Just had HT done

[chasguy]

This is my first post. I am 30, and have had steady loss since early 20's. Wish I had gotten on propecia earlier, but I was too embarrassed and self conscience to actually go talk to a Dr about hair loss. Anyway... I met with a local Dr that does FUT & FUE. A search of his name on the site has turned up nothing. Ironic, since he does only HT and is pretty well booked. That concerns me a little, however whats done is done so we'll see the results. I'm now on fin for a few weeks (no side effects), and I had about 1000 grafts this past monday (Aug 23, 2010) and another 1200 I think, on Wed. All went to the hairline/front area. Dr said he didn't want to spend any grafts on the crown as my midscalp was in great shape and his opinion was that I wouldn't lose that, particularly on fin, and that he is looking to the fin to thicken the crown. He also felt that FUE was not the better option due to the better yield with FUT and greater survival of the grafts (lots of debate on this I see). He said he wanted to just really pack the hairline area.

The initial consult was good. I still have good growth in the hairline with some pulling back at the temples, and the hairline is not as dense or robust as the rest of my head. When waiting on the initial consult another patient came in for a post op followup at 6 months, and when I said this was my first visit he was uber-excited to show me all his pre-post photos, and really let me look closely at his scalp. I honestly couldn't tell there was work done, and he was pretty much bald up top before. I wish I had looked closer at the scar (he showed me but I didn't lift up the hair, or anything like that and it was probably half-inchish long and blonde. He had pretty short hair and I couldn't see either scar so I assume this Dr does good work.

So the procedure wasn't bad. I'm a week out, some aches in the donor area (FUT), a little tenderness in the recipient area. One thing I've noticed that seems different about my immediate post op is that I seem to have much much less scabbing and redness. I assume this is good. The Dr was also telling the techs "ones, ones, ones" the whole time so I assume he only wanted to do single hairs at a time? I know my graft vs hair count was very similar. Anyone wish to comment on this? So right now I'm trying to just get the existing hair to grow back out so I can look normal again while I wait for the transplants to do their thing. So far, I don't have near the recipient site redness of some of the postop pics I've seen, and my roommate/bacitracian applier said Monday's cut is not red at all. The Dr did all the recipient site incisions and did all the "more cosmetically relevant" grafts (a little over half the grafts both days) and techs did the rest. Friday's checkup was good and he said he could find no grafts dislodged or follicle bulbs rising out. I did almost crap myself after the first shower though, and the white puffy stuff that is on every graft I initially thought was all the grafts popping out.

I'll post some pics tomorrow morning

So questions: Any tricks to minimizing the scarring? Are all the graft hairs going to abruptly shed, and is this gonna happen before the existing hair grows back in? does the graft growth happen pretty abruptly at 3-6 months or is it a fairly gradual thing? Should I basically plan for FUE ontop of the scar? I'd like to keep my hair in the 1/2 inch to 3/8 inch long cut in the back. Going through so many posts on here of horror stories regarding scaring is got me highly concerned. I did ask about the sutures and he said there is both a deep suture and a surface suture, that they are running sutures (previous injury sutures have always been single knotted sutures for me). They come out on the 8th, which means 14days

Finally, Hi, and thanks for having me on the site

[Winston]

Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you had a very good hair transplant experience so far.
You're grafts should start to shed shortly and you can expect to start seeing growth in about 3 to 4 months. Some people see it sooner and some people see it later. Some people also see a lot a growth all at once and others see sporadic growth, but in the end the results will be the same.
Depending on how you heal you might be able to get away with cutting your hair that short without seeing the scar.
Good luck and keep us posted.

[chasguy]

Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you had a very good hair transplant experience so far.
You're grafts should start to shed shortly and you can expect to start seeing growth in about 3 to 4 months. Some people see it sooner and some people see it later. Some people also see a lot a growth all at once and others see sporadic growth, but in the end the results will be the same.
Depending on how you heal you might be able to get away with cutting your hair that short without seeing the scar.
Good luck and keep us posted.

Is there anything I can do now to minimize the scarring? Cream, etc?

Also, what is typical as far as hair growing that was already there... is the HT going to disrupt those existing follicles enough such that I'm probably going to be significantly MORE bald in the front for the next 3 months?

[mattj]

It's possible that you'll experience some shockloss of existing hair which normally comes back after a while. Unfortunately you have to be prepared for an 'ugly duckling' phase.

Not all doctors will have built an internet presence. There are a lot of them out there and not finding previous patients on forums like this doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't any good.

"Ones, ones, ones" is a sign that he used single hair grafts for the hairline which is good.

