Patrick_Joyce

Has anyone used FMLA or taken a leave of absence for hair transplants? At my job, we have to put in our time off requests nearly a year ahead of time and on top of that, getting approved for it depends on your seniority. Since I'm newer there's no guarantees I'd get the time off that I request and so it's hard to coordinate the time off I would need with the availability of the clinics. So I thought my best option would be FMLA. Has anyone ever done this? I mentioned this to one of the hair transplant surgeons and the weren't getting it. I said I would have to use sick time or FMLA to take the slots you have available, but I would need a a doctor's note for it to be approved and they just kept saying, "request a vacation" despite me saying it doesn't happen that easily at my job." Any advice?

Thank you for the reply! It's isolated posts I've seen on here and reddit. How do I talk with individual patients?

How do you go about choosing and making a final decision on which hair transplant surgeon to go to? I know obviously doing your research is very important and is most of the battle, but there's a lot of fantastic surgeons out there which can be seen just from the results and recommended list on this forum. So after you've done your research on all of these great surgeons and obtained the important/ relevant information that goes into planning a transplant how do you choose just one? I feel like maybe I might be going overboard and over-researching at this point to the point where it's hindering me (which I know sounds counterintuitive) because if you research enough, you are going to find isolated stories of bad cases or negative reviews on even the best transplant surgeons out there (ie, sometimes there are factors beyond the surgeons control with certain clients that impact the outcome). Long story short, everytime I do my due diligence, research and think I've made up my mind on a particular surgeon (skill, price, consultation feedback, before and after pictures) I end up coming across a negative review and then get this sinking feeling and cold feet and change my mind. For example at different points I thought I was set on Eugenix and Dr. Mwamba but then I saw a couple of cases of people who were unhappy because of lack of involvement with the doctor (at Eugenix) or gaps in the hairline or lack of artistry in blending body hair. Another time I was sure I wanted to go to Dr. Bicer but then I read her quality has declined in recent times. Most recently I thought I was set on Dr. Yaman in Turkey but then came across posts that his clinic has become a hair mill, he is too aggressive with density and has decimated peoples donors. For reference, I'm 35 years old and only need a small procedure on my crown (1000 grafts or less). The density in my crown has always been slightly less than the rest of my head (not sure when it happened but from pictures, it's looked the same way in my early 20's as it does now). I (knock on wood) have no hair loss or miniaturization anywhere else and extensive hair loss doesn't run in my family. I never took any medication for my hair until 6 months ago when I stated Minoxidil and finasteride after learning about it (so far it doesn't seem to have changed anything). The only work I've had on my hair so far were 1,500 fue grafts (over 3 smaller procedures) for a big surgical scar on my scalp from reconstructive surgery when I was younger. I went to a local no name clinic for that. He did a good job, the grafts grew and my donor is good but now that I know more about hair transplants, I would only go to a reputable place. So I am fortunate in that in my case, it's not like I am a high Norwood level and need extensive work done. I can't imagine the anguish you high Norwood folks went through trying to decide on a surgeon. Anyways, sorry this is so long. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

That's true, but what will your head look like down the road of you happen to develop more thinning along the sides and crown and now you have a gap between your donor and the hair transplanted on top?

I guess my thought it how does it know that area also won't miniaturize in the future?

@GoliGoliGoli here it is: https://dru.com/dr-us-shave-test-identifies-nape-hair-candidates-for-more-natural-looking-hairline-transplant-outcomes-in-los-angeles/?amp

I noticed that as well when I googled. I even came across how doctor Umar came up with something called the FUE shave test to determine if someone will develop retrograde alopecia; if not then he can expand the donor area to include the name of the neck.

Oh when you said strip I thought you were referring to FUT, I apologize. But yes within that strip of scalp considered "safe donor" the average person has about 6,000 grafts they can get right?

Well I meant through FUE not FUT.

Interesting, this is the first I knew of doctors doing this. Even with beard grafts involved, in the risk-averse situation, they would have only been able to do a hairline?

@GoliGoliGoli So the Dr's at Eugenix and Pittella go outside of the safe zone?

