Shock loss

[Codeman]

Many Thanks

You are my Godsend DM. Thanks so much for the information. I actually have approximately that amount at my disposal. I live a good ways away from Georgia so I'm wondering if he could do an online consult and get adequate information to assess my situation. Did you drive over for a consult, then go back for the procedure. Also where did he take your donor hairs from? I may have a small ridge in one area of my scar but I doubt that changes whether or not he can help me. The Bosley "doctor" that did my surgery is a board certified plastic surgeon so I figured I didn't need to worry about him leaving me with a bad scar and that he would do his best to make the scar as minimal as possible. However, as rough and quickly as he sewed it up, I now know that he definitely could have put more care and effort into it. Oh well, what is done is done.

Codeman

[shockloss]

Same Shock loss

Codeman:

I can feel your pain and sorry you are going through this. My anxiety was like a roller-coaster for a long time. With that being said, there is hope. I actually quit taking propecia and haven't done so for about a year and half. My shedding slowed down significantly and I don't really notice much shedding anymore...even less than before I had the procedure. I think the shedding prior to the surgury was my hair pattern finishing out my "island patch" in the front.

That being said, I can share with you what I have went through. The back 2/3 of the top of my head still looks worse than before the surgery and I have come to grips with it. It was a long emotional journey and I still feel the emotional remnants of it and I just passed my 2 year anniversary of the procedure. My hair was too thin to wear any longer than a 5 guard without feeling self-conscious.

In May of 2009 I really started researching strip-scar revisions because I came to the conclusion I could not afford another surgery so my decision was to go shorter...ironically the reason I had the surgery in the first place because I didn't want to shave my head. The problem is, you can't shave your head with a huge scar covering the back of your head. The scar was concealed but I couldn't go lower than a 5 guard without it being noticeable. So I was stuck with overly thinning hair on top or risk everyone seeing the scar and knowing I had the surgery.

I am not sure if I can recommend surgeons on this site but I will mention who I went to. I researched and found Dr. Cole in Atlanta. I believe it is IHTI. From what I read I had to put faith because I had nowhere else to turn to resolve it. I went and had an FUE procedure which pulls individual grafts out without scarring. There is supposedly a little scar that is left but unless you shave your head completely you will not notice it. I had 200 grafts placed in the scar area...doesn't sound like much but it has made a huge difference.

I am now able to shave my head all over with a three guard and the scar is undetectable. With it down to a three, the thinning on top is not nearly as noticeable. If you can get strip scar surgery I really think it can buy you some time. It costed me $2,000 for the surgery but it was worth every penny, imo. It is not perfect, but I can go anywhere I want without people seeing the scar.

Another thing I discovered while I had the surgery was Toppek. You may want to look into this. The Toppek fibers work pretty well. I used it when my hair was longer when I was still nervous about shaving my head and it really gives pretty good coverage. It is a fiber that sticks to your hair. The one thing to keep in mind is that it usually doesn't match your hair perfectly. I have dark brown hair and if I over-applied it, it looked closer to black. Because of fighting with putting Toppek on everyday, I decided to shave it. I still use Toppek to fill in some thin spots with my 3 guard shave but I use a little spray nozzle which makes it very easy. I have been able to shave the top of my head as low as a 1 guard and my side and back I can go as low as a 2 guard but I have to use Dermatch to put on the scar area. Don't get too bogged down in the dermatch stuff, I was just experimenting with ways to see how low I could go.

All that said, I decided to put grafts into my scar and go shorter. If nothing else it has bought me time to if and when I would like another procedure. If I do decide it will be with FUE procedure, not Bosley. If I wouldn't have had the scar in the first place, at least I would be able to shave it and move on. I regret the decision to go and if I had it back I would've rather flushed the money down the toilet...that stinks to live with that kind of regret but I have to move forward. My regret is because I have the scar, not for the hair thinning. As I said before, the hair did stop falling out. I would have had an FUE...if only I had done a little more research prior to them putting the knife to the back of my head.

Hope this helped. Hang in there and stay strong. Alot of men have been through what you are going through and we have survived.

I wanted to add that the front portion that really needed the implant looks pretty good. It is not as thick as I would've liked but I can't complain about it. I actually have turf over my entire head and nobody knows or at least has looked at my funny or made a single comment about my hair looking different.

I have experienced massive shock loss from my recent HT in 11/2010. All my native hair in the HT area are now gone. What left on my head (front and temple) are now those pin-hole from so the HT. Can you please let me know if any of your shock loss hair came back and how long did it take? Is your HT grow at all? Thx

[Denver Mint]

Shockloss:

As far as I can tell the schock loss hair did not come back. As far as the HT hair, it will fall out but it should come back. Surpisingly I never really experienced my transplanted hair fall out all at once.

