Today I hurt my head in the area where I am going to have the operation (hair transplant next week). Is this dangerous or is it no problem? Will I have to wait for the wound to heal first or is it ok to operate since the surgeon is going to create scabs anyway?
It all depends on how big the cut, exactly where the cut is, how deep the cut is, how clean the cut is, etc, etc. Your surgeon needs to make that assessment.
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Snippet from the article:
THE HIGH Court has awarded €70,000 damages to a sales and marketing manager over a botched hair transplant which left him disfigured.
Mr Justice John Quirke made the award to Niall Clancy (32), Scholarstown Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin, over the procedure which was carried out in the UK on January 12th, 2004.
The award included €30,000 general damages plus €40,000 for medical expenses to repair the damage.
Mr Justice Quirke also said Dr Maurice Collins, the surgeon who treated Mr Clancy after the transplant, had given him “very poor advice” not to have reconstructive surgery until after the court case was completed.
Read the full article at Irish Times – Man wins €70,000 damages over botched hair transplant
The online currency converter tells me that’s over $99,000 (USD)! I’ve not seen the botched work, but when the doctor told the patient to not have the repair work done until after the case was settled (which took years), it just added to the money the patient was awarded in damages. It is unfortunate that the transplant was so disfiguring, but without seeing photos I’ll have to rely on this article and the court’s decision for my source of case information.
Always remember to do your research on the clinic and physician before getting yourself into a permanent procedure like this. Perhaps this disfiguring hair transplant could’ve been avoided. See:
In the norwood scale, I beleive that I am a 2. Frontal hair line receding. I’ve done some research about hair loss, and It’s said that there’s nothing I can do to bring back my hair. Now, I can still see some thin short hairs on my hairline where its receding I was told that If I take an “ext therapy” (ext is based on shampoo,conditioners with midoxil and midoxidil pills)I will see some results. since the hairs are thin and not dead, they say that I will get results.If I can just make these little hairs thicker, I will be ok.I just dont know who to believe. And I would hate to spend $3k. Can anything make my hairline thicker? I am currently taking propecia for 3 months. I am 27yrs with history of hairloss in family. I am also considering an fue transplant, since I keep my hair really short, it’s said that that is my best option, since I am in a scale of 2, I dont really want surgery.
Without seeing you right up close and mapping out your hair for miniaturization, I really can not render an opinion. I have seem many men who are afraid of their family balding pattern, fearful that it may hit them. Some, obsess over it and want to jump into the hair transplant process way too early for me. Why are you so motivated to fill the doctor’s wallet? I make my living doing hair transplants, so I don’t make money when I turn down a patient for surgery, and yet I turn down people for surgery all of the time because it is moral to do so. Any hair transplant surgery in a typical Norwood Class 2 patient is not only unethical from the doctors perspective, but also bad for the patient both short and long term. Starting a hair transplant guarantees a long term plan with more transplants if and when the balding occurs.
What is your total hair donor supply? That is a critical question for anyone undergoing a hair transplant so that a reasonable Master Plan can be created to keep the patient looking normal for their entire life. Having some degree of balding is normal, but becoming a freak because you may have jumped the gun and used up your donor hair (especially if the donor supply is low) is the wrong thing for young men.
I would suggest that you find an ethical, competent doctor who will treat you like you were one of his sons. I am glad that you ended the post with “I don’t really want surgery,” but many doctors who chase your money will try to talk you out of that position and scare the hell out of you with visions of balding that may not even be in your future. Just be careful.
Snippet from the article:
A South Florida man claims he was refused a hair transplant because he is HIV positive, and now he’s suing the doctor who denied him the new do for discrimination.
Diego Del Rio went to the Age Defying Surgical Center in Fort Lauderdale to approve his appearance, but Dr. Brett Bolton turned him down once he learned of Del Rio’s condition.
“Their medical staff told me ‘We will not do the procedure because you are HIV positive.’ I told them, ‘This is discrimination,’ and they stated ‘No it’s not,’” Del Rio said.
Read the full article — Man With HIV Denied Hair Transplant
Yes, it’s discrimination and in violation of a state law. I’m not familiar with the doctor or the clinic, but based on what I’ve read about this in various articles, it doesn’t sound good for them. I’ve said it before, but a healthy person who is HIV positive may be as good a hair transplant candidate as an HIV negative person. Here are some past related posts I’ve written:
This is in response to Unethical Graft Counting — Avoid the Scam!
That’s scary! I have a related question – do you think these Doctors “waste” grafts or do they cut thin strip containing less number of grafts to begin with? i.e., cut 3000 grafts from “donor” area and put only 1000 grafts on balding areas to save labor cost? or, Do they cut a strip with ~1000 grafts and put 1000 on head.
If it’s the later, at least the patients will have the grafts for a later surgery. If the later, the doctors are worse than Bernie Madoff!
Having been through 3 surgeries, one good way to approximately estimate how many grafts were implanted was to count (a) number of hours and (b) number of technicians putting those grafts on your head. For 1640 grafts HT — it took 2 techs@NHI about 5 hours (excl lunch break); for 1850 grafts HT — it took 3 techs about 6 hours; for 1400 grafts HT — it was about 4 hours for 2 techs. I don’t know if these are somewhat standard.
The question is really whether or not you always get what comes out of the head. Most hair transplant doctors will be close to the graft estimate when cutting the strip, but what if the doctor got more grafts than you paid for? Does he/she throw the extras in the garbage? This is a matter of ethics and you must know that your doctor cares about your hair supply and does not waste it. Everyone has a finite amount of donor hair, and to throw those precious follicles away would be awful. If you have an ethical and honest doctor, the doctor will ALWAYS do things in your interest, even if it means giving you more than you paid for. But if he scams patients as a way to make his living, a skunk should be known by his smell.
