worrying people will notice my hair transplant would really like peoples input.

[james8891]

Hi, i am new to this forum and found out lots or valuable infomation about having a FUE transplant. I am of a NW2 stage at the moment and i am looking at getting my hair to a NW1.5

I will not be getting a hair transplant for another good year or so as I feel asthough it is not th right time ATM but when i do I will probley go to Belgium as that will be the most suited for me and it seems to be one of the best places to go.

I still have lots of hair and Im lucky enough to hide my hairline to an extent! My hair grows in a really weird way and grows thin and not really manageable expecially in the frontal reigion.

My main concern about having a transplant is that my friends and family will notice that I have had one, and this to me is a really big deal as the kind of person I potray myself to my friends and family is not of a 22 year old lad who would be soo insecure and my hair that I would go to the extent of having a FUE!!

I know from that day foward I would be looked at as 'the guy who had the transplant' and to me this would be very hard for my to handle.

I am by no means bald and still a long way off that but for the last 4 - 5 years EVERYDAY of my life I have been reallly depressed about my hair, what people think about my hair etc and it is starting to effect my mental state and also my social skills!

Been on minoxidle and proscar for the last year with not much to report on. Got ripped off by AHS in the UK as thats where im from.

So if anyone has anything to say about this please comment back, thanks!!

 

[martinvain]

This sounds very close to my story except I am 26 now and just had an FUE transplant.

Some transplants can be done without shaving the recipient (strip) but as far as I am aware the donor area needs to be shaved so that the doctor can harvest the FUE grafts. I think therefore no matter how you slice it people are going to notice a change in hairstyle if not a transplant in the days/weeks afterwards.

It sounds as though getting your hair back is important to you so I will give you the same advice as people gave me - keep researching. Learn about the techniques, the tools used, the healing periods, doctors reputations etc.

As for your hair just now have you ever tried using any concealers? I personally have used both Nanogen fibres and Dermmatch and found they worked well. If you have hair to work with, and by the sounds of things you do, then you could probably get good results from these in the meantime.

 

[Nervousnelly]

I am going to suspect that you are going to need a minimum of a week to allow things to heal so that they are not detectable. Unfortunately even with FUE sometimes the recipient area needs a lot of time to fully heal. Everyone is different. I was almost undetectable in the recipient area after 4 days but I do know that some people take months, so things remain pink until fully healed. Keep this in mind. Research and think it thru.

NN

 

[mars]

I know how you are fealing,i have a wedding i HAVE to go to only 6 days when i come back from smg..i will buzz to a one all over im getting fue in hairline so i will get comments which im prepared for but none of your friends or mine will suspect a ht,if im very pink il say friction rash of an old clippers that wasnt very good i really had to dig in as it wasnt sharp etc etc..

Bottom line people who are not hairloss suffers dont even know what fue is,people still think a ht is hairplugs,il get back to you on how i did so u can judge off me.

 

[james8891]

Thanks for the replys.

It's not so much Im worrying about the week or so straight after because I will hide away in that time and wait for the marks to die down before I return home. It's really just when people notice that my hair starts to look different and improved after the 6 - 12 month mark.

I know its not a bad thing obviously that my hair looks better but I was just wondering what excuses people have used before to try and convince people that you have not had a hair transplant!

Martinvain I have not used concealers before but thanks for the advise and I will look into it!

Anyone else have anything to say??

 

[james8891]

And 'mars' thats a pretty good excuse

 

[Nervousnelly]

Keep in mind that if you go to a great surgeon that does exceptionally natural work you won't have to worry about people noticing something bad. Now I understand that you are worried they will wonder where the "extra" hair came from.

I wouldn't worry about it. I think that people don't really notice. Its a weird thing. Especially given your minimal loss, the likelihood of people noticing is slim. If anyone does say anything just laugh it off. Maybe make comments like "do you really think I look like I have more hair--cool. I thought maybe things were growing back. I have been taking more vitamins and limiting my stress"--something to that effect.

I had one person say something. My office persons husband. He his a NW6 and likely pays more attention to that kind of stuff. He made a comment and all I did was laugh and that was it. Short lived.

NN

 

[james8891]

Thanks 'nervousnelly' your good at this kinda stuff! Iv always over thought things so this is more than likely just another case of it!

Iv been looking at Dr. Bisanga in Belgium I think he seems like a really solid surgeon to go with

I will post pics up soon so you and others can access my hair and what I can expect from an FUE. There is no way i could have a strip, some of the pics of the scars and straight after pics Iv seen make my stomach churn a little bit!!

 

[mars]

Is the risk of someone commenting on your hair worth the gain of getting your hairline back?if you go to a top doc answer is YES!

 

[zionaxel]

If your looking for advice to whether or not to have a H.T at 22 i would say dont do it , a couple of yrs time you may feel completely different about hairloss. Its a big decision to make and 22 is too young to make the wrong the one. I made a mistake at a young age a few yrs older than you. I have friends who are bald shave there head once a day . A mate of mine said to me if they found a cure for baldness tomorrow he wouldnt take it.You live and learn and if i could turn the clock back i would.

If you go to Belgium with Dr. Bisanga they will treat you right, but at the same time this is my opinion i might be wrong they might tell you to wait a while and think about it.

 

[timuk]

You do seem a little young for an HT... but I have read about guys of a similar age having surgery..

I do not want to panic you.. but it took around 5 months for evidence of my strip surgery to vanish..

I have had one comment from a guy I work with saying that my hair looked thicker .. this guy went 100% bald before he was 25... I just told him I had been taking Propecia and that it worked for me, he is a good friend of mine and not the type to take the micky..

One option is to let you hair grow long and "scuffy" from the time you have the HT... then after about 6 months have a good haircut and a change of style.. I think this would easily cover any change in appearance / increase in hair.

Life is crazy.... I agree with you worrying about people finding out if you have an HT.... no-one would give it a second thought if you told them you were having your teeth capped... but as far as HT's go.. there is still a stigma attached to them... its a pity.

I went through megga lengths to hide the fact I had one... staying in the USA for 2 weeks after my surgery so I could have the stitches out there, wearing a baseball cap for about a year... my HT had grown but I was worried about anyone noticing it... then one day I though sod it... threw the cap away... no-one said a word... apart from the guy I mentioned earlier and that was about 6 months after I chucked the baseball cap...

Sorry, am going on a bit...

Will leave it here

All the best

Timuk

 

[Bigmac]

Have you decided on anything and it would be good to see your pictures if possible.

 

[My WHTC Hair Talk]

Hello James8891

Most of the time people think you have loss weight or got a tan or something, thats what I have been told by the patients. They know it is something different but can't figure out what it is. There are procedure to where you do not have to shave your head the non-shaven and shaven patch procedures. Good luck!

 

[mattj]

As you're starting as a NW2 and are just having a relatively small procedure to touch up the front, the result should be pleasing and yet not too dramatic that it'll be very noticeable. It's often surprising what people fail to notice, and it might even be disappointing that the procedure you spent a lot of money on hasn't made an impact (even if you didn't want an impact). But people often notice improvements only on a subconscious level.

 

[beardywierdy]

Hi James

I went to Dr Feriduni in Belgium and can honestly say that no one (apart from a hairdresser who cut my hair 4 monts post op) has ever said anything. This is not because of a lack of growth (have a look at my blog), but due to the fact that the transformation takes 12 months and it is so gradual. Remember that most people are only obsessed with themselves and don't really look at your hair, so unless you have a totally bald head and then suddenly have hair, nobody notices. Also many of us go the extra mile concealing our loss anyway, i.e by growing the fringe to cover the recession,so when we have a transplant, other people hardy notice anyway.

The only thing you will have to do is have the receipient areas shaved slightly; (mine was around 2cms or so from the hairline and whilst this doesn't sound much it does make a difference, so just bear that in mind.

Cheers
BW

 

[Bigmac]

Take a look at beardywierdy`s pics in his gallery link at the bottom of his post, excellent job Dr Feriduni done.

This will give you an idea of what can be achieved.

 

[Stingray76]

Before my op I was really worried about people knowing that I was having a HT. I really didn't want anyone to know. However, as time went by I ended telling my family and close friends. In most cases they were curious, asked a few questions (did it hurt?, whose hair was it? and how much did it cost?) and moved on. I am sure they don't now think of me as "the person who got a hair transplant".

These things are always much bigger deals to us then they are to other people.