Hair transplant 2 years post surgery. Am i right to be disappointed?

[ono5985]

Hi, happy new year to everyone on here.

I had a hair transplant 2 years ago and have spent my recovery time trying to suppress my natural disappointment at the result. It's difficult for me to assess whether or not my disappointment is justified or whether or not I am over reacting and perhaps my initial expectations were just too high.

To give a bit of background, the transplant was to cover some temple recession and to create a lower hairline. I was 33 years old at the time of the procedure and I went for the FUT procedure. I am not sure how many grafts I had as the clinic informed me at my consultation that they dont charge per graft as "there's no way that anybody can check exactly how many grafts they have had" which at the time sounded fair enough. My concern in hindsight is that from looking at the result, there is a very clear difference in density between the transplanted hairs and the rest of the hair on my head. This difference is extremely apparent (to me) under any form of unnatural light and also under natural light.

I have added 4 pictures and hopefully I can get some feedback on this result to try and help.me make sense of where to go from here. I'm open to the idea that I may have to contact the clinic to explain my disappointment but similarly am open to being told that the result is within the acceptable region and that I should possibly look at a further procedure to achieve more density.

All 4 pictures are taken under the lighting in my bathroom at home. One of the pictures is immediately post op just to give an indication of the size of the graft area. One of the pictures is 16 months post surgery (the pic that is taken above head height looking down on my hair) and the remaining 2 are from today - 2 years post op.

Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated as I honestly don't know how I feel. My gut instinct is disappointment but I wanted to check in with some people who maybe have more experience than me. Thank you in advance.

 

[Bigmac]

Hi ono.
Welcome to the forum.
Happy New Year to you.
Could you provide a few more pictures showing before surgery and straight on showing your hairline in natural outdoor light.
Are you on any type of hair loss prevention regimen?
The placement and growth looks even. It could be they just didn't place enough density.

During your consultation and right before surgery, didn't the doctor give you an estimate of the graft count you need? In order for the doctor to know how wide and long the strip size to take out on you, they need to know your graft/hair per cm2. Most clinics count and record the grafts as the cutting is done so they know exactly how many incisions to make. Very strange for the clinic to say, "there's no way to check exactly how many grafts they have had."
Was it the doctor who said no way to check?

 

[Baldingman23]

Like Bigmac mentioned the clinic should know how many graphs they extracted and then planted. If the graph count was high and that is the result then I would be very disappointed just like you, but if the graph count was low then the result you have is probably what should be expected and another HT session would be advisable. I’m sure people on here will be able to offer you great advice on what to do next though

 

[Bigmac]

In my own experience and what I've seen if a small strip does not yield enough grafts the doctor takes out more strip to obtain the required numbers. Your donor on the sides looks ok so I don't think donor density was an issue.
What does your donor scar look like?

 

[ono5985]

Hi ono.
Welcome to the forum.
Happy New Year to you.
Could you provide a few more pictures showing before surgery and straight on showing your hairline in natural outdoor light.
Are you on any type of hair loss prevention regime?
The placement and growth looks even. It could be they just didn't place enough density.

During your consultation and right before surgery, didn't the doctor give you an estimate of the graft count you need? In order for the doctor to know how wide and long the strip size to take out on you, they need to know your graft/hair per cm2. Most clinics count and record the grafts as the cutting is done so they know exactly how many incisions to make. Very strange for the clinic to say, "there's no way to check exactly how many grafts they have had."
Was it the doctor who said no way to check?

Hi, thanks for the response.

I will try and find some old photos. I'm not sure I have any as I lost my phone just before the surgery and sadly it wasn't backed up and I used to wear my hair down all the time so I don't have any natural photos where it would be visible.

It was the consultant who I met at the consultation who said they don't charge per graft as there would be no way for me to ever check. I am kicking myself for not doing a bit more research beforehand because I have a feeling I have paid £5.5k for a minimal amount of grafts. I will take some pics tomorrow in natural light.

The only thing the surgeon said was that I would have a really good result and the density would be greater than my natural hair. This was said at the end of the surgery. I am 100% certain that this isn't the case. Although I had a recession at the temples, my density has always been good.

As for the prevention, I have just bought some Rogaine and will start using this twice a day.

Thanks again for the response.

 

[ono5985]

In my own experience and what I've seen if a small strip does not yield enough grafts the doctor takes out more strip to obtain the required numbers. Your donor on the sides looks ok so I don't think donor density was an issue.
What does your donor scar look like?

The scar is about 6-7 inches across the back of my head and is 1/2 cm in thickness. It's not visible from the sides. He didn't need to take an additional strip out or anything. He seemed pretty sure that I would have really excellent density. He said it would be slightly more dense than my natural hair once it had re-grown at the full result stage.

 

[Bigmac]

Ask them for your surgery data. They should have kept a record of it. They should have counted your grafts while they were dissecting your strip. This way, the doctor will know how many singles are available for the front of your hairline and how many incisions to make.
Without knowing your donor density it's just a guess of how many grafts were in your strip scar.
For the surgeon to say you will have a density match he or she must have had an idea of how many grafts were available.

 

[Cody95]

It seems a bit thin. I am definitely no expert on this, but based on my personal experience think they didn't dense pack the hairline enough. Usually what they do is a dense band of muti-hair grafts with the singles making the frontal band so it doesnt appear unnatural and it gives a good illusion of density even if the anterior area beyond the hairline is not dense. I'm guessing they didn't transplant enough grafts, another transplant for density could definitely fix that up for you.

 

[bullitnut]

What does your hair look like in a normal outdoor setting without the bright light? Under the bright light in your bathroom or with flash, it will look thinner....A picture before your surgery would be useful to compare.