Going for my session soon, head shaved or unshaved? Feedback?

[deadman]

It's been more than an year since I got my HT done. I am now planing to go SMP session : fut scar+around my crown area+back + sides. SMP artists have always suggested to shave head for best results but I am not comfortable with full head shave   but can go with shaved sides and back because scar and crown are the priority for me. 

For mid scalp and front I am still thinking, not too sure. Because without shaving if it doesn't blend well and can cause issues then it's better to not get it done or shave my head and go for it. I don't want to get into laser complications.

When I asked my SMP artist if we can proceed without shaving: He suggested that when he saw me in person, density can be added without shaving. Hair is long there so wont be any problem. It's obviously better to shave your hair and do SMP because that way they can blend the pigment well into natural hair and good density work. But if don't want to shave, your hair is long, we can add density without shaving.

 

Before SMP images #######################

 

 

I use Nizoral 2%(shampooing alternate days) and 5% min(daily),

Pre SMP instructions# My artist asked me to apply conditioner before coming for session so it's not dry , so I ordered this conditioner

Post SMP instructions: Use baby shampoo for a while and apply some natural oils like Almond/coconut/castor oil and ofc not doing activities that cause heavy sweating....

If you can suggest you hair care routine after SMP and if you still apply minoxidil?

And any feedback on my decision to go for SMP seeing from the images? Is it okay to go with unshaved head?? Your experiences?

Appreciate your inputs!!

 

#######################UPDATE #1

Thanks all you lovely members for valuable advice, from your comments, it was definitely a hint that frontal hairline can be fixed and can look better. I will check this forum to find out good repair surgeons and contact them to get price quote, the money will definitely be a concern if they are very costly. While I try to plan this repair HT, I was wanting to get rid of this scar from the back because I normally keep faded cut, the scar is visible. My idea is to simply get the scar camouflaged at minimum and then keep hunting to find an appropriate budget friendly doctor for repair HT. 

I mean I hope it's wont be a blunder right? If I go with SMP for now because this scar is annoying and then later get a repair HT and then if need for a SMP, we will see...

 

Edited April 30 by deadman
updated

[Hairwolf]

IMO, you should deal with the hairline first. There are multi- grafts and they did not use soft singles for naturalness and the density is a bit weak also in parts.

[hairthere]

I would only require you to shave the donor/scar zones with a zero guard on a clipper. 

[Berba11]

1 hour ago, Hairwolf said:

IMO, you should deal with the hairline first. There are multi- grafts and they did not use soft singles for naturalness and the density is a bit weak also in parts.

I agree with this. The hairline is extremely harsh - all thick multigraft hairs and it looks to be poorly angled as well. I would want to fix this before doing anything else.

[deadman]

3 hours ago, Hairwolf said:

IMO, you should deal with the hairline first. There are multi- grafts and they did not use soft singles for naturalness and the density is a bit weak also in parts.

Thanks for insight, are you just talking about frontal hairline? If yes, to fix it, do they like do repair HT in which they reposition grafts? Or Extract more grafts from the back?

[deadman]

1 hour ago, Berba11 said:

I agree with this. The hairline is extremely harsh - all thick multigraft hairs and it looks to be poorly angled as well. I would want to fix this before doing anything else.

Thanks for insight, are you just talking about frontal hairline? If yes, to fix it, do they like do repair HT in which they reposition grafts? Or Extract more grafts from the back?

Even if SMP is done before that, what kind of issue can I face? Sorry I am trying to understand.

[deadman]

2 hours ago, hairthere said:

I would only require you to shave the donor/scar zones with a zero guard on a clipper. 

So if I understood correctly, I can go 0 guard wherever SMP is being done, but if I may ask for the mid scalp and frontal, if those parts are being done without shaving, then how far do you agree with my artists comment I mentioned in my initial post?

[Berba11]

27 minutes ago, deadman said:

Thanks for insight, are you just talking about frontal hairline? If yes, to fix it, do they like do repair HT in which they reposition grafts? Or Extract more grafts from the back?

I'm talking about that entire 2cm strip of hairline. There's two surgical approaches to fixing a hairline:

1. Implant more grafts in front of the problem grafts in order to hide previous bad work.

2. Punch out all of the bad grafts, raising the hairline over the course of two or three session, before rebuilding the hairline in a more natural way.

I think in your case you need the second option, because trying to camouflage the current hairline will be difficult as your current hairline looks too low to begin with (so putting more grafts in front of it will be a problem), and virtually all of the grafts they've used are angled poorly meaning they won't blend as well with newly implanted 'good' grafts. Furthermore, trying to camouflage the hairline will require taking more grafts from the donor, whereas punching out the hairline means you can reuse those grafts further back, and then use a much smaller number of soft single grafts to rebuild the new hairline.

Here's a case from start to finish to give you an idea:

And here's another case from this week:

 

[deadman]

6 minutes ago, Berba11 said:

I'm talking about that entire 2cm strip of hairline. There's two surgical approaches to fixing a hairline:

1. Implant more grafts in front of the problem grafts in order to hide previous bad work.

2. Punch out all of the bad grafts, raising the hairline over the course of two or three session, before rebuilding the hairline in a more natural way.

I think in your case you need the second option, because trying to camouflage the current hairline will be difficult as your current hairline looks too low to begin with (so putting more grafts in front of it will be a problem), and virtually all of the grafts they've used are angled poorly meaning they won't blend as well with newly implanted 'good' grafts. Furthermore, trying to camouflage the hairline will require taking more grafts from the donor, whereas punching out the hairline means you can reuse those grafts further back, and then use a much smaller number of soft single grafts to rebuild the new hairline.

Here's a case from start to finish to give you an idea:

And here's another case from this week:

 

Can I possibly DM for easier communication? If it's okay ?, I am feeling a bit nervous now cause I don't want to make rush decisions to make anything worse and just want to understand a few more things from your reply?

[Berba11]

1 hour ago, deadman said:

Can I possibly DM for easier communication? If it's okay ?, I am feeling a bit nervous now cause I don't want to make rush decisions to make anything worse and just want to understand a few more things from your reply?

Sure

[Al - Moderator]

The transplanted hair looks too much like rows of hair. You may be able to get away with punching some out and repositioning them to get a more scattered look without needing to take any more grafts from the donor. 
 

[Hairwolf]

@deadman This was an FUT procedure?  If so, The scar looks lower than usual and not so bad from that angle

[hairthere]

20 hours ago, deadman said:

So if I understood correctly, I can go 0 guard wherever SMP is being done, but if I may ask for the mid scalp and frontal, if those parts are being done without shaving, then how far do you agree with my artists comment I mentioned in my initial post?

You are fine leaving the rest of the hair the length it is. However you should temper your expectations regarding thickening SMP. The dots are flat and thus will only give an illusion of density by cutting the contrast of scalp and hair. Also, you might want your artist too go darker with the treatment because you're not seeing enough of a difference. If you have a good artist and they tell you they can't go any darker, listen to them. 

 

Also, I'm sorry to say I agree with the others commenting that your HT was not done using the best current surgical techniques. 

Edited May 1 by hairthere

[deadman]

8 hours ago, Hairwolf said:

@deadman This was an FUT procedure?  If so, The scar looks lower than usual and not so bad from that angle

@Hairwolf that pic has a different angle , this FUT was done in 1st HT , look at this image taken before 2nd HT, that strip is taken from right under or close to that edgy skull ends, sorry idk what we call that? occipital knob/bone maybe , it's taken from right there. What do you think of it now?

Edited May 1 by deadman

[deadman]

11 hours ago, hairthere said:

You are fine leaving the rest of the hair the length it is. However you should temper your expectations regarding thickening SMP. The dots are flat and thus will only give an illusion of density by cutting the contrast of scalp and hair. Also, you might want your artist too go darker with the treatment because you're not seeing enough of a difference. If you have a good artist and they tell you they can't go any darker, listen to them. 

 

Also, I'm sorry to say I agree with the others commenting that your HT was not done using the best current surgical techniques. 

@hairthereNothing to be sorry   because it's true, that frontal hairline was actually designed by my 1st surgeon in 1st HT so at that time, I didn't do much research, I wasn't aware of this forum much. So it was my bad , I was also able to find my 1st HT post here https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/60834-looking-for-feedback-on-this-ht-~5000-grafts-done-in-india/page/2/ , if you look at the hairline , it was designed badly from the 1st HT.

For 2nd HT, my main concern has been the crown and back scalp. 

For the SMP part, I will discuss this comment of yours with artist. Thanks for the advice. With SMP I am only targeting to make scar less visible and to give crown a bit of illusion of hair. For now I drop this idea of SMP for frontal hairline.

 

Edited May 1 by deadman
Clarification added

[jjsrader]

On 5/1/2024 at 6:40 AM, hairthere said:

You are fine leaving the rest of the hair the length it is. However you should temper your expectations regarding thickening SMP. The dots are flat and thus will only give an illusion of density by cutting the contrast of scalp and hair. Also, you might want your artist too go darker with the treatment because you're not seeing enough of a difference. If you have a good artist and they tell you they can't go any darker, listen to them. 

 

Also, I'm sorry to say I agree with the others commenting that your HT was not done using the best current surgical techniques. 

^ This!

If you are going to wear hair at normal lengths for decades going forward - darker SMP always better.  Absolutely correct.  I had mine done by Mark Weston (who actually does DEEP tattooing of the scalp vs SMP) & he re-iterated the same.  After all, he basically created the entire industry way back in the 90's. 

He just permanently retired w/n the last 5 months.

Edited May 3 by jjsrader

[deadman]

On 5/3/2024 at 12:08 PM, jjsrader said:

^ This!

