Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I'd like to get rid of the M hairline that I have so I tried rogaine for a while but it's not really working. Is there any information on here about hair transplants? Like the usual cost or if it can be done alongside your FFS? Thanks everyone :)

Generally recommended to perform hair transplants some time after FFS rather than before to avoid losing new grafts when they perform the coronal scalp incision for forehead work. Also, allows new grafts to be transplanted into the scar when the cut is in front of the hairline as opposed to behind. I waited about six months after FFS before having my transplants done. This was the minimum time interval I was recommended by one hair transplant surgeon. It's good to wait in order to allow the scalp incision time to heal - you really won't want to be performing any scalp loosening exercises (to increase donor area) much earlier. The exception is if the FFS surgeon can at least re-transplant the hairs that may be lost during scalp advancement when the incision is hidden behind the hairline (most cut in front of the hairline). I'm only aware that the Facial Team provide this at present.

Cost for hair transplants vary tremendously and like FFS I would pick your surgeon with great care based on careful research. There are plenty of sharks out there to avoid. And higher cost is no guarantee of good results. I eventually picked Dr Damkerng Pathomvanich in Thailand based on reviews. I got about 3200 grafts done at 90 Thai Baht per graft (equates to roughly $8750). The cost was done on a sliding scale with grafts becoming cheaper the more you have. This is not atypical and a lot of hair transplants sites list their costs upfront.

Hi!

One thing worth to mention too,is that hair loss must be stopped before or along with the transplants, otherwise, it is of no use....finasteride or androcur are the most efficient, but they have serious side effects...libido down in the cellar and depression....

3000 stabs : £6000 ($9000). Best money ever spent. I had to be quite clear and upfront with the surgeon obviously about what I wanted and why. It's no time to talk in riddles.

Quote from: pollypagan on March 20, 2015, 04:53:10 PM
3000 stabs : £6000 ($9000). Best money ever spent. I had to be quite clear and upfront with the surgeon obviously about what I wanted and why. It's no time to talk in riddles.

This is a very good price for FUE (?). Was it in Turkey by any chance? I'm really curious about hair transplants because I'm thinking of doing one this year. ;)

Hi, after 4 months my transplants are now starting to grow, so I'll add some comments here which I think are valid.

Facial team may recommend transplanting the strip of skin left over once they've performed forehead work via their coronal incision, but this needs to take into account the amount of male pattern baldness. If it's pronounced, perhaps the follicles in the strip might be too suceptible to DHT and therefore they won't recommend it.

Something which no transplant surgeon talks about is the donor site scar, and they should.  I had a FUSS transplant in Spain about 6 months after FFS - around 1,800 transplants, so around 5,000 hairs - €7,500. The front is going to look great in a few months, but the back is another story, so here's the bit where you need to be careful :  the stitching to close up the donor site is quite a business.  Surgeons offer a technique whereby hair eventually grows through the scar, but this makes a very strong assumption - that the scar holds together once stitches are removed.  If the tension in the scalp is very high, once stitches are removed the skin can stretch, and the resulting skin is both thin and devoid of hair.  That's what happened in my case.  A beautiful hairline in front and some hairless patches in the occipital region.  On speaking to my aesthetic doctor she told me it was actually fairly common but generally not explained by transplant surgeons.  To fix it one can get micro pigmentation, where they basically tattoo the skin in a colour similar to your hair.  Obviously it has an immediate benefit, but it pretty much obliges you to keep to a similar hair colour for ever.  The better solution is to ensure that the surgeon takes a small graft, or in some way ensures that post-surgery tension in the scalp is kept "low".  The crescent of skin taken from my scalp was 2cm high in the middle - that's a lot of skin to close afterwards, and a lot of tension to bear.

I have heard that Turkey is doing some spectacular things in terms of hair transplant, so it's worth investigating.  Don't expect it to be very cheap however, as Istanbul is almost as expensive as many European citites.

In terms of halting existing hair loss, both Androcur and Finasteride are good, but they appear to work slightly differently.  Finasteride appears to target DHT, which is considered to have a stronger effect on suceptible follicles than testosterone.  But both are toxic to the liver.  If you do take either of these you need to perform a couple of liver function tests duting the first 4-6 months and then it is prudent to take a liver function test every 6-12 months.  Since estrogen is already placing more burden on the liver, it's important to deal with this holistically.

I'm happy to answer any specifics on my hair transplant process.  Truly, FFS was easier, less complicated and healed faster, believe that if you can!

Hugs
Julia

Quote from: Charlotte2 on March 21, 2015, 09:59:09 AM
This is a very good price for FUE (?). Was it in Turkey by any chance? I'm really curious about hair transplants because I'm thinking of doing one this year. ;)

Not FUE. I initially went for consultation in Glasgow in Scotland but had to travel abroad to England (Manchester) for the procedure.

Quote from: Julia-Madrid on March 21, 2015, 10:50:56 AM
Hi, after 4 months my transplants are now starting to grow, so I'll add some comments here which I think are valid.

Hi Julia,
Have you noticed a difference between the newly transplanted hair and your old hair? I've heard some people say the new hair can be wirey/coarser/curly at least for the first few months.

Charlotte

Quote from: Charlotte2 on March 22, 2015, 11:20:58 AM
Hi Julia,
Have you noticed a difference between the newly transplanted hair and your old hair? I've heard some people say the new hair can be wirey/coarser/curly at least for the first few months.

Hi Charlotte

It's a little too short to note any changes, although some of it is very fine still, so hopefully as the follicles return to full functioning the hair will thicken a little.

