KeithJagger

Good for you. Dr. Cooley is truly a master of his craft. The procedure was super easy and painless and my recovery time was very fast. At four months I can say that my hair looks amazing and I know I have a lot more growth to see. Best of luck! Spray those graphs!

Just a little over the fourth month mark. Things continue to progress quite nicely. In my opinion, the photos don't really do it justice. The hairline is starting to grow in quite nicely, but nothing substantial yet. However, the real magic is what has occurred behind the hairline. My hair has thickened up substantially where the transplanted hairs were grafted among the hair that I already had. While my hairline is still what you would consider "mature" I can say that where there was existing hair, it has thickened to where it was when I was in my mid-20s. I am much farther than where I would have expected to be at this point. And I think that this is only the beginning.

I wanted to post a four month update. Things are progressing really nicely. The transplanted hair has started growing and the shockloss has stopped and the hair I lost is slowly beginning to return. I am very pleased with where I am right now. I know I have a long way to go, but so far so good. These photos were taken in natural light with my computer. I just got out of the shower, so my hair is wet. What are your thoughts?

Thanks for posting those. As you know, I suffered a decent bit of shockloss myself. It started around 3 weeks after surgery and continued for a month or two. I was looking at my before and after as well, and there was a cognizable difference. However, in the past two weeks I have noticed a lot of them growing back. I hope this pattern continues.

Thanks for passing that along KD2020!

I finally bit the bullet and went to get a haircut today after four months. I have been going to the same lady for the last eight years. She is pretty direct with me and I was curious as to whether or not she would notice anything different from when I saw her last. She would have had no problem asking me if I got a H/T. However, she didn't say anything. Nothing positive, nothing negative. So I guess that is good. Nothing new to report. There are a few sprouts here and there. Coming up on Three months now.

Here are some photos at around 2.5 months. As you can see, shockloss took quite a toll. Fortunately, I believe it has started to subside and the native hairs I lost are growing back. There isn't much new growth aside from a few small sprouts, but I wanted to post something to show the healing process, which has been great. The first few shots are how I normally wear my hair. The last few are with my hair pulled back. I took these photos under the harshest light I could find (6 lightbulbs beating down in my bathroom) What are your thoughts?

@Voxman. You are right; definitely more Jonesy than Richards. Great to hear re: 3 months. It would be nice to see some growth next month.

Looking good! Congratulations on getting the sutures out. Scar looks super clean, just like mine did. I finally went in for a hair cut the other day. I let my hair grow ridiculously long, not because I had to cover anything, but because my boss's were out of town for a long time and I had always wanted to see what my hair looked like long. By long, I mean Owen Wilson -- not Motley Crew. Anyway, because my hair was so long, I thought that it might have camouflaged any scars/redness. However, after getting a proper hair cut, I was even more pleased with Dr. Cooley's work as now I could better see the donor scar. Or more accurately, I could better see how there was barely a donor scar. So looking at where you are at one month and being that I am one month ahead of you, I think you are going to be really, really pleased with how your donor scar turns out.

I am now a few days over two months and I just wanted to give a quick update. Not surprisingly, I have not seen any real results at this point. There are a few small sprouts here and there, but nothing even close to substantial. All that being, the healing process has been amazing. The shockloss that I experienced has stopped and has started growing back. The donor scar is almost completely undetectable. I can't feel it and I can barely see it. I am amazed as I have had smaller injuries (from years ago) that have required stitches and those injuries are more noticeable than my donor scar. The recipient area looks just like it did before the transplant. So at two months, I am exactly back to where I started, which I believe is a good thing. Hopefully I'll start seeing some results shortly.

You made a great choice. I am a little over a month out from my procedure with Dr. Cooley and I could not be more pleased. While I still have to wait to see results, I would give his office an A+ so far.

I am a little over a month from my procedure. Everything is healing great. The donor scar is much better than I expected and any redness in the recipient area is gone. I have, however, experienced what I believe is the dreaded SHOCK LOSS. From my understanding, I just have to wait with my fingers crossed and hope that it grows back, right? Is it normal to experience shock loss a month out? From my understanding those with receding temples stand a better chance of the hair growing back than diffuse thinners? I am the prior, not the latter. It is not horrible and I doubt anyone would notice any difference in my hair other than me, but there are definitely some spots that look a lot thinner than before the procedure. I am taking Propecia in hopes that it will help those little guys grow back. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

I probably could have driven if I really had to. But my advice, for what it is worth, would be to stay an extra day at the hotel, watch TV and relax. Order room service. Maybe down a painkiller or a Valium and just veg out all day. I had the procedure done on a Thursday and drove five hours for work on Sunday and I was totally fine.

Good luck. Your procedure will go great. Let me know if I can provide any help. Just listen to Dr. Cooley and you'll be fine. Spray those graphs!

Yeah. The scar is really a non-issue. It was sore for longer than I expected (almost a month) but now you can barely feel it and no way you could see it. Everything is completely undetectable at this point. Most of the graphs have shed though and I experienced some shockloss. I have been good about setting realistic expectations as far as growth. I think when it grows in, it is going to be awesome, but I am not going to start expecting anything until month eight. At that point, I hope to start seeing results.

