Dr. Cooley - approach

[Approach]

Sorry for repeating questions; your answers are helpful!  Dr. Cooley proposed the following to me:  Let's aim for modest-improvement only.  The goal would be:  #1) Re-create the frontal hairline (age appropriate), and do some tricks to give the illusion of a fuller frontal-area of head.  And, implant some hair into old FUT scars.  Above all, have a goal to make things appear so natural--  that one can't detect my previous HT surgeries from 25 yrs ago.  2) Then, do a second surgery to add just a modest amount of beard hair into the crown (no body hair).  In summary, he said he has used this approach with other NW 7 guys and they were pleased with results.  QUESTION:  My expectations are low.  However, modest improvement is appealing to me, instead of shaving heard.  Generally speaking, if you were in my shoes, do you support his approach?  Do most NW 7 guys like me do have a goal to get a FULL head of head (for ex, via a Dr. Pittella type surgeon- using body hair, etc).  My question is NOT which doctor, it's more like:  Should I (a NW 7) even want a full head, or not??

 

 

Edited February 19 by Approach

[Melvin- Admin]

What would you be happy with? Have you seen @Al - formerly BeHappy thread? You will never have a full head of hair, not with Pittella, Zarev or Sethi. That has to be stated. 

Your donor is very sparse. Even if you were to get 10,000 BHT grafts. That’s essentially 10,000 hairs on an area that once had 50,000 hairs. 
 

I think he’s referring to this case

The difference though is his donor is thick and robust. Your donor is sparse and you have severe retrograde alopecia. I don’t believe your donor is good enough quality to achieve something like this. If you want to be realistic, look at Al’s results. That’s something that can be achieved in your situation. But it will require a lot of BHT.

Realistically, it’s a very small border of hair in your donor area. There’s no guarantee the hair won’t keep receding upwards either. 

[HappyMan2021]

2 hours ago, Approach said:

Do most NW 7 guys like me do have a goal to get a FULL head of head (for ex, via a Dr. Pittella type surgeon- using body hair, etc).  My question is NOT which doctor, it's more like:  Should I (a NW 7) even want a full head, or not??

100% unequivocally no. 

I would be very dubious of any doctor who says they could significantly improve your scalp enough for it to be worth your time and money. Even with a homerun scalp HT, I think at most you could only be transformed into a Nw 5. So you will very much clearly look like you are still significantly balding, even with a great HT result. 

At most, I think it might make sense if you can get your past FUT donor scars filled in. 

But spending your time and money on your scalp is going to be a pretty bad investment. The only person who wins in this case is the doctor cashing in your hard earned money

Ask Dr. Cooley is SMP is a viable option for you instead of a HT. 

[Approach]

10 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

100% unequivocally no. 

I would be very dubious of any doctor who says they could significantly improve your scalp enough for it to be worth your time and money. Even with a homerun scalp HT, I think at most you could only be transformed into a Nw 5. So you will very much clearly look like you are still significantly balding, even with a great HT result. 

At most, I think it might make sense if you can get your past FUT donor scars filled in. 

But spending your time and money on your scalp is going to be a pretty bad investment. The only person who wins in this case is the doctor cashing in your hard earned money

Ask Dr. Cooley is SMP is a viable option for you instead of a HT. 

Respectfully, how do you explain the seemingly great results of the member "Gatsby" a former NW 7?  Are you saying that the Gatsby's transformation surgery only brought him from NW 7 to NW 4 for example?  Do you acknowledge that some NW 7 have come somewhat close to a full head of hair?  Or, in your opinion, are doctors like Dr.Pittella, Dr. Setti not worth it-- b/c the results aren't as great as they seem?  

Edited February 19 by Approach

[HappyMan2021]

7 minutes ago, Approach said:

Respectfully, how do you explain the seemingly great results of the member "Gatsby" a former NW 7?  Are you saying that the Gatsby's transformation surgery only brought him from NW 7 to NW 4 for example?  Do you acknowledge that some NW 7 have come somewhat close to a full head of hair?  Or, in your opinion, are doctors like Dr.Pittella, Dr. Setti not worth it-- b/c the results aren't as great as they seem?  

It is possible to go fron NW7 to a full head of hair, but all of these cases were multi procedure and multi year.

And not only were they multiple procedure/multiple year journeys, but add on top of that that the results of these cases were moonshot outlier, exceptional cases

You are unlikely to have the same surgical success as the very famous NW7 transformations celebrated on here

So your full NW7 transformation is possible, but the odds are really against you

And as of now I am just speaking very broadly/generally

Do you know how many grafts you have left in your donor? Alot of NW7s simply dont have the donor availability for a total transformation

 

[Melvin- Admin]

Respectfully, you can’t compare yourself to @Gatsby while he had multiple scars, his donor was robust and he didn’t have retrograde alopecia. 

The available area that could be harvested is dramatically different than you.

 

As mentioned he had multiple surgeries that laster multiple days and also included body hair from multiple areas. 

