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Skin fade - after 1300 - 1500 grafts

hair-today

hair-today

member
Hi,
I know this is a frequently asked question, but I wanted something taylored a little more to me (greedy!!!)
I've just had a consultation in Harley Street London (not opting for a cheaper route as I want guaranteed consistancy with results). It looks like I only require a maximum of 1500 grafts. I've been told scarring should be minimum and I that I should still be able to have my usual skin fade......high and tight to a grade 0 that's foil razored. But I'm worried about this.
I'm at the stage where if I go that short then I kind of get away with the top not lookking too bad, and as this is my choice of cut I'll be gutted if I go for this and then can't have my hair that short due to scarring.
Also, I know you can fill the scars in with tattooing, but how does that work with going grey in later years? I'm going grey, but only really at the sides and a little on top. Not sure I want to tattoo dark spots if I then go white as I get older.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Which clinic on Harley street did you consult with? Just because they’re based there does not guarantee they do decent work. There is no guarantee that your scars won’t be visible. If they are a concern to you, maybe ask for a test of 40 - 50 grafts to see how you heal.
SMP pigments can accommodate grey hair I be,ieve but I’d ask a reputable clinic such as Prohair Belgium, Brandwood or velvet pigmentation in Uk.
 
hair-today

hair-today

member
Which clinic on Harley street did you consult with? Just because they’re based there does not guarantee they do decent work. There is no guarantee that your scars won’t be visible. If they are a concern to you, maybe ask for a test of 40 - 50 grafts to see how you heal.
SMP pigments can accommodate grey hair I be,ieve but I’d ask a reputable clinic such as Prohair Belgium, Brandwood or velvet pigmentation in Uk.
Thanks Bigmac for your reply. I was trying to be discreat re the clinic, it was with Dr Reddy.
Is that a known/common thing to get a test of a few grafts? I presume it would be normal to pay for that?
Even if there is some scarring would you say it's possibly a matter of whether you care about people seeing the scarring?
With the pigment stuff my query is more about if you get dark spots tattood, like so many people do.....then what happens years later once that person has turned grey? Isn't it too late, and going to look a bit funny?

Thanks
 
S

SimBa

Member
Hi,
I know this is a frequently asked question, but I wanted something taylored a little more to me (greedy!!!)
I've just had a consultation in Harley Street London (not opting for a cheaper route as I want guaranteed consistancy with results). It looks like I only require a maximum of 1500 grafts. I've been told scarring should be minimum and I that I should still be able to have my usual skin fade......high and tight to a grade 0 that's foil razored. But I'm worried about this.
I'm at the stage where if I go that short then I kind of get away with the top not lookking too bad, and as this is my choice of cut I'll be gutted if I go for this and then can't have my hair that short due to scarring.
Also, I know you can fill the scars in with tattooing, but how does that work with going grey in later years? I'm going grey, but only really at the sides and a little on top. Not sure I want to tattoo dark spots if I then go white as I get older.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Hi mate

I agree with your concern as this is a big consideration for me also about the HT route. In my experience the Dr's who use the smaller punch diameters tend to have the better results with scarring eg 0.7 mm. If you search around you may find the same but this may help as a guide.

I'm considering a plan B via SMP if needed but tbh I'm also getting to the stage where I'm wondering if all these tweaks are ultimately worth all the costs, not only financial. The cost to our mental health with all the hair crazies, anxieties, insecurities, the time costs in taking up mental space which could be occupied by other things, possibly more worthwhile. The financial cost, the hassle cost, the list goes on. And frankly depending on how it's styled losing head hair can still look decent if mixed up with other things likes facial hair, clothing style etc. Losing head hair is not a complete death to our appearance as is often touted it seems.

Would I take my old hair back...yes because even if I prefer the bald or buzzed look, at least I have the choice of hair styles with my old hair. Does this mean we can still rock something of a personal style with less head hair ? I would say so.
 
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hair-today

hair-today

member
Ah thanks SimBr, I don't know much about the punch diameters. I know this surgeon is supposed to be pretty good and has worked to minimise scarring. If there's a little scarring I'd take it happily to fix the front and still rock my skin fade. But I've been some pretty bad scarring online that I wouldn't be happy with. What are the ranges of sizes?
Have you had a transplant or are just considering/looking at the moment?
Yes I worry that one day I'll just get fed up and want to stop Minoxidil, then everything falls out, except the transplanted hair, and it looks silly then.
Re Scarring, yes there is SMP, but my natural hair is really dark, with lots of grey. The back is dark, but one day it will be grey, then won't it look silly with dark dots tattooed into it????
For me money isn't the issue, if I can fix things it's well worth it but it's if it goes wrong, or looks silly years down the line.
.
An another note, has anyone decided post transpant to just rock the shaved head, and because of the transplant has electrolisis to actually remove the trasplanted hair so the balness pattern looks natural? Is that possible if all else REALLY fails?
 
S

SimBa

Member
That's a good thought I hadn't considered, in that you could likely have Electrolysis on transplanted hair if you changed your mind later on. Good thinking.

I think I remember seeing Dr Turan, a Turkish surgeon, who uses 0.7mm punches and he had good scarring results. If you're worried about scarring with grey hair I wouldn't worry too much as scarring is usually white in colour and less visible with grey hair I suspect. It's hard trying to predict the future but if you think you will always like buzzed hair then I understand the concern. I doubt anyone would notice it unless they stood directly behind you in a que or something, then so what, you have HT scars, likely faded by then. It's your shout what you would be most self conscious with, the scars or having less head hair.

I haven't seen many results which look as good or better than someone's hair before they started losing it. HT is just using the existing hair and redistributing to create the illusion of more hair, which is actually the same amount of hair in a different place. I haven't had an HT, no and If we could do one procedure and that's it then I'll likely go for it, I just don't want it to be an ongoing obsession.
 
hair-today

hair-today

member
Yes, electrolisis would be an option, but if it came ot that it would be a bit pants. Money spent on a HT, scarring, more money on removing hairs and still bald :confused: but yes it a possible option. I'm wondering if anyone has gone that route.

With the grey hair thing, it's not the scarring I'm so worried about, it's if I had SMP to cover the scarring. The back is still dark at the moment.

With the one procedure thing, I suspect depending on the person, that many are able to have just one. As long as you do somethign to preserve what you have. I've been using minoxidil for over a year. My case is slightly different, but it's certainly helped.
 
S

SimBa

Member
Yes, it's definitely a consideration if having a HT you still end up bald, with scarring etc. I'm going to buzz my hair to a grade 3 to see if I like the short/bald look on me. I have a decent amount of hair which has diminished at a slow rate of knots, whatever an indecent amount of hair is ; ] , so I think HT is an option, unlike some guys who it all goes quickly. There's a lot to consider like money, hassle, mental health, buyer remorse, bad results and further knock on effects, good results and benefits this offers etc etc.

As far as I know with SMP and scarring it would need to be done every either approx 2 - 5 years, others will likely know more on this than me. Apparently the ink will fade to a greater or lesser extent. As your hair greys scarring will be less noticeable, though if you want to dye your hair then you will need to upkeep SMP.

Do you think Minoxidil is more psychological eg placebo than real the results obtained ?

The problem we have it's almost impossible to know if Minoxidil works unless we have a drastic change although I did see a guy on here, Ronnie, who looked like he did actually get some kind of result off Minoxidil. His hair strands looked like they had thickened, which I was surprised about.

I do think the likeliest result is x amount money outlay, 1 month hassle, further upkeep re Minoxidil, Finasteride, Nizoral etc, scarring WILL happen it just depends how visible it is, the end result would probably be acceptable though we will probably see room for improvement and plan probably/possibly another procedure. This last point I don't want to go down, with my hope being yes, it will be acceptable, not perfect and could be improved but I hope I would stick with one procedure.
 
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hair-today

hair-today

member
Yes for me minoxidil definitely does something. I used it on my face for my beard. Around the 4 week mark I had fine hairs growing. Then after a few months it was coming on OK, but I went away for a month and figured it would be ok not to take it with me. After 3 weeks I sudennly noticed how far backwards it had gone. So I started again, and again after about 4 weeks fine hairs appeared. I set in my mind I would use it for a year. Rememeber with facial hair once the hairs are terminal (full thickness adult hairs) then the hairs there are permament. I actually ended up using it for about 2 and half years, and when I had the shock of my hair thinning on top I started it there and ended up stopping it with my face. Face has been fine since. Again after about 4 weeks I had fine hairs appearing on my scalp. I thought, ah I'm sorted if they grow back to full thick hairs, but they haven't of course. What they have done though is darken the area a little so it doesn't look as bad. Then it halted and stayed like that. It's been nearly a year and a half. I still have hairs falling out at an alarming rate, but it doesn't appear to be changing and still looks much better now that it did a year and a half ago. So I reckon it's stabalised.

No idea of course if it would have done that anyway, but I know minoxidil works for me and I'm now too scared to stop using it.
 