The odd thing is that you had two small strip surgeries spaced days apart. Surgeons would normally manage the whole procedure on one day. This doesn't mean you'll have a bad result, it's just unorthodox.

[chasguy]

He told me that bc all the work was in a very cosmetically significant area, he didn't want to be rushed. There is about a cm or two between the two incisions

With regards to donor area, I notice they are all over the place. Why? Does one area perform better scarwise than another?

[mattj]

Two scars for one modestly sized transplant is not exactly a good thing. I don't think I've even heard of that being done before. But it does show that the doctor was taking his time to get the grafts planted right so hopefully you'll get a good result, which is the main thing.

What do you mean about donor being all over the place? Are you talking about variation in where doctors choose to take the donor strip?

[chasguy]

Two scars for one modestly sized transplant is not exactly a good thing. I don't think I've even heard of that being done before. But it does show that the doctor was taking his time to get the grafts planted right so hopefully you'll get a good result, which is the main thing.

What do you mean about donor being all over the place? Are you talking about variation in where doctors choose to take the donor strip?

Yes, looking around online, donor sites seem to not follow any obvious selection criteria, or maybe not one I am aware of. Some at the base of the neck, some much higher, some towards the sides

[njs]

Hi
I am now 5 weeks out of my ht and still a little red and both my recip site and the doner area are sore to the touch. I thought that this would be gone by now but it is not. I am also experiencing an increase in shedding. I am not happy about this and it seemed to start about 10 days post op. I feel it may have slowed down in the last week or so. I am trying to skip a day here and there washing my hair. I hate seeing all the hair in the shower. I knew this could happen but you hope it doesn't. I am on proscar 1/4 pill daily and also just got a laser thing. My feeling is it can't hurt.
I am trying to be patient but 6 months to a year feels like a long time to wait. 5 more months to go. I definitely feel my hair is thinner than before my transplant, but again I guess I new this could happen.

Good luck, maybe your young age goes in your favor with regard to healing. I am almost 50.

[chasguy]

Hi
I am now 5 weeks out of my ht and still a little red and both my recip site and the doner area are sore to the touch. I thought that this would be gone by now but it is not. I am also experiencing an increase in shedding. I am not happy about this and it seemed to start about 10 days post op. I feel it may have slowed down in the last week or so. I am trying to skip a day here and there washing my hair. I hate seeing all the hair in the shower. I knew this could happen but you hope it doesn't. I am on proscar 1/4 pill daily and also just got a laser thing. My feeling is it can't hurt.
I am trying to be patient but 6 months to a year feels like a long time to wait. 5 more months to go. I definitely feel my hair is thinner than before my transplant, but again I guess I new this could happen.

Good luck, maybe your young age goes in your favor with regard to healing. I am almost 50.

I sure hope so and best of luck to you as well. I actually looked pretty ok preop and most people wouldn't think I was balding unless it was pointed out to them. Right now, I'm straight up bald in the front so I'm certainly far worse right this second than I was a week ago. I can almost cover it up just combing everything forward which is the way my hair has been styled for the past decade anyway.

My donor site is sore. My recipient site is not sore at all and wasn't really ever sore. I think it was only red the first day or so. The hair that was in that area is cut down to about the same length as the hair that was transplanted so hopefully one or the other will grow enough to let me save some face

[njs]

Chaseguy,

Those pics look pretty good. Especially the second one. You hide it well. I was never very good with the comb forward as I am thin on the crown, and always self conscience about that area. Most people do not know I was loosing my hair until I point it out, and then they seem to feel it is not too bad. Of course we are always more critical of our own issues and flaws.

I had my 2153 grafts done strip method on 8-29-10, so you are a week or so ahead of me. Are those pics recent or the day after surgery? I don't see redness although I am not sure a camera would pick it up on me either. I am a chiropractor and went back to seeing patients 3 days post op, and no one could tell or said anything. Even when I pointed it out they had difficulty seeing. I guess that is a good thing.

So do you see any growth at all yet? With me it is hard to tell because he only dropped my front a little .5 or .75 of an inch or so. Than he put the rest of the graphs in the area of thinning. This is why I think I am experiencing increased shedding on the top, due to the trauma to that area putting hairs in between the existing hairs.


Here is a pic of me from 2 years ago. This is the most recent pic I have as I am usually behind the camera. I am afraid to take one now as I don't want to compare, lol. My kids say I look the same. In fact I didn't tell my two daughters and they have yet to say anything. One is 11 the other is 17. I told my son, 15, but I don't think he has said anything to them. I don't want to ask as that would bring attention to the matter and than he could say something. I am not really hiding the matter from them but don't need the extra attention in that area so to speak.

