Long term consequences of hair transplant and efficacy...

[motegam]

At this point, I'm very eager to get a hair transplant (currently monitoring my response to finasteride and seeing if I've stopped the loss progression). 

I'm still curious about a few things:

1) What is the long term efficacy of a hair transplant? My parents dismissed it and said HTs only last 5 years. Is this true? I believe the transplanted hairs remain while the rest of the natural hair falls away, but can finasteride effectively plug the leak? 

2) To this date, how many HTs have gone bad and patients have actually been killed, maimed, seriously injured? Is there a serious chance of injury here? Can it be mitigated by going to a top surgeon (ex. Diep, Bloxham, Hasson)

[digi23]

17 minutes ago, motegam said:

At this point, I'm very eager to get a hair transplant (currently monitoring my response to finasteride and seeing if I've stopped the loss progression). 

I'm still curious about a few things:

1) What is the long term efficacy of a hair transplant? My parents dismissed it and said HTs only last 5 years. Is this true? I believe the transplanted hairs remain while the rest of the natural hair falls away, but can finasteride effectively plug the leak? 

2) To this date, how many HTs have gone bad and patients have actually been killed, maimed, seriously injured? Is there a serious chance of injury here? Can it be mitigated by going to a top surgeon (ex. Diep, Bloxham, Hasson)

1. The hair if correct extracted is taken from the "safe zone", which will stay on your head until you die, so your parents do not seem to have researched hair transplants much.

2. Since it is a fairly straight forward procedure, there is only on places who do not know what they are doing which things can go wrong, and even there it is very rare for people to lose their life. The potential risk is that the technician on a NON serious clinic inject you with too much local anaesthesia, which you can overdose. This should never happen on a serious clinic so therefore you should save up and not decide on the cheapest option.

Edited October 5, 2021 by digi23

[blackislback]

1. Must not be true, there is people who had HT 10-20y ago and still ok their transplanted hair, there is norules, but 5y is too short, to say will last 5y, mostly is case that can happen in some cases pre-existing hairloss happens, and then thick areas, when some people decide 2nd ht, to get more density, so there is no unique answer about that Q.

Finasteride not gurantee of anything, it's again individual experienced, some people help, some not, somewhere appears side-effect , somewhere not, it's matter you need consult your doctor/dermatologist, do some checking of your skin, hair, etc.

2. Killed? Didn't hear anyone was killed by HT, but as in any other surgery, complications can happen, in transplantation of kidney, any other organ, as our skin is too organ,  biggest organ on our body, but at HT very low cases of complications and fatalities, else bad results of hair density, but as i wrote previously, at any surgery can happen complications, or post-op problems, at HT too. That's why choose top surgeons, as it's about us personal surgery, not neigbhour's to try sparing some money, risk bad results, or any other issues.

[JDEE0]

In response to number 1, it's really as simple as this: the hair that is taken from the 'donor' zone (aka the back and sides of your head) and transplanted to the top should last for as long as it would have naturally lasted had it never been removed and re-located in the first place. This area of the head, the donor, where the grafts are harvested from is generally genetically resistant to the process of male pattern baldness. In other words, the hairs here are largely unaffected by male pattern hair loss - it can and does happen in more rare events such as DUPA - but for the most part most people keep the vast majority of their hair in the so-called 'safe zone'.

You can see this by looking up bald celebrities or observing bald people in public (might be harder if they shave down all the way, but you should still be able to see an outline) and looking at their heads. You'll generally find that even very bald people still have a good amount and quality of hair on the back and sides. So, the only way this hair (that has been transplanted to your top now) should really ever then disappear is as a result of a few things:

1) Grafts were taken from outside of your 'safe-zone'. Look up hair loss according to the Norwood scale - you'll see that someone who is a NW3 or NW4 has all of their hair on the back of their heads and crown area still, whereas a NW7 person does not. If you were destined to be a NW7, had surgery before you actually got there and they took grafts/hair from this area that you would eventually bald within, then I'm sure you can imagine what happens down the line....

2) You have an undiagnosed or yet unnoticed case of DUPA. You can look the condition up, but either way it's fairly rare and would be picked up by a good Dr most likely. 

3) Age related thinning - as we get older our hair shafts generally get thinner (even in people without MPB) and it might not look as thick and full as it once did. But this is just your hair in general, it's nothing to do with the transplant, just that when you're 70+ years old for example the results may not be as good as they once were...

4) You develop/have some underlying scalp condition such as a type of scarring alopecia. Again, nothing to do with a transplant really at all though, is quite rare, and should be picked up by a dr. unless it's an extremely subtle case.

