hadenough2014

Day 14: Ok, so the graft hairs have really shed now and I would say 60-70% of them are gone. My wife trimmed my sides and back today and since I have thick hair in the back, the layered trim actually helps conceal the scar even better than long hair. She did a nice job of layering the hair. I do, however, have kind of the old man Norwood 7 look going with almost nothing on top and then a rim of hair around the sides and back. Not my best look, so I am not looking forward to going to work in a few weeks with this new look. Some may think - why wouldn't he just shave the sides and back too since he cut the top so short? Oh well, I was never very happy my appearance in the last few years, so I can put up with a few more months of funny looks. Plus, people we see very day get used to things pretty quickly. I plan on wearing a hat a lot in the next few months when I am out in public. Good thing it is is winter time now. I have also started to grow a 5 o'clock shadow beard to distract attention. These things are about all I know to do to get through this phase. This is where the FUE people have a great advantage! They get back to looking somewhat normal much quicker. That said, I chose not to go FUE because I wanted to save donor areas for a possible future FUE procuedure to create temple peaks, possibly thicken the crown, and even fill in the scar if necessary. I started back on Rogaine Foam at Day 13 and I dialed down the 1.25mg Propecia from once a day to once every 3 days. I started on Propecia for the first time the day after the procedure. Honestly, the sexual side effect risks of Propecia scare the hell out of me...much more than balding. So I dialed it back to reduce the risks, as I saw that is what some others on the forums have done. Would be great to see a little growth at month 1 or perhaps my native hairs that the doc cut coming back so I could look more like I did before the procedure. I realize shock loss may delay return of native hairs for as long as it takes for the grafts to start growing, so that may be wishful thinking. I am going to try and put it in the back of my mind as much as possible, focus on work, and just be patient! Day 21 Still shedding, especially in the front. Using Rogaine daily plus1.25mg of Propecia every 3rd day. Scar is doing OK. I have one tender spot with a very small scab (size of a pin head), but I think it is from the staple, not the scar. Wearing a hat about 1/2 the day as well on average, and I'm sure that does not promote healing back there. I have some hairs on the top and crown that continue to grow. I can't tell if it's my native hair or grafts, or a combination of both. My wife thinks it is a combo. Having them there is helping to offset the ugly duckling a little bit, but I know it may get worse before it gets better. Most of the grafts in the front third have shed and I think the Dr. scrapped whatever native hair was there because he knew it would evenutally go. So that front third should be bare until growth begins. But in all honesty, it was pretty bare before as well. I'll post some of the Day 21 pictures. Day 30: Shedding completed a few days ago. No hair coming off in the shower, even with aggressive shampooing. I am not full blown Norwood VI, but I certainly look like a bad Norwood V. Many, but not all, native hairs mid scalp and towards the crown survived but the area is very thin and the hairs are shorter than the sides and back. Concealors really won't help much for that area and may actually make it look worse. The native hairs are growing longer and are now about 1 inch in length, almost enough to comb a little bit. My wife is getting a little frustrated that I am not ready to go out in public yet without a hat. So we skip some get togethers with friends for the time being. I go back to work in a few days and then holidays are just around the corner, so going without a hat will have to be acceptable pretty darn quick. Each day the native hairs get a little longer, so the semi comb-over look is just around the corner as well. Kids have seen me without a hat but haven't said anything. I think it looks like I just chose to buzz the top down where my native hairs were thin and quite long before the surgery. The scar is still pink and there are no visible hairs growing through it yet. I am not sue how long that is supposed to take, but I will be looking into it more. The scar is mildly tender in just a couple spots and it itches from time to time. Almost all of the tightness is now gone. Top of the head is still a little numb in recipient area, while there is no numbness in the back. Lots waiting ahead... 6 weeks! Wow. Possibly one of the longest 6 weeks periods of my life. But filled with great anticipation and no stress. I managed to avoid all work meetings (worked from home) for 5 weeks, and just had 2 days of customer meetings last week where the customer never said anything or gave so much of an odd look. So I feel pretty good that I am very close to my pre-op look, which makes the waiting period a lot easier when not worrying too much about appearance. The sheeding had stopped aorund day 20, but then from day 35-38 I shed a bunch more graft hairs right around my temples and on top. So hopefully I am now stabilized. My donor scar started turning sclap-color and less pink around week 5 as well. It feel much smoother back there now - almost completely flat across the whole scar now. Definitely had some shock loss back there around the ears. Hoping for all of it to return and thicken up in the next month. Can't tell if the scar has stretched, but it doesn;t look like as near as I can tell. I have some minor headaches, possibly due to the Propecia, which I was NOT on before the procedure. They seems to subsizde the day after I don't take a pill.Will be a busy December at work with 3 trips planned, so I hope to keep busy enough to get this off my mind now and focus on something else until the growth begins. 7 weeks - GROWTH! Dec 6: I certainly did not expect to be talking about growth at week 7, but I definitely have some. There are individual hairs popping up around the hairline and the mid scalp appears to be getting thicker, not just longer. I also see some multi-hair grafts about 1/8 inch long behind the hairline. This has all happended in the last couple of days. I wasn't even looking for new sprouts, but there there were when I took a close look after showering. Now each day I'm sure I will be looking for more, and I need to find a way to get some good close-up photos going as well. I don't feel I have experienced the ugly duckling for more than about a week or so (around the 4-6 weeks mark) when shedding had maxed out and I felt really bald with long sides and back. I am really amazed to see growth and some thickening right now. I expected to have to go through the holidays looking pretty bleak. My scar is quite pink. I think it actually looks worse now than a few weeks ago. I hope that means hairs underneath are aggravting it as if they want to pop through the scar from the tricho closure. I have been treating both my scar and recieipient area with total kid gloves...no exercise at all and basically walking around like my head is in a cast. Been following Dr. instructions to most exacting specs, and I added Bition/Multi Vitamin/Zinc supplements to my diet as a lot of people of the forum seem to think that helps. I take Propecia 3-4 times per week and apply Rogaine once per day at night. I stopped wearing a hat on a regular basis about 2 weeks ago, and that has gone well. I went to a conference for work recently and no one gave a funny look or asked anything at all. I actually think the looks and questions may come in the next few months from people I know as growth starts accelerating and I start to look different. Who knows, maybe the change be so subtle that many people won't notice. Feeling pretty good about it at the moment, but I know there is a long way to go.

