FriskyDingo

I think it's partly men's unfamiliarity (and aversion to) using makeup/concealers of any kind. That's become less of an issue in recent years, with more guys buying things like moisturizers, but it's still a big step to go from that to something like Toppik or Dermatch. The issue wasn't helped by all those "hair in a can" spray-on ads that ran on late-night TV back in the 90's which gave hair loss concealers a terrible reputation for a while! We've come a long way, but the general public doesn't know that... (Honestly, if people knew what goes on in Hollywood and modeling gigs, they'd realize that everyone you see on TV or movies is wearing some form of makeup, and a great deal of the men are using hair concealers as well!)

I recently made a "what got you through the "ugly duckling phase of a HT?" post with a lot of these concerns (I'm at about 1 1/2 months now). I've just been taking it day by day and trying not to obsess over shedding - the mirror hasn't been my best friend for a long time now, but never more so than currently! I just tell myself that I've already done all the hard work (getting a doctor, going through the HT procedure, the initial post-op recovery) and from here on out there's nothing I can do to change the outcome anyway. I will say that a short (but not TOO short, especially with scarring) haircut and toppik has helped me quite a bit. Since a lot of people cut their hair shorter for the summer months, the timing of my HT has worked in my favor at deferring a lot of the "why did you change your hair?" questioning.

I started using Minox foam again a week after my HT, though I was careful not to get it into the donor OR transplanted areas of my scalp - like you, I was nervous that being off it too long would lead to more shedding, and I rationalized that since I had originally only been applying it to my thinning crown area and not any areas touched by the surgery itself, I was probably fine. So far, so good - I haven't noticed any additional issues cropping up in the month since my HT. Obviously, your situation and results may vary considerably.

I could have slept through the extraction process, had I been inclined to - since my procedure was FUE, there's only a veeerrrry slight pain involved in that aspect of the procedure, and you can tune it out fairly easily once you adjust. The second half, with the numbing needles in the forehead and the graft insertion? No, I found the numbing far too uncomfortable for that, but as I understand it everyone's pain threshold varies, as well as the efifcacy of the numbing agents interacting with your own body. You might be able to snooze through it just fine, but the only thing that helped me was distracting myself with a movie. I wouldn't say it ever got to more than a 5 or 6 out of 10 (the highest being when the needles were first inserted) on the pain scale, but it was enough to keep me from being relaxed. All that said, given that I was in a chair from 8am to 5pm with only one brief lunch break and a couple of short bathroom trips, the time went by remarkably quickly!

Yep, you just remove the little shaker top (the plastic bit with holes) from your toppik container and screw on the sprayer. You'll see very quickly that the spray applicator is great for covering smaller areas of 'problem hair'. The shaker method works well for the crown area, but it's a real pain to use effectively anywhere else.

Really great improvement on the hairline, I'd be thrilled with those results.

I'm currently one month post-HT and living in Texas, so as you can imagine there's absolutely no avoiding the sun this time of year! I mostly depend on the safety afforded by hats, but I think limited sun exposure is probably okay - most of what I've read about the damaging effects on sun/UV on transplanted hair involves actual sunburn. As long as you limit exposure to 15-20 minutes at a time and stay in the shade when possible, you'll probably be fine.

I'm only able to use the foam, since the liquid also causes a rash on my scalp, though that hasn't always been in the case - at some point I must have developed an allergy to it. I find the foam easier to style into hair, if you have a decent amount left in the crown area. The liquid takes longer to dry and tends to leave a greasier feel.

What type of hair transplant procedure? Strip method or FUE? I think in either case 8 days is cutting it close in terms of recovery if you are going for the "nobody will be the wiser" stratagem, but it is do-able. Your swelling will likely be minimal at that point, but there's probably going to be some redness lingering around in the transplant area that might be difficult to fully conceal without a hat. There's also the issue of the donor area being cut short and/or shaved. Again, the extent of this depends on your type of procedure and your doctor, but assuming you leave your hair long on top, you might have to start rocking the "short-sides-and-back but long on top" look that - thankfully - seems to be kind of trendy in certain circles at the moment. When I had my procedure done (FUE, 2000 grafts) they left the top of my hair at a normal length and shaved the donor area down to almost the skin. I spent the next week recovering and generally taking it easy (vacation time from work!), then decided I'd comb my hair down in front over the transplanted area at the hairline to hide the lingering redness and obvious HT grafts. It actually worked surprisingly well, and the only comments I got were about the "new short haircut". Nobody seemed to notice my donor area marks or saw the work on my hairline (or if they did, they kept their mouth shut, which knowing the people I work with, it's unlikely they suddenly gained that much tact).

