New user; 7-weeks post-procedure

[inspects]

I started finasteride exactly three months after my surgery, and minoxidil four months after. I've been on the finasteride for two months and the minoxidil for one, and no slowing in the shedding yet, I'm afraid.

Has to be related to shock loss Win..give it some time, you should get the hair back without any problems, but go see your doctor, I know I can walk into my doctors office anytime of the day, I might have to wait a few minutes but he will see me, free of course, if you have a good surgeon he should only want to help with your concern.

[win200]

Take a trip to your surgeons office, hopefully they can put it into perspective for you so your not so depressed-stressed and/or anxious.

Are you on Fin or Minox?

I don't remember now without reading though the posts, if your not, they stopped loss for me anyway....and I mean to a DEAD HALT...!

I'm new to this TP gig...but I would have to say, the Meds helped immensely.

I started finasteride exactly three months after my surgery, and minoxidil four months after. I've been on the finasteride for two months and the minoxidil for one, and no slowing in the shedding yet, I'm afraid.

[inspects]

Thanks, inspects. I'm not complaining about the grafts--I'm definitely seeing growth, and they've still growing in. I'm worried about all the loss of native hair. If too much of that goes, I'm going to have a very, very strange-looking hairline when all is said and done.

Take a trip to your surgeons office, hopefully they can put it into perspective for you so your not so depressed-stressed and/or anxious.

Are you on Fin or Minox?

I don't remember now without reading though the posts, if your not, they stopped loss for me anyway....and I mean to a DEAD HALT...!

I'm new to this TP gig...but I would have to say, the Meds helped immensely.

[win200]

Win,

Looking at your pictures close it looks to me like you have more small hairs sprouting in too...!

Thanks, inspects. I'm not complaining about the grafts--I'm definitely seeing growth, and they've still growing in. I'm worried about all the loss of native hair. If too much of that goes, I'm going to have a very, very strange-looking hairline when all is said and done.

[inspects]

Just took these. Looking at them, my heart sinks. My hairline has completely disintegrated since the procedure, and the entire hairline is a total mess. The surgery isn't integrating, and I'm losing heavily behind the grafts. If this continues, I'll have lots of space behind the new (too thin) hair.

Has anyone ever seen a result like this at 5 months before? I have a hard time thinking of this as anything other than a disaster, particularly when compared to my original, pre-op pics. Any thoughts are welcome.

Win,

Looking at your pictures close it looks to me like you have more small hairs sprouting in too...!

[inspects]

Hi Win,

Perhaps just shock loss...my hair is at exactly four months today, I can see new hairs still sprouting this past week in the temples. I think if you give it a couple more months it will only get better.

Mine was a mess compared to you, and I mean really a mess compared to what I've gained in such a short period, they said we really need to be patient, in a year everything will be grown, then I'll head back for another session, hopefully you won't need to.

[win200]

New Pictures

Just took these. Looking at them, my heart sinks. My hairline has completely disintegrated since the procedure, and the entire hairline is a total mess. The surgery isn't integrating, and I'm losing heavily behind the grafts. If this continues, I'll have lots of space behind the new (too thin) hair.

Has anyone ever seen a result like this at 5 months before? I have a hard time thinking of this as anything other than a disaster, particularly when compared to my original, pre-op pics. Any thoughts are welcome.

[inspects]

Thanks, Dale. I actually saw growth pretty early--there's about one inch of growth all throughout the front. I'm a little worried because the growth that's there is really thin--unacceptably thin. Hopefully it'll fill in more. And hopefully the Propecia/Rogaine will help out, although they certainly haven't stopped any shedding yet.

Win,

Did you lose all your transplanted hair before regrowth?

I noticed many hairs didn't shed and so did my doctor, when I asked about this he said some people don't shed all the transplanted hair, but they didn't grow either, they stayed dormant until the others sprouted, now I have hair in various stages of growth. The hairs which didn't shed in the first couple months might be shedding now when I see one in the sink every once in a while.

