JayBandana

I really appreciate very much all the kind comments from everyone here. It's great to read all the ideas and suggestions you guys have for me. Fwiw, I've tried dying the hair, and I've been growing it long, it's the longest of my life now. But no luck, the redness is still very, very visible. And really creepy looking. I'm sorry that I haven't posted here for a while. I stopped work, rented out my place, and moved away because the redness on my head has not improved. The transplanted hair has grown a bit longer, but no new hairs have grown in since around month 5, so the density is sparse. It'd be normal for a hair transplant result, maybe even considered a success in fact, if not for the redness. But in my case, it's a problem and the redness is very visible through the thin hairs. The pictures from close-up actually make it look better, because it makes the hairs seem more visible, the contrast between the normal skin zone and the redness less precise, and leads you to think that it's not soooo bad. But when seen from normal distance, the redness is very, very obvious, very jarring, and - even I have to admit - pretty gross. My head looks very unhealthy, a fresh, gory, bloody wound on my forehead, a pulsing, contagious infection ready to burst from my scalp. Think I'm exaggerating? Read on... I want to apologize to the guys who have written to me recently. I haven't responded in weeks to anyone. Most importantly, I want to apologize to all the guys who are also suffering from long-term, extreme redness from hair transplant surgery. I've emailed with many of you, and I know there are a lot more who have been following my progress and hoping for some solution. This message is for you guys, my fellow perma-redness sufferers. In the first months after my own surgery, I was very active. I did lots of research, I met with many doctors, scientists, and researchers, I emailed privately with scores of guys who had severe redness, and I updated this thread frequently. I left my email in this thread, and a lot of guys found it and wrote to me. They put faith in me that somehow I would find a solution for them. Heck, I had faith in myself too. I assumed that I would find a solution; after all, I thought, I'm a smart guy, I'm very tenacious in solving challenges, and it seemed that this redness was a problem which hadn't been solved only because the hair transplant industry wants to pretend that it doesn't exist. I figured that no one had really put enough effort into finding a cure, so hey!, I just need to throw on my cape, go into Super-Jay mode, and I'll solve it. Wham, bam, here's the cure, man! My optimism was contagious, and I see now that not only did I end up as a self-appointed leader in the movement of us guys who have been scarred by extreme, long-term redness following a hair transplant surgery, but I also gave a lot of them - you - hope that I would find a solution that would help all of us out of this disaster etched onto our scalps. But I haven't found a solution. It's now about 7 months since my surgery. I've devoted myself practically full-time throughout much of this period to finding a solution, but I've failed. Steroids, creams, Vbeam lasers this, magic lasers that, patches, gels, microneedling, etc, etc, etc. Nothing has worked. Wound healing is a very, very complicated field. I've learned that the reality is that medical science doesn't understand it well, and definitely nowhere as well as doctors at private clinics would have you believe. The truth is that the best cure is to hope for spontaneous healing. Barring that, you can throw a lot of shit at the wall to see if something sticks. Most of these solutions are some variation of "hurt the wound again or introduce some material or other to encourage the spontaneous healing that should've happened in the first place." If that works, great. If not, after this much time with no luck, then it's very likely that the redness will remain permanently. There are some cases that heal up years afterwards, but they're very rare, and I think there's very little chance that either I or you guys will get back to our natural skin tone. I failed you guys. I failed myself. I understand better now the depression, bitterness, regret, and shame which you guys wrote to me about. Even the self-imposed silence, the seclusion, I understand that now, too. I was a pretty chatty guy, naturally charismatic, a salesman's salesman, loved by the ladies, but I've really retreated into myself and just hide now alone under my hat and behind closed doors. When I started this redness journey here on this forum, I was just a few months out from my surgery, and I was a fountain of bubbling optimism. I look back now at what I wrote - both in private emails and on this thread - and I see a different person. That was the old me, the can-do, cheerful, tenacious guy. I was convinced that somewhere just around the corner was the right research paper, the right scientist, the right tool, and that by my persistence, cleverness, and hard work, I'd find it for all of us. I wrote often then, so often, about how redness isn't so bad. "After all", I said to you guys dozens of times here and in emails, "it's just cosmetic; it sucks, but it's not a true health issue for us or our loved ones". Of course I still recognize even now that a red, bloody bandana sketched across my forehead isn't a true health issue. And hell, I've researched enough at this point that I've come across cosmetic surgeries that result in severe health issues, even death in a few cases. Imagine dying for a boob job. Bloody hell. But even though it didn't kill me, the redness has utterly transformed my life for the worse. I can't do anything, anywhere, without a hat on my head. If I take off my hat, people freak out. I know that sounds extreme and pretty silly, like a privileged little boy throwing a tantrum about something very trivial. And even now, I recognize that there definitely is some amount of that privileged whining in my attitude. I'm not totally off the deep end; some of you - the non-redness sufferers, at least lol - have written to me that life isn't that bad, redness isn't such a horrible thing, if I'm really so upset then maybe I should get professional help. That's a bit overkill, but yeah, I recognize the situation, and it's true, I am wallowing in my own pity party. But the reality is that it sucks. Really, really sucks. And even if it doesn't rise to the level of a true health tragedy, I don't think the pity party is completely unjustified. Here's an example of how it is for me now. I rented out my place, packed everything up, and flew away. On my trip, I had to go through several airports, passing through a bunch of security checks and passport controls. I knew what was coming, so every time before getting to the front of the line, I would put my hands under my hat and try to push my hair over my head just so in order to cover up the redness. As I haven't cut my hair since before my surgery, it's long enough on the temples now to hide most of the redness. But my front hair is too thin and too sparse to help much - I'm gradually balding, after all, that was the whole point of the transplant - and only the shaggy bangs of a 10-year would be thick enough to hide the redness in front. So every time in the airports when I came to an official person and was told to remove my hat, every single time without fail, the official was shocked when I took it off. Eyebrows shoot up, eyes open wide, pupils focus directly on the top of my forehead. One guard actually twisted and contorted his neck around to try to get a better view. No exaggeration. The worst, though, was at one particular security line where I had to take off my hat. For some reason, a small girl, maybe 4 or so, was standing at that moment on top of the table where passengers open their bags for inspection. She was very close to me, and because she was standing on top of the table, her head wasn't too much below mine. When I took off my hat, she screamed. For real. She screamed. In horror. She screamed loud, very, very loud. She started saying something. I couldn't understand her words, no idea what country she's from, but her meaning was understandable enough from her body language: one hand half covering her mouth, and the other pointing at the top of my head. Her mother stopped the little girl immediately, of course, picked her up and put her on the ground while apologizing embarrassedly to me for her daughter's behaviour. You get the idea. I'm now disfigured enough that parents have to teach their children not to scream and point at me. When I finished the trip and finally arrived here to the vacation place I've rented, I locked myself in and haven't gone out since. Disfigured. I'm so sorry to all you guys who had hope that I would find some solution to this. I'm sorry for leading you on, I'm sorry for telling you to cheer up because it's not so bad. Yes, I'm not dying. Yes, there are worse diseases. Obviously. But I'm disfigured because I just wanted some extra hair on my hairline. I'm disfigured permanently. For the rest of my life. I will always be a disgusting freak, all because I was vain enough to put myself under the knife just to move some hairs from the back of my head to the front. I imagine that it would be different if it weren't my fault. A car accident, for example. An injury suffered as a soldier fighting in a war. Sure, it would suck and people would equally stare. But I could explain it, they'd understood and make coo coo sounds, I'd get sympathy about the shittiness of how destiny treated me. People would curse the universe on my behalf, and then we'd all get on fine. It wouldn't affect their respect for me as a person. But when it's because of an elective, cosmetic surgery?! A fukin' hair transplant? I'm an object of derision and mockery, and justifiably so. In my social life, it will define me; I'll always be "Jay, that guy with the bloody bandana on his forehead from botched hair surgery, haha, omg". In my professional world, it's a kiss of death; reality is harsher than the imagined fairy-tale world that we wish would exist, and the reality is that no one in my industry would respect someone who disfigured himself for a hair transplant. I sure as shit wouldn't. I'm not exaggerating about how bad the mockery and disrespect is. We all know the stigma of hair transplants. Half the guys on this forum go to extreme lengths to hide away from everyone in their lives for two or three months post-op so they don't have to admit they had a hair transplant. Many celebrities - rich, famous men who you think wouldn't give a fuck - a lot of them won't even admit they had a hair transplant and they'd rather pretend that somehow divine intervention miraculously caused follicle regrowth on their cueball heads. So that's what I'm facing. The bloody red bandana on my scalp is a flaming, permanent notice on top of my head to forever remind everyone of my vanity. It's like an absurdist theatre piece with a cliche morality tale. A modern-day Narcissus. Permanently disfigured. One odd part for me is that I really used to be a very cheerful guy. I still laugh at things, but it's bitter. So bitter, a bitterness I didn't know I was capable of. I mock myself now, because I can see how low I've fallen. I know the obvious advice, the advice I'd give if roles were reversed and it were me trying to console this poor sod that I've become: listen, I'd say, you're more than that massive scar on your head, c'mon mate, the bloody permanent red scar on your head will only define you if you let it, there's so much more to life, it's not a true health issue, yo wake up bro, you're lucky to be in great shape and tall and clever and well-off and have a wonderful family and mother and sister and... Heck, I'm even thankful for my luck in letting out my place. I put a crazy, absurd price on my place when I first put it up. I didn't plan to rent at that price, I was just getting accounts set up, and I didn't want to deal with inquiries until I was ready. But someone contacted me straight away and offered to pay my crazy price. It's for a Chinese businessman. I got paid cash, got an insanely huge deposit, in cash as well, so he can trash the place now for all I care. The place really isn't so great, it's not special at all, but the location is exactly where they wanted, I guess. Market is insane, gents. So I'm sitting pretty for a while now. So I'm lucky. The weather's great here. A lot better than the dreariness where I was. And God knows, I've got a lot of time on my hands now, so I'll be able to focus on remaking my professional life. I can't live on my savings and the largesse of my rich new friend from China forever, so I'm planning out a future career without face-to-face meetings, one where I can be alone behind my computer screen and the only contact I have with customers or colleagues is through the phone. But I can't get that horrible feeling out of my stomach. I wake up every morning, and the sadness immediately sets in again when I realize that it isn't just a bad dream. I've got this feeling every second of every day. I'm disfigured. Permanently disfigured, with no solution. Because of my own vanity. I don't know what more to post here. What sage advice could I give to all you noobs who are thinking of hair transplant surgery? I'm sorry to say that I have no idea. Why did this happen to me? No idea. How frequently does it occur? No idea... and despite what your HT doctor tells you, no one knows because there is no data and the industry refuses to track it. It definitely happens a lot more frequently than anyone in the HT industry has acknowledged, but how much, I have no idea. Is it a 1 in 40 chance occurrence? No idea. 1 in 400? No idea. Who gets it? No idea... and as I wrote many times earlier in this thread, I'd tell you not to believe the silliness about fair skin or certain hair types or whatever being more likely to get it, because I've seen guys with all complexions, all hair tones, who get it, including many dark-haired, dark-skinned guys I've emailed with get permanent redness. How to avoid it? No idea... because no one knows why it occurs, so no one knows how to avoid it; and as I also wrote, it can happen with surgery at any doctor anywhere, despite what they all claim about their oh-so-perfect, hygienic practices that are so much better than at any other doctor's. Realistically, I don't know what more value I can add to this forum. It's a forum about improving your hair, not about dealing with a permanent disfigurement. I'm depressed and bitter, I've become a recluse shutting myself away from the world because I'm disfigured. I'm not jumping off the cliff, don't worry, but I'm definitely not a guy that anyone wants on a forum now. Hell, I wouldn't want me on a forum now. So I'll be doing a self-imposed ban on myself, but I wanted to write this message because I know that there are guys following this and I don't want to leave them hanging. To all you guys starting your hair transplant, I wish you all the best. It's a gamble, and there's definitely a chance you'll get the redness. So if you're ok with a roll of the dice, odds are pretty good that you won't end up like this, and lots of guys get great transplant results. If you're not ok with that roll of the dice, though, then just man up, shave it off for good, and live your life without the risk of spending the rest of your days hiding your head in shame. And to all you guys who emailed me, you guys who counted on me, you guys who were hoping against hope that I would find a solution for you from this permanent disaster zone etched onto our foreheads... To you guys, all I can say is I'm sorry. I'm so very, very sorry that I failed you.