I am glad you are happy with your FUE result. My concern as a Norwood V was that I expect to continue losing native hairs as I age (I am 43 now), and that I may need a second procedure as touch-up, which I can then do with FUE since FUT saved so many available donor hairs. If I had done FUE and got my 4000 grafts that way for the first procedure, there may not be much of anything left for the future due to the way FUE is extracted across a huge donor area. If ever do a second procedure (first was FUT), I expect it would be FUE and I would have several things done - add some temple peaks, thicken the crown, and then possible fill in the FUT scar with FUE grafts (if necessary) so I can wear my hair shorter/down to a clipper 1 or 2 (though I have never worn it that short in my life). Because I had FUT for my first procedure, I have plenty of donor hairs available for a second procedure. In summary, I was in the hands of a great FUT surgeon and clinic staff, and I have a long way to go to find out my FUT results, but I am not eliminating the possibility that another procedure may be necessary to fulfill my ultimate goals. FUT vs. FUE is a tough decision for some, but I think Maltese absolutely made the right decision in his case because of his age and he probably won't lose many more native hairs if he is on a maintenance plan now such as Rogaine and/or Propecia.

You have the right attitude about it. Maybe it just needs a little rest in month 7. I keep reading that full results really aren't seen until months 12-18, so continued patience is important. It looks a lot better than when you started, especially from the front. He has created a nice, natural hairline for you.

Best of luck for strong growth!

No, that is my "before" pic. I have my own thread where I have some post-op photos if you want to go check them out.

Incredible results! Just read through this whole thread and very impressive. I am curious if you know how many grafts/hairs were used for your temples and temple peaks? Thanks.

Great result! How many grafts/hairs did you get? I had 3988 grafts and being a Norwood 5, doc had to try to get all the way back to the crown, so I don't exoect your appearance of density. I have a long way to go before I see results...I am on Day 12!

Looking good, Sunny! I worry about the ugly duckling phase a little bit too, but I am thinking the best thing to do is trim my sides and back down as far as I dare (without exposing scar) to basically make it look like I made a choice to not have my hair so long or hide the top anymore. In our "before" pictures, you and I both wore our hair pretty long, probably to give the appearance of more of it...the reality, however, is that we never really had much left on top. Other people could see that fact even if we felt we had more hair than we really did by wearing it longer. So a trim down probably would look like just that to other people - a trim. I am also thinking about growing out a 5 o'clock shadow beard - a look no one has ever seen me in before. That would throw off ugly duckling attention as well, and it is perfect timing as cold weather approaches. Just some thoughts/ideas as you look ahead to shedding and heading back to work...I know that has been a concern for you.

