harryforreal

Immediately after 2nd V-Beam procedure. Notice the purple "bruising" is considerably less than the first V-Beam procedure.

January 29, 2016 - the day of 2nd V-Beam treatment. The below pics are before and after I trimmed my hairs using a small scissor before going into my second V-Beam treatment. (So this 2nd treatment I did not pluck the hairs). Notice the small remaining band of pink at the very front of the hairline. Behind that band the skin tone is normal (where my natural hairline begins).

January 27, 2016 (two days before next V-Beam treatment).

Five weeks later (January 2, 2016).

Immediately after the V-Beam treatment (well, within an hour, as I drove straight home and then took these photos).

Ok, so following are photos that I took after plucking out transplanted hairs just hours prior to my first V-Beam procedure. I was told to shave the hair down prior to the procedure, but I just decided to pluck them out - my reasoning was that I wanted to increase the intensity of the V-Beam treatment by adding further red agitation through plucking (the V-Beam targets the red wavelengths). I am not a doctor, and I have NO IDEA if this had any effect positive or negative - indeed, my second V-Beam treatment I just shaved per the instructions of the administering nurse. Maybe I can find some older photos of the redness before I plucked all my transplanted hairs this day for my first V-Beam treatment, but after 4 years of persistent redness I was just ready to go to my first V-Beam session that day and be done with it, whatever the results. As as result, I didn't take any photos of the existing redness immediately before I plucked out the hairs. I also did not pluck any native hairs, since I was concerned the V-Beam might target them. In any case, I don't believe my redness was any where nearly as red as JayBandana's (whose photos I have not seen, so I can't really compare, but just based on his description). My first V-Beam treatment was on December 22, 2015. My first hair transplant procedure was in February 3, 2012. A second transplant procedure was done November 6, 2013 to add density and singles to detract from doubles in hairline as well as hide the bumpy texture and discoloration from the first procedure.