5 month update Unfortunately, the main point of this update at the 5-month post-surgery mark is the same as all the others: the redness on my forehead is still as red and obvious as ever. There has been no improvement in the redness since 2-3 weeks after my hair transplant surgery. I thought to not bother with another update as it's the same depressing news and it's been dropping me further and further down in spirits. But I've gotten several messages asking how it's going. I know there are a lot of people suffering from redness themselves who are looking at this thread, plus I've heard that many prospective patients are reading through this as they make a decision about their own surgery. This is now the most read thread started on this forum in 2017, apparently, and I've been told as well by doctors and patient advocates that they're linking to it for their own patients. At least I'm happy it's doing some good. So here you go, here's the 5-month update in the real-time story of how post-hair transplant redness can exist long-term despite the entire HT-industry saying it's impossible, and how it can remain so extreme for so long and destroy your life and your spirit. Fotos Hair growth The results of the hair transplant are starting to become more clear at the 5-month point. It has a lot more popping and maturing to do, but at 5 months, the hair transplant itself is fine. It seems pretty clear at this point in my case that the redness has no impact on the hair transplant itself. Appearance of the redness It's still just as red as it has been since 2-3 weeks post-op. For everyone who comments that "lingering redness" is normal for several months after surgery... no. No, no, no. This is not a "lingering redness", a skin area which looks kind of pink, which gradually fades week by week, and which can be hidden with make-up or explained away as a sunburn. This is an extreme, very visible redness which has not changed in tone from 2-3 weeks post-op up to the 5-month mark. Many people have sent me their own pictures of their own redness, and it's instantly obvious in their cases as well. It's not a "lingering redness"; it's an extreme, long-term redness which creates an obvious and glaring cosmetic problem. The maturing of the transplanted hairs make the redness appear worse. At 5 months, there are now enough hairs that the darkness of the hairs makes the redness of the skin look very dirty and unhealthy. And the redness makes the hairs look odd as well: they actually match my existing hair in tone, but because of the redness underneath them, it appears that the new, transplanted hairs are different than the existing ones. A disaster all around To be clear, the transplanted hairs aren't dense enough to hide the red skin. I don't know if they ever will be dense enough; I'll have to wait at least until the 9-month mark or so. But what is very clear from both my own progress and the pictures that other redness-sufferers have sent me is that the red line highlighting the hairline is a major problem. It's a very precise line which traces the exact path of the implanted hairs. Human eyes are very good at noticing a pattern like a straight line, so it's very easy to spot even a small mismatch between the redness and my natural skin tone of my forehead. And in my case and that of all post-HT redness sufferers, it's not a slight mismatch: the redness is extremely different in tone than the adjoining forehead skin, so it's very, very obvious even in low light or from far away. I'm very disappointed by the progress in the redness. No improvement in redness, and it's now clear that even after final HT results are visible, I will have a permanent red highlight visible on my hairline. Treatments No new news about treatments. I spoke to several more hair transplant surgeons. None of them have any ideas. Most of them deny redness can even exist. Sadly, I've found 2 more situations in the last month of HT doctors who claim redness cannot exist long-term but where I know as a fact that one of his own patients currently has long-term extreme redness. I spoke to several dermatologists. The academic dermatologists who specialize in wound healing have explained to me how difficult my situation is to resolve. On the other hand, I've spoken to several dermatologists who own well-known clinics who are convinced they can treat me. But it's been such a disappointment. Reputation in the world of patient-paid medicine is a funny thing. I've seen the same issue now in HT doctors and in dermatologists: self-promotion (including paid-but-disguised marketing) and big talk creates an aura of success and competence, even among other doctors, but it's completely uncorrelated with actual knowledge and ability. Two famous dermatologists who are highly recommended by other doctors told me (separately) that they're absolutely convinced that their special laser techniques can fix the redness without doing any damage to the hair follicles. They swore up and down that they can fix my redness. I said I'd fly to meet with them, but just wanted to confirm beforehand how they plan to treat the redness when no other doctor has any confidence. And then suddenly begins the hemming and hawing, and you soon find out that behind the curtain of huffelpuffery is a doctor of no substance just selling treatment with whatever machine-du-jour it is that he bought most recently. Life A week ago, I decided to test if I'm exaggerating how bad the redness looks. I stepped out to a local shop to buy something. The clerk at the register doesn't know me, had never seen me before. But when she saw me, she immediately asked if I'm ok, if I'm bleeding, if she should call for help. :eek: So now I always keep wearing a hat, even to just step out for a second. The whole point of a hair transplant was to improve the hairline and make myself feel and look better. Instead, I'm now hiding out because of the red bandana etched on my forehead from the the hair transplant surgery. I stopped work completely. During the warm summer, I could still kind of meet with people by convincing them to sit outside at a cafe. And then I could reasonably wear a hat without drawing attention. It was weird, and a real pain to see and use computers and do much work, but I was able to kind of pull it off with some silly talk about wonderful weather. But as summer ends, it's back inside buildings and off with the hat. So work is completely stopped. There's no way I can do my job with this red bandana etched across my forehead. I'm going to rent out my apartment and move to a cheaper place. No point in paying to live in an expensive city when I'm no longer able to work in it. And I can use the extra money from renting out my place now that I no longer have any income. I have no social life any more. What else is there to say. Support Thanks again to everyone who's offered me their support. Really helps a lot. - Jay

4.5 month update The redness on my forehead is still as red and obvious as ever. There has been no improvement in the redness since 2-3 weeks after my hair transplant surgery. Hair growth In the recipient area on my forehead, many new hairs have grown in, tiny and white. And lots of the tiny, white hairs which had already popped in have now matured to become thicker, darker, and longer. It's not an amazing result so far, but it seems pretty normal at this stage: at 4.5 months, the hair growth in the recipient area is fine on all measures. I'll know better around the 8-month mark, but at least at this point, the hair transplant itself seems decent and doesn't seem to have any negative effects from the redness or be connected in any way to the redness. Appearance of the redness One effect I didn't expect: because of the maturing transplanted hairs, the redness actually looks worse now than it did a few weeks ago. The tone of my skin redness hasn't changed at all, which I confirm all the time by measuring the redness on the computer both on an absolute basis and relative to my forehead skin which was not operated on. But the redness is looking worse as the transplanted hairs mature and get darker. The hairs don't hide the redness; it's too sparse now, and realistically it'll never be dense enough to cover such extreme redness. Instead, the darkening hairs provide contrast to the redness, making the redness look dirtier and more gory. Treatments and Life I don't know what to do. Almost all the potential skin treatments involve some form or other of hurting the skin first in order to make it heal itself. But it's hard to know which if any of the potential treatments will work. And because of the transplant, it's a big risk to try any of them: I'm worried about starting any skin treatment while the transplant hairs are still just popping in and maturing. So I've had to accept that it's best to keep waiting and let my life to continue to be destroyed for the next few months. I've considered HGH. The idea is that it might stimulate healing. The advantage compared to skin treatments is that it's an injection in the butt or abdomen, so no need to further aggravate the forehead skin or risk harming the incoming grafts. There's no hard evidence behind it, so it's a total shot in the dark, but I've found some positive anecdotal reports. We'll see. I stopped work because there's no way I can do my job with this red bandana etched across my forehead. As I wrote earlier, of course all people should accept the redness and treat me the same as they would otherwise, but the world isn't perfect and the reality of my professional life is that redness from a hair transplant operation is a massive burden that can't be overcome. As for social life... get serious. Show me any social scene where you can go normally with a huge red scar from one side of your head to the other and not have it become the only topic and negatively affect you. Imagine it like this: one week after a hair transplant, almost no guy wants to go out socially and show his face around. For most people, they get past that point after 4-8 weeks. But for hair transplant patients who have the extreme long-term redness, that need to hide continues month after month after month. So I'm shut out from most social scenes. At least I have been trying to do things where I can get away with wearing a cap. I tell to myself and to all the guys I now correspond with that we shouldn't exaggerate how bad the redness is: it's not life-threatening, it's not a true health issue for us or a loved one. As I wrote before, relative to real health issues, this redness is obviously of zero importance. But given that the whole thing started because of the desire which all of us hair transplant patients had to improve our cosmetic appearance... within that world, it's soul-crushing. Willful Blindness I've seen more often now how the hair transplant industry is willfully blind to the problem of long-term, extreme redness in the recipient area. I now know as a fact of several more patients who have had extreme long-term redness from hair transplant surgery, but their doctors say that redness does not exist and has never occurred in their clinics. I also have now encountered a case where a patient has had redness for over a year. But the guy's doctor says that it's not red. I saw the same pictures of the guy as the doctor did. The redness is as obvious as his nose: if you can see one, you can see the other. The redness is very visible on the hairline edge outlining the hairline, and it's not very hidden even where the transplanted hairs are most dense. The poor guy is very upset about it, and rightly so: the truth is that it looks like a very large area of unhealthy skin. But the doctor doesn't see it and says it doesn't exist. This is typical of what I've found. Many in the HT industry don't or won't see that long-term extreme redness exists. There is no data collected in the industry to use to analyze the problem or minimize its occurrence; moreover, there is no sense that there is even a need to analyze the issue. And there definitely is no push to test treatment alternatives. To the extent that anyone acknowledges that long-term redness can happen, it's always claimed that it happens at some other clinic because that other clinic uses abc technique or doesn't use xyz procedure or just doesn't do things right in general. (I can't emphasize how much intra-industry criticism I've heard from top hair doctors in my redness journey in the last few months; it's like internecine warfare among them). But despite the canard that redness only occurs in shady clinics in remote places using barbaric techniques, I now know of many guys (including myself) who had surgeries in well-known places with doctors who are considered top-tier on this forum and in the industry, yet who ended up with extreme, long-term redness. Support Big thanks to all the guys who've offered me their support. Message on this thread, PMs to me on this forum, and the dozens of emails I've gotten, both from people also suffering from redness as well as those who aren't but have ideas or just kind words.... to all of you, thank you very, very much. I was prepared for up to 8 weeks post-op of hiding out, even 10 if necessary, and I was ready for 1 year of patience to see the final result. But I wasn't prepared at all for hair transplant surgery to destroy my life for 5 months... and most likely many more months to come. I'm trying my best to stay positive, I'm putting out as much info as I can here and in private emails in order to help out other guys and to raise awareness of the issue. But for me personally, it's rough. Really really rough. So thank you for the support, the kind words, and the suggestions: it's been a big help in getting through all this. - Jay

