I'm pleading here for some advise as I am exhausted by relentless researching and contacting my surgeon but to no avail.
My surgeon keeps telling me to wait it out which is of no help at all.

2,800 FUE grafts restoring hairline and zone 2.

The dilema is that at 4 months and 3 weeks post-op my hair was looking spectacular. Especially for that time frame, you could almost say it was looking like the 12 month post-op mark. I was loving it. However, at 5 months and 1 week post op my transplanted hairs started to slowly shed/come out/fall out. I figured its minor and probably normal. A few days for the first time ever I was appalled by the amount of hair loss I experienced in the shower!!!

Now, at roughly 5 months and 2 weeks post op, my hair looks like it was at the 3.5 month post-op mark. I already went through my grafts shed in the begining, why is this happening again?

I've been using dutasteride for about 4 months now. At first I was using 0.5mg 1-2 times weekly. Just the past three months I've increased it to 0.5mg every day. I can't imagine dutasteride causing shed to the transplanted hairs(?)
Nizoral shampoo 2% 5x weekly for 2 months now. And occasional minoxidil.

Is this normal? What are the chances of my transplanted hairs growing back? I went camping recently where we suddenly had no shower for a week. I had hairspray and gel sitting in my hair for a week. Thats when I noticed all those hairs falling out when I showered and saw the hue difference in my hairline and the thinning. Can it be from that? If so, will they grow back?

Can someone please shed some light here, as I cant find any information on the internet regarding this.

Einstein--your likely experiencing some shedding associated with Duta---

At 5-6 months, you would not even be seeing 50% of the final result. It is more likely that the native hair you had in the area are shedding.

At this time, you need to stay the course as your doctor suggested....there is nothing you can do and some fallout when starting hairloss meds is normal and should be expected.

Getting a HT is a FULL 12-14month commitment before we see the true results, sometimes the hair itself continues to soften up to 20 months post-op.

Relax, take a breath... continue to monitor yourself...stay the course and reevaluate at 10-12 months.

Take Care,
Jason

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Go Cubs!

6721 transplanted grafts
13,906 hairs
Performed by Dr. Ron Shapiro

Dr. Ron Shapiro and Dr. Paul Shapiro are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

The B spot, so does that mean if you begin Duta or Propecia a few months before the HT that this can cause the transplanted hair to shed? Will they grow back? Thanks.

I'm always skeptical of first/second posts when someone had a FUE megasession. Pictures please or sorry I don't buy it.

His first post - he he said he saw no growth, why do people waste others time?

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Dec. 2004 - 1938 Grafts via Strip
Feb. 2009 - 1002 Grafts via FUE

Thanks bro. Bu thats the thing... I have already went through a minor shed with dutasteride. But lets say it is a dutasteride shed, they make the transplanted hairs fall/shed too?

Also, its not my native hair. Im 100% its transplanted hairs. Its right in the area I had no hair to begin with, hairline and right above the hairs line.

I understand its a 12 month process which is exactly why I have not mentioned my surgeon's name yet. In all fairness to the surgeon I will give this 12 months before I post any pictures and mentioning of my surgeon....because so far I am not impressed with my hair results and bumps.

I had to post this as this was not expected nor a normal thing post transplant to lose hairs almost 6months postop.

...ure not not even worth a response

I might be able to offer some good insight into this. B-spot can correct me if I'm wrong.

First of all, I had first hand experience with Duta. I started shedding like crazy. It may have been temporary, but all of my hair, including the back and sides started coming like I was on chemo or something(well not quite that bad). I stopped it after a couple of months.

Another thing is that right now, all the transplanted hairs are in sync on their growth phase vs. resting(shedding). It was the same thing I noticed when I started finisteride. Fin did an amazing job of restoring all of my crown hair for the 3 years that it worked. But all the regrown hairs from finisteride were growing in sync at first. When they went into resting phase, they ALL did so at the same time and I lost all the hair it regrew after 4 months. But after the first hair resting phase, the hair growth rates started to stagger and finally I didn't get that massive shed that was syncronized.

Hope that makes sense. Looking at it another way, all the hair on your head goes through the resting phase where the follicle sheds the hair. Even on a person with a full head of hair, if ALL the hairs were synchronized on their resting phases, every few months that person would shed every hair on their head and be completely bald.

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My Hair Loss Web Site - Dr. Ron Shapiro

Thanks for your post its appreciated.
So did you regrow what you lost?

I experiences sheds from sides and back too from dut. Ironically it was actually mostly sides and back but stopped.

I'm pretty confident dut/fin/nizoral/minox shedded hairs regrow back. But I'm not sure if it causes tansplanted hairs to shed, and if they do, do they grow back?

What my biggest worry is is that i had a lot of hairspray and gel practicaly glued to my hair when it was styled when we went camping. Then all of a sudden we were out of shower usage for 7 days, with my hair yucky, sticky and filled with gel and hairspray. I came home early and the first thing I did was jump in the shower. I have NEVER lost so much hair at once in the shower in my life.

That's when the biggest difference from thickness to see-through thinness was seen.

Was this possibly dut's shedthroughout that week but coudl not fall out because hairs were stuck together and all of sudden a weeks worth of shedding came out in the shower?

Or did the hairspray and gel actually destroy my transplanted hair?

Yea, after I got off the duta, it slowly grew back. I'm just guessing, but I think the massive shed had something to do with duta messing with the oil glands(drying up). Accutane, the acne drug, also does this and hair shedding is also a side effect.

I can't imagine duta killing your HT's since all it's doing is blocking both forms of DHT. But the sheds I were experiencing were enough to make me get off it. You can do what you want, but if it were me I would get off Duta until my HT growth was completely stabalized. It certainly can't hurt doing that.

As for me, I'll never touch duta again. The side effects were way too powerful, especially compared to finisteride.

EDIT: as far as hairspray or gel hurting your HT's, I also can't envision this. If that's all it took to kill the follicles, then I would just put some hairspray and gel on me to get rid of some excess body hair.

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My Hair Loss Web Site - Dr. Ron Shapiro