CHB88

It's me, I finally found my old account opposed to the one quoted with a single post. Anyways you can search this account's old posts for even more info but basically I have a lot of scaly skin in the recipient zone. Prior to the HT I had some minor dandruff problems. I didn't really scrub my hair due to fear of fall out so that might've been a contributing factor back then. I used to use Denorex Extra Strength once in a while at the time which really helped to sooth the scalp due to the menthol I would assume. Since the HT I immediately noticed scaly skin on the recipient zone. This used to be so thick it would ball up skin when I brushed my hairline in the first few weeks, Then it eventually became a thin, scaly layer that had to be picked off. I also noticed that my HT hairs in the front seemed to pit slightly when pulled and had a more pronounced pore overall. I went to a derm and he said it might be due to scalp inflammation or folliculitis. He prescribed some medical shampoos that I never picked up. He also recommended trying minox to help the battle. I started using Kirkland 5% minox but it made the overall dandruff much worse. Even running a comb through with a bit of pressure in the shower wouldn't get it all off. It didn't really bother me for a long time (maybe 2 years) until my hair thinned enough that the dandruff was really noticeable on the scalp itself. So now I'm still stuck with scaly skin in the front hairline and flakier dandruff wherever else I use minox. My scalp tingles on every application so I'm probably allergic to the alcohol to some degree which is causing the dandruff. I haven't been off of it long enough to see if discontinued use would help but I'm considering it if/when I have to shave my head. If the pores and pits are too much then I may need fraxel as well in addition to electrolysis to remove the grafts as well as SMP to hide donor scars. It's quite a mess I've gotten myself into and all for a measly 1000 FUs which I'd like to return to the doctor in a different manner.

My hairline was thinning unevenly but I had lots of existing hair that I put the FUs in-between. Rushed into an HT and it was dreadful for a year with negligible results. It improved on drugs for a year and now is back to its former state, not only in the hairline but all over. I'm still on the maintenance regime but I've mentally conceded to the inevitable, it's just a matter of when. Barring a miracle breakthrough I will never, EVER consider a HT ever again. I'm just trying to cope with the consequences of my stupid youth now.

I'm looking to have this done temporarily first, and then permanently depending on more research. Does anyone have good pics of this procedure and end result? Backstory: 1000 FUE in the hairline is on its last legs but I still have a decent amount of hair on top. Current plan is to use clippers down to a #0 guard all over and gradually receed the grafts via electrolysis. I'm still debating on fraxel from years ago but now that my hairline has thinned out it appears I might be able to get away without it. So now the donor areas has become newest problem. I've recently tried photoshopping a pic of my FUE pock marks and I did my best to mimic the SMP appearance using a soft edge diffuse brush while matching native color for the ink marks to mimick the hair in its early sprouting stage. However I've encountered a strange problem - In order to minimize the appearance of the scars, I actually have to insert more dots than would actually exist in the extraction zone. This may be due to a larger punch size used on me (1mm), noting that it may also look different in real circumstances. Still, the SMP density required exceeded that of any other untouched area by about 5-10 hairs easily. I'm not sure how that would look in person. I'm not considering SMP anywhere but at the donor sites at the moment although doing this may cause the SMP to stand out if the ink isn't spread well. Also there is a potential issue of continual damage changing the way the scar sites (or regular tissue) accept the ink after multiple treatments. Can anyone offer advice on how to proceed?

Minding my bias against this clinic, if you look at the photos IMO it seems less than impressive to say the least, It appears that the procedure was done on the doctor himself as well which perhaps they are okay with as it is supposed to be the temporary ink.

IMO you have a good head for the razored down bald look. Your donor is way to thin to have much hope of decent coverage at the top.

I had 1000 FUE and my FUE scarring isn't bad but I definitely wouldn't recommend it for a hairstyle that short all over. I also buzz to a #1 but only to fade on the sides and back. There is some white dot scarring and it is noticeable but you can probably live with it if you're not too self-conscious. I've gone down to a #0 and felt fine but I had much more native hair at the time so it didn't bother me as much. I would say I'm at the border of FUE becoming very obvious. I had grafts removed all over the donor zone randomly as well as in small patches so it is fairly well spread. Some doctors tend to remove them all from one specfic area for some reason, probably if you don't want to shave your entire head. If I had double or triple the amount of FUE I think it would be glaringly obvious that something was a bit off. That said, my scarring is absolutely invisible if I grow my donor hair for 2 weeks (about 0.5 to 1.0 cm). My recipient results weren't that good (I'm looking at reversal) but from what I've seen the recipient zone hair would not match your existing hair at very short length. The donor usually doesn't look natural compared to the native because of its thickness, placement and spacing. You would have to have a longer hairstyle for the HT to work best. IMO you are also very likely to lose the rest of your native at some point so you would need a plan to fill the rest of your head which would one day require strip surgery. If you aren't willing to commit to that financially and mentally then you should rethink. I've become a bit biased about HTs lately but in your case, money aside I don't think the gain is worth the risks. That's not even introducing post-surgical complications into the matter.

