CSB

Hi guys been a while sorry.

Just taken these pictures now. I've applied hair oil. Usually do it when I'm working from home.

You can say they are 14 months.

I'll try and get some more showing how I normally comb and dry my hair, so you guys can see if it looks 'normal'.

Hi,

 

How are you feeling about HT with Dr. Bhatti are you happy with progress so far?

 

Cheers

V

I don't have any other HT experience to benchmark it to but I would recommend him. In hindsight there can be changes done to make it better but I guess for the price I am happy.

From far, it would be difficult to see anything suspicious going on. But up close, it does look like there's some powder there. I've heard it's extremely difficult to use the fibre on the hairline because it falls flat on some parts of the skin which makes it easy to see. Maybe spare the edges so it looks more natural? But if your missus says it looks good, don't you worry

 

Btw, can you show a close-up picture so we can see the hair strands that grew after your last update?

No probs, here's what I've taken today this morning after a shower with flash:

I think it grew fine. Noticed it got thicker at the base. I don't think it's been cut yet. I'm still waiting on more growth from new hair but I doubt that will come.

If it's a sharp line then I think it looks suspicious. But thankfully i haven't been called out on it. Only my missus knows. I try and push back the fibres so you can slightly see the strands of the hair at the front.

Does it look suspicious? You guys are the pros. Haha.

Hi guys sorry about not updating the thread every month. I've been pretty busy. I've been meaning to update ever since I've started to shed like mad. I went India for wedding and didn't take finasteride for 2 weeks so that might have been the reason. Anyway I started my routine back so I'll share some pics. Also before I went India in late August I went and got my haircut. The barber saw that I had a transplant done and asked if I wanted to apply some hair fibre (3d hair). I agreed and wow. It makes a hell of a difference. I don't leave the house now without applying it. I've also for the first time in my life managed to style my hair. I think I look 10 years younger haha.

After a wash:

Then I blow dry:

Apply hair fibre on the front:

From the side:

And this one was taken end of August:

You guys can probably see that I have a scar near my hairline in the most recent pics. I got this by wearing a turban on the wedding day and I could feel that area throbbing (it was probably tied tightly which caused the skin to pinch). Luckily it didn't damage the hairs. I guess it will fade over time.

My crown is still balding though even with minoxidil

At the moment I'm just happy that I've discovered hair fibre haha. It's amazing. But I guess some of you may think what is the point of concealing when I've got a hair transplant which I agree but I'm hoping for full growth before I'm confident leaving the hair fibre off.

Looks like the hair that was growing has gotten thicker but can't see any new growth. Only positie thing is I can now use 3d hair filler (like topick) and artificially thicken my hairline. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Sort of stopped caring now that I can't see any new growth.

Still following the same routine of applying aloe Vera gel to the area daily. That is going to run out in the next couple of days so after that it's no treatment apart from minoxidil around the crown and finasteride.

Here are some pics I've taken on the 11th of May. They are quite close up and as you can see quite a lot of the transplanted hair has fallen out of course they say the 3 month mark is where it starts to grow so I'm hoping it does. Make or break?

I've been applying aloe Vera gel daily but it still looks red. Not noticeable under normal lighting conditions.

I think the work looks excellent, density to be honest looks fine immediately post op. I think you will have great results. All the best bro. Happy growing.

Thanks. I hope it grows out good but I'm worried about the temple area as that looks how it was before. I'll be jumping on minoxidil soon to address the crown and top.

Below is my 1 month post op pics, both of the grafts and hair at the back. I don't think it looks that much of a mushroom style?

There's obviously two camps to this. My reason for no shave was that I've never buzzed my hair ever before and I would be returning to work pretty soonish. If I had the comfort of staying at home and recovering for a couple of months then yes maybe I would opt for shave.

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/182967-11th-march-2016-dr-tejinder-bhatti-1-836-fue.html

In my HT I would say that I had a partial shave. I was expecting a no shave but in hindsight I think Dr Bhatti did the best thing. No hair was shaved on top. And there was frankly no need to as I just had to do my hairline and temples. On the donor area however, the doc shaved from the neck to about half way up my head and hair clipped clipped the rest of the hair facing up. Initially this was not to my liking as it would result in me having a mushroom haircut but I think his reasons were that he could extract the hairs easily and it allows a more clean area for recovery, reducing the chance of infection if you have long hair sprawling around in the donor area.

