I am scheduled for a HT at Peterson in BH soon. 500 grafts in crown area. Anyone have good/bad experience with Peterson they can share? Thanks.

What is the name of the clinic?

Where is BH?

If they don't use microscopes to dissect grafts, and only use Follicular Units (NO minigrafts) then don't go there, you can do much better than that.

Transplanting in the crown is typically considered a mistake to be avoided. I suppose there could be exceptions... You will use up a lot of donor hair that you might need for your frontal areas. Did you know that the crown normally has more density than the donor area? Geting grafts in the crown is usually the sign of a bad clinic. Good doctors know that most guys can't spare the grafts.

Hey Arfy,
Thanks for the reply. The place is Peterson Medical Institute, and BH = Beverly Hills. They use mini-/micro-grafts only (no Follicular Units)

My frontal area is fine (I mean it's good enough for me right now) and my crown is thinning (but not to the point of transparency!). So I wanted to have the thinning area of my crown worked on. From you experience, why do you think transplanting in the crown is typically considered a mistake? (I meant I am having this area worked on using the typical donor strip at the lower back part of my head.) It's my impression that many transplants are done to that area. Please let me know - you can email me at neardabeach10543@aol.com, or please give me your email. I respect your opinions!

Thanks!

Hi Golden
If I were you, I would use Propecia and try to maintain as much hair as possible. It doesn't sound like you are bald enough for a hair transplant yet (lucky you). That doesn't mean you won't find a whole bunch of clinics who will be excited about taking your money, whether it's in your best interest or not

But even if you do decide to get a HT, you should use Propecia anyway. You need to save as much "natural" hair as possible, to make your HT look okay. There is not enough donor hair to just "replace everything" if you ever become totally bald, so keep that in mind. Donor hair is limited and will not cover a totally bald head.

Clinics that use Minigrafts are doing outdated transplants, however they can make more money doing things the old way. They are prioritizing profits instead of the patients' ultimate results.

Read this website from top to bottom, which explains the differences in graft sizes, and why Minigrafts are cosmetically inferior to FU grafts. www.shapiromedical.com Again, I don't think you are ready for a HT in the first place, so don't think I am trying to get you to "switch doctors". You do need to learn about grafts if you want to get a good result, and not a hair transplant that needs to be hidden later by a hair piece or a hat.

As far as grafting into the crown, most good doctors will not "start" there. Read this carefully, keeping in mind you have a limited amount of donor hair, that will not cover a completely bald head...

quote:

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In general, crown coverage should not be a goal of the first session, but should be addressed after the cosmetically more important front and top have been adequately transplanted. Since the front and top of the scalp are a single cosmetic unit, the transplant may stop after this area has been treated. The patient can then evaluate for himself the adequacy of coverage from the first procedure, and if he desires more fullness or greater density, a second session can be used to supplement the area transplanted in the first. If crown coverage is attempted in the first session, the patient's options will be much more limited, and the ability to produce an aesthetically balanced transplant might be permanently eliminated. An exception would be patients of Norwood Class III Vertex and Class IV, who are generally over the age of 30, have less risk of becoming extensively bald, and have good donor density and scalp laxity. In these situations, transplanting the crown in the first session can provide modest coverage to the area and will serve to camouflage a limited amount of further crown balding. What should be avoided in these patients is the risky practice of repeatedly transplanting hair into the crown to achieve a high degree of density, as this density can often not be supported as the balding progresses (see section Goals for the Second Section ).

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http://www.newhair.com/medical_publications/Classification.html
That is quoted from the NHI website. If you read their website, it can get a little technical at times, but you will learn quite a bit about hair transplants. I recommend you read up before you decide to get one, because there is a chance that if you pick the wrong clinic, doing the wrong procedure, you can get screwed.

And by the way, both of the clinics I gave you links for, are recommended by this website. Peterson Medical, however, is not recommended. Minigrafts look pluggy, and I doubt you will find them acceptable. It sounds like you already have "modest coverage" in the crown area, so getting a transplant there will ultimately buy you nothing, especially anything you can't accomplish with Propecia. A transplant can even speed up hair loss in "at risk" areas, so you could end up with less crown hair than what you started with. ("Telogen Effluvium" aka "shock fallout"). Of course, Peterson Medical won't mind, because you'll need to return again and again.

[This message was edited by arfy on September 05, 2002 at 10:16 PM.]