Dr. Bloxham, I can say that 2 treatments of the V-Beam laser changed my life for the better (and 2 micro needling treatments for skin texture). I lost two years of my life because of my hair transplant - just sat inside waiting for things to improve, which they never did. After two years I had learned how to comb my hair forward and matte it down in a pony tail to cover my red and bumpy hairline. This I did for another two years, but at least I got out the house and was more active. After 4 years a doctor at a medical spa who doesn't do hair transplants and doesn't have a V-Beam laser (so no financial interest at play) suggested I look into the V-Beam laser for the redness (and try micro needling for the bumpy texture, which her office does do). After the first V-Beam treatment I saw significant improvement for the redness. After the second V-Beam treatment there was virtually no lingering redness (note that I was advised by the V-Beam nurse to do 3 V-Beam treatments). To be honest, I am quite shocked, especially given the number of post-op hair transplant patients that have lingering redness, that the V-Beam isn't promoted more. After my postings on the success of my V-Beam treatments I really thought more HT surgeons would look into it as a way to decrease recovery time (read, sell a post V-Beam package treatment for extra $$$ in the same way that some sell PRP and other treatments). Maybe because the V-Beam treatments are relatively cheap and only require several treatments typically the procedure isn't profit worthy for HT doctors? I don't know. But I can say it works. And with no hair loss to any of my transplanted hair grafts or even finer natural vellus hairs on my hairline, which I was more concerned with. Indeed, let me state that I actually hoped the V-Beam would diminish some of my transplanted hairs possibly as their unnaturally coarseness and thickness and darker color has been a great, great annoyance and source of frustration and anger. Alas, the 2 V-Beam treatments did not have any noticeable diminishing affect on my transplanted hairs (and similarly thankfully to the native, softer vellus hairs). Even so, the disappearance of the redness is a great relief. No one looks at my hairline any more with perplexing eyebrows. I, too, had similar experiences in the airport security line - though nothing on the order as JayBandana. But, yes, I had security personnel do a double take 2 years after my hair transplant. Now, however, no one really looks at my hairline, and I think most would be surprised to learn I have had a hair transplant - though I think once pointed out they would go, "Ahhhh, ok, yeah, I see it now". I still wear my hair a bit forward, but not for reasons of redness, more because the texture is still a little bumpy and the transplanted hairs themselves just look a bit off. I just purchased two more micro-needling treatments at the suggestion of someone who works in the micro-needling industry (but isn't the person who does my micro needling, so no personal financial interest). I will have my 3rd micro-needling at the end of December or beginning of January and am very excited about it! (I mean, it's not promoted as a post hair transplant procedure, but rather a skin rejuvenator, so I'll get a little facial in hopefully before holiday parties begin! ALSO, I've heard it said that when micro needling is done in the hair it can have a similar effect as PRP in promoting hair growth - I'm less convinced of this, but, hey, if it doesn't hurt but can only help why not get excited?! ) Even so, if I had to choose between V-Beam for redness and micro-needling for texture, I would hands down choose V-Beam. The redness draws the attention to the hairline and scalp - it is literally a RED FLAG screaming "Look here! Look here!" Once the eyes are drawn to the hairline, this invites further investigation into what is the cause of the redness, i.e., a hair transplant - which is the last thing you want to draw attention to. The bumpy texture is only noticed if the eyes look at the hairline up close - it doesn't scream look at me from across the room. I want to clarify that my redness I don't think was as bad as JayBandana's (I don't know, I can't see his photos and am only just today, 12-33-17, reading his story). But it was certainly red enough to have a technician at another hair transplant clinic/dermatologist (who is a coallition surgeon of the Hair Transplant Network) to which I travelled after the 18 month mark exclaim upon inspection, "Why is it so red??!" After which she went and brought the hair transplant surgeon to look at it, to which he suggested I return to my original HT surgeon and get some cortisone shots - which I did, but really didn't have any significant long term improvement. In any case, I was basically at the point where if I lost hair as a result of a V-Beam laser treatment I would be ok as long as the redness was gone. I was preferring to have normal skin tone color - even with a post-surgery bumpy texture and a bald zone than to have a pluggy, scraggly hairline with eye grabbing redness. Luckily, the V-Beam had no negative effect on any hairs in my hairline - transplanted or native. You do have to shave down your hair where they laser, which means more down time socially. And there is some significant purplish discoloration immediately afterwards that starts to clear up in a couple of days. But, damn, after several days you start to see normal skin tone color after 4 years of !#E^*#$ redness - WOO-HOO!!! Oh, and one other thing to mention, Dr. Bloxham that I found relevant to your posting - I don't know if it affected the red discoloration I had post hair transplant, but I DO KNOW that the FUE grafts were NOT trimmed prior to being implanted. Indeed the number of 2 and 3 grafts in my hairline really made me wonder why more effort to trim my grafts down to singles wasn't put forth - though according to the surgeon the hair grafts all looked like singles. In any event, I don't know if trimming away extra tissue would reduce redness or not. I do wonder if it might minimize differences in scalp tones that exist between donor and recipient sites? But I feel that the redness was mostly a result of trauma to the capillaries in the skin and subsequent new, tiny capillaries in the skin close the surface as a result of the implanter pen - though maybe also the extra tissue? In any event, the V-Beam destroyed those capillaries, and it was explained to me that the V-Beam doesn't go deep enough to affect the blood vessels that supply nutrients to hair roots, only the newer capillaries at the surface are destroyed - if I understood correctly. Regardless, none of my hair follicles, native or transplanted, were affected by the treatments in any way.

Good, Cheddar. I always say that the worst mistake I made was stopping finasteride because of worries over taking a drug. I'm back on it now, and like before, I don't notice any negative side effects.

I agree 100%. I have had no side effects taking propecia, and resent the doctor who took me off propecia which then caused my hairline to thin and end up with a less than satisfactory transplant. Otherwise, Dolph's transplant looks good for 1600 hairs. But the wiry hair quality, yeah, that's been a big issue for me ever since my transplant. Otherwise, I always advocate meds first. And then once you have a transplant, realize that if you stop taking meds, your hairloss will most likely continue. Dr. Bernstein has great photographic results of the use of meds.

I am really leary of doubles in the hairline. Overall it looks nice in the photos. But in my own hairline the doubles always make it look "stalk-y". The right temple looks a bit strange, but maybe that's just the haircut and photograph. The other photos look rather nice.

It looks nice, but it's rather difficult to make a full assessment with the hair slicked by and to the side like that. It would be nice to see you comb through it in the video to see the results from multiple angles.

