Hi All,

First time poster, long time lurker considering a HT in the near future. Some background: I am 38 now had a procdure done using micros & minis about 10 years back. I have always worn my hair long pulled back so always had pretty decent cover up. Lately my minis right in the middle of the hair line are more and more obvious under bright lights. Dont know why now. Possibly because I have lost more hair naturally so the space between the grafts is larger. The tops of my head looks like like diffused thinning, cant be sure whether this is
recent or was always like this.

My first and foremost concern is to have these grafts removed or have the spaces in between filled in so they are not obvious anymore even upon closer inspection. I guess the grafts were placed kinda funny, pointing up , very unnatural.

I have so many questions and I hope you guys bear with me. From everything I have read here, the information has been extremely useful.

1) Is it possible to have these small spaces in between filled in or have the grafts removed and re-done ?

2) Like everyone else, I would love to keep my native hair. (During the last procedure the surgeon said I would lose it anyway so placed the grafts on the assumption that I would lose what was already there.) Can placement be done in such a manner that you dont lose any native hair in the process ?

3) If the native hair are lost as a result of shock loss, do they grow back and or what can prevent them from being lost in the first place ? I have heard propecia helps with this but is there any studies or any empirical evdience from other memebers that can back this up ?

I have so many more questions, but will start with this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Ogph,

Hello and welcome to the forum. From where you've been and what you're trying to achieve......I'll do my best at answering your Q's.

1) Yes, with the ultra-refined Follicular Unit Transplants that take place at present, there is the ability to "dense pack" grafts placing them as close as 55 per sq cm in order to give a dense appearance. A skilled surgeon should be able to fill in around the grafts in such a way that your old M&M's are undetectable (or nearly so).

2) First, are you doing anything for loss prevention.....Propecia or Minoxidil? If not, I'd highly recommend you get on Propecia ASAP to stave off any further loss and possibly help you avoid unnecessary loss due to shock during your next HT assuming you move forward. With the new technology available, yes, placement can be done in a manner so as to avoid transection of follicles during transplantation. However, if you have MPB susceptible hair that is in the final stage(s) of loss, you may lose a portion of it anyway. It's kind of hit and miss. If I were you, I'd go into the HT as if I was going to lose it and plan accordingly. Propecia is a DHT blocker and will help regenerate existing hair which should help you avoid some of the shock loss.

3) As I mentioned, the only thing that I know of that may help in this effort is Propecia. I cannot refer you to any study. However, since Propecia blocks DHT and regenerates MPB susceptible follicles I believe it is your best alternative. Kind of like "Native hair weight-lifting" to strengthen hair before HT .I had shock loss of native hair for my first HT (filled in around existing native hair) and I'm guessing 50% returned (I was not on Propecia at the time). For my 2nd HT, again I had some shock loss but this time some of it was HT hair.....which started growing back around month 2. It was easy to tell the difference as newly planted HT hair comes in thin and wispy, the shocked HT hair came back coarse and bristly plus I knew from the recipient area of the previous HT.

Hope this helps.

Thanks hairbank,

I am not currently on anything but I am thinking about getting on propecia.

I did rogaine after my first HT as I was told by the doctor that it promotes new growth. Used it for a few moinths. I am sure I had a lot of shock loss then. The guy was old, and didnt really put a lot of stock in the art involved. I didnt know any better - and here I am.


I live in Asia and will have to do all my research over the internet as when I finally do make it out to the surgeon in the US, I am afraid it will have to be for the procedure and not the consult due to financial restraints.

I guess I am looking to have the very front M&M's corrected or the areas around them filled in first. I cant imagine this taking more than for hundred grafts including giving me some more coverage on the top. The idea is to do it and get back to work without any obvious signs so I am thinking FUE from a patient, artisitc surgeon.

Currently with my hair combed back, you cant tell much about the thining only after I start to part is the thinning and other M&M's obvious.

Its a catch 22; if I comb back, I expose the M&M's in the hairline right in the front. If I part my hair slightly off to the side then the thining is exposed and under closer scrutiny so are the other M&M's.

I guess at this stage I dont even mind the 30-45/sq cm at least it will look like a naturally thinning head rather than what I have now.

By the way does propecia interfere with muscle growth ?

Any advice on what surgeon to select ??

Thanks again.

ogph,

The nice thing about the internet is that you can consult by emailing photos of your current look then talking by phone with potential Doc's. I'm not sure what your loss is or what type coverage your going for..........but, 400 grafts will get you very, very minimal coverage. Even for a fill in. I guess do some consulting and see what responses you get.

You may want to select your surgeon from the Coalition Surgeons recommended by this site. These surgeons are held to the highest of standards in the industry and offer the testimony of many posters here.

I've never heard anything about Propecia inhibiting muscle growth so I think you would be okay there. Use the find feature on this site for countless threads regarding Propecia.

ogph - Welcome to the forum! I was in a very similar situation as you. While my hair wasn't thinning all over, I felt that I couldn't naturally style my hair the way I wanted without exposing my M&M grafts. As a result, I consulted with a few doctors and chose Dr. Shapiro to get 1662 F.U.

M&M Weblog

Hi M&M,

Thanks for the info. I cant seem to open your weblog for some reason. Would be great to see some pics or share some info with you.

Did Dr. Shapiro do FUE ? Was he able to place the grafts in between your existing hair ? Did you wear your hair long. I have been wearingcmine in a pony tail for the longes time and some the horrid M&M's are right up front and hav erecently egin to show making this option not workable any more. I am now lookijng to cut it shorter an have soem of the hair drop on my forehead to cover the M&M's. If I lose anymore though, I am afraid it could pose a problem.

If you can, I would be real curious to hear bout your experience. How long has it been ?

quote:

Originally posted by ogph:
Hi M&M,

Thanks for the info. I cant seem to open your weblog for some reason. Would be great to see some pics or share some info with you.

Did Dr. Shapiro do FUE ? Was he able to place the grafts in between your existing hair ? Did you wear your hair long. I have been wearingcmine in a pony tail for the longes time and some the horrid M&M's are right up front and hav erecently egin to show making this option not workable any more. I am now lookijng to cut it shorter an have soem of the hair drop on my forehead to cover the M&M's. If I lose anymore though, I am afraid it could pose a problem.

If you can, I would be real curious to hear bout your experience. How long has it been ?

Sorry about that. I reversed the title / URL in the link for the weblog. It's been fixed now in the message above.

My HT with Dr. Ron Shapiro was all Micro-Follicular Unit (FU) transplantation vs. FUE (FU Extraction). There has been a lot of debate about FU vs. FUE, but basically here's my take on it:

- FU costs a lot less and has better results (less transection)
- FU results in high density from one procedure
- With the new donor closure techniques, I'm not at all worried about the 'scar' from FU
- FU is much less noticeable (discreet) than FUE - Have you seen the post-op FUE photos? That would be tough to hide the side and back of your head fully shaved with holes in it and a bright shade of red!

Back to your questions.

My hair is normally rather short. What you are describing doing (letting the bangs cover up the M&M grafts) is precisely what I did as well. Prior to the HT, I just didn't get my haircut for about 5 weeks, which was plenty. I was able to style it in a manner that left it unnoticed less than one week later.

It's now been one month so I'll post some additional photos soon.

I forgot to mention. You definitely don't want to consider the removal of the mini & micro grafts unless they are considerably too low on your forehead. It's amazing what can be done today by filling in the gaps and working around them to fully disguise them. I suggest you take a look at some of the 'repair' photos on this site.

Hi M&M,

Thanks for fixing that link. Great pics. I gotta be honest with you, your pre-op pics look great and at least in the pics the M&Ms dont look obvious, maybe thats in the pics. I ove the work Dr.Shapiro did on your hairline, so was it basically just the hairline ?? Did you have any shock loss ? Were you on propecia or anything else ?

My hair is a lot thinner than yours (Yours looks marvellous & thick); its all over the top, so for me I feel the I need little work in the hairline to take care of the M&M's and a lot mor on top to make it thicker so I can wear it shorter.

My M&M's are right in the front of my head in the hairline.

Thanks.

I think the pre-op photo doesn't show the thinning that was present in the hairline. The M&M's truly stood out unless I was very careful.

I agree with the work that was done - I was so impressed! You will be stunned at how quickly everything heals up in comparison to the old M&M style grafts. For me, it was 80% hairline and 20% just a bit behind it in the center to strengthen it.

I would recommend sending in some photos for an online consultation. It's worth it!

Thanks M&M,

Did you do any propecia befoere hand ? What were the results, what about shock loss, di d you experience any ?

I've been on Propecia for a few years now and it has definitely worked wonders on the crown area and mid-forehead, making it much thicker.

As for shockloss, it's too early to tell right now... but I'm hopeful that it's going to be minimal.