What's your opinion on future proof transplants?

[Henry]

So I've been watching a lot of hair transplant media and i came across this video by Bloxham with a patient who has minor side recession. He then proceeded to transplant 3,200 grafts on the guys frontal half, who is in his late 20s. The results looked amazing. His reasoning was if the guy thinned out in the future he would still be happy with the graft transplanted.

I rarely see doctors do this, transplant on an area of the hair where there's still reasonable density. Why do you guys think that is? Is it because of their skills? Or experience? Is it on a case by case basis? Permanent shock loss?

Edited November 20, 2022 by Henry

[NARMAK]

2 hours ago, Henry said:

So I've been watching a lot of hair transplant media and i came across this video by Bloxham with a patient who has minor side recession. He then proceeded to transplant 3,200 grafts on the guys frontal half, who is in his late 20s. The results looked amazing. His reasoning was if the guy thinned out in the future he would still be happy with the graft transplanted.

I rarely see doctors do this, transplant on an area of the hair where there's still reasonable density. Why do you guys think that is? Is it because of their skills? Or experience? Is it on a case by case basis? Permanent shock loss?

Personally and this is just my opinion, because i think Dr Bloxham is smart enough, he wouldn't mention reinforcing into a persons frontal area willy nilly unless it actually helped because as a surgeon, he would know about the possible permanent shock loss that could arise into native areas without hair loss. 

Also, "minor side recession" and 3200 grafts doesn't compute for me at all. I had a complete temple point rebuild and frontal hairline restoration at just over 2k grafts and some may say mine wasn't necessarily "minor". 3200 in comparison is more closer to a sizeable operation and for like NW3/4 possibly. 

[HappyMan2021]

as long as you have a generous donor, your hairloss is stable, you are on meds, and you aren't bad off to begin with (NW4 or less) I see no reason why patients can't be future proofed. 

Wouldn't everyone want one big surgery as opposed to chasing multiple transplants over a few decades? 

[Henry]

1 hour ago, HappyMan2021 said:

as long as you have a generous donor, your hairloss is stable, you are on meds, and you aren't bad off to begin with (NW4 or less) I see no reason why patients can't be future proofed. 

Wouldn't everyone want one big surgery as opposed to chasing multiple transplants over a few decades? 

I'm sure a lot of people want this but again, no clinic recommends it, this is actually the first time I've encountered a case like this. Bloxham just seems to be so skilled in his craft, if i were rich he would be on top of my list of handling my hairloss.

[New_Barnet_Please]

I’m surprised more people don’t do at least a minor version of this. All the time I see a ht around the small patch of hair they have when it’s obvious that will also go. I requested some overlap on mine and Dr Bisanga agreed, for the reasons you state - I wanted it to last as long as possible without requiring another procedure.

[StillAlive]

I think it's down to the age when you decide to have your transplant as well as the extent of your loss. I believe that any surgeon worth their salt would see areas where the hair is ready to fall out and add a bit extra there to fortify them, so to speak. It's obviously trickier if a young patient wants to build out a strong NW2-NW3 but if you are a thin NW4-5, it works a charm. 

[HelpfulFriend]

I think it comes down to risk vs reward, and is very dependent on each person.

I asked Dr Konior about this, and we ended up shaving down about 1cm further in than my hairline was, as the hair was already beginning to miniaturise in this area.

He also explained that, as mentioned, you could shock grafts and quicken the pace in which they disappear. If the hair is dense, then it seems like it's better to transplant around it. And sometimes hairs can hang out for a very long time if they're undisturbed.

We also need to remember that when the hair is moved up to the front, a hole much bigger than a hair is placed as to fit the whole follicle. If you do this heavily into a dense area, you could feasibly impact it's appearance. 

[Henry]

2 hours ago, HelpfulFriend said:

I think it comes down to risk vs reward, and is very dependent on each person.

I asked Dr Konior about this, and we ended up shaving down about 1cm further in than my hairline was, as the hair was already beginning to miniaturise in this area.

He also explained that, as mentioned, you could shock grafts and quicken the pace in which they disappear. If the hair is dense, then it seems like it's better to transplant around it. And sometimes hairs can hang out for a very long time if they're undisturbed.

We also need to remember that when the hair is moved up to the front, a hole much bigger than a hair is placed as to fit the whole follicle. If you do this heavily into a dense area, you could feasibly impact it's appearance. 

Very informative thank you, so different doctors have different opinions on this I guess, or the case that i watched probably had a lot of minitiurization going on in the area with a lot of hairs, even if it looked really dense. I'd just let my doctor decide (if i ever decide who) if this can be done with my diffused balding all throughout the top.