HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

This is a class 6 repair case.The patient used to wear a hair piece. He had one session of mini-grafts placed into holes in 2003. He could tell immediately that this procedure would yield an unnatural, pluggy result so he rapidly sought a repair solution. We performed 3000 grafts from the front to the back. In a single procedure he has obtained excellent coverage in the front. The rear of the scalp needs one more session (the back or crown almost always requires 2 to 3 times as much work to achieve the same degree of coverage).
Most of the grafts were dense packed into the front. We also needed to deal with big plugs and the results are showing a softer natural look. The patient can live a normal life without the hard maintenance of a hair piece and he is very excited about his 2nd procedure.

Click here to view his results: http://www.forhair.com/Hair_Transplant_Photos/Strip/Patient_PZR.htm

There is no better question than, "what will it look like later on"?

Every procedure should be like a game of billards and it should be designed to work best for you and set you up best for the future. There should never be a question of taking the easy shot. Rather, we should always take the shot that will best set us up for the next shot. Every shot shot should be designed such that the next shot will allow you to clean the table. If you do not plan in advance with each procedure, you may not succeed.

The individual in his 20s is in a much different position than the person in his 30s, 40s, or 50s. One must be more conservative with the 20 year old becasue hair loss can be much more severe with the 20 year old who is already loosing his hair.

Having said this it must be recognized that only 20% of men will every advance to a class 6 or higher. therefore, most with hair loss with not have this much loss.

in our practice we often place hair lines higher and avoid parts of the crown when we expect a more severe degree of loss.

age is kind to hair loss and to hair restoration. as the hair ages, the follicles cease to form pigment. the white hair blends better and results in less contrast with the lighter skin. this makes a less hair look fuller. many with larger, pluggy grafts benefit from this, as well. as the hair turns white, the larger grafts become less noticiable.

use of follicular units is the most natural way to restore your hair. if you later loose hair in the donor and recipeint area, the look will still be natural. of course you can loose grafted hair as you age, but you typically do not loose all of it. a small loss of white hair is not noticed. a greater degree of loss of white hair simply makes you look thinner.

we treat those who appear to be future 7s, differently than we treat those who will be a 5 or 6. we must also take into account the density in the donor area and quality of hair. in this case we have a middle age class 6 that most likely will not become a 7 since he is a "high" 6. as he matures, his white hair will only make his result appear more natural. of course he also had a very limited number of solutions since he had already had a strip and had unnatural plugs. he needed to soften these plugs. we have not dense packed th crown and we even made the central crown the least dense area. this is the area that most often begins to thin first. the lower area of the vertex thins later. we placed more hair here than the top of the vertex. we can safely place more hair in the back over time and have limited concerns about how the white hair will appear in 20 years. even if it thins, it will still appear natural due to the overal design.

we must treat each case individually. your case might be competely different and you may be wise to worry about the consequences of hair restoration, as should any indiviudual in his younger years. if your loss already suggests a class 6 or 7 status, you must be more careful. it is a completely different situation to treat a current class 6 or 7 than to treat a possible class 6 or 7. the current class 6 or 7 knows what to expect. the possible class 6 or 7 does not necessarily have the foresight to predict his future. this can lead to unrealisitic expectations. if you can not meet your expectations, you are more likely to be unhappy. you must understand your future to have realistic expectations. each case must be individualized and each case must come to terms with their potential hair loss.

excellent question!