Thoughts on FUT and not shaving recipient area?

[gohawks77]

I’ve talked to some doctors and I have gotten split reviews. Some very well known doctors have said it is no problem at all and some say it is a must to shave! Want to hear experienced reviews from both sides. 

[Melvin- Admin]

How much native hair do you have? If it’s essentially bald, shaving isn’t necessary, if you have a lot of hair and the doctor has to place in between native hair, shaving is the best option.

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

@gohawks77,

Some surgeons require shaving of the recipient area while others do not. In my honest opinion, shaving of the recipient area makes the surgery a bit easier on the surgeon and his or her team.  That said, surgery can be performed without shaving the recipient area.

In my opinion, it’s ideal to shave the recipient area because it makes it easier for the surgeon and his or her technicians to densely pack the new transplanted hair follicles close together. While dense packing can still be performed without shaving, it makes it just a little bit more difficult if the natural hair isn’t shaved.

At the end of the day, I suggest selecting a surgeon  based on how impressed you are with the results.  If that happens to be with a surgeon who require shaving, I’d consider this just a minor inconvenience considering hair transplant surgery is a lifelong investment.

I hope this helps.

Rahal Hair Transplant 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Rahal Hair Transplant

[Rafael Manelli]

Just do what your doctor wants. If they want to shave it let them 

[LaserCaps]

Regardless if FUT or FUE, shaving the recipient area is a disaster waiting to happen.  Or, is it?

Keeping the hair longer in the recipient area is of great value.  It serves as a guide.  How can a doctor make an aperture in the angle and direction to match that of the native hair?  Shaving is just a loss of valuable info.  The question then becomes, how shaven?  In other words, is leaving a short stubble OK? How long does the stubble need to be for the doctor to confirm angle and direction? 

The second question deals with a patient who is totally bald but still has enough donor to accomplish a pattern appropriate result. In this case, how does the doctor determine angle and direction? We know hair does grow forward at a particular angle. Is it at the same angle for everyone? Or do doctors rely on the fact that symmetry is not a good thing in this industry? Is an approximate a good approach? 

Most doctors work with magnification.  Having native hair in the way is typically of no consequence.

Doctors, feel free the chime in and give your opinion.

[mavigo]

Why would you shave if you are going to do an FUT? Isn't it normal practice to keep your hair long so that the sutures will be covered? I didn't cut my hair for my first FUT. 

Assuming you are shaving the the whole head, recipient & donor area; you will blatantly have your extremely visible linear scar for all to see. 

Unless FUT is truly the best option as advised by numerous well-qualified physicians, I would never recommend an FUT. FUE is best option, IMO. 

For both of my procedures, the top was kept long because I think it helps the physician to "envision" how to plant the grafts knowing how the existing hair looks when it is longer. 

[Gatsby]

I really wasn't looking forward to shaving my head in January for my second surgery after waiting a whole year to see my final results from my first hair transplant. But whatever you can do to make your surgeon and his or her team's job easier is in your long term best interests. You want to do everything you can to maximize your results and if that means shaving then by all means.

[gohawks77]

56 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

I really wasn't looking forward to shaving my head in January for my second surgery after waiting a whole year to see my final results from my first hair transplant. But whatever you can do to make your surgeon and his or her team's job easier is in your long term best interests. You want to do everything you can to maximize your results and if that means shaving then by all means.

Thank you for your input!

[gohawks77]

3 hours ago, mavigo said:

Why would you shave if you are going to do an FUT? Isn't it normal practice to keep your hair long so that the sutures will be covered? I didn't cut my hair for my first FUT. 

Assuming you are shaving the the whole head, recipient & donor area; you will blatantly have your extremely visible linear scar for all to see. 

Unless FUT is truly the best option as advised by numerous well-qualified physicians, I would never recommend an FUT. FUE is best option, IMO. 

For both of my procedures, the top was kept long because I think it helps the physician to "envision" how to plant the grafts knowing how the existing hair looks when it is longer. 

I am wanting to thicken my frontal third and fill some of my temporal corners. I have a good amount of native hair there but do not want to shave it. 

[Legend007]

There a reason majority of clinics shave the recipient area. I ra like transplanting hair in a bare field with a few short stalks. So you can maneuver better and makes the implantation easier n denser. 
ifs common sense if u don’t cut the recipient hair, then those hair will get in the way of the implantation.. making it a nuisance for the techs to have to work around.. you do that with 2000+ grafts slash times.. u bound to not have the best results. 
that’s why clinic charges u more if you don’t shave it? Because you making their job harder, and more tedious and time consuming..

I just grew my mid scalp and back hair long, and combed it forward to cover the shaved hairline. Believe me , I didn’t want to shave either, it was one of the main reason I resisted getting a ht. But hey, I had to do what I had to do , and just toughed it out for a month or two before it didn’t become noticeable . And it actually worked for me, no one noticed I got a hairtransplant, and till this day no one knows but you guys. 

[duckling]

23 hours ago, gohawks77 said:

I am wanting to thicken my frontal third and fill some of my temporal corners. I have a good amount of native hair there but do not want to shave it. 

I understand your problem completely. I have same thoughts when considering FUT over FUE. We will have lot of hair at back to cover donor area scar and at front it will be shaved so it will make us look like very higher norwood than we actually are , until it all grows back and that too will be delayed with shedding phase and shock loss.

So incase we didn't have to shave we can easily hide the transplanted hair with different styles of existing hair. The issue which i have seen people have with this is that when we consider FUT, one of reason is that we get more grafts and they are from your permanent zone for sure , so don't you wanna let the surgeon have the best view of the recipient area to place that many good grafts. If they have a good view they can give dense packing of grafts at good angles too which is going to help create nice illusion of dense hair for rest of your lifetime (hopefully). And won't be placing grafts near your miniaturized hair. The biggest fear is losing existing hair due to fighting with transplanted hair for blood supply. I have seen people pull their existing hair back, when they have placed grafts infront of them so as to not irritate the area, easily use saline water and allow that area to breathe 😄 .

So avoid these and let your surgeon shave if they want to. Try to imagine inconvenience for them trying to part your hair to create slits between them and when doing implantation also its a problem. The result will surely take a hit. If you had no/very less hair in places where you wanted to place them then there was no issue but you seem to be grade 3 from what you wrote so you will have native hair at front with less density and you want to add in between them.

The surgeon will try to give you best results. Why will you want to not give them best conditions to do so.

[Ted Reed]

Thanks for sharing. This is helpful.