Need feedback on my hair transplant (pics)

[Rainman]

hey all,

let me start by telling you a little about myself. im 26 and have been balding since i was about 19-20. to say that my balding has held me back in life in many respects would be an understatement. anyway, around a month ago i decided it was time to make a change and since i was visiting family in california, i thought it was a good opportunity to have a hair transplant, which would hopefully bring back some of my confidence.

so i went to the the doctor, and he said i would need about 2000 grafts. it was a strip operation sadly, but i had everyone there telling me how the scar wouldnt even be noticable so i went ahead with it reluctantly. plus, i couldnt really afford a FUE hair transplant.

anyway, its now around a month after the procedure and i would be lieing if i said i am over the moon with the outcome. there are a few things bugging me and im glad i found this forum so i can get some opinions from you guys. these are my concerns:

1. i asked the doctor to make the front of my hair line really dense and focus on this area, but unfortunately it doesnt look like the grafts were done with high density. i mean the grafts look pretty far apart from each other and my worry is once the hairs grow, my scalp will still be visable. what do you all think? does it looks like a good job for around 2000 grafts?

2. secondly, the scar from the donar area is ALOT longer than i expected and compared to other strip scars iv seen, mine seems to go on forever, right above my ears. if i had known it would be like this i would have made sure the Doctor would have made a smaller cut at the cost of fewer grafts. iv put a pic of the scar after one month, you can see how far it goes. what do you all think? im really hoping it wont be visable after a few months. the red line in the scar pic is where i presumed the scar would be and the arrow is where it actually ends.

thanks, i appreciate any feedback.

ps: the thin red line shows roughly where my natural hairline used to be before the op.

http://www.btinternet.com/~i.kiani/hair transplant/IMG_3507_exposure_resize.jpg
http://www.btinternet.com/~i.kiani/hair transplant/IMG_3511_exposure_resize.jpg
http://www.btinternet.com/~i.kiani/hair transplant/IMG_3524_exposure_resize.jpg
http://www.btinternet.com/~i.kiani/hair transplant/IMG_3634_exposure_exposure_resize.JPG

 

[PartTimeNinja]

can't see your pics.

 

[Rainman]

ok i uploaded the pics on a different server, hope it works now.

 

[Deaner]

ummm, looks pretty spotty and sparse...

 

[Temples]

Hmmm.

 

[Rainman]

i dont get it. why is everyone umming and humming?

i want the truth!! :hairy:

seriously now, someone who knows about hair transplants give me some honest opinions without any ums and hums.

 

[too bald too furious]

Send a PM to social_drinker. You should had posted this in the surgical section of this forum. This section is of users who are on medicines and do not possess a great knowledge of hair transplants apart from the few I have seen.

From what I think the answers to your questions
1. It looks pretty ok since those 2000 grafts have been spread all over the hair line and about a bit more than an inch from the hair line.

2. The scar should go away after sometime. Mean while you can use Dermmatch to hide it.

Sorry, but this is what i can tell. I suppose other users can help you out more.

 

[Guest]

fao: the person who started the thread.

I've sent you a PM.

Who was your Doctor btw?

 

[Rainman]

thanks for the advice nexus, appreciate it. ill post update pics in a few weeks and hopefully i can have a cinderella story, or maybe not lol.

gunner, first off, im glad to see another arsenal supporter here and thanks for info, i sent you a pm back.

 

[Greg1]

Hi Rainman. I'll do my best to comment on your post by replying to your questions.

"1. what do you all think? does it looks like a good job for around 2000 grafts?"

>Ok, about 10 years ago I was seriously considering doing what you have done. That said, when it comes to hair, you would think that 2000 hair grafts would show alot more. But, what it looks like to me is that your thinning hairline has been brought forward more. I'm not sure how thick your donor hair area is but by looking at the side pic it looks like it's pretty dense? If that's true, it will be interesting to see the results develop in the next month or so. But I have BIG concerns about how the Doctor didn't follow through with what you originally agreed with him to do?! Did he delineate more with you about what would be happening with your hairline before the procedure? I dunno, but maybe check to see if the Doctor is willing to give you what you wanted originally? 2000 grafts t'aint cheap as you know so I believe that you should get your hard-earned money's worth! MHO.

