jj2000

I'm not taking minoxidil, but you're right, I should. I have a few separate questions about that, but will post in a separate thread. However, related to this thread, I have noticed more bumps on my head throughout the day and in the mornings, but I don't feel them after sitting in the shower for a few minutes, so they don't feel like scabs. They look like dandruff, and feel pretty superficial when I rub my head. Wanted to double check that this is expected/normal. My only real concern is that they are not scabs as I know I should have gotten all of those off now. Also, worth mentioning, that when I rub my head more hair starts to fall off, so fair to say the shedding phase has begun

Here are some pics from 14 days post op. Sorry for the poor quality. Using my phone at the moment. Generally speaking things have been going as planned. The scabs took a few days to get them all off (and I still feel an occasional few in the donor area). When washing my hair, and fair amount came fell out, which I believe is expected. I couldn't tell if some of them included the root or not (e.g. whether it was the root attached to it, or just the wet scab). The redness has gone down a lot and not that noticeable (my skin color and dark hair definitely help). I've been wearing a hat at work for the last week, but will avoid it this week. I'm also going to start exercising/running tomorrow and looking forward to it. I triple checked with the Dr, and he said it's fine, provided I wash my hair shortly after The donor area however has continued to be pretty painful. I believe it's a combination of general bruising and the lack of nerve regrowth, so I decided to take Neurontin. The pain has slowly been getting better, yet I still have trouble sleeping at times, especially on my back since the back of my head is most sensitive to touch. I did bacitracin three times a day for the past two weeks and have started aloe vera twice a day, but that whole area still feels "stiff" for lack of a better term, especially when I tilt my head up. I'm expecting to start losing a lot of the implanted hair soon, but crossing my fingers that the shock loss isn't too great so I can go back to my usual look to provide natural coverage against the sun as summer approaches.

Thanks for the feedback. This type of pain is really weird, I've never experienced it before. It definitely still hurts to lay my head on anything, but I can manage to sleep with a neck pillow. Wearing hats also takes it's toll, but isn't as bad as actually laying my entire head on a pillow (which sounds odd). The doctor offered to prescribe Neurontin to help with the pain, but I'm on the fence about whether I should take it or not. Searches on this forum turn up little results, so it's seems relatively uncommon. Side effects seem slim other than drowsiness. As for topical treatments. I'm a bit confused between Bacitracin, Neosporin and Aloe Vera. Do you alternate between them? Put them all on at the same time like one big cocktail Or switch between them at certain stages (e.g. X days after Post Op)? So far I've just been doing Bacitracin three times a day (one of those small disposable packets each time). I've also been thinking a lot about what's most important to me given all the variables at play, and despite the pain, I'm still optimizing for best results (which also includes the donor area). So despite the annoying pain, I'd rather focus on minimizing scarring in the donor area and maximizing results in the recipient area (which I imagine everyone in this forum is!). To that extent, I am a little frustrated with myself around needing to wear a hat to work (and the corresponding perspiration/moisture). The irony of having the HT done is that I was very self conscience about my hair loss, and thus very self conscience about getting it addressed

Just the green aloe vera gel? Also, I've continued to apply the Bacitracin. should I switch to Neosporin (or put Neosporin in addition to it?)

Here are some more pictures after a very long shower. I didn't get all the scabs off, so I'll give it another go tomorrow. The donor area unfortunately continues to be pretty painful (I still have to sleep with a neck pillow). I'll speak with the Dr's office tomorrow to see what they suggest. (also, it's really hard to take pictures of the back of your head)

I got the A-Cell injection, but I'll ask about cream on Monday. The donor area is really sensitive to touch. I have to be extra gentle when I put on the cream and last night I tried sleeping without the neck pillow (e.g. back of head straight on the pillow) and it was too painful, so I had to go back to the neck pillow.

Here are some pictures of Day 7 post op. Generally speaking things have been healing fine. The recipient area hasn't bothered my too much, other than being itchy, but the donor area has been surprisingly painful and sensitive. It's actually become somewhat difficult to sleep on. The donor area looks good, although it's still pretty obvious that I had the surgery done, so I'll be wearing a hat when I go back to work on Monday. I'be been putting on the Bacitracin Zinc Ointment ointment, but wondering if anyone has other suggestions on what I can put on the donor area to speed up healing. Tomorrow I'll take a long shower and massage off most of the scabs on the recipient area and will post follow up pictures.

Thanks matt1164. Trouble is he told me between 2-4 weeks I definitely don't want to push it. He has been awesome thus far and encouraged me to call his cell should I have any questions, and also allowed me to come in for a couple extra days of cleaning (I felt his crew would do a better job than mine, and since I took some time off work, I asked if I could just come in and have them do it for me).