Julia

I had 3500 units done with the FUE a little over 20 months ago. I had it done about 6 weeks after FFS. It certainly has out done my expectations after things have all settled. The first six months were hit and miss as there was no consistency to the hair. Also the donor site was growing out as well. The newly planted units came in and would grow about 1" long and curl almost like a pubic hair. There were a few times I was seconds from shaving it all off. If I have the chance I will go back and have another 1500 done to reinforce some of the thinner spots around the scar from brow bone sculpting. It took a little more than a year for the hairs to reinforce and get to the same thickness and stop curling. I'm particularly impressed with the placement of the new hair as I have a cowlick along my bangs and they placed the implants to grow in the same direction as those. So much of this procedure is in the care they take in placement and the number of follicles you have placed. So I would say surgeon is very important as well as number done.. Don't skimp here you will regret it.. I belive I paid about 8K for my 3500.. 

Quote from: SamiT on March 22, 2015, 04:15:57 PM
I had 3500 units done with the FUE a little over 20 months ago. I had it done about 6 weeks after FFS. It certainly has out done my expectations after things have all settled. The first six months were hit and miss as there was no consistency to the hair. Also the donor site was growing out as well. The newly planted units came in and would grow about 1" long and curl almost like a pubic hair. There were a few times I was seconds from shaving it all off. If I have the chance I will go back and have another 1500 done to reinforce some of the thinner spots around the scar from brow bone sculpting. It took a little more than a year for the hairs to reinforce and get to the same thickness and stop curling. I'm particularly impressed with the placement of the new hair as I have a cowlick along my bangs and they placed the implants to grow in the same direction as those. So much of this procedure is in the care they take in placement and the number of follicles you have placed. So I would say surgeon is very important as well as number done.. Don't skimp here you will regret it.. I belive I paid about 8K for my 3500..

Hi Sami,
Wow, 3500 is a mega session for FUE! Did they do a full shave of the donor region or was it only a partial shave? I'm going to do FUE but I'm not looking forward to having to do a partial shave - I've been transitioned for nearly 20 years!
Also did you have any issues with the hair growing back in the donor region?

Charlotte

Quote from: Pandora on March 18, 2015, 04:13:22 AM
I waited about six months after FFS before having my transplants done. This was the minimum time interval I was recommended by one hair transplant surgeon. It's good to wait in order to allow the scalp incision time to heal - you really won't want to be performing any scalp loosening exercises (to increase donor area) much earlier.

My apologies for this piece of misinformation. I should have mentioned this was a recommendation for FUT.
Based on SamiT's experience FUE can be done a lot earlier.

Charlotte

They shaved a section about 2 inches wide from ear to ear. Thankfully my hair was long enough to fall over that section. By this last hair cut I got about a week ago the donor site had grown back.. If I were to shave my head you MIGHT be able to tell there was extraction done but I doubt it..

NeoGraft was the agent and system that was used to do my procedure. Took about 10 hours.. Id say 5 hours of extraction 2 hours to sort and process and 3 hours to do the insertion.

Quote from: SamiT on March 22, 2015, 07:53:45 PM
Charlotte

They shaved a section about 2 inches wide from ear to ear. Thankfully my hair was long enough to fall over that section. By this last hair cut I got about a week ago the donor site had grown back.. If I were to shave my head you MIGHT be able to tell there was extraction done but I doubt it..

NeoGraft was the agent and system that was used to do my procedure. Took about 10 hours.. Id say 5 hours of extraction 2 hours to sort and process and 3 hours to do the insertion.

Hi Sami,
Thanks, that's really helpful to know! Who was your surgeon? Sounds like they did a good job. :)

I got the conventional slice taken from the back and given to team of nurses who separated the plants out while the surgeon stabbed my head 2800 times, then for 4 hours the nurses set about re-planting them. (God it's boring) Totally satisfied with results. The hair looks the same as the rest in texture, colour and direction. (Reminder; arranged in Glasgow Scotland ; procedure in Manchester England. £6000 : $9000).

I wonder, is it common to need hair transplant after forehead surgery on the scar from coronal incision? And in particular do dr Bart's patients need it?

Quote from: Pandora on March 18, 2015, 04:13:22 AM
Generally recommended to perform hair transplants some time after FFS rather than before to avoid losing new grafts when they perform the coronal scalp incision for forehead work. Also, allows new grafts to be transplanted into the scar when the cut is in front of the hairline as opposed to behind. I waited about six months after FFS before having my transplants done. This was the minimum time interval I was recommended by one hair transplant surgeon. It's good to wait in order to allow the scalp incision time to heal - you really won't want to be performing any scalp loosening exercises (to increase donor area) much earlier. The exception is if the FFS surgeon can at least re-transplant the hairs that may be lost during scalp advancement when the incision is hidden behind the hairline (most cut in front of the hairline). I'm only aware that the Facial Team provide this at present.

Cost for hair transplants vary tremendously and like FFS I would pick your surgeon with great care based on careful research. There are plenty of sharks out there to avoid. And higher cost is no guarantee of good results. I eventually picked Dr Damkerng Pathomvanich in Thailand based on reviews. I got about 3200 grafts done at 90 Thai Baht per graft (equates to roughly $8750). The cost was done on a sliding scale with grafts becoming cheaper the more you have. This is not atypical and a lot of hair transplants sites list their costs upfront.

I just made a consultation with doctor. Do you think I should still talk to him or just schedule FFS first?

Charlotte,

Dr. Rumor did my FFS. Fortunately the FUE was done BY NeoGraft. If it had been done by the surgeon I don't feel the results would have been as dramatic. I have had some issues that unfortunately the surgeon does not want to rectify nor would I have her do either.. The worst of them being a neroma on my forehead about 3/4" above my brow line. I know it comes from the removal and thinning of the muscles in the brow. Anyways items for another thread.