Thanks for the comment, HairThere. You've been a huge contributor to the hair transplant community in lots of ways - online and offline - and I read and benefitted from lots of your posts before getting my own transplant. Given your AheadInk experience, I think you'd have a unique perspective on redness and healing. I've realized now that when I talk about recipient-area redness, most doctors, patients, and forum posters are instead thinking of what I'd call a "lingering pinkness". In this case, the extreme redness fades 1-3 weeks after surgery, leaving a pinkish zone that gradually and steadily heals to original skin tone. The healing might be quick within a few weeks, or it might take up to a few months. In my experience, most guys - and most doctors - are referring to this pinkness when they talk about redness. But there's another class of patient. For them - us, actually, since I'm one of them now - the extreme redness fades a bit after surgery, but not much. After some time around the 1-3 week point, the redness stays fixed and doesn't change any longer. Using myself as an example, here's a side-by-side comparison of my front at 7 weeks (on the left) and at 4 months (on the right). Here's the comparison of my left temple over the same period: And a close-up view of the left temple: The change in hair between the pictures is obvious as some of the grafts have started to grow in a bit by the 4-month mark. But the redness is the same in all the pictures. During these last 2 months, there was no change in redness or the incision marks. In fact, there's been no change in my redness since the 2-week point. Guys have now emailed me pictures of extreme redness which they've also been suffering post-op. Some are even more red than me. As for duration, I'm only at 4 months, but these guys are now up to 12 months and - sadly for some of them - much longer than 12 months even. The eventual hair growth from the transplant helps cover it somewhat, but for all these guys, I can unfortunately confirm that the redness is still clearly visible even after the full transplant result has been reached. The contrast between their normal skin and the redness is extreme, and that's what creates such a massive problem in their lives. That's what I mean by extreme, long-term redness. It does happen. And waiting doesn't always cure it. About your own post-op healing experience, hairthere, how was the redness progression? How did it fit in this context? Do you have pictures you could post? Regarding "skin type" which you mention, I'm doubtful. I've found that skin type is one of the hand-waving explanations which doesn't seem to have a lot of evidence behind it and doesn't help in any event. Many doctors (and forum posters) quickly say that my blond/blue-eyed/fair-skin type is why I have an extreme redness which looks like will last at least very long-term and possibly permamently. But as I wrote in my previous post above: Most guys with fair skin don't get extreme long-term redness. Many guys with dark skin tone and/or dark hair do get extreme long-term redness. Maybe there's a slightly higher percent of fair skin guys who get redness compared to darker skin guys. No one has any idea, because there is no data. But even if there is some truth to that, it's still not a real explanation. Let's say 10% of blondes get extreme redness, while 7% of darker haired guys do. You still don't know why those particular blondes and brunettes get redness and others don't, you don't know how to reduce the incidence of extreme redness, you don't know who clears up with no outside intervention and who ends up with long-term/permanent redness, and you don't know what treatments could help. I'd think the goals for the hair transplant world regarding redness should be: Prevent post-op redness as much as possible, particularly the extreme, long-term redness. For redness which does occur, be able to offer evidence-based treatments which can help the skin with minimal risk of harming the transplanted hairs. To reach those goals, there has to be research, data, tests, and analysis. A hair transplant surgery is similar in some ways to other skin trauma events, and much of the current wound-healing research could be applicable. But hair surgery is also very unique in many ways, such as the number of wounds, the size and depth of each wound, the proximity of the wounds to each other, etc, as well as the fact that there are hair grafts inserted into the wounds which hopefully will grow out. So it'd be very useful to gather cross-clinic, standardized data specifically about hair transplant surgeries and healing characteristics. It'd be very helpful for current and future patients if you and others with influence in the community could help bring attention to this problem of long-term extreme redness after hair transplant surgery. Wound healing is an incredibly complicated field that's not well understood, and no one expects miracles. But nothing will change and no progress will be made if the hair world continues to ignore the issue. I understand that many HT people - doctors, patient reps, forums, even many patients - have little incentive to deal with the issue or even acknowledge it exists, but long-term extreme redness is a real problem which will not solve itself or just disappear. The longer there is no active work on the problem, the more patients there will be who will suffer.

4-month update: Redness is still the same. No visible change since the 2-3 week mark. Lots of little hairs have grown in. Nothing amazing yet, but it's early days still and the progress seems reasonable enough. More or less matches Dr. Bloxham's hair growth progress he outlined in a forum post. According to his estimates, at the 4-month point around 30% of hairs will have popped in and about 20% matured; right now my growth seems to be something like that. The new hairs are mostly white, so it lightens up the underlying skin-redness a tiny bit. But it's a really tiny effect. The hairs are sparse and don't hide anything, and the contrast between my normal forehead skin and the huge zone of redness is still extremely visible in all lighting conditions. You can see the redness from very far away. You can see it at night. I can even see it now reflecting on the screen as I type this. I was really hoping for some improvement by month 4. That seemed to be the final turning point for the difficult cases, based on the feedback here from Dr. Bloxham, Dr. Lindsey, and other posters, as well as what I've heard from guys who've emailed me who healed up. But at month 4, with absolutely no change in my redness since the 2-3 week mark, I'm really losing hope that this will clear on its own. It seems my redness is going to last much, much longer, and quite possibly become a huge zone of redness permanently etched on my forehead. I look back at my initial posts 2 months ago. It's silly to say, but I can see how innocent I was then. I really thought that post-hair transplant skin redness would be a well-researched area, that there would be clear solutions based on studies and evidence. I thought that since there are thousands of hair transplant doctors, tens of thousands of hair transplant surgeries completed, and millions of forum posts, then whatever the issue is, the hair transplant world would have dealt with it before. But in the last 2 months I've found that long-term skin redness is an issue which does not get much attention. Long-term redness because of hair transplant surgery can and does happen to many more patients than is commonly described. Skin healing is incredibly complicated, and it'd be very helpful to have real facts to reduce the number of patients who get redness and help the many hair patients who do end up with this skin problem. But I've found that there's no data and no evidence. Many - most - hair transplant surgeons simply don't recognize that the problem exists. And whenever it is acknowledged, most of the explanations and treatment ideas, including from many doctors, are nothing more than vacuous hand-waving because there is no data for anyone to use to make evidence-based conclusions. It's crazy, but from the lurkers I've met from this thread, I'd guess that at this point I have more case data about patients with extreme long-term post-op redness than most doctors. Based on what I've learned from these guys, I've found that the description and statistics about long-term HT-skin issues which doctors give are often just factually wrong. For instance, as I wrote in a separate thread, I've found examples of many cases that don't fit a common explanation about redness and skin tone which is given by many doctors and forum posters. You often hear that patients with blonde hair, fair skin, and blue eyes get redness, whilst patients with darker skin and hair don't. I'm blonde and fair skinned, so every hair doctor immediately tells me that my complexion is the explanation. But only a minority of fair-skinned patients get redness, and no one can explain why some blondes get long-term redness and some don't. On the other hand, I've now found dozens of guys with dark skin and hair who got as much or even more redness and skin issues than I did, including guys with family backgrounds from Europe and the Middle East, from South Asia (India, Pakistan), from East Asia (China, Korea) and from SE Asia (Phillipines). I've found that in some cases, the darker tone of hair and skin (and sometimes thicker hair) masks the redness slightly more than it does in the case of very pale-skinned guys like me, but otherwise, there seems to be no difference in the skin problem itself. So although I have no way of estimating percentages (there's that problem again of lack of data), I can confirm now that the skin issues are not limited mainly to fair-skinned patients; they can be a problem for everyone of every skin tone, despite what gets repeated in the HT world. But no one wants to talk about hair transplant long-term redness, no one studies it, and no one has any real solution. Long-term redness is a real blind spot in the hair transplant world. Many of the guys I've emailed with have become very depressed because of their long-term redness issues. I now know of at least a dozen cases of guys who have extreme, very long-term redness and whose doctors have essentially ignored them. They - we! - are all guys who were unhappy about hair loss and chose surgery to improve our appearance. To then end up with a permanent and very visible red zone on your forehead is crushing. Most of these guys end up essentially hiding out from society because the redness is so disfiguring. The absence of any good solutions sucks away their hope, and the lack of support from their doctors leaves them very bitter. Many of them are told the same thing by their hair surgeons: "wait a little longer." If you've waited 3 months, then wait another 3 months. If you've waited 6 months, then wait 6 more. If it's been 12 months, then... Waiting usually works well for hair but isn't always the best solution for skin problems. Wound healing is not well-understood and the best treatment isn't usually clear, so waiting might sometimes be a good option. And it's true that healing can take months and even years in some cases, so waiting could work if your body needs time to work through a slow healing process. But skin is not like hair: there's a good rationale for a wait-and-see strategy for hair because the telogen (resting) stage can last for months. In contrast, wound healing is a continuous process which gradually leads to healing not just deep underneath the skin, but also noticeable improvement in the skin surface as it moves through different phases of healing. So the obvious question which me and every guy who suffers from post-HT skin issues asks is: If there's been no visible improvement in your skin for months, then what is suddenly going to happen to make it heal cleanly?? I now understand personally why guys who have long-term redness drop away. This redness is ugly, noticeable, and utterly life-changing: your work and social life are completely changed in a horrible way. But the hair transplant community barely acknowledges that the problem exists, and there's no data about it, no coordinated attempts to understand it, and no research about solutions. This thread itself is a sign of how big the redness problem is. From what I can tell, it's the most-viewed thread started on this sub in 2017. Pretty impressive for a problem which supposedly doesn't even exist. And I know for sure that many, many people who aren't forum members have been reading this thread, because quite a few redness-suffering lurkers found my email address buried in one of my posts and have emailed me. So I've realized that the best thing I can do is continue standing on my little hill here and scream out that there is a major problem in the hair transplant world which is not being sufficiently addressed. Hopefully two good things can come of it: If any doctors or researchers want to look into long-term redness, send me an email. Thanks to this thread, I'm now in touch with a lot of guys who have redness. A lot of them are extremely depressed and bitter and don't post publicly as I do, but if you're doing research, I'll do my best to convince them to give you their data and pictures. If you're a potential patient thinking of getting a hair transplant, consider what you would do if this long-term redness happens to you. Ask the doctors about potential redness. And run away from any doctor who tells you that long-term redness never happens to his patients, that it doesn't exist, that you have nothing to worry about. There is no good solution, so it's not like they could really offer you help if this does happen to you, but I think it's better to at least have a doctor who acknowledges that the problem exists.

