H
Hoping_for_hair
member
Coming along very nicely!
It definitely looks better flat as it gives a better illusion of density right now. You still have time for more growth and density, although I’m not sure how much denser it will eventually look as the 2500 grafts were placed over your frontal half.
It’s possible you may opt for a second HT to add to the frontal third as this was quite bald pre op. Your donor looks to be in very good condition.
Hopefully you are a lucky late grower mate!Thanks for your advice - hopefully I am one of the lucky few that gets late growth. I sent the above photos to the clinic earlier and they said that everything was on track, so I will try to stay patient for the next few months! I'll definitely ask them to assess the current density - thank you for the tip.
From memory, Dr Arshad suggested the extra 500 grafts to a) lower the hairline a little, and b) to go a little further back than the area that had hair loss (i.e. towards the crown), in order to future proof that area. I can't remember specific discussions about density now, other than reassurance that that amount of grafts should be sufficient to give me good coverage.
To your last point, this photo from Day 12 seems to suggest that there were plenty of grafts added - far more than have currently grown through - so I guess that narrows it down to a large number of grafts either failing, or just not having grown through yet. As you say, fingers crossed for the latter...
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I wish I knew the secret, but I guess it's compliacted otherwise everyone would be getting the same results.Does anyone know why quite a few of us have had density issues?
Though it’s tricky to do with the natural hairline staggers, you can try counting the number of hairs in your hairline from day 12 and now. I counted about 50ish in your current left side photograph versus just about 70ish from day 12. Though the larger scabs make it harder to count. Like you said it looks like they are not yet all accounted for, and that’s just the hairline which grows faster than other parts IIUC. Hopefully the rest grow in and that nice layering effect and extra thickening will help too.
I am on a similar journey (# of grafts and total area) and am also starting to question the density of my own transplant, though I’m almost 4 months behind you, and I am rooting for you.
I am rooting for you
Hopefully you get some more density mate, although as bigmac said, and judging from other transplants that I've seen, you probably needed at least 4k grafts to get the thickness that you're probably after. Without trying to be negative, I reckon you'll need another op to get to the finish line of having a full head of hair. At least you're at the stage now where you don't look like you have any balding when your hair is grown out and flattened a bit in the front (ie grow your hair about 3 inches longer than you have it at the 9 month stage and that should cover the top).
Does anyone know why quite a few of us have had density issues?
Yeah I have seen Couto's, those hairlines do look phenomenal. One thing to remember is though that even the very best surgeon's aren't going to plant at more than 50% of the original density( at least on a regular basis), so the end result is always going to be to give the illusion of a full head of hair. Which is why when we show the transplanted areas in pictures, without styling the hair, it will look far thinner.I wish I knew the secret, but I guess it's compliacted otherwise everyone would be getting the same results.
I used to watch the vids by Juan Couto (I think he's supposed to be one of the best) and he'd seem to produce these THICK hairlines with a few thousand grafts.
And then other surgeons would use the same number of grafts and the density wouldn't come close.
I wonder what part of the process is the reason for the varied results. Is it to do with how they're extracted? How long the grafts are sitting for? Something about the incisions? Or presumably all of them things are way too obvious and surely the surgeons would be able to 'learn' the best way fast if it was as easy as that. So i'm still left wondering what it is. Maybe it's more about the recipient of the transplant. Maybe some people's bodies aren't as receptive to the preocedure and it takes a certain skill too adapt to each person or something.
I have no idea lol. But I do find it kind of strange how results can vary so massively for sometimes that is seemingly fairly simple. Could an average surgeon watch Juan Couto giving a transplant and 'learn' something important that he doesn't do that he could then use to massively improve his results?
Yeah , as I said buddy I would definitely get your mindset around another one being a definite requirement.Thanks @TBH - yeah, it definitely looks way way better than it did, it just looks like it might fall short of what I thought I was getting. I think you're probably correct on too few grafts being used for the coverage I was expecting.
I'm slowly accepting that I might have to go through the whole process again, when I had assumed it would be all done with by the end of the year, which is taking a bit of getting over. But at the same time, having come this far, it's not the end of the world to have to get it finished off if it means I can feel good about my hair again!