For those who have been asking, here is the exact breakdown of graphs/hairs from Dr. Cooley. The breakdown was: 1-707 2-1517 3-620 4-47 Total grafts: 2891 total hairs: 5789 Here is a photo of how I looked directly after the procedure. It hasn't quite been a month yet, but for the most part I am all healed up. Yesterday, I started running and cycling again. I am still going to hold off on weights though for another few months. Everything is going well and I don't want to push my luck.

You know, I meant to but totally forgot. I think I may still order it though. If I am not mistaken, you can also purchase at Dr. Cooley's office.

On second thought, here are two quick photos. You can see the recipient area is healing nicely AND that I need a hair cut because I am starting to look like Owen Wilson. Which is fine, but I don't think my boss appreciates it.

I am coming up on a month since my procedure with Dr. Cooley. I am still waiting on his office to get me the actual number of hairs. Everything has gone back to normal for the most part. About 60% of the transplanted hairs have fallen out and I believe I have experienced a little shockloss. But my hair looks pretty good overall. The hairs that haven't fallen out yet give my existing hair some great density. I am sure they will fall out over time though. The recipient area is just the slightest bit pink. I am confident that no one could detect it unless they closely inspected my scalp. And even then, they would have to know what they were looking for. The donor scar is healing nicely. It is super thin, like someone drew a line with pencil. It is still a little red and some parts are a bit raised, but it is progressing nicely. I was on a date awhile back and the girl I was with kept running her hands through my hair and I was totally relaxed about it. I say this only because I have gotten a few questions about whether my HT would be detectable under such a scenario. In my case, I don't think it is/was. I'd post some pictures but there really isn't much to show except that I need a haircut.

I did do the laxity exercise, but certainly not for thirty minutes (although perhaps in the last few days leading up to the procedure). Whenever I had some free time or was sitting at my desk, I would do them. Whatever I did must have worked as Dr. Cooley said my scar closed really well. Most of that was probably his skill, but he said my scalp laxity really helped.

Sutures are still in. I get them out this week. I wanted to keep them as long as possible to minimize the scarring. I think total, they will have been in exactly 21 days. Not too bad. You can sort of feel the scar, but it has gone down a tremendous amount over the last few days. I would say in a month or two you will not be able to feel it at all. I think the A-Cell is partly responsible for that. There are some parts of the scar that are already totally smooth. Go for the A-Cell. Totally worth it.

Thanks a lot home1212! I definitely felt like I was in good hands, which made the process much easier both physically and mentally.

Question about the "doldrums" and shock loss. I am 14 days post-op and so far everything has been going great. Scar is healing nicely, redness is so faint that it is barely noticeable, graphs for the most part still have not fallen out. My donor area is still a little tender but it gets better every day. Here is my problem: my hair (native/original/non-transplanted/whatever-you-call-it) looks like crap. I mean, most people probably would not be able to tell a difference, but I sure as hell can. It is drier, thinner and just looks all around unhealthier. I know that people enter the dreaded doldrums and then around month 6-7 they reemerge as beautiful butterflies or whatever. But I thought the doldrums and shock loss don't start until around month three? Is it possible to start in two weeks? Can anyone provide feedback? I am all good with entering the doldrum phase but want to make sure that is what it really is. What should I be expecting around week two? Also, and I find this particularly peculiar, my forehead seems to be dry and shiny. Again, not noticeable to anyone but me and only under the harshest lights, but I can definitely tell a difference.

Here are some recent photos. My iPhone took a dip in a pool awhile back so I have resorted to my computer as that is all I have.

Yeah. That is very true. Although she called me the other day so I guess if she did notice she didn't have a problem with it. Yeah. I literally was on here since I was like 26 years old. Seriously logged some time researching. Glad I did. My advice, would be to go visit a few doctors, get on their schedule and then go with whatever they think is best. I'll put in a plug for Dr. Cooley because I thought he was awesome. But to be fair, I've never had surgery with another doctor so I can't compare. My biggest fear was it being detectable. Everyone is different, but mine is 100%, absolutely, positively not detectable. Not my donor scar; not my recipient area. Today I was walking to a client meeting with my secretary and the wind was blowing like hell and I was a little nervous, but that was the only time I was worried. It is a scar and it has only been two weeks. I am sure it will heal a lot more. At least I hope so. But even if it didn't, I would be ok with how it is now. Although it is the tiniest bit sore still. I was going to spend some more time at the gym, but am going to take about a month off. I feel like I could do cardio right now, but just to be safe I'm not. I would not recommend lifting heavy weights or doing P90Crossfit or whatever the hell it is called. I'm not really a gym guy. I just usually hit the treadmill a few times a week and do some minor lifting to keep me from getting fat. As far as the sun, Dr. Cooley said to avoid a sunburn for six months. He actually, like a good doctor, told me to avoid sunburns altogether. I told him I play a lot of golf and am going to Costa Rica in August and he said I would be fine. I don't know about soccer, never was any good at it. I'll post some pics here shortly.