Steeeve

I hate to tell you, man, but this thread has been up for 7 years because there just aren’t any vetted options in Dallas. You’re going to have to travel to get work done. I know you don’t want to but that’s the reality. You would think that there would be some options in Dallas but there really aren’t. Dallas to Houston is a 3 and half hour drive. I drove from Austin to Houston for Arocha and then back the next day after the surgery. It was three hours and it really wasn’t that bad. All the best, man. I hope you work it out. Good luck!

It was a little tender, yeah. I used and continue to use a brush with large wooden bristles. Honestly, I pretty much stole (we’ll say I liberated it) the brush from my wife. I wouldn’t suggest a fine toothed comb. I would use a brush with rubber or wooden bristles once the sutures come out. I don’t brush my hair all that often to be perfectly honest. I grew my hair out specifically in case I dealt with any shockloss. Typically what I do once I step out of the shower is just run my hands through my hair and let it air dry. I could cut my hair shorter, I’m sure. When I went to Dr Arocha for my one month check up he said I could probably cut it down to a 3 or 4. I didn’t really have the balls to try that though as I felt like I was still suffering with some shockloss in the donor but I’ll probably go a little shorter on my next haircut. I plan on cutting my top and sides much shorter once the hairs get a little longer so that everything will be more uniform. That’s happening fast for me, though.

Thanks for checking out my thread@HLPToronto! I’ve been following your progress with Dr. Bhatti, as well. I absolutely consider Dr Arocha to be a top doc. All the best with your continued progress, buddy! I’m looking forward to your final result.👍🏻🙂

@Mr S, your hair looks absolutely amazing for only 5 months, man! Congrats!!

It typically takes 3 to 6 months. Worst case scenario up to a year.

Hey @LeonSlack, thanks for reaching out! No, I don’t think there was anything I could do. I’ve been on Fin since 2012 and I honestly think that my shockloss would’ve been worse had I not been on it for so long. Finasteride is your best deterrent against shockloss from what I understand. I definitely could’ve done a better job cleaning around my sutures. I had a little infection on my right side and I believe that might’ve contributed to my right side being a little wider than the rest of the scar. I took these this morning which would be 10 weeks post-op today. The pictures don’t show it but there’s stubble all in those baron looking areas around the scar. Good luck on your procedure, Leon. You won’t regret it! I hope that you post your progress on the forum.

I’m with Melvin on this one. Shave your head first and then see how you feel about it. I would say to stay away from hair transplants if you feel nervous about the scars. It is not a scarless procedure and despite what others might tell you “regular people” can absolutely see them if you buzz your hair down. A 2 or 3 are typically safe options for your clippers depending on how you scar. Some guys don’t scar as well as others and they can be quite visible with a very close cut. Do some digging on the forum. Lots of guys post their ongoing FUE procedures and show pics of their donor shaved down post FUE. Two users on the forum that come to mind are Yaz89 and Gatsu. Yaz had work done with Asmed and Gatsu went with Lupanzula for a 3rd procedure on his temples. With respect both guys have had phenomenal results once their hair had grown out but they post some very realistic pictures both pre and post transplant of what their donor looks like with a shaved head. Search their names in the search tool to see if you would be willing to buzz it down with those scars. You can also make the argument that the pictures you’ll see are shaved with no guard. That to me though is what a buzz cut looks like. Both of those guys keep their hair fairly short and the scars aren’t visible but they by no means “buzz” their hair down. Another way to look at it is that if you’re going to spend thousands of your hard earned dollars on an elected procedure then why would you shave your head? I understand your dilemma-the fear of the transplant failing (everyone having had a transplant share your same worries)-but if you do some solid research and pick a good surgeon the chances of it failing drop drastically. Good luck, buddy.

Thanks @made2care!

