Born2Shine

Thank you for the reply. I am surprised that more people haven't been talking about this. I have seen many people that would look great with this short buzz look. I think it often looks better like this than when they grow the hair longer. Am I the only one that thinks this?

I had this same type of pain after my first procedure. At the time... I was concerned that it might be some type of nerve damage and I was concerned it might never go away. I would get these "jolts" in the back of my head and it was painful. That said... I believe it started to go away around the 2 week mark. I am sure it will begin to go away very soon. Hang in there... Edit - Just realized this is an older thread. I think this pain is fairly common. However... some people seem to have a much higher tolerance for pain. Although it can be pretty painful at times... it didn't really bother me so much. I was just concerned it may never go away... but it did.

I would not say it is "getting late" at 7 months. I had A LOT of growth come well after the 7 month mark. Like Spex said... it is still early especially if you are a slow grower.

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking maybe in 18 months, after I can gauge the full result and density... Maybe get temporary SMP. If I really like that look... Consider permanent. I would think this would be a good use of SMP to help provide an even more dense look throughout the entire scalp. Does anyone ever look pretty close to the way they look post op with a short buzz cut? It seems that this is not a very popular look among HT patients.

So... I just had some additional work done to add more density to the hairline and I am at about 5 days post op. I have to say... I really like the way my hair looks right now before the shed. I noticed the same thing days after my first procedure. It looks like a tight buzz cut and the hairline is very pronounced and defined. You can not see a difference in density between the transplanted hair and the native. Of course, there is still some redness and a bit of scabbing at this point. I never tried cutting my hair this short after my first procedure. I am wondering if after my new hair grows in over the coming months... would it look the same as it does now if I buzz it back down really short? Or is there something about the hairs before the shed that makes the hairline look so defined days after post opp? I have read people's comments about "rocking the new buzz cut" and hairline before the shedding kicks in... but I haven't been able to find any threads that discuss the difference between the "post opp buzz look" and the final results 12 - 18 months into the future. It is not so easy to put into words... Does this make sense?

Thank you again for the replies. I guess it is not that I am unhappy with the result. There has been a definite improvement over the hairline I had before. The thing is... I like to wear my hair more combed back exposing the hairline. I guess I had the expectation that I would be able to do that without any issues. I feel like if the left temple was blunted a little bit it would make a significant difference (at least in my head). I may be going back to get a few hundred grafts to refine the hairline. I go back and forth on it a little bit because I don't really want to go through this whole ordeal again. Since it is a small number of grafts... I am not sure what to expect as far as downtime and recovery. In adding a few hundred grafts (and maybe temple points), do you think there would be an ugly duckling phase all over again? How many grafts are usually necessary for temple points? Thanks again

I am approaching 12 months and I can still see what appears to be new sprouts and shorter hairs all throughout the hairline under the right light.

Anyone here try the topical finasteride from H&W? The claim is that the vehicle helps keep the Fina in the scalp and from going systematic. Anyone know the status on this becoming available in the US? Been meaning to call their office for more info...

I think when getting a hair transplant, at least for me, the way you want to style your hair should be taken into consideration as well. All along, part of the left temple has been lagging behind the right when you look at it from the front. Which is odd because the right actually looks thinner from the side. Anyway... I feel like blunting the left temple a bit would make everything look better when the hairline is exposed or the hair is combed back. Ideally... both temples would be filled in just a little bit more. I think this could be accomplished with a minimal amount of grafts and without making the hairline look too straight. It really is subjective. And just because I may not be a norwood 6... I can still relate to the feeling of never thinking my hair looks good and wanting to wear a hat all the time. Because my hair is fine and straight, it can be tricky to style and get looking decent. Of course, I had my tricks to try to make the thinning areas not look as obvious... and that always seemed to make my hairstyle look kind of ridiculous. Finally... I am not wearing hats anymore and so I am happy about that. I feel for anyone that has to deal with the mental anguish associated with hair loss. I know what it feels like to feel self-conscious... spend too much time trying to create a decent hairstyle... worry about the wind blowing around my hair... and on and on... I just think if I was going to spend all this time and money... I should have been just a little bit more aggressive. with some minor changes, it would not be perfect, but I think it would make a significant difference for me and the way I want to style my hair. Like many people here... I just want to look my best. I try to take good care of myself... eat healthy... exercise... try not to get too much sun... I spend quite a bit of time before audiences of people and just want to feel good about my appearance. I am sure many people here feel the same. Now in my 40s... I am watching the wrinkles deepen in my forehead and around my eyes. I am trying to come to a place of acceptance and can hopefully age gracefully. At the same time... I want to do what I can to slow down the process as much as possible.

I appreciate the replies. Honestly... I am not looking for perfection. I just expected to be able to style my hair any way I want and right now, I don't feel like I can do that. You can see the post-op photo of my head buzzed down. Does my current result look the same as my post opp photo? To me it does not. Does it look like I got a decent yield? I don't know... Sometimes I wonder if I don't have some type of hair dysmorphia.

Thanks for the reply. Where are you thinking the 3-400 would go?

