James81

I will also add that the patchiness is not only at the back of head it also wraps around one side of my head,I wouldn’t like to imagine how things would look had I had more grafts removed.Anyway this post not in any way meant to belittle the work/skill of the surgeon,It’s just the reality  of what it looks like ,

Hello all,

My apologies for leaving this Update so long.Its been 18 months now since HT from dr Diep,I’m not going to comment much on if I’m satisfied or not with the results,I will say it’s nice not to be obviously  receding at the front,but instead of being self conscious about my receding hair line now I just mostly am self conscious about my donor area.We all know donor depletion is a possibility in HT,So I cannot blame the surgeon for my donor area I guess.im going to leave picture below of donor area today after the shortest hair cut I’ve gotten since the procedure and picture of front transplant area,tomorrow I’m going to be getting Smp done on my donor,which I’m hoping can be of significant cosmetic improvement,I don’t have slot of picture of hair before procedure but I was between 2-3 Norwood,the red lines in picture are where I had HT.

No I definitely wouldn’t say my donor has healed 100%,huge improvements though since what it was like at 1-2 month mark, My hair stylist has to get creative when cutting back of head,But she does an awesome job,If it’s not cut a certain way it has a moth eaten appearance,I cannot get a buzz cut,which was the whole reason for going fue rather than strip,Had I gone strip I probably couldn’t get a buzz cut either,But I’d be better off financially though,,I should have made it clearer I was referring to patch of shock loss at temple that healed 100%,,as for your question  about race I’m white,

Hey shookwon,

I’m 2 weeks shy of 6 months,I will post pics then,Its getting thicker ,but not where I’d like to be just yet ,This procedure has thought me patience,I don’t obsess  about the growth,So far time has healed shockloss,I’m confident time will give me the growth I desire,

Thanks guys:)

I should rephrase that to ,at 5 months is it still possible for some transplanted hair still to be in resting phase 

Thanks guys,

ive had early growth ,and some of the transplanted hair never shed just grew,

But there is still areas that definitely had grafts,but still nothing penetrating the skin,so at almost 5 months these hairs are still in resting phase ?

Hey,

At 10 days shy of 5 months,should all hairs have sprouted?has anybody noticed new growth after 5 months?

Thanks Melvin,

i hope it can help countless people who have post surgery issues ,I had read about shock loss,but had thought the odds were on my side ,between the donor shock loss and the horrible patch that came out of nowhere,it really got me down to say the least,I must add that my barber does have to cut back of hair with caution,but in comparison to how I was 3 months ago both emotionally and cosmetically I’m in a far better place,I still comb my hair forward to cover recipient,I’m hoping in 3months I’ll be confidentially wearing my new hair line ,will keep this threat updated until final result,

Hey,

So it’s a few days shy of 4 months post fue.The patch of hairless on temple has completely grown back,the recipient area has started to grow ,this past week its grown a lot ,thin hair ,but it’s growing,as for the donor area that still bothers me,but I’ve kept it longer ,there is improvement ,but a buzz cut is still out of  the question,,but I’m happy I no longer have to wear a hat ,this whole summers been pretty grim ,But things are beginning to look promising,Im attaching pics of recipent 1 week and Today,also the donor at 5 weeks and donor Today 

7 hours ago, Speegs said:

I've been on it for 13 years, it still works. 

Good to hear ,thanks Speegs,so have you had zero sides?lately ive  noticed less morning wood,but have no problems when I need to get it up ,

12 hours ago, Djlazerblue said:

Finasteride will slow your rate of progression. Been on it 9 years but it won't maintain your hair forever you will probably need multiple surgerys and plenty of $$ 

In the 9 years you’ve been on it ,have you had multiple surgeries?

50 minutes ago, Speegs said:

It works well on crown and vertex, not so well on hairline and frontal third.

Thanks speegs,

have you maintained or had any regrowth,how long have you been using it?

I hear ya dude,that’s why I’m really hoping finasteride is beneficial for me,I really don’t want to go through another ht anytime soon,even if I were super rich it’s just such an emotional roller coaster,well I’m still waiting for growth,it’s almost 12 weeks, donor area is still not where I want to be right now,but I’ve just been keeping my hair longer and it’s grown to the point where just a little dermapatch can conceal,I’m hoping it’s not over harvested and I can get enough growth that I can eventually have a buzz cut again,that was  the reason I chose fue rather than strip,hoping by 5 months I can have something more positive to say about that,as for the temple area shock loss or alopecia areata,whatever it is/was well that’s certainly growing back,I’m seeing growth in recipient,  but nothing of any cosmetic value yet,I think you chose a great time to have procedure done,I would never do it again in summer,it’s definitely been the most reclusive summer I’ve ever had,I’ll hopefully be able to post some pics of good growth in the coming months,sending you good thoughts and hoping your procedure is everything you want it to be bro:)

