ML488

Incredible hairline

Neither one is "superior" imo. It is all about the surgeon skills. That being said I do beleive there may be a small advantage with DHI as far as producing a slightly more natural look more often than not. I say this because in DHI with the implanter pens the surgeon has 100% complete control over where and how the graft gets implanted as opposed to the pre made slits which can be more prone to "mistakes" in the sense that once they are made, they are made, and there's no going back if the surgeon feels a few slits at the hairline could have been placed in a slightly different manner or area. But again, if you go to a very good surgeon, you can definitely get a natural FUE result too, as seen all over. One thing I'm not crazy about with DHI is that the grafts appear to get handled more than FUE. They must be picked up by a tool and instead of going into the scalp, they must be inserted into the implanter pen and then even after that, you have the implantation shot from the pen itself. Just seems like more of a chance for a transection instead of simply picking up the graft and placing it into the scalp in FUE. But again - all about the surgeon and the team.

The photos are of rather poor quality. You should be sending the highest quality photos to these clinics, first of all. That said I do think your donor is weak but you are not a lost cause imo as your humps are still intact. You are a diffuse thinning NW5. I would look ito Eugenix.

Your native hair was already super dense so this was going to be a challenge. The temple reconstruction already looked like a pretty nice dense pack, so I wouldnt really blame the surgeon that much. A lot of times a second pass is needed in cases like yours imo. SMP would do the trick for sure but what about Toppik with the sprayer? Just two sprays of fibers in each temple would certainly do the trick before each time you went out.

@jjsrader I see what you are saying but you cannot judge a result 100% in the way you are saying until at least one year. There is definitely a change that happens over time where the transplanted hair becomes more softer and that is clear in this case when looking at the 12 month photos over the 9 month. The hairline looks beautiful, but I will agree that the temporal area could have used a bit of work to look more natural. That being said I'd be thrilled with a result like this. I have seen what you are talking about where surgeons only do very little of fine singles in front and then load up on multi's behind it rather heavily and the eye gets drawn to them as they are instantly seen through the one or two rows of fine singles.

I know blondish hair is a lot easier to produce the illusion of a great hairline with, but damn that is definitely one natural looking hairline.

Your result is close to the highest density you can achieve with a hair transplant imo. That being said, hair characteristics also play a part, meaning that maybe your donor hair wasn't as thick and therefore didn't produce an even greater illusion of density. All that being said, you had a pretty decent receded hairline and that has been filled in very nicely with this surgery and I personally feel you had unrealistic expectations and if I'm being blunt, are a bit spoiled. As others pointed out you are also taking some of these pictures in such a way and in such a light, (some with flash) that shows the hair in it's worse case scenario, which wouldn't ever be seen if your hair were styled and combed properly. If you should ever do anything else it should be to bring your temples more forward a bit to match up your newly straighter hairline. I think that would make for a final (and more pleasing) anesthetic look.

Would love to see some pics

In my opinion you need at least 5 months, and that is in some of the more luckier scenarios, before you can comfortably have enough growth to move on with life and not worry about your hair and look anymore. Then after that obviously you still have more growth and thickening to come. But in the first few 3-4 months post-op you cannot expect anything much at all.

Damn, it doesn't get much more clean than that. But then again you were in the hands of arguably the best in the world. Best of luck!

Right where you should be for 4 months imo. I’m sure at 6 months you will be looking very good.

Kudos to you for doing some research first and yes that thread with Bicer is a great comparison thread for someone like yourself. If you are just willing to focus on the hairline and frontal third with 3k grafts I think that is a reasonable appraoch. Since your donor isn't the thickest, I personally wouldn't be crazy about an FUT given the chance that the scar may be visible at some points. Just my two cents.

Great result, but recipient area still pinkish at 8 months?? 😐

Let me get this straight- You did an online consultation sent all sorts of photos, they told you you're good to go, you booked the surgery, paid in full, flew to the clinic, showed up for surgery, they then said no dice and didn't give you every cent of your money back and you allowed that??

Its going to be very difficult for me. Never in my life have I not slept on my side. I think I've fallen asleep on a couch laying back a bit a few times in my life. A recliner might be a good idea, though I doubt a hotel room is going to have one of those. @JoeMan I haven't booked anything just yet.

@HairNTearAbsolutely incredible, almost breathtaking work, albeit from one of the best in the world. I'm curious though, is it juts me or is there a slight discoloration/pinkness in the recipient area? Has that faded more now?

I'm just curious what your experiences were like and what you did to try and make yourself comfortable especially the first few nights. Is a good travel pillow around your neck a must? Or did some of you just squeeze yourself together with a bunch of pillows and hope for the best? Thanks.

You will be in some of the best hands in the world over at Eugenix. How many grafts was the Longevita HT?

This is one of the most cringe things I've ever read. What happened last night was 100% legit. You really think Will freakin Smith would damage/ruin his entire 30 year career and reputation by agreeing to fake physically assault someone on live television in order to "save the Oscars" get people talking about an award show again??? In 2022 of all years??? All the same goes for Chris Rock as well, since you guys are saying he too was in on it. And anyone can grab a fraction of a second screen grab from most videos and catch an emotion or weird facial expression they want to. Chris Rock had no clue Smith was actually going to physically strike him, so he continued to just laugh until reality hit, no pun intended. He even tried to laugh it off after the fact. He's a comedian after all and was in the midst of telling jokes. Will Smith on the other hand, is a mentally unstable man. His swearing on live TV afterwards that loudly and to that dramatic of an effect, not to mention his bizarre breakdown during his acceptance speech, was real. Yes I know the man is an actor, but never would anyone (multiple people in this case) on that level of celebrity status want to “stage” something that crazy .

Did he go in the midscalp and/or crown at all? 3900 seems excessive for the area that is bald. Either way though amazing result. Bloxham one of the very best.

Would love to hear/see how it went in a thread.

I think for 2.5 months you can't ask for much more. I predict that by 3.5-4 months you'll be able to throw some dermatch/toppik in there and pass for a full head of hair. I do notice that one small bald patch in the forelock area. Any idea what might be going on there?

5 month pics?

Amazing looking donor for someone who had 3,500 grafts taken and at 2 months you couldn't ask for better growth already. Hopefully that one small area fills in after a while.

I have just been thinking and could be completely ridiculous for asking this, but does anyone think that there is a slight chance that graft survival might be slightly less with the DHI technique? Unlike regular FUE where the grafts are very gently placed into the premade slits, DHI you have every single graft seemingly shoved into an implanter and after that, the implanter, with graft inside, is basically injected down into the scalp, sometimes in a forcefull manner. Just a thought. What does everyone think?