HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

Sometimes patients are worried by uneven growth. As grafts begin to grow in, it is common for some areas to grow faster than others. For example, here is a patient that had 11,668 grafts transplanted to the crown, top, frontal third, and hairline. 2935 grafts were scalp hairs obtained by FIT, and 8733 grafts were body hairs. The follow up picture shows the yield at 3 months post-op. As you can see in the close-up picture, the areas in blue are growing quicker than the areas in green. At 3 months post-op, it is typical to see 30% growth. This could be 20% in some areas and 40% in others; 30% is an average. It can take 18 months to see full growth for transplanted scalp hairs.

We have seen a wide variance in the amount of time it takes to see full growth of body hair. Some patients have shown 100% bht growth at one year, and some patients continue to mature after 18 months. We did one study showing that anagen body hairs began growing quicker than telogen. At 6 months, 60% of the anagen hairs were growing, but only 25% of the telogens had sprouted. At 6 months, the average growth was at 40%.

Another study showed that certain regions grew at different rates. We placed upper back, lower back, chest, and abdomen in a bald crown. The upper back began growing first. There are many factors that contribute to the time it takes for transplanted hair to begin growing and how fast they will grow. If a patient is concerned about their yield, or just wants some feedback, it can be advantageous to send pictures to the doctor and/or schedule a consult.

That is good growth for only 3 months...i'm very excited for this patient.

WOW - 11,668 grafts - that's amazing and looking good for 3 months... were the scalp and body grafts placed together throughout (mixed) or were they specifically planted in different areas?

We had close to a 50-50 mix of body and scalp all over. There were more scalp than body for the hairline, and more body than scalp for the crown.

in this case the mixture was ranged from 2 to 1 body to scalp up to a 2.5 to 1 body to scalp as the numbers imply. the area was broken down into sq. cm and the each cm had about twice as much body hair as scalp hair. in the crown area we placed a higher percentage of body hair.

wow - that's a very well thought out and analytical HT. growth looks great for only 3 months too. does anyone know if this patient is using Hair Cycle products?

Yes. He was using the biotin spray. I'm not sure on the other products, so I will have to ask him next time I see him.

Girltech or Dr Cole,

This case interests me quite a bit. Do you know if this patient were to buzz his entire head to a # 1 or #2 that he would have a natural appearance? I ask this because I being a NW6 would probably need this type of procedure and number of grafts to restore my hair. I however, would want to maintain a #1 or 2 buzz while the grafts were maturing assuming the appearance of doing such would be completely natural looking.

Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick

Hi Nick!

"Do you know if this patient were to buzz his entire head to a # 1 or #2 that he would have a natural appearance? I ask this because I being a NW6 would probably need this type of procedure and number of grafts to restore my hair. I however, would want to maintain a #1 or 2 buzz while the grafts were maturing assuming the appearance of doing such would be completely natural looking."

Hair characteristics can very widely, so it is difficult to say what your hair would look like after a transplant when buzzed down. Pictures would help. Overall, I think it is a good idea to buzz your hair after transplant once the grafts have secured themselves, depending on your situation.

When dealing with advanced stages of hair loss, one of the main obstacles is that there is not enough donor in the scalp to provide good coverage over the NW 5 or 6 areas up top. It is helpful to tap into body hair in these cases. Scalp hair is typically superior to body hair in transplant because the results are more proven and predictable, it usually grows in faster, and it typically provides more coverage. Body hair can be used by transplanting it to the thinning or balding areas or it can be used to treat the donor area of the scalp so that more scalp hairs can be taken without affecting the density too much in that area. We typically suggest using scalp hair reserves for the frontal hair line, and then mixing the scalp in with the body hairs for the frontal third. The crown can be left for a later surgery date, or treated with mostly body hair. But, it is up to you. The goal here is to reverse the balding process. This usually takes more than one surgery. It is helpful when planning your surgery to prioritze the areas that are most important to you. Let me know if you have more questions. You can post questions here, start a new thread, or post questions in the links below. I will find them. We will keep you updated as this patient's hair grows in. Until then, here are some other cases that are similar:

One patient's plan to fight advanced hair loss and pictures of his first procedure:
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=964&highlight=body

Another patient's experience and pictures of first surgery:
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=959&highlight=body
and his post op healing, hair buzzed down:
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?p=3759#3759

Megasession results of first surgery one year post-op, and pictures of his second surgery:
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=594&highlight=body
his hair buzzed at 5 and 6 months post op:
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=761&highlight=italian
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=384&highlight=body

Girltech,

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply! I've seen many of your posts at the other site and I must say you are on top of your game. Dr. Cole is lucky to have you.

Nick

P.S. - I've been trying for quite awhile now to find the time to meet with Dr. Cole in his NYC location but haven't been able to do so yet. I'm hoping I can find the time soon for a visit.

I think Dr. Cole is coming to NYC again next month. Thanks for the compliments!