whathappensnext

heya, when i say 6weeks to look normal, it was because my hair was really short at the point of HT. and they had shaved a "BOX" shape patch at the back of my head as the donor area. you can imagine how wierd it looks. not forgetting that the donor hair will be placed in the hairline area above your forehead, hence it will be quite noticeable if you haven already kept some fringe. the 6 weeks is inclusive of healing, hair growing and scrub falling off. i guess once the scrub falls off, you'll look pretty normal already. the difference is slight and the transplanted hair will eventually fall off. its just a matter of time to "heal" for the procedure. that is when it gets really noticeable. what i suggest is that you tell your boss that you're taking 2.5weeks of leave to settle some personal stuff. have your procedure over the weekend. and your 2.5weeks leave starts on a monday. just optimise your time. first 10days of the op, leave your hair alone. after that, try to soak your head to soften the scrubs and gently massage the area when you shower. it will fall off in no time. my hairline area was alittle pinkish after the scrub had fallen off. but its not that obvious. i crap out some excuse for the stupid patch behind my hair. after a week or 2, nobody even bothers about it anymore. however, it would be best if you are fine being honest to your colleagues. it will save you lots of unnecessary stress.

thanks dude... i reckoned that there will be anymore growth already. its been almost 8 months and nothing's changed since the past few months. but i'm really glad that it turned out pretty well for me. all the best for whoever's undergoing their HT too!

i've attached a bef and after photo. its pretty obvious which is which. the before was taken i guess 6mths before my FUE. it got really worse later. Hence the decision to do FUE the after was taken just 2weeks back. i would probably have to go for another one in another few years time... but i'll worry about that later one. i used to spend alot of money on treatment and other "cure" or supplements... but honestly, genes is something that its pretty hard to fight. in my opinion, just go for a HT and be happy about it. at least rooney's HT cheered him up. so did mine.

hey, good to know that i could share... i did my FUE with Dr Donald Ng from Alaxis Aesthetics i'm glad i did the FUE actually, i can imagine how i will look like if i have not done so. my experience was fine just that you really need to plan how to hide it from your colleagues... you will probably need about 6weeks to 2 months to look "normal". thats provided that your hair is already short overall. Dr Donald basically do all the extraction of the follicles and the nurses will do the inplants. which initially i doubt their proficiency. but it turned out that all the hair grew out just the way they should. however, they dont really adjust the follicles during the inplant so that it grows in the same direction as the rest of the other hair. they simply planted it 90degrees on the graft area. but because i am doing a hairline FUE and filled my temple area, my original hair growth is generally growing "upwards", which kind of blended in actually. just a few strands of hair at the lower side of temple looks like that are growing out of angle. but i'm fine with that as i keep my side shaved. i did the FUE in may 2011. first few months was really torturing. you'll see your hair fall off... almost every bit of it. than they started growing 3-4mths later as fine hair and very quickly it got thicker. i did 1000grafts. it cost me 7SGD each graft excluding GST. pretty much the usual process as they've mentioned here. but planted hair is afterall planted, even though they're still yours. in certain angle under spotlight, strong sunlight, the balding area does look thinner than the non affected area. but its really better than being bald. i hope it helps.

hey rockz, dropped by to check out ya progress... i'm into my 1mth plus 2 weeks phase right now, i am not applying anything on them at the moment, just having some vit e and MSM once every few days. My receipent area are slightly pinkish too and it itch at times... most of the planted hair have fell out now, together with lots of shock losses. seems like its worse than before now... but as you said yourself... the wait continues... lets have some faith... and i'm certainly still following your updates. your condition is pretty much like mine.

nope. i had FUE

feeling slightly better guys... its 7days post op. i've been soaking my head in the tub regularly twice a day for the past 2 days. hopefully can get rid of the scabs. and it turned out pretty well, even though there are still quite alot of them on the recipient area. i've been using my finger tip to do circular motion massage on the recipient area. much of them came off nicely, however, sadly, i noticed a few grafts (about 5) came off. some was with a white bulb like end (probably 3), some (the remaining 2) have this hook like ending. 2 spot was bleeding. pretty sad for that to happen, maybe i was rushing through things. my question is, the remaining grafts that have no bleeding, that are still on my scalp, are still fine right? or is there any possibility that its dead as well just that it hasnt show. i read somewhere that those grafts are not exactly that weak. and i really did the circular massaging method pretty gently.

my hairline was like your in the same NW region as well. high temples, fair skin (i'm pretty fair for an asian). maybe my temple was slightly higher than yours. but i'm 27. i just had my HT done 1 week ago... so yea....

guys, can we do a high pressure warm shower head to go over the scabs on the 8th day? would it be safe?

really? i have been reading lots of articles saying by the 8th day, the roots should settle down and the scabs usually comes off after first week or something. i've checked out RockZ progress and his came off between 8-10 days... he soak them in water for quite awhile. thats wad he said. i'm gonna just do as that. i wouldnt start peeling them off... but i'll do the circular massage on the 8th day, at least i hope those scabs near the hairline will come off.

