CHB8

I'm in a similar boat being just over 5 months out. My left side of the hairline I see some improvement but not as much as I expected. I tend to focus on one particularly bald area in the hairline and I can barely see any growth at all. On my right I can feel an even distribution of stubble but has been stuck that way for 6+ weeks now. I'm not sure what to make of this as my hair used to grow very quickly. This has slowed in the last couple of months possibly due to fin. Normally that hair should have been 3" by now. Everything else is growing slower but is definitely still growing. Still waiting this one out but just letting you know you may not be the only one.

Looks fine to me. I agree with keeping the scar look too... and I mean its less to shave if you go that route.

Just curious how true this really is? I've definitely heard of cases where the meds seemed to stop working and that is a bit concerning. As a late 20s diffuser I'm not sure what my odds are. My loss became pretty noticeable in the past year and the fin seems to be working well so far. I had originally planned to get the HT, use fin if necessary and go in again after 5 years in a worst case scenario. Now I'm not too sure as I haven't heard of too many young guys with just one HT and fin doing the rest of the work.

My redness was apparent (to me) until the 3-4 month mark. No one said anything but I pointed it out to one particular person and they said it was kind of there. So I'm not sure how bad it really was. I tried polysporin at 10 days to 14 days and it was more trouble than it was worth.

Almost surely not. I was told that you would know if a graft fell out. At about 8-9 days I was massaging one particular scab and it came with a hair and black bulb at the end. Even then I'm not sure the graft went bad as it is the surrounding yellow tissue that generates the hair. Recently I also had a pimple in different area and it pushed out a hair with the bulb and some dried out yellow tissue. Even with that I'm not sure if that was the graft or not considering that just happened about 5 months out.

Forgot to mention something weird that happened... about 6-12 weeks out from the HT, I got quite a few hairs in the recipient area that were black at the tip, white in the middle and black at the root. Save for 2 individual places that I know of, I don't have white hairs anywhere else normally. I didn't notice it for some time and the white sections were small but noticeable. I asked the doc if it may have been due to the stress of the surgery and he was puzzled as well but thought it could have been. Anyone else experience this?

I just remembered that I was told to soak my head in water for 20 mins twice a day the next day after surgery. I continued doing so until the scabs we all out which took about 10 days as mentioned above. Not sure if this is good practice but that was the procedure I was given and what I followed. I later noticed that other clinics don't seem to do this. Is there any benefit or detriment to doing so?

Thanks for the welcome. I wish I had found this forum 5 months ago while I was researching. I probably would have gone elsewhere if I had seen the reviews of the doctor I went to. I don't know how I missed this forum. I appreciate the reassurance but I have doubts the recipient area is still healing since it has appeared to look and feel quite normal for some time now. The itching has lasted from the 2nd month till now which doesn't seem to be normal as I haven't heard of any other reports of this in other posts/blogs. I want to stay positive but right now I'm getting worried since my body generally heals pretty quickly and I'm not seeing even growth at this stage in the game. While there is some detectable growth in most areas (except the center) it is really sparse on the weak side and doesn't seem to be progressing much where it is growing more densely. In any case I don't have much choice but to wait it out at the moment. Just wanted to see if anyone had their FUE grow in unevenly as well, and if the donor hair grows this slowly at first. I'll definitely be updating on any changes so others can be informed.

I'm curious how normal my case is as I'm feeling a bit unsure about my potential results as the doc seems to have varied reviews. I'm late 20s, had 1000 FUE into the hairline about 5 months ago. I originally got it done to fill in one side that was fading much more than the other. I had decent density prior and still still fairly decent now. Here's how it progressed: - Good bit of swelling the first 3 days; subsided by day 6-7. - 10 days for all scabs to fall off. Moderate redness in recipient area. Donor is doing better but still slightly noticeable. - Week 4-5 started getting what appeared to be pimples in both the donor and recipient areas. Not many, about 6-8 total. - Buzzed look was fine but obvious diffuse pattern on regrowth. Noticeable shock/sparseness on weak side of hairline. - Week 6 decided to use 1/4 proscar, hair still shedding. Heavy dandruff and itchiness in recipient area. Redness in recipient still present but concealed by growth of exising hair. - Week 10-12 hair back to original length. Buzzed sides showed almost no sign of harvest. - Fin pills seem to be working already. Much less shedding. Dandruff and itchiness seemed to subside a bit but still present. - Week 12+ hair is at regular length and fairly stable. Bouts of shedding and stability. Dandruff is heavy again and itching is still present and fairly annoying. Don't want to scratch as hairs tend to fall out. - Week 13 redness is almost all gone. Very slight tint, almost unnoticeable. - Week 16 started using Nizoral once or twice per week (2 uses so far) and seemed to alleviate dandruff AND itching upon first use. Almost ready for 3rd use and dandruff is still present but much less flaking, itching is mildly more tolerable. Seemed to induce some shedding but very mild. Hair is definitely drier with use even with moisturizing conditioner but gives a fuller look. Right now the side effects bothering me the most are the dandruff and itching. I would notice bouts of itchiness even before the HT but now it seems very localized in the recipient area. I had very mild dandruff before the HT as well but this has increased significantly in the recipient area. I'm not sure if this is normal? The fin seems to be working quite well but I'm definitely still losing in the hairline. This appears to be normal from what I've gathered. Hopefully the HT will make up for it. Lastly I'm fairly deep into the average growth cycle and I feel that my strong side is starting to get more stubble than my weak side which also contains a bald patch in the hairline with no growth. I don't seem to have any stubble or signs of growth in the center of the hairline. Furthermore I haven't seen much if any growth in the stubble for the past 2 weeks. Is it normal for the HT hair to grow in this slowly? I do see some thin hairs even in the weaker areas but I'm not sure if this is from the HT or the ones that have left and are not coming back. Not sure how this matches up with other late bloomers but I'm hoping that things take off soon.

Not sure if this will help but I wasn't on fin when I got 1000 FUE 5 months ago. After seeing the diffuse grow-in on top of shock loss in the weak areas I went on it 6 weeks later. I don't feel any side effects so far so that is a major factor for me. Good luck.

Had my first FUE of 1000 into the hairline about 5 months ago and I'm not really noticing much visually. There was shock in the weaker areas but I expected things to be a bit fuller by now. Still I can feel some stubble but its been 2 weeks and they don't feel like they are growing much if at all. Definitely not at the rate of the existing hair as I normally get a haircut every 2 weeks. Still hoping that time will be kind.