Thanks Legend,

you still have your ht coming up soon?

thanks guys,

I’m just very sceptical of pharmaceuticals,I’ve taken accutane back in 2007,that’s when my hair first began to fall out,I know plenty of people will say it’s just coincidental,but I know my own body, I have 7 brothers not one of them has suffered from any signs of  hairloss,my father started to slightly recede in his sixties,none of my uncles on mothers sides have hairloss,I done a lot of internet reading about accutane and many people say that it can speed up mpb,I think without accutane I would have maybe started showing signs of mpb just like my dad at a later age,then accutane just triggered it to kick in faster,after that I’ve been pretty reluctant to trust any drug,I appreciate the replies,and I’m gonna stay on finasteride,

Sorry about layout of paragraphs above, writing this on phone something went wrong

So I’ve been taking finasteride for 3 months now ,I haven’t noticed any sexual side Effects,

but this past week I’ve noticed some slight mood changes,nothing too bad,but I seem to get 

kinda stressed a lot easier,I did notice an initial shed,but that seems to have stopped now ,

Also I seem to have stopped loosing hair in shower,which is great,I read a lot of people here 

saying they stopped due to sides,what sides are most common,I’d like to remain on the drug

but am now concerned I’m dett8 g self up for something worse down the line,I started on 1 mg 

daily,but have cut to .5 to see how that works,anybody here been on this drug for long periods of

time without problems?,any tips or insight greatly appreciated thanks

I’d be confident with that hair line,looks good,reminds me of Stephen Graham who played Al Capone in boardwalk empire ,with more hair ofcourse.

11 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

That's great that the patchy spot seems to be growing back, quite impressive that you have continued to grow the grafts that didn't shed, that's definitely rare and only a lucky select few actually do that so congrats. I look forward to seeing you updates and progress.

Warm regards-Melvin

Thanks Melvin,

Hey,

heres an update regarding patch of hairloss at my temple,looks promising, as there are lots of small hairs beginning to grow,still looks like a bald patch,but up close I can see lots of little hairs,looking forward to having coverage there again,I’ve been using rogaine 5% twice daily,and taking msm daily,

As for the patchy donor area,there’s still no way I could get a buzz cut,I’m just keeping it longer in the back,will re-evaluate at 5 months,from what I’ve read 5 months is when shockloss can show signs of improvement,assuming that it is shockloss,

My recipient area has almost no signs of redness,it’s been 10 weeks,about 40% of my recipient hairs didn’t shed,they’ve grown over an inch long ,they aren’t as thick as my native hairs,hope the ones that have shed come along shortly,any way just wanted to keep this updated,it was kinda frustrating reading posts about similar shockloss etc,but never reading the outcome,but I’m happy to see hair Beginning to grow in temple area,and am hopeful that time will significantly improve loss in donor area

hoping there’s more people with some feedback on this,thanks in advance,have a great weekend

For sure in 4 months or so you'll be feeling a lot better. Once the redness isn't an issue and the results in the recipient start to become visible (and Diep consistently delivers in that regard) you'll forget the time spent waiting. More often than not those with similar issues of shock loss patches as in your temple that grow back with time also.

Thanks man

I’ve set up thread to get informative feedback and hopefully some other folks from the community could share similar experiences,preferably positive outcomes but i would like to hear all,

What I didn’t set this thread up for was to question the surgeons skill or way in which he carries out procedure,I do realize it’s very early in recovery stage,and everybody heals in different ways,

One thing I do regret right now is not getting this procedure done in winter time,where wearing a hat(beanie) is a lot more comfortable,sure it’s true that I’m probably worrying too much,however this is my hair,so,it’s hard not to,the fact that I’ve actually went ahead and got a HT,makes it quite obvious that hair plays an important role in my life,so it’s pretty hard not to be concerned,however I also take some comfort in the fact that this is still very early days yet,anyway all of your feed back is appreciated very much so

First of all there is no way a layman can know whether or not transection occurred based on a photo. Furthermore, transection happens when a follicular unit is cut in half. The larger the punch size the less transaction, the smaller the punch size the higher chance of a follicular unit being cut in half or (transected). Any surgeon will tell you this, now I’m not saying this can’t be mitigated by a good surgeon.

 

With that said, I think you’re worrying too much, the stress will only prolong the shock loss, I’ve posted a photo of what my donor looked like 2 weeks after my surgery and what it looked like 6 months later. Keep in mind that some of the hairs on your head are still in the resting phase. Once those hairs go back in to the growth phase your hair will improve.

Thank you,

As always your reply is appreciated