Norwood 5 or 6? Grafts? Expectations

[MisterBreakfast]

Hello everyone : )

 

First time poster here.  I have been considering doing a transplant, and have reached out to 2 doctors (leaning towards H&Wong).  I have provided photos for an online evaluation, and was quoted aproximately 3500-4000 grafts (depending on what can be safely harvested from the donor in a single session).  

 

I wanted to get other opinions, as I tend to be more conservative.  I am 38, my dad is a norwood 2 at 70, and each of my uncles went to about norwood 5.  I am currently on Nizoral, dutasteride and minoxidil for about 5 months.  I have seen considerable thickening of my existing hair so far and expect those results to continue at least for a few more months, judging by other diffuse thinners.  

I'm an engineer so I've nerded out about my stats... : P Here they are:

 

I have about 20-40 hairs up top still in about a 120cm2 area of advanced balding (about half of those hairs are terminal, the rest are miniaturized).  My donor has between 180-200 hairs per cm, about 75 grafts per cm2, with an average graft size of about 2.6 hairs.  Most grafts have 70% 3s, 20% 2s, 5% 1's and 5% 4s/5s.  My hair texture is medium, with a diameter of about 65 microns, and is slightly wavy when longer.  I also tend to know from looking at the density of my lateral humps when grown out that about 80-90 hairs per CM2 gives "full" looking coverage.

 

As for expectations, I really just want to get decent coverage in the frontal 2/3rds of my head- approximately 90 to 100 cm2. I'd like to keep the natural widows peak I have, and maybe move my hairline to a more mature level (I think it's wierd I still have diffuse hair at my juvinile hairline lol). I don't give a flying hoot if my crown / swirl area is left balding in it's current state... I've always had a double cowlick back there and frankly, I'm happy to not have to deal with that again.  I've also been almost exactly this thin since about 25 years old with little change for the past 12 years.  I'm ok with still being on the thin side (typical in many transplants I see) and I understand that I have a larger than average area to receive grafts.

 

So what do you all think- are my expectations realistic? Any advice?  Anyone think that I should just give up and go bald?  Let me know what you think : )

 

Also... Isn't my loss pattern kinda wierd? Is it norwood 6?  Norwood 5a?  Something on the diffuse scale?  Wtf? haha!

And for reference my hair may look slightly thinner than it actually is, it's shaved to a #1.5-3 in most of these photos.

 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

You’re a diffuse Norwood 6. Given that you’re on powerful medication. I would give it another 6 months before assessing.