gxm100

What is the earliest that you guys started drinking alcohol after your HT procedures? And did you have success with your HT? I’m curious because my doc said to abstain from alcohol for 72 hours. I had 1 beer on day 5, one beer on day 10, and one beer on day 12. But then you see many doctors and online articles saying it must be abstained from for 14 days. so although I followed my docs instructions, I’m having anxiety that I might’ve messed it up. Would love to hear others’ experiences with alcohol. thanks!

Yeah I’m curious to hear his thoughts and maybe to see a frontal kind of view. I think the before pic probably only “looks better”because the hair is longer at that point.

Day 11 with shaved head. Incision line looks good, nice and skinny. It is still a bit tender but glad to have the staples out

Day 10 Post Op looking good at day 10! Scabs are coming off (though more hairs are coming with them then I’d have liked but I know this is normal). Gonna shave my head later today after staples come out and enjoy the buzz cut look for hopefully a week or two before I turn into an ugly duck! let me know what you think!

Thanks All! @Rahal Hair Transplant so how does sleeping on your back after staple removal factor into this. Do I need to be careful about even that?

I have some questions about scar stretching: 1) when does it happen? Can it happen while staples are still in or only after removal? 2) can sleeping on the scar cause this to happen? (It seems unavoidable to put pressure on the scar while laying down) 3) what steps can be taken to minimize the potential for stretching

Yeah I mean that set aside - sex, at least not the way I do it 😆, doesn’t include benching anyone or anything weighing 225. And again surely even masturbation must be less significant to changes in BP than sex (again assuming a fairly “standard” scenario here). I certainly understand the caution, and even appreciate cautious recommendations from doctors. Just wish there was someone to elaborate on how it could actually impact the recipient site other than the relatively obvious increased chance of incidental contact to the head.

Yeah like if this info is out there, and presented by a reputable doc like Bernstein, how is it that other reputable docs say start massaging the grafts at 4 days? Sure the implication is that it should be done lightly, but what’s the benefit? If scabbing isn’t harmful, which I believe on that one there is consensus that it’s not, then why would we start touching the recipient area at all before at least day 7? Whole thing is wild to me. I touched the recipient for the first time on Day 5, but did so very very very gently and am glad that I’ve gone that way. On day 10 I will give some more pressure / apply conditioner if I have to to break up the scabs. also just generally interesting to me that doctors don’t just go with the more cautious recommendation across the board.

I guess that’s a very good way to put it actually. I guess maybe my question is more of “what are really the impacts of raised blood pressure”. Like is it really possible that it causes you to lose grafts? Or is most around the potential of bleeding/stretching a scar for FUT

Also what about masturbation? how could that have any impact? I see only 1 question on this forum about that being bad after HT and most of the responses were jokes, but I think it’s important for people to understand and be educated on what could really be a detriment

in what way does sex negatively impact a HT result? Online I see things such as - raised blood pressure can destroy grafts (this is the one I am most skeptical of) - raised blood pressure just increases chances of bleeding (seems legit) - chances of accidentally contacting and harming grafts (seems legit) - sweating ( I guess that’s fair) This is really just a question of curiosity since my doctor only advised 4 days to not have sex after my HT and I’m out side of that window. Is it really possible that increased blood pressure from sex would ‘explode’ the grafts? I see statements like this coming mostly from clinics I have not heard of so wanted to get the community’s thoughts on what are the real risks.

Ok what do we all think…is this a lost graft or just a hair coming out with scab (which you can clearly see)…can’t tell what’s with the bulby end of the hair in the pic below. Looks like a little hook more so than a bulb to me. Let me know your thoughts

Thanks @Vann! I agree it’s early for overthinking, but at the same time since this is the most vulnerable stage, I feel it’s where I’ll do the most. Ive been googling other docs post op instructions and I just find it wild how differentiated each doc is from the next. Some say grafts are anchored after 3 days some say 7 some say 10 some say 14. Some say no drinking for a month, 2 weeks, a week, 3 days. No touching the grafts for 3,7,10,14 days. Dr Bloxham is on the short end of all of those, which I guess is good. But it just sends my brain haywire as to why there is no consensus

Update from Day 6: Been having lots of anxiety about post op care which sucks. Feel like everything I’m doing is wrong, but probably that’s all in my head. 1) tried to use conditioner on recipient last night to help with scabbing and dry scalp, but then the conditioner was so dense I couldn’t get it to fully wash out 2) rolled in my sleep last night. Somehow managed to wiggle out of my neck pillow and woke up sleeping on my stomach. My recipient area however was not touching anything so hopefully it caused no damage. bright side is I haven’t seen any further bleeding from recipient area so if that’s the tell tale sign that you damaged something, I guess I’m good? below is one regular pic of my progress and then a higher quality zoomed in photo of the recipient. Would be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts!

@MikeJohnDaDon how do you feel everything is coming along? looks like you have new growth coming in to me! But I guess the comparison with your pre-op pic is hard to tell considering difference in length of hair.

@MikeJohnDaDon any 4 month update? was looking like you were just getting started back in May!

Yes, the post op packet I referenced in my original post are printed instructions which mention to return to “normal washing” under the section for post op days 4-10. day 7 doesn’t seem that unreasonable, I agree. But day 4 does feel early to me.

