How many grafts?

[Mmck234]

I'm just curious as to how many grafts I would roughly need to obtain a fuller hairline and more general density? 

Worried about tanking my donor area being quoted 3500+ for a first HT

[NARMAK]

First off, welcome to the forum. 

Secondly, you need to start medication like Finasteride because your hair, it looks like it's about to get further hair loss in your midscalp. Give it at least 12 months for the medication to start working. 

How old are you and where are you from? 

Also, what's your budget? 

If i had to take a quick guess, the clinic you probably asked are a Turkish place or at the very least a hair mill. 

Maybe you do need that many grafts, but it's a high number, and a majority of the donor area sometimes for a single procedure depending on what they planned. 

[Mmck234]

Thanks v much.

I'm already on fin and min and have been for a few years. I made good progress (no scalp visible unless under v harsh light), however, I just underwent a pretty large shed so the density is definitely down from my normal.

26 from the UK, it was actually a British company but after reading their reviews I've decided my money would probably go further with one of the better Turkish clinics. The max I could spend would be £4,000 all in, but preferably closer to 3k. Have you any good recommendations for that range? 

[Mmck234]

3 hours ago, NARMAK said:

First off, welcome to the forum. 

Secondly, you need to start medication like Finasteride because your hair, it looks like it's about to get further hair loss in your midscalp. Give it at least 12 months for the medication to start working. 

How old are you and where are you from? 

Also, what's your budget? 

If i had to take a quick guess, the clinic you probably asked are a Turkish place or at the very least a hair mill. 

Maybe you do need that many grafts, but it's a high number, and a majority of the donor area sometimes for a single procedure depending on what they planned. 

Thanks v much.

I'm already on fin and min and have been for a few years. I made good progress (no scalp visible unless under v harsh light), however, I just underwent a pretty large shed so the density is definitely down from my normal.

26 from the UK, it was actually a British company but after reading their reviews I've decided my money would probably go further with one of the better Turkish clinics. The max I could spend would be £4,000 all in, but preferably closer to 3k. Have you any good recommendations for that range? 

[Doron Harati]

Around 3000+- grafts, but need to check it's not too early for you to have HT, if it's too early some natural exist hair can be overrun and destroyed.

Additionally your donor need to be checked if it's healthy, Caucasian blonde hair tends to have less coverage effect vs black hair.

[NARMAK]

4 minutes ago, Mmck234 said:

Thanks v much.

I'm already on fin and min and have been for a few years. I made good progress (no scalp visible unless under v harsh light), however, I just underwent a pretty large shed so the density is definitely down from my normal.

26 from the UK, it was actually a British company but after reading their reviews I've decided my money would probably go further with one of the better Turkish clinics. The max I could spend would be £4,000 all in, but preferably closer to 3k. Have you any good recommendations for that range? 

In terms of age, you're not at a bad age per se, but what you have going against you imo is that third picture. Whether that is temporary or indicative of further hair loss needs to be established. It's not a good sign. 

What dosage of Finasteride and routine of Minoxodil are you on? I think you might also want to consider adding Microneedling into the mix with a derma pen once a week at 1mm to 1.5mm. It should boost your results for sure. 

That said, let's move on to your budget. First thing is, you need a proper evaluation from a professional. The forum here has a solid list and i would look at the options in Europe. Being in the UK, it's a short flight to most places that are solid for the price but the £ has taken an absolute battering and i'm so happy i went when i did in May. You're probably going to have to do 2 things. 1 is save up more now. It's not something to cheap out on. This things going to be with you for life and you need to get it right out the gate. 2, give it 6-12 months to resolve your hair loss issue and save more, but narrow down who you want and get on their waiting list. A lot of doctors are booked till 2023 if they're usually solid. 

Dr De Freitas, Dr Bisanga in Belgium are just a few of the names you can look into and see patient results on this forum for Europe. 

I think what might really help is for you to blur your face on a front facing picture but keep the eyebrows visible as a landmark. They call it the glabella. Hold your hair fully back or slick it with a comb etc. and then draw out what hairline you want. Then take two photos of a 3/4 profile view on the left and right, and draw out another "Ideal" hairline you want. 

Bear in mind, you are going to get some opinions advising you against what you're drawing, cause its really common what a 20 odd year old wants from a hairline, VS what they age into 10+ years down the line and potentially if they lose more ground which you might be affected by. 

[Mmck234]

On 10/2/2022 at 11:24 PM, NARMAK said:

In terms of age, you're not at a bad age per se, but what you have going against you imo is that third picture. Whether that is temporary or indicative of further hair loss needs to be established. It's not a good sign. 

What dosage of Finasteride and routine of Minoxodil are you on? I think you might also want to consider adding Microneedling into the mix with a derma pen once a week at 1mm to 1.5mm. It should boost your results for sure. 

That said, let's move on to your budget. First thing is, you need a proper evaluation from a professional. The forum here has a solid list and i would look at the options in Europe. Being in the UK, it's a short flight to most places that are solid for the price but the £ has taken an absolute battering and i'm so happy i went when i did in May. You're probably going to have to do 2 things. 1 is save up more now. It's not something to cheap out on. This things going to be with you for life and you need to get it right out the gate. 2, give it 6-12 months to resolve your hair loss issue and save more, but narrow down who you want and get on their waiting list. A lot of doctors are booked till 2023 if they're usually solid. 

Dr De Freitas, Dr Bisanga in Belgium are just a few of the names you can look into and see patient results on this forum for Europe. 

I think what might really help is for you to blur your face on a front facing picture but keep the eyebrows visible as a landmark. They call it the glabella. Hold your hair fully back or slick it with a comb etc. and then draw out what hairline you want. Then take two photos of a 3/4 profile view on the left and right, and draw out another "Ideal" hairline you want. 

