Over Harvesting with FUE

[Treeroots]

Helllo All,

I am looking for some help. I have just recently finished my second FUE HT. My first was 2900 Grafts(1 Year Ago), and the second was 2000. 2nd was to increase density....

Now the first one was all ok, and everything went according to plan. However, I have just finished the 2nd one, and I had limited donor, so getting the 2000 was very lucky.

I am now starting to panic though, as my donor area was shaved for the procedure, and there was follicles taken from the back and side. Now that the hair is starting to grow back in, I can notice the density is just not the same as just above my ear. It is sparse...I did try getting the parts jsust above my ear shaved in again to look similar. But as it grows again, you can see that the back and sides just does not have the density. Therefore, it may have been over harvested. Its been 3 weeks since. And I am now worried that it will never look right - also I still have the redness from the FUE procedure. I had to go back to work, and cannot wear a hat. And pepole where commenting on things like - What have you done to your hair, you can imagine the comments....

Very worried. I have been using Alo Vera for the redness, and just hoping that the back and sides will thicken out....Any thoughts

[drybone]

Welcome

The best thing for you to do is snap a couple of pictures with your phone and post them up here. Then we can see what your hair looks like.

How come they wont let you wear a hat to work? If you told them you had an operation they still wont?

[35YrsAfter]

Helllo All,

I am looking for some help. I have just recently finished my second FUE HT. My first was 2900 Grafts(1 Year Ago), and the second was 2000. 2nd was to increase density....

Now the first one was all ok, and everything went according to plan. However, I have just finished the 2nd one, and I had limited donor, so getting the 2000 was very lucky.

I am now starting to panic though, as my donor area was shaved for the procedure, and there was follicles taken from the back and side. Now that the hair is starting to grow back in, I can notice the density is just not the same as just above my ear. It is sparse...I did try getting the parts jsust above my ear shaved in again to look similar. But as it grows again, you can see that the back and sides just does not have the density. Therefore, it may have been over harvested. Its been 3 weeks since. And I am now worried that it will never look right - also I still have the redness from the FUE procedure. I had to go back to work, and cannot wear a hat. And pepole where commenting on things like - What have you done to your hair, you can imagine the comments....

Very worried. I have been using Alo Vera for the redness, and just hoping that the back and sides will thicken out....Any thoughts

I take the photos at Dr. Cole's office and nearly everyone looks thin in their donor, transplant or no transplant when a photo is taken of short hair. If the photo is taken with a phone camera + flash, things can look really bad.

Who was your doctor?

[Treeroots]

Thanks for the replies.

The issue, is that hair was only transplanted from the direct back, and parts of the side. And effectively the part directly above my ear was not touched. Initially when I had my donor region shaved it was down to a 0. And the part above my ear was just left alone.

Once the donor area started growing back in, I can just see it just is not as thick as the part above my ear. And I still have the redness in the donor region, and as it is not as thick as the part above my ear its very noticeable.

I went to a hair dresser, and asked her to do a grade 1 all round the back and sides including the part above my ear. That was 2 weeks ago. And when its all growing back in....Can still tell the part above the ear is a lot thicker, than the rest. Which is expected seeing as the rest was harvested. But I didnt think it would be this obvious. What choices do I have? Is this when we talk about pigmentation?

I have been avoiding work for weeks now, and I am going to have to go back soon.

Its been around 3 weeks and 4 days in total. And I am hoping that the donor area will grow, and I can try and at least level the part above my ear to look the same grade.

I am starting to get very worried now, that the donor area will never look right?

Also, as this is my second HT, How long would you think that the redness will take to disappear? The first time, it was only a couple of weeks

Maybe I am being over reacted, but I am really concerned....

[Treeroots]

Welcome

The best thing for you to do is snap a couple of pictures with your phone and post them up here. Then we can see what your hair looks like.

How come they wont let you wear a hat to work? If you told them you had an operation they still wont?

Unfortunately I work in an office environment, therefore hats would not be acceptable. Also, I am trying to do it without anyone noticing . I.e I wouldnt tell them I had an operation.

[35YrsAfter]

Unfortunately I work in an office environment, therefore hats would not be acceptable. Also, I am trying to do it without anyone noticing . I.e I wouldnt tell them I had an operation.

Can you tell us more about your surgery? Who was your doctor? What size punch was used. Was an extracellular matrix product administered.... PRP? How about pictures, can you post some?
Thanks

35YrsAfter also posts as CITNews and works at Dr. Cole's office
Cole Hair Transplant
Phone 678-566-1011

[topcat]

The simple solution at this point is to use a spray on concealer. I would suggest spraying it directly onto your scalp while your hair is wet and then combing out the strands to maintain the highlights. You could try something like Dermatch but that seems to be so hard to use on the back of one’s scalp as opposed to spray. I could post some pictures of the back of my own head which has very little hair but with concealer and the natural direction of the hair it can look very normal just let me know.

Maybe you just have some shock loss. But you did say you had limited donor so it is quite possible that you have already harvested 30+ % of the donor region which means you should have at least 30% less hair back there. Of course if the sides were not harvested the contrast can be noticeable. A possible solution is to harvest the sides and have thin hair all around.

Actually in my opinion and from my own experience it’s probably better to over harvest the sides as it gives a more natural appearance of going from thin to thicker towards the back but that just my own personal opinion.

The bottom line and all ht patients should be aware of this is that the hair has to come from somewhere so it becomes a trade off of having less hair in the donor regions and more up on top. How far a patient decides to push that is up to them but it really becomes a personal choice.

If you are extremely young and don’t know this of course it will not matter now and you can get away with doing anything…………………but there will be a price to pay and that price comes in time.

I hope it is just some shock loss for you and it works out and consider that concealer so that you can get back to work.