Dr Feriduni FUE 2463 dense pack +Acell over 2 days on a 37 year Male NW2.5, 25-26 Jan

I can't believe there is so much disagreement about HT's with a short buzz look. People involved directly within the Hair transplant industry, people that have had transplants and general people who do lots of research and look at many results all have a differing opinion.

Maybe sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, just depends if it suits you or if your surgeon did a good job or not.

Hi Dave52,
Thanks for your comments. Happy so far, but not keen on loosing my new given hairline the next couple of weeks and have to wait probably 3-4 months to see real growth, but I at least I know its going to happen so I can mentally prepare.

Happy to hear I can get away with the low grade haircut - honestly I think most people can, it is just a matter of trying it for a week or so, I could have sworn I could not, but I think it looks ok.

To Sausage,
I think you are asking the right questions on here. Keep doing that. Its ok to go for the ball and keep questioning, why different IAHRS clinics seems to be so sure, what is recommendable and not for a patient. That's why the years of research makes you so much sure of what to do. I was 100% sure that it would be FUE or nothing - I did not want a strip scar - even if they are very thin and looking more or less consistently ok today from some top clinics, you can just never really go to a grade 1-2 clipper, which put me off.

Maybe it is easier to think about your hair for life when you are 37 like me - but I think that many 25 year old's need to think about their hairline and donor and potentially shorter haircuts when they are 50+.

Some younger people want great (full head) hair now to find a girl or a great job, and think that when they are 45+ they would not care anymore how they look or if they can shave down to a low grade. Well guess what - if you were into your own looks in your 20'ies, you will be - also in your 40'ies....

So true. I'm taking a wait and see approach with all this. Anyways, I don't have the finances in place to do anything for awhile anyway which is just as well.

Can't wait to see this result grown out.

still- researching

Hi
it look's realy good, I wish you all the best

Hi Still-Researching,

Results look awesome, and thanks very much for the write up - really helpful.

The only thing that concerns me in your post is the 'capping' - 20% in some areas sounds like quite a lot? Especially if it happens on the 3 or 4 haired grafts which are the most valuable. Is this normal, and what do you think about it?

1 month update

It has been 30 days now.

I have attached pictures to update on my status below. I am back to looking like before the HT, just with a shorter haircut and some redness remains. Probably 80% of the transplanted hairs have shed now, maybe more. If somebody knew how a HT would look, I am pretty sure they would be able to guess that I had one, though nobody has asked me.

I have to say that so far, this has been the hardest part of the HT, to walk around at work with the redness and from times to time - explain that you had a serious sun burn during my holiday. You have to plan this part well, if you want to go ahead yourself. If you cannot wear a hat plan at least two weeks + weekend, and buy toppik/makeup/aloe vera gel etc in due time before the HT...

Guess if I used a ton of makeup and toppik, I could probably have hidden the HT better, but I did not feel like trying to cover it up completely - just keeping my hair rather short, will get a hair cut next weekend again to keep it at this length or maybe a bit shorter.

I have not used anything else than a ton of aloe vera after I used up the goodbye package from the clinic.

11-13 months waiting time to go - hope I will see some serious growth in 3-4 months time...

So far nothing more to say. Any comments or questions are welcome.

Capping usually happens due the use of small size punch tools like 0.7-0.9 mm in a donor area with many 3-4 hair grafts, so the punch simply cannot extract the full graft. It can of course also be due to insignificant training of the tech/doctor. When the punch is made the graft is cut so either none or only 1-2 hairs are extracted leaving a small scar, but no or only partial extraction.

Agree that 20% is unacceptably high, and believe the number may be on the high side of reality - this was based on my memory and was in some areas not entire HT. I have asked the Doc of the precise numbers. Without being an expert, believe that there is a trade-off between capping and reducing scarring. As capping will happen if you have many 3 and 4 hair grafts and try to extract them with a 0.85-0.90 mm punch tool, if you instead use 100-110 mm you will minimize the risk of capping, but increase the risk of scarring and if you extract say 4000+ grafts in several sessions, you will significantly increase the risk of a morph-eaten look if you use above 0.90 mm punch tools.

Personally believe that capping during FUE is something many docs do not talk about. For myself I am of course not happy, that it seemed I had a higher than average number of capping, which came from the fact that my donor was filled with 3 and 4 hair grafts. As this was my first HT (virgin scalp) and I have above average donor, as well as I am more concerned about the scarring in the donor, guess having say 50 dots in the back which did not result in an extraction is not a deal breaker for another FUE, but something you need to keep in mind and should be asked into at your consultation.

