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Just had HT done, have questions!
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
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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.
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 Originally Posted by 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.
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?
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Doctor Representative
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.
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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?
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Doctor Representative
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?
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 Originally Posted by 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?
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
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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.
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 Originally Posted by 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.
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
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