Really great that you're posting here publicly and trying to raise awareness of the issue. A lot of guys end up very bitter and depressed after many months of no skin improvement after hair transplant surgery. It's really disheartening because doctors ignore them, tell them to wait and wait and wait and they still get no skin improvement. I can really empathize with these guys - I'm starting to go bat-sh!t mental and I'm at 4 months, I can't imagine how I'll be at 6+ months if I don't improve. But unfortunately, by going quiet from bitterness and not publicizing their problems, the skin issues these guys are suffering don't get as much attention as they should have. So respect to you for writing about this, Turing. I hope more guys jump on the forum and post their pics (I'm looking at all you lurkers who I know are reading this!!). I know it's not a lot of consolation, Turing, but your skin is much better at 6-months than at least a dozen guys who've emailed me. And I imagine that in 2 months when I'm at my 6-month point I'll be worse than you as well. The change in your skin from 2 months to 6 months is interesting. The redness at 2-months traces a fairly straight path (I assume it's the path of the hairline incisions your surgeon made). But in the 6 month pics (#1 and #111, especially) the redness seems to only be in circles around some of the grown hairs; in the areas where there are no hairs, it looks like it's faded to your natural skin tone. Is that just an artefact from the pics, or is that really what's happened? How about the skin in your recipient area which is further back (towards the crown) from your hairline, can you see between the newly-grown hairs how is the redness there? Your skin redness at 2 months isn't good, but it's not as bad as me or other long-term cases I've seen. Plus, you say (and it looks from your pics as well) that you didn't have any noticeable incision marks at 2-3 months? So is it that the newly growing hairs have caused the tenting and redness in the skin where they popped out?

Turing, It seems you have a pretty good result so far at 6 months? And hopefully good progress still to come :-) Btw, nice camera! ;-) I think you've found what I and all the guys I've spoken to have realized: according to many HT people, your skin issues don't exist. Quite a few people - including hair surgeons - think that these long-term HT skin issues don't really happen. I'm at 3+ months now with huge redness still and clearly visible incision marks. I've talked with guys at 6-12+ months post-op who have very red and cobbled skin - much worse than yours - but their own own doctors don't recognize that there's even the potential for long-term skin problems from hair surgery. Hair surgeons are focused on hair, so the skin issue doesn't get any attention. It's really a blind spot. And to the extent that anyone acknowledges there's a long-term problem for some minority of patients, the answer from hair surgeons is almost always "wait a little longer." Waiting usually works well for hair but isn't always the best solution for skin problems. Wound healing is not well-understood and the best treatment isn't usually clear, so waiting might sometimes be a good option. And it's true that healing can take months and even years in some cases, so waiting could work if your body needs time to work through a slow healing process. But skin is not like hair: there's a good rationale for a wait-and-see strategy for hair because the telogen (resting) stage can last for months. In contrast, wound healing is a continuous process which gradually leads to healing not just underneath the skin, but also noticeable improvement in the skin surface as it moves through different phases of healing. So the obvious question which me and every guy who suffers from post-HT skin issues asks is: If there's been no visible improvement in your skin for months, then what is suddenly going to happen to make it heal cleanly?? It'd be great if you really want to push the industry to recognize and deal better with the problem. You're right that there's little incentive to discuss the issue, let alone research treatments. It'd be great if they would gather data in order to understand the problems. The doctors I've spoken to have told me they don't know of any data. They also say that their estimates of the problem and its progression are based on their gut feelings (most doctors I've spoken to also invariably say that long-term redness and skin texture issues never happen in their clinics... the problem is always in some other clinic :eek:!). So the data which exists is purely anecdotal and is very unreliable: for example, from the lurkers I've met from my thread I linked to earlier, I'd guess that at this point I have more case data about patients with extreme redness than most doctors, and from that I've found that the description and statistics about long-term HT-skin issues which doctors give based on their experience are often just factually wrong. I've found examples of many cases that don't fit the usual hand-waving explanations from doctors and on forums. For example, you often hear that patients with blonde hair, fair skin, and blue eyes get redness, whilst patients with darker skin and hair don't. I'm blonde and fair skinned, so every hair doctor immediately tells me that my complexion is the explanation. But only a minority of fair-skinned patients get redness, and no one can explain why some blondes do and some don't. On the other hand, I've now found dozens of guys with dark skin and hair who have as much or even more redness and skin issues than I do, including guys with family backgrounds from Europe and the Middle East, from South Asia (India, Pakistan), from East Asia (China, Korea) and from SE Asia (Phillipines). I've found that in some cases, the darker tone of hair and skin (and sometimes thicker hair) masks the redness slightly more than it does in the case of very pale-skinned guys like me, but otherwise, there seems to be no difference in the skin problem itself. So although I have no way of estimating percentages (there's that problem again of lack of data), I can confirm now that the skin issues are not limited mainly to fair-skinned patients; they can be a problem for everyone, despite what gets repeated in the HT world. What's your background (from your link, are you Israeli?). In addition to collecting data about the issue, if you really are keen to push people in the HT industry as you say, then I think it'd be great if they would organize and evaluate tests of different treatments. For example, it'd be very helpful to have small experiments of whether Vbeam laser harms hair follicles: test different settings, treatment variations, patient characteristics, etc. If some form of laser treatment could be shown to work well for redness and not affect hair, it'd be a very valuable add-on service which hair surgeons could offer to patients who have extreme redness around the 1-2 month mark. About your redness: It looks like your hair is covering some of the redness nicely now, but in the first picture, it's still visible as little red islands surrounding the front hairs. In the fourth picture, your skin in the recipient area is also noticeably different in tone than your natural skin. How visible is your redness from different angles and lighting? One issue I've noticed after having looked at lots of pictures of myself as well as all the guys who've sent me their pics is that close-ups underestimate the redness. I think this is because the HT redness is a large, clearly-defined zone rather than just a few small spots. On close-ups, the redness can look like a pink spot which seems to be not such a big deal, but when you back up and see the person from normal distance, the overall red area is very clear. Any difference in skin tone is really obvious when it's so large and precisely drawn; the human eye is really good at spotting this type of difference. And even when hair grows out and covers most of the redness, the edges of the redness create a red outline under the hairline which is very obvious - I'd guess that's happening in your case? Do you have pics from the 2-4 month period? It'd be interesting to see how your redness was before the growth, maybe it could give some hints as to how it'll progress from now. About the treatments you mention: Most treatments for improving wound appearance are based on the idea of destroying the skin a bit in order to force (re-start) healing. But a lot of times, the treatments don't help at all, although no one knows if it's because of operator errors, setting issues, patient differences, or just overall being the wrong treatment for the problem. Additionally, these types of treatments definitely aren't risk-free: the skin damage from a treatment can and does cause lasting and sometimes permanent harm in some patients, making the skin redness and texture worse than when you started. That all applies for anyone dealing with any type of wound or scarring. In the case of hair surgery patients like us, we also have to worry about whether the treatment will hurt the hair follicles, and that's a gamble: I've found no reliable data to use as guidance on it. Dermabrasion is a pretty old procedure where you're numbed and a doctor uses a brush or wheel to destroy the outer part of your skin. Every patient is very red for weeks or months afterwards whilst it heals. Since you've already seen that your skin becomes more red than most people's, I'd guess that in your case it would be red much longer than average after a dermabasion procedure. Personally, I'd stay away from it. Dermatologists told me that dermabrasion isn't used so much anymore. The book you linked cites as reference for it a 2008 article from Japan, so maybe dermabrasion was more common at that place and time? Microdermabrasion is not so rare. In microdermabrasion, the doctor shoots crystals onto your skin in order to exfoliate and remove the outer layer of skin cells. It's often used for melasma, the brown spots associated with female hormone surges (birth control pill, pregnancy, etc). Microdermabrasion is a lighter, less intense procedure than laser or chemical peeling, and has much less impact. Electrocautery is a new idea for me. I haven't heard that suggestion either from doctors or from other patients. Just looking it up, it seems the idea is to burn the tissue in order to stimulate healing. Heat is passed through a resistant metal wire which is used as an electrode. This hot electrode is then placed directly onto the skin they want to treat, destroying that specific tissue. I'd think laser would be the same idea but more precise and less risky for your sensitive skin and valuable hair follicles. But I don't know. In my next round of dermatologist consultations, I'll ask. Let me know if you find anything. Topical steroids or steroid injections is suggested often. I've heard of a few HT patients for whom it worked, but they were cases where they just had a very faint pinkness, so it's a question if the steroid really helped or if their skin was simply healing on its own anyway. I tried a fairly strong steroid myself, but there was no visible change for me. Several of the extreme-redness guys who wrote me have also tried steroids, but they also got no benefit. Who knows, maybe it's worth a try for you, but as I wrote to you earlier, it can have serious side-effects, so you don't want to continue more than a few weeks max. About site logistics: - I know what you mean that it seems like your thread - and this forum overall - is asleep. I used to think so too, but after posting my email in one thread, I got lots of messages from lurkers who read everything but never post on the forum, so I guess there's a large silent base out there reading this. - A mod has to enable PMs for you so they'll work. - If you want to contact me, you can email me if you'd like. My email is in this redness thread I linked to earlier.

