You are doing ok at this point and at 6 months you still have another 2 months to see 80% of the growth to styling length of about 1 1/2 inches. Be patient and maybe you will be pleasantly surprised.
Amazing response in this young man using finasteride, minoxidil and microneedling in a 7 week time-frame.
Let me address your probe my way. Here is a Class 7 patient who had 11,000 grafts (about 26,000 hairs) in an area that would normally, in a normal person contain 37,000 natural hair follicular units or (possibly 78,000 hairs). It should be clear from the observers, that this man looks like he has a full head of hair, but 75% of his head is transplanted as he and even his father, had a Class 7 pattern of balding: as well as here: https://baldingblog.com/difference-between-norwood-class-7-patients-with-photos/ (the first patient is the father of the previous patient shown here and the second patient had a very fine hair and if you don’t know, fine hair is poor for covering a full Class 7 pattern).
You are actually ahead of the curve and already have growth. At 4 months you still have another 4 months to see 80% of the growth to styling length of about 1 1/2 inches. Patience is a virtue, so wait a few more months and you might be very happy yet.
I had 2300 FUE grafts and I am worried about my donor area. Is it over-harvested?
Usually 2,300 grafts will not cause over-harvesting unless your original donor area density was very low and/or your hair is very fine. See the link below that defines the limits of FUE.
https://baldingblog.com/2017/07/21/many-fue-grafts-many-fues-grafts-one-know-safe-limits/
Several years ago, I was treated for testicular cancer. That included 4 rounds of chemo: Bleomycin, Etoposide, and Cisplatin (BEP). Before chemo, I had a nice, full head of hair. I lost all of my hair during chemo. After the chemo, my hair was drastically changed. It was much, much thinner—especially on the top. After a while, I just started shaving my head. I assumed that there’s nothing I could do about it. I did a little searching and didn’t find anything conclusive
Your chemo may have induced genetic balding. You should be evaluated by a hair expert to quantify if you have a reasonably good donor supply left for a hair transplant. Another good alternative is shown in this post: https://baldingblog.com/smp-on-a-class-7-patient-completed-today-photo/ . This can be made darker but it looks great and it is all a specialized tattoo (https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/gallery/bold-shaved-look/#!). This is a completely headache solution for those with not enough hair for a hair transplant or for those who don’t want a hair transplant.
You have a Class 4A balding pattern and I would think that depending upon your hair thickness (fine, medium or coarse) you might take between 2,000-3,000 grafts (more grafts with finer hair).
It doesn’t look like much of it has grown. What should I do now. Should I get PRP and ACell treatments offered by some doctors on the internet?
At seven months, you are seeing less that 50 percent of growth of what you can expect from your transplanted grafts. I would not expect the areas in the center to grow much more. I always tell my patients to go back and speak with their doctor as most reputable doctor will make things right financially. A-Cell and PRP is a waste of your money at this stage.
This man used minoxidil and finasteride for 4 months with the focus on improving his temple peaks. The left side has reversed the hair loss on this treatment routline
Having bumps where you had an FUE in the donor area may be the result of burred grafts which form foreign body reactions. You need to go back and see your doctor. These look like they already healed with possibly small cysts below the skin. Without examining you, I can’t be sure.
It is interesting that you are filling in suggesting that some of the miniaturization is reversing but the drug has not impacted your hair line regrowth.
I‘m from Germany and I suffer from hairloss. I was prescribed fin around 2 years ago. Recently it got worse and I went to a another dermatologist, since I moved places. He told me that he doesnt recommend taking fin and instead take Alfatradiol (apparently it has the same effect as fin but its topical?). Have you heard of this? The product is called Ell-Cranell. I cant seem to find a lot of studies.
Alfatradiol is a weak estrogen and 5-reductase inhibitor medication which is used topically in the treatment of pattern hair loss (androgenic alopecia or pattern baldness) in men and women. You might be better off with topical finasteride plus minoxidil as these are stronger medications.
I got an FUT 3 years ago. My scar unfortunately is “raised” and wider than expected. I’m not sure if it just healed wrong, or surgeon error. I was originally told my hair would need to be cut to a “5” for it to be unnoticeable, but it takes more like an “8” or “9”. I use dermatch or fibers to cover it with shorter hair.
A few months ago, I decided to get SMP on it. I had 5 sessions, and the ink just didn’t stick at all. The practitioner said it was due to the scar being “raised”. This was a couple thousand dollars, so I’m not feeling great about it.
Should I have something done to the scar before attempting something like SMP again? What about grafting some hairs into the scar? I’m not sure if my scar is hypertrophic, a keloid, or what. I just don’t want to spend more money on something that won’t work.
We treat raised scars with Kenalog injections which flatten then out (sometimes it takes a few months and more than one injection). Then I do the SMP into normal scars. See here: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/gallery/scar-covering/
This young man was 19 when he started the finasteride and his crown loss disappeared. He should stay on the drug or he will lose the hair again. This drug works well in very young men.
Can you explain more about the hair weight? You’re saying patient ones hair weighs more, and is 4 times thicker than patient twos thin/fine hair, which weighs 1/4 of first patient? Do I have that right? Is hair weight the same as hair volume?
How many grafts have each of those patients had? Both had the same amount of grafts?
Then how come every time someone gets a hair transplant they’re asked how many grafts they got? If 1,000 grafts on patient one could equal 4,000 grafts on another patient, the number of grafts doesn’t mean much without also knowing hair thickness/volume numbers as well. Do I have this correct?
Last question lol, when someone has fine hair being 1/4 the weight of average, do they usually have 4x the number of grafts in their donor area? So thick hair will have 4,000 total donor and fine hair can have 16,000 donor grafts?
Thank you I’m advance! This is a subject I’ve rarely seen talked about. It’s always ONLY how many grafts.
Think of this as building a fence. You have three types of wood 1×1″, 2×2″ and 4×4″. If you built the fence with 4×4 it would be a better fence than with 1×1, Four 1×1 = a singe 2×2 and four 2×2 equals a single 4×4. This is essentially comparable to fine, medium and coarse hair. Although the ratios are not the same a fine hair is 30 microns, a medium hair is 60 microns and a coarse hair is 90-100 microns, the metaphor does apply.
If this doesn’t explain it, please reply.