Most of my experience is with Toppik (I'm thinking of giving Dermatch another go once my HT recovery gets a little further along), and it's worked well for me for the past 5+ years. It has a few downsides: it's (obviously) not a replacement for hair loss treatment, because it is purely cosmetic, and it's not particularly effective on the hairline - though I have seen some people use it successfully with certain hairstyles. It is however, nearly undetectable if you are covering a thinning crown area. The fibers anchor pretty well to the existing hair follicles (which is why I recommended it in your case; if you are slick-bald in the back it would have nothing to attach to and then it DOES look rather fake) and can survive a little moisture/sweat, but I wouldn't recommend immersing your head in a swimming pool unless you could do a quick 'touch-up' afterwards. I'd suggest watching a few videos on Youtube to see how people apply it and then give a trial-size container a go and see if it works for your lifestyle. It certainly made me feel like I could delay dealing with my crown thinning for a while. I'm planning to upload some of my HT photos soon (just joined the site yesterday, and I'm only 1 month post-op). I had a few concerns about the "island" of hair I had left, too, but they were able to transplant some of my donor hairs into that area to increase the density a bit, so if I do continue to recede, it won't look particularly weird - at least, that's my hope! With any luck, the regimen I'm on (finasteride and minox) will be able to keep further hair loss to a minimum, but that's admittedly always a gamble; there's no telling exactly what my "final" hair loss status will be 5/10/20 years from now. The reason I finally went in for surgery was that I realized I'd done everything I could stop further loss, but nothing was going to bring my hairline back except a HT.

Based on those two pictures I'd suggest focusing your attention on your hairline if you decide to get a HT. Your crown, while thinning a bit, still looks pretty manageable; if you were willing to use a product like Toppik or Dermatch I think hairloss there would be completely undetectable. While there are HT surgeons who will do more than 2000 grafts a session and work on both the crown and hairline, most of what I've gathered in my research seems to indicate the best results come from focusing on one area at a time and then tackling the other "problem area" at a later date. I have a similar pattern of loss to you (Norwood 3V, going on 4) and opted to get 2000 grafts in my hairline, because that was clearly going to make the most difference for my overall appearance. I'm taking finasteride and using minoxodil to help slow down the crown loss until I decide what to do about that aspect of the problem.

I think these results are great! I'm one month post-HT procedure with a very similar pattern of hair loss prior to surgery, and will be really happy if I have anything close to your results at the 8 month mark. One can't help but be hyper-critical and over-scrutinize the face one sees in the mirror everyday (I'm the poster boy for this, really), but to an impartial observer the difference is really apparent.

As a user of Toppik for several years now, I've gotten quite good at making sure it stays where it's supposed to, mostly through the use of hair spray. Apply the Toppik (I HIGHLY suggest the use of the "spray applicator" they sell, because its far more precise than shaking the fibers onto your head, unless you have a wide area to cover), then mist the area with the hair spray. After the spray dries, gently "tap" your head in the toppik-applied region to see if any fibers dislodge - most should stay put for the rest of the day, unless you get very sweaty and/or wet from swimming/rain/etc.

"You guys are coming back, right?" It's probably not entirely sane to talk to your hair follicles, but I've caught myself doing it lately. It's been just under a month since I had 2000 FUE grafts, and every morning I find myself peering intently into the mirror, looking to see how many little hairs are still doggedly clinging to my new, hopefully improved hairline - things are definitely starting to look sparse again, and I'm really starting to feel the onset of the dreaded "ugly duckling" phase that so many HT patients talk about. Hair transplants must be one of the few cosmetic surgeries where things look a great deal worse before they get better. Imagine a woman getting a boob job where her newly-augmented breasts shrink to an A-Cup before slowly building up to Ds, or botox where you go through a period of being mistaken for a shar pei before your skin gets baby-smooth. Hair transplants are a bit like that...hey, look at all these great new hairs where none were before! Oh wait, they're all going to fall out again and you'll be as bald (or more so, if you count shock loss) as before! Even when you know it's coming and did all the necessary research beforehand, it's still a bit of a psychological battle, if only because as MPB sufferers we've come to see loss of hair as something wholly negative for so long that even when it's a supposedly positive sign - for once! - it's really tough to see those tiny little graft hairs in the sink and not attached to your noggin. I feel like I'm re-living those early days of my hair loss where I was losing in confidence and gaining in shiny forehead, when it was all horrifyingly new and seemingly unstoppable (I was, unfortunately, late to the Rogaine party, and Propecia wasn't readily available when I started to go bald in my late teens). Only this time it's happening in fast-forward and not over the course of many months/years! I keep looking at post-op photos where I can see all the grafts and telling myself that, yes, most of those hairs are actually going to come back in a few months, but the uncertainty and stress is definitely greater than I thought it would be before I had my surgery. So, fellow HT patients, how did you weather the early days? What were your coping mechanisms?