The laser which dermatologists usually use for the redness from vascularization is a pulsed dye laser. There are several brands; the most common I've found used in clinics is the Vbeam laser made by Candela (https://syneron-candela.com/na/product/vbeam-perfecta). The idea is that the Vbeam laser is targeted to a very narrow wavelength which only targets the redness of the blood vessels and doesn't harm the skin or hair follicles. But there's lots of worry that the laser really can't really be so precise and will end up harming your HT result. Fraxel is a different type of laser treatment which is promoted for general anti-aging improvement of the skin for things like fine wrinkles, pores, and uneven patches of skin tone. The dermaroll you're talking about is also called microneedling or collagen induction therapy. You can buy a home version or you can have it done in dermatology clinics or some spas. It uses tiny needles to puncture the skin. Some clinics suggest this therapy for acne scar treatment. Results from all these treatments vary a lot. Microneedling is probably the most controversial, but for all these treatments you can quickly find hundreds of (non-HT) stories online of both good results and of disasters. For treating the redness and skin texture from hair transplant surgery, I've looked a lot for research, but I've found nothing. As far as I can tell, there's no data which is collected and maintained by doctors, and there's no organization which keeps a database of cases. So no one can give you any suggestions which are based on large data-sets. It will be all be anecdotal evidence like "I know a guy who knows a guy who did this...". It's also a question whether your reaction to these treatments will be different than most people. Your redness and cobbestoning at 6 months post-op already shows that your skin is different. Wound healing is very complicated and no one can really tell you why your skin reacts like this. There are lots of concrete reasons which could be behind your redness - things like allergic reactions, for example - but in many cases no one has any idea why it happens. But whatever the reason, it's worth being careful because any treatment could actually end up making your skin worse. One idea is to test a very small patch of skin and see how you react. I've written a thread on this forum about the extreme redness I have now after my hair surgery. I went to many doctors. I also have been emailing with a lot of guys who have redness for long periods (6 months, 9 months, and (sadly) permanent redness for 12+ months). Buried in that thread is a post here where I wrote in more detail about long-term redness and treatment options.

Thanks to everyone with the kind words of support. It's a pretty #$%$# horrible situation, so I really do appreciate. Another week passed since my 3-month update and there's been no change in the redness. A few people asked if maybe it has improved and I don't notice. But no, I'm certain it hasn't changed. I standardized the lighting and photo situation of my pictures, and then to be completely positive, I analyze on the computer the actual tone of the redness on an absolute level as well as relative to the normal skin below the hairline. So I'm certain that I'm not tricking myself one way or the other. I can say 100% for sure that there has been no change in redness from the 2-3 week point until the current 3-month mark. I've learned about the cases of a lot of other people who have had redness. I left my email on the thread. A bunch of guys have written to me about their redness, lurkers who read here but for various reasons never post. Told me their stories, sent me pictures. Thanks to that, I now have verified by photos at least 7 cases where the redness definitely did not heal after 12+ months. Imagine that, if in just the last few weeks there are 7 guys who wrote me, 7 guys who did not heal after 12+ months who read this thread in enough detail to make out my cryptic email address and jumped through all those hoops to share their story with me... imagine how many more there must be out there. And that's just guys with extreme redness at 12+ months. A lot more have emailed me with cases that are right now in the 2-12 month range. Plus a few other guys who aren't really red at 12+ months, but have a noticeable pinkness and/or cobblestoning still one year post-op. There's a lot of hope among redness-sufferers that the hair growth will mask the redness. I've found some problems with this. First, it takes a long time until the transplant result finally reaches completion at 9-12 months; before that, real redness is definitely still visible. But even at that point, it doesn't always work out so well. A hair transplant isn't that dense: scalp will show through at places, and when it's so red, it's very obvious. Also, for the front hairline, a lot of guys talk about the "outline effect" where the sharp border between the tone of the normal forehead skin and the tone of the redness is very noticeable underneath the transplanted hair and essentially outlines the newly-created hairline. I've seen pictures of it. Not a good look. It's heart-breaking to hear their stories of how the redness has completely #%#'d up their lives, and now I'm learning for myself how it happens. It's not an ugly duckling thing. It's not a lingering pinkness that you whine about and feel yicky to have to hide with some make-up. It's a redness which can't be hidden, a permanent scar stretching across the head. You can see it in low light, you can see it from far away, you can see it in any situation. It's crushing to have this extreme redness. I don't want to exaggerate: it's not life-threatening, it's not a true health issue for you or a loved one. I repeat to myself - and to all these guys who email me - that relative to real health issues, this redness is obviously of zero importance. But given that the whole thing started because of the desire which all of us hair transplant patients had to improve our cosmetic appearance... within that world, it's soul-crushing.