Sunday was my two month mark. I’ve been very under the weather and really haven’t felt like putting any photos together. The photos I grabbed this evening are in extremely unflattering light and the quality isn’t the best in my opinion. When I feel a little better I’ll get some better quality pictures. Not much to report at the moment. I look as if I haven’t done anything to my hair which is pretty great for 2 months as far as i’m concerned. Everything seems to be going/growing well. Sensation is slowly coming back to my scalp. The grafts that didn’t shed, which was the majority of them I believe, have continued to grow though they’re still not quite long enough to have made a huge cosmetic difference yet with it only being 2 months. I see little black dots of stubble in between my native hair which I guess is the hairs that shed already starting to make an appearance. My scar is a little sensitive and a little itchy but I can’t really complain about it. It’s more of an observation. It’s still pink but the hairs that fell out around it have already started growing back. The PRP is really doing its job. Those preexisting hairs are really thickening up. When I tilt my head down you can see that my hair is still thin but it’s getting harder to see my scalp. It’s really exciting! As I said I’ll grab some better quality pics when I feel a little better. Grow well everyone and be good people.✌🏻

Looks great @made2care! Very natural. So much body to it! Congratulations!!! And you’ve still got time for it to mature even more!

I tried to post these yesterday, at my 6 weeks post-op mark, but life happened. If you tap/click and zoom in on the photos you can see the grafts that clung on. The hairs don’t feel so bristly anymore. They’re much softer now which I’m taking as a sign that they’re growing. I don’t know why they wouldn’t... I mean, they’re definitely still a little bristly but nearly as much as they were. Life is beginning anew up there. Hopefully this trend continues.

Thank you @made2care. I’ve never seen stubble just not grow. I’m sure there’s an explanation and that Dr Arocha would be able to answer it upon inspection. Good luck!

Pretty outstanding density in that hairline! I’d be super psyched about that crown, too! 👍🏻👌🏻

Hey @made2care, thanks for checking out my thread! I’ve been following your thread since the beginning of your journey with Dr Arocha. Congratulations back to you, man! You’ve made some excellent gains! I’m looking forward to your next update.👍🏻

First haircut post-op. As I said in a reply a little further up Dr Arocha said I could go down to a 3 or a 4. I didn’t really want to go that low just yet and my barber agreed. I told him right off the bat that I had had an operation done last month. He was shocked. Upon outward appearance I just looked like I always look before I need a haircut. Then he combed through the back of my head and saw the scar. After his assessment of the scar he decided to play it safe and start with a 6 and then do comb over scissor. I respected his decision. We decided to not touch the top just yet and let it continue to let it grow. I was really nervous but he was awesome about it. Totally easy going as he just wanted to give me a haircut that suited what I needed at the moment. I think he was nervous about exposing my scar, as well. This is generally how I wear my hair.

Thanks @Melvin-Moderator! Yeah, dude. Even before I had the transplant I had settled on needing fibers for the future. Transplant or no, fibers can turn a pretty decent quaff into an outstanding head of hair. Of course, it would be awesome to never need fibers at all but I don’t think I’ll ever have a full looking crown with a transplant alone. It’s just too barren up there. My hope is that PRP will do the trick and that I can just add fibers along the way. I couple fibers with DermMatch and I find that the results are stellar. Instead of going with a lot of one thing or the other I use a little bit of this and a little bit of that to get the best results. Concealers are a life saver, though. I could be wrong about my crown. I may be able to add a little something to it one day. Only time will tell.

Thanks @Mycroft! Dr. Arocha said the shockloss makes it look wider than will end up being. I went and got my first haircut yesterday (I’ll post pics in a bit) and I told the barber straight out what I had done. I said that the dr said I could go down to a 3 or 4 grade. The barber didn’t want to risk it cut it down to a 6 and then did comb over scissor. Above the 6 grade. I feel like he could’ve gone lower but I’m still experimenting myself so I let it be. It still looks good. I feel like I’m just as anxious to see the scar mature as I am the hair in my recipient. Which is funny because I still feel like I’ll have to have more work done which will result in another scar.

I wanted to give an update about my one month check up with Dr Arocha. Everything went very well. He said the scar looked good. It’s still healing so there is a lot of pinkness and shock loss going on that will take awhile to get back to normal. I’ll post some pics of where it’s at in the healing process. He was quite pleased with my recipient. I’ve dealt with very little shock loss in my recipient zone and the vast majority of my grafts have, indeed, held on strong and are growing. He said I was very ahead of the curve. I’m going to have my wife try and help me get some pics of them when she gets home later this evening, however, since Dr Arocha does a no shave approach it’s rather difficult to try and get a camera to spot them. I’m going for my 1st haircut post-op this afternoon and I’ll post some comparative pics of that later this evening, as well. These pics are one month and one week out. Something to note is that the shock loss evident in the photos is not nearly as bad as I had pictured in my mind and Dr Arocha said while it’s there it’s really not so bad at all. It’s not great but it’s what is to be expected at this stage. He said I could probably cut my hair down to a 3 or 4 without risk of exposing the scar. I don’t think I have the gumption to go that low just yet. We’ll find out this afternoon.🙂👍🏻 Any questions and I’ll be here.

I understood what the doctor meant. My reaction is meant to be a bit sarcastic. Friendly but sarcastic. 🙂 I guess the emotion gets lost in the text🤷🏼‍♂️☺️

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 All the fingers crossed I can get man! LOL I can definitely see some small improvement in my hair from the PRP. It’s ever so slight but hair in my crown has perked up a bit from it where it didn’t respond to fin or minox. Since the beginning of my medical journey 7 years ago I was told that a strict regiment of fin/minox/biotin would help those hairs bulk back up. The regiment seemed to help everywhere but my crown. Tiny wispy white hairs piped out but never grew beyond that. A camera could not detect them. You can 100% see them in my pictures now. I can also see some hair in my hairline that didn’t want to perk up before but are now. It’s exciting just to see that.

@vinzaf19 thanks for your response! I’m not familiar with the Eclipse system. I couldn’t tell you whether the PRP treatment was painful or not as I slept through that part. I mean, your whole head is numb from the transplant. Lol I don’t know if a doctor numbs you for PRP only. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt during the transplant but it might if you’re not numb... I see some improvement, yes. Thank you. The camera doesn’t pick up everything I see but the shedding, especially in the corners, has crept up on me a little. And I do mean “a little”. I fully expect that to come back but it seems to me when I put the pre-op photos side by side with the one month photo that my corners have moved a little higher up. No one in my day to day life is looking at me that closely so no one would ever notice. I could be totally off, however, and there’s no difference whatsoever... It could just be that my hair is longer now and that it’s laying different so my corner recession is really visible to me.I don’t know but I do appreciate your response!

Thanks @Melvin-Moderator! I was full on expecting to just ride it out for the first few months/however long it took. I plan to create a patient website. I keep putting it off but I will do so soon. Thanks for posting the link!

1 Month Dry

1 month down! I'm starting to see some shedding but most of those hairs are still holding on. I’ve had a few pimples which you might be able to see in the pictures. Does anybody have any suggestions about what to do about pimples? Should I pop them? Leave them alone? They’re actually kind of uncomfortable. I wouldn’t say they hurt but I feel it when I run my hands through my hair. I’ve seen a little shedding in my recipient but I still look like I did prior to the procedure. I’m also still seeing hair shed at my scar. My hair is long enough to cover everything though. I have my 1 month check up with Dr. Arocha on Tuesday and I’m going to ask if I could get a haircut-my concern is should I after dealing with the infection. On one hand I’d like to clean my hair up a little bit...on the other my scar is still really pink, especially on the right side where I believe the majority of the infection was, and there was a bit of shedding back there. I really can’t tell how bad it is though because my hair does a very good job covering it. Could I cut it to a 4 or 5 without risk of exposing the scar or jut wait it out a few more months? I sent the Blake a text, keeping him informed about my scar, also making an observation about how terrible it currently looked and he responded quite promptly, with quite a few texts, letting me know that everything was normal and that it’s still healing. 🙂 I guess I should’ve clarified that I was just making a general observation about the current state of the scar. While I’m aware that it’s going to take months to mature it looked pretty terrible for a hot minute, what with a flap of skin being ripped from my scalp and subsequent infection. While it’s still pink it really doesn’t look that bad anymore, with exception of where the infection was. I have to say, there’s still 11 to 17 months left to go but, I’m very happy in regards to how the clinic has treated me so far. I know it will slow down in the coming months but not a week has gone by where the clinic hasn’t reached out to me to ask how things were going with the scar or the hair transplant in general. This can be quite a stressful time for anyone who isn’t emotionally prepared to deal with it and their constant contact has be extremely reassuring. So far my experience with Dr Arocha’s clinic has been a good one. I’m attaching pics of my hair wet and dry. unless there any questions or anything randomly pops up I’ll be back at 2 months. Cheers and be good people. 1 Month Wet

He must mean a 3-Vertex. III-V...? 🤷🏼‍♂️