What kind of harvesting approach would you recommend?
Also, how many grafts/follicles?
Cost for good quality?
I am 31 years old.
I have been using Rogaine foam for about 5 years (I only use it once a day).
Post-recovery, I would like to be able to style my hair short (pictured) or longer (about
1.5 inches) at times.
I would like my hair line fully restored and the top of my scalp (where thinner) not visible.
I have dense areas of hair on both sides of my occipital which I assume could make a good
donor area.
What kind of procedure(s) would you recommend and what is a reasonable cost estimate for
it?
Thank you for your question!
You're 31 years old and you submitted a photo with the top of your head.
And your description of your donor area and you want to naturally have more hair and you
defined the areas you want to fill.
So the question that you are asking have to do with transplantation.
I'm going to caution you about the issues about transplantation when you're as young
as you are.
You see, at 31, you have a relatively advanced stage of hair loss.
Understand, that transplantation is from a relatively limited area of donor.
So you have not think of the way you are now but you if you look at the most advanced male
pattern hair loss, you'll notice that there's a very narrow band of where the hairs can
be transplanted from.
In fact, from my perspective, there's a very disturbing trend with the current popularity
of a procedure called follicular unit extractions of FUEs where hairs are being extracted well
outside of the well established donor area that is known to be permanent.
And that is because, people are concerned about the undesirable scars related to strip
surgery.
Now ironically, it's called strip surgery even though prior to the strip, the grafts
were basically larger follicular unit extractions so it's kind of like there's a cycle of this
procedure but in the end, we have to be clear that there's a limited area of donor.
Now, the way you wear your hair so short also makes it a challenge because whether you do
a strip method or an FUE method, it is likely your scar will be visible.
So, I'll tell you how we approach someone like yourself in our practice.
We have been in a leadership position called Hair Regeneration.
What we have done is combine a material called platelet-rich plasma with a material called
extracellular matrix derived from pig's bladder originally intended for wound healing.
Now, why am I discussing this?
Well, think about where you are now at 31.
Now think about where it will go in 5 years or 10 years.
You don't have a never ending resource in your donor area.
Even if you decide to do follicular extractions once, if you do it again, those areas that
were quote limited scars are going to start to coalescence and you'll have a lot more.
So you may find yourself in a very difficult situation and we have patients that come from
all over the world who are exactly in that situation.
What would have been an alternative situation 10 years ago would have been taking a drug
called finasteride.
Unfortunately, in the most recent few years, a lot of younger males will not take finasteride.
They go into the internet and they see anything about sexual side-effects and there's no way
they're taking finasteride.
In addition, a lot of younger males who are losing hair tend to not respond as well as
men who are in their 40s who have like a crown thinning pattern.
So Hair Regeneration has been our solution for reversing the thinning hair.
when you look at the scalp and what we do is do a microscalp examination or microscopic
examination and what we are able to identify that although an area may look smooth or without
hair, there are a lot of miniaturized hairs.
Hair just doesn't disappear.
It goes through a process called miniaturization.
We've developed of a way of doing this injection treatment and right now we're doing it once.
We have 3-5 years of data to support the long-term benefit that once we do the injection, we
have appeared to have created a wound healing mechanism that restores this stem cell activity
necessary for hair growth.
So what we end up doing for most of our patients these days especially as young as yourself,
is we recommend first doing the Hair Regeneration treatment, restore as much as your thinning
hair, reduce or halt the progression of the hair loss and then if we want to improve the
areas that are too far gone from the advancement of the hair loss process, then we can do a
much more conservative strategic transplant.
This is a different approach from the traditional model for transplantation.
Someone like yourself would have been committed having to go back every few years until you
have run out of donor area to transplant the hairs.
And a lot of people particularly who want to wear your hair short, eventually because
they ran out of transplanted hair, they'll actually just shave their hair and now they
now have to deal with the marks left from transplantation.
I would advice really do your research before you move forward with the transplantation
and learn about Hair Regeneration and I think you'll have at least the information you need
to make a decision.
Unfortunately, hair transplants are sold very aggressively and a lot of people realize what
kind of commitment it is until it is too late.
So the best option for you is to learn more and more and meet with doctors and learn about
your options and what the future will be if you were to move forward with the transplantation
and be strategic how you do ultimately what you decide to do.
So I wish you the best of luck, I hope that was helpful and thank you for your question!