only go up one Norwood class as opposed to potentially several?