I'm a few days into my FUE surgery (My 3164 Grafts with Dr. Diep (FUE) -- May 6th, 2016 - Forum By and for Hair Loss Patients) and was hoping to solicit this forum for some tips/advice 1. Any tips on helping the donor area heal. At the moment I'm applying the Bacitracin Zinc Ointment the Dr gave me three times a day. He suggested that I do so for the first two weeks. Is there anything else I should/could be doing? I hoping to minimize those scars as much as possible as I generally keep the sides of my hair pretty short (Ideally a 1/2 guard, but I recognize that I'll most likely have to settle for a 1 guard). 2. Recovery Time & Exercise. I'm training for a marathon, and I asked the Dr when I could start running again. He suggested sometime between 2-4 weeks post op. My question is how do I know whether I'm ok at 2 weeks, vs 4 weeks. My understanding is that on day 3, the grafts are roughly in place, and on day 8 you can take a shower and scrub away most of the scabs (gently scrub during a short shower with little steam). Of course, I can play it safe and wait longer and I definitely don't want to jeopardize this investment, but I'm also curious about what signs to look for to determine when I'm ready for long distance running, as well as what the risks would be. 3. Scuba Diving: I have a scuba diving trip planned for a little over 1 month post op. I've asked the Dr three times and he said it's ok provided I cover my head (both under & above water) to limit sun exposure. Has anyone had any experience with this? Any other risks I'm incurring? Even though I've been reading these forums for months, I still feel like a newbie with a bunch of random questions, so thanks for bearing with me!

This whole thread raises an interesting question. I'm still very new to the HT world, but it seems that there aren't any checks and balances in place to verify the number of grafts vs what was actually billed. Am I safe in assuming that? I imagine to the trained eye (including many of the senior folks on this forum) would be able to garner rough guesses based on pictures, but beyond that, are there any other verification methods?

Not really, as you can see from the initial pictures, the location of the hairline itself was fine, but the coverage was really thin, so we focused more on filling it in.

Thanks for the kinda words...i'm excited to see the results, but of course, tempering my expectations as I know I won't see anything significant for 6-9 months. Also, I forgot to mention that Dr. Diep said the transection rate was around 5% and I also opted for A-Cell. My research on A-Cell seemed mixed, but given the cost of the entire operation, I felt it was worth the extra cost even if there's a small advantage.

By motor, do you mean the robot? I know he didn't use the robot and did it by hand, but unsure if the tool he used had a separate motor to it. I believe the size of the punch was 1mm.

Hmm...Not sure why half the pictures ended up upside down

I'm a 35 year old male who's hair has been gradually thinning sine my early 20s. My hairline itself has roughly been in tact, but the thinning went roughly past the halfway mark of my head. I've been on proscar/propecia since my early 20s as well, and it's really helped, but I deciding the take the plunge and get a hair transplant. Initially we were scheduled to do 2500 grafts, which I already thought was a little excessive since every other consultation I went through suggested somewhere in the 1500-2000 range. When filling out all of the paperwork, there was a form which specified how many extra grafts the Dr was allowed to pull during the surgery if he felt it was needed. I wasn't exactly sure what to put here as it was unclear to me if I would need extra grafts, so I put down 500 (there was another option to specify no limit, but I felt more comfortable with a hard number in place). Apparently after my head was shaved, Dr. Diep realized that the thinning of my hair actually went farther back than he initially thought (since my hair was longer when I first came in). As such, he extracted more approximately 634 more grafts. He did however not charge me for the extra 134 grafts as I specified 500 on the paperwork. I'm pretty thankful for this as it's not a small number of grafts (nor a small amount of money). The breakdown of the grafts are: 1's: 701 2's: 1,309 3's: 692 4's: 432 Total: 3,134 Surgery was slated to start at 5:30am, which meant I was up at 4am to shower, prep, and hit the road. Once in the office, Dr Diep drew out the area he would fill in and I took my cocktail of medication and we were off. The extractions themselves were surprisingly painful (especially in one area), so much so that the Dr himself was surprised as he suggested that most patients don't feel that much pain. Either way, he continued to numb the area to make me feel better. From there on out, I don't remember too much, since I woke up so early, I passed out while the Dr made the incisions and the technicians started placing the grafts. I woke up for lunch, ate a bit and then the technicians asked if I wanted to watch some TV, however, I opted to go back to sleep again. Dr. Diep came in around 4pm to make a few extra incision sites and to check in on things and ask me how I was doing. Afterwards, I didn't see him again, but to be honest, I was ok with that. I didn't have any questions and was looking forward to getting home. By 5pm we were done and I was ready to get home. I went back today for a cleaning and spoke with Dr. Diep where he said he was pleased with the results...I'm sure he says that to everyone All said and done, the doctor and his staff were pretty awesome, and I'm happy with the initial results. My main concerns, and general nervousness is the donor area, as it's pretty big and I hope it heals well and quickly. I'm also really nervous about the ugly duckling stage as I'm trying to avoid everyone knowing I had this procedure done I'm staying home for the next week, but returning to work on day 10 and planning on wearing a hat, to help cover things up. I've attached a handful of pics before the surgery (these are actually a few months old, but still representative of my hair loss), and pictures I took today (day 1 post op). I plan on posting pictures once a week until the first month and monthly thereafter until the first year.

