Hi pgain. This has been discussed a few times on the forum before, so if you’ll forgive me I am going to quote my earlier post on it.
I have talked to a few guys who have done it, and their feedback has gone both ways - some very happy with it and others thought it wasn't worth it. One guy shaved the tp hairline off and just uses the system hairline now.
There are 4 possible downsides to it - (1) transplants are always low density compared with a full natural head of hair - it is not possible for surgeons to transplant hairs anything like as tightly as nature. With a system you can normally have the look of a full natural head of hair, but if the front inch is transplant then you have to go for a much lower density system behind to match, so you still look like you are balding or thinning; (2) once you get a transplanted hairline you are committed to keeping your hairline in that location. That can be a problem, because as you get older your hairloss may get more advanced, and often your side hair recedes and thins, which can make the hair system look unbalanced and fake. If you were wearing an ordinary system you could just adapt it - move the hairline back a bit and build more recession into the hairline, but if you have a transplanted hairline you can't do that; (3) with a transplanted hairline you have to get a good contour match between the back of the transplanted hairline area and the front of the system, and a consistently accurate placement of the system, otherwise you will get the system sitting on top of the tp hairs or a bald gap, both of which look peculiar; and (4) once you do the transplant you lose the option of taking the system off and going bald gracefully. Even when you are a 90-year-old granddad and past caring about your hair, you will still have that transplanted strip with the pitted skin underneath it at the front, and the scarring in your donor area at the back, so you are not going to look great without some kind of coverage.
So I can definitely see the attraction of a transplanted camouflage strip, but there are swings and roundabouts which you should be aware of, particularly point (2) above. A 50-year old guy with a 50-year-old's side hair but a 30-year-old's hairline is going to look a bit suspect, and I have occasionally seen that. As against the risks, you need to balance the fact that if you get a well-made lace piece and you apply it properly it is pretty much 100% invisible.
Some ideas for you to think about which I hope are useful.
Noah