Possibly you have others which have not started to grow yet, hopefully that's the case, then you will have the thicker hair you wanted.

I too wish I would have known about this forum prior to my procedure, but after reading many threads and seeing my results I'm sure my procedure went as planned.

Next year I'll get 1,000 in the front and top, then I should be where I want to be.

The medication should be halting your loss soon...it all takes time and everyone is different, if your like me, I'm a little impatient, but I've learned to be patient after finding this forum and reading other experiences, similar to yours.

Be well my friend, it will only get better...!!

Dale

[win200]

Hi Win,

I just noticed your thread, I'm glad to read you finally received some answers to your questions from a different point of view.

I'm going on four months come the 16th of this month, my new hairs are in various stages of growth, most are 1/4 in long, some slightly longer, and I been noticing more popping up in the last week.

You should begin to see some real growth any day now. I started to have small like pimples on my head, then in a day or two out pop more hairs. I think it has to do with the depth of the follicle, although they used an instrument set at a certain depth, some follicles grew faster than others.

I have also noticed the front was the slowest to begin growth. Now I'm experiencing more small pimples at the front, so I guess more follicles are getting ready to sprout.

I started on the 1 mg Propecia right after my TP, my loss stopped within a week or two, I started using Minoxidil after about three weeks post op. I think you'll see great results with those two medications. They certainly helped me, and I mean they stopped loss completely from what I see towel drying my hair over a white sink. I see maybe one hair a week in the sink, to me that's as good as it gets.

I wish the best for your new hair, in a couple weeks you'll see it all coming together nicely, not worrying helps immensely too, I'm glad the doctor put things into perspective...!

Cheers,

Dale

Thanks, Dale. I actually saw growth pretty early--there's about one inch of growth all throughout the front. I'm a little worried because the growth that's there is really thin--unacceptably thin. Hopefully it'll fill in more. And hopefully the Propecia/Rogaine will help out, although they certainly haven't stopped any shedding yet.

[inspects]

Hi Win,

I just noticed your thread, I'm glad to read you finally received some answers to your questions from a different point of view.

I'm going on four months come the 16th of this month, my new hairs are in various stages of growth, most are 1/4 in long, some slightly longer, and I been noticing more popping up in the last week.

You should begin to see some real growth any day now. I started to have small like pimples on my head, then in a day or two out pop more hairs. I think it has to do with the depth of the follicle, although they used an instrument set at a certain depth, some follicles grew faster than others.

I have also noticed the front was the slowest to begin growth. Now I'm experiencing more small pimples at the front, so I guess more follicles are getting ready to sprout.

I started on the 1 mg Propecia right after my TP, my loss stopped within a week or two, I started using Minoxidil after about three weeks post op. I think you'll see great results with those two medications. They certainly helped me, and I mean they stopped loss completely from what I see towel drying my hair over a white sink. I see maybe one hair a week in the sink, to me that's as good as it gets.

I wish the best for your new hair, in a couple weeks you'll see it all coming together nicely, not worrying helps immensely too, I'm glad the doctor put things into perspective...!

Cheers,

Dale

[win200]

Just an update:

Appt. with Dr. Gabel was great--just an outstanding guy, and the type of personality that really resonates with me. He was methodical, precise, and gave me nearly two hours of his time. Without implying anything unduly negative about my doctor, I can see the IAHRS difference in action. I don't want to speak specifically about Dr. Gabels thoughts about my surgeon's work out of courtesy for his professional relationships, but he said he didn't observe anything to cause alarm. He was thankful I'd gone on Propecia, and highly encouraged me to get on Rogaine. He said that 4 months really is too early to really evaluate the surgery thoroughly and accurately, but he suspected that I may want the hairline thickened.

I liked his conservatism, first and foremost. I shared that both doctors I saw said I wasn't "programmed" for loss beyond a NWIII, and he was pretty upset that a doctor would share that view with a patient. He said there's simply no way to know, and that while certain patterns expressed at certain ages can be predictive, a doctor can't offer that evaluation with certainty. Consequently, he strongly advise me NOT to have my hairline transplanted any lower, because I'll need as many grafts as possible to cover the vertex and crown in case I lose it.

