8 Months Post-Op Expectations?

[cphan]

I had my surger in early November. It's now beginning of July so I assume this is at 8 months post-op. There's been definitely some significant regrowth in the area that I was thinning the most. At 8 months post-op I'm look at a possible 65%-70% hair regrowth. Under normal lighting and dim lighting it looks pretty good. Even some of my co-workers who know I had a hair transplant think all the hair have grown back and can't tell the difference.

Unfortunately for someone like me who keeps an eye on it everyday, I can tell the difference and can see my hair under different lighting. Under very bright light or very bright light during the day, you can still see the hair being a bit see-through that it's not 100% fill in like with my hair at the sides. Basically you can tell the hair was or is thinning in the area that I had my hair done for a hair transplant. It looks a lot better than before the hair transplant but it doesn't look like the way it should with hair all fill in at 100% so that you can't tell even under bright light.

My question is this, at 8 months post-op, can I still expect new hair to continue to grow to fill in 100%? Or at this point whatever that have grown back so far is it and it's just a matter of those hair that have grown back to grow even thicker? Because right now I can't seem to see any new hair regrowth at all unlike 4 months ago.

[VictimOfDHT]

From what they keep telling us, you can still see more growth up to a year after an HT. But honestly I doubt it will be a significant difference if any at all. I feel -based on my own experience- that 6 months is the mark. Anything after that is negligible, except that the hairs will be longer after that which will give more coverage.

Anyway, this is one thing about HT that most people don't seem to realize - HT does not give the same fullness like the original hair does. No way, unless the bald area is pretty small , which will allow the doctor to put in more hair from the donor site. An HT does NOT give you the same number of hairs you had originally. Of course, you can always put in more hair -if you have enough donor AND MONEY- but again don't expect the same fullness as your origianl hair. The good thing however is that you don't really need the original fullness for your hair to look good. I'd say even half the fullness can do a good job giving the illusion of a head full of hair. Many people -who aren't bald- don't have thick hair and you can actually see their scalp.

I know if you're a perfectionis or someone obsessive -like me- it's really hard to accep that.

[cphan]

Yeah I had the same feeling as you. Was just hoping someone would tell me differently. LOL. At this point I'm would be 110% happy with just 80% fill but I doubt I will get that and will just have to settle for 65%. Which is a bit hard for me to do since like you, I'm a perfectionist and always checking everyday for hope that there still be some new growth left to reach that much.

Most casual people at this point already think I have a full set of hair thanks to the illusion of the right type of hair style I use and under regular and dim lighting. Just really annoy me that under really bright light you can see my scalp pretty clearly through the hair that have grown back.

I don't really regret getting the hair transplant since it does look better than it did before the transplant. Just don't feel like I got the full value worth of the cost of the transplant on a 60-65% fullness. It's like watching a movie and even though the movie was good and you enjoy it, you still don't think it was worth the full admission of the movie.

[Spex]

Guys see info on here about growth times and patience

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=230

Best
Spex

[VictimOfDHT]

This is the way I see it, as long as you have hair on your head, even if it's thin, you're not considered bald. That's the most important thing. Even a small amount of hair can make a difference. I don't care if it's only 40% thickness. As long as someone's head doesn't look like a water melon...
Sure, the thicker the better but like I said, because of the limited donor hair supply original fullness cannot be achieved. Hopefully someday they'll be able to do hair cloning or multiplication so we can have unlimited supply of donor hair, or better yet they'll invent something to help us grow our hair back without the need of surgeries.

I suggest that next time you see someone bald try to remind yourself that you used to look like him. That might help you feel a little better.

[cphan]

Guys see info on here about growth times and patience

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=230

Best
Spex

Hey that's pretty informative. Reading that it mention something in regards to shockloss. How do you know if you got shockloss?

[VictimOfDHT]

Isn't that obvious ? The area where the transplantion was done will look thinner.