BDK081522

You realize without stopping androgens from attacking your hair follicles you're going to continue to lose hair behind any transplant you get. In fact the transplanted hair is more likely to be affected by androgenic alopecia and could possibly fall out as well over time. If you haven't even tried finasteride or any anti androgen whether it's oral or topical you should think very seriously about doing so before even contemplating a transplant.

So you've experienced side effects or you're scared of them?

@Portugal25 I think it looks fantastic! After seeing Melvin's side by side you no doubt received a stellar result. I think you're getting caught up on the fact that 1888 BHT grafts went into your crown and you expected dense coverage. Yes that's a significant amount of grafts but you have to keep in mind, you were a slick bald NW7. 1888 scalp grafts sometimes doesn't even give a dense hairline let alone full coverage on such a huge area as yours. Keep in mind that usually beard grafts are thicker in diameter but they're all single hair grafts. If you had 1888 scalp grafts undoubtedly you would have had many multi grafts. Well say an average of 2.2 hairs per graft. That would have given you 4,153 hairs. With the same amount of beard grafts you got 1888 hairs so this was never going to give full coverage. Your result is excellent and you just have to realize the limitations of hair restoration and adjust expectations accordingly. I do think your donor has more capacity for harvesting but you need to go to a surgeon who is highly skilled at donor management and making few grafts look like many.

Why no medical therapy? You're headed to NW 6/7 territory and would eventually run out of donor supply if you start down the hair transplant route.

You definitely don't need 1500 grafts in your midscalp. There's very little hair loss there. The more concerning area is your crown. It seems to dip very low in one picture. You'd have to stay on meds for life. The positive is that your donor looks very strong. You could have a really good result but put in the research and try to save more so you can afford a top clinic.

The area on your neck where the extractions were taken from lines up very well with where most men would shave a beard line. The neck hair is very unsightly and should be razor shaved anyway so I don't think your actual beard area is affected much by the extraction pattern. Just create a beard line where the density begins to lessen and noone would ever be able to tell you had beard extractions from the he area. This is a very common beard design. You're in the heart of the ugly duckling stage so mentally it is very hard to accept what has been done when looking in the mirror. Just give it time and you will start to see progress on your hair and will be more accepting of the new beard design.

@Gatsby Dr Lindsay mentions in the video that one of his patients had already been given valium so instead of asking his sedated patient to switch to FUT he had him come back the next day and make the decision. It is technically illegal to change a consent form after a patient has been given sedation so this shows Dr Lindsay following correct protocol.

Why are you not on medical therapy for hair loss? Your pattern is aggressive for only 31 years old. Without medication your androgenic alopecia will continue behind the transplanted area and look very strange when you lose more hair. Your list of surgeons is very good so it seems you're doing diligent research but considering stabilizing your hair loss before proceeding with a restoration.

You would need to post before and immediately after graft placement pictures in order to get an accurate assessment from the community. It's possible that miniaturized hair adjacent to the graft area has been permanently shocked out, especially if not on medical therapy such as finasteride.

Great choice! They'll have you looking fantastic with your hair characteristics!

Yes, expect to lose all of the transplanted hair over the next couple of weeks. You're entering the ugly duckling phase.

Please do NOT go back to this clinic for a free repair. The density grafted was low, the yield also turned out to be low, and there are multi grafts in the hairline. Please check out the list of recommended surgeons here and choose one for your repair. You will more than likely have to leave Brazil to get the result you're looking for.

Damn!!! That's all that needs to be said.

Looks good! Right on track. Nothing to be concerned about. I always shed heavy right around 3-4 weeks.

We're saying relax because you've been posting every day on multiple threads with the same anecdotal message and asking for reassurance. We've all been there questioning whether we made the right choice. Nothing we will tell you can change anything at this point so that's why you haven't been getting the answers you're looking for. The reality is nobody knows until the transplant has matured. Even if graft placement looks perfect your yield may be low and your results could be subpar. Everything you've shown in pictures looks on track with where you are in the process.

You have to try and relax and not over analyze things right now. You've probably already started shedding so there's no way to compare things at this point. You truly won't know the full potential of the restoration until at least 12 months. It does nothing to keep worrying about things that are out of your control at this point. More than likely you'll need a second or third surgery anyway as one and done in hair restoration is very rare. It's very difficult to get full density with one pass.

Definitely get back on finasteride as soon as possible. You had no sides and even though you may not think it helped grow hair it was retaining what you have. You have a great deal of miniaturization that could be halted or even reversed slightly. Being on testosterone is akin to shooting yourself in the foot when it comes to androgenic alopecia. You need to be on a dht blocker especially if you're considering hair restoration.

Not to alarm you but you're not going to be feeling great three days post-op. I highly doubt you'll feel like doing much of anything let alone working 8 hrs a day. I've only had FUE and it has always taken a full 7-10 days before you start to feel normal again. Since you're going FUT it will be worse. You're going to be in pain, will have swelling setting in right on day 3/4, will get black and blue, then the itching and tingling will begin. It's not as benign as you may have think. Just be prepared.

Congrats on the nuptials! It's been an amazing transformation with more to come!

Yes, it is extremely common to feel lingering soreness and nerve pain for weeks after surgery. Severity and duration usually are linked to the extraction quantity and quality. Itching, zingers from nerves healing, and general soreness are very common for the first two -four weeks post-op.

Definitely DO NOT do any sort of cosmetic treatment to the recipient area such as a chemical peel or laser treatment. The skin is healing. The redness comes from the multifactorial physiologic process that takes place after thousands of new follicles have just showed up to a new area. There's cell proliferation, vascular neogenesis, and many other things happening and you just have to let nature take its course. Is it really worth jeopardizing your result and wasting all that money just to camouflage redness? Maybe you didn't research enough beforehand because this is completely normal and to be expected. Unless you kept your hair long and wore it down covering the transplanted area there's always signs of surgical intervention for months after a hair transplant.

This darker skin tone is the "redness" that everyone refers to. Unfortunately it is a part of surgery and everyone heals differently. However, this will most likely linger for at least 1 full month. In certain cases it can actually stay red for 3-6 months even after follicles have shed and started regrowth. You just have to understand that you're going to have signs of surgery for quite some time. It it not a benign procedure at all.

It all looks completely normal at this stage but definitely be more aggressive at trying to get rid of the scabs. You should have them all removed by around day 10-12. It can't hurt to keep spraying them but just try to get them off in the shower. The key is to moisturize the skin so if the scabs are still present they are interfering with the skins ability to obtain moisture and heal. Use Aquafor or aloe or whatever your clinic recommends and your skin will look better and the flakiness should subside.

There is absolutely NO scarless surgery. DHI is merely marketing ploy used to draw in the uneducated. It's just another type of FUE. Method doesn't matter nearly as much as operator experience and technique. Typically the more physician involvement the better. Do more research on this site.

So, at 8 days I wouldn't necessarily say you can shower normally. My post-op instructions always said normal showering at 14 days. So I would still use the water cup method to rinse off but just use your fingertips to rub while the shampoo is still on. You can be mildly aggressive but don't dig your nails in there. As far as the gym, definitely wait until 14 days. The reason as I understand it is not so much about dislodging grafts as they're pretty secure at this point. It's more about sweating and introducing bacteria to the wounds. You're grafts may be secure but if you get a skin infection, this may drastically impact their survival. They're still developing vascularity beneath the skin and need a clean healthy scalp to promote optimal conditions. Walking on a treadmill or outside with your head covered would be fine at this point. Nothing that overexerts and causes sweating such has cardio or weights.