Seeking comments after my first visit with a doctor

[baldguy123]

Hey guys - I just got back after consulting with a HT surgeon in my area. After looking at my scalp he said that my hair loss begins at my frontal hair line and goes all the way back to the crown and so I don't have enough donor hair to cover all of the bald area. He said the best option is to reconstruct just the front portion with a reasonable amount of donor grafts so that I won't have a huge scar at the back. The crown will have to be left as is. Even if I considered multiple rounds of surgery, he said he would be able to advance further towards the crown but he would never be able to completely cover it. It was disappointing to hear this since I would still be left with a bald crown after the surgery. Have any of you been in this situation before and decided to do anything different? Are there any other options that I could be missing here? Thanks for your comments.

[baldguy123]

Hey guys - I just got back after consulting with a HT surgeon in my area. After looking at my scalp he said that my hair loss begins at my frontal hair line and goes all the way back to the crown and so I don't have enough donor hair to cover all of the bald area. He said the best option is to reconstruct just the front portion with a reasonable amount of donor grafts so that I won't have a huge scar at the back. The crown will have to be left as is. Even if I considered multiple rounds of surgery, he said he would be able to advance further towards the crown but he would never be able to completely cover it. It was disappointing to hear this since I would still be left with a bald crown after the surgery. Have any of you been in this situation before and decided to do anything different? Are there any other options that I could be missing here? Thanks for your comments.

[maxhair]

Do you have photos? You'll get lots of helpful opinions if we could see photos.

[starman]

bg123, ALWAYS get more than 1 opinion also who is the Dr?, is he one of the recommended coalition Dr's or a Bosley/MHR specialist?

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Sounds like what I told a fellow on Christmas eve about that time. Could have been me.

 

Anyhow, I call it like I see it. There are 3 potential "mistakes" in Hair surgery.

 

1. picking someone who can't cut or sew/staple.

 

2. bringing the hairline too low, particularly in really young guys who will lose most of their hair (based on family history and "best guess")--for example a 23 year old wants a 23 year old hairline, that if given to him, will look unnatural at 43 years of age.

 

3. Trying to do too much with too little. This is pertinent to this discussion. I have seen lots of examples from big clinics of a class 6/7 with still some thin, miniturized hair everywhere, getting a couple of thousand grafts spread over the entire scalp. Then when the miniturized hair is gone, they have a bit of thin hair everywhere, and don't look much better than when they started.

 

So I push strongly for correcting the front and moving back, and if someone is a class 6/7; we may get the entire front 2/3 of their scalp covered with 1 or more surgeries, but I doubt if they will ever get crown coverage...if they want a thick result up front.

 

I don't know if this patient saw me, but he sure could have.

 

Lastly, I warn folks that if they hear an answer that sounds "too good", it probably is.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[Dr. William Lindsey]

I am interested in this discussion thread and will try to tune in, but am off to ski with the kids for a few days so I may not contribute for a bit on this one.

 

Just a heads up in case I am the doc in question...I am not trying to run from my answer/advice at all...just ski.

 

Have a good New Year

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA