Implant effect to surrounding hair

[jleve1974]

Hello All,

I'm pretty new to this site but from what I've read so far the info has been very informative.
I've been considering the FUE / FUT method for hair transplantation because I usually keep my hair pretty short in the back and was wondering if anyone would know the effects of implantation to the surrounding hairs.
I remember reading somewhere that sometimes the surrounding hair of the implanted one falls out due to shock. This is a concern for me because I have sparse thinning occurring and was thinking that the FUT method would be ideal for restoring some of it's fullness but not if it will be causing other hairs to fall out therefore making the area more bald than it was prior to the transplant. Can anyone shed some light on this?

For the record I've been on Propecia for about 10yrs which has worked out great to maintain the hair I still had but it's efficacy has started to dwindle in the past 2yrs leading to this conclusion.

[CIT_Girl]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

You're correct that implanting hair into thinning areas could harm the existing hair and place it at risk of accelerated loss. If you did decide to proceed with a hair transplant, you would want to be sure your surgeon exercises extreme caution, and does not transplant too many grafts at once because this can cause shock loss.

Also, if you like to keep your hair short, I would advise against opting for a FUT procedure as this leaves a linear strip scar which would be visible if you crop your hair short. A better option for those who like to wear their hair short is FUE which does not require a linear excision or sutures, and does not create a linear scar. Some patients who opt for FUE do develop small white dots (hypopigmentation) in the donor area where hair has been excised but this is easily camouflaged by surrounding hair, even at a very short hair length or buzzed.

[jleve1974]

Thanks for clarifying regarding the FUT & FUE method CIT_girl.

Also, if having fewer grafts may reduce the possibility of shocking the surrounding hair, is there any risk of running out of donor hair using the FUE method vs the FUT method?

I guess the approach I'm taking to my hair loss is to try and keep up with the loss as it continues to progress in the future and of course to follow the best method to utilize the donor area to it's maximum potential.

[CIT_Girl]

Your approach to hair loss makes sense and you’re very right that hair loss is a progressive condition- which is why it’s so important to find a doctor who will help you develop a long-term plan. The worst thing you can do is to be overly aggressive early on and then find that you’ve run out of donor hair as your hair loss progresses.

There’s always a risk of depleting your donor supply, whether you opt for a FUE or FUT (also called strip) procedure. One of the reasons I believe that FUE is a superior procedure is because, in selecting individual follicular groupings one at a time, you are maximizing the donor area for harvesting and your doctor can ‘cherry pick’ the grafts that will produce the best yield. With FUE, doctors are not limited to the grafts found within a single strip of hair and can even harvest hair from multiple regions of the body. Some of the other advantages of FUE are that you get more hair per graft (2.9 on average vs. 2.0 with strip), you receive better density with fewer grafts, the grafts spend less time out of the body before being transplanted, the procedure is less invasive, recovery time is shorter and you will not be left with a strip scar on the back of your head.

Please let me know if I can answer any other questions for you!

[rtpatter]

Jleve1974 -

Would you mind sharing your experience with propecia I assuming you were born in 74' which would make us the same age. So I'm guestimating you started propecia when you were 26. I'm most interested to hear if you have had any sides and what they were. Obviously if you have been on it for 10 years you must have tolerated it very well.

[jleve1974]

Hi rtpatter,

Yes I was born in 74 and I'd say I started it around age 24. I can tell you that when I started using Propecia my hair had been thinning to a point where I was no longer able to cover it with any particular hairstyle. I did get to a point where I considered transplants but fortunately I met with Dr. Bernstein who at that time worked for the New Hair Institute and who recommended I try Propecia before any surgery since in his opinion I hadn't lost enough hair where the surgery would be beneficial.

I reluctantly followed his advice and am very glad I did since the pills did have a positive enough effect to be noticeable. Although I never achieved the fullness of my teens I did halt the progression and further gained enough fullness where I became very satisfied. I did not experience any side effects whatsoever then or now.

I will say that in the last 2yrs however I have begun to experience further thinning leading me to believe that either the efficacy of the pills have begun to taper off or I'm going through the normal "aging" process of thinning. Nevertheless it has gotten to a point where it has begun to bother me somewhat and am starting to reconsider transplants to regain some of the fullness i gained when I first started using Propecia. Based on my own experience I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's still in the early stages of hair loss.