trashpanda

Hi everyone, I haven't updated since month 9 so I thought I would give a 1 year update. Overall I am thrilled with how my HT turned out and my life is much more stress and anxiety free. I don't think I got 100% growth but it's at least very close. To the untrained eye you would never be able to tell I had an HT. Im sure someone who knows about HTs might be able to spot it or a flaw or 2, but what matters is that I'm very happy. I'm staying on proscar daily and understand I'm in this for the long haul, even if that means getting HTs in the future to make up for any further loss. Thanks everyone for your support and thank you h&w for giving me my hair back! I can't tell you how amazing it feels to wake up in the morning and forget to worry about my hair

No idea on the distance you're talking about. I find it to be somewhat irrelevant since everyone's head shape + hair loss pattern + age makes for a unique situation every time. A credible surgeon will design an appropriate hairline, period. I've attached a couple 9 month pics styled

Yes and I still get random ones in the donor area up to this day. I never found it to be an issue though.

At 9 months things have filled in nicely, while the transplanted hair is still darker/more course in texture than native hair. Overall I'm very pleased with the results and I have received several compliments on my hair which is new. Here's some pictures I took in natural light after just waking up and wetting + combing my hair back quickly so it's still a little messy.. It's what I do every morning and is one of the main reasons I wanted a HT- to spend less time worrying about my hair

I think I know what you mean. However, it is more noticeable now because the transplanted hairs have not "softened" yet and are a more course texture and dark color than my native hairs behind them. I also style my hair in a way that accentuates what you're saying so since the transplanted hair doesn't lay down like the native hair yet, it creates the appearance of a minor gap. If I wasn't on proscar I'm sure a real gap would form even when the hair softens and it would look weird. So needless to say I have no plans on stopping. As for your situation, it's hard for me to to telll without pics. However, I will say that dr hasson asked me if I was ok with my current temple points (since the sharpness of them has kind of faded and receded) and I said I didn't want to do any work on them. There are moments where I regret this decision because just a minor amount of grafts would have shaped my face a bit better. However, I think I will be happy saving those grafts for a rainy day when I'm older and I lose more hair behind the transplant. I don't need sharp temple points when I'm 50. I also like to keep my sides short and when transplanted hair is too short it doesn't give the illusion of density. Thanks for the compliments and I hope the hair softens soon so I can show you what I mean.

Here's some updates pics after I got a haircut. I'll try to get better pics when I get a chance

Thanks kshatsy, I'm sure you'll be happy in just a few short months!

TJ, thanks for the compliments. You're right that it does keep getting better! I'm getting compliments all the time now about my hair. The transplanted hair is still darker and more coarse than my native hair, but that will sort itself out. Overall I'm very very happy with my results so far. I was telling my friend the other day that even though I had to pay more to go to H&W than the local clinic (recommended doctor), I felt like it was totally justified based on the results and comfort level I had with them. This HT was worth every penny, it has definitely been a major positive impact on my life. So many things are coming together and opportunities are presenting themselves in my personal life and career, it's really amazing. How much of that is due to the HT? Probably less than I think, but the amount of daily anxiety I had before the HT compared to now is significant. I don't think about my hair when I wake up in the morning, I just get up and go. I don't think about my hair when I'm working outside, sweating, or meeting with clients. The fact that I'm only 6 months in is extremely encouraging since there still more time for improvements of density and texture. Honestly the density I have now is fine, maybe the right side needs to catch up a bit to the left but if things stopped growing tiday I would be happy as long as the texture issue sorts itself out. Here's a couple pics I took last week. They're not the best but it's all I have on my phone. I'll try to get some styled pics up in the next few days, although I don't really style my hair that much- I just comb it after the shower and let it dry and wear it like that. Edit: photo upload isn't working for me for some reason?

Looks great Ernie

Not sure if you guys can tell but I felt like I noticed a big difference when I slick my hair back than just a couple weeks ago. So I felt I would add a couple updates pics

This is one aspect of my surgery that I went back and forth on at first but in the end I think I will be much happier in the long term. We could have easily lowered or given me a more juvenile hairline with more grafts, I'm sure if I consulted with some of the best Turkish docs they would have said minimum 2500...but I'm young (25) and I'm sure eventually I will need one or more surgeries in the future to keep up with hair loss even though I am stable on propecia. So those extra grafts are going to come in handy down the line. Thanks for the kind words everyone. How long does transplanted hair take to blend in as the same color/texture as native hair? TJ I thought I saw you post about it in your thread somewhere?

Hey everyone here's my 5 month post op update. Everything seems to be filling in really well and I definitely have more confidence going out in public without a hat. The transplanted hair is still darker and more crinkly than native hair but I know that takes time to "blend". Will keep you guys updated again at the 6 month mark

What do you guys think? My right side is still weaker than my left side and the transplanted hair is darker than my native hair. I know this is common and there's still so much time for improvement. The wait is excruciating!

These pics are from yesterday, a week after the pics above

Here are some updated pics. These pics are from about a week ago right after I got a hair cut

Your donor looks great. Congrats!

In what cases would the doctor choose ARTAS over manual or even motorized punch? What donor/patient characteristics help determine the doctors decision? The issue I see with the ARTAS is the limited range it can extract from in the donor area. With manual or motorized you can take from a larger area and thus have the extractions more spread out. It does look like the ARTAS has come a long way in the past year and it's encouraging to see solid results from a doctor such as Dr. Arocha. However, in my opinion the ARTAS company is willing to sell this machine to doctors who are not qualified to perform ethical hair restoration and this puts patients at risk.

N0air, everything looks great. I'm loving the updates and seeing how well you are progressing. My recipient area looks similar to yours at 3 months right now. Hopefully this means I'm on the same track as you to a great result. Looking forward to your future updates!

Hey Ernie, I was going to wait until the 8th to give a 3 month update but I have started to see some growth in the past week or two so I might as well add some pics. My redness is barely noticeable and growth is starting to kick in. My left side is stronger than the right for now, but that's also the side that started shedding first. Does anyone know if there is a correlation? Still on 1.25 proscar and actually started taking these new biotin 10,000mcg, not sure if that has anything to do with early growth. What do you guys think of my updated pics?

Wow, amazing results! Thanks for sharing Doug

Jax, it's important for the healing process to get those scabs off. Most people are too gentle when it comes to post op washing. Use the pads of your fingers and gently massage the recipient area and let the water run over it for 15-20 minutes in the shower to loosen them up.

Just a note, i experienced some really bad dandruff about 3-4 weeks post op over my whole head because the shampoo the clinic gave me was very basic without any moisturizers or anything. I thought it was a good shampoo but I guess my scalp dries out pretty quickly so I had to switch. The clinic advised me to switch to a shampoo with moisturizers so I started using selson blue and then a nizoral shampoo every 3 days. I was advised not to use the nizoral for 1 month post op. So if you get dandruff easily, just a heads up. But as far as your concerns for washing, I would just follow the clinics orders. Like everyone has said, every doctor has their own way of telling patients what to do. I wouldn't doubt ASMED at all about their post op instructions as they constantly produce some of the best results out there.

The work looks really clean and the recipient area is healing fast. It's going to be a really dense pack so I expect this result to be as great as all the rest of the results coming out of ASMED. Congrats