Willit

Thanks guys for the comments, I believe i'm a Norwood 2 or 3, and have stabilized with Avodart. Dr. Gabel shaved the front a bit more into the hairline for the procedure. If I do another procedure I'm hoping to focus more on the crown area. I noticed today I had quite a bit of swelling in my forehead and around the eyes, so I was doing a lot of icing today periodically. Here are some updated pics also, but I have a question, I have been sleeping with a slightly elevated head, afraid to touch the graphs. When is it ok to not worry about hitting or touching the graphs? They seem so solid already, but I'm being really cautious. And final question, I still have my hair a bit long, but am debating if I should just trim down the whole thing for when I go back to work in a week, or leave it and try and cover it? I'm mainly thinking for the frontal temple recipient area. Any advice on what to do?

I just got home after my flight, and am sitting quietly, so thought I would post and update. I got my hair counts: 1's - 498 2's - 1165 3's - 391 4's - 48 total 4193 hairs with 2102 graphs. Day 0 evening I had a new gauze on as you can see in the pics, in the morning, I had quite a bit of blood on the pillow pad protector, and on the back of my head gauze. I went back to the doctors for wash and cut at about 11am. I have to say on Day 1, after I went back and got my wash, I began agonizing over the haircut and the flight back, mostly afraid of the security checkpoint and bumping into someone while heading home. In the pics you can see the blue dye Dr. Gabel uses, some scabbing and redness. The back is where you can see the spot that was bleeding the most, and then my crazy funny Jim Carrey (Dumb and Dumber) haircut. We were all laughing so much when they were trying to cut my hair, because they couldn't keep a straight face, and I figured I would trim better when I got home. Even that part was funny and brightened my day. Luckily my hair in the front was long enough to be slightly covered, but the back, there was no way of hiding it because I would have a big gauze over the back for about 3-4 days. So I thought why not cover it with some wig hair, or clip some hair to my back hair.. even thought of bobby pinning the fake hair into my hair. Or gluing it,...that's when I knew I had to go watch a comedy movie to get my mind off of it. That was a great idea. Day 2: morning, you can see there is mostly pussing and no bleeding. So I woke up to get ready for my flight and you can see the swelling started in my forehead, at least it makes my wrinkles go away! But for the back gauze I said screw it....on the hair wig thing. In the end, I decided to put clear packing tape on the whole side of the medical gauze and then took a black magic marker too it so at least it wouldn't stand out like a white one would. That actually eased my mind, to know that people far away really couldn't see it, only those within talking distance. Someone should make black or brown type gauze. I also decided to put Polysporin on the left side and Neosporin on the right side, to see which one would heal better and faster. I've had great luck with Neosporin before, so we'll see. I decided to wear my hat and jacket also, which happened to have a hoodie on it, so I wore that whenever I was out in public. The hoodie laid on top of my existing longer hair, so the graphs were safe, no rubbing. Then when back in the car or house would take off the hoodie. Going through the security check point at the airport, I had to just say screw it...so I wore my hoodie as long as I could til I had to go through. Then off it came, and I only saw one security person mention it to the other guy, but that was it. When my jacket came through I put it right back on, but had to stand and send my backpack through again. So I decided to ease my anxiety by joking and talking with the security guy, now that my hoodie was back on, it was all good, and it helped. Next was the flight, and guess what, I knew the main flight attendant, YUP, just what I was fearing. But I kept my hat and hoodie on, said hi and went to sleep. Everytime I went to the bathroom, I would take off my hoodie and hat, and let my head breath. I used the bathroom a lot, but I did notice that the swelling had gotten bigger and moved down to my temples. So I had brought some travel ice packs, and used that to reduce the swelling. In the end, my flight attendant friend came and talked to me for a while, and didn't bat an eyelash or ask any unusual questions, and my hoodie jacket is bright red by the way. We arrived home and I had already arranged a cab ride. Came home and quickly iced and washed the areas. I already notice the donor area healing really well. End of Day 2.

Wanted to share my experience I just had today with Dr. Steven Gabel. I did my first hair transplant today, opted for FUE and we got 2102 graphs. Majority of 1800 was put in the temporal areas, and the remaining 302 was put in the crown. After reading rigorously through tons of these forum post, I consulted with 9 different doctors and did my research, finally decided on Dr. Gabel due to reviews, location, and cost factors. I am really glad I did, this was an excellent experience with their team. I flew in the night before, and had the procedure the next day, beginning at 630am (today). I did have some normal apprehension and questions, which I tried to tell myself don't make a big deal outta this, and I was right. Dr. and his assistants were so professional, very thorough and I especially like that they were perfectionist at everything they do. I don't have any office pics yet, but they allowed me to take some of my own. We were going for FUE at about 1500-2000, and he gave me a line on my head that was a starting point, and then I adjusted it, and he adjusted once more. We both liked it and we finalized the hairline, then looked at the crown which was much smaller. We went to the procedure room I think around 8 or 9am, where everything was prepared and ready to go. They hooked me up to the heart rate monitors and the I lied face down, got covered by a blanket, and he began to shave the back of my head. He numbed up the area for extraction and then began with the FUE extraction. When Dr. Gabel started he was soon very happy with the extractions and how everything was going and verbally let me know about it. All the time we talked with the whole team making jokes and conversing, which made the procedure even less threatening. They constantly checked on my pain level and made injections when I did have even a hint of pain. By lunchtime we had about 1300 graphs pulled, I had lunch, and returned, then by early afternoon we had the full 2102 graphs pulled. I went back to finish the lunch, then we began the insertions, 900 on each temporal area and 302 in the crown. The insertion of the graphs went even faster and better than the extractions. I don't know if it's because I made sure I drank 8-9 glasses of water every day a 2 weeks before the procedure, or maybe because I tried to eat healthy too, like drinking spinach shakes in my Nutribullet every day; but Dr. Gabel and his team said graphs were coming out really well and inserted really well too. The only pain I had was the injection of the anesthesia shots to numb the donor and recipient areas, but I guess I got used to it after a while, like a bunch of small pinches on your head. We finished at about 7pm, Dr. Gabel is awsome and gave me a ride home. I have to just say I was extremely happy with my decision to go with Dr. Gabel and his staff, it was an amazingly comfortable experience. Now just to fly home with an awkward haircut. Here are some pics. Hair Restoration Social Network - Hair Loss and Transplant Photos Willit

Thanks guys, very helpful replies. I have been told in a consultation, that there is a risk with FUE, in that the curvature of the hair can be more easily determined with FUT, but with FUE because the hair is shaved down, there is a slight risk that the curvature is harder to determine, and when implanting, the curvature is very important. This is a small risk, but still a risk to be aware of. I think I'm about a Norwood 2 or 3, I can see temple and hairline recession and now some crown recession, you should be able to see this in my profile pics. Attached are some pics to give you an idea, I want to attack the problem sooner than later. What is the better procedure for discretion and recovery time? Thanks Will-It