Choosing NW 7 doctor

[Approach]

I am NW 7.  I've done lots of research, etc.  My decision has boiled down to 2 options.  Dr. Pitella, or Dr. Cooley.  When you answer this question, pls don't factor distance, money, etc.  I'm looking for purely an objective answer.  ****  Question:  Dr. Pittella would go all out and use body hair, etc.  The goal is to create a full head of hair (2 surgeries).  Whereas, Dr. Cooley explained his goal is NOT to give me a full head of hair.  He will use scalp and beard to re-create frontal area primarily and implant a little bit of beard hair in crown (also 2 surgeries).   Two different doctors.  Two different approaches.  Which would you choose?  I'm leaning toward Dr.Cooley because I'd rather have more baldness-- if it looks natural, than a full head of hair --  in which body hair and scalp hair are detectable.  Any thoughts?  Which scenario would you recommend?  I am 52 y/o fyi and had 2 HT surgeries 20 yrs ago.

Edited February 17 by Approach

[Rose17]

Pittella is as good as it’s going to get for a patient like you IMO. He blends in the body and beard hair to look natural.

[rsb]

Pittella is producing great results for high norwoods.

[BackFromTheBrink]

Yours is a very difficult case. Looking at your donor,no suspect both doctors will have to make extensive use of body/beard hair.

The question for me is what percentage of scalp hair will be used by both surgeons? That then leads on to looking at how close your beard/body hair is in comparison to your scalp hair - in texture and colour.

Did you get opinions from any other surgeons? I would have considered Dr Sethi too. Looking at people like Gatsby, he achieved a fantastic look and used lots of body hair. 

[Ajamilo]

How many grafts total did you have previously? Did they miniaturised too? What about medications?

this is a really tough case tho. Good luck with your research 

[Shadman]

11 hours ago, Approach said:

I am NW 7.  I've done lots of research, etc.  My decision has boiled down to 2 options.  Dr. Pitella, or Dr. Cooley.  When you answer this question, pls don't factor distance, money, etc.  I'm looking for purely an objective answer.  ****  Question:  Dr. Pittella would go all out and use body hair, etc.  The goal is to create a full head of hair (2 surgeries).  Whereas, Dr. Cooley explained his goal is NOT to give me a full head of hair.  He will use scalp and beard to re-create frontal area primarily and implant a little bit of beard hair in crown (also 2 surgeries).   Two different doctors.  Two different approaches.  Which would you choose?  I'm leaning toward Dr.Cooley because I'd rather have more baldness-- if it looks natural, than a full head of hair --  in which body hair and scalp hair are detectable.  Any thoughts?  Which scenario would you recommend?  I am 52 y/o fyi and had 2 HT surgeries 20 yrs ago.

It would be a challenging case no matter which doctor you select. Body hairs has to be used perfectly. considering that, I think Dr. Pittella would be a better option.

[Al - Moderator]

Body hair is very different on everyone and in my opinion that matters a lot in determining if using a lot of body hair is going to blend in well and look natural on the scalp or not. For example here are two extreme chest hair pictures. The first one has long, thick, straight chest hair. If you were to put all of that on his scalp you would probably not know it came from his chest as it already looks like scalp hair.

In contrast, the second one, while he has a good amount of chest hair, it is all short, tight curls. If you saw only that you may think he has very curly scalp hair as well, but he doesn't. If you were to put a lot of that curly chest hair on his head you can see there is no way it would blend in at all.

These are two extremes, but I just wanted to show you that you can't just assume body hair will look any certain way on your head unless you specifically look at the potential patient. There are just too many differences in body hair from person to person to say that it will or won't blend without seeing what type of hair you have.

I have personally used almost 6500 beard and chest grafts to cover my NW 7 head which also had some very old FUT transplants not unlike yourself. On me it blends in pretty well and I've even used some on the hairline, but it may or may not work well for you depending on what type of hair you have.

With that said, I know you will probably be using mostly beard hair which I think is usually better at blending with scalp hair. I just wanted to show you that it can vary.

 

[mr_peanutbutter]

dr.pittella

 

which of his result end up looking unnatural? i cant think of any unnatural result of him ...

Edited February 18 by mr_peanutbutter

[mrmane85]

Dr Pitella

Edited February 19 by mrmane85

[Melvin- Admin]

On 2/16/2024 at 6:58 PM, Approach said:

I am NW 7.  I've done lots of research, etc.  My decision has boiled down to 2 options.  Dr. Pitella, or Dr. Cooley.  When you answer this question, pls don't factor distance, money, etc.  I'm looking for purely an objective answer.  ****  Question:  Dr. Pittella would go all out and use body hair, etc.  The goal is to create a full head of hair (2 surgeries).  Whereas, Dr. Cooley explained his goal is NOT to give me a full head of hair.  He will use scalp and beard to re-create frontal area primarily and implant a little bit of beard hair in crown (also 2 surgeries).   Two different doctors.  Two different approaches.  Which would you choose?  I'm leaning toward Dr.Cooley because I'd rather have more baldness-- if it looks natural, than a full head of hair --  in which body hair and scalp hair are detectable.  Any thoughts?  Which scenario would you recommend?  I am 52 y/o fyi and had 2 HT surgeries 20 yrs ago.

I think you can have some improvement. But you need realistic expectations. I think you and @Al - formerly BeHappy are very similar. Take a look at his journey. He’s got a good base. But of course, it’s not a full head of hair. The problem is there’s thinning in both the top and the sides. So there’s not a lot of grafts. The majority of hair will need to be body hair, which isn’t the best donor source. 

Before you opt for surgery make sure your expectations are in check.