S

SimBa

Member
Yes for me minoxidil definitely does something. I used it on my face for my beard. Around the 4 week mark I had fine hairs growing. Then after a few months it was coming on OK, but I went away for a month and figured it would be ok not to take it with me. After 3 weeks I sudennly noticed how far backwards it had gone. So I started again, and again after about 4 weeks fine hairs appeared. I set in my mind I would use it for a year. Rememeber with facial hair once the hairs are terminal (full thickness adult hairs) then the hairs there are permament. I actually ended up using it for about 2 and half years, and when I had the shock of my hair thinning on top I started it there and ended up stopping it with my face. Face has been fine since. Again after about 4 weeks I had fine hairs appearing on my scalp. I thought, ah I'm sorted if they grow back to full thick hairs, but they haven't of course. What they have done though is darken the area a little so it doesn't look as bad. Then it halted and stayed like that. It's been nearly a year and a half. I still have hairs falling out at an alarming rate, but it doesn't appear to be changing and still looks much better now that it did a year and a half ago. So I reckon it's stabalised.

No idea of course if it would have done that anyway, but I know minoxidil works for me and I'm now too scared to stop using it.
Good you HT, seems like something happens when using it. When you say your head hair darkened do you put this down to it thickening somewhat then ?

I'm thinking of giving it another try having used it before and wasn't convinced compared to the inconvenience of using the liquid with it's glueing effects, though will likely try foam.

Getting back to your dilemma of the scarring, I would honestly say if you go for the skin fades this tips the equation between being visible to more noticeable. Not an exact science, but to my mind there's a difference between visible and noticeable, which at times can be subjective, but I suspect most have an idea of this.

In your position, it seems like you need to have a real think about how you style your hair because what would you rather have, head hair which looks like there's more of it in a style you favour less or head hair which looks thinner, possibly more to yourself than others, in a style you favour, with or without scarring ? The last point obviously if you go for a hair transplant.

If you favour the shorter style and have done for a number of years, as this may change in the future, can you not get away with styling products to boost the look of hair density ?

Depending on what's your biggest concern, I would post in either the SMP or HT sections on this site, to see if others can chime in.
 
hair-today

hair-today

member
"Good you HT" Sorry, I don't quite follow what you mean.....probably me being thick!!

When I say darkened, I feel because it's made a layer of very fine hairs grow, and my hair is dark (the ones that haven't gone grey anyway) it means there is more darkness on my scalp. So it would be similar to using SMP under thinning hair, but in my case it's a layer of fine hair rather than SMP. They haven't grown into proper hairs though.

Yes all my life I have liked very short hair, so it's certianly not a phase that I'll change my mind about in the short term. Obviously who knows long term how I wll feel. However how I look, from the front particularly, is really important for my job. I currently need to update promo photos and a showreel, but I hate how the front of my hair looks. I'm now thinking do I postpone spending hundreds on promo stuff until after I've had a HT and given it time to grow out properly. Realistically that means waiting a year or so I guess, yet I need to do this as soon as possible to market myself for my career.

From what I've seen Dr Reddy does seem to do a great job with minimising scars, getting a good hairline, and really amazingly seems to do a great job with quite a low number of grafts compared to other clinics I've seen.

Thanks, yes I will do some posts in the other sections. To be honest I forgot there were others. I signed up and have just been following this post mosty, or searching for specific keywords. SO not really looked round the whole forum.
 
S

SimBa

Member
Yes, my bad, I meant to write 'good for you' re getting some Minoxidil results.

Mmm, interesting re your career concerns. I may be able to help here, infomercial alert ; ]
I work as a personal branding consultant having worked in this field for 20 years, which is for people seeking to maximise their 'brand' in their working lives. If interested I can elaborate in terms of qualifications, background, experience etc. I genuinely don't come on here to 'tout for business' as I am seriously considering my own personal options, although I do also enjoy it as a source of study for fine tuning my knowledge in this field, so the advice I give clients is the most accurate and up to date for their interests.

It may be that for you the HT route isn't in your best interests, though equally it could be. There are significant factors to weigh up, possibly more so for people like yourself who like zero guard or 1 close clippered cuts. This is why I'm going to buzz mine off as I typically prefer longer hair but want to see if I like it buzzed as I haven't done this in 20 years. It may save me a ton of hassle and a decent bit of money also, possibly a lot if some are to go by who have multiple procedures, which from what I have seen seems to be the majority who go the HT route. The whole hair loss thing has MUCH scope it seems for obsession, which I want to avoid if possible.
 
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hair-today

hair-today

member
Yes, I would interested in hearing more about what you do. Although more just to learn what help is possibly out there.

I like less than zero guard (which is about 0.5 grade), I have my hair foil razored to complete 0, and I like it high up too. Sigh!!!!
 
S

SimBa

Member
Yes, I would interested in hearing more about what you do. Although more just to learn what help is possibly out there.

I like less than zero guard (which is about 0.5 grade), I have my hair foil razored to complete 0, and I like it high up too. Sigh!!!!
0.5 grade and foil razored ? You sound like a high maintenance guy HT !

I'll try & figure out how to DM you as I could get my knuckles wrapped if posting on forums
 
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