And then this happened ...

[Mike10]

2 hours ago, BeHappy said:

 

No, but if you can make it to mid 60s without ever looking like you lost much hair all your life then you pretty much beat hair loss. Basically 99% of men will have significant hair loss by that age, so it's not going to matter as much if you are thinning after that. Besides it's not like you would suddenly lose all your hair the day after you turn 60 something.

 

I can see your point 

[Surfarosa]

On 4/16/2022 at 11:16 AM, BeHappy said:

As Berba and yourself indicate I also think you probably had much less than 3000 grafts. In any event that's past. I don't think you are trying to deceive us, so lets just move on to the real issue which is what to do next. It looks like you still have very good donor, so I would just have one good session to fill in between the transplanted hair line and the natural hair line. It seems like that should be easy and you can probably hide the work if you don't shave your head and comb your hair to cover it, so you may not even have a noticeable ugly duckling stage. If that lasts for another 10 years then at that point you can go back for one more round to fill in a bit more and you are done.

 

That is a strategy I am considering. I would like to see if I get anything from going back on meds but TBH I did not notice an increase in hairloss when I stopped taking them at all and I don't notice much hairloss now (in the sink, bath etc).  Also, once I was happy with my hair (2011), I stopped endlessly checking my hair for hairloss.

[Surfarosa]

On 4/15/2022 at 2:14 PM, Berba11 said:

Ok so your surgeries were FUT? You also mentioned "only single grafts". Something is amiss here.

Firstly, the benefit of FUT is that you'll use every last graft from the strip that's been extracted. However, that necessarily dictates that a surgeon may have to create single grafts from multi grafts for the hairline. It's not remotely likely that from a strip you'd have exclusively single graft hairs. You'll have some, but like I said, may have to "manufacture" singles from multi's by cutting them if there's not a enough singles for the hairline. Now, your hairline pics look soft and natural and with single hairs, so either enough single hairs were extracted from the strip(s) or the surgeon/techs were able to create some from multi's to make up any short fall. What confuses me here is the idea they were "all" singles? Additionally, most [good!] clinics will use singles in the hairline and then multi's behind to create density. They use or create singles for the entirety of the HT.

If somehow you have ended up with 100% singles, even behind the hairline, that would explain maybe the lack of density. If you implant 30 single graft hairs into a cm2 space, you end up with 30 hairs in that cm2 space. But if you implant 30 triple grafts hairs, you'll end up with 90 hairs in that cm2 space, and thus a greater illusion of density. It's actually slightly more complex than that due to shedding, but you get the idea.

With the above said, I suppose the opposite can be true. If for some bizarre reason there were literally only single grafts hairs on the strip of flesh removed from your head, and no thicker multi graft hairs at all, that would limit the density (as per the numbers mentioned above). I find it hard to believe though that from 3 surgeries you'd only have single graft hairs harvested. That sounds like nothing I've ever heard of before!

With FUE, a surgeon using microscopes can hand pick the grafts they extract on an individual level; thick juicy multi grafts for everything behind the hairline, and finer single grafts for the hairline and/or temple points. Likewise though, if they can't find enough singles, they may have to create some. Hence I find it highly unlikely that only single grafts were harvested. I'm wondering if whoever did your surgeries discarded the multi graft hairs. That would account for the fact you clearly have soft singles in the hairline (which is good!), it would account for the lack of density and it would account for both the appearance here and the assessment of another doctor that 3,000 grafts hadn't been implanted. 3,000-ish may have been harvested from the donor, but there's little evidence of that many in the recipient sites. But equally, if after three surgeries (I'm assuming all FUT?) you only have one single 2 inch scar, I'm inclined to think you've been absolutely had with regards the number of grafts you've been told were extracted.

I mean, it's your head... How many different strip scars were created and how long were they at the time? Is the fact you can only find a single 2 inch scar possibly due to very good healing + good hair coverage at the back that is masking much of the scarring/additional strip scars? Only you can tell us how big the scar(s) from each surgery was. Were they all FUT surgeries?

All were FUT surgeries yes. I have had 2 clinics check my scar + my wife, they say the same thing, only one scar. My doctor did tell me that he would be "going over" the same scar each time.

I know that my doctor would not dream of discarding FU's - not a chance.  I am starting to belive that 3000 singles were used as my work was all in the hairline, meaning the actual number of grafts is more like 1500 (asuming an average of 2 hairs per graft).

Therefore, it may be that I have not had that much work, and that work held together for 10+ years but has just started to be revealed due to further hairloss.
 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Surfarosa

[Surfarosa]

I finally got in touch with my doctor back in California and will be having a FaceTime with him tomorrow and will be able to update accurately on my history ...