SilverScreen

It's hard to say since your photos have your hair pulled back. Is the same effect present when your hair is not pulled back? Regardless, you shouldn't judge anything at this point. The scalp takes time to heal and even though you've got hair growing the scalp tissue itself takes time to settle down and flatten out.

Jotronic, thanks very much for your reply.

Yes, it's still the same when my hair isn't pulled back, I just wanted to give as much visibility as possible... My concern is that I'm at the 7 month mark and I just noticed them within the last month. I keep reading that scarring usually starts to set in around this time if you're going to get any. My scalp was fine before, I didn't get bumps or pimples, and just had one minor cyst that seemed to resolve itself early on.

You do think it's possible that I'm going through another phase of healing, and they may not be permanent scars?

I know my hair and scalp are 'different' than most here, not sure if that's why there are no replies, but any insight would be appreciated.

Another...

Hello everyone,

I'm 7 months post FUT transplant, and just in the last few weeks I started noticing my recipient area having a bumpy appearance. I'm so distressed about it because it's very noticeable when I pull my hair back into a ponytail and out in the sun. I hope it's not permanent cobblestone scarring but everything I've read points to it. I just thought that the HT method used on me was supposed to have very low risks for that. I've contacted my surgeon but he takes a few days to respond. I'm very worried and I wanted to see what everyone thought this might be.

Silver,

 

Scooter brings up a very good point: the texture of transplanted hair changes and evolves as the results mature. From months 3 through 6, the hair is much more fine and wispy. From months 6 through 9, the hair becomes more thick, but is also generally more coarse and wiry. Between months 9 and 12 is where you really see the hairs return to a normal, native texture.

 

Hope this helps!

From what I've learned and in my experience with my last HT,it usually takes a good 8-12 months for the individual hairs to thicken while at 6 months,though they are growing they havent matured yet.So they will appear thinner and wirey.At 18 months is usually about as thick as they will be and blend with the rest of your hair.

 

Hope this helps,

Good luck,

 

Scott

Thank you both for the insight and information! As long as it straightens itself out eventually, I think I'm ok with that. Patience is definitely the theme in almost all HT matters! The jitteries in me just wonder if there's ever been any cases of anyone's hair not going back to the way it was.

I'm 6 months out, and while I'm happy with my growth progress, I really did not anticipate such a drastic change in texture. My hairline is literally ten times more coarse than it was before my HT procedure. It's really wirey and hard. Will it ever go back to the texture it was? Did anyone experience this phenomena? What was your final outcome?

Super happy to see you making some early gains, and really happy that you are presenting your results to help others. As you said there isn't a lot of examples of your situation, and it is a great contribution to the community, thanks for sharing!! Is your loss due to traction alopecia or something else?

Thank you!

I had a pretty full hairline as a child, and when I was about 8, my hair was chemically relaxed without my mom's permission. She was devastated. I dealt with varying degrees of chemical damage into my late teen's, and then I noticed traction alopecia beginning to set in as well, from hairstyles with too much tension. I suspect a few self-dye experiments didn't help either. The rest of my hair had always retained length and thickness, but my hairline became a tremendous source of insecurity for me. I literally hated it. I wanted to wear pretty upswept buns with romantic fly-aways (I'm a film artist, so my imagery is sometimes "extra" lol) and I wanted to be able to brush my hair behind my ear without someone wondering "where's the rest?"... I look at hair just as I see a frame for a picture. You can totally change the way someone looks at a piece of art by its frame, and I felt like my "frame" was worn, splintery wood.

I'd tried just about everything, until I stumbled across Dr. Diep on youtube and decided to put that on my definite to-do list. I'm very happy. Ecstatic even. I feel like Dr. Diep restored a part of my life, not just my hair.

It is coming along nicely. I have seen excellent results of Dr. Diep before and after HT of African American men or women. I am an African descent man myself. Thanks for sharing and way to lead; hope we will have more African descent man or woman post in the near future. Thanks again. We all here are cheering for you!

Thanks so much I really appreciate the support here! It's great to feel there's no shame in wanting to improve or fix a feature that's been damaged or isn't thriving as well as we'd like.

Welcome and congratulations! Thank you for taking the time to share your experience!

Thanks so much!

Congratulations! Look forward to updates.

Thanks!

welcome to the forums and thank you for sharing your journey to more hair, hopefully other woman will share their experiences as well.things are looking good at 4 months, heres to a hairy future

Thank you!

Congrats Silver Screen! Looks like you've had some very good growth for 4 months and you much more to come. Very nice documentation I'm sure this will be valuable for others, good job.

Thank you!

That is great you are happy with your result.

 

You regular doctor (not Dr. Diep) does not sound that great to let you remove your own stitches.