From my experience, it was true that it takes at least 6 months but closer to a year for the hair to finally achieve the result you are looking for. Try not to get too panicked about the transplanted hair until at least May. It seemed by about month 4 things started to dramatically fill in and by about 9 months I was pretty happy with the transplanted area.

[Denver Mint]

Codeman:

Dr. Cole's office actually encourages online consultation for those out of the area. I was going to do that but I was traveling through Atlanta so I went to the office and had a consultation. I will say this in case you decide to look into it further, the consultation staff seems a little quirky but Dr. Cole is very good...just in case you get scared away if you meet them for a consultation.

They took my 200 hairs from the back (non-donor region) and sides of my head. As far as the scar itself, I don't think that will be an issue because Dr. Cole was able to quickly assess what he needed to do to implant at the right place.

Again, if and when I decide to have another procedure with Dr. Cole, I will also have him put a second round of hair in my scar region. I think another 100 or so will "seal the deal" for my scar. I am hopeful that at some point I can shave my entire head to a 2 (I posted previously I can go as low as a 2 guard but I have to use Dermatch). Dermatch is actually cheap and goes a long way but it is messy and you will leave a dark spot on a pillow when sleeping through the night if you don't wash it off before you go to bed. The problem is that when you go too short, the lightened color of the scar does become exposed. He told me that I would probably need about 1500 grafts to repair the shock loss area on my head and fill in some areas where Bosley could have done better. If I remeber correctly, he charges $10/graft for non-shaven surgery and $8/graft if you shave your head...needless to say 1500 grafts is about double what I paid at Bosley for my initial procedure. If it were cheaper I would probably have done the repair surgery from the Bosley botch.

Considering all of the horror stories from HT and websites like this, it won't surprise me to see a TV special about Bosley procedures and future lawsuits.

[gillenator]

I just looked over my post and wanted to clarify if I had to it over again I would not have transplanted in the thicker hair. I indicated it wasn't for the thinning but obviously that is what concerned me.

That's why for most of us, it's better to wait it out and get as much benefit from effective hairloss meds so we maintain as much natural hair as we can for as long as we can.

[shockloss]

Thanks DM. too many bad Doc who do not care about anything but money. People are scared for life because of all the bastards. Never do HT with cheap price, better yet.. don't do it at all.

[Frankie Boy]

Shock Loss

My situation is different i just got my 4th Transplant and i noticed a week later alot of my previous grafts got shocked and im getting nervous but my doctor said it will grow back I thought Grafts could not be shocked
Im feeling very down about this

[shockloss]

Franky boy
no worries, lots of mine hairline grow back in about three months but still most hair in the temples are missing. I have been through hell and I gave up thinking about it. I used laser comb and ropain to speed up the growing. I think it helps. It's still a lot less than my preop but that is the price I pay. Hopefully it grows more in future. how bad you have? i had full head of hair and after HT I lost 90% of all area (3in from the hairline) where i got the transplant.

[Frankie Boy]

Shock loss

What worries me is that these are grafts that got shocked not my native hair again I was told that they would grow back but I'm still worried I was under the assumption transplant grafts can't be shocked but I as I know now they can. I look like I got a haircut and they cut too much on top. I wish a doctor on this forum can reassure me they should all grow back

[shockloss]

you should be worried about the native hair that got shocked and lost . Trust me the transplanted hairs will all grow back just like mine did unless the dr damaged the folicles by punch in them, which is not likely. By that, I guess it's also depended on how careful the Doc performed your HT too. Is this a well known or still in training Dr?

[Frankie Boy]

Shock Loss

Thanks for the input i went to a doctor who is not on this forum
My 3rd Transplant i went to a doctor on this forum and did not get good results ....There alot of good doctors out there who are not on Transplant Websites. I did not make the Doctor shave my head because i had to go to work the next week also there is less of a chance of Transection. I hope all my previous grafts grow back and my new grafts grown in good

[Condor]

Hey Frankie, I'm in the exact same situation. I opted for a fourth, and last, transplant two and a half weeks ago, to fill out my previous transplants, and a lot of my previous hair grafts fell out, which I thought were shockproof. Now I look much worse than before the last HT. Sure hope everything will grow as the doctor says...

[Frankie Boy]

Shock loss

It's been almost 2 months now and I see a slight improvment I hope all my previous grafts grow back and I also look worse than before

[gillenator]

Condor & Frankie & Condor,

Your shockloss should be temporary. This can happen even though some of the shock was previous transplanted hair.

[David s]

Shock loss

I had a transplant done by Dr E Epstein in Richmond Va.in mid Aug. 2011 I had2969 grafts.2 weeks later I lost almost all the hair I already had on the top of my head.shock loss is what they said.I am very freaked but was told it will come back,,,is there a chance it won't and when will I see the new hair?which should come back first,,,the hair from the shock loss or the transplanted hair?Now I really am bald before it was just thinning.