NORWOOD 6 members who have had HT surgery

[Artista]

Hi Fred! You can better contact Jotronic by visiting his website.. www.hairtransplantmentor.com/
Good luck brother!!

[Follicle Death Row]

Fred if it's FUE you want then maybe go into with the idea that it may not be possible to do the crown down the road. 4000 FUE in the front half can look awesome.

[fred970]

That has always been my idea . My main concern is to look worse after the FUE's because of horrible shock loss. I'm quite of a pessimist. I've seen that even Spex had quite a bad shock loss, but even then, I'm used to shaving my head, and you almost don't see the scars of my gynecomastia surgery for example. Maybe I worry too much and a FUE would definitely make me happier.

[TheEmperor]

I don't know if Jotronic will see this but I have my first FUE scheduled in a few months and I'm still not sure if I should go for it. I can't send private messages so could reply to me here please?

This is my most recent picture (a month ago):



I will be 24 in a few days and my hair situation is quite bad. Almost NW5, all the hair left you can see on this picture is thanks to minoxidil which I've been using for 4 years now. I've never had a receding hair line. It was pure diffused pattern alopecia.

I can't use finasteride or any DHT blocker because I'm gyno prone and had gynecomastia surgery last year.

What I'm really, really scared of is losing the "frame" I can still barely see when I look at myself in the mirror. I think it's OK now, but what about in a year? Maybe a few months?

I know I'm really young for a first FUE, I've seen Dr. Bisanga in Brussels who turned me down right away. Dr. De Reys in Belgium said he would do it even if I would not have enough donor to cover it all in the end.

I still like how I look, even if sometimes, the lightning will be too harsh and I will get very depressed. Maybe I should wait a little longer? I just don't like when I'm being told there is no solution for me or that I should glue a wig on my head. I just want to do what's right for me. And wearing a wig or looking like a 55 years old man at 25 is not right for me. What should I do?

Fred,

I empathize with your situation. I think you still look good, and if you are comfortable with the "less is more" approach, I would ONLY consider FUE.

The look you have now, with really short sides, and an outline of a hairline on top, could easily be accomplished with FUE, without many grafts.

If you get strip, there is a good chance you will have to keep the sides longer and that will emphasize the baldness.

Try to wait as long as you can. At least with FUE you have the option to buzz down.

Even with strip, there is a really good chance you wont be able to complete the crown with your degree of loss.

[TheEmperor]

Hey Emperor you have my sympathies my friend, i guess you don't get many responses when a story is sad. The forums have changed over the years, there was sympathy back then, worry and support. On the other hand there was excitement also, anticipation and hope.

Now i think we are all a bit more cynical, less excited and less sensitive when we see a bad result. There is a lesson here to be learned, more than ever you have to do your homework and search multiple doctors, search the truth ask questions, talk with patients. Cause when you take your decision and do it you are all alone in failure. The doc will disappear, your friendly consultant will disappear and no one from the forums will really care after a while.

People say we don't have real evolutions in the forums there is no progress, i agree to an extent but there is for sure one evolution in hair transplant industry. The evolution of FUE hair transplants and none of the old arguments can stop it anymore, the work of great surgeons took them out one by one. But that doesn't mean all fue surgeons are angels cause they don't do strip leaving a scar on the back of the head , we still have to be extremely careful who we choose!


This evolution didn't happen cause some guys acted like fanatics in forums preaching antistrip and making all FUE surgeons look like saviors. This evolution happened cause the market demanded it and surgeons improvised and worked on it to deliver and the results are everywhere. The simple truth is strip is dying as FUE progresses and you can see it clearly in the forums where the FUE results get most of the attention.

I got caught up in the wave of megasession hype about five years ago, when the top strip docs were posting greater and greater graft counts. The clinic I went to is/was very anti fue.

Ironically, the consultant whose results wowed me did not have any megasessions himself. In fact he started out with a significant number of mini grafts which probably helped his density down the road. And his sessions were generally smaller and I dont remember that they dense packed him, so he probably got the best yield. They also were able to respond to his concerns over something like 4-5 surgeries and make small adjustments to the hairline.

The point is that the quality of even a top doc can go off a cliff in a short period of time (changing methods, staff, apathy, etc.) I based my decision on results I saw from 3-5 years prior to my first surgery, not on the results I saw coming out at the time from the particular surgeon I chose. When I objectively looked back through all the results, I realized there were more unhappy patients than I originally thought. There were also some guys with really shitty results that everyone was patting on the back and cheering on because the forums (rightly) wanted them to feel better about themselves.

I agree that the forums have gotten alot more discriminating and people are more likely to call it as they see it.

[John P. Cole, MD]

I don't think you can finish the whole head. With that much hair loss at age 24, it is probably best if you can put off the procedure altogether for a couple of years. While it is impossible to completely predict your future pattern, I would say that you are at least heading to a NW 6. You could progress further, however. You might find that you can tolerate hair loss better as you get older. if it's really bugging you, don't go beyond a very high, conservative hairline and I'd avoid a strip procedure. Also avoid robotic surgery at this point. the technology just isn't quite that good yet.

[Artista]

Dr Cole, great advice given to Fred !

[35YrsAfter]

I will be 24 in a few days and my hair situation is quite bad. Almost NW5, all the hair left you can see on this picture is thanks to minoxidil which I've been using for 4 years now. I've never had a receding hair line. It was pure diffused pattern alopecia.

I can't use finasteride or any DHT blocker because I'm gyno prone and had gynecomastia surgery last year.

What I'm really, really scared of is losing the "frame" I can still barely see when I look at myself in the mirror. I think it's OK now, but what about in a year? Maybe a few months?

I know I'm really young for a first FUE, I've seen Dr. Bisanga in Brussels who turned me down right away. Dr. De Reys in Belgium said he would do it even if I would not have enough donor to cover it all in the end.

I still like how I look, even if sometimes, the lightning will be too harsh and I will get very depressed. Maybe I should wait a little longer? I just don't like when I'm being told there is no solution for me or that I should glue a wig on my head. I just want to do what's right for me. And wearing a wig or looking like a 55 years old man at 25 is not right for me. What should I do?

Here is a photo of our patient who had 2840 FUE a little over 6 months ago. He still has more growth to come. He was a Norwood 5a. Men in the higher Norwood categories can expect improvement mostly from the viewing angles I have provided in the photos. This can be achieved without going overboard with the graft numbers. More coverage in the future will depend upon your donor characteristics and your willingness to use alternative hair sources. Beard hair is growing at about a 90% reliable yield. When it is placed properly it looks natural.

35YrsAfter also posts as CITNews and works at Dr. Cole's office

[Number47]

That is a nice result 35 years after, for such a small amount of grafts(small compared to the balding area i mean) it looks very descent! The crown is left untouched from what i can understand. Can we see some more pics from other angles?

[gillenator]

And even with the higher placement of his frontal care and hairline, the visual improvement is outstanding.