If you are going to wear hair at normal lengths for decades going forward - darker SMP always better.  Absolutely correct.  I had mine done by Mark Weston (who actually does DEEP tattooing of the scalp vs SMP) & he re-iterated the same.  After all, he basically created the entire industry way back in the 90's. 

He just permanently retired w/n the last 5 months.

@jjsrader Thanks for your comment

#1 So when I get a haircut, I get this type like faded undercut then in this case scar is visible but crown looks kinda normal, like this

 

 

#2 But when hairs grow back in a month or so.... I let it grow and like keeping this long hair for a while before I go for haircut like #1 , in this case scar is hidden ofc but crown is more visible like this 

 

 

 

 

So like what I am understanding from you and other comments, sorry I am naive with this, so I should get lighter SMP done for the scar but darker over the crown? Have I got it right?

OR darker over the crown and scar but lighter over the rest of back scalp so it matches all appropriately.

I can PM you if you're okay for better understanding!

Edited May 10 by deadman

[jjsrader]

I would google search 'top-rated SMP artists in 2024' or something similar & find 5 clinics or so that seem 'top shelf' from around the world & email w/pics & your questions & compile a set of guidelines or something like that.

Also you could get on the autist crowd 'reddit' & sent pics/emails & your questions and again - get a set of principles.

For me I have 6 FUT scars {100 FUT grafts in 1990, 120 FUT grafts in 1991, 400 FUT grafts in 1993, 700 FUT grafts in 1994, 2250 FUT grafts in 2004 & 4500 FUT grafts in 2017, 500 FUE grafts in 2017 & 1550 FUE grafts in 2024 & 500 FUE beard grafts in 2024} & Mark Weston took 2 days and blended and did all his work based upon doing at least 3,000 procedures in his career after he was a tattoo artist previous to that for at least 10 years.  He began tattoos at age 16 in Hong Kong whilst in the Navy.  So -  a lifelong artist for sure.

I researched for years before making a decision but you need to do your own research so you can make your own 100% independent decision.

Cheers!

p.s. Sorry if I didn't answer your specific question(s).

Edited May 3 by jjsrader

[deadman]

On 5/3/2024 at 6:01 PM, jjsrader said:

I would google search 'top-rated SMP artists in 2024' or something similar & find 5 clinics or so that seem 'top shelf' from around the world & email w/pics & your questions & compile a set of guidelines or something like that.

Also you could get on the autist crowd 'reddit' & sent pics/emails & your questions and again - get a set of principles.

For me I have 6 FUT scars {100 FUT grafts in 1990, 120 FUT grafts in 1991, 400 FUT grafts in 1993, 700 FUT grafts in 1994, 2250 FUT grafts in 2004 & 4500 FUT grafts in 2017, 500 FUE grafts in 2017 & 1550 FUE grafts in 2024 & 500 FUE beard grafts in 2024} & Mark Weston took 2 days and blended and did all his work based upon doing at least 3,000 procedures in his career after he was a tattoo artist previous to that for at least 10 years.  He began tattoos at age 16 in Hong Kong whilst in the Navy.  So -  a lifelong artist for sure.

I researched for years before making a decision but you need to do your own research so you can make your own 100% independent decision.

Cheers!

p.s. Sorry if I didn't answer your specific question(s).

@jjsraderI never came across someone who had too many FUT's , just out of curiosity and my knowledge

-Can you share your journey of too many FUTs?

-Why too many FUT's not FUE? Because they say too many FUT's not possible due to scalp laxity so how was it possible for you?

-Can you share just scalp pics before SMP and after if you're okay? Curious to see how all those FUT's are gone and the work done by artist?

Edited May 8 by deadman

[Gatsby]

When it comes to surgery and shaving/not shaving, I think anything that makes your surgeon’s job more difficult is not in your long term interests. Anything that makes your surgeon’s job easier can only be a positive for your long term results. 

[Al - Moderator]

@jjsrader

I knew you had some hair transplants long ago, but I never realized you started that far back in time and had so many FUTs. Did you ever post about your experience with any photos? I seem to remember you saying you'd rather not, but that was a few years back.

I had many rows of FUT scars myself. For a while I was thinking of possibly SMPing some of them, but then I'd be stuck coloring my hair twice as often as I do now to keep the gray hair and the SMP to both be the same dark color. Then what happens if I ever decide to stop coloring and just go gray? I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

 

[jjsrader]

I recently had 1550 FUE from my scalp & 500 from under my beard w/a surgeon Dr. Konior trained/mentored.  The surgeon took pics on April 25th/April 26th/April 27th/April 28th of 2024.  I had surgery on April 26th/April 27th/April 28th.

I have sent the surgeon pictures of my scalp/hair 2 days after surgery and one week after surgery thus far.  I'm not trying to be mysterious but I may ask the surgeon about requests from HRN to see pics. 

I will go back to the surgeon for 12 month pics in person.

Edited May 10 by jjsrader