shaving head and hair transplant

[pinkfloyd7]

Hey guys

Is it required for a person to get a buzz cut right before they have their hair transplant ?????
If you have long hair could you keep it and get the hair transplant done so you could cover the area with your bangs ????

 

[hairtech_]

That is totally doable and if anyone tells you it isn't then go somewhere else. Most all clinics accommodate for long hair.

 

[pinkfloyd7]

unk:

 

[Guest]

Are you having strip done?

 

[pinkfloyd7]

no i was just curious cause I saw someone's thread said they had to get a buzz before they had their work done. I'm not old enough yet to get a hair transplant.

 

[Guest]

Well it's great to see that you understand that you are too young. No doubt you are doing your research to know that. Are you on meds like Propecia?

BTW, what that other patient was probably referring to was he was having FUE done and the surgeon often shaves the donor area where the extractions are made.

 

[pinkfloyd7]

yea i'm on the big three and tricomin. I'm doing everything i can, I even changed my diet and quit smoking. But its been almost 11 months and I don't think the propecia is stopping the receding at the hairline. I mean the minituarization is still there. I'm really thinking about giving propecia maybe another 6 months and if nothing changes, getting on dutasteride.
I know i have to wait and stabilize the loss first before I can have any work done on the hairline.

Gillenator, I'm just curious, what if you can't stabilize the loss. Does that mean you HAVE to wait until your completely bald ?

 

[Guest]

pinkfloyd7,

That all depends on the extent of hairloss in your family history. So worst case, if the men in your history affected by male pattern baldness do hit Norwood 7, and the meds do not work for you... think twice about ever getting started with surgery. If male pattern baldness is not extensive in your history, then IMO, it's not a big factor.

Propecia (finasteride) is not effective in the frontal third for alot of men. That does not imply it is not effective in your midscalp and crown. Glad to see you are proactive with the other meds!

 

[pinkfloyd7]

the only male pattern baldness in my whole family is from my grandfather. He hit a nw7 around his late 50s or 60s. He had a receding hairline and a high forehead in his 30s and 40s. I think his first signs came around my age but I feel like my hair loss is faster than his. Because he became a NW7 do you think it would be a bad idea to have a hair transplant in my mid 20s ?

 

[s.a.f]

If I remember correctly you are only about 20 now so in you're mid 20's you will be in a much better position to determine wether or not to get a hair transplant.
If you're still losing ground in your mid 20's then it might not be such a good idea.

(This is just theory, and obviously its a generalisation but in my experience based on what I've seen purely on examples of people that I've met.)

People who get to nw7 level nearly always start losing at a young age and have aggresive/rapid rate of hairloss. IE: Most nw7's report that they started losing at 18/19 and were at least nw4 by their mid 20's.

 

[Guest]

s.a.f. is absolutely correct. An extremely high percent of guys I know that had hairloss in their late teens and into their twenties had advanced hairloss as they got older. They almost always hit Norwood 7 like your granfather. Those who got hair transplants in their early years, have regretted it.

I am very much genetically disposed to my maternal grandfather who was a class 6 when he died. My two brothers have no male pattern baldness whatsoever. My premonition is that you are more disposed to your grandfather too, so as s.a.f. said, you're best to wait it out.

Are you on Propecia by chance?

 

[pinkfloyd7]

yea man big three and a couple additional products like tricomin and spironolactone. But when you say wait it out do you mean wait till i'm a norwood 7 or 6 ?????

 

[haggis]

s.a.f. is absolutely correct. An extremely high percent of guys I know that had hairloss in their late teens and into their twenties had advanced hairloss as they got older. They almost always hit Norwood 7 like your granfather. Those who got hair transplants in their early years, have regretted it.

I am very much genetically disposed to my maternal grandfather who was a class 6 when he died. My two brothers have no male pattern baldness whatsoever. My premonition is that you are more disposed to your grandfather too, so as s.a.f. said, you're best to wait it out.

Are you on Propecia by chance?

my hairloss started when i was 18, firstly the hairline receded, then the rest of the front 3rd thinned out, all within about 3 years im 30 now and the crown is fine so far, looking at old pictures i have identical hairloss as my father, his front third gone but the crown remained, even up until he died aged 60, i think the crowned thinned out by that age but definetly not bald.

 

[Guest]

PF7,

No, I was not suggesting that you wait until you are in a class 6 or 7, but wait it out "to see" if the meds keep you from having advanced hairloss.

Most of our forefathers did not have these effective meds like Propecia so they could not slow down or stabilize the progression of their hairloss. But we do have those meds available to us and hopefully you or I will never end up like the men in our family histories.

My hairloss has not progressed or advanced since I started finasteride 11 years ago. Had I not started finasetride back then, there is no question in my mind that I would have hit class 6 just like my maternal grandfather.

 

[Guest]

Haggi,

You are undoubtedly in the Norwood A class pattern, meaning you are losing from front through the midscalp. How is your donor? Do you have good hair characteristics?

 

[person]

Can you please elaborate on good hair characteristics and how would you determine how good your donor hair is?

 

[Guest]

That would be a high degree of coarseness (caliber) more than any other factor. Any wave, curl and a narrow color contrast all help.

Good donor characteristics would be high density and multiple high hair bearing FU's. In other words lots of three plus hair groupings.

 

[Guest]

Gillenator, is this good donor from what your eye can tell? If possible, could you estimate for me on a scale of 0 to 10 with 5 being average, 0 bad and 10 good, how my donor hair characteristics seem? I just wanna get an idea. Thanks.

This pic is from September 06. I've since had regrowth on dutasteride. I have my hair combed forward in the pic because I was concerned that area in back was a bald spot, but either way , the pic should give you a look at my donor regions. I was thinning diffusely at a moderate level through the frontal third of my head before starting dutasteride. I've been thinking about doing a small session of 1000 fue grafts or so in front to lower the hairline a bit, but anyway I just had that question about the donor.

My hair is dark brown which is not good for Caucasian transplant patients right? Isn't blonde preferable because it lessens the contrast.

My hair is wavy which you said is good, so that's good.

Here's the pic:

http://img169.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pics019nc8.jpg

I don't think I've lost any hair from the sides or back, so they should be 100% full, but I know that hair coarseness varies from patient to patient, even among people with full donor regions.


And one last question for ya, Gillenator, if you don't mind sharing: What Norwood were you when you started on the drugs? I'm curious because you said you've maintained for 11 years, so that's great. And was your balding in a standard male pattern baldness pattern or more diffuse? Thanks.

 

[s.a.f]

Cant really tell anything from that pic Jayman. To asess donor you really need to meet the patient in person and see their hair close up. But with your amount of hair you should'nt need to worry about such things.

 

[Guest]

s.a.f. is correct. The only real way to evaluate your hair characteristics Jayman would be to see you in person. Also, I could potentially observe your donor zone with a densiometer to determine your density levels. If you are ever in or around DC, let me know and you can stop by.

That being said, from my observation in the photo, you have good appearing donor. I did look at the few single hairs at the edge of your scalp and my guess is that you have fairly good caliper. The more coarse it is, the more it will feel like wire.

I was between a Norwood class 4 and 5 when I started finasteride and got my first hair transplant in Feb of 1996.