I had 2500 grafts done one year ago and the results are not what I expected. Will more hair grow if I wait another year?
At 12 months you now have 98+% of what you will end up with. I would not expect substantially more growth than what you presently have. If you had a competent and ethical doctor, go back to that doctor and discuss your disappointment. If I were the doctor, I would want you to be happy and would do my best to make it happen, even at my costs to redo the surgery.
I’m 32yr old male who has been using Rogaine 5% for about 8 years. It has been working well to save me from going completely bald, but my hair is definitely not as thick and dense I would like (especially with direct light).
I am planning to get a hair transplant because of that and because I am tired of Rogaine commitment.
My question is: Is it a good idea to stop Rogaine before getting the transplant? I know that hair will go with it, but I want the surgeon to assess the actual state of my hair without Rogaine and maximize the transplant results without Rogaine. Does this sound logical at all?
I got a prescription of fin filled but it’s just sitting in my room. Been balding for a few years now but I still have a hairline that’s receded in the temples. I’m not scared so much as about the side effects but the stories I’ve heard/read about permanent side effects that last even after you stop using fin.
Post finasteride syndrome (PFS) is very rare. The best way to avoid it is if you are taking finasteride and have significant eD, then stop the medications before it goes on too long.
I don’t see the results from 3000 grafts suggesting a failure of the grafts to grow. The number one cause of this is a technical failure of the team performing the surgery. If you went to a good doctor, go back and discuss this with that doctor. If you purchased on price alone and the doctor is unavailable, the number one problem is that you have depleted your precious donor hair and may have hit the limit to FUEs done for the donor area having to switch to a strip surgery, so in that case, you need to see a real expert in this field?
Fortunately, you supplied just barely enough of a view of your hair in the two most important areas (front and crown) to show that you have thinning in both areas. You have a strong forelock in the center of your thinning frontal area and this forelock may stay even if the hair around it disappears. The best treatment at your age with this condition is the drug finasteride which may reverse it at your age. Also look at this post for more direction: https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-video/
I was impressed with the product used in this study. I don’t know if it is available in the US
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hirotaka_Suga/publication/274396959_Hair_Regeneration_Treatment_Using_Adipose-Derived_Stem_Cell_Conditioned_Medium_Follow-up_With_Trichograms/links/56a5630208ae1b6511329ed1/Hair-Regeneration-Treatment-Using-Adipose-Derived-Stem-Cell-Conditioned-Medium-Follow-up-With-Trichograms.pdf?origin=publication_detail
I had three hair transplant surgeries of about 900 grafts each over 25 years. Still, my crown was not as thick as I wanted it to be, so I took the last step and had Scalp Micropigmentation performed on my crown. My before (the first two photos) and after pictures (the last ones) are below. Now any visible thinning that has remained is gone! I practice what I preach! Comment: I don ‘t think I look balding in my crown now, the first time in years that the problem is solved. The last picture was taken 6 weeks later (I think I got more salty color in my hair over the past month or so).
AFTER
Menopausal induced hair loss is common (50% of women experience this condition) and the single best treatment of this is Scalp Micropigmentation (https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/smp-for-women/).
?The use of body hair to cover your FUE scars is a terrible idea. The use of Scalp Micropigmentation is the gold standard for this problem, see here: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/scar-covering/
I’d have a recommended list as follows:
Dutasteride
finasteride
minox
LLLT
Nizoral
microneedling (I have this so low due to safety concerns about people doing this at home alone. Most derm’s don’t recommend more than 0.25mm for home usage)
Extras (may or may not help):
peppermint oil, rosemary oil
saw palmetto
scalp massage
RU
CB
Taurine
multi vitamin
After over a year of obsessive research, that’s the combined list I’ve accumulated if available ongoing treatments. Obviously, a transplant would be an option for something permanent as well.
I would start someone on the 3 most easily used and affordable products (Fin, minox, and niz 2%). From there, if they don’t respond, I’d swap out Fin for Dut and recommend LLLT comb or needling if they are willing to take the risks. If that somehow fails, then we’re getting into the trial products for desperation (ru, CB).
There’s lots of treatments out there, I think it’s just a matter of finding the right combo that works for most people :).
The first thing I would do is get a HAIRCHECK test to get a baseline and find out where and how much hair loss you had, and then from the results of the test make the recommendations of treatment. This is the value of seeing an expert in the field. Look here for more information: https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-video/
As you can see from this very old ad, hair loss has been a problem for men for years (centuries).
The circles show where the hair loss has progressed since his hair transplant. I tell 21 year old men who want a limited hair transplant to wait until at least they are 25 or they will be back every year as the hair loss progresses as shown in these photos with the circle just one year after his hair transplant at 21 (not done by me, of course). By the time he is 25, he might have a lot more balding present (you can see some crown loss now showing up) and if he had a hair transplant every year from the age of 21, he would use up his donor hair. With patchy hair transplants done every year, the doctor makes money and the patient slowly develops an abnormal look without a plan. That is why I stress the need for a MASTER PLAN for hair loss on EVERY balding male who is thinking about hair transplants. Imagine at age 36, he might look like this: https://baldingblog.com/need-master-plan-think-hair-transplants-photos/
This is a highly unusual persistent frontal juvenile hairline with balding behind it on the left and a patient with parts of his juvenile hairline on the left. The surgeon who saw this patient suggested that his lower remnant hairline be removed with a laser and the new hairline be placed where he drew it on the man’s head on the left.
The patient on the right, had his hairline created about 1 inch above the remnants of his juvenile hairline. I do not agree with this strategy but you can see the grafts. When these grafts grow out, he will have the remnants of his juvenile hairline evident. I would transplant the entire frontal hairline, retaining the juvenile hairline within my hairline design and restore his juvenile hairline.
These men had a look which has always been with a low hairline and they would most likely want to retain their original look. Doing laser removal will not work 100% so these man will end up having a half dozen laser procedures over a year to get out maybe 95% of these frontal hairs removed and never get where they want or need to be so that would not a good decision.
This shows a nice early result from the approach this young man is using. I suspect he might have gotten the same results with minoxidil and finasteride alone
The pictures are obscured by the long hair so it is difficult to say that there is a difference between these two photos