Here is a frontal shot (using iPhone). Though this was from Day 11 after surgery. I was about 24 hours into the shedding, so quite a few of the single hairline graft hairs had already shed at this point. The corners transitioning to the sides had also shed a lot, so this photos does not give the transition justice. I am now in Day 12 and the shedding is in full attack mode. It's OK, though, it is fully expected and the Dr. office told me it is important to shed so grafts are not stuck with stalled hairs. I will trim my sides and back in a few days after I see if any of my native hair survived the shock loss. Also attached a pic of the donor scar, which is looking quite good at this stage.

I have now asked for those pics. Also, I agree with your thoughts on the micro-irregularities. I'm actually a bit surprised that I do not see more docs doing it based off of the photos on this site and their own websites.

Thanks for the replies so far. Sorry I don't have better photos. I've taken most of them myself, which is hard to do. I actually didn't get too caught up in doing photos now because I actually thought shedding would start sooner so I kind of thought "what's the point". The best day to get a frontal photo would have been about 2 days ago when the grafts were longer and the hairline was very visible and showed very well how it has been built. I missed that window, however, as the shedding started and the singles out front went first.

Hi all. This is my first thread post. I am keeping a blog and photos as well on this site. I had a large session (3988 grafts for 8200 hairs) with Dr. Paul on October 17, 2014. It is now Day 11 and so far, so good in most respects. I had a great experience at the Shapiro Medical Group, and no pain at any point in the procedure. I was told I bled very little during the procedure, and my grafts hardly had scabs over the last 10 days. The redness has faded quickly as well (pic below makes it look more red than it really is). The staples were removed yesterday and the scar looks good - still a little redness hanging on at the donor scar. I know this scar will take up to a year or more to look optimal as it continues to heal, but he used the best closure procedure available, so I expect the best results possible. I am starting into the shedding phase now with the hairline graft hairs starting to go first. I have some flaking on the scalp. I hope that will go away as the shedding concludes. The hard part for me now is making my head look "normal" to the point where I didn't have anything done while I wait for growth. The Dr. shaved the native hairs on the top of my head for the graft placements, and now I fear I will look more like a Norwood VII (I was Norwood V before the procedure) once the grafts shed and my native hair on top has not grown back yet or is still suffering from shock loss. Only my wife is involved in this decision so far, but I know eventually others will notice. I am fine with that and look forward to talking about it when the time comes, but for now I want to get through the Ugly Duckling phase with as little ugly as possible. I would like to make it appear I cut everything really short. However, I cannot trim the sides and back as short as the top due to the scar healing. Any ideas as to what people do to get through this phase for the next few months? Does anyone cut it short and then use a concealer (like Toppix) on the scar? I could probably go down to a 3 on the clipper without much scar being noticeable, but that's still not as short as what it will be on top. I have attached Day 11 pics of the top and back so you can see my hair type. It is wavy in the back and that creates some openings for the scar to show when it naturally separates. I went to Dr. Shapiro after extensive research of docs and largely out of his natural hairline results. To me, nothing is as important as a natural hairline that fits your head type, hair type, recession levels on the sides, and your (slightly) younger self. I think a "messy" hairline is a natural hairline in my case, and it seems he delivered that staggered, messy look. I did not want the hairline too low. I never had a really low hairline. A very crisp, straight hairline would be all wrong for me as well. I think he artistically approached it in the right way, and I have been happy so far with how the hairline looks as the grafts have grown a bit in the first 10 days. I'll try to keep posts updated as I go. Below are photos from left to right: Day 11 top, Day 11 back, and the Before photo from top.

