Saw my first transplant yesterday... wow!

[Mygoodness]

Wow it was terrible, Omg. Instantly obvious and very, very unatural. Granted it was the pluggy type but still if the HT industry once hailed plugs as modern, undectectable solutions, how can we trust them nowadays. The only good thing I noticed was that the transplanted plugs did look like they fully took.
Ok so we've come along way with micrografts you might say. Really? Punching a smaller hole or excising a large strip is a technological advancement? I think the micrografts may not seem so pluggy but they grow in frizzy and shitty and harsher then a natural hairline. No way you can replicate the.natural gradiation of a hairline. Seriously, I wanted to fill in my temples with a HT but not anymore.
I think this industry is all about marketing and suppression of Bad PR. Let's see the replies on this thread, I'm already assuming they'll be biased.

[ryan555]

Your post doesn't make any sense. What they are doing now is not even the same procedure it was when they were doing plugs. You probably have seen many hair transplants and didn't even know it. This was the first that was bad enough for you to detect. If you think a hairline cannot be reproduced surgically, you are sorely mistaken. I would put one of Shapiro's or Feller's patients next to a natural hairline any day and see if you can detect it. Go look and Sean Penn and George Clooney - both of them have transplanted hairlines.

[ravegrover]

add kevin kostner & kiefer sutherland to that HT list. i guess it all comes down to ur approach. if u get an HT at right stage, wth right doctor and have realistic goals - it's possible to have near natural hairline.
wth that said - i still dont have the balls to get an HT. i guess how badly u need hair is anthr factor. looks are probably more important to celebreties.

[Tracy C]

Wow it was terrible, Omg. Instantly obvious and very, very unatural. Granted it was the pluggy type but still if the HT industry once hailed plugs as modern, undectectable solutions, how can we trust them nowadays.

You are not paying attention. The old plugs where never considered undetectable. The current procedures are undetectable when performed by a gifted surgeon.

[mattj]

Hair transplants involve the removal of hair from the donor area and the creation of holes into which those hairs are placed. When reducing it down to those basic elements then old and new technology might sound the same. The difference is in the details - in the refinements which have been made as time has gone on, leading us the natural results being produced today.

Three of the four hairlines below are transplanted, leaving one that isn't. They all appear equally natural to me.

[VictimOfDHT]

Wow it was terrible, Omg. Instantly obvious and very, very unatural. Granted it was the pluggy type but still if the HT industry once hailed plugs as modern, undectectable solutions, how can we trust them nowadays. The only good thing I noticed was that the transplanted plugs did look like they fully took.
Ok so we've come along way with micrografts you might say. Really? Punching a smaller hole or excising a large strip is a technological advancement? I think the micrografts may not seem so pluggy but they grow in frizzy and shitty and harsher then a natural hairline. No way you can replicate the.natural gradiation of a hairline. Seriously, I wanted to fill in my temples with a HT but not anymore.
I think this industry is all about marketing and suppression of Bad PR. Let's see the replies on this thread, I'm already assuming they'll be biased.

You've been living in a cave or something? What you saw was NOT an HT. Wake up and smell the coffee. A natural hairline CAN be replicated IF you go to a good doctor and not some butcher. Just accept going bald then.

[worried]

i think upper left picture is not transplanted

This picture made me sad it reminds me of older days when i have good hairs

[Follicle Death Row]

Fun game. I'm going with one of the two on the left being real. As worried said top left looks so natural and dense (is it possible to pack that dense?) but just for fun and a bit of variety I'm going to throw a spanner in the works and say bottom left is real.

[mattj]

Hehe. Anyone else want to take a guess?

[Follicle Death Row]

Moarrrrrr. Any other ones Matt?

[amadeus]

I would guess upper right in not transplanted. This is an amazing and fun way to illustrate how incredibly natural hair transplants can be with a good doctor like Rahal. You should do this every week Matt.!

[Davey Jones]

Let's see the replies on this thread, I'm already assuming they'll be biased.

Good thing you clearly have no problem at all with bias.

[Mygoodness]

Good thing you clearly have no problem at all with bias.

That's fair Davey, I Am biased towards cosmetic surgery. I just feel all cosmetic surgery is inherently flawed in that you cannot predict how the cosmetics will hold up over 40 or more years. How will they look compared to your normal aging process. I would love perfect hair now but at least my recession is natural. Look at Nick cage or Slater, they look funky, yet still have the benefit of lots of money and makeup artists, creative photography. I would say if your balding, your gonna keep balding. Period! Could be slow and take 40 years. Seems like a HT addresses the current situation, not the future. Be worse to look plastic than.balding. I may get a transplant, but I wanted to see how many were proponents on this forum, seems like a good amount are.

[Davey Jones]

Well, transplants have helped a lot of people enjoy life now. Have you considered that maybe they don't care how it will look in 40 years? If you want to know what people think of hair transplants, just ask. Try to leave off the "...but I'm sure you deluded idiots just loooove them, don't you?" part.

P.S. I am against me personally getting a hair transplant. So you can feel free to put one in the against column. But only for myself at this current time. If some future treatments don't pan out, I could still consider it.

[25 going on 65]

I have never had a transplant and hope never to have one, but everyone here is correct. Punch graft transplants from previous decades have nothing to do with modern hair transplants.
There are clinics that now perform consistently quality transplants. You have seen some in your lifetime without knowing it (so have all of us).


As for future loss compromising the look of the transplant, that's a very valid concern. It's why ethical surgeons will discuss finasteride with their patients who aren't already on it. Typically you can maintain existing hair on fin for at least 4-5 years (some for 10 years or more), and by the time 2016-2017 is here, there will almost certainly be new treatment options. Plus you can go for additional procedures over time if you really need to (unless some hack blows all your donor in one hairline procedure).

As for the Rahal picture... I'm going to guess the one on the lower left is real.