txtransplant

Doesnt H&W mostly do FUT? AKA strip? If that's the case...huge mistake for you.

yep...nothing here that can't be fixed fairly simply and will get better from here. That's the reality and that isn't so bad. And don't ask GF about hair too much. I guarantee she is tired of it..lol. My ex wife and I are still close. She just rolls her eyes and is sick of me asking her opnions on it.

IDK. He for sure did harvest from the safe zone...so no worries there. I can't tell if he shaved the donor area a bit closer to the surrounding hair or not. My surgeon did mine by a mm or so. I didn't realize it for a few weeks. The I finally realized that that MM was happening. It almost went away after I clipped it to the same length after a few weeks. But the are didn't get any shock loss and still seemed a little slower to really kick back into growing for a few weeks. I am not sure I would say overharvested. He took from a decent sized area...but maybe to me that size area should be able to do the number of grafts you got. I would agree that he should have been more artistic an tapered the density of the harvesting so there would not be such a marked line. Honestly, If you cover the top border with your finger I could barely notice. Bet in another week not at all noticeable. My guess is you have a bit of shock loss too. Again....breathe. It will look better back there with a little time. That is 10000% a fact. If the hair get's a tad longer and evenly cut....fixed. Even if nothing has shock lossed. If some have shock lossed....even better then. And let's face it. We all kind of agree you will need a touch up either way. So then when the time comes for that....have them taper the harvest so there is not such a defined line. Your Dr was in the safe zone and there appears to be room to do a tapered harvest in back. So, don't stress about it. As another poster said. You are probably great at lots of things in life. Chiling out and kicking back with a beer laughing your way through the ugly duckling stage....not really your strong suit. But the back is a legitimate concern and question. But it for sure will get better and would just get fixed anyway even worst case. But in the meanwhile. grow it about another cm and 1/2 in the back and don't worry about it for now.

About splitting grafts. Lots of surgeons including mine mine consider splinting multi hair grafts to be a bad idea. So, sometimes surgeons (in this case techs) just do the best they can for their patient with what that have. Lot's of mediocre results here on this thread. Not horrible...no failures. But not amazing, that's for sure. I guess results are a strong word....most of this is not final results. Sit back and wait til a year and assess what is the issue. Could be think hair, not enough grafts, bad work, patient continuing to bald.

Well, the red square really looks like the worst spot and if you look to the either side of it, while I am not counting, it looks like low 40's to me. I think low 40's is pretty good for where you are planting in bald areas on a first procedure.

No, your hairline is perfect. Don't mess with it. It looks good and age perfect for your age. Why mess with it? Lowering it will not add anything to your looks from where it is. There are practical reasons mentioned not to lower it. But from just a cosmetic point of view I don't see any reason to lower it either. it's fine.

You are only hearing what you want to hear man to feed your anxiety. Trust me, I have a touch of anxiety and can recognize it in how you are thinking on this...or overthinking. It looks like it is healing great and I said that. Of course you are going to have imperfect skin where it has just been cut a few days ago. Give your body time to heal. So yes, everything looks good and professionally done implant wise. Looks like good work other than the not looking like doing enough grafts to fill the area. But the surgical work and healing looks better than average actually. Honestly, I didn't shave my new hairline the first week...lol, so can't say if it looked like yours because at this stage me and everyone else has hairs sticking out of our pits. You have created a new way to view week old transplanted areas and sorry to say we just can't compare apples to peaches here. But yeah, looks good to me.

Hey man. You are loosing it..lol. Obsessing while the woulds are still fresh and shaving and such isn't really normal. Catch yourself before you really loose it. I am not kidding. But PSA aside, looks to be healing really well. I had that chicken skin look on my temples too for a while after surgery. Think maybe 3 months. On one side it is still slightly visible if I use a magnifying mirror. But it's fine. At the end of the day I always wanted the option of shaving my head if hair loss got so bad HT couldn't fix it. I am not sure even with a well done FUE that will ever be an option now. Buzzed down to a few mm would probably work though. As you will see posted 1000000 times here. There i no such thing as scarless surgery.

