Is my hair transplant any good?

[jimbob1966]

14 month update

Hi all,

Not much more to report really, transplanted hairs are still very fine and sparse.

I've attached some Wet combed back pics, and dry combed back pics, once it's styled it's actually not to bad, but still can't fully comb back like I would of hoped.

Going to wait the full 18 months to see if anything improves, and also going to wait to see how chrisis's transplant turns out with dr Feriduni.

If I've used 2,000, (I say 2000 because i very much doubt i got the full 2,400) of my donor, how much left would you say i have to play with? I definitely can't take anymore donor from the sides, as on one side they took to much and looks a bit thin.

[drybone]

hey jimbo. Looks great !!!!

Check out mine

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?p=110925#post110925

post on there let me know what you think

[Tracy C]

Not much more to report really, transplanted hairs are still very fine and sparse.

Your hair looks dramatically better than it did before your surgery. The improvement is quite significant. It will likely look even better by the 18 months mark.

[topcat]

My opinion is that if you were to have any more work done you would be making a very foolish mistake. Maybe you posted this already but what is your age?

Let's say that somehow you are very fortunate and have at least 10,000 grafts available in which you would have to have a strip/fue combo procedure. You just used up 25% of you donor for a fairly small area. With a balance of 7500 grafts left will that be enough to take care of future needs should they arise?

You really need to put the cheerleading comments to the side and give this some serious thought.

[Tracy C]

You really need to put the cheerleading comments to the side and give this some serious thought.

Stating that his hair looks great and the improvement over how he looked before is dramatic is not cheerleading. He does look a lot better and the improvement from before is dramatic. Give credit where credit is due.

[mattj]

You appear to have a darn good head of hair. Maybe the left side is a little better than the right. Could be an illusion as the photos aren't totally clear.

[topcat]

Tracy I agree his hair looks good. He should seriously consider stopping right now and not wasting grafts.

[jimbob1966]

I’m 29, I’m on Fin,

Whilst there is a bit more up there, it looks a bit weird if I were to comb straight back as the density isn’t there and is very sparse compared to regular hairline, I would hope at this point that the majority of hair loss near the front has been completed, and that I would just need to worry about the crown in future years (with regaine)

So the plan would be to do 2,000-2,500 up front, pretty much to boost coverage with a decent surgeon, not a cheap job like before.

I agree with what your saying topcat I would always prefer to hear the brutal truth, I appreciate your input.

But if I have the chance to create the illusion of a full head of hair now, whilst I’m releatively young and feel like i need it the most, then isn’t that what were all looking to achieve? Worst case scenario, my hairline deteriotes massively in next 5-10 years, and I’m forced to buzz down, I can live with that.

But I won't be making any rash decisions this year, I will wait until next year, Really waiting to see how chrisis's turns out, as I beleive were at similiar points in our hair loss.

[topcat]

I think that if you were to have your hair density measured where you natural hairline already exists chances are that it is well over 100 hairs per sq cm as you seem to have very high density just judging from the pictures. I do not believe you will be able to match that density through hair transplantation and have those areas all match. You should have been advised of this before the procedure that matching density that high is impossible no clinic can achieve it………absolutely no clinic.

If you do decide to have another 2500 graft procedure you will have used up close to 50% of you donor or more and if you end up a NW 5 or higher an area that represents probably 10%-20% of balding skin. Mathematically that does not add up so I would advise caution as with time your prospective will change and you will want to look as normal as possible so think long and hard before making any decisions. Get as much feedback from others as possible.

[mattj]

The pictures aren't that clear and I'm sure it looks thinner to you, but I don't see you needing 2500 grafts to thicken that area.

[gillenator]

I definitely agree and if it were me, I would enjoy the great result and preserve that precious donor for the future.

[jimbob1966]

Ok attached is my receipient area after one week, I was expecting hairs to grow threw everywhere that there is scabs, and 2nd 3rd pics are now, I think people see the pics and focus on generally how my hair looks (i'm probably a norwood 2), but I paid £2,500 for a few fine wispy hairs as per in the red area... I don't consider that a great result at all, i knew it would never be as thick as existing hair but surely it has to be better than that. If I were to go for FUE again with a reputable surgeon, I would need at least another 2,500 to make a acceptable cosemetic difference wouldn;t I?

And last 2 pics are just to show what difference Mane micro fiber spray can do, I never use it though, i find it too messy and hard to wash out your hair.

[drybone]

Hey Jim. Your hair looks great. I dont know how many grafts the doctor put in but from your photos it looks like 500. tops. Maybe you would like to go back and ask him how many he put in.

That stuff you put in makes your hair look perfect. I think its worth the hassle if you go out on a special occasion.

Have you ever tried derm match and toppik/caboki ?

[jimbob1966]

Hi, I was told it was 2,400, a few members on the forum have stated that it is a lot of grafts to use in such a small area, I’ve seen another user who went to the same clinic and they said he had the same number of grafts, I suspect that this is their magic number of grafts that they say when people ask. I would be more happy if it was just 500-1000 as that way they haven't wasted too much of my donor area. Either it was 2,000 ish and poorly performed or it was a much lower number like you suggest.

Basically the dr that was supposed to do the transplant didn't, as he was tied up with something, so a women did it, it was in Turkey, so I didn't understand what was said, but I distinctly remember when the dry came in to check, which he did every few hours, there were raised voices, and the woman and dr had a difference of opinion, basically from what he looked at after giving the woman a telling off, I think it was a overharvestation of my scalp on the left hand side as I was a little bit thin to start with there, and now I have to comb in a particular motion to ensure it looks like I have adequate coverage.

No I’ve not really tried any others, for me the mess it makes on the pillow and the fact that my girlfriend wouldn't be able to stroke my hair doesn’t really make it a viable option, plus if someone sees you with a flawless hairline one day (all combed straight back) and not so much days later, it might seem a bit weird.

[mattj]

It does look a bit thin in those photos. I would expect greater density from 2400 grafts covering that area, so either you received fewer grafts than you were told or a proportion of the grafts failed to grow.

I looked back at your post-op photos showing the scabbing. I get the feeling that you had less than 2400 grafts as they don't appear to be placed to a high density. I had 2500 grafts over a similar size area and I think the grafts appear much more tightly packed in comparison. My photo is below. What do you think?



But your photos aren't the clearest so I can't be sure and this shouldn't be taken as gospel.