Shacked

No thoughts on growth so far, eh? Week 10 pic here... you can see that HT really is an art of illusion. In more flattering light I actually have a decent hairline (which i haven't had for 15 years!) Apologies for the BnW but this went though instagram before posting here

Quick update at 8 weeks. Plenty of hairs are growing. My right side seems to have retained more hairs that the left, which seems odd. But it may be because the angle of these hairs is more aggressive (cowlick) it may appear they are growing better. Can see lots of tiny hairs that are still in rest phase. Red is almost totally gone. Hope that the drugs make my crown less baldy now! How does the growth look for 2 months?

Why haven't you taken finasteride? I personally think a HT will be wasted unless using finasteride. Finateride is the only medically proven drug to halt/prevent hair loss.

Hair does "fall out" in the permanent zone at the back of the head, but the follicles are "immune" to DHT, so remain healthy. The shedding of hair shafts by heathy follicles is part of the normal cycle or hair growth. When follicles become miniaturized they lose the ability to produce healthy hair, and so at some point they become so small that they stop producing hair after natural shedding. When hairs are taken from the permanent zone and transplanted, hairs can continue to grow. Around 50% of mine are 5 weeks after. However, usually most of the follicles go into a 'rest' phase after the trauma of transplantation. They naturally shed the hair and the growth cycle starts again in a few more weeks. This is normal and should be expected with every transplant. "shock loss" to me means that native hair is lost in the recipient zone because of the trauma associated with transplanting follicles near by. This may happen also in the donor region for similar reasons. I imagine that this would occur easier in miniaturized hairs, so could be permanent. But these would be lost anyway. This is why finasteride is recommended for 6 months-1year before a procedure, to minimize shock loss.

Revita shampoo honestly leaves my hair feeling better than any other shampoo Ive ever used; so that alone its worth the money. As for hair loss; who knows? Has a lot of good natural stuff in it. I stopped using Niz as I think it can potentially do more harm than good

This was at just under 3 weeks post op

This is quite interesting:

My HT surgeon, and my previous dermatologist who was an investigator in the initial medical trials of finasteride at Harvard both said that in very rare cases does fin stimulate regrowth of hair. Yet Bernstein's web site has lots of amazing case studies of regrowth. I really wonder just how common this is?

My HT landed me a boat! so 10+ Hair is almost 3 weeks post op...I would never have posted a pic of my hair this short on Facebook before my hairline HT. Needless to say I did post this one...happy so far!

I am almost three weeks post FUE with Dr Reddy. I have virtually no scarring at at. Dr Reddy outlined that FUE shouldn't leave a scar, and his procedure (which avoids deep removal of grafts) prevents scaring. If you are considering FUE in Europe, Reddy is the man

i was advised to spray my head with saline (sterilized salty water) every thirty mins after the proceedure. Hardly any scabbing and all were gone in a week

Topical solutions are best applied to a wet skin, not dry. Also, the half life of minox is long enough that you can get away with using it just in the PM. I use retiva shampoo...its great stuff. Really leaves the hair feeling amazing. I was using niz but i think this can actuall cause more damage than good unless the scalp requires such harsh treatment i.e. lots of dandruff...Best to be gentle in my opinion.

Week 2. Started on minoxidil today. Few hairs have started shedding last couple of days. Using aloe and witch hazel.

Simply, does the fact that hair continues to grow from a graft in the weeks following FUE mean that the graft has 'taken' and hair will grow after the shed and resting phase?

urmmm shock loss can occur when you implant follicles next to miniaturized follicles...Taking fin reduces the risk of this happening. Get on fin right away. The 'side effects' scare tactics is bullshit. Sides are VERY rare

Why? Your discussion may be useful to others and you are already anonymous on here

Results can take 18 months. Iv'e heard of people having unimpressive growth at 12 months and them boom..amazing by 15th month. 7 months is kinda early to gauge whether its been a failure. Minox will kick start the follicle cycling so you should get on it.

I week post-op. Not much scabbing really, and pretty much most of the follicle crusts have now gone. I am pretty happy wit the density, I think the hair line is 'dense-packed'. Its hard to tell really because hairs are all different lengths. Apparently I have think hair follicles and lots of grafts with multiple hairs, so 'should' have a 'perfect' result. I have two uber cowlicks, which is why hairs in most of my forelock point in one direction. This gives the impression of higher density. Dr Reddy transplanted the hairs taking the two cowlicks into consideration because there were even relics of the more depleted one i.e. some hairs point in the opposite direction to the main dominant direction of hairs at the front. Still no swelling or pain. Top of head is a little numb but I'm sure full sensation will return with time. I think I did loose ~3 grafts close to a temple point, due to friction during sleep. There was dried blood on them and they were hanging out of the scalp. I pulled and they freely came out and consisted of 2-3 long hairs and the follicle sheath. Aside from that I have only lost tiny (portions) of hair shaft along with the follicle crusts during washing. No bleeding so I presume this represents the normal course of events where some hair shafts may be lost during scab/crust removal. Grow hair grow!

Agreed. I believe your complementary qualities you describe are also relevant to Dr Reddy

Have you ever had an FUE? If so you will know the time it takes to accurately and carefully select, handle, and transplant 1000 grafts. Despite what you may define as a mega-session, 2700 is too many in one day in my opinion. Moreover, packing all of these into a small area (as Rahal tends to do to achieve his dense hairlines), maximizes trauma, popping, and can only lead to poorer yield compared to spacing out grafts both spatially and temporally over more than one session when a couple of thousand are required. Those are my general opinions based on my experiences.

Mega-sessions compromise graft survivorship so results can be quite variable from person to person

Your hair doesnt look bad at all. Maybe it does to you, however there looks to be lots of donor left. Go to a top FUE surgeon. They can select the best grafts and you will be sorted. Personally id recommend Dr Reddy in London. Im sure Rahal would say you need 3000 grafts, but I think his FUE can be a little over aggressive. Either way...lots of good surgeons out there to fix your hair.

My instructions were to spray the grafts with sterile salt water every thirty mins for the first three days post surgery. Tomorrow, day 4, I am to start gently shampooing to remove the scabs, which is apparently important.

scabs and hair...not follicle. However you should have started gently washing the scabs off after day 4 once the follicles were set. The fact that scabs formed for longer means that the hairs most likely had more chance of coming out (which is inevitable mostly anyway at some point). I have been spraying my head every 30 mins with saline for 3 days post op to help with scabbing. I start washing the follicles with baby shampoo on day 4

?6 per graft, so the same as Lorenzo etc. I was originally interested in Rahal (as I was living in Canada), who was a bit cheaper but was put off by quite a few factors. So happy I went with Reddy. I won't go to another surgeon if I have another procedure in the future