baldlivesmatter

14 hours ago, Raker said:

Appreciate  the response BLM, unless i’ve missed something Diep hasn’t responded you your original question as why exhaust one side of the head for donor. I’m due for a HT next week (not with Diep) and is it something I should be requesting because i fail to understand the thought process beyond it. Anyway, good luck on your journey & don’t be letting the girls pull at your new hair in a moment of passion!!

Yeah, wasn't trying to be a smartass, just thought the pic was funny.

Although Dr. Diep never called me personally, his clinic responded saying that the harvesting from one side is to limit scar tissue making future extractions more likely to be successful. 

I'm not 100% happy with this as I wasn't necessarily planning on having another procedure (at least not in the next 5-10 years). I've been holding my native hair on finasteride for over 5 years so I don't think this is too aggressive of an assumption. That, coupled with new treatments in the pipeline (histogen, cloning, etc.), makes me think another procedure isn't necessarily a given.

That being said, it is what it is at this point. Dr. Diep has been producing homerun results for years now so I'm trying to just focus on what I can control (i.e., following post-op instructions, good nutrition, avoid sunburn, etc.).

Could you either post a link to your thread ITT or PM me a link? Would be interested in following it. Best of luck with your upcoming procedure Raker!

Also, on the asymmetrical hairline point, check out NFL Chad (aka Tom Brady's) hairline.

Good enough for a VS model wife...

One month post-op pics taken with consistent angles and lighting.

Seems most of the grafts have shed, though this happened pretty gradually over the last few weeks.

Donor still healing. Length definitely helps cover the redness so it's looking better everyday.

Overhead

Front

Right

Back

1 hour ago, Raker said:

Convince me what?

Update?

Tiny amount of grafts for that coverage. 

Wow, very impressive!

On 1/27/2019 at 6:47 PM, Melvin-Moderator said:

Heading in to the dreaded ugly duckling phase. 

Thanks for the reminder ya jerk!

On 1/27/2019 at 6:47 PM, Melvin-Moderator said:

Idk I feel like your donor looks pretty normal at this point. 

To be honest I think it looks a bit worse in real life. I'm skipping a big networking event this week as I think it will be distracting.

Somewhat frustrating as I had figured that at the 2 week point the donor would be pretty much healed. My last procedure it looked untouched around day 10 I believe.

That being said, it's definitely heading in the right direction. Likely two weeks out from it being hard to notice.

Interesting article, and patience is definitely a virtue in this game.

Have you guys noticed any kind of correlation between fast growers and homerun results?

Seems the majority of great results that I see also had early growth.

So although one can't judge the results until month 12, one may have some kind of idea around month 6?

I think 3500 grafts in the front is reasonable.

Would suggest using oral finasteride and toppik/dermmatch for the crown rather than putting grafts there yet as you still have enough hair where you may not need to shove grafts there yet (and it's the least important place to have grafts, relatively).

10 hours ago, flyinghotnow said:

Sorry to go back on this again, but did anyone find out if Dr Diep would be willing to harvest from both side of the head if a patient request it?

The office never called me but I'm assuming that as long as you told him before the surgery that you wanted the grafts harvested from both sides that he would oblige.

I'm not 100% sure I would push for that though. I know a lot of forum members suggest insisting on certain harvesting patterns, punch sizes, etc. but in my opinion, if you select a doctor that you trust is an elite doctor then you probably shouldn't mess too much with their process.

God forbid, you push them to do the procedure the way you want it done rather than they way they normally would and you get a bad result. Hard to blame the doc in that case.

23 Day post-op pics below.

I returned to the office this week and it was pretty obvious that I'd had a transplant due to donor redness. Tried messing around with Dermmatch and Toppik but couldn't get them to blend well enough so decided to just go au naturale.

I had to give a big presentation on Wednesday to some of the big bosses so that was a bit awkward. Overall though, not a huge deal as I think most guys are more curious about the process, rather than judgmental. Talked pretty openly about it with a few guys at work which was pretty liberating. Everyone that I've told about the procedure (family, close friends, co-workers) have been supportive. 

Recipient area is shedding but not too rapidly and the redness in the recipient area is hard to see in person which is nice. I think in another week or 2 my donor area will be long enough to cover the redness.

