Question for those with transplants

Hair Transplant
1

I have been considering ht for a couple years now. I have a decent head of hair aside from my temples which are pretty receded. Been on meds for 5-6 years now. I am 32. Will only go FUE route cause I don’t need a huge number of grafts and I do not want a scar.

I am considering a transplant but I don’t want anything that is not completely undectectable. This is a question for those with transplants only. I am not interested in clinic representatives trying to sell their product.

How (un)detectable are your transplants? Do you have thick dark hairs that are noticeable? How does the transplant hair compare with surrounding native hair? Any scarring or noticeable change in the recipient? Has anyone spotted your transplant?

All you your input/anecdotes would be very helpful for me with my decision making. I thank you in advance.

2

I have no trasnplants but I just wanna make a comment:

The advent of FUE grafting has made it feasible to raid hairs from outside the 100% safe areas. IMHO this provides a great opportunity to soften the transplanted hairlines with a sprinkling of thinner-shafted hairs (like grafts taken from the nape of the neck for example).

The criticism of this kind of thing is predictable - “the hairs may not be 100% MPB-resistant! You don’t wanna waste your money on that!”

Okay, so they’re not permanent. But . . . so what?

So you spend a few hundred extra grafts softening your hairline with hairs that (MIGHT) bald eventually many years from now. What’s so horrible about that?

My other reasoning about this is the planning for future loss.

Everyone sees the logic of not raiding the non-permanent areas of the scalp for grafts. But if you plan your whole transplant around the assumption that the MPB meds will retard your natural loss progression in any major way . . . then what’s the difference, really?

Instead of betting on a bunch of non-permanent hairs to last after they’ve been transplanted, you’re just betting on another bunch of non-permanent hairs to last in their original locations. Either way, you’re still betting on long term success at artificially reducing your hair loss using MPB meds.

See this for what it is - I’m not advocating everyone go out and get thousands of non-permanent hairs moved all over their heads. (You’d just end up pissed off & ripped off later on.)

I’m just saying that a lot of HT patients are mortified at the idea of doing any non-safe graft transplanting at all, and yet they’re already taking a very similar risk in their HTs right now in terms of loss prevention. IMHO you might as well just go for a few extra neck-hair grafts into the hairline and maybe have it look a bit softer for the next 10 or 20 years.

3

There is no such thing as a totally undetectable hair transplant. It is a surgery, and as such, there is no guarantee when it comes to hair transplants even in the hands of the best doctor.

Also, it’s all relative. These days most top doctors are able to deliver results that blend in very well with the existing hair of the patient and look perfectly natural. However, there will always be those “trained eyes” that can still spot a hair transplant that is considered perfect by the majority.

You can take a look at some of the patient results in the forum. You be the judge if that meets your standard of UNDETECTABILITY.

4

Well,

I had my transplant 4 years ago now & to date - no one has ever commented on it or looked at it in a way I thought was suspicous…
Those who I have chosen to tell have said that they would have never have guessed in a million years.
Providing the work carried out looks natural then I would find it hard to tell myself.

5

My advice to you is DO IT! I cant tell you how much of a changed person i am today because of it. I had mine done about 3 years ago and since the full result has grown in, i have people telling me how incredible my hair looks and that I’ll probably NEVER lose my hair. the best part about that is I dont even know these people! Its not like thier my friends, jsut trying to be nice. these people just look at me and see a full head of hair.
I had a Fuss procedure done but only because i had a large procedure done, otherwise i would have gone with the fue as well. my scar is so undetectable that it really doesnt make a difference anyway. in the opinion of not only my self but others as well (who dont know i had a transplant), it is completely natural looking. the density is consistant with the rest of my head and the hair itself is also perfectly consistant. even the direction of the hair is extremely natural. here is my blog http://myarmanistory.blogspot.com/ take a look and form an opinion for yourself…

» I have been considering ht for a couple years now. I have a decent head of
» hair aside from my temples which are pretty receded. Been on meds for 5-6
» years now. I am 32. Will only go FUE route cause I don’t need a huge
» number of grafts and I do not want a scar.
»
» I am considering a transplant but I don’t want anything that is not
» completely undectectable. This is a question for those with transplants
» only. I am not interested in clinic representatives trying to sell their
» product.
»
» How (un)detectable are your transplants? Do you have thick dark hairs
» that are noticeable? How does the transplant hair compare with surrounding
» native hair? Any scarring or noticeable change in the recipient? Has
» anyone spotted your transplant?
»
» All you your input/anecdotes would be very helpful for me with my decision
» making. I thank you in advance.

6

The hairline is the focal point of attention, but IMHO people form the majority of their opinions based on the rest of the guy’s head before they even pay much attention to the hairline. They only start questioning the hairline when something else raises their attention.

Let’s say a HT doc gives the exact same hairline to two different HT patients. I’d bet money that other people would judge their identical hairlines to be “real” or “fake” differently depending on whether the rest of their heads looked natural or not.