It took about two weeks for the donor area to recover and then about I got a haircut to blend the hair at the back. The pic is in my thread after the cut and I don't think it looks major bad. I've gotten used to it and no one has commented.

For those who are considering a HT I would recommend a partial shave. Give it 2 weeks to recover and you'll be fine to go about your business. No one would suspect a thing. The doc did the best thing with regards to that.

When I first attacked the area to remove the crusting resting on the hairs I got a bit worried at the amount of hairs that had fallen out. Now I'm worried if the remaining will shed or not. If they don't shed then they hinder the growth of new hairs and if they do shed then you're crossing your fingers for them to grow.

If you look at Shera's thread he didn't really shed his hairs and had probably one of the best growths ever.

Thanks for the video, I've also seen some pictures from his website, which was why I expressed surprise that CSB's donor area were shaved in what I felt was a rather unacceptable manner.

Yeah I was surprised as well. My hair was not short so I thought he would leave the bottom part as he did in the video. But what's done is done.

I went to the barber on Monday to tidy up my hair in an effort to look more presentable for work. He tried to blend the back in as much as possible but it looks like I have a mushroom haircut. Couldn't really do a crew cut as my temples are hairless.

Here is a pic I just took now. Donor area is pretty much healed.

Yeah I've been taking fin for a while now and still continue to take it. Also going to start taking 10 mg biotin a day once that arrives.

What's your opinion on castor oil as a topical?

I'm just hoping my ht pulls through as I'm most probably going to get married in September this year.

When you washed your hair and rubbed the area during the crust phase did some hair drop off with the crust attached?

Thanks Shera. Your thread was one of others that made me decide to go with Dr Bhatti.

I'll be giving your thread another full read again.

A couple of questions:

- how many grafts did you shed and what % grew back? I've read that once you've shed your grafts, the leftovers will give an indication of what to expect.

- I noticed your thinning on top especially around the crown is a similar pattern to mine. Your pre op pics are basically what I think would happen to me in the future. What age did you notice the top getting bald and over how many years did it take you to get to that pre op pic?

Thanks

But they grow fine with good density for them?

He put about 1,300 grafts for the hairline. He did say that it would be dense.

Now you've worried me.

Noticed about 3 transplanted hairs next to me on the bed when I woke up.

Can the shedding phase begin so early?

Day 16 post op now. I was worried about the crusting mainly because it was lingering on the tips of the hair and you can see it when I washed them. When they are dry you can't really tell. After some reading, by this time post op, the crusts supposed to have fallen off. But I think I've been too light handed when washing them daily. I usually just dab instead of brushing. Even so, the jet from the saline bottle wouldn't remove them.

You can see in this day 15 pic the crusts look pretty groce. They are just sitting on the hair:

After letting them soak in baby oil after I washed, I took a comb and gently tried to lift off the crusts. By the time I was done there was quite a bit of hair that had also come off but no bleeding so I'm hoping it's good. I've also read that if you leave the crusts on this can impede the healing process. I didn't want that happening.

With baby oil and after removing:

After washing again. There is still a bit of crusts but it's a lot less than before. Hoping this will come off with normal washing (was first time washing the area with normal warm water and baby shampoo):

I noticed that one of my temples has started to look a lot hairless. Should I be worried? Could it be that the hairs and crusts naturally fell out accidentally during sleep? Again I didn't notice any blood at all. For the first week I was very careful about how I slept. I only noticed it started looking a bit bald after it started to crust up.

Hi,

Thought I should create a thread here as it's been pivotal in helping me choose to go ahead with my hair transplant, and that with Dr Tejinder Bhatti.