Since my procedure, I have been cleaning the recipient area by gently pouring lukewarm water mixed with baby shampoo over the grafts and allowing to air dry. My post op packet says from day 4 post op that I may begin gently massaging the recipient area while showering. This just seems too early to me. I see lots of people on this forum saying they didn’t do it til day 10-14. This would seem to make sense to me as consensus also seems to be that it takes around 9 or 10 days for grafts to become permanent. Am I missing something? Does anyone else agree that day 4 seems too early? What have others done / had success with? thanks!

I did hear back after sending a picture to Dr Bloxham. Since I was not able to get a very clear photo it was tough for him to tell much with confidence. He told me I was bleeding from that area a bit more during surgery, so it was likely just a clump of dried blood over top of one of the staples. he told me to monitor for continued bleeding and that was the only time that he would be really concerned. The bleeding has stopped, and after a few days of gently washing the incision line, I agree it is likely a larger clump of dried blood. will keep everyone updated in the next few days once I’m allowed to apply more pressure while washing!

All good on day 2! One question though. If I run my hand through the hair at the back that was not trimmed for the surgery, I get TONS of hair coming out on my hands. This seems odd to me as I understood it this would be too early for shock loss. Anyone else experience this?

@BurnieBurns Thing is I can’t tell if the staple is coming out or if I’m feeling the clump of dry blood. Nor can I actually see the staple as it is fully covered in that same clump of blood

Hi all, just 1 day post op from an fut procedure. I have two questions… 1) is it normal for the donor area to be bleeding a bit at this point. I mean it’s not like gushing blood or anything but when I touch it lightly with a towel there is a small amount of blood on the towel 2) I can feel that one of the staples is sticking up where all the others are flat/flush with my skin (feels like maybe it kind of popped or something?). This is right in the same area as the small bleeding. Anything to be concerned about do you think? See pic below for reference. There is a large spot of dried blood over the staple which is what you can see for the most part - so maybe the staple is in and it’s just a big clump of dried blood, but as I said in this area there is still light bleeding. also you can see some of the other staples there which are clearly perfect and clean.

@HappyMan2021 - nope no reason. I did not request that. It is just what the clinic chose to do in terms of shaving. I don’t mind as my intent is to shave it all down at around 2 weeks anyway.

Thanks @John1991! Yeah the grafts here actually start above where the whispy remanants of my hairline were. I can’t wait to wear a hat haha. I strategically began wearing a hat basically every time I was in a non formal setting for the last year or so so that it wouldn’t suddenly seem weird to friends and family now.

Hi All! Thank you for your support in my procedure. Below I will post my review of the day, details of the procedure, and some post op photos (as well as donor area photos which I did not previously include) Dr Bloxham Review Obvioisly the ultimate result, to be determined many months from now, will dictate my ultimate satisfaction with Bloxham. But for now I will say that I was very impressed with him and his staff. He made me feel comfortable, answered and discussed all of my questions and ideas as if we were peers, was very clear on his thoughts about my case, and had an excellent bedside manner. We had casual conversation all throughout the procedure and I was happy with how frequently he checked in and had a close look at the job being done during graft placement. The same would be said for the 4 or 5 techs working on me. Each of them were very knowledgeable, had many years of experience, and made the day very enjoyable by having conversation and joking around with me. For the techs particularly, they were exceptionally observant of what they were doing and how I was feeling. Procedure Details Everything began around 7:45 am. Doc checked to see if there had been any major changes to my situation since our consult last year - which there was nothing significant. After that we did the hairline design, talked about taking a relatively conservative approach (which as I mentioned above was what I wanted. I DO NOT want a dead straight hairline.) Once that was settled, he took some pre-op photos and we did the trim up. Next up was the strip extraction which is what I was most nervous for. I’d prefer to not start any debate in my thread about FUE vs FUT, I will only say that I could not believe how painless the strip extraction was. I didn’t even know they were doing it! And I am a major softy about knives and sharp objects. As has been mentioned many other times in many threads, the numbing injections didn’t feel great, but I mean, it was like a firm punch at worst - it was no bee sting. This process took maybe 20-30 mins total. The staple closure was simple, except at one point during that I, for whatever reason, got light headed so we took like a 5 min break and then everything was good. Right after that, the techs began cutting up the strip while Dr Bloxham created the incisions. Again, he was extremely friendly and comforting during this process. At this point I actually fell asleep for a while so I don’t know exactly how long it took overall. Dr Bloxham seemed very happy with the incisions and said I have “a great skin type” which is more “hard” and “with a great blood supply”. These were things I’ve not heard before on these forums but he seemed stoked about it haha. From there I ate some lunch and then placement began by a series of 5 techs (some placing and some cleaning). Again they were great to speak with. Toward the beginning I did have a little popping which I was happy to hear the techs bring up immediately and to go get the Dr. They gave me another Valium to try to lower my blood pressure and apparently it worked because from that point the placement went hyper speed. One thing I was excited about was that two separate techs said they hadn’t seen that densely packed of a hairline in a long time. I liked to hear that especially because of my fine blondish hair type. In my above post, I mentioned that because of my dense donor - they were able to extract more (like 2500 as opposed to 2300) but then as it turned out they actually got 3,000! So doctor Bloxham came back in made more cuts and reinforced certain areas that he thought best. I was pumped about that. Even more pumped because he only charged me for the 2300 we initially agreed on. Good man in my opinion. I forgot to get the graft break up but have emailed Bloxham so I’m hoping he will share tomorrow. Please see post op photos below, posted in exact same lighting as pre-op pics from my initial post. That was basically it, so now we wait! Please let me know how you think it looks!! PHOTOS: