Is a Full Hair Restoration Possible for a Norwood 7 Patient?

Like many people around the world, severe baldness is a very serious and depressing issue. Extreme hair loss can strike men of all ages, even as young as your twenties or early thirties. Patients with Norwood 7 level baldness, the most sever rating on the scale, often turn to many different methods to hide their problem… such as shaving your head or wearing hairpieces. Although these attempts can mask your problem, there is nothing like full hair restoration.

Norwood 7 Patient

The primary reason full head restoration has been such a difficult procedure to pull off in the past is because of lack of available donor areas and the tools to increase them. Once a patient has exhausted all his head and nape hair, and in some cases their beard and chest hair as well, they literally do not have enough grafts to complete the restoration process. Because of advancements in body hair transplant and the innovation of tools such as the Dr.UGraft Revolution… full head restoration is now a reality.

Over 4,000 grafts pulled from beard by Dr.UGraft.

The Dr.UGraft method and its advanced FUE technology allow for hair follicles to literally be taken from anywhere on the body. Once a patient’s typical donor areas are used up, the UGraft Rotor or Punch tool can successfully extract grafts from other body areas such as chest, legs and even pubic regions. Because of this breakthrough, the ability to extract 10,000, 20,000 or even 30,000 grafts is very possible.

Full hair restoration by the Dr.UGraft Revolution system.

The pictures shown here are from a recent case in which 12,000 grafts were used by Dr. Umar to complete a full head restoration of a Norwood 7 patient. This was accomplished over two separate procedures spanning about one year. The patient was given a new lease on life with his new full head of hair. From that point forward his life changed for the better.

See the full video results on this patient below:

Does FUE work on African Americans?

Does FUE work on African Americans? As an African American, you may find yourself feeling abandoned by the hair transplant industry. Many clinics avoid doing the non linear scar forming follicular unit extraction (FUE) type of hair transplant surgery on patients of African descent. Often, patients with African hair types are offered the linear-scar causing hair transplant called strip surgery. Often times, no explanation is given as to why that is so. Ironically, men of African descent favor shorter hair styles (or the shaved look), making them the one demographic in which FUE rather FUSS. They are the one demographic in which FUSS should never be done as the shorter hair cuts would become impossible to carry as the strip scar would be exposed.

Within this reading we will discuss the differences in African hair/skin and the different tools available for an FUE treatment.

This patient has been struggling to find a solution to his scarring hair loss.*

There are a few important aspects of African hair anatomy that differ from the structure of other ethnic backgrounds. This is primarily the thickness of the skin and the curvature of the hair follicle. Generally speaking, those of African descent have particularly thick skin, this adds to the difficulty of the extraction process because it takes a stronger force from the doctor and their tools. When it comes to the hair itself, most people of African descent have very tightly curled hair. This curl unfortunately continues below the scalp, in many cases having a very extreme curve in the hair follicle. When trying to extract the follicle it can be difficult for the basic FUE clinics to extract it following the curve without damaging or cutting the follicle in half.

Now that you know a bit about the differences in the hair type, let’s delve deeper into the tools available for hair transplants and a bit more about the FUE process. Currently there are two types of FUE tools available for African American hair transplants: The basic FUE Rotor (which is used in most FUE clinics), and the Dr. UPunch Curl FUE (Which I patented recently and use in all cases of difficult FUE in Afro-textured hair).

Round tipped rotary punches are a straight, mechanical tool that uses a spinning cutting motion to score the tissue around the follicle. This allows physicians to cut into the skin in a clean movement. The downside to this tool for curly hair is in the automatic motion and straight handle of the tool.

Because of the straight structure, it is extremely difficult to extract hairs at the angle necessary for success.

On the other hand, the Dr. UPunch Curl is a manual tool rather than an electric rotary and is designed at an angle in order to be more efficient at extracting from sharp angles. This FUE tool was created specifically for black African type curly hair and has shown great success. The Dr. UPunch Curl is revolutionary in that ANY amount of curliness can be extracted safely without breakage of the follicles.

The hooked shaped cutting angle of this tool allows for Dr. Umar to extract curly hair without damage to the follicles.

