What type of hair transplant is for me?

[Doug Jarvis]

I have had 6 hair transplant's, all strip. I now have diffuse hair covering from my crown to my hairline-- but it is very thin and needs concealer to cover the scalp. ( Sorry, I will try to upload pics of my scalp later).

I would like to thicken just the crown area more with another hair transplant but I have very little doner area left. Is an FUE hair transplant better for people like me with diffuse covering? Why? Would it be better considering my lack of doner area? I like my doctor but he just does strip hair transplant's. Do FUE hair transplant cost more? Please advise. Thanks for all advice!!

 

[BodyDysmorphic]

sounds to me you have maxed out your donor area

i suppose FUE could work, where the previous strip surgeries did not extract, it is about twice the price of strip per follicular unit.

i think its best, considering your predicament, if you consult a licensed physician prior to anything

 

[Doug Jarvis]

Thanks, BD.

Yeah, my donner area getting very small. I must make a careful decison at this point. What would be a ballpark cost of say 2000 FUE grafts? Any Doctor recommendations for Boston/NYC areas?

 

[keepinthehair]

6 hair transplant was not enough to cover the loss? What about the nape area of your neck? If you dont mind, what was the total number of grafts used.

Would it be wise to leave the crown sparse and focus the remaining at the front/mid section.

 

[Doug Jarvis]

Thanks for posting, K. The last 3 hair transplant's were largly remedial work to correct the damage of the first 3 hair transplant's . I did have grafts added but not that many each session ( ~ 250 new grafts). Mostly the last 3 hair transplant's were to correct and redistribute old large grafts from the first 3 hair transplant's, clean up or cover scars in the transplanted area, and eliminated my overall "pluggy" look. I now have sparse covering in a ~ Norwood 6 area. I would like to have denser covering because I have wispy transplanted hair in my Norwood 6 zone. I use concealer a lot and that helps. Still, I would like to increase density where ever possible one last time. I have very little donor area left. I want to maximize what little I have remaining.

Do you get a better yield from the doner area using FUE? Who are the best Drs doing FUE? I have looked at Dr. Feller and he seems to be OK but what other Drs. should I consider? Given my situation-- I need density--- is FUE my best option?

 

[keepinthehair]

Doug,

I have never had a hair transplant and really dont know anything about it.

My worse case genetically (Father) is NW6. If/when I pull the trigger, I would focus on having a natural looking transplant. I would prefer to max out my donor to create a very dense and natural appearing NW2/3 with a thin crown. Currently at 42, I think I look "more masculine" (NW1/2) with a receded hair line than a "boy band" NW0 like my kids.

Just my 0.02

 

[Doug Jarvis]

I think the goal of all good hair transplant docs is to make the patient have an age-appropriate appearance. My first two docs failed in that. They brought my frontal hairline lower than it probably ever had been. I yielded to their professional opinion and I got a very low, pluggy appearing hairline that just looked foolish. I also lost( wasted ) a lot of grafts up front because when I had a third doctor try to correct my appearance he just threw out the frontal grafts instead of putting them back in my scalp where I could have used them in the mid-saclp area. He claimed that he could not have reused them but other docs later said that was nonsense, he just didn't know what he was doing. That's part of the reason I have such s big thinning Norwood 6 area and so little doner area left. I really have lost ground as a result of hair transplant's but now feel that my only option is to try to make my thinning area more dense with what little doner area I have left. I use concealer and that gives me a fairly normal appearance.