mtf hair transplant surgery

[Kristen8]

So a bit about me, I started my transition later in life (39 yrs old) and will be starting HRT in 2-3 months, I am not FT and will be starting a new job soon as a man, I will transition on the job. Several years ago my hairline started receding, I have the typical thinning swath from front back in the center, and the typical round balding spot on the crown, I am considering hair transplant surgery as I feel my typical male pattern balding is a dead give away to who I used to be. I want to get hair transplant surgery to lower my front hair line to appear more feminine and to fill in the balding areas. The Neograft procedure look very promising as they take only individual hair follicles instead of cutting a large piece of scalp to harvest the grafts. Have any of the older 'girls' had this procedure or the older method and how were the results. Where the results what you expected or were told by your doctor? How long before the grafts started to look natural? And would you do it again or would you recommend it to another girl? And what is the ballpark cost? Any information you can share would be helpful. Thank you in advance.

[Emily E]

I haven't started transition as yet but I'm somewhat older then you and I have had my hair transplanted just over 10 years ago.  My balding was just on the back crown of my head and was getting fairly bad when I went in for a transplant and had a small strip removed from the back of my head to harvest the individual hairs for implantation the whole procedure took about 6 hours from start to finish and the results were very good and after a couple months you couldn't tell I was ever balding.  Now I'm 10 years down the road and testosterone has reduced the volume of hair in that area again so I have been looking into getting it done again especially before I go on HRT.  The reason I want to do it before I go on HRT is that I will have time to start growing out a good length of hair in that area before I try/start to look feminine because as you said balding is sort of a dead giveaway, additionally the Hormones and blockers will cause the hairs to get thicker and possibly add some new growth (I'm not really banking on this happening but I have heard it happens).   

As far as the Neograft (FUE) goes that is what I am planning on doing as the results do look phenomenal and should look totally natural in a couple months I would expect only one issue that could pop up with what you describe as your balding and that is that you may have to go back a more then once to get the coverage you need apparently there is only so much hair they can extract at any one time.  I have heard that some places will use beard hair to add more hair to transplant but I haven't seen what the face looks like after the procedure and would really be hesitant to possibly scar my face so if the place your going offers that I would recommend asking to see after photos of the extraction sites before saying yes to that. 

I would do this again (as I have said I plan on doing it again) and I would recommend it to anyone who was planning to transition MTF because to me it's better than dealing with a wig every day.
The cost when I had it before was 3 dollars a graft and now that I've been looking around I see that it is anywhere from 3 – 20 dollars a graft so cost will depend on how much you need (likely a minimum of 1000-2000 grafts or more the doctor should tell you ballpark long before he/she starts).

Just a recommendation if you're planning on getting FFS especially brow/forehead advance I would concentrate on the back/middle of the head and not the front hairline until after you have completed the brow/forehead advance then add more hair transplants in front of the scar to fill in.

I hope this helps.