"2. what do you all think? im really hoping it wont be visable after a few months. the red line in the scar pic is where i presumed the scar would be and the arrow is where it actually ends. "

>Ok, again, what did the Doctor tell you to expect? If he mentioned that the donor scar wouldn't be very long then you've got something to discuss with him! Just my thoughts.

Greg

 

[mvpsoft]

I've talked to a few hair transplant docs, including some of the most respected ones, Bradley Wolf and Blaine Lehrer. They both said that it's best to do transplants along the hairline in two stages if you want density. The first one is not very dense, the second fills in and makes it denser. Apparently if they do it this way a higher percentage of the transplanted hairs "take."

 

[Rainman]

thanks alot greg and mvpsoft for the replys. i had a brief talk with the doctor before the op, but didnt go too much into detail regarding the scar. i was naive and thought it would be short like all other scars. and i did say i want the front third to be as highly dense as possible and the doctor informed that even though he cannot put the grafts too close together as to allow blood to circlate inbetween the graftsm he would make it as dense as possible.

i think if in the nect 6-10 month i dont see much improvement density wise, i will definately consider a FUE hair transplant to get that density iv always longed for.

mvpsoft point taken mate but have you seen some 1 session hair transplants from alviarmani and others? they completely PACK the head in one go. how is that possible then? we're talking up to 3500 grafts in some cases.

 

[hairnow]

Rainman,

To tell you the truth, that does not look like 2000 Fu's. It looks more like 800 or 1000 grafts (2000 hairs maybe). Unless many of the grafts already fell out, the Doctor's assertion about the amount of space needed between grafts is ridiculous. Sure, some space is needed, but the grafts can be packed a lot tighter than they are in your photo. What did the surgeon use to prepare the recipient sites?

As far as the scar length goes, the longer the scar, the more donor hair that can be taken at once. By doing a long incision the tension on the donor area is reduced and the chances of a widening scar are reduced.

 

[Rainman]

hairnow i agree, it doesnt look like 2000. i will have to talk to my Doctor about this as its worrying. and even if it does look better once the hairs have grown, im pretty certain it will still look thin and the scalp will be visable. but anywho i will update you all with pics later.

i have absolutely no idea what was used to prepare the recipient site mate. what is usually used?

 

[ACT10Npack]

Rainman, what's the name of the doctor that did that job? Also, 2000 grafts seems a lot but most people have over 80,000 hairs on there head if there not balding. The area that you got hair transplant would take about 20,000 grafts to not see a hair loss. Its a really big area of hair to do and 2,000 will not do it.

 

[hairnow]

I had two surgeries covering the same area as rainman's surgery. The surgeon placed about 900 grafts during the first surgery and the density looked about the same as what rainman shows in his photos. My second surgeon and surgery added over 1400 grafts to the same area and they were packed much more tightly than they appear to be in rainman's photo. Besides my using own work as a reference point, I've seen hundreds of surgery photos over the past 4 years and a dozen or so jobs in person. That photo just does not seem like it can be 2000 grafts.

 

[Rainman]

hello all and thanks again for your feedback. just thought id add another pic. this was taken today, now roughly 4 weeks post op. iv trimmed my hair all around at no1. it helps when applying minoxidil(rogain) to the scalp, and vit-E oil to the stitches to dissovle.

i was going to take more pics and some of the scar aswell which is healing up ok, but my battery ran out. will have more soon.

 

[Rainman]

hello all and thanks again for your feedback. just thought id add another pic. this was taken today, now roughly 4 weeks post op. iv trimmed my hair all around at no1. it helps when applying minoxidil(rogain) to the scalp, and vit-E oil to the stitches to dissovle.

i was going to take more pics and some of the scar aswell which is healing up ok, but my battery ran out. will have more soon.

http://www.btinternet.com/~i.kiani/hair transplant/IMG_3651_resize.jpg

 

[Chadman]

For what it's worth, you look like you have a very nicely shaped head. If I was in your situation I would have just kept it shaved, but otherwise it looks pretty good to me, especially when short!

 

[Rainman]

thanks bro, as much as i would love to keep it short, the scar would always be on show. so im planning on just letting my hair grow for the next year and then maybe get FUE on the scar.