Hi, I'm having FUE surgery with Dr. Diep very soon, and I had some questions I was hoping to get some insight into. I plan on asking the doctor all of these, but hoping to get some additional thoughts (if nothing else, to help calm my nerves). I'm mostly nervous about the ugly duckling stage, especially when I go to work. 1. When can I start wearing a hat? I'm curious not only about the covering up the redness, but also the fact that summer is starting, and I imagine I'd want to cover up. 2. Getting a haircut? Is there a general timeframe that I should wait? 3. Activities? At what point am I ok to go swimming (both pool & ocean), as well as go running. I know much of this depends on how I'm healing, and of course, the doctor is the best person to answer these, but I'm trying to get a rough idea of things.

Thanks so much for the feedback guys...I really appreciate it. Answers to a couple of your questions: @Jmt2005, The price per graft is the same/similar in these cases, so it's not my primary concern @esrec & @HTsoon Thanks...I am grateful for all the hair I have. Definitely recognize that it could be way worse (especially given family history...all the men on both sides are pretty bald). Starting on Finasteride early definitely helped. The 2500 was suggested just for the front, and not for the crown. I also feel that it's a little high. Curious if the new pictures change your opinion at all. @MrGio-WHTCClinic Thanks for the advice. I've definitely started seeing a lot more doctors and getting as many opinions as I can. This forum has also been incredibly helpful.

Here are a couple of additional pictures I took this morning that hopefully highlight the loss a bit better.

So here are some pictures...I took a few last night, and honestly I don't think they came out that great (never really taken pictures of my hair). I also included some pictures from one of my doctors visits. Unfortunately, my hair is much longer than I actually keep it. For some crazy reason I decided to grow it out, so this isn't my actual look. I actually keep it pretty short (especially on the sides where I use a #1 clip...which is why I'm only considering FUE) Majority of the loss is in the front 1/2 of my head, although I was surprised how much scalp I could see on the back of my head from one of the pictures (not sure if it's the styling or not). Hope this is helpful

Thanks for the responses. I'll take a picture tomorrow to hopefully try and provide some additional context. As far as your other questions. I'm 35 and started noticing hair loss when I was roughly ~20 and started on Finasteride around the same time (honestly can't remember exactly). In my recent conversations with doctors it sounds like I should also couple that with Minoxidil. The Finasteride has definitely slowed down my hair loss, but I recently started looking at some older pictures (~5 years) and it's clear that the loss has worsened over time (it's just been slow enough that I didn't notice it in realtime). It was actually Dr. Diep who suggested the 2500 grats (@HTsoon, I mention this because I followed your post/comments about your HT with him)

I've been meeting with a number of doctors and most of them suggest around 1500 (give or take a few hundred) and some have also hinted that I could also come back in 12-18 months for another round if I wanted to (depending on the outcome). One doctor however suggested doing 2500 off the bat to get a fuller/denser result. In my discussions with the doctors, they didn't highlight any risks/cons of getting more done in one session (from a long term result perspective) although I have admittedly not done that much research on that specific topic. What I'm trying to wrap my head around is why some doctors would recommend less vs more. Is it to keep the cost down and get a result that I'd be reasonably happy with (I'm told I'm a Norwood II+)? Is it that if I come in for a second round the total I would pay them would be more? In other words, why not get the most possible implants in one sitting?

Thanks...this is tremendously helpful information. In my case, FUE is the best option, since I normally keep my hair short (#1 on the sides) and the number of grafts I've been told is roughly around ~1500 (although I'm curious to hear what the other three doctors mention). I'm 35 years old and been taking propecia/proscar for >10 years so the baldness/thinning has stopped for the most part, but I'd love to fill in what I've already lost. It's arguably not that much (I'm told it's Stage 2 in the front) but I figure if I'm ever gonna get this addressed, I should do it now. Based on your description, it sounds like Rahal would be my best bet, although I'm also interested to see Dr. Diep's work.

Thanks for responding @stig. What makes those folks that I listed so bad? Not seconding guessing your claim, but trying to get a better understanding in what/how these doctors are different. For instance, when you say "HT procedures require very particular skill sets", what skill sets should I be on the lookout for? Thanks!

Also, what does a bad hair transplant look like? Is it a bunch of shock loss, or something more drastic?

Hi, I've had a few consultations for FUE (2 so far and 3 more in the coming weeks) with local doctors in the San Francisco Bay Area and honestly, I'm not sure what I should be looking for. Most consultations seem to go the same way and the answers are generally the same (number of grafts, short term and long term recovery and results, etc). I've read a handful of threads on this forum, and people have mentioned that they weren't "impressed" by the before/after pictures on doctors' websites, but they don't seem to explain why. Would love to know how other folks are selecting/interviewing doctors. Also, for those interested, the Doctors I'm looking at at. If anyone does have any good info on them, I'd love to hear it (I searched the forum to find some feedback, but I figured it doesn't hurt to ask) Dr. Sara Wasserbauer Dr. Gorrin Dr. Diep Dr. Tom Rosanelli Ziering Medical Lastly, I also noticed a number of folks recommending traveling to a better doctor, but unfortunately for personal reasons that isn't something I can pull off.