HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

Dr. Cole or others,
I am not going to get a transplant yet but I am gathering information so I can be informed in 2 or 3 years when I do get one. I am almost 23 and I started losing hair from my hairline about 2.5 years ago. I have been using propecia, 5% minox, and nizoral for about a month and will continue to use as long as it is effective or until something better comes out. (obviously no gains yet though) Hopefully my hairline will at least retain the hair I have now and maybe some thickening or even regrowth. Based on these pictures that aren't the best how many grafts do you think my hairline would need. I don't want to make a straight across hairline, just thicken up what I have. My hairline hasn't receeded, it has just thinned. I hope to get 80 g/cm^2 (that seems about what is normal on other transplants I have seen.) Of course I want to do fit so I have no scar. Please tell me any information that might help me out and I can answer any further questions.
Thanks,
curetheloss

Sorry forgot to upload the pics.

It is good you are on the three treatments you mentioned. It is probably better for you to delay surgery for a few more years. It will most likely be necessary to then construct a hairline that is high enought that a natural appearance is maintained should you eventually lose significant amounts of hair behind the transplant. 80 FU per cm2 is a bit of an arbitrary number though. Pack in 80 one-hair grafts and you have 80 hairs for coverage. Pack in 20 four-hair grafts (all FUs and not on the hairline of course)of the same hair and you have the same coverage. Also some guys are not candidates for dense graft packing. A significantly balding man with a donor density of 80 cannot pack 80 in the hairline without trading off coverage in other areas. For a good graft estimation you may consider doing a virtual consult or coming to a seminar.

Curetheloss, feel free to post any more concerns you may have.

I think that your hair is similar to mine , It's lite and thin and you are going to loose this frontal hairline...looks like your are going to be norwood 3A-3V in the near future, What is your family history BTW? hopefully the meds are going to work for you.
Your plan sounds good, you can definitely wait till age 25 and then do something about it...you will propebly need somewhere between 1200 - 1800 and if you want to get to 80cm2 you will need another session of 1000-1200 grafts. listen to FITLOck and to yourself and stay on the meds, if propecia will not produce good results you can also stimulate your hair growth by adding minoxidil or switch to Avodart after 1-1.5 years.
I will reccomend you to hear also a doctor's opinion, you will be more informative and he can help you to make a good plan for the future.
You can do that by submitting the form that FITLock mentioned in the previous post if you like, We will then follow with your case until or if you will decide to do something with your situation. Good Luck and keep posting

thanks forhair. I think i have seen you post on some other forums, ill have to check your situation out. i started minox a week or so before propecia so hopefully that will regrow or thicken a little. on my dads side (my uncles and grandfather) no one has hairloss, on my moms side its half and half but nothing starting earlier than 30 or so. i have seb derm and heard tricomin was good to help on that and other things. any comments on that? what would you say the density would need to be in my hairline so that i could brush my hair back and it look thick with no scalp showing? my hair loss has been constant and six months ago it wasnt a problem styling but now i can only cover up by brushing my hair forward. please feel free to share your experiences since you said we had alike problems.
thanks for the help

sorry forgot to thank fitlocks too. also what do you think would be a good density for my hairline. just want it mainly so i can spike it up or brush it back and hairloss not be noticable.
thanks for all you help

you need 50 to 60 FU per square cm during your first session and 20 to 30 more during you second session.

thanks for the replies, yes hopefully in a couple years of being on propecia my hairloss will be stabilized. 50-60 sounds like a good place to start but since my hair is thin and light I will probably end up going higher. since I have remaining hair around the area is there a chance shock loss will make a lot of resisting hair fall out. is that why they dont go after a high density the first time.
thanks
curetheloss

Shock loss will only occur in the areas that are grafted. Lighter passes will generally cause less shock than heavier ones.

since my hair is thin and light I will probably end up going higher

A good plan is in this case will be two session, first session will take you to 30-40 per cm2, and the second will take you to 80-120 per cm2.
That way tou can avoid shockloss and get a higher density then 1 pass.

you must be concerned with shock loss. for this reason, i would not recomend a high density in the first pass. of course this decision is somewhat up to you. i try to recomend and then let you help me make the decision what to do.

you have blonde hair so this will help with the illusion of coverage. i think that a general thickening with 600 to 800 grafts would be good. you might add 200 to 300 single hair grafts on the hairline too if you like. of course i could pack 1500 grafts in this area, but i think the risk of shock loss outweighs the benefits of the higher density. i prefer to take steps forward rather than take three forward and one back.

Dr. Cole,

Thank you for your opinion. This is pretty much the same opinion I currently have. I recently saw the 900 graft person and have to say that I think 900 grafts would be very beneficial in filling in my hairline. With those grafts would i have to buzz or shave my head, I was thinking if I didn't it would be very easy to cover up. I am getting ahead of myself because I have only been on my meds for 50 days so I have to make sure they help. Still 2 or so years away but thank you for the help so far and all the info on this and other websites.

For smaller graft counts it is possible to shave small patches of the donor area rather than the entire head. The patches can be concealled with surrounding hair post op. As you say, it is easy to cover up.

Well it has been almost 2 years since I posted this and I actually just sent in a virtual consultation because I am looking to add some density to my hairline since propecia, minox, nizoral and some other minor products have really slowed down my hair loss and maintained it very well. I figured I would update this for informational purposes for others and myself. When I looked at the pics I posted on here I was actually suprised that it looks about the same now as it did then and I was suprised how uneducated I was on transplants. Body hair and hm have also come about which look like they could be of great use in the future. I will add some pics so everyone can see what I am talking about. Anyways feel free to comment or ask questions

Hopefully the pics are ok, had to resize them

I figured I would update this, I got a ht of just over 1300 grafts with Dr. Cole on 4/25/2008 and have just started thinking about getting a touch-up or another small procedure to thicken up the front a little more. Will post pics in the next few days.