How to keep the HT a secret until final result

[Baldnessfalls]

Hey everyone,

I'm happy to announce that I'm going to be having my first (and hopefully my only) hair transplant September 27th. I'm going to be having 1500 grafts placed up front. I'm so excited I can barely wait!

My question is. I'm not extremely familiar with how the recipient area of the HT will look weeks or months down the road. I'm certain that a hat will be absolutely necessary for the first while before the hair starts growing. But how do you hide it and make it look unobvious before the hair grows to its full length? When the hair first starts growing, you can't let anyone see it. So how does one go about keeping it a secret until the final result is achieved? There will inevitably be times when my hat will come off in public, such as the singing of the national anthem at a sporting event. What tricks do people use to keep it a secret? I don't really want to shave my head to make it the same length as the transplanted hair.

[aim4hair]

Hey everyone,

I'm happy to announce that I'm going to be having my first (and hopefully my only) hair transplant September 27th. I'm going to be having 1500 grafts placed up front. I'm so excited I can barely wait!

My question is. I'm not extremely familiar with how the recipient area ofthe HT will look weeks or months down the road. I'm certain that a hat will be absolutely necessary for the first while before the hair starts growing. But how do you hide it and make it look unobvious before the hair grows to its full length? When the hair first starts growing, you can't let anyone see it. So how does one go about keeping it a secret until the final result is achieved? There will inevitably be times when my hat will come off in public, such as the singing of the national anthem at a sporting event. What tricks do people use to keep it a secret? I don't really want to shave my head to make it the same length as the transplanted hair.

Depens where you gonna have the new grafts, some ppl are able to cover them by keeping the rest of their hair long and style it like a comb over to cover the new grafts.
IMHO, the best way to completly hide it, is to buzz your hair like a week or so before the HT (like you are sporting a new style), and then keep buzzing it after the HT for couple of months untill the new hair comes out (this is what im planning to do).

[NeedHairASAP]

Hey everyone,

I'm happy to announce that I'm going to be having my first (and hopefully my only) hair transplant September 27th. I'm going to be having 1500 grafts placed up front. I'm so excited I can barely wait!

My question is. I'm not extremely familiar with how the recipient area of the HT will look weeks or months down the road. I'm certain that a hat will be absolutely necessary for the first while before the hair starts growing. But how do you hide it and make it look unobvious before the hair grows to its full length? When the hair first starts growing, you can't let anyone see it. So how does one go about keeping it a secret until the final result is achieved? There will inevitably be times when my hat will come off in public, such as the singing of the national anthem at a sporting event. What tricks do people use to keep it a secret? I don't really want to shave my head to make it the same length as the transplanted hair.

It's simple!

1. Don't get FUT

2. Don't Get FUE

3. Get HST!




Why?


FUT = 3-4 months down time: from being scalped (+ 7-13 months until regrowth)

FUE = 1-2 months down time from having 10,000 holes punched in your head (+ 7-13 months until regrowth)

HST = 1-2 DAYS down time from having 4,000 or less needle incisions of a needle smaller than the one they take blood with (3-9 months until regrowth, possible the grafts may not even fall out..i.e. immediate growth)






QUE the HST haters

[Delphi]

It's simple!

1. Don't get FUT

2. Don't Get FUE

3. Get HST!




Why?


FUT = 3-4 months down time: from being scalped (+ 7-13 months until regrowth)

FUE = 1-2 months down time from having 10,000 holes punched in your head (+ 7-13 months until regrowth)

HST = 1-2 DAYS down time from having 4,000 or less needle incisions of a needle smaller than the one they take blood with (3-9 months until regrowth, possible the grafts may not even fall out..i.e. immediate growth)






QUE the HST haters

Don't pay any attention to this troll, aim4hair gave you some good advice.

[Baldnessfalls]

Depens where you gonna have the new grafts, some ppl are able to cover them by keeping the rest of their hair long and style it like a comb over to cover the new grafts.
IMHO, the best way to completly hide it, is to buzz your hair like a week or so before the HT (like you are sporting a new style), and then keep buzzing it after the HT for couple of months untill the new hair comes out (this is what im planning to do).

See, I was trying to avoid buzzing my hair at all costs. I just thought it would be too suspicious since I've never had my hair short. I'm thinking about just wearing a hat until the hair is about a cm long and then cutting the rest to match it. Good thing it will be winter during my down time and I can wear beanie hats while I recover. Lol

[aim4hair]

See, I was trying to avoid buzzing my hair at all costs. I just thought it would be too suspicious since I've never had my hair short. I'm thinking about just wearing a hat until the hair is about a cm long and then cutting the rest to match it. Good thing it will be winter during my down time and I can wear beanie hats while I recover. Lol

If you can wear a hat, that's great.. But some ppl just can't due to work.

[PatientlyWaiting]

Get the Secret Squirrel hat.

[win200]

Baldnessfalls, I just had 1500 at the hairline (I'm 8 weeks postop), and I successfully hid my procedure, so maybe I can give some tips.

As you've probably noticed from postop pictures, it will be obvious for a couple weeks following surgery that something has happened at your hairline. There will be some scabbing evident (minimal if your doc gives you good postop care tips and you follow them studiously), and the skin will also be pretty red. And, of course, there will be those small, transplanted hairs. Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable going to work after surgery with all of that exposed.

However, I purposefully grew my hair a bit long so I could sweep it across my forehead. I've never kept my hair close-cropped, so this wasn't much of a change from my normal style. It completely covered all of the work, so no one was the wiser. You should know, though, that there's a decent likelihood you'll have a swollen forehead pop up a few days after the procedure. Mine was pretty puffy, but I just covered by saying I had an allergic reaction to a topical ointment. The puffiness subsided in a few days.

You did ask about covering until you see a final result, though, which I have to warn you is pretty impractical. I don't know what the degree of your loss is, but results aren't really final until about 12 months. Some shock loss is fairly common in the first 3 months (I've had very mild thinning in the forelock), and any native hairs that are shocked out will start to regrow after a few months. So really, you're waiting for a few things to happen: for native, shocked hairs to regrow, and for the transplanted follicles to emerge from the resting phase and grow. All of this starts, at the earliest, at 3 months. Lots of folks don't see growth until 5 months, and that's only the beginning of growth. It really takes 10-12 months for the shocked and transplanted follicles to grow in sufficiently to "fill in" the transplanted areas. I'd venture to guess that it'll be hard to keep a hat on for that entire time.

The upside is that if you're having 1500 grafts transplanted at the front, you're probably pretty similar to me--NW3-ish with at least a decent head of hair still intact. If you avoid drastic shock loss, friends/family probably won't even notice that your hair has changed--it's amazing how differently we see ourselves. There are plenty of stories about people who have had huge changes to their hair without their colleagues noticing. I covered the redness/scabbing with hair for the first few weeks, and now at 8 weeks I'm back to wearing my hair up and my hairline exposed. My closest friends and family are completely clueless that I had work done, even with some thinning at the forelock due to shock loss. You can check out my pictures at this thread:

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=9370

No two people are alike, so even if you have a similar hairline, it's not guaranteed you'll respond identically. But it may be a useful comparison. Good luck, and keep us posted!