7

I have had both FUSS and FUE, with Dr. Armani. I now have a very thick natural look and am happy to email you pics…I am mjays77@yahoo.com should you want to reach out. I too was very concerned about a bad or unnatural look. My pics on Alvi Armani’s website will validate the look. I recently Dec 1st had 2800 Fue to thickin up the hairline and am very pleased with the results.

Best,

Michael

» I have been considering ht for a couple years now. I have a decent head of
» hair aside from my temples which are pretty receded. Been on meds for 5-6
» years now. I am 32. Will only go FUE route cause I don’t need a huge
» number of grafts and I do not want a scar.
»
» I am considering a transplant but I don’t want anything that is not
» completely undectectable. This is a question for those with transplants
» only. I am not interested in clinic representatives trying to sell their
» product.
»
» How (un)detectable are your transplants? Do you have thick dark hairs
» that are noticeable? How does the transplant hair compare with surrounding
» native hair? Any scarring or noticeable change in the recipient? Has
» anyone spotted your transplant?
»
» All you your input/anecdotes would be very helpful for me with my decision
» making. I thank you in advance.

8

» I have been considering ht for a couple years now. I have a decent head of
» hair aside from my temples which are pretty receded. Been on meds for 5-6
» years now. I am 32. Will only go FUE route cause I don’t need a huge
» number of grafts and I do not want a scar.
»
» I am considering a transplant but I don’t want anything that is not
» completely undectectable. This is a question for those with transplants
» only. I am not interested in clinic representatives trying to sell their
» product.
»
» How (un)detectable are your transplants? Do you have thick dark hairs
» that are noticeable? How does the transplant hair compare with surrounding
» native hair? Any scarring or noticeable change in the recipient? Has
» anyone spotted your transplant?
»
» All you your input/anecdotes would be very helpful for me with my decision
» making. I thank you in advance.

Same here, I wouldn’t mind seeing people who had hair transplant shave their head or cut the hair very short, I think that would be the ultimate test of how well the new hairs look along with the native hair

9

I am a post armani ht patient and I recieved 3500 fue grafts to my temple areas and the front of my hair line. My procedure was one day long and I am almost at the 1 year mark right now. My results turned out spectacular and completely untreaceable. I cannot even figure out where my hair line used to sit before. Only can I see that from my previous pictures from a year ago or the pics taken right before my surgery.

10

» I have no trasnplants but I just wanna make a comment:
»
» The advent of FUE grafting has made it feasible to raid hairs from outside
» the 100% safe areas. IMHO this provides a great opportunity to soften the
» transplanted hairlines with a sprinkling of thinner-shafted hairs (like
» grafts taken from the nape of the neck for example).
»
»
»
» The criticism of this kind of thing is predictable - “the hairs may not be
» 100% MPB-resistant! You don’t wanna waste your money on that!”
»
» Okay, so they’re not permanent. But . . . so what?
»
» So you spend a few hundred extra grafts softening your hairline with hairs
» that (MIGHT) bald eventually many years from now. What’s so horrible about
» that?
»
»
»
»
» My other reasoning about this is the planning for future loss.
»
» Everyone sees the logic of not raiding the non-permanent areas of the
» scalp for grafts. But if you plan your whole transplant around the
» assumption that the MPB meds will retard your natural loss progression in
» any major way . . . then what’s the difference, really?
»
» Instead of betting on a bunch of non-permanent hairs to last after they’ve
» been transplanted, you’re just betting on another bunch of non-permanent
» hairs to last in their original locations. Either way, you’re still
» betting on long term success at artificially reducing your hair loss using
» MPB meds.
»
»
»
»
»
»
» See this for what it is - I’m not advocating everyone go out and get
» thousands of non-permanent hairs moved all over their heads. (You’d just
» end up pissed off & ripped off later on.)
»
» I’m just saying that a lot of HT patients are mortified at the idea of
» doing any non-safe graft transplanting at all, and yet they’re already
» taking a very similar risk in their HTs right now in terms of loss
» prevention. IMHO you might as well just go for a few extra neck-hair
» grafts into the hairline and maybe have it look a bit softer for the next
» 10 or 20 years.

cal,

Good idea and good thoughts. i think that softening the hairline with not-DHT-save-hairs is an option. im now thinking about getting this done in my own hair transplant which i want to do in april.

and that you either way count on DHT-blocker-saved-hairs is just right.

what i wonder is, why dont you do a ht? you are just nw3. perfectly possible to get a full head of hair back. you wouldnt have to hope for a cure for good 10 or 20 years. :slight_smile:

11

Thanks for the compliments.

As for transplants, I’ve thought hard about it. I’m not opposed to doing maybe 1000 FUE grafts worth of subtle thickeing work right now, but the expense is really the immediate roadblock. I don’t want a strip scar and that jacks things up considerably.

I’m a NW#3 right now visually. But I’m barely 30 years old and I’m thinning towards a NW#4. I’d probably wanna use at least my first 1000 grafts just reinforcing my thinning NW#3-4 areas without moving my hairline at all.

My crown looks well-covered presently but I can see/feel a clear NW#5A coming eventually. My lifetime situation is still transplantable but it’s probably on the ragged edge of what is a good risk for me.

