Introducing myself and my Hair Loss

[diddydondiddy]

Hi everyone, After being a ghost reader for a little while now, I thought it was about time to sign up and start posting. I am a 29 year old male from London and to date I have had 2 Hair transplants at the Wimpole clinic in London. One Strip procedure and one Fue. I started to notice that I was losing my hair at around 20-21 years of age and I will be honest in saying that I had no idea about Minoxidil or Propecia etc. I just suffered the loss which I admit has been slow until I was 27 and then I thought I needed to do something about it.

I'm sure many of you might think 27 is too young to have your first HT so it would be great to get some responses in regards to when some of you guys first had surgery. The strip surgery I had rebuilt my whole frontal hairline. (I was only balding at the front and the temples) but I was unhappy with how evident the scar was at the back of my head. I am a black male so it is often custom for us to wear our hair short. This was a difficulty to me and therefore it is one of the reasons I opted to have my second surgery this past Feb.

I had an FUE procedure done where Dr. Luca De Fazio added density to the front and filled in the scar at the same time. It has been less than 2 months since my second HT so i am in that stage where you wake up and think you look awful. The hair has shed from where the scar was covered and it looks as if no work has been done. I know this is normal but it still scares me to see it. Also he added 1000 grafts to the frontal hairline to try and give me more density because after my first HT it did grow in quite patchy and uneven. I wonder if anyone has ever had this happen to them before? I will post some pics once I get a decent camera.

So basically now I am waiting and hoping that the front becomes thick and joins up with my existing hair and that the patchy affect will vanish. I do have a few questions to ask you experienced folk if you don't mind.

1) When my frontal hairline was rebuilt, I did ask for it to be very straight because lots of black guys do go for that sharp straight line. Whilst it looks good, I am though considering lowering the hairline sightly if I ever have a third procedure and wanted to know if you think a less straight line is more natural? I have seen videos where the DR draws the hairline in small zig zag lines because he thinks it looks better?

2) My crown has started to thin slowly and I have started myself on Minoxidil 5% and have been on it for just 1 month now. Do you think that the thinning of the crown will prove a major issue for me seeing as I have had surgery already? What i mean is, i know that further hairloss could leave you with an island where you had your HT, and then nothing behind it.

3) How many HT's can you get? Is there a limit as to what is recommended, or does it all depend on your donor hair at the back?

And finally, (sorry to rabble on) Is it normal to shed hair from the scar if I had an FUE into the scar? I know this is normal for the rest of the head but will the transplanted hair start to grow into the scar in 4 months like everywhere else?

Thanks so much. I look forward to your responses.

[diddydondiddy]

Hi Again. I have tried to upload some images so i hope they have worked. The first 2 are of my second FUE procedure post op day 2. The third image is of my thinning crown which I have started using Minoxidil for. I am 1 month into the treatment.

Any opinions or other thoughts or tips would be greatly appreciated.

[mattj]

Your hairline looks natural to me. What does and doesn't look natural will depend somewhat on ethnicity. The straight line and sharply angled temples are common to black guys. What I do notice is that the left side looks slightly lower than the right. This could be an optical illusion in the photo.

Hopefully the Minoxidil will help your crown. The amount your loss at the crown (and any further loss anywhere) will impact upon your future donor hair supply and need for more surgery will depend on how far your hairloss progresses. It would be a good idea to try Propecia.

The limit to how many HTs you can get does depend on your donor supply. How many grafts have you received in total so far?

Lastly, it's completely normal for the grafted hairs to shed and it doesn't make any difference if those grafts were placed into your scar. They should grow in the months ahead just as your hairline work will.

[diddydondiddy]

Thanks for your response mattj. I do feel that the left side is slightly lower than the right, so this is something I will talk to my doctor about. I do feel that I will need even more density just behind the front of the hairline because I did get patchy growth there after my last HT. I hope the results this time are lots better. To date I have had 2000 grafts.

I will continue on Minoxidil and look into Propecia. I have always been worried about side effects but I have heard that you can take it in a smaller dosage?

I will aim to post some before pics up of my Hair before my treatment so you guys can see how in your opinion it has developed so far.

Thanks

[diddydondiddy]

As promised here are my Pre first HT pics. This is what my hair looked like when I went for my first consultation in November 2009. Since I can remember my hair was never full at the temples even at a young age but it did start to get worse around 2005. I waited it out because I was too young then to do anything about it but in 2010 I had my first OP.

After reading various posts on the site, I am now slightly worried about further loss to everywhere but the transplanted in the future but it would be good to hear what some of you guys think, and how I should deal with this going forward.

Many thanks

[clandestine]

Start taking propecia, or generic finasteride, if you'd like to halt further loss. There are sexual side effects, research them first.