Bear in mind, you are going to get some opinions advising you against what you're drawing, cause its really common what a 20 odd year old wants from a hairline, VS what they age into 10+ years down the line and potentially if they lose more ground which you might be affected by. 

Thanks for such a detailed response. I know its a strange situation. The only thing I could (maybe) attribute it to is that my pharmacy switched generic brands of fin. I know this shouldn't matter if the active ingredient is still 1mg, however, after some research there does seem to be other people who have experienced similar. After getting back to my other brand after a few months my hairless stopped almost immediately again.

I'm currently on 1mg fin daily and 5% minoxidil foam twice a day, applied liberally all over not just the half a cap or whatever the recommended is. For microneedling does it need to be kept up to keep the results like min and fin or if will you retain the gains made after stopping? 

Tell me about it mate, couldn't have really picked a worse time haha. Hoping by the time I'm ready to pull the trigger it may have recovered slightly.

What's you're option of Dr. Turan and Dr. Gur from FUEcapillar? I've been leaning towards Turan as he's trusted on here, reasonably priced and seems to have good reviews and a decent body of work to be seen on here.

Aye I feel like I'm quite realistic when it comes to what I'm wanting. I'm not after a fully flat hairline, just something that doesn't look like the mcdonalds logo and a bit more density.

[NARMAK]

15 minutes ago, Mmck234 said:

Thanks for such a detailed response. I know its a strange situation. The only thing I could (maybe) attribute it to is that my pharmacy switched generic brands of fin. I know this shouldn't matter if the active ingredient is still 1mg, however, after some research there does seem to be other people who have experienced similar. After getting back to my other brand after a few months my hairless stopped almost immediately again.

I'm currently on 1mg fin daily and 5% minoxidil foam twice a day, applied liberally all over not just the half a cap or whatever the recommended is. For microneedling does it need to be kept up to keep the results like min and fin or if will you retain the gains made after stopping? 

Tell me about it mate, couldn't have really picked a worse time haha. Hoping by the time I'm ready to pull the trigger it may have recovered slightly.

What's you're option of Dr. Turan and Dr. Gur from FUEcapillar? I've been leaning towards Turan as he's trusted on here, reasonably priced and seems to have good reviews and a decent body of work to be seen on here.

Aye I feel like I'm quite realistic when it comes to what I'm wanting. I'm not after a fully flat hairline, just something that doesn't look like the mcdonalds logo and a bit more density.

Microneedling results haven't got a fully solid long term study behind them but the general feeling is, that if you're using Finasteride to block the DHT which is the prime culprit of hair loss, then whatever Microneedling by itself, and that means hair that's not hanging on thanks to Minoxodil actually has more of a "permanent" sort of staying power once you stop compared to say Minoxidil reliant hair which pretty much is guaranteed to go if that was all that was saving it. Its annoying to no end that after 20+ years, we still have no got big brains telling us WHY hair that's regrown via Minoxidil can't be maintained by Finasteride when the root cause of MPB is seen as DHT based damage. When you're inhibiting that, it made sense in mine and probably everybody else's mind that the hair should then be safe to stay around but instead it's like an addict and as soon as you remove it, those hairs can't function at all without it. It's just sad and annoying. 

In terms of those two Doctors, sorry but i can't say i've seen enough of their work but i do know Dr Bicer was usually getting recommended the most in terms of Turkish places here on the forum, but she's increased her prices and i don't know if she has that many results posted that are by patients themselves from the forum. 

I definitely think you seem to have a level headed approach to the design but the desire to always go a step furthers in the back of our minds. I guess that's why they say it's never one and done with hair transplants. The equivalent of male lip fillers

[GoliGoliGoli]

On 10/2/2022 at 5:12 PM, Doron Harati said:

Additionally your donor need to be checked if it's healthy, Caucasian blonde hair tends to have less coverage effect vs black hair.

I thought it was the opposite? Doesn't blonde hair provide better illusion of density since it more closely matches the color of the scalp? 

[Hairy Henderson]

4 hours ago, Mmck234 said:

Thanks for such a detailed response. I know its a strange situation. The only thing I could (maybe) attribute it to is that my pharmacy switched generic brands of fin. I know this shouldn't matter if the active ingredient is still 1mg, however, after some research there does seem to be other people who have experienced similar. After getting back to my other brand after a few months my hairless stopped almost immediately again.

I'm currently on 1mg fin daily and 5% minoxidil foam twice a day, applied liberally all over not just the half a cap or whatever the recommended is. For microneedling does it need to be kept up to keep the results like min and fin or if will you retain the gains made after stopping? 

Tell me about it mate, couldn't have really picked a worse time haha. Hoping by the time I'm ready to pull the trigger it may have recovered slightly.

What's you're option of Dr. Turan and Dr. Gur from FUEcapillar? I've been leaning towards Turan as he's trusted on here, reasonably priced and seems to have good reviews and a decent body of work to be seen on here.

Aye I feel like I'm quite realistic when it comes to what I'm wanting. I'm not after a fully flat hairline, just something that doesn't look like the mcdonalds logo and a bit more density.

I wonder if this is a thing?  I too was briefly on generic fin and recently noticed some shedding hairs and am back on Proscar brand.  Could that be it?

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

@Mmck234,

In my opinion, if you’re not already on it I strongly suggest getting on finasteride and Stana for at least a year prior to undergoing her transplant surgery. You are 26 years old so you’re still quite young. That’s not to say that you aren’t a candidate for surgery but if you are still losing hair, the best strategy at this point would be to do what you can to stabilize your hair loss with non-surgical solutions. Once you bring your hair loss under control, then it would make the most sense to explore surgical options.

Best wishes,

Rahal Hair Transplant