Good post. A few things to consider. Pics are deceiving. One patient or Dr. might take honest pictures, but in a light and angle that looks great. Another patient may have had a better result, but take pics that show the weaknesses. I know with my HT I can take honest pics that make my hair look full and great and in other pics I can show it's faults today a 5 months and looks terrible. That said look REALLY carefully at lots of results. I have come to the conclusion that pretty much any clinic that does HT ONLY and does it full time with a few years of experience will be posted about on here at least occasionally. And I have also concluded that actual HT techniques are fairly basic and most competent surgeons can provide good results on transplant regrowth. Therefore any doc you see discussed much on here is good. But some have very different senses of style. Some dense pack young hairlines, some fill just enough. They all have a ascetic they work towards. Find one who's eye matches yours. Turkey is a problem. Not because amazing work doesn't often come out of there. But they are technicians doing the work and the Dr. is basically managing the practice. So with most higher end operations where the Dr. does nearly all the work you know who actually has been producing the results they advertise. In Turkey, you have to hope the techs you get are great and it is a bit more of a crap shoot. A great value, but a little riskier. So having said that, if money were no option I would grab any of the top dozen or so practices where the Dr. does all the extractions himself and most of the implanting. You know what you are getting.....rather than hoping the Dr. has hired a good tech for your procedure. If money were no object I would have maybe Gabel do my front 1/2 to a nice density and still leave a bit in reserve. Then let Dr U in California fill the crown in with some body hair and never have to worry abut going bald. I was a NW5 and probably will be a 6. Reality is someone like me can't have a full head of hair with just the 6000 fu's in my donor area. But with unlimited funds. Any good FUE doc to do the front...and not a technician driven procedure. Then Dr U to work his magic on the crown. $50,000 for a full head of hair! Or go to turkey and "probably" get almost as good a job on the front and some filling in on the crown with body hair mixed in for under $10,000usd.

1800 is my best guess looking at it. But you will know more around month 8 and after you talk to a good doctor. Thinner temples and that natural transition in the front center will look fine and natural and I think something you will learn to like . You want to find the best plan that takes in all options. . HT is to restore some hair. Not to give you dreamy hair. But enough to make you not bald. Yes, I am sure it will cost you a bit test punching a few grafts. But a few months from now.....maybe 8, you will know how your scalp/forehead healed if you shave a small spot and that will tell you pretty much what your choices are moving forward. In the meanwhile, get used to wearing your hair forward and it will look fine like that so not too worry.