[chasguy]

I hide it ok, but not enough to not have to explain where my hairline went to in the past week. lol There was lots of hair there but it was on the way out, pulling up hard at the temples, and really weak compared to the hair everywhere else. You could actually see a hard line where it was going to all disappear, which is where the Dr started the grafts. I work from home mostly, but had a meeting yesterday where I had to request we keep it business casual as I had an operation recently and due to part of my head being shaved and having stitches, I strongly preferred a hat. So far, none of the grafted hairs have ejected themselves. What about you?

Those pics were a day or two before I posted them, but it hasn't really changed in appearance since a day or so after the operation. Redness was really only a day or so. Virtually no scabbing, just the white crusty stuff. The scar in the back is of much greater concern to me than anything else. My roommate (who applies bacitracin for me) said the hair is all through the stitches and he thinks it will be invisible, but I'm always going to assume the worst and prepare to deal with that scenario. I generally scar very well elsewhere on the body so I hope the same applies here. I've never had any scars elsewhere stretch but this is my main concern. I'll probably take steps to treat the scar anyway... while I have no intention of shaving my head, it'd be nice to have that option available to me, and of course when my hair is wet it will be more noticeable aswell.

As far as scar treatments... anyone heard of silicone sheeting? I've read some very very positive reviews. Seems if they can bring the scaring closer to surrounding tissue as all the reviews online of the various products claim, then a well done FUE job could probably allow me to #1 if I so felt like it. I have a pretty gnarly scar on my hand that I'm going to experiment on. I'll report if there is something worth reporting

[njs]

I did nothing for the scar.

I think I have lost 80% of my transplanted hairs, but that is only my guess. I look at the front and see hardly any hair, so I hope he put more in there, but it is hard for me to remember. I can still feel some short hairs but I don't think they are growing and will likely be ejected after the new ones start to push up.

I am in the southern NJ area and my surgery was done by Pistone in Marlton NJ.
How about you?

[chasguy]

I did nothing for the scar.

I think I have lost 80% of my transplanted hairs, but that is only my guess. I look at the front and see hardly any hair, so I hope he put more in there, but it is hard for me to remember. I can still feel some short hairs but I don't think they are growing and will likely be ejected after the new ones start to push up.

I am in the southern NJ area and my surgery was done by Pistone in Marlton NJ.
How about you?

I think I have lost one transplanted hair, literally. I wear a hat all the time (one of two roommates, and neighbors don't know, neither does the girl I'm sort of casually dating). My head right this second just feels like I shaved it at 1/4 inch long. I think I'm about halfway through with the crusties falling off. Maybe I'll be one of the super lucky few who don't shed it all? It would be nice to catch a break... life has been killing me on the luck front lately.

My Dr has no presence online. I'm hesitant to name a Dr that is not present to defend himself against any criticism so I'll not name him for the time being. I did look up his facebook and he's friends with a ton of the highly regarded Dr's represented on this forum though lol

[njs]

Are you in the States? That is fine not naming him. Though I have never heard of doing 2 procedures back to back.

So are you saying that 6 weeks post op the hairs have not fallen out? No collateral fall out from existing hairs? And do they appear to be growing? If your transplanted hair is 1/4 inch, is it growing, shouldn't it be longer after 6 weeks?

If that is the case I would say your luck has changed. I don't ever wear a hat. In fact I tried to, 3 days after the procedure when my son was the only one who had seen me, and the hat made him ask why I was wearing it. I took it off and l told him I had the ht. He couldn't tell. He thought I had a mild sunburn on my head.

[chasguy]

Are you in the States? That is fine not naming him. Though I have never heard of doing 2 procedures back to back.

So are you saying that 6 weeks post op the hairs have not fallen out? No collateral fall out from existing hairs? And do they appear to be growing? If your transplanted hair is 1/4 inch, is it growing, shouldn't it be longer after 6 weeks?

If that is the case I would say your luck has changed. I don't ever wear a hat. In fact I tried to, 3 days after the procedure when my son was the only one who had seen me, and the hat made him ask why I was wearing it. I took it off and l told him I had the ht. He couldn't tell. He thought I had a mild sunburn on my head.

I am in the States yes. My HT was on the 23rd and 25th of last month (August)... so I'm only at a little over one week. Didn't you say you're was on 8-29-10? Did you mean 7-29-10?

Good for me, I've religiously worn hats for years, so nothing is out of the ordinary for me.