The photos below showcase one patient in particular who received an FUE hair transplant using the Dr. UPunch Curl tool.

As you can see, the Dr. UPunch Curl is manually use by Dr. Umar and is able to extract from very severe angles.

Does FUE work on African Americans? The results of the FUE hair transplant for this African American male are extremely successful.

See the full video results on this patient below:

I am 23, What Is The Best Age For A Hair Transplant?

I am 23, What Is The Best Age For A Hair Transplant?: I am a a 19 year old, and I already have a level 6 area of thinning. Since my father is a NW 6-7 I am sure I am heading there as well. I also know medications would not cut it for me, I would need a transplant. But I have read from various hair forums, about disastrous situations in guys who had their hair transplants too early. Many wished they had accepted their baldness and did nothing. I do not want to accept my baldness. What Is The Best Age For A Hair Transplant?

Why Age is a Consideration in Performing a Transplant?

A transplant by itself is not technically to be avoided strictly on age considerations. A young child with congenital hair loss that is not caused by an on going disease for instance can conceivably transplanted. Age is to be considered in patterned hair loss caused by genetics however. Incidentally it is the most common cause of hair loss and I expect that is what you have. In transplanting a young person, the main consideration is the unpredictable nature of how far and how fast the hair loss would progress. In this situation, a transplant which is permanent, stands the risk of becoming an isolated island of hair when the persons native hair recedes away from the transplanted hair. The potential for an unnatural hair pattern is created unless the person is agreeable and able to do more transplant sessions to close the space between the retreating native hair and the transplanted hair.

I am 23, What Is The Best Age For A Hair Transplant? : Things To Consider Before Taking The Plunge:

If the following factors are taken into account, it should be okay to proceed with a hair transplant even at an early age:

• The fact that at and early age, the hair loss sufferer has a hair line that is in a state of flux. Thus it is best practice to keep the hairline at a conservative level in the very young patient. This should hold until the extent of future hair loss is discernible. The hair line can always be brought forward at a later time. An FUE Shave Test should be done to screen for patients who are destined to become NW 7 hair loss level. I first described this method in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal to enable FUE doctors determine patients in whom the safe donor area extends to the nape and around-the-ear regions
• Best to avoid a strip surgery since this would create a scar that would limit severely the option to shave off the hair which is a better hair style for most  severely bald persons

What Is The Best Age For A Hair Transplant? Before and after example of a young Dru U patient who had it done properly. Using DrUGraft revolution, Dr U started applying beard hair in the transplants early in the process. A previous strip surgery scar was also repaired in the process

Am I too Young for a hair transplant? Before and after example of a young Dru U patient who had it done properly. Using DrUGraft revolution, Dr U started applying beard hair in the transplants early in the process. A previous strip surgery scar was also repaired in the process

• If severe baldness is already evident, body hair transplantation should be adopted early in the process for a good blend. The patient should seek a clinic that specializes in advanced FUE using tools like the DrUGraft revolution. I have used this tool system to successfully and consistently deliver body hair transplant results for over a decade.
• The young patient must be made aware of the financial burden he or she must shoulder from needing more hair transplants in the future to match the hairlines that would recede away from transplanted hairs over time. Hair transplants are expensive, and should not be undertaken the first time if the finance aspect of the entire endeavor in the long term is not secured.

What Is The Best Age For A Hair Transplant?: VIDEO Showing Consequences of bad planning

There are consequences for not heeding the advise given above. As you have mentioned, examples of regrets from young patients who had poorly planned hair transplants can be found in several hair forums and internet chat rooms. I have in over a decade of practicing Advanced FUE Hair transplant repairs that often involves the use of beard and body hair rescued many patients whose poor hair restoration surgery choices resulted in despair and disillusionment. I recently performed a hair transplant repair in a patient whose story is a poster child case scenario for mistakes to be avoided when it comes to hair restoration surgery in young patients.  Here is a self explanatory video of the patient in question:

Thankfully the story had a ending. I hope you have in my response a satisfactory answer to your question. I wish you luck in your quest for hair recovery.