And it’s expensive as hell even if my donor is adequate to do it. My expectations are high in terms of density even though I don’t demand the lowest hairline. If I’m gonna have to be content with still looking like I’m moderately thinning when it’s all said and done, then I don’t wanna bother with it at all. For the price of a brand new V8 sports car I want my hair to actually be an ASSET to my appearance, not just a little bit less objectionable than if I had done nothing.

And then there’s the Finasteride. I’m taking small amounts of it to hold the loss at bay, but I can’t do this long term. I can already feel the slight side effects with as little as 1/8th of a milligram per day. I can’t bet on being able to continue this stuff (or bet that it will even continue to work this well) for years & decades to come.

12

Consult some doctor.
My ht is undetectable but Ive heard people with coarse maylook not soo undetectable to the trained eye.

» I have been considering ht for a couple years now. I have a decent head of
» hair aside from my temples which are pretty receded. Been on meds for 5-6
» years now. I am 32. Will only go FUE route cause I don’t need a huge
» number of grafts and I do not want a scar.
»
» I am considering a transplant but I don’t want anything that is not
» completely undectectable. This is a question for those with transplants
» only. I am not interested in clinic representatives trying to sell their
» product.
»
» How (un)detectable are your transplants? Do you have thick dark hairs
» that are noticeable? How does the transplant hair compare with surrounding
» native hair? Any scarring or noticeable change in the recipient? Has
» anyone spotted your transplant?
»
» All you your input/anecdotes would be very helpful for me with my decision
» making. I thank you in advance.

13

brother there i sno such thing as an undetectable transplant…at least in my eyes.I have seen transplants that one day you cannot tell is a transplant and the other day its so obvious.

The most natural transplants i have ever seen where on guys with many native hairs that use propecia…that is because when they use style aids like gel or clay you cannot tell its a transplant and it blends very well, also their natural hair are thick and healthy and they dont look much different than the transplanted hair…but without styling aids(the so called wet look) the transplanted hair look different than the native hair and they are more sparce as well.

Dont get me wrong with the right circumstances they look excellent but there are many situations and lights that they dont look so good and its obvious that something is not right.

The general rules is the more native hair you have the better a transplant will look…the thing is if you continue loosing native hair what happens…

Take your time and research all the forums to see many opinions and many peoples experiences…hear the good and the bad so you can make a well balanced decision.

14

HTs are like most cosmetic surgery. People think it can’t ever look undetectable. Because when it actually is that good, they don’t ever know they were looking at artificial work at all.

15

My advice is, before any trasplant I would check lot of pics, then i would choose my favorite doctor, and the most important thing is triying to meet losts and lots of his patients in person…
is normal to be worried about natural look…but with top doctors you will not have any problem. I have had 3200 grafts (FUSS) in zone 1 and 2 with Armani and I´m very happy with my results, I visited him as I loved his job with hairlines.

good luck

16

» My advice is, before any trasplant I would check lot of pics, then i would
» choose my favorite doctor, and the most important thing is triying to meet
» losts and lots of his patients in person…

I agree with your post but i disagree on the pics they can be very misleading…look for high quality videos from many angles.Pictures can be manipulated very easilt videos are much more difficult to manipulate without everyone noticing it.

Also be smart when you ask things from other patients,like

  1. How his hairloss was before the procedure(agressive and progressive?he always had some recession and thats it?)

2.Did he start any hairloss drugs from 3 months before to 6 months after the procedure(maybe he is a good responder and the big difference you see is partly because of the drugs)

3.How many grafts he had and where exactly they were placed

4.Politely ask what he was charged, it might you a chance to negotiate the price down, but never mention who gave you the quote

OTHER GOOD STEPS

5.Give drugs a chance before you comit to any procedure, you might got such a good regrowth that you wont need a transplant or you can postpone it(or you get sides and then forget the transplant if you are young with progressive hairloss

IMPORTANT
6. meet 2-3 of the best doctors, NEVER go to just one, have consultations with many…if you cant travel pick up the phone and talk with the docs, ask them information LEARN, one might tell you something that another one didnt.You will come out more educated thats for sure

7.If you get a chance to meet patients from all the doctors you visit try to be fair when you compare the results.Dont compare apples and oranges(if one guy was nw3 and the other nw5 it doesnt mean that the doctor who treated the nw3 is a better doctor, it just means that he had a better subject to work on)

8.Try to avoid seeing patients when they use style aids like gel or clay, you have to see the hair how they look naturally

Good luck, i hope you dont mind me posting i didnt have a transplant in the end…but i researched it :wink:

17

» Good luck, i hope you dont mind me posting i didnt have a transplant in
» the end…but i researched it :wink:

And you wisely, wisely chose not to take the risk. Smart man that Greek. :wink:

Surprisingly few men are truly good candidates for HT, and a lot of the young guys who were suckered into it early, will be singing a sad sad song as they spend their increasingly responsibility-ridden 30’s trying to cover up their sh itty front-loaded HT’s and smearing dermatch on their massively bright and gleaming crowns.

But the young are brilliant in their ignorance.

TheFittest