My hair surgery at DHI Global London

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DHI Representative wrote:

Dear Ziggs,

The hairline is nor circular but slightly zig-zag (if you see the photo more closely). The issue with pilus2013, as I mentioned in my last post, is that his donor area cannot provide the desirable number of grafts. Our suggestion is to wait for the final result (he is in his second month of his HT now) and reevaluate his options (donor area capacity, SMP, beard and body grafts, etc). Clearly, body and beard hairs would be a solution, (there is a member on this forum who has done a HT by chest and beard at DHI and presents very good results). What I am trying to say is that we are here for pilus2013 and we have explained to him all the parameters and difficulties of his case.

Peggy,
if you mean me €¦ yes I am happy with the body and beard grafts used in my case. However, I have observed that the hairs from the chest grafts are completely different from those of both the head and from beard grafts. Some of them are absent for long periods from my head and appear again, while this is not the case with the hairs we put from the beard. Overall germination (growth) rates measured in the clinic in the 3 cases were 70 % for the chest grafts, 85 % for the beard €™s grafts and 95 + % for those of the head. However, for those from the chest you can not be absolutely sure because of the reason I mentioned above. You explained to me about the different life cycle of hairs coming from the body but I do not want to say more because I do not know whether to ascribe correctly. In conclusion, if anyone needs additional grafts from his body or beard (like pilus), he can clearly expect to have good results from them, but he should know that the growth rates are not as high as those of the head €™s grafts. Additionally, the hairs from the beard are better than those of the chest (apart from the above mentioned reasons) because they are also thicker and grow in length similarly to those coming from the rest of the head.

 

[DHI]

Thank you close for your comment. Yes indeed you are a very nice example of body hair transplantation.
As for your comment about body hair growth: Androgenic hair follows the same growth pattern as the hair that grows on the scalp (only the anagen phase is shorter, and the telogen phase is longer). While the anagen phase for the hair on one's head lasts for years, the androgenic hair growing phase lasts a few months. The telogen phase for body hair lasts close to a year. This shortened growing period and extended dormant period explains why the hair on the head tends to be much longer than other hair found on the body.

Meanwhile, about beard hairs we are developing a research protocol as we have noticed that after several cycles, beard hairs start to acquire similarities (eg thickness, texture, etc.) with those of the rest of the head.

 

[pilus2013]

Attached are the pictures after 6 months. Let me know what you think guys..
My SMP session was cancelled by DHI last minute and I am still waiting to hear of the new date. Bit disappointing though as it was scheduled for 25th Nov 2013 but still no news.

 

[ziggs11]

Seems like it would make more sense to use body hair before going to SMP. SMP won't look right if you still have long strands of hair on the top of your head.

 

[pilus2013]

Here is the update after 9 months.

 

[pilus2013]

Yes, I agree. Thank you for your honest opinion.

 

[DHI]

Unfortunately his donor area couldn't provide the desirable number of grafts. We knew that from the beginning. Now that we have his final result i would say that MPG is the next step. MPG will improve your result and give you the confidence you deserve.

Dear Pilus2013 you can arrange a date for that.

 

[ziggs11]

I don't think that there is enough hair on top to do SMP for the thickening effect.

 

[Bigmac]

Pilus, are there any grafts available from your side areas as if the sides were a little thinner they would blend in more with your transplanted hair.
Some Smp in the scar too to help camouflage it.

 

[herculestang]

Hello Pilus this is a very interesting case you have after 9 months.I am not really aware of the expected result dates.
What you show us in your last image, is that the final result or there is still room for improvement, did you took any additional actions after that?
Also please let us know as it is very important, how many grafts were used?
thanks

 

[pilus2013]

Here is the result after 12 months

 

[garageland]

Thanks for updating the thread to show your results. You have not commented on how you feel? I also thought you were getting a free SMP session is this still the case?

Personally this is the reality of 1000 grafts/hairs? spread over such a large area. So what are you planning to do next, do you have any photos of the donor area?

If your donor is so limited maybe you should consider either revising the scar or having grafts placed into that and keeping it very short. I wouldn't bother with SMP if I were you I just don't think the combination of dots and long hairs looks good.

 

[ziggs11]

If you get SMP, it will look terrible if you keep you don't shave or buzz down the hair on top.

If you shave your head for SMP, your scar may show, and it would negate any value from the 1000 grafts.

I'm not sure what to tell you. It's not a good situation. I don't think DHI should have done a 1000 graft procedure on such a big area while feeding you the idea that SMP would fill in the rest. 1000 grafts isn't enough to do the thickening effect, nor is it enough to stand on its own. It's hard to believe DHI would not have known this...

 

[Trev]

Pilus what is your donor availability?
The sides of your head look quite thick, maybe a FUT taking out the existing scar would provide you with more grafts and improve the original scar.

 

[pilus2013]

Hi Guys,
It has been over a year now since I had my surgery at DHI London. The story is that I had a mega session expecting around 3000 grafts but that number was not met because the extraction rate was under achieved as I understand. I think you all noticed that from my pictures and some of you rightly pointed that out too. Apparently this happens less than 10% but unfortunately I am falling into the ethnic category in which this is a high possibility. But the good news is that DHI offered me a 100% free session to rectify this and I am doing my second session in December. So, from my point of view it is very good of them to offer such a deal and just wanted to share that with you all since we discuss and want to know the pros and cons of clinics and suppliers etc. Will be posting my new photos in December for your kind comments again. Thank you all for your advice. You all helped me a lot as I was not very well informed last year when I wanted to do this surgery. So, the forum helped me a lot.

 

[Trev]

That's great the clinic taking care of you. ¬b`

 

[topccat29]

Okay..............so if you were told that you fall into the ethnic category that experiences a high rate of failure what has changed...............are you no longer in that category or has something else happened?

 

[topccat29]

Pilus when you say the extraction rate was underachieved what exactly does this mean? It is fairly well known that very curly hair becomes much harder to extract by way of fue because the follicle direction below the skin changes in a way that makes it difficult to figure out the angle in which the punch needs to enter. I have read this countless times and although it is possible to still perform the procedure it seems that the skill level is even higher than that of fue with straight hair?

I believe this is well known throughout the industry and if this statement is incorrect somebody that actually works in the industry should correct me. The point here is for others to have this information too so they can make better decisions.

Since you already had the strip scar many clinics might have suggested another strip due to the curl of your hair. I €™m just guessing about the curl from the statement on failure rate due to you ethnicity. Was this discussed beforehand and you just decided to take that risk?

Overall the growth looked good to me judging by the spacing of the grafts in the recipient area and you can easily see that if you compare your pictures to post surgery recipient sites of others examples posted here.

Are you going for more fue or strip?

 

[Trev]

topccat29 wrote:

Pilus when you say the extraction rate was underachieved what exactly does this mean?

I believe DHI charge by session time averaging a certain amount of grafts in the given time but in Pilus case they were not able to extract the amount they were aiming for.

 

[topccat29]

Trev, I see maybe I €™m just confused. The clinic stated that the donor area could not provide the necessary number of grafts due to a previous failed strip surgery, high norwood pattern and low donor capacity.

So when Pilus posted just recently that he fell into an ethnic category which makes up only 10% of the population and results in a lower extraction rate my first thought was maybe it was due to the curl of the hair otherwise why the ethnicity comment? Many researching don't understand the curl issue with fue so I thought I would point it out.


Not sure if Pilus was advised about the ethnicity issue as he never mentioned it before. Either way I hope it all works out for him and maybe he can answer that question €¦ €¦ €¦ €¦ €¦I €™m just curious and I learn by asking questions and trying to explain what I do know.