Overhead

Frontal

Right donor

Back Donor

2 hours ago, CannonScott said:

You have all shared good advice and I welcome it.  Just to update,  i consulted with Dr. Arocha in Thursday and it was a fantastic consiltation. Im definitely considering switching from Dr. Diep to Dr. Arocha but I also have a consultation with Dr. Cooley on Feb 12th. So I will keep you all posted with how this unfolds because i realistically would like to have a few days off to recouperate.

Just FYI--i returned to work 3 weeks post-op from an FUE and my head was still noticeably red and I had to tell my co-workers about the procedure. 

Just keep in mind you could be potentially looking at a detectability period of more than a few days. 

7 hours ago, johndoe1 said:

No noticeable difference 

Thx John!

42 minutes ago, johndoe1 said:

 Correct

Thx for the response.

Any noticable difference in density between the 2 sides?

I had similiar with dr. Diep (1700 grafts) so curious if one side seems thicker than the other...

On 3/2/2014 at 6:07 PM, johndoe1 said:

After about a year of mostly lurking on this forum, I have finally done a FUE procedure and am happy to share it with all of you to give back to this very helpful community here.

 

Background is I am 39 and have had gradual hair loss in the front only since around 24 years old. I started taking Rogaine + propecia back then and it slowed things down, but now I’m tired of my high hairline (Norwood 2-3) so decided to get FUE. I cut my hair short so FUE made sense. I live in San Francisco so Diep was the best of the 3 or so local FUE docs I looked at. I called 2 of the more established LA-based doctors, but Diep seemed in the same league (he trained with Rassman, one of the pioneers of FUE) plus the idea of flying to/from the procedure was not ideal. Also my hair is slightly kinky (I am half latin, half white) and Diep specializes in this sort of kinky/curly hair. For peace of mind, I did explain to Diep beforehand not to take hair from high up on the back of my head, to angle it correctly in the front in a natural way, etc. Basically to avoid the "nightmare" scenarios you read about on forums from time to time

So on Friday I got the FUE done with 1500 grafts and also the optional A-cell treatment (research on A-Cell is not clear, but it anecdotally does seem to help). Procedure went smooth and ran like 10am-4pm. Not much pain at all and frankly I was in a bit of a haze the whole time given the meds.

BTW, Diep does zig zag the hairline a bit so it is more natural (straight hairline is not natural) and also he does put hair in the front into areas that already do have existing hair to create a more natural look. Hair from the back is diff than hair in the front so blending back of the head hair into front of the head hair is key. And if you are wondering why all the donor hairs are from the back right, it is because he works right-to-left and also each extraction traumatizes the hairs around it, hence better to leave a fresh untouched donor area on the left that I can come back to years from now if I need another FUE.

Attached first 2 pics are right before the procedure (in reality my hair actually looks *worse* than in these pre pics). Next 2 are right after it. Next two are day 1. Next 2 are day 2, where I am right now. I am happy with the results and healing is going well. I am following all the post-op steps including 2 showers a day with GraftCyte shampoo (free from the doctor) with no direct water to the donor or recipient areas. And then after the showers, bacitracin ointment to the donor areas. Also I have been taking Vitamin C every day since about a week prior to the procedure. Lastly, I am using saline every few hours to keep things moist. The saline spray can from Walgreens sprays too hard, so I spray it into a smaller plastic spray bottle (also from Walgreens) so the saline comes out in a fine mist and will not harm the hairs.

 

Also, Diep is doing well these days with many patients. Diep got me a free driver to/from his clinic. I asked the driver about out-of-state patients and the driver told me he does a lot of airport pickups/drop-offs for out-of-state patients for Diep. And while I was at the clinic, Diep had finished a non-fue (flap) procedure earlier and the patient was there. On the way out, 2 patients from the day before came in for their post-op shampoos. And the Dr told me is moving to a larger facility down the street. All of this evidence of course is non-scientific, but it points to a competent doctor. Lousy docs get bad reps fast and business tends to dry up.

Anyhow please reply with any questions/comments!

Congrats on your procedure John.

Did Dr. Diep only extract on your back and right side (i.e., no extractions on left side of your head)?

