Donor area looks horrible, over harvested?

[Wellhello123]

I had a HT about a month ago just to fill in my hairline,1500 FUE grafts. Now my donor area looks like a complete mess, considering my donor area was pretty thick I can't understand why its been overharvested, I don't think it's shock loss as its looked this thin about a week after it healed and I havent seen any hairs fall out whatsover, is there any treatment that would be effective in masking this? Thanks in advance

[JoeTillman]

I had a HT about a month ago just to fill in my hairline,1500 FUE grafts. Now my donor area looks like a complete mess, considering my donor area was pretty thick I can't understand why its been overharvested, I don't think it's shock loss as its looked this thin about a week after it healed and I havent seen any hairs fall out whatsover, is there any treatment that would be effective in masking this? Thanks in advance

Without seeing photos of the extraction zone immediately post-op it is impossible to comment on whether this is an overharvest or not. It could in fact be temporary shock from the procedure so you can't rule that out just because you don't see hairs falling out.

Do you have any photos showing the extraction area right after surgery?

[Sean]

It's only been a month. Hopefully, it returns in the next few months. Reality is, it may or may not return. I know quite a number of folks with similar issues. Lots of variables, also depends on how close the extractions were and how they were extracted (surgical protocol) etc. Ultimately, only time can tell. You are one month out, take photos monthly, and see how it looks by the end of the year. For now, there's not much you can do but to wait or grow your donor area hair out to see if you can mask it. You do mot want to apply anything until you ask the doctor if it's safe. Wish you best of luck.

[mattj]

It would be helpful to see the donor area after surgery to see how widely the extractions were spread. Of course it is possible to overharvest with 1500 grafts if they were all bunched together rather than spread out, but generally it shouldn't be a problem with a procedure of that size.

There could be some shockloss. It doesn't normally happen but there are always those cases that offer unexpected issues. Hopefully you'll see improvement and it's definitely too soon to be considering options to mask it.