In my honest opinion, I don’t believe you can achieve what Adrian did. I think you’re very similar to Al, and that’s more reasonable to what you can expect. 
 

Furthermore, Adrian has high sides and healthy and robust donor hair. 

 

Even after a large gigasession surgery his donor looked good.

[Approach]

29 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

It is possible to go fron NW7 to a full head of hair, but all of these cases were multi procedure and multi year.

And not only were they multiple procedure/multiple year journeys, but add on top of that that the results of these cases were moonshot outlier, exceptional cases

You are unlikely to have the same surgical success as the very famous NW7 transformations celebrated on here

So your full NW7 transformation is possible, but the odds are really against you

And as of now I am just speaking very broadly/generally

Do you know how many grafts you have left in your donor? Alot of NW7s simply dont have the donor availability for a total transformation

 

Thank you!  Your candid advice was perfect.  I like when people are straight-up.

[jjalay]

Being completely honest judging from your donor you are not a candidate for a hairtransplant, even with the best doctor in the world. The best thing you can do though is have a small procedure to rebuild thehairline and behind the hairline you can use a hairpiece to cover the rest of the area of your head. This is the best chance you have imo if you want somewhat a full head of hair.

[A_4_Archan]

I agree with the comments above regarding your limited donor hair supply.Your donor is significantly poor so If you're considering a hair transplant, it's crucial to manage your expectations. If you're satisfied with a modest improvement in appearance, then surgery might be a viable option. However, if you're expecting a dramatic change, you might be disappointed with the final outcome.

You need to carefully evaluate the risks, time commitment, and financial costs against the potential improvement you can achieve through surgery. It's important not to base your decision solely on the results of other patients who had significant improvement with similar level of baldness as yours.

Patient posted results should only be used to assess the skill and stature of the doctor, such as how natural their hairlines look, their surgical approach, the quality of post-operative care, their ethical standards, and their level of involvement in the surgical process.

It's crucial to understand that each individual is unique, with different characteristics and resources, which can significantly impact the results of the surgery. Therefore, you should not assume that you will achieve the same results as others with a similar level of baldness who have undergone surgery with the same doctor. Results will always vary depending on individual factors.

I hope this helps you. Good Luck.

[Al - Moderator]

18 hours ago, Approach said:

Sorry for repeating questions; your answers are helpful!  Dr. Cooley proposed the following to me:  Let's aim for modest-improvement only.  The goal would be:  #1) Re-create the frontal hairline (age appropriate), and do some tricks to give the illusion of a fuller frontal-area of head.  And, implant some hair into old FUT scars.  Above all, have a goal to make things appear so natural--  that one can't detect my previous HT surgeries from 25 yrs ago.  2) Then, do a second surgery to add just a modest amount of beard hair into the crown (no body hair).  In summary, he said he has used this approach with other NW 7 guys and they were pleased with results.

 

That sounds somewhat like what was done with me. I did 3 things --- 1. I had the front hairline fixed so it doesn't look like an old hair transplant anymore. 2. I filled in around the perimeter where I had lost hair over the years due to the NW 7 area expanding. 3. Added some grafts all over to try to get a bit of density and have some hair to comb over the top to try to make it all look covered.

I didn't have any scalp donor, so I had to rely only on body hair. I also have severe retrograde loss. There is no way I am ever going to get the same amount of hair as Gatsby because he had a lot more scalp donor to work with.

 

18 hours ago, Approach said:

My expectations are low.  However, modest improvement is appealing to me, instead of shaving heard.

This is where I was too. Shaving was out of the question because I had multiple FUT scars plus remnants of 5 scalp reductions all over the top of my head which were being hidden by what little hair I had on top. So for me any improvement I could get made it worth it. Do I still want more? Yes! and I'm hoping to do at least one more round (hopefully two) to get as close to a decent head of hair as I can get. I'm glad I did it just so that I don't feel so freakish looking anymore. I still look like I'm balding pretty heavily, but it doesn't look as strange as it once did.

I posted comparison pictures in my personal thread about my repair work of my hairline before and after.  I'll post them here if you didn't see them. The ones on the left are prior to any repairs and the ones on the right are from last year on the beach. You can see it looks much more natural now. It's not perfect and it's still very thin behind the hairline, but at least I look normal from the front.

 

[Gatsby]

@Al - formerly BeHappy those repair pics on the right look incredible. Very natural results! 👌

[Al - Moderator]

3 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

@Al - formerly BeHappy those repair pics on the right look incredible. Very natural results! 👌

 

Thanks. It's all beard and chest hair. No scalp donor was used for any repairs.

 

[Stoner]

If you can afford it, just go for a consultation with Zarev. A consultation is not that much of a cost. If someone can give you a decent head of hair it's him (I do not think Pitella and Sethi are on the same league as Dr Z).

[mr_peanutbutter]

is the donor of this guy really much bettrr then ops?

 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

2 hours ago, mr_peanutbutter said:

is the donor of this guy really much bettrr then ops?

 

 

Yes 1000%. The fact he doesn't have retrograde alopecia doubles the available number of grafts.