Looks very good.

Or to put it another way. Your natural hairline looks sooooo healthy and dense! I don't think there's any way to match the density of your natural hairline with a hair transplant - especially with how low you want to go. I just don't think it's possible. I don't think it was every possible.

Are you taking medication - specifically finasteride? When I look at your native hairline I think it looks great. Your hair is really thick. I honestly don't think you need any type of lowering. If you can remove those ugly transplanted hairs without any evidence of scarring or such, I think that's the way you should go. Why risk anything more when you have such a thick, great head of hair? You look young and strong with a handsome face as is - ready to conquer the world. If they can be removed, just do that. I'm with you, I'm a bit suspicious of this industry. Therefore, given your natural hairline and how good it looks, just forget about trying to lower it and move on with life. Maybe that's not the answer you were looking for. But what do others guys think about his natural hairline? Looks damn good to me.

Me, too, Dr. Bloxham! What do you mean by "feathered" approach? And how did you feel about his rejection of meds? When I look at his initial hair loss, I wonder if he should have been advised to at least first try meds before going to surgery. A lot of guys on this forum reject the idea of meds (including me at one point). But when a parent says to their GP, "No vaccines for my child because they aren't natural," what is a doctor's role and responsibility in counseling a patient to reconsider medication? Thank you, Dr. Bloxham, for your thoughtful input over the years.

Stinger, You did your research. You chose a top notch clinic. You approached it conservatively and chose to spread it out over 2 - 3 operations. You've documented your journey for others. Thank you. I think you'll be pleased based on reactions to your first operation, and I look forward to seeing your final outcome.

Ok, well I look forward to seeing your results as they mature. Dr. Konior is definitely one of my favorites for hairlines.

Very impressive results with meds alone.

Great option!

So the hairs all along the very front of your hairline are actually native hairs, right? I think it makes more sense to place grafts behind native hairs when possible. They provide that "soft" look that otherwise seems frequently lacking in hair transplants when viewed from the front.

looks good.

While I favor trying meds, I like this suggestion in your case. I like the fact that it's temporary. You can experiment, with no long term consequences. Also, it is true that much progress is being made medically. Down the road there might well be an effective treatment using, for example, stem cells.

