Just out of curiosity

[waytooyoung]

Is it/might it be possible in the next few years to restore a NW6 using hair transplant surgery?

[dudemon]

Is it/might it be possible in the next few years to restore a NW6 using hair transplant surgery?

Nope. with the current technology, a NW6 would be very LUCKY to achieve anything close to 50% density (as opposed to 100% non-MPB) even after exahusting all available donor supply on their head. Most likely, I'd say a NW6 could get to possibly 40-45% density if all the work is done by a top-notch world renowned HT surgeon. Only a small % of NW6 could get anywhere near 50% and they'd need 10,000+ grafts worth of donor supply.

The average NW5 has 6,000 to 8,000 total grafts available. A NW6 has even LESS. The bald region of a typical NW5 is approx 20,000 hairs. So, if single unit grafts are used, then you'd need 10,000 to get 50% density (which is ONLY 50% of normal non-MPB density).

The "50%" benchmark is the HT industry "rule of thumb" to achieve a realistic HT result that CAN (not saying it will!) create an ILLUSION of a full head of hair.

RE: HM and hair stem cell possible future treatments.
Replicel is about our best chance at this point, and they will not have ANYTHING available until AT LEAST 2015.

[Naltima]

RE: HM and hair stem cell possible future treatments.
Replicel is about our best chance at this point, and they will not have ANYTHING available until AT LEAST 2015.

A cure will most likely come much sooner than you think and not from a big pharma or an investor backed startup.

There are hundreds of universities across the world researching stem cells organ regeneration and other similar things. This is a fairly new are of study and progress is very rampant, you just have to read about it in medical journals and not on Google Finance.

They're probably not looking for a cure for baldness directly, but the cure will come as a bi-product of research about organ regeneration, cell regeneration and other related studies.

[s.a.f]

RE: HM and hair stem cell possible future treatments.
Replicel is about our best chance at this point, and they will not have ANYTHING available until AT LEAST 2015.

A cure will most likely come much sooner than you think and not from a big pharma or an investor backed startup.

There are hundreds of universities across the world researching stem cells organ regeneration and other similar things. This is a fairly new are of study and progress is very rampant, you just have to read about it in medical journals and not on Google Finance.

They're probably not looking for a cure for baldness directly, but the cure will come as a bi-product of research about organ regeneration, cell regeneration and other related studies.

You may be right about how it will come about but I'd still say 2015 is ridiculously optimistic, they'll be concentrating on using any breakthrough on healing people first then after that it'll be getting rid of wrinkles before hairloss. Also bearing in mind there has to be years of testing before its released on the public and even then at the beginning it will only be available by a select few at a ridiculous cost, I'd say we're looking at at least another 12 - 20 yrs.

But regarding HT's yes of course a NW6 is going to striggle to get a great result but many have enjoyed massive improvements. Look at JOetronic with less than 8000 grafts he went from bald to a good looking head of hair especially guys over 30 who can get (for their age) a totally normal looking head of hair.

[Ozai]

I wouldn't have thought there'd be enough donor for a NW6. Best you could hope for is the new generation of cell based therapies to either multiply any donor you do have, or stimulate dormant follicles to grow somehow.

well said Chris, one should never give up hop though

[Free]

Well about the question of the thread, the answer is: it depends. If you are a “clear head” NW 6 for many years (that means that most of your hair follicles in the recipient area are dead) then the hair thransplant surgery cannot do much for you. However if you have some hairs (even weak) in your recipient area, then, the HT can really help you in order to camouflage the bald area. Furthermore, If you look at my pictures in the forum (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=71604) you will see that I was a NW6 case (but with plenty of weak hairs scattered in the bald area) having planted around 5500 grafts and using mainly topical DHT blockers minox and fungoral, I become the person you can see in the last picture. My result: 70% HT 30% DHT blockers. So, once again, the answer to your question is: it depends.