johndoe1

I can tell you that the donor areas scars for me are not too bad. I just now shaved down to approx a shaver guard 1.5 and didn't seem to see any difference in the donor area. I normally was a 1 level with the shaver before. I also have had friends look hard to see scars and they have to look VERY hard and then say they can notice tiny areas missing hair..but nothing too noticeable. That said scarring does vary based on the surgeon, how well you do the post-op instructions, and plain old genetics. I will post an update in a second. Also, here is another Diep FUE patient who is like 30 days before me: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/173759-2-781-grafts-dr-diep.html

Myself and another patient I know (both FUES..he had ~2100, I had 1500) both had pain starting a few days after and it was in isolated spots. Nothing showed externally like a pimple. Doc said likely ingrown hairs. We both did antibiotics (doxycyline pill and erythromycin gel (may have misspelled those)) and pain subsided. But yes, you can expect pain, sometimes for weeks. Ingrown hairs, nerve damage, etc. An HT is very traumatic to the head, despite what some HT marketing literature might say!

A friend took a close look at the bumps and said they could not see any redness at all. So I guess it is something deeper under the skin. Anyhow, I only had to do a phone call with Diep about a week ago and they hooked me up with antibiotics. Doxycyclin pills and erythromycin (spelling?) gel. As of today, most of the bumps went away, but 1 or 2 persist. Also, I am at day ~21 and still redness in the donor area. Like you, I just gotta be patient with it....

At the pre-op consultation, Diep initially designed it by drawing the line in removable pencil on my head and I approved it. We didn’t want it unnaturally low. Also we made it so it was a “rounded” hairline lower in the middle/front because this is natural for my white/Hispanic background (if say I had been Asian it would have been a more flat/straight hairline). Right before the procedure he drew the line on my head again and I had a chance to closely look at it and approve it again. I appreciated that….given the time/cost/pain involved, it is key the patient likes the hairline Day 17 and still redness. Totally agree I need to keep waiting. I hear with some people it can be several months before all the redness is gone…

m0dthisphy: Question for you related to the pimples. In the donor area I have 2 bumps that are somewhat painful. They are purplish in color...not whitehead sort of pimples teenagers get. Also maybe 1/2 centimeter in diameter. Is this also what you had? If so I guess you antibiotics...and if so, did it clear up the pimples? Thx!

Day 10 photos attached. Here is the good & bad. Good: Scabs all went away pretty much by day 8. Showering 2-3 times with indirect water helped. So did Bacitran in the donor area and constant saline spray in the recipient area. Swelling and bruising around the eye went away a few days ago as well. On the recipient & donor areas around day 9 I used aloe only since the follicles are firmly in place. Hair growth has been noticeable in the recipient area. In the donor area, I have done some hair clipper ju-jitsu to blend the donor area shorter hair with the surrounding thicker hair so it is difficult to notice. Bad: In the recipient area, redness persists. Hopefully the aloe helps with this. I had planned to be back at work yesterday but am putting this off due to the redness - it is more noticeable than the photo indicates. Luckily I can work remotely from home no problem Also I still have dull pain in the donor area in 2 points: at the back top of my head and also somewhat above the ear. Hopefully it goes away. For those considering a FUE/FUT don't believe the hype about no pain, within 2-3 days no one will notice it & you are back at work, etc. In corner cases that might happen, but that is not the majority. Plan on 7-14 days to lay low. BTW, I dyed my hair before. Hence the brown is replaced with some grey. Lastly, standard disclaimer applies: "shock loss" still will happen. And final density still has me a bit nervous. Ultimate verdict is at the one year mark!

What are you using for redness? Aloe and vitamin e still?

Day 5 update. Pros are that the scabs/crust in the recipient area are coming off and so far no shedding/loss of any grafts. Also, the donor area holes are healing and the area is starting to become being hidden by surrounding hair. Cons are that I still have pain in the donor area above the right ear. Not terrible pain, but a dull, persistent pain. That area had a lot of trauma with so many punches in it, so I guess it’s lingering nerve/tissue damage. Hopefully it will go away soon. Also, the recipient area is still pretty purple. It is getting better though. I hope to be back at work in 5 days so I will start using some aloe at the 7 day mark (2 days from now) to see if that helps. Luckily I have one of those jobs where I can work remotely so that will buy me more time. See photos. The hairline looks pretty good, but of course the purple skin also makes it look better J Anyhow, as we all know, the final verdict is 12 months from now.

Yep, baby shampoo is fine. Even some "adult" shampoos are good. Key is it should be free of as many chemicals as possible. No dyes, fragrance, formaldehyde, etc.

Too early to make any conclusions, but I do agree from at least an appearance perspective it does not look good. is your Dr experienced with hair transplants? If yes, then be patient. The first 2 weeks look the worst.... BTW I just did 1500 FUE 3 days ago. Many small grafts packed pretty tight with a hair emerging from each. Click on my prior posts to give it a look.