no problem Rod, would be glad to catch ya over coffee or something. PM me ya email or something. we'll keep in touch from there on. just some quick update, its day 5 post op. i've just taken my 2nd shower of the day, still praying hard that those scabs will come off soon. they seem to me like its gonna peel off in another day or 2, but once they get dried up, everything else seems as if they're gonna stay again. sigh. i've also bought some vit E for healing, and also some hair growth supplements today at least to have my existing hair to grow faster to cover up the donor area as well as the frontal grafts. keeping my fingers crossed.

yea i noticed after the 1 week mark in your progression, between 8 to 10 days, the scabs just disappeared! mind sharing how and how long do you "soak your hair"? you dont literally dip ya head in a pail did you? and when is it safe to do the circular motion massage on the recipient area? what i'm doing now is that i bath twice a day, each time about 15mins. i will soap my head with shampoo and dap the recipient area and leave the shampoo there for about 10mins before i was it off. hope its normal.

thanks guys for the encouragement. It is day 5 post op. my eye bags just begin to swell. i am starting to worry that the scabs wun come off on time. i did consider using toppik, but not on my donor area as they are healing up just fine. more on the recipient area. but the thing is, the recipient area is across my frontal hairline all the way up to the temples. there is no way i can pass through without being detected. which is why i am really hoping that the scabs will go off soon and i can just shave down the newly transplanted hair and look bald as usual. RodG: this surgeon is an aesthetic surgeon as well and i dont think anyone has ever heard of him yet. i got to know about him was because a few years back i happen to come across his advertisment on some beauty treatment in another forum. so far from what i see of the job done on me, pretty much neat and well packed. he was the one who extracted and punched the holes on the recipient area. his team inserted the grafts on me. looks quite decent, just that i dont know how many grafts survived during the insertion.

i'm an asian as well (wish i can put up some photos too but its kind of sensitive for now as i'm afraid of other implications. will do so when its more convenient at a later stage.) my hairline is somewhat like yours and i did about 1000grafts. the only difference is that you went for a reputable surgeon and i had mine done in Singapore that is by someone unknown. that kind of reminded me that it suck. i'm following this closely bro. keep the photos coming. i wish the scabs on mine will come off like how yours did by the 10th day. really helps.

Hi all, i've been checking out the forum from time to time and have finally decided to make my debut today. I'm in my late twenties this year and started losing my hair as far as 5 years back. I'm from Singapore and there is pretty much no surgeons from IAHRS or anything like that for all that matters. In the initial 2 years when everything just started, it did not really bother me as i was having a full head of thick hair all these years. It came to me as a normal shedding phase that will pass eventually. During the 3rd year, friends around me started commenting that i my hairline may be receding and i started working on my diet, taking all the possible VITs you can find in the market that claims to do your hair good. I've even consulted my doctors and have been feeding on propecia. Propecia helped a little, as i could feel that the shedding is slowing down a little. But the goodness of the pills only lasted for 3 months when it started all over again, and this time, it even affected my sexual lifestyle. I was devasted. i stopped all medication ever since. As the days went by, people made passing comments on me like "you and your balding head." etc etc. It hurts within, but i learnt to ignore them eventually, and even tried laughing about those remarks. Every hairstylist i go to, every hairstyle they recommend, kept reminding myself that yes i'm pretty much gonna be bald like my dad. Like what a colleague of mine had joked about me, a walking lightbulb. I didnt wish for this to befall on me. and i am pretty sure that none of you wanted any of this. the only reason why i decided to post my story hear was because i know you guys can truly understand the kind of emotions that i have to face and put up with all the time. 19th May 2011, just 4 days ago i have completed my first HT. There isnt any community here in Singapore to share the experience they had with any surgeons. I've spoken to a few of them and had decided to go ahead with the surgeon had my HT done with. To be honest, i've no idea if he is even as good as he seems. I did around 1000grafts of FUE and am currently on medical leave to heal up before i head back to office next week. I am praying that the scabs will come off soon and everything will be undetectable when i'm back for work. I'm basically confining myself in the room every single day since the surgery, and the only time i left home was for the haircut to even out the hair from the donar area. That 15mins with my stylist was officially the worst day ever. you just wish you can just bury your head in the ground there and then, and someone can just come up to you and shoot you dead. Everyone was looking at me like i'm some kind of freak! I have not even gotten to the stage where i start worrying if the HT will be a successful one, and now here i am worrying if my HT will be detectable. People will laugh, and who knows i might even lose my job? i cant put on a cap to work as my job requires myself to meet clients, and i have to look professional all the time. this whole chain of what ifs and what could be is kind of putting myself off into a slight depression. Its day 4 post op, and i have like 6 more days to pray that the scabs will fall off and donar area covered up. am i thinking too much? or is this perfectly normal? i know its too early to pass any judgement on my surgeon and my HT, so i'll leave it for the latter to worry about. Sorry for the long post as i really need to get this off my chest.