AB2000

A concealer would be hard to pull off because it's meant to go on a thinning area up top and not cover as big a span as your donor. If you shave your head now you might find that the scalp is still reddish, which would be as noticeable as your shockloss is right now. In my case, the recipient area was fairly red for two months, but we all vary. I'd wait it out.

I don't have the number split on hand, if I dug through my receipts I could differentiate how many body hairs and head hairs were taken, in total, because those have different costs, but if I had to guess, I've probably had 2,000 from chest and arms/back, 4,000 beard and 8,000 scalp.\ These days, there aren't many threads of large hair transplants. In my case, it was a series of surgeries over the years where I've updated the same thread. So it's hard to follow up and track peoples' progress, but if you dig around you might find some of them. My results since 2014:

Scalp, beard, chest, arms, back.

I was in the same situation. Since then I've had 14k grafts. Keep looking around and if you do go the HT route go with something realistic and conservative. There is no way to make up for all the hairloss you have had.

It's a bit disconcerting how much post op care can vary. In my case I could not apply water to my head for about a week, let alone use shampoo.

Right, he has a lot of donor available in his beard, if he wants to go that way for extra grafts.

You have not posted your donor area.

It looks to me like you have dandruff. If you had it at the time going into the surgery I would say that is a contributing factor to your subpar result. If the scalp is dealing with irritation from the dandruff in addition to the invasive surgery that might be why some of the transplanted grafts didn't survive. I'd have to go back over my surgical instructions, but I am fairly sure that the transplant is not to take place if the patient is going through with this, and needs to use something good like Nizoral shampoo to clear it up. If your scalp was in bad condition going into the day of surgery, the question is why did they proceed.

Do you have any other source of body hair down the line?

No one is really helping you. Here is what you can do. Periodically shave down your head to a buzz. That will let you take pictures to see if the caliber (width) of your hair follicles are starting to thin. Going bald doesn't mean strong hairs simply fall out in a male hair loss pattern. First the hairs will get weaker, get thin, and eventually stop growing out after a rest phase cycle. Some people will not realize how far along the balding cycle they really are because they still have more full hair coverage. But cut that hair down and all of a sudden they'll notice that areas are getting thin.

I've had beard and body hair used for my hair repair and was told not to use fin. It causes body hair to fall out, which would defeat the point of using it for a transplant. Make sure you consult with BHT experienced surgeons and see what they say.

A suggestion, do your research. Look up both good and bad Turkish results on this forum. There are both. If you cheap out you are more likely to get the latter. A botched hair transplant is worse than no hair transplant. If you can take anything away from this site, it is that. Don't make your situation worse, which is very possible.

I never took finasteride, before or after surgery. Since it can deplete body hair and I've had these transferred to my thinning areas, taking it would negate some of my progress and waste money. I've also stopped with minoxidil as I've lost whatever hair I'm going to lose up top. Min doesn't work forever, so 7 years after my first HT I'm not on it.

Do you usually grow out your hair as long as shown in the photo above? Or do you trim it down to a buzz? Wouldn't keeping very short hide the lack of density?

In May I spent a few weeks back in Canada, and when I returned home to the US I wasn't asked about C19 testing. If I'm not mistaken even the Canadian government is easing restrictions into their country, but it's still more rigid than the other direction. I think if you indicate you are traveling for a medical procedure that will help reduce any of the border agent's concerns.

I understand what you mean, but that's when you're comparing results that are more or less equal, and you go with the better price. If you wind up at a hair mill in Turkey or elsewhere the downside is potential disfigurement. Have a look at some of the patient threads. Often you will find good transplant photos and people want to share, but you will also see others who have unnatural looking results that they will have to live with or spend a lot of money trying to fix, all the while losing donor hair that will never be available again. If you can tolerate your hairline for awhile hold back and use this resource. Tonnes of stories here that will give you good options on where to go on your budget. And it's free. Two international doctors turned me down based on my not being a candidate for them, and both are no longer recommended here and have a number of unhappy clients. Had they been more willing to take my money and I didn't search around enough I could have been one of the people angry about what I did in going to one of them in the first place.

A bad hair transplant won't leave you out of pocket and looking the same in terms of hair loss. You will look worse than had you done nothing. If you chose wrong you will have a result you'll regret for the rest of your life. That's why people here say don't make cost your main deciding factor. Make very sure you're going to a place with established results. If it's too expensive, then don't go.

I'm always uncertain if people mean adding hair to the beard area or taking it from there for the head.

I wasn't told to do either of those things. I kept all contact away from the surgical site. Each time I've had work done the swelling and redness lasts weeks.

If I wanted to restore from a NW 6 or 7 I'd give up all the beard and take what I can get for filling out on top of my head.

I've had beard grafts taken out from all over, not just under the jawline. If someone is contemplating using their beard to stretch the amount of transplantation that can get done then they have to way the pros and cons of using a lot of beard. OP - if you chose to use fin then realize that eventually it's effects will wear out and you will wind up at your natural hair loss pattern. Fin will just delay that point of time. If you do any surgery make sure you plan it as if your balding hair is all going to go away, and start designing from that point.

Same day, but with Toppik concealer added:

Earlier I had posted some updates after a trip to a local barber. That was my first visit in 20 years, as the last time I remember was after 9/11. I didn't like the result from March all that much and since it's been two months I tried again, but with more specific instructions. With my hair type it doesn't lay flat as it has some body to it. One advantage is that it can help create the appearance of more hair than there really is. For this reason more grafts were taken from the safe donor than would normally be done. One suggestion I was given at the clinic was to cut the sides very short and let the transplanted hair up top grow longer, so that the contrast in density isn't noticeable. That's what I tried here, with the side and back shaved with a 1-guard and the top left to grow. Other than looking a bit more like Kim Jung Un this turned out well.

10 Months Post Op 5th HT: Quick update. I've started using hair styling products to add volume. I'll go into more details later on my new routine.

It used to be that we'd see many Darling Buds results, but nothing much now that they are no longer a recommended clinic. If I had been in your shoes at the time and was asking for the same break out in hair counts from the scalp, beard and chest totaling almost 4,000 I would have thought nothing of it, the results were coming in for all of us to see and the place was well reviewed. I did an online consult and never wound up going any farther since I needed a surgeon who do could more with BHT, and perhaps that was for the best? You're not going to get much mileage with chest hairs, other than perhaps adding density, but with only 300 taken from there that doesn't explain the lack of result. It looks like roughly half the grafts went into the crown and the rest up front. From what I can see there was no progress in the crown at the 12 month point. You had some growth up front but it wound up being very light density. At roughly 2,000 head and beard up front I would have expected a lot better. Yes, you have fine hair since it is blond but from looking at the FUE implant locations many did not grow out. I can imagine how frustrating it is to be left with something that can't even be passed off as normal hair loss, it *looks* like a bad hair transplant. And not everyone has the money to spend on a whole new procedure. Glad to see you didn't fall for the offer to go back and have rework. If you've been spending time then hopefully you have a list of new clinics to consult with and to find someone to get you the result you were looking for. Did you have anything happen during recovery that could have led to this? Was your scalp healthy going into this in the first place? Have you taken any progress photos since then? I don't think there will be any improvement from the transplant but it would be interesting to see what's left behind after your normal hairloss progression after four or five years.