Had two transplants, still not sure whats happening

Hi

I'm 25 years old, and have been suffering from MPB since I was 18, heading towards a Norwood 5. About two years ago I've had my first hair transplant, which was FUT 2300 grafts on the front and crown area which were the most affected parts. My vertex was still ok at that point. However, after the surgery I've had severe rashes on the recipient areas, not to mention shedding as a result of shock. The hair on top of my head started going worse at this point.

Thirteen months later, I wasn't sure of the results despite the doctor's insistence that everything was fine. I couldn't see any improvement on my crown though that might be because most native hairs died due to shock and only the transplanted ones remained. As for my hairline, there was only mild improvement. So I went to another doctor who then told me that he's seeing less than half of the number of grafts that were supposed to have been planted.

I decided to have another surgery by this doctor, this time it was FUE but with only 1,500 grafts to try and fix what appeared to be a botched session. Now it's been seven months since my second transplant, and while I could see some improvement, I am still not quite sure about it. There was significantly less shock loss this time and I had started taking propecia after the surgery, but the crown area still looks bad especially when wet.

Could there be something I'm doing wrong? Are there cases where HTs have very low growth rates? I'm concerned about getting a third and final one to fix my vertex area because there might be factors I'm unaware of that is affecting my results.

With your first procedure, you had a relatively small number of grafts considering that you have a Norwood 5 pattern forming. Are all of the photos showing you after your second procedure? It isn't clear what you're showing which makes it hard to judge.

I will say though that if you're 7 months after your FUE procedure then further growth can come. It's too early to judge the success of that surgery.

Thanks for your reply.

The pictures have labels as their filenames that appear only when moused over. Though the ones on the left are before my second surgery. The others are current, both dry and wet.

For a Norwood 5 what would be the suggested number of grafts to make a difference?

its really hard to give any suggestion because pictures are confusing . Please show the exact pics of before and after surgery and just show me the current situation.

Here are better pictures immediately before the second surgery and also the current appearance.

Looks good to me. You clearly benefited from the 2nd surgery. Not a bad result IMHO. Give it more time.

I'm glad you think so. Do the results resemble something 1,500 should look like? Half of them were supposed to be on the front while rest are on the crown. I'm especially worried about the crown part, since it was supposed to already have 1,000 or so grafts from the first surgery (which I suspect killed off a lot of native hairs there due to shock loss)

I think it looks about right for what you had done.