The fact is that HT is more of an art than science and full of trade offs - and this is just a sub-trade off when you have chosen FUE over strip, which I would choose again any day.

This I LIKE.

Docs in this country could take a lesson. The front hairline is pretty much the whole ballgame now, as if an assistant doesn't get a graft implanted at quite the right angle or the direction isn't quite right, and it's behind the first few rows, no biggie. Since this is no longer rocket science and fairly routine, a doc who takes the time to attend to the artistic design of the front hairline, I find impressive.


Under 14 grand U.S.

Damn.

Sure takes the sting out of traveling to Belgium.

Looking really good. Hope to see a 60 day update.

A couple of days ago, I shaved down to a grade 3 - 9 mm on the sides and back and 12 mm on top. Here are the pictures. Status is not that different from the 1 month, except the redness is much less, however still visible depending on what light I am standing under.

Things are going slow, but clearly there is growth already, would say some 8-10% of the hairs are sprouting with very fine/thin blond hairs and it almost looks like a commercial for Rogaine :-)

I have had quite a number of pimples, which I expected as it is signs of growth, however of course not looking great. Still I have so far only used Aloe Vera creme on the area and a few times some serious sun creme.

Also took a few pictures of the donor area, I cannot see anything myself in the mirror or on pictures, but my wife says when she sits up very close, she can still see some places some red fine dots, but you cannot see it unless you are searching for it.

Until today have not had any comments at work or privately indicating or questioning anything - except a few comments the first month - that it was a nasty sunburn...

Since my last update, I have mailed with Doctor Feriduni about the capping rate and it is total on the entire HT 5% and transection rate was 4%, which is on level with best in class. The capping rate was high in some areas, and mainly due to my many 3 and 4 hair grafts, so when you use a 0.85 punch you will get less scaring, but will sometime cap a 3-4 hair graft, as it is simply too big to extract. Ideally guess you should change punch tool each time you encounter a graft with more hairs, but seems that was not the case every time.

Questions/comments are always welcome. Wow - the waiting time is difficult, but with the short haircut I think it is ok, but cannot wait to see the grown out result. Next update in 30 days. Cheers

Still very early days. Actually probably another 2 months before it really starts to kick off. Looks like a small bit of shock in the donor but will be fine in a couple of months. All good so far.

Hi still researching great thread, informative, i think you will get a good result

In your recent pics there does seem to be a little shockloss? is this normal?

As the above mentioned it should grow back in a few months btw did your doc feriduni only use one size 0.85 punch hole? as i think you mentioned.

Hi Slickster,
Thanks for your comments.

Yes it is quite normal to have shockloss in the donor area from relative large FUE session like this (2000+). Certainly hope and believe that it will all grow back again, but we will see - I will keep wearing my hair quite short the next couple of months and will post every 30 days - so you can follow it as well.

Believe Feriduni shifted between 0.80-0.85-0.90 punch tools but not 100% sure, know he does not work with more than 0.95 to avoid scaring, but I also know that with say 0.7 the risk of capping or transection increases significantly.

The waiting time for serious growth is really hard - I keep looking in the mirror eventhough I know it is too early...

As I've said early days mate. If you look at Sean (3000 FUE Rahal guy) his hair really took off again from 5 months to 7 months. The difference was massive so as you know all too well I'm sure, it's just a waiting game. Looking forward to updates.

Hi FDR,
Thanks man, I know you are right. At least I am turning time backwards these days when I look in the mirror. If I stand in a bright light - I can see a ton of thin light hairs in the recipient area - when they grow thick and dark - sure this will look great.

What is your own hairloss status at this time NW2 or? As far as I remember you are not on any meds are you?

Cheers

Prob 2, 2.5ish but also kind of getting diffuse loss all over as well. Can kind of get away with something passable with bangs grown out and skillful variation of the length of hair on top.

Not on the finasteride. Gave it a go but it started to do funny stuff to my nipple which was a cause for alarm. I only read all the negative stuff on finasteride after my experience so I can be sure it wasn't just in my head. Using minoxidil and ketoconazole shampoo but they don't really do anything it seems.

Only 26 at the end of the month so I'd consider myself too young to pursue HT at this point. Of course we all like the idea of FUE and I've thought about maybe just forgoing the crown down the line but I'd imagine that I'm headed to a norwood 6 so I probably wouldn't be suitable for FUE anyway.

However I think I'd be happy going strip down the line only if I got a H&W result but the ideal scenario would be to not have to pursue HT at all but we'll just have to wait and see.

Envious of your position. A norwood 2.5 at 37 is a great place to be in hairloss wise. You're the perfect candidate for FUE. So nice that you won't have a smiley scar.