So, no, your hair transplant won't last only 5 years. Look at someone like Elon Musk who's transplant (well at least the first) is at least 15+ years old at this point. Finasteride will help to retain what you have for a long time. 

In response to number 2, is it possible to be killed/have people died in the OR whilst having a HT? Yes, it happens, there's only really a handful of cases, so it's very very rare and is always the result of a shady black market clinic injecting too much epinephrine, anaesthesia, or something similar and inducing a heart attack etc. As you suggest, this is virtually impossible if you go to even a half-way decent clinic, so really no need to worry about it.

There's a much more likely chance of having your head somewhat disfigured by going to a cheap clinic and having a poor result that could in turn ruin your life in a different way than ending it, this is what you actually need to be careful about. But, you sound like you're on the right track with the names you've mentioned, just keep researching. 

Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure my parents are going to say the exact same thing! I haven't even mentioned it as I don't want to hear uninformed opinions on a subject that they know nothing about and I know what their responses will be. Thing is though, I know that I know what I'm doing here, so who cares what anyone else says or thinks, parents included. 

Edited October 6, 2021 by JDEE0

[motegam]

4 hours ago, JDEE0 said:

In response to number 1, it's really as simple as this: the hair that is taken from the 'donor' zone (aka the back and sides of your head) and transplanted to the top should last for as long as it would have naturally lasted had it never been removed and re-located in the first place. This area of the head, the donor, where the grafts are harvested from is generally genetically resistant to the process of male pattern baldness. In other words, the hairs here are largely unaffected by male pattern hair loss - it can and does happen in more rare events such as DUPA - but for the most part most people keep the vast majority of their hair in the so-called 'safe zone'.

You can see this by looking up bald celebrities or observing bald people in public (might be harder if they shave down all the way, but you should still be able to see an outline) and looking at their heads. You'll generally find that even very bald people still have a good amount and quality of hair on the back and sides. So, the only way this hair (that has been transplanted to your top now) should really ever then disappear is as a result of a few things:

1) Grafts were taken from outside of your 'safe-zone'. Look up hair loss according to the Norwood scale - you'll see that someone who is a NW3 or NW4 has all of their hair on the back of their heads and crown area still, whereas a NW7 person does not. If you were destined to be a NW7, had surgery before you actually got there and they took grafts/hair from this area that you would eventually bald within, then I'm sure you can imagine what happens down the line....

2) You have an undiagnosed or yet unnoticed case of DUPA. You can look the condition up, but either way it's fairly rare and would be picked up by a good Dr most likely. 

3) Age related thinning - as we get older our hair shafts generally get thinner (even in people without MPB) and it might not look as thick and full as it once did. But this is just your hair in general, it's nothing to do with the transplant, just that when you're 70+ years old for example the results may not be as good as they once were...

4) You develop/have some underlying scalp condition such as a type of scarring alopecia. Again, nothing to do with a transplant really at all though, is quite rare, and should be picked up by a dr. unless it's an extremely subtle case.

So, no, your hair transplant won't last only 5 years. Look at someone like Elon Musk who's transplant (well at least the first) is at least 15+ years old at this point. Finasteride will help to retain what you have for a long time. 

In response to number 2, is it possible to be killed/have people died in the OR whilst having a HT? Yes, it happens, there's only really a handful of cases, so it's very very rare and is always the result of a shady black market clinic injecting too much epinephrine, anaesthesia, or something similar and inducing a heart attack etc. As you suggest, this is virtually impossible if you go to even a half-way decent clinic, so really no need to worry about it.

There's a much more likely chance of having your head somewhat disfigured by going to a cheap clinic and having a poor result that could in turn ruin your life in a different way than ending it, this is what you actually need to be careful about. But, you sound like you're on the right track with the names you've mentioned, just keep researching. 

Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure my parents are going to say the exact same thing! I haven't even mentioned it as I don't want to hear uninformed opinions on a subject that they know nothing about and I know what their responses will be. Thing is though, I know that I know what I'm doing here, so who cares what anyone else says or thinks, parents included. 

Thanks for this really great response and bringing my attention to DUPA. 

Unfortunately, I'm a diffuse thinner. I have thin sides. My back/donor is "ok", but I'd hardly call it thick (it is at least the thickest part of my hair). I posted pics in another post. I'm taking finasteride right now and am hoping I'm a good responder. 

I'll most likely try to schedule an in-person consultation with Bloxham before any surgery so I can get his opinion. He seems like an honest surgeon and would give me good feedback.