Steeeve

I was almost totally free and clear of scabs by the two week mark. I wouldn’t say I scrubbed them off, though. I was more...massaging them firmly. 🙂👍🏻

Don’t apologize @LeonSlack. I don’t mind answering questions at all. When I got in the shower I let the water hit my scalp very lightly. I didn’t turn it up very high at all. It wasn’t until day 9 or so that I turned up the pressure only a little more. It still wasn’t very high and I was still only massaging those grafts very lightly. Dr Arocha said that they were safe in there by day 9 and to really start working on them as the longer the scabs stay on there the more potential for grafts to not grow. My recipient was still a little sensitive, though, so I didn’t put a lot of pressure on it. On day 10 or 11 I was spending more time in there massaging those grafts as my scalp felt a little better. As far as my sutures/scar went I was keeping bacitracin on it all the time and that really helped to keep everything moist and helped to get the crust off of it when I got in the shower.

I bought a neck pillow from amazon that propped my head up and slept with it until the sutures came out. It allowed me to relax my neck at night while keeping my sutures off my bed pillow. You’re very welcome, Leon. Anything else, lemme know! 🙂👍🏻

I washed twice a day and I used the baby shampoo during both washes. We have cats and we use spray bottles to keep them from running all over our bedroom at night. I would take one of those and pour some baby shampoo in it then mix in some water with the sodium chloride solution that they gave me. I would swirl it around to get it nice and mixed together. Then I would spray my head down, both the donor and recipient, pretty generously. I kept the bottle pretty close to my head when I sprayed, less than a foot away. I would let that sit for 15 minutes and then spray again and let it sit for 15 more minutes so my head was soaking in it for about 30 minutes. Then I would take a cup of water and just pour it all over my head until it was clean. Twice a day I did that. I think it helped greatly with getting the scabs loose to come off when I was able to start massaging them more vigorously under the shower head. I should’ve spent more time on the sutures but I think if I had it would worked just the same. The mixture would last me for quite a few days.

Congratulations @LeonSlack!! That’s awesome man! For me the pain subsided around day 2 or day 3 but I was taking ibuprofen or Tylenol to combat it and drinking a ton of water. Dr Arocha and the techs were telling me during the procedure that I have a high pain tolerance and if you were to ask me I would say I was a big ol’ baby when it came to the pain. After the 2nd or 3rd day there really wasn’t any pain necessarily but the sutures were a little irritated. It didn’t hurt but my scalp felt tight and my brain was definitely processing that something was different back there. Yes, I, or my wife, applied the bacitracin to the scar after every wash and on day three I started applying to the recipient area. I would just lightly dab it on there. I had some spare triple antibiotic ointment laying around and once I ran out of the packets I asked if that was okay to apply since it had bacitracin in it. Dr Arocha said that works just as well. I didn’t throw a cap on until the week after. I didn’t go out of the house until the next week. I had two 6 month olds at the time and I pretty much spent my time taking care of them while also following the Dr’s post op instructions. It, uh... really kept me busy. Lol When it came to the cap I really didn’t want to chance anything dislodging those grafts so I waited until 8 or 9 days for them to really settle in to my scalp. I believe the post op instructions say when you’re safe but I remember that I still waited a few days extra. Congrats again, man! I’m really happy for you! I hope you post your results. Anything else just ask. Good luck and Happy Growing!!🙂👍🏻

I think it looks great. I see a nice subtle improvement in the placement of the hairline. Very appropriate for moving forward with his life as he ages. No one could ever look at this guy and say, “transplant”. The first before picture is indeed a little out of focus, nonetheless, it’s still plain to see how the hairline was affected by the transplant. I say, overall, great job.

Well, don’t stop eating man! I understand your nervousness but everyone there is going to put you at ease. It’s going to be awesome. I hope you post your progress!

Thanks @Melvin-Moderator! I hope that my temples stick around for awhile. My father is 69 and while he’s mostly bald, with the exception of a few stragglers, his temples have kinda held on. You never know until they’re gone though!! I also wanted to post some pics of the back of my head wet to give an idea of what I’m able to achieve with my scar. Spoiler Alert: it’s not great. Not yet, at least. It’s what I hope to show other members of the forum looking at strip surgery a very real look at what they’re getting into. If they do enough research and find other members who’ve had the strip procedure done they’ll see that this generally clears up over the course of the year. Time will tell with my situation, though. Keen eyes will notice that my scar color has really gotten to a more normal color on my left side while it’s still pretty pink on my right. I’m still not concerned. I’ve seen guys on here with shockloss continue up to 5 and 6 months and then clear up around the year mark. That being said, I’ll be avoiding getting in the water at the beach with my family in a few weeks AND avoiding pool time with friends for a few months. Dermmatch has been pretty successful at concealing it when dry but I haven’t really tried it when wet. And lastly I just wanted to add some closeups of my hair when wet. That’s all for now. Cheers. ✌🏻🙂

Hey everybody. These pics were taken exactly 3 months post-op on the 16th. I had my wife help me with the dry pics. The hair isn’t really styled. I just kinda tussled my hands through it. The wet pics I took myself. There’s really not much to say at this point that I haven’t said already. Nor is there anything to complain about as it’s only 3 months. It’s a solid start and I’m still very happy with what I’ve seen so far. I said I would try putting some dermmatch in my scar in my last post but the hair had grown enough in the few days since that I haven’t needed to. One thing of note is that there is some solid hair in my crown, due to the PRP, that I’ve not had in years. That was exciting to see. I’m going to get my wife to help me get some wet pics of the back of my head because what it looks like dry versus wet is completely different. Cheers.And Wet

You will 100% be in good hands. I understand your nervousness, I was as well, but there really is no need. Dr Arocha and his team will put you at ease every step of the way. The Valium they give you will help out greatly as well. Lol My hair was only a couple of inches long when I had the op and it was more than enough to cover the suture line/scar. I never really cared what length my hair was. I’ve worn it long, well past my shoulders. I’ve kept it close to my scalp and everything in between. That’s just me. I find most people tend to become OCD, in a sense, with the length of their hair where they wouldn’t be in other areas. It gets to a certain length and people just can’t seem to stand the way it feels on their head. Your date is right around the corner, man!! Exciting! I hope you update the forum with your results!! Thank you for the words of encouragement. Feel free to message me anytime!

Thank you for the kind words Mycroft.

I had to look at it on a giant 4K screen to even get a glimpse of that scar... Congrats to both the patient and the doctor! This is a knockout.

That Alfalfa cowlick has been there since childhood.

Hello everyone. I’m 6 days prior to my 3 month mark. I wanted to go ahead and post some pics because I cut my hair and wanted to share the current state of my progressing results and scar. I cut it because, well, grafts are really starting to grow and I wanted it to be a little more uniform. I also wanted to experiment and push the boundaries to see how close I could get it. Those sprouts are definitely still way too short to make a significant cosmetic difference but there is a difference nonetheless. Since hair is always growing it might look different in 6 days than it would even today and, mostly, I wanted to share what my scar would look like with an inch of hair covering my entire scalp, especially my scar. @LeonSlack posed the question a few weeks back. Here’s the answer in terms of what I’m able to achieve at almost 3 months. I cut it myself using my clippers and took this grade,and shaved my entire head. The hair on the side of my head was sticking out in a funny way so I then took this grade,and faded the sides in a bit to keep the sides toward the front a little (a hair...?) closer to my scalp. I did not get the 7 grade close enough to the scar for fear of making it more visible. I assumed my scar would be visible at this length. I planned to wear a hat out until the hair in the back grew out a bit. To my surprise it was only visible on the side where I suffered the infection. At this point I would assume this will even out as it looks like there is a lot of stubble there around that part of the scalp that has yet to make a noticeable difference. I’ve still got months for the scar to mature so I’m not worried about it. Even if the scar stays that way I’m not worried about it as there are other options but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there and keep my hair a little longer in the interim. I'm still going to wear a hat but I guess my expectations are currently in check because...I don’t think it looks that bad in it’s current progressing state. There is no product in my hair other than minoxidil foam I put in it 4 hours prior to taking these pics. The Left Side The Right Side So it looks like I’m still dealing with some shockloss. My wife says that even in direct overhead lighting you can’t see it unless my head is turned in that direction and even then it just looks like a scar I could’ve suffered from anything. One might make an argument that there is a slight line of demarcation but I’m telling myself that it just looks like my hair is wavy there. Here are some more pics of my current progress closer up. I, hastily, threw some Dermatch in my scar to see if it made a difference and I feel like it made the scar line more noticeable. We just had our bathroom remodeled and I’m supposed to be painting the it. 🤷🏼‍♂️😬 I feel like I’ve made some decent gains in the last month and overall I’m very pleased with how things are currently progressing. There’s no pain in the donor or recipient but there’s a fair amount of itchiness in both and I’m fighting the good fight when it comes to pimples. I know it’s a sign of hairs trying to break through but holy crap am I ready for the pimples to stop forming. They are pretty uncomfortable. I had my fair share of zits going through puberty and I don’t remember them being so irritating! 😂 😭 I’ll take some pics again in 6 days at the 3 month mark and see if there’s a difference. I’ll also take some time with applying dermatch to the scar and see if it makes any difference and add that in there as well. Until then I’ll be here if anyone has any questions. Cheers and be good people.✌🏻

Man, this is already looking so good. Congratulations! We should all be so lucky...