Quite obsessing. That's what you are doing weather it seems rational or not to you. To us here who are not emotionally invested in it or looking at a strange look on our head this is what I see. Your hairline, the transplanted area anyhow is about twice as deep as it should have been give your age, facial structure, feelings and Density. Had they make it half as deep and by default, twice as dense, you would have had a really nice transplant. You are correct that the density is not natural and won't look good when fully grown in. If you want that hairline you will fully twice the density you have now. I will tell you something you may not want to hear. The implanted area on many many people doesn't heal as flawlessly as nothing even happened. Maybe you will get lucky and heel so flawlessly your forehead skin in the transplanted area looks virgin. But there is a very good chance it will be slightly different looking. Works fine even if there is think hair covering it. But it is surgery and not completely scarless often times. I don't see terrible work here from a functional point of view. You ultimately decided on your own hairline and that is more on you than the Dr. But he should have pushed you to go for a higher hairline. None of us were there so we will never know what actually transpired when that was decided. But what is done is done and you don't have a bad hairline now. You truly don't. Just not an ideal one considering all the factors. Moving forward; 1) Let it grow for 7-8 months. You really have no option there for at least a few months as the skin heels. Maybe after a while you can shave it. But if you wear your hair pushed forward the surgery you got will look fine and even with thin density won't look like a comb over. If that's a look you can dig, you are all set and take a year to digest what to do next. 2)Have hairline moved back. You would have to have a few .7mm punch tests done by a good doc to see if removing the hairs on your forehead is feasible. If after a few months there is ZERO scarring maybe you can have the first 1.5cm of hair removed and re-implanted farther back. I think this is unlikely. You would need perfect healing from this surgery to have a flawless forehead and then have no scaring with the graft removal. Other options are just killing the follicles by laser, electric or plucking for ages. 3)Have a 2nd transplant and fill in this new hairline to a respectable density. The most sure bet I think in having a good result. You don't need to fill right up to the front edge. With it low, a gentle transition from front edge to thicker would be appropriate and best. Maybe 1800 grafts would suffice. Then you would possibly still have enough in reserve to fill if you loose more hair. And that is the real risk here! Your new hairline is OK. Not unnatural, though you are not used to it yet. But it isn't unnatural. I just posted on someone here who had a HT with an already forward hairine and went way too low...looked awful and unnatural. You don't have that at all. You just need to get used to it and PRAY you don't loose a lot of hair over the next lifetime. At the end of the day what is is what is.. You decided on this hairline, you may very well have some minor scarring that might look odd if you try and remove all the new hair. You are not seeing your new hairline from a unemotional point of view. It really isn't bad, even if not 100% ideal. Best bet is to leave it for a year. Then fill in starting back about 1cm from the new hairline till it blends in with the old hairline on the top. Temple points look okay density wise. Yeah, it sucks....had the doc and you decided to do this less aggressive with that same number of grafts you would be in a great place as the workmanship is passable, but the artistry is not too good. As for the back. Yeah, he took too much from a small area with pretty specific boundaries. But again, wouldn't stress about it as I think when your hair get's to about 1/2 long back there it will be impossible to see. Overall it isn't anything to panic over. Some guys would love your hairline and be super excited..and looking forward to the 2nd fill in. You know what you want. But as a outisider who has never see your face before. You are just a guy who got a little to aggressive hairline, but not awful. The more aggressive side of acceptable in fact. No human being would look at your hair and think the low hairline looked weird. But it will need more grafts to look natural.

I had almost no shedding on the temple points. Seems pretty common to not shed as much there. My theory is there is more blood flow in that area. Makes sense since I have read repeatedly that the back of the head is slower to regrow grafted hairs than the front because of less blood flow.

You may want to PM the fellow that info and delete that info for everyone to see. I would be affraid with the internet now all sorts might want to take advantage of him. Results or not, he is a fine man.

Oh wow. I just looked back at the first page. This makes more sense now. OP wanted a lowered hairline (unnaturally low) and so hairs were implanted into a basically completely bald area. Ethical doctors really should have the best in mind for their patients and this is a bad bad go here. Dr. E should NEVER have lowered this hairline like that even if it is what the client wanted. Couple that with unrealistic expectations either promised by the Dr. or thought by the patient...I am not sure. Your hairline should be about the same distance from your the center of your eyebrows to the tip of the nose. How on Earth is any Dr. supposed to be able to fill behind that hairline if the patent goes bald? It will be a weird halo of hair across the middle of his forehead! You are just never going to get a natural thick youthful hairline over bald. I mean I guess you can come close burning through an entire donor supply....maybe then it could work. But the patient should have been treated better and his future considered more than a big check for the Dr. You got a good transplant and the hairs look about right for the number of implants. They look healthy and you are on track for a successful HT. Unfortunately HT is surgery and it is to repair real hair loss. It is not a magic wand to create extreme hairlines where they don't belong for both aesthetic and for ethical reasons. The OP wants to know what is going on and that is the truth. He had a great head of hair...then decided to have something drastic done that is really designed to give bald guys some passable version of hair. Now that he has bald guy repaired looking hair across the middle of his forehead he is unhappy. No kidding! Park a Nissan next to a a bicycle it looks like a decent car. Park that Nissan next to a Porsche and suddenly it doesn't look so good. There is a lot wrong here. But if the OP is happy with the low hairline and I hope he is..then what needs to happen is he needs another 2000 grafts to get the density he needs to be whole again and repair this. Start the new implants about 3-4mm behind the new hairline and fade it into the old hairline. Then pray to your heart out that your natural hairline doesn't move back! That is the truth. This was a modest success from a technical standpoint.

