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It appears FUE has become the treatment of choice among patients. My goal would be to receive as many intact grafts of “terminal” hair as I could get from a transplant. I may be off but it seems to me strip surgery comes closest to that goal. I’ve read up to 25% of grafts could be damaged at some point during FUE procedure. And considering the wide donor area I would think some grafts could from from an area more likely to thin than from where a strip is performed. I could be off here too, but I would think FUE would leave the donor area more thin looking than strip where it’s just one spot and the hair above would cover evenly.

If you have more than one strip surgery that means another long scar for each surgery?

There are some misconceptions in your question. FUE is not the treatment of choice. FUE is a great alternative to strip surgery since it does not leave a linear scar. FUE leaves thousands of 1mm circle dot scars. Patients who have FUE over strip are the ones who want to keep their hair very short or don’t want the “idea” of a linear scar despite never being able to see it (as their hair will always cover the scar). Many patients after weighing in the pros and cons end up choosing strip surgery over FUE as they realize no-one will ever see the scar as they keep their hair relatively long (up to a 3 guard).

FUE has some disadvantages in that the harvest and growth rates do vary widely among patients as well as the doctor’s experience. FUE can also leave the donor area looking much thinner than the strip. Finally many patients do not realize you can have multiple strip surgeries over the same scar – effectively having just one scar overall.

Only part of my my hairs are white — the tip is black, the root is black, only 2-3mm of the hair near the tip is white. It’s odd. I assume it’s the part of the hair that was growing from the root around the time of the transplant. Does that make sense?

Yes, I believe your analysis is probable.

If you really had 6000 grafts, the doctor should have spread it throughout your head, not concentrate it in the front and sparsely place it behind throughout the remaining balding scalp, I don’t know what your doctor was thinking. To find out exactly what he did, ask your doctor for a copy of the surgical record and the count sheet as that will tell you what you actually got because I am having difficulty believing that there is 6000 grafts there.

(female)
Recently i have been losing more and more hair so i decided to look at cause. I saw one was after surgery from the anesthetic. I had my appendix out recently. Is it possible my hair loss is from the anesthetic? Your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

What you are asking may be possible, but I do not know if that’s what is really going on. Trying to find personalized medical answers for a diagnosis on the Internet is common and I don’t blame you, but the best help I can give you is to recommend that you see a doctor (face to face) and ask them for a medical diagnosis after they examine you in person and take a detailed medical history.

Some patients (as you’ve seen online) report some hair loss after a general anesthesia, but there can be many other medical reasons for hair loss in women.

Dr. Christine Shaver and other dermatologists are picking up diseases of the scalp in young balding men. These men present with itching, inflammation and hair loss. Upon biopsies taken by Dr Shaver, she identifies about one young male patient each week with a condition called Lichen Planopilaris or Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia, both autoimmune diseases of the scalp. In some men who eventually get a hair transplant, the hair transplant is likely to be rejected by the body. It may also reduce the growth or prevent growth in a hair transplant. If you have itching and inflammation, seek out a dermatologist and have two biopsies, one in the frontal where the inflammation and the itchiness is most prevalent and then a second biopsy from the Donor area in the back of the head. A biopsy read by an expert, will make the diagnosis and then special treatments are required. Catching it early is critical for everyone who has these diseases.

Hello Doc,
I have recently been diagnosed with low testosterone levels and my doctor recommended that I start testosterone replacement therapy. Is it possible that once my testosterone levels reach “normal” or average levels that I will experience hair loss?

This is something you need to discuss with your doctor and express your concern to him/her. If you carry the genes for genetic androgenic alopecia (AGA) then testosterone replacement therapy can potentially cause hair loss.