3 Month Update It's just a bit before my 3 month point. There's been no change in the redness or in the texture of my recipient area since the 2-3 week mark. There's a little growth of very fine, white hairs. Not much at all, but at just under 3 months post-op right now, it's fine and I'm not worried about the hair growth. My problem is the redness. It's now massively hurting my life and career. I wish I could just own the redness and laugh at anyone who makes an issue about it. But the reality is that my industry and my job aren't wonderful judgement-free safe zones; it's hugely competitive, everything contributes to reputation, and the stench from a redness disaster caused by hair transplant surgery would hurt me more than my current strategy of quitting and hiding out for months. Really horrible f$#% situation. In this post, I want to 1) update about my situation, 2) report on what I've learned from consultations with many doctors and contact with other redness-sufferers, and 3) lay out the treatment options I've been presented. The focus is about my own case, obviously, but I hope that my experiences and the information I've found can be helpful for other patients who are suffering with redness post-op. I also think it can be useful as well as for people who are considering hair transplants and want information about potential problems that could arise. Redness: research over last weeks I've consulted many dermatologists (both clinic dermatologists and hospital specialists) and hair surgeons in several different cities over the last weeks. The short summary is that no one knows what's happening with my redness or why, and there are many different suggestions about what to do, many of which are mutually contradictory. I've learned that redness following hair transplant surgery occurs more frequently than is typically portrayed. In general, I've found that dermatologists think that prolonged redness is much more likely than what is typically portrayed by hair transplant doctors. Every dermatologist I met has had patients with difficult wound redness from cosmetic surgery, and quite a few of them had patients with redness from hair surgery in particular. Dermatologists are much more likely than hair doctors to believe that redness must be treated; in general, they believe that redness which hasn't mostly faded after 4-8 weeks should be considered chronic and potentially permanent. In contrast, hair doctors are more likely to believe that waiting another 3 or 6 or 12 months is always better. In addition to information from doctors, I've also been lucky to get information directly from several guys who have had redness issues following hair surgery. I included my email address in earlier posts in this thread, and quite a few lurkers contacted me with their stories. I spoke with guys who have redness that has already lasted for 3-9 months, and several others for whom the redness has become permanent at even 12-24 months post-op. It's heart-breaking to hear their stories (and very depressing to think that I might and probably will follow their path). It was funny - in a sad way - that these guys all had similar stories about the suggestions made by their hair doctors as the redness didn't fade in the months following the transplant surgery: 1) "Wait, it'll get better." 2) "Waiting didn't help? Try topical steroid then." 3) "Steroid didn't help? Then hope that new hair growth covers it." 4) "You can still see redness clearly through the hair? Well... that's life, must be your skin type, hmmm, can't help you, gotta go." It's hard to estimate what percentage of patients have significant redness for 2 to 12 months and longer. In addition to the guys I emailed with, I also found many blog posts and comments on several forums from patients of many different doctors who suffered from redness for months. I understand it's hard to generalize from these patients because of the self-selection effect: people complaining on forums tend to be those with post-op problems, and those who have no issues just get on with their lives. But even if we can't estimate percentages, I'd say it's notable that just on an absolute basis, there are dozens of posts from guys with long-term redness issues. One poster on this forum's related area summarized it well: Wound healing Wound healing is a very, very complex topic and not well understood. If a wound doesn't follow the normal path of healing correctly in the first 4 weeks, then it is considered chronic... and modern medicine doesn't have great, one-size-fits-all solutions. Lots of theories and research about the idea that many inflammatory diseases and pathological conditions (including cancer) disrupt the standard wound healing processes. Many similarities have been noted between atopic dermatitis and the chronic wound healing response such as that in long-lasting redness from a hair transplant. Delayed wound healing can be directly caused by (literally) hundreds of different health and environmental issues, or can just be the result of (not very well understood) characteristics that are unique to the patient and make him/her heal slower or not completely. Depending on the healing, the redness, bumpy texture, or slightly raised surface from delayed healing can and often does become a permanent part of the skin. Lots of possible health issues could cause delayed wound healing following a surgery like hair transplant. Some are more common, some more rare. Here are a few: Diabetes. (High levels of blood glucose lead to problems with blood circulationa and the nerves, so wounds don't get all the blood needed for normal healing) Auto-immune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, etc. [Whilst the diseases are definitely bad for wound healing, there are conflicting ideas about whether the medicine for these diseases hurts or helps wound healing. On the one hand, it's reasonable to think that the main immunosuppresive drugs which are used would delay or prevent healing, but on the other hand, studies show that the medicine doesn't affect the healing process and aggressive drug treatment before any surgical wounds can actually be beneficial to the eventual healing process.] Collagen problems, for example Ehler Danloss syndrome: genetic defects in collagen and connective tissue synthesis and structure Koebner phenomenon: lesions develop at site of skin trauma, for example around surgical scars. Associated with psoriasis patients, but can also occur in people with eczema, systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, lichen planus, warts and lots more skin issues. Ischemia (insufficient blood supply), edema (abnormal accumulation of fluid), hypoxia (insufficient oxygen in the tissue) Skin cancer Low HGH (human growth hormone) Lots of outside influences can delay the wound healing, including: Infection from surgery Infection from bacteria Significant sun exposure Irritants from creams, shampoos, laundry materials, etc Allergies, among which some typical causes are: perfumes/fragrances, lanolin (used in skin creams), cetylsterol alcohol (used in skin creams), latex, and rosin (used in many printing applications, bandages, and sports/music where it's applied to bow strings, or to hands to improve grip). Medications affecting auto-immune system Steroids Cigarettes, drugs (delays healing, leads to higher rates of infection) Zinc deficiency Nutritional deficiencies (some studies show that lack of protein makes the wound healing process much longer) The catch is that there are still many cases of delayed healing and long-term redness which are not caused by any of these issues, and no one has any idea why. I've gone through all these possible reasons with doctors. I did thorough blood both tests before the operation as well as in the last weeks; all results were and still are good. I've had no sun exposure, swelling, pus, warmth, fever, or health issues. No one knows what has caused my redness. All the people who emailed me also said that they checked through all these possibilities and came up with no explanation. Disagreements about treatment I've found as a patient that there is enormous disagreement between doctors about redness following hair transplant surgery. If you have redness and are trying to figure out what to do, these disagreements are very frustrating and make it hard to know what to believe, particularly as many of the views are completely contradictory. Some of the reasons I saw behind the disagreements: Unknown medical issues. There are very big disagreements that develop when there isn't any well-understood diagnosis or treatment, and each doctor must form his/her own opinion. As a patient, you're limited in how well you can evaluate the science and you tend to judge instead by who you most like and trust, which isn't necessarily going to lead to the best treatment. I've found that how doctors approach a medical issue like this which has unknown cause and unknown solutions is affected by the human factors: personality, risk appetite, reputation, and confidence all play a huge role. In my interactions with doctors in the last weeks, I've seen lots of pride, boasting, and insults of others doctors. Different medical specialties. Dermatologists in general have very different views than hair surgeons. The split is exactly what you'd guess: hair surgeons in general are worried about the hair and recommend to do as little as absolutely necessary about the skin, whilst dermatologists are worried about the skin and emphasize that not treating it asap could lead to long-term permanent problems. Hammer and nail problem. Whatever tool the doctor has and frequently uses, s/he sees it as a good solution for whatever medical issue you have. If you have a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail. Especially noticeable amongst dermatologists. The business aspect. Almost all hair surgery and a good part of dermatology is paid for directly by the patient, and the business side is very noticeable in how doctors act. Of course, every doctor says - and believes - that s/he is unbiased and fair, but we're all just human: marketing, pricing, and profit affect what the doctor thinks, both consciously and unconsciously. I found many doctors who believe that certain treatments done at other practices are over-hyped, over-marketed, unsafe, ineffective, and just sales manipulation... but that their own treatments are legit, very reliable, fairly priced, and anyone who disagrees is inexperienced and lacks the skills to do it correctly. Relatively little patient data. I've been very surprised that in both dermatology and hair clinics, patient data isn't handled better so it can benefit everyone. Within clinics, few have much data recorded in useful form for statistical analysis. Between clinics, there's little exchange of information other than anecdotes, and as far as I've found from asking, there are no central databases which collect and analyze cross-clinic data. The only hard data are relatively infrequent randomized control trials. Otherwise, every doctor and clinic I came across is essentially an island operating on their own subjective assessment of patient experiences. It's impossible to know with any real precision what percentage of patients get redness, characteristics of patients who get it, how long it lasts, how red is red, what possible factors caused it, if/how it was treated, etc. Every doctor has an anecdote, or knows a guy who knows a guy... but there's no data. Unfortunately, many doctors extrapolate their anecdotal information and gut feelings into statistics. But the reality is there is no data. The lack of data and over-reliance on anecdotes further complicates diagnosis and treatment. Little incentive or desire to help patients who have complications. All the doctors I've met - including my own surgeon - seem to be good people who want to help. But at some point, their attention must be on the majority of patients with normal issues and they can't focus on the minority of patients who have complications. It's particularly acute because HT is a private pay business. It seems to also affect people other than doctors: I got emails from two guys who said that their semi-independent patient advocate/representative also stopped helping them when their redness lasted more than 2 months. It also seems to me that hair doctors have a blind spot - conscious or not - about redness issues. An example: I consulted with two hair doctors (not connected to each other) who told me they had never had a patient with significant redness lasting longer than 2 months. But I have emails and photos from patients of those very same doctors which show extreme redness for 6 and 12 months. These patients communicated frequently with their doctors about their redness issue. I'm not an investigative journalist and I'm not trying to play gotcha-politics, so I didn't confront the doctors. Treatment ideas I've been proposed several treatment ideas by different dermatologists and hair surgeons I've consulted. Every proposal has been thoroughly attacked by at least two other doctors. So I thought the best way to present the ideas is to give the diagnosis and treatment suggested by the proposing doctor, and then the counter-arguments offered by opposing doctors. #1. V-beam laser Diagnosis: small dilated blood vessels near the surface of the skin ("broken capillaries"), i.e. a form of telangiectasias caused by the trauma of surgery. If you push with finger on the redness and release, the skin becomes white for a second and then returns to red. That brief whiteness happens because of these dilated blood vessels. It's also supposedly why I (and several guys who emailed me) have noticed that the redness is temporarily less following a warm shower, not more. Treatment: pulsed dye laser ("V-beam"). Targets only the red wavelength of the capillaries, so the laser will reduce the redness but not hurt the (soon-to-arrive) growth of the transplanted follicles. Counter-argument: The range of wavelengths of the V-beam laser cannot be made so narrow as to ONLY work on the blood vessels. The laser will probably hurt the hair follicles and harm my eventual transplant result. Moreover, if you have significant redness after hair surgery, the last thing you want to do is aggravate the area by burning it with a laser. Regarding effectiveness, dermatologists who work with V-beam laser thinks it would help the redness, although they differ about whether it will harm the hair follicles. On the other hand, hair surgeons almost unanimously think laser is bad in the recipient area; they're not sure if it would help the redness, but they very much advise not to laser on the recipient area only a few months after surgery. The cause of this difference in opinion seems pretty understandable: dermatologists with V-beam lasers think it's a good tool to solve many skin issues, dermatologists who don't use the laser have already decided it's not a good tool for skin issues, and hair surgeons are very cautious about doing anything which could hurt hair growth. #2. PRP Diagnosis: inflammation caused by the HT surgery. Treatment: 100 little PRP injections throughout the red area as an anti-inflammatory to stimulate angiogenesis. In addition to promoting healing of the redness, it will help the eventual hair growth. Counter-argument: PRP won't help much, while 100 injections into an already-red area would just irritate the skin more and cause even more redness. #3. Strong topical cream Diagnosis: inflammation similar to eczema. Treatment A: a mid-level topical corticosteroid with potency around 100-150x hydrocortisone, perhaps mixed with an anti-bacterium. It's anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive, vasoconstrictive. Doesn't affect the hair follicles. The idea is that it works in the same way as the corticosteroids which the body naturally produces to control inflammation. Try it 3-4 weeks. If it helps, great; if not, stop after a month and there's no danger of harm or long-term damage. Counter-argument A: The vasco-constrictive properties of steroids is exactly what I don't want while my body is trying to heal itself now. And steroids have lots of bad side effects: red skin syndrome from withdrawal, thinning of the skin, and more. Everyone agrees that taking corticosteroids for too long and which are too powerful is very bad, but no one can definitely say where the limits are, as it varies by individual. But as a general rule, more and more research is showing harmful effects of steroids, so it's best to avoid them if not necessary. Additionally, absorption of topical steroids is greatest at the skin of face compared to other body areas, so it's particularly important to be careful using them for HT scalp redness. Treatment B: Try a drug affecting the immune response (calcineurin inhibitor) such as pimecrolimus or (less used) tacrolimus. It's anti-inflammatory in the same way as topical corticosteroids, but does not have the potential side effects of skin thinning or red skin. Counter-argument B: Same problems as steroids regarding vasco-constriction. Plus, there's an as-yet unsettled question if pimecroimus and tacrolimus increase the risk of lymph node or skin cancer. #4. Antibiotics Diagnosis: possible infection. Treatment: Antibiotic for full course of 10 days (e.g., doxycyycline). If redness hasn't faded after a few weeks, then skin punch biopsy to see if there is some form of infection. Assuming no infection, then use a topical steroid as described above in suggestion #3. Counter-argument: If it were a rash which suddenly appeared for no known reason, biopsy and antibiotics might be indicated to understand and treat the cause. But in this case, the cause is clear: the trauma from hundreds of incisions made in each part of the forehead scalp. It's clearly more red in areas of greater incision density, less red in areas with less density. There's no signs at all of infection. A biopsy is not necessary, isn't worth the cost, and - given we now know how my skin reacts to wounds - there's no need to subject my recipient area to further surgical trauma, even if it's just one excision for the biopsy. #5. Tough sh!t Diagnosis: That's life. I'm blonde, light blue eyes, fair skin (stereotypical Scandinavian look). Redness can happen. Treatment: can't do anything. Will take 6 months to 1 year to heal. Bad luck. Buy lots of hats. As one well-known hair surgeon said to me, "Here's my best suggestion. What do you think about growing your hair longer and gelling it forward so that it can at least partially cover the red area for the next year or so?" Counter-argument: At 3 months post-op - and 2.5 months of no change - the extreme redness is not going to get better on its own, no matter how many months or years I wait. The "blonde, fair skin" argument doesn't hold water. Every dermatologist mentioned that most blonde, fair-skin people don't have wound redness. And many dark-haired, dark-skinned people do have redness. Maybe odds are slightly different based on some genetic variations, maybe not, but it doesn't matter in any event. If you are the unlucky person who has significant redness after 2 months, you might get lucky hoping and waiting, but odds are you have to do something to fix it. Talking about "skin type" is just a lot of hand-waving for a doctor to avoid dealing with a very complicated issue. Moreover, the time to treat is now while it's still relatively fresh. As time goes on, it becomes an area of chronic, long-term wounds, and it will become much harder to treat. And there will be no hiding it: because of the combination of my blonde color, naturally thin hair, fair skin tone, and the density of a hair transplant, the redness will be visible even after all my hairs have grown in. So fix it now. Photos It hasn't changed since the 2-week point, but here's how things look now at just under 3 months:

2.5 months update No change. Redness and texture still the same. Hasn't been any real change since the 2-week mark. I've been talking to many doctors in a few different cities, including hair surgeons and different types of dermatologists. Still a few more to go. I've also spoken/written with several men who've had post-HT healing problems. Stroke of genius to have put my email in an earlier post; quite a few lurkers out there who have their own redness issues contacted me. If you have any redness issues, email me at [ jay2cr3 at posteo dot net]. I read and respond to everything . So with all my free time now thanks to my bloody red bandana, I've managed to gather lots of information, research and stories. I'll write it all up when I finish the consultations. ________________________ Hey Spidey- Thanks for your comments in this thread. I actually read all your posts months ago while I was deciding on my own transplant. I really appreciated your honest descriptions of everything you went through. Glad I get to thank you directly, it was really helpful! :-) From your pictures, it looks like your redness was in better shape than mine at the 2.5-3 month stage. I'd love to have a situation at my 3-month mark where you can only see my pinkness under fluorescent lighting, as you write, but I think there's zero chance of that right now. Your hair looks pretty thick/coarse, which I'd guess helps hide the pinkness you still have? I think in my case, because my hair is thin and blonde, it'll be less effective at hiding the redness, regardless of however much density eventually grows in. But however you look at it, pinkness two years after surgery definitely isn't a good outcome. I feel for you!

Thanks to everyone for the great posts. It's really helping me deal with this situation. Fwiw, there's been no change in color, texture, or healing in the week since I posted the pictures. Actually, there's been very little change since week 2 or 3. _________________ _________________ Dr. Bloxham - Thank you very much for your observations. I really value your experience and understanding. It reassured me to hear that it's not uncommon to still see incision marks at 2 months post-op. It surprises me, actually, as it's rarely mentioned in doctor-written guides as being a possible effect. On forums, I've seen many guys complaining about the visible incision marks, but I thought that those patients were very rare. Good to know that it's much more common than I'd thought. And you didn't say directly, but by the way you write, I guess the incision marks in these cases gradually heal to become the normal smooth skin surface.... at least I hope so! I checked out my donor area. It's hard to see the skin because of the hairs that have grown back, so I hadn't noticed anything unusual. But on close inspection, it seems that in the donor area there are at least a dozen little red areas at the FUE sites; there could be more which are hidden by the hairs. The red areas are maybe 1mm, irregularly-shaped blobs. Not raised, not scabbed. Just colored spots in a hue which varies within each blob from red to reddish-orange. I understand your point that my skin is sensitive now, so I'll leave off any creams or gels for the time being. It's interesting that I've never before had sensitive skin: even in situations where people I'm living with have gotten allergies, rashes, and skin issues, I've never been affected. Makes me think that the reaction and healing of a patient's skin from HT surgery can't be predicted by just looking at his previous skin history or his skin type. Another 1-2 months of waiting is tough. But I see your logic. Thank you again, Dr. Bloxham, very much. You understand the topic well, both academically and from your own practice, so it's really useful to get your insight. I'll keep it updated here. _________________ _________________ Shera - I'm interested about the Irish patient you mentioned. (He's different than the Irish patient mentioned by Dr. Lindsey, right?). Would you have details about your Irish guy? I'd really be interested in 3 things: a) What treatment - if any - did he do? b) How was the timeline of his healing? c) Pictures...? Thanks! _________________ _________________ Biolizard - Yeah, my skin definitely didn't respond well, to put it lightly haha! You know, I checked out the pictures you've posted on this site of your HT progress. It's hard to say from the quality of your pictures, but based on what there is, you actually ended up with a pretty good result. I understand from your posts that you're not too happy with things, but I'd definitely be satisfied with the result you showed in your 10 month photo! Congrats! I'd guess that by now it's even better, so cheer up, mate, :-). Make a new thread with your current result, post some pics that show it well, and I guarantee you'll get so much (deserved!) praise from guys on the forum that your only worry will be that your head will explode from your newly-inflated ego :-) About the redness, I can see in your 5-week picture that you were red, although a lot less than me at 2 months lol! Can I ask: what treatments did you do? I saw that some posters chatted with you about V-beam laser, electrolysis, microneedling, concealer, lots more. What did you end up doing? I'd love to know any details that could be helpful. Thanks, Bio :-) _________________ _________________ Gillenator - Yeah, there's definitely still trauma. You concluded the same as Dr. Bloxham that only time and my body's immune system will heal it. You mentioned about cases of redness like mine that you've "seen it before." I'm really curious about these cases.Would you be able to give any details about them like treatment, healing timeline and photos? That'd be really helpful! Thanks, mate! _________________ _________________ Anyone else have similar stories? I was prepared for a year of patience for the hair result, but definitely not ready for the disfiguring redness. I've convinced myself it'll get better. Gotta keep hope up, right! And who knows, maybe the extracellular matrix of my skin will get some nice placebo healing action from it :-) But it's tough to be living it in real-time, with no way to know if and when it will get better. If anyone reading this has any details of someone who went through something similar, it would really be useful if you could post details. Or if you're a lurker and not a poster, or if you just don't want to post your info on this thread, PM me through this forum or email me at [ jay2cr3 at posteo dot net]. I'd really appreciate any info that anyone might have: doctors with patient stories, patient advisors who might know guys who had similar issues, or guys who have personally gone through this... I'll update this forum thread with any news. I'm seeing the dermatology clinic soon, so I'll post whatever I learn. As for pics, there's been no change in my redness since I started this thread a week ago, so no point in putting new pictures up. But when there's some change, I'll add it here so other guys can follow. I never wanted to have a bloody red bandana stitched around my forehead, but now that I'm in this position, I figure I can at least share all my info so all my fellow red-bandana mates who are lurking out there now and in the future can read this and see how it went for me.

Thanks for the positive thoughts, Matt :-) ___________ ___________ The photos in my first post show the redness accurately, but it's hard to see the incision marks well. I took close-up pics to show what I mean by unhealed incisions: To be fair, these close-ups really exaggerate the redness and disgustness. Close-ups can make anything look horrible. And the bloody red marks on the hairline in the second photo are pimples or the remains of pimples (I've had a couple, which I've read is normal). My scalp really isn't as scary looking as this haha! The pictures in the first post are more accurate about how it looks in general. But these close-ups are a fair view of the pock marks still visible from the incisions. The reflection of light helps show the depth of the little craters. There are hundreds of them still 2 months post-op.

Dr. Bloxham, Thank you very much for such a thoughtful response. I really appreciate your analytical insight. Your questions are very good ones. Bottom-line, though, is "no" to all your questions. I've followed as close as possible what I think (or thought, at least!) is good post-op care: no scratching, no picking, no sweating. I'm inside all the time and have gotten zero sun exposure on my scalp. No hat or anything else on top of my head (no hair piece, etc). No creams, no Minoxidil or any other topical gel. No exercise for the first month, very little in the second month (sigh..). Swelling wasn't bad post-op and went away quickly, scabbing was minimal and the recipient area in the immediate days after surgery looked nicely clean just as pics I've seen of other guys, albeit maybe a bit redder. No shock loss at all that I've noticed. My shampoo and soap are the same I used for the last year before the treatment (and never has affected my skin before or after the surgery). Hot shower... maybe the recipient area is a little more red after the shower. Tough to say, though, as my face is also a wee more red for a few minutes after finishing a hot shower. (Is that somehow key to all this? But aren't most people a bit flushed after a hot shower?). I burn quickly in the sun if I don't use sun cream, although I've been fanatical for a long time now about sun cream since I learned the hard way when I was a kid. But lordy, fair-skinned guys who burn quickly in the sun, that's gotta represent a big percentage of HT patients, and it doesn't seem like they all get this HT redness. So I don't get it... About health, as I wrote earlier, I'm in good shape. Pre-op blood work was all wonderful: complete blood count normal, great heart rate, cholesterol levels very good, etc. I've never had an allergy to anything in my life that I know of. Almost never get sick. Don't take and never taken any medicines or supplements. Any cuts, bruises, broken bones from sports and life have always healed normally with no problems or issues (no nasty raised scars, nothing). And thanks for the respect, Dr. Bloxham, but I'm not cool or interesting enough to be exposed to any exotic bacteria . Or to any non-exotic bacteria, for that matter, since I've been locked-up inside for 2 months anyway. And unfortunately I haven't gone hot tub frolicking since 2015. My red-bandana avatar is way more loco than me nowadays . Regarding trimming the grafts, no idea. I'll check with the clinic. Fwiw, my doctor is legit and recommended by many, including here, and I'm pretty confident that I was treated in exactly the same way as all the many other patients he's done this year and all the years before. (I'm not bringing the doctor's name into this because - at least so far - it doesn't seem like it has anything specifically to do with him and his techniques, and I don't want to unfairly paint him with a (red-stained) brush. We'll see how the results are in many months, but at least at this point, I still think he's a good doc and the operation seemed to go well. And I respect that he's been good about my redness situation, hasn't dodged it or pretended anything, and he's given me his best ideas. But he really is just as baffled by this as anyone and that's why I'm asking on the forum). I understand your thinking about an infection. As you write, at 2 months post-op, it doesn't seem likely to be infected, but who knows. The best way I'd describe the recipient area is that it's just unhealed. The incision marks are still visible to the naked eye; they look like hundreds of little craters on Mars. As for the redness, it corresponds very directly to the incisions: at places of a greater number of incisions (like on the front hairline, where there are lots of singles), it's a bit redder; in the back at places of fewer incisions scattered among existing hairs, it's a bit less red; and there's no redness at all more than a few millimetres away from the incisions. Any suggestions for treatment? Ideas I've gathered: - Topical steroids. Hydrocortisone is for the typical lingering redness, so HT doc recommended short-term use of a class II (high potency, 100-150x) corticosteroid like Difluocortolone valerate. - V-beam laser. Targets blood vessels and generally used for rosacea, vascular lesions, scars, etc. Supposedly very precise in only being absorbed by the blood vessels, so follicles are fine. Supposedly. A forum poster here, harryforreal, had redness for 4 years and finally solved it quickly with V-beam, although they made him shave first. - Aloe vera, witch's hazel. - Wait. If you've waited two months, then wait four. If you've waited four months, then wait eight. If you've waited eight months, then... I don't want the redness obviously. I could get away with the lingering pink tone you described which your patients have had, but there's no way to hide my full-on red bandana. I'm joking as much as I can about this bloody red bandana - gotta stay positive, right! - but it really is going to be a life-changing pain in the @$$ for both work and life if I'm still like this for months more. At the same time, I'm also concerned about the future hair growth. I don't want to jeopardize a good HT result... at least, if there still is a good result possible in my case. Sigh... Thanks for your insight and observations, Dr. Bloxham. I really do appreciate it for myself. And I'd guess - or hope, at least - that I'm not alone and that there are/will be other guys out there who will definitely benefit from your suggestions about redness! :-)

Dr. Lindsey, thank you for looking at this thread. I appreciate your insight and experience. Grey hairs and obsessive in that patient, whoaaa! I definitely have grey hairs, getting more every year since I was 19 lol, but I'm ok with that :-). And obsessive...? Self-analysis is tough, but I think I'm holding up pretty well considering that 2 months post-op I still have a big red bandana stitched into my head! Trying to keep some humour and hope about the whole thing :cool: I'd be very interested in your experience with patients, Dr. Lindsey, regarding their extreme redness. Any thoughts about treatment (medicine? other?), healing timeline, and eventual recovery. For example, any details about the 4-month red patient you wrote about would be great :-). And the Irish gentleman whose picture you posted in an earlier thread...? (He's the ginger-haired guy whose picture I put in my post which starts this thread). How long post-op is that picture of him? Did he have pock marks from the incisions still visible to the naked eye 2 months post-op (I definitely have hundreds of visible pock marks, but it doesn't show up so well in my pictures, so I'm curious if the Irish chap had the same situation)? Thanks Dr. Lindsey! :-) _____ Matt J. - Thanks, mate. Yeah, I agree with you that pale skin tone can make the redness stand out more than in someone with darker skin tone. But that's just the subtle part of the effect; the big issue is that my level of redness would look out of place on the skin of anyone who's not Martian! To answer your question, no, throughout my life I've never been a slow healer. As I wrote, I've had all the usual cuts, scrapes, wounds, broken bones, and never had any problems. Always normal healing. As for fitness, I'm in great shape, all blood tests before operation were normal/negative/good (incl. great levels for blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol and hba1c ). I appreciate your experience from the HT work on your own hair and as a representative for Dr. Rahal; let me know if you have any ideas or insight! Thanks! :-)

Thanks for the feedback, guys. David, thanks for hooking up my PM... You were "pretty red", but I'm much redder than you were at 2 months? Sigh... Mr.Five, yeah, ugly duckling for sure. But I've never seen such a red duck at 2 months! You wrote that your redness had faded away at 3.5 months. Do you have any pics in the 6-12 weeks period? (And btw, yeah, pretty obviously now I agree with your BS comment lol). Matt, thanks for the tip. Same question for you, do you have redness pictures? (I looked around but couldn't find any of yours).

Good idea, Trix, thanks. Looks like I don't yet have enough rep points or posts here to PM, but hopefully some doctors or experienced guys will pop in on this thread when they have time. Obviously I'm very interested for myself, but I think it's also a good topic for many guys thinking about HT... and for all the guys slogging through their own months of post-op redness. I've seen some doctors talk about the redness, but it's often mentioned as a temporary effect for the first weeks, maybe a month or two max. And some doctors never have it as an issue in their patients; for example, Dr. Rassman in Los Angeles wrote in a post on his blog: So I guess I'm a lot worse than the worst of cases... :eek:

Thanks for that, Trix, appreciate it. Truth is that my doctor just doesn't know, he's never seen something like this. A topical steroid can help if it's an inflammation issue, and seems to be useful in cases like the guys with lingering redness. But my case is so much more than what he's seen. If it's a different health issue, then it could actually be better to avoid steroids. So who knows. That's why I'm going to a dermatologist at the first availability in 2 weeks. I'm hoping in the meantime, someone on the forum might have some insight or a similar experience. Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestions. Yeah, as I wrote, I've been perfect about sun, I've gotten no exposure. About aloe vera and witch's hazel, I looked at the research, and there's little evidence on them and the evidence that does exist is pretty negative on their helpfulness. As I wrote, I spoke to my doctor already. Until then, I was cruising along blissfully unaware of how much redder my scalp is than other guys. Then my doctor took one look and said it's the reddest he's ever seen, much redder than even other patients who are red. It doesn't seem infected, it's just very red and with very visible incision marks still at 2 months. So no one knows what's going on. Anyone have any insight? Similar experiences with yourself? Any doctors out there, I'd love to know what you think: anything similar with patients you've seen?? Thanks!

Me, 2 months now after FUE. The pictures don't lie: it really is so red compared to my skin: I still have a very obvious redness in my recipient area now almost 2 months after FUE surgery. The marks from the incisions are still clearly visible. It improved slowly until the 2 week mark, but it hasn't changed much in the last 5-6 weeks. Everything went great with the procedure. FUE, temples, front hairline. Unshaven in front. I was happy with the doctor. Both donor and recipient areas seemed good, no problems with infection, swelling, or bleeding. No grafts fell out. Everything clean. For the first month, I took care, didn't get any sun, all that good stuff. I was calm and ready for the long wait for growth, totally unstressed, never looked if I had any hairs growing in. Didn't look at forums or read a word about hair. I figured the next time I'd be on a forum would be around 9 months: I'd write a post of glory bragging about my new Samson hair and then hang around giving wise words of wisdom and encouragement to guys who are nervous. Instead, here I am at 2 months with this mess. I saw that my recipient area was red, but I knew that some people stay red longer than others. So I figured it's no problem that I'm red in the first month. After the first month, my doctor checked it. Baaaam, he was really surprised. He said it's the reddest he's ever seen. It's also odd that you can still see almost all the incision marks with no magnifying glass; they're like little pock marks and you can see them clearly. My doctor has no idea what's going on. He said maybe it's because I'm blond, light-skin tone? Maybe just bad luck? Maybe something else? There's no real hair growth obviously, too early for that, but other than the redness, he said it doesn't seem bad. But he's never seen redness like this before and doesn't know what to suggest, other than to give it time. Like... many months. Months more of this extreme redness!? Not one month more or two months more, but many months more of this?? That's when I went onto forums for the first time post-surgery to look at people's progress in their first 8 weeks.Compared to the progress of patients I saw, my redness is definitely extreme. Even among the people who come onto forums and create accounts specifically in order to complain, cry and pray for solutions... none of them are near my level of redness. They have what everyone calls "lingering redness": Not me: This guy is 2.5 months after surgery. He was concerned, made a post on this forum about it. I'm definitely much more red than him. Not me: At 2.5 months after surgery, this poor guy was very, very concerned. Made a dozen posts on 5 different forums. My redness is much worse than his. I understand their worries, but oh maaaan, I wish I had their level of redness right now. At their level, some make-up hides it nicely. Or even a little lie about a sunburn. But mine isn't "lingering" like a pesky little intruder that needs to be shushed away, mine is a full-on blood-soaked bandana stitched into my forehead from one side to the other. For what it's worth, I saw lots of comments that fair-skinned, blond-red hair people are more likely to get redness. But at least based on forum pictures and posts, it seems that plenty of blonds and ginger guys have no trace after 4 weeks, while some darker-skinned guys with dark hair also have redness... although none like me. The only example I found of someone close to my level of redness is an Irish patient of Dr. Lindsey mentioned on a forum post: Not me: Irish patient of Dr. Lindsey, the only person I've seen with something close to my level of redness at around 2 months It's not clear at what point after surgery this guy's red picture is from, but if it's the 6-8 week period, then it's the only guy even close to my level I've seen. And at least from the picture, he's not as red as I am. He has a more muted off-purple tone which matches much better with his hair ;-) I'm staying positive and trying to laugh it all off, but it's definitely been a blow for me. I thought I'd prepared well when I arranged 10 weeks free from public appearances. But woops, that not looking good enough now. I'd be fine if I just had the lingering pinkness other guys get, but not in my case: my redness is too distracting to get anyone to concentrate on anything coming out of my mouth. And there's no hiding my big redness. Thing is visible from anywhere. If you can see me, then you can see it. Because I didn't shave the front for the FUE, my front hair is medium-length now and can hide some of the redness at the temples, but it's not enough to hide the front recipient area. And no make-up in the world can cover up that bloody bandana I've got stretching across my head. So it looks like there's no way now that I can go out in public and I'll be cancelling work events I had scheduled from week 10 onwards. Which really sucks for life and for career. I have no idea how I'm going to disappear, but with the way I'm looking, I gotta do it. (Unfortunately, not a joke). How long you reckon I'll have to be in hiding? 3 months? 6 month? More? And that's the best case scenario, that it gradually does heal. There's also the chance that something is wrong, either with me, my skin, the transplant, or something. I've had lots of cuts and wounds before, and everything has always healed normally. I made an appointment with a dermatologist, but the earliest I could get is in two weeks. (I could have told the secretary it was an emergency and gotten in right away, but I don't think we're there yet.) (Errr... at least, I hope not). What I want to ask all of you: 1. What do you think of my situation? Hair transplant disaster? Health issue? Just bad luck that lots of time will resolve?? 2. Any similar redness situations you know of, either you personally or patients or someone else? I'd really appreciate any time-line and photos as I redraw my life plan for the future! 3. Any suggestions? A topical steroid, like hydrocortisone creme, is a possibility, 1% in a store or 2.5%+ with a prescription. But I don't know if a steroid is a good idea yet - or ever - in my case. If it's a health issue or a bigger problem, steroids could make things worse. I also know aloe vera and witch's hazel get thrown around as ideas, but there's little evidence on them and the evidence that does exist is pretty negative on their helpfulness.