I had a big session with Dr. Paul Shapiro and his team on 10/17/2014. The reason I chose Dr. Paul is because he and his brother are renown for their hairline creations. In all of my study, nothing diminishes the process of a hair transplant as much as a bad hairline result that is apparent to new people you meet. I expect people I have known for years might realize I had some work done, but any new person you meet should never see anything but a natural appearance. Natural hairline imperfections and how it transitions to the sides are crtical in my view, and Dr. Paul confirmed that in his procedure as well. Too low of a hairline with side recession makes a transplant apparent. To high of a hairline just to acheive density isn't good either. Too much of a widow's peak with a round head looks unnatural, etc....these are all the types of considerations that I think the Shapiros study and understand very well. So their approach towards the natural hairline is why I chose the Shapiro Medical Group. Upon arriving on a Friday for my session, Dr. Paul at first thought he may only get 3000-3500 grafts, which was frankly disappointing to hear since I had planned on 4000 during consultation. I had hoped to get enough to improve my temple peaks as well, but Dr. Paul said I just didn't have enough for that (maybe a second session down the raod?). But once we got into the surgery room, he checked my density and my laxity and they were able to get 3988 at the end of the day. He did a 2cm strip, which was wider than the 1.8cm planned when I first arrived. 5 days later, I have no pain and very little tightness in my donor closure. They gave me some Valium to keep my calm and still during the procedure, which worked, but it did not cause me to sleep except for an hour in the afternoon. So I was awake for 10 of the 11 hours in the chair. The technicians doing the placement had to put up with my ridiculous small talk while I also watched a few movies to pass the time. The technicians were all great and very professional - they must have had 5 or 6 working on my strip at one point, cutting up all the grafts. My experience has been life-changing already thanks to the support of my wife and the great fo the people at SMG, and I look forward to the results of the procedure being equally as impressive. Day 9 is here, and tomorrow I go in for staple removal from donor area. My wife says scar looks very good. I may have started some shedding as the graft hairs were getting longer and thicker at Day 7 but now they seem weaker and the whole recipient area seems a little thinner and shorter. If it has started, it was inevitable. I have been on Propecia now for 9 days and no side effects noticed, though I know that could take longer to show-up as well. Anxious to get staples out, as they sometimes snag a little on the longer hairs in the back when I sleep and create a minor tender spot the next day; also anxious to trim the rest of my hair to look more uniform. I will also ask the Dr. about how to reduce the flaking beyond rubbing gently during shower - it actually seems to get much worse after it dries. I am not mirror-obsessed (yet) like many become during this process, though I do like tapping on the short graft hairs with my open palm and having the feeling of a buzz-cut, which I have never had before in my life. I have not taken a single pain pill since the two I took the night after surgery, and I'm not sure I really even needed those, but the Dr. said I need to keep blood pressure down if I had pain during the night. All good so far! Day 10 arrived and staples came out yesterday. Contrary to what many may say, there is a little pain involved. Each one coming out is like a needle stick. They don't use any topical antisthetic or anything like that to help dull the pain. It's just: locate, and pull with a tweezers! Then they cleaned it up nicely, put some ointment on and off I went. Took 20 minutes. Now I really struggle with how to make my head look until the hairs shed and start growing back. The Dr. bascially shaved the top of my head during the procedure because I had so many grafts to do, so my native hairs that were in top are as short as the grafts. The grafts will start to shed, my sides and back are long, and I can't trim them as short as the graft hairs or my native hairs due to the donor scar stil healing. So I kind of have the u-shaped Norwood VII bald man look going...at least before the procedure I had a few native hairs in front and on top that were at a length covering the shiny top! Fortunately, I can wear a hat and work from home most days so hopefully in a month or so I will look very similar to my appearance before the procedure, as some of my native hairs grow back and get longer.

Hi Sunny - I had a 3988 graft FUT session with Dr. Ron's brother, Dr. Paul, on 10/17/2014. Feel free to read my posts and also let me know how you are doing. I also drove to SMG from the Chicago area for my procedure, as I read and heard so many good things about the Shapiros and the staff at SMG after literally years of research and considering a procedure. I was in the chair for 11+ hours on a Friday (finished past 8:00 pm!), and I was thrilled at their commitment and professionalism. Now the long waiting period begins, but I am healing well and that is a good step 1. I hope you are healing well also. Take care.

You have great temple peaks and the Dr. will successfully bring your hairline down nicely for a completely natural look. Konior is known for great hairlines as well, even though I went to Shapiro due to a friend's recommendation. To me it looks like 3000 is a lot for where you are right now. I would bet it ends up being less than that for now (and he puts you on Propecia for the crown), and you save more donor area for a procedure 10 years down the road. We all continue to lose hair as much as we fight it, so having a good stock in reserve is important. Don't worry about being off work for 6 months. You will shed the graft hairs in a few weeks and then they slowly grow back over 3-12 months in fairly natural way.