Would it be possible to use ALL of your donor area, and then use SMP to conceal said donor area?

[Bmoncada]

Norwood 7 and nearly tapped out my donor supply. 

 

I'm not too interested in using my hair on my face, so was curios to see if anybody has ever essentially used as much of the donor supply as possible to make the donor supply area the "thinning area" in order for the top to be the fuller side..

Then.... Perhaps use SMP for the buzzed look which is quite normal when tapering hair anyway.... Seemed to make sense to me, but perhaps could be foolish. 



 

[Gatsby]

What you are suggesting (which has been discussed here before) is really just swapping one bald area for another. In years to come (SMP or no SMP) it would look incredibly unnatural. You would be better off shaving than going down this path.

[THE TRUTH]

12 hours ago, Bmoncada said:

Norwood 7 and nearly tapped out my donor supply. 

 

I'm not too interested in using my hair on my face, so was curios to see if anybody has ever essentially used as much of the donor supply as possible to make the donor supply area the "thinning area" in order for the top to be the fuller side..

Then.... Perhaps use SMP for the buzzed look which is quite normal when tapering hair anyway.... Seemed to make sense to me, but perhaps could be foolish. 



 

Technically it is possible. And I do like your idea. 

It is better to have strong coverage on top than having a bald top and a horseshoe on the sides and back...

You'd basically look like John Cena. 

Strong coverage on top and Alopecia Totalis on the back and sides. 

Not a bad look imo. Better than the horseshoe for sure. 

However there are 2 major problems. 

1) You would have to spread it over multiple procedures and choose the best surgeon to get the best possible survival rate. 

2) You would need to find a reputable surgeon who agrees to perform such a procedure correctly... And I just doubt any reputable big name would accept. Maybe I am wrong. They would have you sign a consent. 

If you are Norwood 7 then the one and only doctor I would consider is Dr. Zarev in Sofia Bulgaria. He can almost give you the illusion of full head of hair. 

Price is 4€ per graft and he is amongst the best in the world if not the best for advanced Norwoods. 

Otherwise SMP is a good option.

[BaldReaper]

On 4/26/2022 at 5:52 PM, lack of bludflow said:

Technically it is possible. And I do like your idea. 

It is better to have strong coverage on top than having a bald top and a horseshoe on the sides and back...

You'd basically look like John Cena. 

Strong coverage on top and Alopecia Totalis on the back and sides. 

Not a bad look imo. Better than the horseshoe for sure. 

However there are 2 major problems. 

1) You would have to spread it over multiple procedures and choose the best surgeon to get the best possible survival rate. 

2) You would need to find a reputable surgeon who agrees to perform such a procedure correctly... And I just doubt any reputable big name would accept. Maybe I am wrong. They would have you sign a consent. 

If you are Norwood 7 then the one and only doctor I would consider is Dr. Zarev in Sofia Bulgaria. He can almost give you the illusion of full head of hair. 

Price is 4€ per graft and he is amongst the best in the world if not the best for advanced Norwoods. 

Otherwise SMP is a good option.

*advanced norwoods with great donor areas

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

Bmon,

The short answer is, no this is not possible and I will tell you why

Harvesting all of your donor area via FUE is technically possible   However, not all of the grafts would grow which I will get into in a moment. Moreover, the donor area would look absolutely horrific. It would be completely unnatural looking and riddled with scarring   Essentially, you could never grow any hair on the sides back of your scalp again and, it would essentially be one big scar and draw tons of attention to your scalp.

you asked about scalp micro pigmentation, yes technically you could do it, but there are all kinds of problems with this which I won’t get into right now. For chargers, S&P will look different on scarring that will on areas of bare, normal skin.  While people do use SMP to help camouflage guard, it’s always scarring that surrounded by normal, natural hair. It’s not just a big giant wall of SMP on top of a big wall of scarring.  Long story short, it would never look natural.

Now, I need to get to the most relevant point for you. It seems that you have a lot less concern for the donor area and would rather have a donor that looks unnatural and fill in the top of the scalp with hair. I can understand that to a degree as I even thought going into my first hair transplant that I really don’t care if I have a big long scar on the sides and back of my head, I just don’t want to be bald anymore.

But, problem is, not all of the follicular units that were harvested would grow and here’s why…

You may have heard people say that if you are trying to maximize the number of grafts for transplanting to “strip out” first (in other words, undergo as many FUT procedures as possible until you have no more scalp elasticity that will allow for another FUT procedure) and then undergo FUE as much as possible.  This can all be accomplished while still minimizing the appearance of scarring in the donor area.  But there is a reason why they say to undergo FUT until you can’t anymore first rather than starting with FUE.

An experienced and skilled FUE surgeon will extract follicular units that are next to one another for transplanting. People think that this is only to minimize the appearance of scarring. For example, if there are 80 follicular units per square centimeter, A surgeon may take approximately 20% of them.   We all know that taking too many would create the “moth-eaten” look in the donor area  which most people don’t want.

However, even if you are not concerned about that, you have to consider this fact.  When you extract a follicular unit via FUE, it puts three distinct forces on it - traction, torsion and tension.  While skilled FUE specialists have been able to overcome these forces in order to harvest the follicular unit without transecting it, it can very easily damage the follicular units surrounding it   As a result, the surrounding hairs become non-viable for harvesting and transplanting. Sure, you can harvest them but they will likely be damaged and fragile, preventing them from growing if they are ever transplanted.

It’s for this reason that it’s advised to undergo FUT first before FUE if you are going to undergo both procedures. FUE will cause damage to the surrounding follicles so that if you harvest a strip afterwards, some of those grafts within the strip likely already damaged and not usable.

So going back to your question, can you harvest and implant every hair from the donor area into the recipient area. Yes, you can. But it will leave you with ugly scarring that will be exceptionally difficult to camouflage and many of the transplanted hairs will not grow for the reasons I described above.

I hope this helps.

Rahal Hair Transplant

Edited May 17, 2022 by Rahal Hair Transplant