A bit of background about myself. I'm 26 and ever since my late teens since I decided to cut my hair I've noticed that I suffered from Sikh traction alopecia. For those who don't know what this is, it's basically tying a top knot. In my case it wasn't my choice to keep long hair but that of my parents, mainly my mom, since a young age. I wasn't particularly religious and didn't really want to keep it long anyway. It was tied quite tightly and hence why my hairline looks receded.

Over the past several years I've used finasteride to try and retain the hair that I have and slow down the thinning I am experiencing on top.

Of course like you, my main choice to choose the hair transplant was because of confidence issues. I've never had a proper hairstyle or been able to comb it in a way that I liked (big schnoz). I would try to keep it from medium to long so I could try and brush it forward and cover the areas that had no growth. I resembled Howard from the Big Bang Theory, same sort of hairstyle and I've been told I look like him (not sure if that is a compliment ). Quite embarrassing but I used an eye liner pencil to fill up the areas on my temples when the barber cut my hair too short. This would show a patch of skin between the beard and hair which would look weird.

I emailed the doc back in about November 2015 and sent some pics over. He recommended 1,800 grafts. Since I was going to India with my grandparents to our home in Punjab I used this opportunity to get it done, coupled with the fact that I booked 3 weeks off work which would give me ample recovery time. I came to India on 3rd of March and the procedure was booked for the 11th of March. Deposit etc was all done beforehand.

I traveled to Chandigarh on the 10th by bus from our house (about 2.5 hrs) and met with the doc who drew the hairline. I was ok with it. I've never seen my normal hairline before so couldn't really comment and left it to his experience/opinion. Stayed at Hotel Ab's in sector 17. The morning after I came in and paid all the cash, got injected with antibiotics and then the part that disgruntled me: the no shave cut. Since I was going back to work near the end of the month I didn't want my head to be shaved. I've never had it shaved before but I know I wouldn't look good so I opted for the non shave technique. Before I could say anything about how I would like it cut the doc was quick to take off my hair from the neck to about half way up my head. Now obviously the damage was already done, there was no point arguing. I just knew I would look ridiculous.

Anyway the op went as usual, lots of injections to numb the area. The one thing that stood out for me was the crunching noise the tool made as the new holes for the grafts were created. Was really weird. At the end I had to wear like a shower cap net thing.

When I went back to the hotel I didn't really want to eat as I noticed pressure on my temples when I moved my jaw. I wasn't going to risk dislodging them. Stayed up till midnight as recommended with 20 min saline sprays. Didn't get a good sleep as I couldn't rest my head properly I basically was laying down on my front, with my head elevated.

The next morning I went back to the clinic and they ran me quickly through the post op procedure. A bit too quick for my liking. I wished they had washed all my hair then but instead it was a couple of dabs here and there on the new transplanted area. Paid the extra amount that was needed for the 36 grafts and went on my way back home by bus.

As I've read here by others, yes it does feel like you're on a conveyor belt but this is understandable because of the demand in business the doc has. I just wished that it had more of a personal touch, especially with regards to shaving the area. The ointment they provide is just 3 grams which lasted about one day. I had to go out and get some more, this is the same with the Gillette shaving foam which was provided.

Anyway I'm now 2 weeks post op and can see the crusting on the hair lifting up. I haven't used any aloe vera on the graft site as the aloe vera water they provided along with the instructions of not using the same finger to get more water out was a bit ludicrous. I couldn't see how I would cover the graft area with a small amount of aloe vera on a finger, even with repeating it. Would take way too much time. It wasn't going to happen. I've ordered some aloe vera gel that I will apply once I get it.

Singles - 499

Doubles - 798

Triples - 539

Hairline - 1,298

R Temple - 312

L Temple - 226

Here are pics before:

How I normally comb my hair:

Evening post op. Look like something out of a horror film:

I didn't get a cap to wear but a bandanna:

2nd day post op:

How the donor area looked:

About a week post op when I could finally wash my hair. You wouldn't believe how much dirt was washed out:

2 weeks post op. Can finally comb my hair forward to look a bit more presentable and hide the graft area. Still the back of my head looks stupid:

I'm just hoping that my donor area hair grows back quickly so I can fade the back of the head instead of it looking like a mushroom.