Still unhappy with 2nd ht experience. I went to see my doc to discuss. I was a 4 to 5 NW after my 1st ht. He showed me the attached diagram and said this is the basic pattern he followed in inputting grafts for my 2nd ht. He said this is a natural hair loss pattern to follow. Who the hell wants an island created by a hair doc? I can get that on my own. Am I off base here? Any docs or doc assistants out there care to offer their thoughts?

rdiagram.tif (59 KB, 150 downloads)

Are you saying he just stuck the demonstrated island of air in the middle of your head? WTH? Seriously?

Pretty much............he did do a little temple work, but not much.

How is that pattern natural?

Could you post any pre/post-op pictures?

2nd HT,

I'm sorry to hear you are dissatisfied with the HT process so far. I want to try to get more information from you in order to try to help you and the readers of this forum.

Firstly, do you have pictures of your pre-HT condition, approx 1 year results from your 1st HT, and aprox 1 year results from your 2nd HT? Can you post these for us or direct us to the thread where you have these posted?

I'm not sure what your doctor means by "this is a natural hair loss pattern to follow." If he is stating that the "island of hair" he created would leave you with a natural look even if you lost the rest of your native hair, obviously, that is not true.

Here is some general information that I think MIGHT apply to your case, so I hope it helps.

A lot of where a doctor will place hair is dependent upon where you've lost hair. Any ethical doctor and clinic would have advised you to get on finasteride to try to prevent future loss but would have warned you that you MIGHT lose more native hair.

If the HT doctor put an "island of hair" on your head, perhaps that is where you have lost the hair, and he was filling in the area.

There has been some discussion on this forum some time ago about a "stand-alone" HT. It was the general consensus that though this is possible for some hairloss types, this is not necessarily possible. I would say the only definites for a stand-alone HT are diffuse thinners who get megasessions, so even if they lose the rest of their native hair, they will be left with a thinner, but still very natural looking head of hair.

Let's say a 30 year old man has a receeded hairline and has been on finasteride for a year but the medication is only "sort-of" working for him. He decides (with an ethical doc) to lower the hairline slightly (but still conservatively) because they are both concerned about future loss and he gets the work done. 1 year later he looks great. 2 years later, however, he loses more native hair behind the transplanted work and now he is left with a ridge of hair in the hairline.

So in summation: your case is definitely possible. But your HT doctor should have explained that:

1. future native hair loss is possible and that you might need to come back for future work

2. That you should get on finasteride to try to prevent future loss.

I hope this helps.

Falc

I will send some pics once I get them re sized. I am leaving for vacation today so it won't be until next week.

He could have been diagramming the "frontal core" just to inform you of where he would concentrate his highest densities.

Typically one should be "thin to thick" with see through hair into a gradual non see through look.

So, 25-30 fu's in the hairline working towards a density of 45-55 in the frontal core would be a great start for a nice size session and set the stage for #2 to boost the density and coverage where YOU want it.

I guess it boils down to session size, level of baldness and philosophy of the Doc.

Of course, this is all conjecture until we get some hard data.

Have a great vacation!
J

It looks more like a MR T hairstyle and not natural at all