I used Nader in Mexico. As you can see, results can look very different in different light and angles for me. Looking at my pics today I think I have about 1/2 of my transplanted hairs growing. I really hope more grow and the ones that stayed are thin. My Dr. said my hair diameter was a bit thicker than average and looking at the hair that is growing...looks pretty thin so hope they thicken.

So I took some better 4 month pics. I have my hair sticking straight up. I never wear it that way. But it lets a ton of light in and these pics are in the worst possible light. In other words, so you can see the actual clinical situation. We are nowhere near where I wan't to be and I have realistic expectations. But I think they look pretty good for 4 months considering how bad the front 1/3 had been. The middle pic in the red shirt and the last one in the above post are more accurate representations of how I look in normal bright indoor light during the day and night. I can now see in pics that it looks like maybe 1/2??? of the implanted grafts are growing and never fell out. Guess will just have to wait and see what happens. On the flip side, photos here are tricky. This is me today standing by the window on a sunny day with the miniblinds closed. You can see it looks okay when combed forward and down how you might meet and view me in daily life. I would not call it a comb over as my hair is barely over an inch long.

Would love to see a results pic if possible. We had the exact same balding pattern before and pretty close amount of grafts and new hairline. Plus my results looked similar to yours at the last pics. So really curious as I am in month 4 and would love to see how it turned out after a year or so. Thanks

Yeah, pics are not the best for what you are asking. I guess it doesn't matter now as he is going to fix you up anyhow. But from what I can see you got "okay" results. If I read right, you got around 40 grafts per cm2. With your microns, I feel it should look better than it does. As noted, big improvement already. Even if you had 10000000 grafts put in you will only see a smaller improvement than what has been accomplished so far. My guess is you had lots of mini hairs about to check out and many never came back after shock loss. But assuming you kept some I would say you look like 34cm2 implanted over a bald area. So best guess is you got about 80% regrowth to be honest and that is just a guess. I can only assume another 1000 thrown in just the right places will get you to the next lever where it looks good most of the time.

You want twice the density you have. You are not going to see that. Sorry. You likely will see a little improvement though. Looks like about 42 grafts per cm2 and not sure what the implanted density was. But NOBODY should be getting 80 grafts per cm2 and that seems to be what you wish you had here. I suppose you could get closer to that in a 2nd procedure. Quite frankly, you are not going to get the density you want and I know you want honesty here and not so much a pep talk. See what happens in the next 6 months and you may get some improvement...I am sure you will get some indeed. But maybe you are better off embracing what you have to work with and not fight the tide for the exact hairstyle you like and find one that works with what you have then. Getting surgery to have a certain hairstyle is kind of silly if it turns out you can wear your hair in another nice cut that works perfect with your locks. I do agree it would look better about 25% more dense and you might get there. But it will not be hair model thick. This is just my onion looking at 100's of HT's here. I would have more hope for sure if you had 60 grafts per cm2....but I don't think Dr. E implanted that density here quickly looking over the thread. If you are obsessing over it...do the math and see where you are in this. If you got 60per cm 2 then expect 55 to eventually grow. If you got 48 then sarcastically you pretty much have seen what will sprout and just hope the individual hairs get thicker, but they look mature already. I had low 40's implanted averaging 2 hairs per graft. I tried my best to draw a 1cm square on my scalp and count the grafts. Got low 30's every count and to be honest, that is what mine looks like, so no surprise! I have some hope to get to 42ish and absolutely need it to look good. But my gut tells me I won't see that. I am in my early 40's and probably am okay with a decent, even if a bit thin hairline. That looks very natural on a man my age and to me close to as good as a teenage thick hairline. But I will probably need another procedure to get there. Try and find the right balance of what looks natural now and in the future. What might be settling now, could be a blessing later.

