Number of Folicular Units needed....

[hairwarrior]

... I just have a small (less than 1'in squared) area that is thinning, not bald - about 50% left, along the hair line. The rest of the hair line is strong.

Why am I being told that it will take around a thousand FU's to remedy? Why so many. Due to the position, I think the loss is not even noticeable unless wet.

[Winston]

If the loss isn’t even noticeable unless wet, why are you thinking about a hair transplant? I think your plan should be to try to keep what you have with medication.

[hairwarrior]

Agreed. That has been the plan for over 10 years now, and I have been largely successful.
My only complaint is that sometimes if it parts down the middle, due to wind or whatever, it looks a little noticeable. I think I could stand to have a few more hairs put in there, but over 1000? There is no way. I know how thick a hair is.

I think the quote included restoring the whole hair line?

[Winston]

I would not go down the hair transplant road if your only concern is that it looks a little thin when your hair is messed up. Get some concealer and give that a try.

[Dr. Lindsey]

I agree with Winston. Wait until you have a noticable problem before you start thinking about surgery. Don't do "preventative" transplantation in still existing, good hair. You'll just wind up killing hairs that might stay for a long time, and you'll deplete your donor supply and checkbook.

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[gillenator]

I agree 100%. Hair restoration surgery should always be the last resort. Get as much bang and benefit in the coverage of your existing hair that you presently have. The more existing hair hair there is, the more there is to potentially shock out. Some of the shocked hair may not come back so when patients have that much existing hair, you can in theory lose more than you gain and then you begin to chase your hairloss.

Diffussed thinners can be especially susceptible to this.

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

Well said Dr. Lindsey. I was thinking about a response and I am glad I read yours first. Otherwise it would have looked like I just copied you. (Ditto)

[hairwarrior]

Reasonable results

What is wrong with this website that it is not obvious at all what to click to create a new thread?

New question:

I had my crown filled in over a year ago, using classical FUE procedures by a reputable Dr. noted on this site and I am surprised that the density is not very high, and it does not look totally full, and definitely not totally corrected. It was a pretty big job, and a very long strip of donors was extracted - from one side of head to other - practically scalped.

Is it normal to need a 2nd procedure on the crown to get enough density to make it appear as if there was no hair loss at all?

Any ideas what if anything went wrong?

Should I go back to the same Dr?

[gillenator]

It really depends on how much exisitng hair was in your crown area when you started. If your crown was bare or near a bare surface, then rebuilding coverage will demand a large amount of available donor. And as you stated, consider how large your last strip was.

Starting with little to no exisitng hair, and depending on the degree of coarseness of your hair, it takes more than one pass to produce enough visual coverage that you are describing.

What about the frontal third area of your scalp. is that thinning at all? If so, where will you get the donor to provide coverage to that highly visual impact area? You will want to think in terms where additional loss can occur in the future as well.

Are you taking finasteride or using minoxidil at all?