On 1/15/2019 at 9:29 PM, TrixGlendevon said:

I am not saying it is poor donor management because of the graft numbers and I think the others in the thread who made this point were also quite clear about that. I am saying the very bizarre distribution is poor judgement. The guy is a repair job to begin with and has a scarred donor and then he goes and takes all the grafts from one side of his head which will thin the hair out on one side. Even the patient has said he is not happy with it! What is poor donor management however is he has clearly used a 1.0 punch and the patient now has crater sized extraction wounds.

It is highly likely he will get a good result, as you did, that is not the issue. The issue for me is that I think you can go to other clinics and get an equally good result with less controversy.

Just to clarify a few points, since this is referring to my head:

1. I had 1700 grafts, not 1300

2. I'm not necessarily unhappy with the removal of grafts from one side, just confused. Clinic says this is normal for procedures my size and makes extractions easier in future procedures. I'm awaiting a call from Dr. Diep sometime this week to discuss this in detail. If it grows in and looks fine, I won't care--but right now I'm a bit nervous about it since I can't really think of a good reason for doing it this way.

On 1/15/2019 at 9:14 PM, TrixGlendevon said:

I am sorry, I disagree. They may be rumors in the literal sense of the word purely because there is no proof but they are on several different, unrelated fora with several different unrelated posters posting the same complaints. I have also had a surgeon recommended on this website tell me things he has heard too. This should raise eyebrows. I have read of two separate cases, one of this forum and one on another, where he has told patients whilst they are mid-procedure he would throw extra grafts in the trash if the patient did not pay extra money. Highly unethical if true, but as you say, no proof so just rumors but I would still think twice.

Secondly, he seems to get protection status on here when people post pictures of other patients' donors. I remember one thread about him in particular had pictures of an absolutely butchered donor and rather address the concerns, the pictures were removed despite the pictures having come from another thread on this forum anyway. He uses too large a punch in my opinion and also shows poor judgement like taking all of the FUE grafts from one side of the patient's donor. In fact, that thread actually has several more seasoned posters here sharing concerns about him.

 

He does get good results but so do other clinics with less controversial stories about them, true or otherwise, and that in my opinion look after the donor sites better.

Hey that guys looks familiar....

Fuck.

Donor looks thick. If you're on fin I think an HT could be a good option. I believe Jean was 24 when he got his first procedure. 

It's a big long-term commitment that will sometimes feel like a huge waste of time so make sure it's the path you want to go down. 

Interesting article by Dr. Charles discussing FUE harvesting from one side of the donor:

https://www.charlesmedicalgroup.com/plastic-surgery/is-it-possible-to-take-donor-hair-from-the-sides-of-the-head/

I still don't really understand the advantage but appears to not be that unusual. 

Some day 15 pics with Dermmatch.

Donor is still noticeably red.

Have to give a big presentation on Wednesday so not thrilled on how this looks at the moment

Side

Back

Also, looks like I don't need to be in the office until Wednesday so this gives me an additional 2 days for a reduction in redness.

I'm thinking by then it may be passable w/o dermmatch and if not I'll add a light layer to the donor only. 

Hopefully this helps provide a timeline for when one can return to work post Diep FUE.

Day 15 update.

Overall looks to be healing quite nicely.

Recipient area looks fully healed to me. Donor still has a bit to go.

I evened out the hair length today so everything is at approximately 5mm.

Been going out without a hat to gauge reactions and overall seems it's not particularly conspicuous.

Overhead

Front

Donor (Right)

Donor Right (more natural light)

Donor (back)

Donor Left (for comparison)

Yeah, I tend to lay on the more cautious side as well and would suggest 2 weeks (so an additional 3 days).

Looks like this specific question was discussed on real self (link ) with the majority of surgeons agreeing with Dr. Charles while a few more conservatively said to wait a month.

Is there a way to change the title to "1700 grafts with Dr. Diep"?

I was quoted 1300 but ultimately got 1683.

Don't want the title to be misleading.

Dude--as Melvin said--if you can be flexible you can in early on a cancellation.

Mine was originally scheduled for June 2019 and I was given options to do December 2018 or January 2019, the latter of which I did.