Here are some photos of my hair wet and a few pre-op. Let me know what you think. 2600 is A LOT of grafts. I thought it actually looked pretty good post op before I shed. The first 2 are current wet with the bright direct overhead lights. The next 2 are pre-op photos showing what I was hoping to fill in. The next one was a post-op before the shed and the final one is a frontal shot before the procedure. I know I have had growth, but I am just not sure how much. Did I have a low yield? I definitely wish I would have been more aggressive with the hairline. If I was going to go through a year like this, I would have liked to go all out from the beginning.

Here are some photos. The lights in here are all very bright direct overhead lights so take that into consideration.

I meant to post this is the Questions section...

Right now I am feeling unhappy about my results. Maybe I was expecting too much. I like to comb my hair back exposing the hairline. With the minimal amount of loss to start, I thought for sure 2600 grafts would do the job. Maybe my yield was less than average... I am not sure. Now here I am about 3 weeks shy of a year, and I am just not satisfied. I still feel a bit self conscious when I style my hair back. I thought I had finally put all of this obsessing over my hair behind me. Now I am feeling disappointed and am dreading having to go through this entire process again. I have been thinking about going to Rahal to refine my hairline. Although, I am in Thailand and it would be easier to go to one of the doctors locally. I believe there is a doctor here that is supposed to do good work. I am so tired of thinking about my hair. I just want to move on with my life and not have to worry about it anymore. I imagine doctors don't really like doing smaller procedures. I probably need a few hundred or so grafts in the hairline. What would you do?

Well... I have to say it seems that this is another case of my mind playing tricks on me. I was traveling the past 10 days and I had been looking at my hair under a totally different kind of lighting in the condo I was staying in. In this lighting... I could not see any of the fine hairs that are growing in. Like I have said before, these hairs are almost invisible if you are not looking under the right kind of light. Now that I am back in my place with the overhead lighting, I can see countless tiny hairs (longer than vellus) that all coming in all along the hair line. I see many in the area that appears to be bald and recessed in the photo I posted. It looks like these hairs should make a substantial difference in this area once they get mature and thicken. There is really no way of knowing how much more this area is going to fill in over the coming months. I think it goes to show that you can still have a lot of hair growing in the later months even though you may not be able to see the hairs under your current lighting conditions. I was unable to see these hairs at all until I got back under these bright overhead lights. When I tilt my head just right under these lights, I can see countless shorter fine hairs still coming in all throughout this area. Crazy...

I am still trying to figure out something. From the immediate post op photos, it looks like this temple was a little more closed off. Yet... below a certain point, I am not seeing any hairs growing. It doesn't make sense that NONE of the hairs in this area would have grown, right?

Yes... I just want to "blunt" the corners like you mentioned. At least on this left side. Any idea how many grafts it would take to do that? I am wondering if this would be a minor operation where I could go down to a crew cut and have it not really be so noticeable. Perhaps it would look like I had a slight injury there for a while? BTW, I had minimal recession to begin with and I have plenty of grafts. They are not doing me any good on the back of my head. If it is going to make me happy, why not do it? Thanks again

Thank you for the comments. You see what I am talking about though right? I am attaching another photo where I have drawn in the "ideal hairline". I would like to see this area just as dense as the forelock. I would like to be able to slick back from the temple and look like there is no recession. Even if I had this filled in, my hairline would not be straight an would still have a natural looking curve. For some reason... it actually looks a bit more receded to me in the mirror than it does in the photo. It still throws me because this side looked a little more "straight" and closed than the right when the grafts were placed. However, now it looks like the right side looks more filled in and without recession. This can't be in my head, right? I went to Asmed. Like I said, overall I am happy and feel having the procedure done was definitely the right decision. The density on the right appears to pretty much match the original density even under harsh lighting. If the left was to match up, I would be ecstatic.

