Was my donor area over-harvested? I'm 30 y/o male. (Photos)

Question

Hi, I had HT of 4200 follicles 45 days ago, I feel my donor area still not looking well and got some very thin sites especially at the boundaries of the donor area.. I have shaved my hair and it looked better, however, whenever the hair gets longer the donor area becomes very noticeable.. My photo is attached here (before shave- day 30) (after shave - day 45).. is that normal? How long it needs before it looks again as before?

Jae Pak, MD · Answer

4000 + FUE harvesting is a very high number of grafts for one surgery.  It may cause very noticeable thinning of the donor area especially if you don't have a high donor density.  You would have to wait a few months to see if the area recovers.  This is another example that FUE is not a scarless surgery.

Sanusi Umar, MD · Answer

If your donor area is looking thin and depleted, it was probably overharvested.Hair follicles are basically tiny organs. Once they are removed, they will not grow back on their own. At the Dr.U Hair Clinic in Los Angeles we specialize in body hair to head transplants using technology we developed for this purpose. For qualified patients, they can be relied upon to provide grafts to restore over harvested donor regions. Here is a patient example where the donor area was severely exhausted and required the use of body hair to recreate normal coverage in both the donor and recipient regions.

David Deutsch, MD · Answer

4200 grafts is a very large FUE session.If the appearance of your donor area does not change within the next 3-4 months than likely it was overharvested. If that is the case than your options are to keep your hair very short or have SMP done (scalp micropigmentation).

Munir Somji, BSc, MBBS · Answer

Hi there. Transplanting more than 2500 follicles in one session is never a good idea for a number of reasons. Despite the risks of permanent shock loss, disregard for future hair loss and managing your donor area; large procedures are still performed. In your pictures there are some areas that appear to be overharvested and you do have some shock loss a percentage of which maybe permanent.

Baubac Hayatdavoudi, MD · Answer

Below are critical questions that you need answers to before moving forward with an FUE clinic.  1) Is your Doctor the person doing the FUE harvesting or is a Physician Assistant or technician doing the harvesting? 2) How long has your surgeon been doing FUE and FUE harvesting?

William Rassman, MD (retired) · Answer

Yes, clearly your donor area is overharvessted because you can see through the long hair when you grow out your hair. The best treatment for this is scalp micropigmentation

Cory Torgerson, MD, PhD, FRCSC - Account Suspended · Answer

4200 Grafts is what we call a megasession and is not recommended. 2500 grafts is about the maximum that you would want to harvest in a single session. This will keep a high success rate as well as lower the chances of over harvesting. It is really hard to tell just from the pictures whether the area was over harvested though. I would recommend a follow up with your doctor and a possible PRP treatment to stimulate growth in this area. It will hopefully all return at around 3-4 months.

Was my donor area over-harvested? I'm 30 y/o male. (Photos)

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