Yes. I mean it's just hair and life goes on. I have the same reserve debate. I had 3500 grafts. I might at best have 3000 left if I really push it. Tempting to have a pretty full head of hair again instead of just keeping it in the bank. But I would much rather have natural looking hair than a real problem with big gaps and no reserves to fill in with. I read these posts here and some of these younger guys who have 3-4k grafts done dense in the front are really going to look idiotic and be in a world of hurt in 20 years if cloning doesn't become a reality. Always that balance of live for the day or slow and steady. I guess I should just be happy that I have enough hair now that will frame my face through old age and enough reserves to keep it presentable forever as long as I don't mind a bald spot in the back. For sure diminishing returns as we go deeper. As of now we aren't bald guys and have a nice look. But with a little effort still pretty presentable. That's not so bad.

Amazing result for 2300 grafts! Also a valuable lesson in how putting the density in the front matter a lot. You can see from the top view it is a bit see through on top. But who looks at someone directly overhead. We all have limited resources be it grafts or money. Putting the effort into that part people see talking to us is what matters most. I am no expert. But typically a safe average is about 6500 grafts are available on an average patient. This man looks pretty average in the regard so I would say he can have another 2-3000 grafts and still be safe. If it were me, I would have about another 2000 done to finish this already nice work. But I think it is okay as it is. But with such a think hairline it can look unnatural if it isn't done artistically and well.

I am in kind of the same boat. Early growth here too. I think a lot more than 1/2 of my implanted hairs grew from day 1. But the downside is I really don't see much happening new. Some hairs look thin and likely will thicken up on my head. But I kind of feel in my gut I am already seeing most of what the results will be and am on the same schedule as you. I did have some shedding of hairs after the first month. But not a large percent. I am guessing a few hundred hairs shed. Maybe those will come back.....maybe not. But looking at your implants and what I see now I agree that most of what was implanted has grown and will possibly get thicker. But you probably will only see a small increase in new hairs and density by what I see here and from researching many stories. You have a fairly aggressive hairline and that is a lot of area to cover with density. Mind you I don't think you have a bad result. It is really a very nice change and maybe things will really shape up in that magic 7 month time you see a lot. But I really think I see most of what you had implanted growing already. If you had a more widows peak hairline I would say get another 1000 done and you would be set. But 1000 across that wide flat hairline would not go far. Assuming you are seeing 80% of your final result I think I would either get the front center area filled in with 1000 and leave the temple areas thin. That would look very natural now and as you age and give a nice result if you wanted more improvement. Be super careful as you want to keep some reserves so if you loos more you don't end up with bald gaps in weird places on the sides. But for sure it looks decent now and big improvement. No real reason to be stressed and I think you can relax and just see what happens over the next few months.

Excellent result

This is a terrific post. Thanks for great pics. You want honest thoughts. I love how you actually measured. I did a ton of research into HT and density before my transplant. Very few people have actual results with final density counts so it is more than math. Looking at your pics I would have said it looked like high 40's per cm2. Your hair looks about the same caliber as mine. My research also is in line with yours. Some docs claim 95% regrowth rate in good patients. It is both Dr. and patient dependent. But my understanding is about high 80's to low 90s% are what we can realistically aim for in good transplants. Probably if you averaged out outcomes by the top 100 surgeons you would see some bad cases drop that average. But it is what it is. So your results are PERFECTLY in line with what you should expect at this stage and you should be happy. No opinion. Looks great. Not hair model flawless, but leave well enough alone and move on with a nice hairline that nobody would ever think twice about in real life. We all get a bit obsessive on it, so outside opinions are helpful. Can you improve it...sure. But you really have a good hairline now and looks natural in the pics. If it were a little thinner then I might agree with a touch up. But I think you are getting into diminishing returns here and at your age, you may actually loose more over time and just address it then if you have more work done. Completely unnecessary. And ignore the silly posts here. I think some people have unrealistic ideas and see too many ideally lit and styled results. You made a solid choice in DR for your needs and got solid results. You came out a winner...be happy.