Anyway, he made me feel much, much better, and volunteered to do another appointment when I'm a year out from surgery and can see final results.

I'd recommend him without hesitation.

[rev3]

propecia sometimes initially causes thinning as well

so be aware of that

this all comes back

[hairG]

Shock loss sucks! The waiting sucks But I am sure you will recover from it!

I am 2.5 weeks into my HT & am also super anxious about it! But try and remember that anxiety could also lead to additional hair-loss & at least that is one aspect that is seemingly in our control! So good luck to you & do keep us posted!

[win200]

Found thinning all over the top

I'm not sure if anyone is following this thread, so I may be sending these out to no one, but I guess writing them down helps.

After my surgery I've focused solely on my hairline, where the grafts were placed. My forelock became fairly thin after the surgery, and my surgeon has looked at it twice and assured me that it would recover. I hate looking at it, but the reassurances were enough to get me through.

However, I've still had heightened shedding of non-miniaturized hairs, which I assumed were coming from the front, like protracted shock loss. Today I carefully went through my top and crown area, and discovered--to my horror--that it's visibly thinned. If I part my hair, you can see back through the parted hair. You could never do that before. Both surgeons that examined me before the surgery said I had no thinning in my top/crown. So what is going on? Why am I losing NON-MINIATURIZED hair from these areas? There were no grafts placed there. Is this going to stop? I'm pretty close to panicking; I had 100% density in those areas with a nice thick head of hair, and it's starting to flatten with the thinness. I've got awful visions of going to a NW6-7 by the time I'm 12 months from surgery. I mean, if this continues...

Thankfully, Dr. Gable worked me in this week, so hopefully--fingers crossed--he can give me some answers. Because this is hard to take. If *anyone* has any thoughts about this, I'd really appreciate it.

[win200]

14 week update

My digital camera ran out of batteries, so no pictures today; they'll be up shortly, though.

My growth is pretty good, though I had a recent check-in with my surgeon and when I asked if most of the grafts had sprouted yet, he said "not by a long shot." Which is good news, because while I like what I'm seeing in terms of growth so far, it's not the density I'd hope for. But I'm not even at four months, so I know that most of the growth is yet to come.

What concerns me is that I'm still seeing more shedding than I'd like to, even now that we're outside of what's considered the shock loss window. I posted earlier that I'd lost some density in the forelock area. On two follow-up appointments, the doctor said that will recover. I know that we always notice these things more than others, but it's thin enough there that I've been wearing my hair down over my forehead every day to cover it (that also covers the messy area where growth is starting). When I shampoo/condition, I'm seeing a varying amount of shedding--some days 15 hairs, some days 40. And they're not all miniaturized hairs, which is sort of alarming. The problem is that before my procedure, I wasn't really paying that much attention to my shedding and density, so it's hard to compare. I'd sort of glance at my hands to see how much hair was there, but I'd never count and pull hairs out of the suds. And I never paid much attention to density on the top of my head, and I'm concerned that it's thinning out now. It seems just a tad thing when I pull my hair apart and look through it, but I never did that before the surgery so I don't know if I've lost anything. I'm just very, very concerned that the surgery touched off shedding throughout the top of my head that didn't exist before. I asked the surgeon about the shedding by email yesterday, and he said any heightened shedding should resolve "within the next few weeks." How would he know that--and what if it doesn't?

I also started Propecia one week ago at .25mg every other day. I really want to stabilize this shedding, because it's causing me lots of stress. I know the doldrums is a tough period and everyone goes through a rough time, but I just have this lingering worry about my shedding. And because my hair is pretty long on top, it's going to take the new growth longer to integrate. I'm just scared to cut my hair short for fear of revealing thinness at the top of the head.

I've been trying to get in to see Dr. Gabel, but his staff doesn't seem to have any clue when he's going to be in his Seattle office next, which is a little frustrating. They told me September, then October, now they just don't know.