As for speed of your procedure — all technicians are not created equal. Some are efficient and fast, while others are just the opposite.
If I get a hair transplant do I need to take propecia to keep that transplanted hair from falling out or it will it be permanent?
The transplanted hair should be permanent if it is taken from the permanent zone (called the donor area)… and as long as you don’t have any underlying disease that causes hair loss in that area, such as alopecia areata. Propecia (finasteride) should be used by men to halt further loss in the non-transplanted area and to prevent shock loss from the surgery. But otherwise, the transplanted hair doesn’t need Propecia to stay in there.
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Hello. I recently visited a very well known transplant surgeon. He’s all over the internet and on many of the blogs etc. I think you may have referred to his practice in some of your recent postings. The photos and testimonials on his website are almost too good to be true, I mean the results are consistently the best I have seen anywhere internet. I am a forty year old white male, with receding hairline at the temples, I’m currently a NW3. I’m mainly just concerned with filling in the temples.
Here’s the issue. This doctor recommended 2500 FUE’s to fill in the hairline, this sounds a bit high to me, but he assured me that I wouldn’t be happy with any fewer. Is it wise in your opinion to do 2500 in the frontal zone based on what I’ve stated, I’m surely bound to keep loosing hair. And, can this doctor’s results be REAL? Even if he was cherry picking his best patients, he has probably 75 patients on his website, most with unbelievable results. I’m wondering if it’s marketing hype or is it real? Maybe he’s only doing very young patients with results that look great today, but not in the future? In addition, since this clinic only offers the FUE procedure, it is extremely expensive and would require a loan for me to complete the transplant. Thanks for your time.
Getting a second opinion is a reasonable next step. Some doctors produce a terrific marketing image showing what patients they want you to see. We offer our Open House events every month where you can see patients up close, ask them about their surgery, and get comfortable with the physicians and staff. For example, in our Los Angeles open houses, we often have a dozen patients to show off, and many just show up to help educate our prospective patients. Maybe you should listen to your instincts and get another opinion.
I can not comment on the 2500 graft recommendation with FUE (in one session? hmmmm) for a frontal hairline without at least seeing a photo of your hairline. Send me a good picture or three and point out the area where the surgeon said he would move the hair to. Reference this post when sending.
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Dear Dr,
I’m a man 38 years year old, writing from italy. I had an HT 2 years ago with about 2000 graft implanted FUT. I take 1 mg Propecia for 2 years.This is my problem:
I have very small pimples (less than 1mm) on each graft implanted there are very visible i.e. under the sun light.they don’t hurt me and seems like the hair is pulling up the skin. I don’t have any of them on non tranplanted hair… I searched on this site but almost all of the discussions I found are on bumps or normal pimples or pitting or scars. the most valid explanation I found is that it is due to the graft that was implanted too deep in the scalp.If it is true, what can I do for improve the situation? Dermabrasion or laser? may I start trying some remedy for folliculitis or is completely useless?pls give me some good hope on what I can do,I’m really desperate. the doctor who make me the surgery (in Mumbay while I was in a long trip for job…)after the first telcon, don’t reply to my calls or mails…however I don’t trust him anymore! I contacted another Dr who said that the only solution maybe is to make another transplant to hide the thin pimples, but I leave this as the last solution and I won’t make another bad transplant. pls tell me if there is something I can do for making less visible these pimples.Thanks in advance. sorry for my bad english. Best Regards
If what you’re describing is a cobblestone appearance (and not actual pimples), then please see this post. Without seeing you, it would be impossible for me to tell you what the problem is caused from.
Dermabrasion to the scalp causes visible scarring and only benefits the doctor’s pocket, not the patients who receive it. There are two types of lasers that can impact hair:
Neither offers much benefit to your situation. If you have bumps, some hair killed with the high powered lasers will just make what remains more visible and the laser itself can cause depigmentation (whitish areas) of the lasered skin. I would need to see you, but it is not an easy trip from Italy to my office in Los Angeles.
i had my second HT 25 days ago. my grafts are growing and i can see the hair. is this a good indicator of my surgery? i feel most grafts are growing. my question- does this growth indicate a successful surgery and if i lost my hair after a week or so, will it grow back after falling out depending on this growth i see now?
thank you
That is great news! Good for you. Hair growth occurs immediately in about 5% of patients. In some patients, some of it grows fast while other grafts grow slower over the 4-5 month time frame. I know when my patients grow immediately, they (and I) get excited. I only wish I knew how to make this happen more often, but it will always grow if the transplant was done correctly and if it does not grow, just be patient and it eventually will appear.
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You have a terrific website. But how do you have the time to maintain the site and actually focus on performing procedures? Given your efforts to market your business, does that take away from your practice? How many procedures do you personally perform a week? And how many blog posts do you write?
While I have not been successful in cloning hair, I have successfully cloned myself. One of me does surgery everyday, the other writes blogs. I myself travel the world with my beautiful girlfriend(s) to really keep me busy and happy. And when my city needs me, I’m fighting crime as a superhero in Los Angeles.
In all seriousness, I spend hours each day writing the blog (at home, between surgeries, weekends). I write the vast majority of the blog answers, but I also have Drs. Pak and Farjo helping me…. and all of the posts have my editorial oversight before publishing. Any given week could see me doing a surgery or two per day.