I agree that fraxel seems to be the way to go but I'm going to be a lot more careful this time around and I'm gonna wait on this a bit to be sure. I'm not ready to say its the definite answer since I haven't heard many first hand accounts or seen pics of final results. I've read through the other forums as well but it seems the guys who fixed themselves up have moved on. I would guess that my head would be a reddish for much longer than usual considering what I went through with the original HT. Also, be careful of tanning after fraxel. You actually aren't supposed to expose yourself to sunlight for 6 months or you can risk hyper or hypo pigmentation of the treated skin. If possible I would ideally want to target only the HT hair and then buzz down to a #1 or less to start. Hopefully my skin will look normal enough to razor. I'm getting a bit more self conscious about the donor scars though. I think the final release of doing it will alleviate all the tension and worry but I'm still very hesitant. Does anyone here have firsthand info?

So I've done a bit more research and I think laser/electrolysis + fraxel/Active FX + Vbeam might be the best way for me to go. Hopefully I can target the grafted hairs to kill and then use laser resurfacing to smooth out the texture. Not sure if I need something like Vbeam to even out color since I do tend to get red, but I think this may be due to irritation as my recipient scalp is still kind of sore, scaly and flaky since the HT. Can anyone offer advice on combining these treatments? I will probably be calling a dermatologist tomorrow to get some more info.

The problem is that I wear my hair short (#1 fade on the sides) and I opted for FUE not knowing how bad my hair loss actually was. It seems I will be at least a NW5 and now I have 1000 grafts in the hairline. FUE can't fill this gap and I don't want a strip scar. I'm also really sick and tired of worrying about my hair. Unfortunately no one seems to be able to direct me in terms of repair. I've contacted Dr. Cole's office and they seemed to be very thorough but a bit overcondifent. I've seen some of his similar repairs and the horseshoe scar in the hairline after 1 year is very apparant. If I had to deal with shaving my hairline every day I'd much rather do that than have a horseshoe scar there. My skin is a bit discolored with some slight pitting as well but I was hoping fraxel or dermabrasion would help. I've been searching for answers but I haven't been getting anywhere the past 3 weeks.

Yeah I have 1000 FUE and still a good bunch of native hair, I just want my skin to be back to normal. However not many forums have a good repair section and it is pretty hard to get any feedback on this topic. My skin isn't extremely bumpy but you can tell in the right light. I have minor ro moderate pits as well which is the real issue.

So I'm one step closer to shaving it all off now and I need a way to smooth out my bumpy hairline. I've heard dermabrasion is the way to go but I don't want to go that route if I don't have to. Has anyone had experience with microderm? Can it even out my recipient skin tone and smooth out the skin at the same time? Is permanant redness a possibility?

Yes that's him and I'm not going to be unfair, I've seen him for a follow up a few months ago but I didn't really notice the pitting until recently. He wasn't particularly concerned about my symptoms at the time and I was going to let things grow out a bit more first. I didn't have a great first impression of him to start but I didn't realize what I was in for. I've considered microneedling but I'm pretty worried about infection considering I already have plenty of bad skin. If I do have seborrhoeic dermatitis then would that worsen it? Is there particular recommendation for needle length? I don't really know that much about it. I've heard dermabrasion works well. Luckily it works best for fair skin which but that would mean suffering through more redness. Is there an average healing time for dermabrasion procedures? Will it really fix pitting? Is it possible to form ingrown hairs from this? I'll definitely update with pics later but its strange that I can only see pitting from certain angles. Maybe it really isn't that bad or perhaps my scalp might be getting slightly inflammed making it more prominent. Of course its also hard to see with so much native hair in the way. My dandruff has gone way down since starting extra strength denorex but there is definitely still some there, and it hasn't helped with my scaly skin yet. Perhaps a combo of microneedling, gentle dermabrasion and eventually removing the grafts is the eventual route. I'm very hesitant against more surgery though. I keep getting the impression that removing grafts from the recipient leaves less scarring than FUE from the donor. Suturing is also recommended but I'm not sure how this is possible with a wound so small.

All I want right now is to shave down and look normal. If possible I want to have these grafts removed but I am so afraid of going back to any HT doctor right now. I don't want any more scars anywhere. I went to Dr. Jones and I know he can't help. I should have known from the start. I'll try to put up some photos but its hard since I can't quite capture the reality of the situation right now. Its really hard to find the angle. I've been using Denorex and Nizoral and it helped with the skin initially but its effectiveness has been wearing off seemingly. I've been on finasteride for a year but it isn't doing anything for me which is why I'm panicking. I'm so tired of all this, I just want to be normal again. No more HTs, no more thinking about hair 24/7.