Dr. Diep is one of the best. It was my decision. I live very far from his practice and went to a primary care doctor for removal, and that primary care doctor did not understand hair transplants or how to remove them. So I did it myself (many people do, as they sell home suture removal kits), and then I called Dr. Diep to let him know I had done it successfully. No bleeding.

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/SilverScreen/albums/2802

I had a 2700 graft FUT done by Dr. Diep on July 2, 2013, and so far I am very pleased with the results (other than the little side-effect I had from starting on rogaine). I haven't been able to find many African-American women's HT picture journeys that show their growth step-by-step. I've been dying to see some that have a progression of pictures, so I created one. Hopefully this can help someone else that may be looking for the same.

I would absolutely recommend a consultation with Dr. John Diep in Los Gatos, CA.

I would suggest consult your physician before doing this .

You mean, before going back on the 2% again?

I experienced unusually fast HT growth at the 1.5 month mark, and was already using Rogaine 2% for women (I am a female), but I daresay that I got greedy, wanting to see even more growth, so I switched to Rogaine 5% for men about a month ago after reading about women online who'd experienced success with it, and had no ill effects. This past week I went outside in bright, natural light & noticed fine hairs sprouting ALL OVER my face and neck, even under my eyes. Some even had a slightly thicker and darker appearance. I immediately went to get my face entire face threaded (on the sides) and waxed around the other areas, and I stopped using it altogether for a few days. Hopefully things will normalize and I can go back to 2% and I won't experience the same side effects. Sometimes the product would drip from my sideburns and onto the side of my face and neck, but I cannot explain why hair grew everywhere else, especially right under and on the sides of my eyes!

I experienced unusually fast HT growth at the 1.5 month mark, and was already using Rogaine 2% for women (I am a female), but I daresay that I got greedy, wanting to see even more growth, so I switched to Rogaine 5% for men about a month ago after reading about women online who'd experienced success with it, and had no ill effects. This past week I went outside in bright, natural light & noticed fine hairs sprouting ALL OVER my face and neck, even under my eyes. Some even had a slightly thicker and darker appearance. I immediately went to get my face entire face threaded (on the sides) and waxed around the other areas, and I stopped using it altogether for a few days. Hopefully things will normalize and I can go back to 2% and I won't experience the same side effects. Sometimes the product would drip from my sideburns and onto the side of my face and neck, but I cannot explain why hair grew everywhere else, especially right under and on the sides of my eyes!

Dr. Diep

My FUT transplant was done by Dr. Diep on 7/2/13. My transplanted hair has already shed, and I'm now seeing some stubble and slight growth peek through. I received the A-cell injection at the time of surgery and started using Rogaine 2 weeks out. I researched him for an entire year before I scheduled my procedure -- his results are amazingly solid and accelerated.

Welcome and congratulations! Dr. Diep delivers some amazing results!

 

As for your hair growth, I'd be inclined to say that it's just not possible after only 3 weeks on Rogaine. But, when it comes to biology, I never say never.

 

I hope you'll share some surgical pics with us soon. Best of luck!

Thank you David! Glad to be here... I now wonder if the Rogaine is working on my existing follicles that were perhaps inactive before, or the transplanted follicles, even though they're supposed to be resting.

Hi everyone. I'm new here. I've been lurking for a while and finally decided to join today. My question is...

I just had a FUT procedure on 7/2/13 (2700 grafts around my hairline and temples). I'm familiar with the timeline of typical hair growth after a transplant procedure, but I swear I'm seeing a few hairs sprout already where there were none before and the transplanted hairs have already shed. Could it be just the rogaine reactivating miniaturized follicles? I've only been using rogaine 2% for about 3 weeks now.

By the way, my hair story is below:

I am an African American female that has been progressively losing my hairline for years as a result of chemical product use and tension hairstyles. It's always been a great source of insecurity for me, as I am in the public eye quite often for my line of work, and in recent years it's made me incredibly sad. I have a full head of long hair other than my hairline, and I just yearned for the front of my hair to look just as healthy. I started researching my options and was surprised to learn in the past year that hair transplantation was an option for African Americans. After stopping my chemical product use a couple of years ago, ceasing to style my hair in unhealthy ways, trying many home remedies, and finally getting my better half on board (although he remained skeptical until meeting the doctor on "surgery day"), I decided to fix my issue once and for all with a procedure done by Dr. Diep on 7/2/13. I had 2700 grafts transplanted via the strip method. I'm only a little over a month in, so all of the transplanted hair has shed, and it's just a waiting game at this point; but even in these early stages, I am very happy about my decision, and I eagerly anticipate my results. My donor scar healed so well that I actually have to search for it. I feel confident that Dr. Diep's work will yield excellent results. I'm now using Rogaine for women and massaging my scalp twice weekly with natural essential oils to help the process along. I've been lurking here for a while and I appreciate everyone's stories and input so much, so I decided to join.