@A_4_Archan why would surgeons do that if those grafts will end up falling out? So major FUE procedures like Bandit90 and Zoomster, I'm not sure if you saw their stories and pictures of the donor after surgery but were a lot of their grafts taken from outside the safe zone?

@A_4_Archan Yes, because some pictures I've seen of post op with some doctors, the area seemed well outside of what other doctors consider the safe donor zone. And when I speak of the number of grafts obtained, I'm not referring to the quality of the donor itself and their hair density etc, I'm referring again to the size of the area where grafts were extracted from. For instance, I've seen some doctors go and extract grafts from higher up into the lateral humps and right up into the fringe of where the hairloss in their crown is because their hairloss pattern is a 6 and there is no miniaturization beyond those boundaries. But how do they know those lateral humps won't start to miniaturize in the future and progress to a Norwood 7?

I have some questions about the safe donor area. @Zoomster had mentioned a couple of things that made me start wondering. 1) What/where exactly are the boundaries of the "safe donor area?" It seems so many transplant surgeon's have different ideas of where the boundaries are (ie, some are more narrow, some go further into the temples, etc). 2) Many prominent surgeons like Feller, Shapiro and Rassman claim that FUE has a lower yield than FUT and cannot harvest as many grafts from the donor; they often site that for most people, a healthy donor can give a max of 5,000-6,000 grafts (in total, not at all once) before it becomes depleted. When you look at surgeons like those at Eugenix and Pittella however, they routinely obtain at or well above 6,000 FUE grafts on their client's. Even clients like @Bandit90 and @Zoomster that had compromised donors to begin with, those surgeons were still able to harvest at or well above 6,000 grafts while still having more left to spare in the donor. How are they doing that? Are they going outside of the safe donor area? 3) Some state that the safe donor area might be different for for each person and that the it might be larger for some than it is for others because for example they aren't a Norwood 7 pattern and therefore their crown or lateral humps doesn't dip as low; they determine this through close assessment and mapping for miniaturization. Well how do they know that an area that currently isn't miniaturized won't start to miniaturize in the future? Or that a Norwood 6 who perceivably has a larger donor area won't start to progress to a Norwood 7? If graft are taken from that expanded zone, they can be lost in the future, no?

I think it's more than likely shock loss and I think the redness on your scalp (since it's so recent) along with the big contrast between your scalp and hair color makes it seems worse than it probably is.

Would using minoxidil effect the survival rates of body hair grafts after transplant?

Oh I see, so his success rates with body hair are higher because of his specialized tools he uses? But then wait about Dr. Arvind who also stated that the survival rates of body hair shouldn't be any lower with proper techniques?

Wow! Thats a lot of grafts you have on your scalp lol.

Oh ok, because Dr. Umar said with appropriate extraction techniques, there's no reason for the survival and yield to be lower. But all of yours did survive?

@Gatsby and @Zoomster do either of you have any grafts left in your head donor?

He had 6,000 scalp hairs and several thousand beard hairs, only a small number of chest and pubic

There seems to be a lot of varying opinions on the success rate of body hair transplants. Across the board it seems to be agreed upon by surgeons that beard grafts have a high success and yield rate but in terms of body hair from elsewhere (chest, abdomen, pubic, etc) some of the most top not surgeons have wildly different views. Surgeons such as Umar, Wds and Arvind state that if handled properly and the correct extraction techniques are used there is no reason for chest or other body hair to have a low yield; the only reason for poor yield would basically be due to the surgeon himself. Just about all of their patients who have posted their transplant journey's and have had transplants with body hair grafts from the chest or elsewhere seem to all have had good results and be happy with it. Other top doctors on the other hand such as those from Eugenix, C*** and Basinga all seem to have the same mindset that chest or other body hair in general has poor yield regardless of the surgeon doing the procedure and how talented they are; the yield is just poor because of unknown circumstances. So which side is more accurate? Does the success of chest or other body hair transplants rest within the hands of the surgeon?

@Niko1 are the doctors at Eugenix typically able to get this many grafts from an already compromised donor area?

@Gatsby congratulations on your successful repair! What a great outcome! I've been following your thread and I am interested to know the breakdown from your second surgery (ie, how many grafts went into the hairline, how many into the crown, etc).