Will getting a hair transplant prevent me from getting HM?

[bighair]

I am thinking of getting a Hair Transplant. But my only worry is that it will prevent me from availing of Hair Multiplication in the future. Is there any risk of that? ie that the procedures are incompatible?

If there is, then Id consider waiting as Im not that bald yet.

 

[sphlanx2006]

I dont think there is a problem. Intercytex claimed that HM might also work as a top-up for hair transplants.

What you have to worry about is the possibility that you might get balder and unable to cover the new bald area with donor hair in case you have used them up.

 

[bighair]

What you have to worry about is the possibility that you might get balder and unable to cover the new bald area with donor hair in case you have used them up.

You mean that will be what I have to worry about if HM doesnt come out right? If I have a hair transplant now, it doesnt mean that I will have used up all my donor hairs for a future HM right?

(I still have most of my hair, just a receding hair line. I was thinking of having the process done now rather than waiting 5-7 years for HM. Then when HM comes out, would be around the time Id need the back done).

 

[cal]

I've read what ICX says about it, and I'm still not settled on this issue.

ICX says their work won't interfere with traditional hair transplants. But as I understand it, they're mostly re-awakeing existing follicles on the skin right now. And furthermore I don't think there has ever been concrete proof that they're regenerating any totally-new follicles at all.

If there's no new follicles, then getting large amounts of traditional transplants run the risk of over-thinning the donor area because HM won't have any "dead" follicles left there to reawaken. And the graft reimplantation process in the top/front will certainly damage a fair amount of the existing male pattern baldness-dormant follicles.




So, worst-case scenario:

If there's really no new follicles being generated by HM, then you're probably not at the risk of being totally unable to cover the top/front (as long as your transplanting work was sorta decent). Between the transplanted grafts growing, and the remaining undamaged native follicles for HM to regrow, the balded areas will probably eventually get covered acceptably. Probably at least as well as the prettiest hair transplants these days.

But if your transplants over-thin the donor (and don't forget age-related thinning over time), then I don't know what the current state of HM would be able to do about it. Those missing follicles wouldn't be male pattern baldness-thinned, they would just be GONE from the area entirely.

 

[sphlanx2006]

What you have to worry about is the possibility that you might get balder and unable to cover the new bald area with donor hair in case you have used them up.

You mean that will be what I have to worry about if HM doesnt come out right? If I have a hair transplant now, it doesnt mean that I will have used up all my donor hairs for a future HM right?

(I still have most of my hair, just a receding hair line. I was thinking of having the process done now rather than waiting 5-7 years for HM. Then when HM comes out, would be around the time Id need the back done).

Yes that is what i mean. Unfortunately you make any safe bets about what is going to happen. Anyway i believe that if you are stressed by your looks atm you should go at a combination of a hair transplant and propecia. If you see propecia working and stabilizing your hairloss, you could make a move forward and have the hair transplant while waiting for HM to come out. Still all we can do is guess and with a potential risk factor.

 

[cal]

Everyone has just a limited amount of donor hair to use in their entire lives. In most causes it's barely enough to reverse 2-3 Norwood levels if you want decent thick-looking density.

If you use up all that donor hair and then HM does not get released, you're just screwed. Hairpiece time. Nobody really has 15,000-graft donor areas.

There is no law saying a hair transplant surgeon has to give you normal-looking results. Forget what makes sense about malpractice lawsuits. Those kinds of normal assumed consumer-protection laws just don't protect patients in the hair transplant industry the way they might in some other medical area.