Hello, a little help please.

Hi all,
I'm a 30 year old man from England who's going through the thought process of having a HT.
During my 20's I was lucky to have a full head of hair then I was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer. After 6 months of chemo my hair thinned but never fully went. 6 month after all my treatment my hair was back as if nothing happened.
18 months on my cancer came back and more aggressively leading to me having very strong treatment. I lost all of my hair (I looked like the hood from thunderbirds at one point) and then after my treatment it never came back as strongly. As 4 years have ticked on its thinned even more leading me to look into a HT.
I have a very client facing job and while I'm not conceded with the HT I'm worried about losing some kudos with my clients.
I was looking to have a strip transplant and take 2 weeks of work. Will you still be able to tell I had a transplant after such a short time?
What is the average time from day of the surgery to looking normal again? Not as in full hair growth but as i did pre op?
Also because I have had cancer will my hairs take in the top of my head?

I would really love some advice.

Thank.

The boss

Sorry to hear about your troubles to this point. Your questions are quite specific and few will know the answers. Your best bet is to search through the forums to find the answers you need. Spex has some good info on life post HT.

I'd direct your last question about how cancer might affect a hair transplant to a hair transplant doctor.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chrisis

Sorry to hear about your troubles to this point. Your questions are quite specific and few will know the answers. Your best bet is to search through the forums to find the answers you need. Spex has some good info on life post HT.

I'd direct your last question about how cancer might affect a hair transplant to a hair transplant doctor.

---

Cheers.
I asked him but in he didn't really have a straight answer. Docs seem to have this ability to answer a question without really giving a real answer.

Troubles are in the past hopefully an have seen a few docs about a transplant. They quoted me in the region of 4000 grafts but again my worries were more around recovery time and the visibilty of the scar at the back of my head.

It's possible that as your hair thinned significantly due to the chemotherapy, your donor area will be thin, limiting the amount of available grafts.

I'm sorry you had to go through the cancer, as well as the treatments for it which I know aren't nice (to put it mildly). I think it's important to remember that if, God forbid, the cancer returns, then you may need further treatment which could cause more hairloss. I really don't want to raise the issue of the cancer returning, but I feel I have to as the above point is an important one to keep in mind when considering a hair transplant.

Did the thinning also occur in the donor area or do you feel as if it is still similar in density to before the cancer treatments?

Hello to you,

I can tell you from my experience that the recovery is not as bad as you think, 2 weeks off should be plenty. I got my sutures out after one week, and felt totally fine after 3 days. Also I grew my hair long at the back to cover the scar, so not one person could tell. ... and one more thing , a little over a week you can wear a hat to cover it up, if you are embarassed about it , and it wont effect your results. I also run my own business and felt hair loss effected it, meeting new clients and being confident when there was face time ect... just be confident as you were before, because you are still the same person. Take care!