There is very little chance with todays techniques that there will be any significant non growth of newly transplanted hair in the hands of a qualified surgeon. The surgeon mentioned in the above post is well know and certainly qualified. A lot of guys on this forum are still under the impression that hair transplants are still like the transplants of ten to fifteen years ago which is simply not the case.

The problem is that I have had 5,000 plus transplants by a world renowned surgeon all placed into the frontal third of my scalp and while it looks natural I still am apprehensive about using my own hairline. The density is still fairly low and I'm not completely comfortable about how it would blend with a piece, I'd say the density in my transplanted area is around 40%. If I went for another procedure I could probably boost that density to 50% but I'm very leery of dropping another 10 grand and waiting a year for the results unless I'm 99% sure it will give me the density I'm comfortable with to place a piece behind.

I also think that using this technique would limit styling options, I would like to go for a brushed forward with the hairline spiked up. I think the most appropriate style for using a transplanted hairline with a piece behind would be brushed straight back or back and slightly to the side. Consequently this is how I have styled my hair for years and would like a change so this would defeat the purpose for me at least.

I keep going back and forth in my mind between using my existing hairline and just going for the full topper. I have seen really good hps in person and on this site that make me think the topper is the way to go. On the other hand, just when I think I have made up my mind I see pics on this site and others that just look so fake that I start to question my decision. I hope that doesn't offend anyone but this is just my opinion, I've seen really good and really bad examples.

As far as having a hairline like the one in the picture for the rest of your life goes.... I think it would be fine as long as the side hair stays in tact and adjustments to the density of the piece are made over the years. No matter how thick the density of the piece is the best your going to get with transplants is around 50% which would still allow you to reduce the piece density over time without a problem. What i mean is if you started with 50% density in the hairline with a higher density with the piece behind it could create a graduted hairline. Then with time the piece density could be ultimately be lowered to 50% to match with age.

Sorry for the long post... I just don't see many threads that directly address my situation.