FUT 6500 hairs - Paul Benet (Paris, France) - 1 year update

[EricLaurent]

Hello,

Thanks you for accepting me on the forum.

I am 46 yo. I am balding from long time now, there is pics that show the evolution since 2009. My regimen was Minox 2% from around 23yo to 35 yo and 5% later.

I got a FUT 4 mont ago in Paris in a little clinic with a lot of good review on google. The surgeon make me the scare and 3 assistants the implantation. They do FUT & FUE from 20 years. Total time was around 7,5h.


For the moment I am rather confident, I am just hopping geting enought density later (as every one here !).

To try preventing loss in future, my new regimen is Minox 5% 2x/day, topical Finasteride 0.025% + biotine 0,5% + pyridoxyne 1% + IgrantineF1 0,5% 4x/week (I start topical fina with 3x/week as recommended by FueClinic), zinc and MSM, + shapoo (DHT Striker shapoo and another one - I switch between them).

Here is some pics at J+0 :

The scare at J+6:

At 1 month with scare 1 month also:

At 2 month:

At 3 month:

At 4 month:

Scare at +4 month:

Hope it can help some member here, as other helped me

Thanks.

 

[Bigmac]

Welcome to the forum EricLaurent and thanks for sharing your hair loss journey so far.
Your hair loss has slowly progressed over the years, even with minoxidil. I think adding the topical Finasteride is a good choice to help prevent or slow right down further loss.
I take it the 6500 hairs were around 2500 plus grafts. I like that you opted for a mature hairline without any lowering. I think it will look great once fully grown. Your FUT donor scar looks very good. A nice closure you got.
I`ll look forward to your next update.

​

 

[EricLaurent]

Hello thanks you, I received 1300 grafts.

Some pics from 5 months:

 

[Luka]

Sincèrement, ça a l’air impeccable! En plus tu as probablement autant de greffons pour faire une nouvelle greffe au cas où… La cicatrice est à peine visible.

 

[EricLaurent]

Merci j'attends plus de densité sur les golfes mais ça devrait le faire...

 

[Luka]

I am not sure it's realistic to expect more density, people usually go for a top-up, you have enought grafts left for this so don't stress out. But is it possible you received only 1300 grafts. For that area to cover, this is definitely not enough. You were NW3 plus, that means from the pictures at least no less than 2500-3000 grafts for starters.

 

[EricLaurent]

Ok thanks ... Too bad

 

[Bali]

Don't worry.1300 grafts witch a lot of "big" grafts with 3, 4 or 5 hairs would give the density on the gulfs.
The more important is the number of hairs (6500 it's a lot) and not the number of grafts.
The position of the grafts with 1,2,3 or more hairs is essentiel for the density: small grafts for the frontal line and large grafts for vertex and gulfs
It's the interest of the FUT.

 

[Luka]

Don't worry.1300 grafts witch a lot of "big" grafts with 3, 4 or 5 hairs would give the density on the gulfs.
The more important is the number of hairs (6500 it's a lot) and not the number of grafts.
The position of the grafts with 1,2,3 or more hairs is essentiel for the density: small grafts for the frontal line and large grafts for vertex and gulfs
It's the interest of the FUT.

I kind of doubt that 1300 grafts contained 6500 hairs, that would be quite a rare occurrence. On the positive side, the outcome looks very good.

 

[Bigmac]

The growth is looking very good so far. Do you have a top-down picture showing the density behind the hairline?
I think you must have had a higher graft count than 1300. Would it be possible to contact the clinic to have them confirm the graft breakdown into hairs?

 

[EricLaurent]

Hello, thanks you for your feed back.

Well the day of operation, the assistant told me that she had to make 1300 incisions. Perhaps she placed more than 1 graft per incision ? Is it possible ?

She also tell me that I had a lot of grafts with 5 hairs and more (800 of 5 and even some of 10). She told me that the total count of hair is even more than 6500.

Here is some pics from top. Sorry I got long hair since several month because I camouflage the golf. I will try a hair cut soon

Top at 4 months:

Top at 5 month:

 

[Bigmac]

I`ve never heard of a follicular unit containing 10 hairs. 5 usually at most, 6 is rare. Maybe they did not slither your grafts into true follicular groupings. Did the clinic take any pictures of your scalp on the day of surgery? The pictures you posted aren`t too clear.

Your growth is looking good for 5 months.

 

[EricLaurent]

Hello,
I can post the j-0 just post-op picture with better resolution if you want ?

Here is an example of 5+ hair grafts (there is a 8 hair in the photo). It is a surgeon who use 5 and even more hair grafts when it is possible:

His blog is in "venus hair restoration" (I cannot post link here)

He explain that it is very difficult to extract them in FUE (it take 5x more time) and the extraction is very declicate and only few surgeon make it ...

 

[Bigmac]

Thanks, I will read his blog soon.

 

[EricLaurent]

Hello all,

An update at 6 month, photo are taken in the sun.

My hair are very curly, do you have experienced same things ? Thanks !

 

[May]

Hello all,

An update at 6 month, photo are taken in the sun.

My hair are very curly, do you have experienced same things ? Thanks !

View attachment 37616View attachment 37615

View attachment 37614 View attachment 37613
View attachment 37612

Looks so cool ! And it is only 6 month!

 

[EricLaurent]

Thanks you,

So In fact to be exact I think it is an MFU and that explain why 6500 hairs for 1300 incisions.

 

[EricLaurent]

Hello,

I just take another picture of my scar at 7 months. I can see the staple scar and my scar is always a little bumpy... Do you think it is normal and the scar will flatten ?

 

[EricLaurent]

Hello !

Well, I am now at 8 months. My transplanted hairs seems a little less curly and a little more dense. But I still need more density, because with some lighting I see the lake of density on top of my head.

For example here it is ok :

But whith a lot of light I see some lake of density (see below)

Unfortunately I can't take finasteride or duta, even in topical form because I have bad side effects. Do you think that if my condition does not improve at 1 year, a densification would be feasible with a small additional graft? Thanks a lot for advice about it !

 

[EricLaurent]

To mod : Is it possible to edit my title please : "FUT 6500 hairs - Paul Benet (Paris, France) - 1 year update"

Here I am now 1 year post-transplant.

Everyone around me tells me that it's a success and that the result is very natural I am personally a little more reserved because:



- I would have liked to have an invisible scar with a 9mm shave at the back (see the photos below) - but it can no longer be seen at 11-12mm and it is enough that my dressing table does not make a gradient that is too low;

- I would have liked to have more density, especially on the golf courses. The lack of density is particularly visible on the top when the hair is wet (see photos also)

- I still have the transplanted hair which tends to wave. However, it improves over time and the result is more and more natural.

- The transplanted hair is white so when it is long it is more obvious; but that doesn't bother me more than that...



I have to take stock at 1 year with my doc, I will ask his opinion for the scar (what he thinks of the tattoo or perhaps another technique... ). I also believe scars progress over a year for FUTs so I may try a 9mm cut again in 6 months.

For the density, I will surely have the final result in a few months but I think that in a few years (since the alopecia unfortunately evolves despite the transplant), when I need to go back, I will take the opportunity to fill in more golf courses if possible and necessary (well yes because finally having overfilled golf courses when you are old is it really aesthetic??!!)

As a reminder, before the transplant:

Today with normal light background:

Hairline:

With a very bright background (the face is generated by an AI):

In sunlight:

Back:

Wet hair top view:

Back view wet hair:

Scar at 9mm