Answers to the prior questions/comments: Nope did not hurt. Thank god for the meds. Right now about 72 hours later I have a slight dull pain in the back in a small area but totally manageable. The zig zags are just to create a more natural hairline. A totally straight hairline is not realistic. Anyhow if I hate the "pointiness" later, I can easily buzz it off with my beard shaver. Density is pretty packed. See attached pic. There is a balancing act at work here. If you pack them too tight, it causes more trauma to surrounding hairs, more shock loss, etc. And keep in mind I am just a Norwood 2-3 so I already had a decent amount of hair in this frontal area...we don't want to put too much stress on these existing hairs. Funny thing today was my twin bro had no idea I did the FUE. Today I sneakily got him to leave work and come into my car to talk (did not mention the fue). He noticed I had grown out a beard a bit and commented on it but did NOT notice the fue at all. I had to point it out to him and he had to stare to see it. Granted, if I had been outside in the light he would have seen the redness…but still cool he didn’t notice it My immediate concern now is the redness in front. For 7 days you do not want to put any chemicals on the front. But after day 7 the Dr said Benadryl cream (it has antihistamines) will help. I need this b/c I return to work next Monday. Then the longer term concern is the dreaded “shock loss” where all my nice follicles possibly start falling out. Fingers crossed I am one of those lucky few who does not get it. I have been on Propecia/Rogaine for like 15 years so apparently that helps mitigate shock loss.

I did a FUE with Diep on Friday and also got the zig zags. Maybe not as pronounced though at m0dthispny. Logic is that a smooth hairline is not normal/realistic...some irregularity is more realistic. Anyhow, months down the road post "shock loss" when my hair is stabilized and *if* I see "triangles" on my hairline, I'll shave them off in a few seconds with my beard shaver. Not end of the world

m0dthispny, thanks for your informative posts. l just did a FUE with Dr Diep on Friday and am detailing it here: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/174273-1500-fue-grafts-dr-diep.html

l just did a FUE with Dr Diep on Friday and am detailing it here: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/174273-1500-fue-grafts-dr-diep.html

After about a year of mostly lurking on this forum, I have finally done a FUE procedure and am happy to share it with all of you to give back to this very helpful community here. Background is I am 39 and have had gradual hair loss in the front only since around 24 years old. I started taking Rogaine + propecia back then and it slowed things down, but now I’m tired of my high hairline (Norwood 2-3) so decided to get FUE. I cut my hair short so FUE made sense. I live in San Francisco so Diep was the best of the 3 or so local FUE docs I looked at. I called 2 of the more established LA-based doctors, but Diep seemed in the same league (he trained with Rassman, one of the pioneers of FUE) plus the idea of flying to/from the procedure was not ideal. Also my hair is slightly kinky (I am half latin, half white) and Diep specializes in this sort of kinky/curly hair. For peace of mind, I did explain to Diep beforehand not to take hair from high up on the back of my head, to angle it correctly in the front in a natural way, etc. Basically to avoid the "nightmare" scenarios you read about on forums from time to time So on Friday I got the FUE done with 1500 grafts and also the optional A-cell treatment (research on A-Cell is not clear, but it anecdotally does seem to help). Procedure went smooth and ran like 10am-4pm. Not much pain at all and frankly I was in a bit of a haze the whole time given the meds. BTW, Diep does zig zag the hairline a bit so it is more natural (straight hairline is not natural) and also he does put hair in the front into areas that already do have existing hair to create a more natural look. Hair from the back is diff than hair in the front so blending back of the head hair into front of the head hair is key. And if you are wondering why all the donor hairs are from the back right, it is because he works right-to-left and also each extraction traumatizes the hairs around it, hence better to leave a fresh untouched donor area on the left that I can come back to years from now if I need another FUE. Attached first 2 pics are right before the procedure (in reality my hair actually looks *worse* than in these pre pics). Next 2 are right after it. Next two are day 1. Next 2 are day 2, where I am right now. I am happy with the results and healing is going well. I am following all the post-op steps including 2 showers a day with GraftCyte shampoo (free from the doctor) with no direct water to the donor or recipient areas. And then after the showers, bacitracin ointment to the donor areas. Also I have been taking Vitamin C every day since about a week prior to the procedure. Lastly, I am using saline every few hours to keep things moist. The saline spray can from Walgreens sprays too hard, so I spray it into a smaller plastic spray bottle (also from Walgreens) so the saline comes out in a fine mist and will not harm the hairs. Also, Diep is doing well these days with many patients. Diep got me a free driver to/from his clinic. I asked the driver about out-of-state patients and the driver told me he does a lot of airport pickups/drop-offs for out-of-state patients for Diep. And while I was at the clinic, Diep had finished a non-fue (flap) procedure earlier and the patient was there. On the way out, 2 patients from the day before came in for their post-op shampoos. And the Dr told me is moving to a larger facility down the street. All of this evidence of course is non-scientific, but it points to a competent doctor. Lousy docs get bad reps fast and business tends to dry up. Anyhow please reply with any questions/comments!

If anyone else has good/bad on Diep who *actually* did a FUE with him, please chime in. I have a FUE scheduled with Diep in a few weeks so would like to hear more patient input. Again, not outside speculation, please. The orig post here and m0dthispny's update on the other thread is what I'm looking for. Thx!!

Long time lurker, first time poster m0dthisphy, I really appreciate the updates. Please keep em coming. I have an appointment with Diep in a few weeks so this is very helpful I plan to return to work 10 days after the transplant (taking off a week) so I am curious to see what the donor/recipient areas for you look around that 10 day period. If you have pics, please post em!