This doctor is specialized in Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL). Sorry, I should have been clearer. Dr. Patel was a female general practitioner who took me off of Finasteride, not a transplant doctor. Patel is of course a common Indian name (just saw a PBS special last night on Patel dating, actually - rather interesting, but I digress). The person who did my hair transplant was not a Patel. I had some recession and some thinning (age 41 at the time), that had started to bother me. I had sometimes thought about going back on Propecia, but since my General Practioner (Dr. Patel) had taken me off of it simply because she thought it unwise to take a drug for cosmetic reasons, I never went back on it. Having occasionally seen Bosley commercials on TV, and seen media shows talking about this or that celebrity having a hair transplant, I thought a hair transplant must be a relatively simple thing with no worries about long term drug interactions. A bit of an inconvenience and a bit pricey, but not that big a deal. So I thought if my hair loss continued, I'd just do a transplant. When I consulted with the hair transplant surgeon, he said meds would not have any effect on the hair line, and that a hair transplant was my only option. I wish I had seen Dr. Bernstein's study showing that meds can indeed have an effect on the hairline. But in any case, the surgeon recommended lowering the hairline with about 1000 grafts. My hairline didn't really bother me - it had always been high. But the recent thinning did bother me. I had seen the hair transplant doctor on a local news segment on tv, and thought that if he was featured on the news, it must be safe and very good. Hah! In the local news segment, the hair transplant surgeon said he had a minimum of 1000 grafts to do surgery. So when he suggested 1000 grafts for my hairline, I was kind of suspect, but on the other hand I thought, "Well, it's my only option for the thinning, and a Brad Pitt hairline might be kind of nice." Also he said initial results in 6 months. Seemed like a good turn around time, just in time for summer; and I live for the summer - traveling and socializing in Europe. So I went for it. The transplant doctor didn't think I would loose any more hair, so he didn't suggest taking finasteride or anything. But first and foremost the redness to my scalp was unbelievable. Everyone at work could tell I had a transplant. No one said anything, but they would look at my hairline and kind of snicker. If it had looked good, I could have dealt with this. But of course, it never did. Summer came, and it looked so bad there was no way I was going to Europe. The hairs that did come in were much darker and thicker than my native hairline hairs. Also, though I didn't really understand it at the time, there were a lot of doubles and even some triples and such in the hairline which gave it a very pluggy look. The angles of the hairs looked weird. It just looked very funked up. Everyone said, "results may take a year", so I waited a year. Still looked bad. Still lots of redness. Also bumpy texture. Density was quite thin, and uneven. I honestly never imagined it might look SOOOOOO bad. I mean, I thought maybe it might not look as great as it sounded in the brochure. But DAMN!!!!! The combover I was doing before the transplant was now a permanent combover and pressed down to hide the mess at the hairline. At least I can say I had enough thick native hair to comb over. But it never looked good. My hope for being able to brush my hair back and part it on the side never materialized; and the last 5 years have been spent trying to get rid of the redness, the bumpy texture, minimize the look of the doubles and triples, minimize the dark, frizzy hair look of the hairs transplanted to the front. Yeah, what was supposed to be a 6 month - 1 year outcome has turned into a 5+ year saga. Micro needling to the scalp to improve the skin texture helped. Also 2 V-Beam laser treatments to improve the redness helped significantly. Now it looks much better, but a close look still doesn't look natural. I sure as hell don't brush it back and part it on the side! I've been taking finasteride now for a couple of years, and this summer after the V-Beam treatments I started applying Rogaine foam to the hairline 2x per day, and I do think I am seeing some softer, blonde hairs at my native hairline, so I am happy about that. I have tried to schedule some electrolysis on the doubles and black hairs, but the electrolysis girl got sick, so I am having to reschedule for after the holidays. In retrospect, I would definitely try the meds before anything else. People talk about potential side effects, but clinical studies show a very low incidence, and I can say meds are far less intrusive than a hair transplant. Also, I'm always like, "How do you know it's the meds? Maybe you're just aging? And (for those men worried about sexual side effects, I'm like "How do you think you're going to get laid with a bad hair transplant?" My social life was completely shut down for over 2 years. I mean, come home, close the door, stay in. Spend the time researching how to improve on the look of it. And, to be honest, I'm like one of the other posters on here: that's a very conservative hairline you've got drawn. What's the point? The things is, I really don't think girls care all that much about the hair. Maybe young 20 year olds. But as you get older, it just really doesn't matter to most I think. A shaved head can rock at a club on Ibiza. I've seen it. The girls like a guy with attitude and confidence. Also, conservative Christian girls like a nice guy, so if club girls aren't your thing, it just doesn't really matter I don't think. A fit body and personality is more important than hair. But a messed up hairline...I think that's a bigger problem. Those are my thoughts. For the record, I'm not opposed to cosmetic enhancement; indeed, that is one reason why I thought a hair transplant probably wasn't such a big deal. I had had botox, and laser treatments on my face, even my shoulders for freckles. These things work great with little risk.

Consider looking again at meds: https://www.bernsteinmedical.com/medical-treatment/patient-photos/

A surgeon who wants to make some money will tell you probably 1000, just so they can get their "minimum" in. A more ethical surgeon will tell you less probably, but the most ethical will tell you don't do it. KO and I have disagreed about the naturalness of HT hairlines; however, we are both in agreement: 0 grafts. For the record, I don't think it's possible to make a hairline look natural for such a small amount. I think KO feels differently. Maybe also depends on hair characteristics. If it is possible, I think it works better with darker hair; not your hair color. But in any event there's a too many variables for things to go wrong for such a small amount of "maturing" to your hairline. I honestly would suggest meds. I think too many people have been so put off by "avoiding" medications in general throughout all of society (ex, anti-vaccine parents!), that the safety of trying Finasteride or even Rogaine is being unfairly undermined at the expense of guys' emotional and psychological health. In any case, most of the guys in these medicine-only case studies have had significantly more hair loss than you, and you can see how well they have responded to meds - without having to subject their bodies to the incredibly intrusive nature of the blade and bloody surgery. Literally, bloody surgery. This is not a light "procedure". Give the meds a try first, mate. Look at the below photos: https://www.bernsteinmedical.com/medical-treatment/patient-photos/