So... In a couple weeks I will be at 11 months. Under the right lighting... I still see countless tiny hairs coming in in the hairline that are almost invisible and obviously have not matured yet. Overall... I feel quite happy about the progress I have made. There has been a substantial improvement and I rarely wear hats anymore which is a big step forward for me. That said... I can not say that I am 100% satisfied. I realize that I am a perfectionist and so some of this may actually be in my head. I am attaching a photo that shows my hair pulled back using a hat so you can see the current state of my hairline on the left side. This side was always lagging behind from the beginning of my growth. In the temple, it goes back just a little bit further than I want. For some reason, there is a grouping of hairs that are below the rest of my hairline right before the temple area. I placed a blue dot right below where these hairs appear. These hairs seem to make it look like there is some monor recession in this left temple. I am not sure why these hairs are there because I do not believe that there were grafts placed there and I do not think it was intentional. This minor recession seems to throw off the hairstyles I would like to wear. Sometimes I like to spike my hair back with almost a slicked back look. When I look in the mirror, this slight recession seems to throw off the style. In my mind... it would look far better if the hairline came down slightly on the left temple. If it came down slightly, I think I could pull off more radical hairstyles and my hair would look better with both the slicked back style as well as a buzz type cut. When I had my procedure done, I told the doc that I was looking to be a little more conservative. Since my recession was somewhat minor, I guess I was actually looking to be a little more aggressive. I basically allowed the doc to place my hairline where he thought it should be. Honestly... I wish my entire hairline was just a little bit lower as I already have a high hairline to begin with. My fear would be that the lower hairline would not match the rest density wise and might end up looking much worse than it does now. With a higher hairline, it seems that even minor recession is a lot more pronounced than on those that have a naturally lower hairline to begin with. It seems that lowering the left side just slightly would make a huge difference in the overall appearance. Again... some of this may just be in my head. When the grafts were placed... It actually looked a little more straight on this side than it does now. Like I said, I can still see small fine hairs, but I do not think there are going to fill this in as much as I would like even after they mature. I am attaching a photo of the graft placement on the left side so you can compare the placement to my current growth. I a really torn because I do not want to go through all of this again. I wish I would have been just a little more aggressive when I had this procedure. However... what is done is done. How many grafts do you think it would take to bring down this left temple a bit and to get a little more temple closure? If I decide to go ahead with another procedure, would getting this done with a smaller number of grafts be a lot easier than going through what I went though last time? Should I just wait and give the hairs more time to mature and see where I am at 14 months? Like I said, I know I am a perfectionist, but this is bothering me. It seems to make styling my hair much more difficult than I feel like it should be. That is a big part of the reason I had this done in the first place. I was considering getting a consult with a doc in Bangkok that seems to be getting some great FUE results. I can't think of his name but some of his work was recently posted on this site. Let me know your thoughts... Thanks!

Thanks for the replies... I guess I was judging by the length of the hairs. There are so many and they vary in length. I would say a good percentage of them are only a few centimeters while there are others that appear to be just emerging from the scalp. In some lighting... it is very difficult to see. However with bright overhead light at the right angle... I can see many of them as I run a comb through the hair. What is strange is that a lot of these hairs are at the very front of the hairline. It seems to be a lot of late activity in this area specifically. Further into the hairline and the temples... there has already been a significant amount of growth and filling in from early on. Something else strange is that I did seem to have quite a bit of early growth. So... it is as if I had some good early growth and yet seem to have a lot of late growth at the same time. I used to wear hats quite a bit. I haven't really worn a hat since around month 6 or 7. Whatever is happening... i hope to see a lot more and it just keeps coming. Haha

Yes I have some photos. However the point of my post is more the fact that I am seeing a lot of new growth at near the 10 month mark. I have read many posts from people (and even doctors) that seem to think that there is not much new growth that happens around the 9 month mark and beyond. Maybe my case is somewhat of an anomaly? I just don't understand why these grafts have stayed dormant for so long...

So I am less than a week away from 10 months and there are a load of new hairs in my hairline. Some of them are fine hairs that have become longer and some of them are just sprouting through the surface. There are far too many to count. I have to say that I have mixed feelings. Of course, I am happy to see all the new growth. I was just expecting to be closer to final outcome at this point. With all the activity... I would say that it is impossible to know what the final outcome will be. There is no way to know how much of a cosmetic impact all these hairs will have when they mature. I think it will take well beyond 12 months to really gauge the results. In the past, I have been concerned about the left side lagging behind. The left side is still behind the right, but there appears to be a lot of activity on that side right now. I have already had a very significant improvement from where I first started and am looking forward to what will happen in the months ahead. From all the research I have done... my situation seems to be pretty rare. Perhaps I am the slow growth king? Also... I had been thinking that perhaps the reason I am able to detect all the new growth is because most of my work was concentrated on the hairline. If the grafts were more spread out all over my head, maybe this new growth would not be as noticeable.

I am a week past 7 months and I am still concerned about the left temple. I see many fine hairs about 1cm in length on both sides and it is hard to tell if there are a good number of new sprouts or not. I know people say that 7 months is usually 70%. If that applies to the right side... I would be stoked about that. However, I am not sure just another 30% on the left would do the trick. Most of the hairs coming in are very fine and almost undetectable under regular light. I know they are growing because there are both long ones and shorter ones on both sides. Anyone else here had something like this happen? Is it possible that the left side is just slower growth for some reason? Is it really possible to see major growth after 7 months? I guess I will find out over the coming months....

Thank you again for the replies.... I didn't mean that to come off as abrasive. These kind posts come across borderline "you are stupid for doing this"... Even though I am sure it wasn't meant that way and it is a compliment. I spent the time... the money... and I am happy that I did and am seeing some progress... That is what matters. Again... I am just trying to gauge if I look about right for 6 months as there are many experienced people here. I figured this is one of the best places I could possibly ask. Like I said... I see many small baby fine hairs that are growing and beginning to lengthen. This is how much of the hair has come in... really fine almost invisible hairs that lengthen with time. I can see many of these hairs in the hairline that are shorter than the native hairs. Hopefully as they begin to thicken... it will make more of a cosmetic difference throughout the hairline. Of course... I am hoping to get quite a few more sprouts over the coming months. Grow babies grow....