seamike

This may depend in part on the surgeon's preferences. What I have been told is that it is possible to do it without shaving the recipient area, but shaving makes the surgeon's task easier. As far as I was concerned, that was good enough reason to do it, because the long term result was the only thing that really mattered to me.

This is an invaluable forum that provides vital inisghts. Unfortunately the Internet is full of abusive morons and psychopaths -- definitely a good thing to ban first, ask questions later. Thanks for everything you do here.

Congrats! Shedding can happen anywhere from a few days to a few weeks after (or in very rare cases, never). For me, it only started after about 3 weeks. YMMV. Shock loss is a different phenomenon which can happen anywhere from days to months afterward, but often never. On the other questions, I'd follow your surgeon's advice. Every surgeon has slightly different recommendations, and if you've trusted your surgeon this far, it's generally best to follow through with it by sticking to what he's recommended. Gentle shampooing when your surgeon says it's ready can be helpful for dealing with scabs/healing/reducing redness. I wouldn't wait longer than what he suggests for the first shampoo -- just be careful about how you do it and it should be fine. In general I would think the swelling should be gone by Thursday. The main piece of advice is just to relax, stay out of the sun and get plenty of rest.

/r/tressless is rubbish for hair transplants. It's dominated by groupthink that the only solution is fin + min + dermarolling, and that transplants are evil. A good place to go for misinformation.

My plan is to use any future transplants for coverage, not density, on the basis that I can always use concealer to thicken up transplanted areas if necessary. I am holding out for hair cloning before contemplating any procedures to add more density -- surely this is a technical problem which will be solved within the next decade.

I think this varies widely. I had virtually no pain at all (from my FUT) after the first few days, but I wouldn't count on that.

I had my hair transplant in early August with Dr Path at the DHT Clinic in Bangkok. Overall it was a great experience, and I am very happy with the results. I am a 35 year old who is not taking (and has never taken) fin or min. Pre-op I had initially scheduled my hair transplant for January last year, but because of personal reasons, I had to pull out and reschedule later. The clinic were extremely professional about this, and returned my deposit, no questions asked. They later happily rescheduled my operation for August. When I arrived at the clinic for the consultation the day before the procedure, Dr Path examined me and talked me through the whole procedure. He informed me that it looked like I would need fewer grafts than they had previously estimated based on my photos, so the cost would be a bit less. He also persuaded me that FUT would be preferable to FUE in this instance, because of the likelihood I would need further procedures in future. When drawing the hairline, he really took his time to get it right--initially he started with a very conservative hairline, and when I said that I preferred it somewhat lower, we went through a careful process of adjustment and discussion, so that we arrived at a hairline that was low enough for me to be happy, but high enough that it was still going to be reasonable (he suggested a dip in the centre, i.e. an 'M' shape, as a good way of achieving this--I was very happy with this, as my pre-hairloss hairline actually had this shape anyway). After deciding on the hairline and answering all my remaining questions, he sent me home with the hairline drawn on to give me one more evening to think about whether I wanted to change it at all. Here you can see my before pictures from that evening: Operation and post-op The day of the operation went very smoothly; I was given a valium and during the procedure, a foot massage by the nurses. I spent most of the procedure half-asleep. In the days following, I returned to the clinic a couple of times to be shampooed by the nurses, and for follow-ups by Dr Path, who also called me at my hotel the evening of the operation to make sure everything was going smoothly. In my case, I opted to stay in Bangkok for the full two weeks after the operation in order to have my stitches taken out at the clinic, and make sure everything was in good shape before flying. All my visits to the clinic were very positive, and everything went without a hitch. My immediate (1 day) post-op photos: 6 days post-op: Recovery After having my stitches removed, I left Bangkok. Shedding began around 3 weeks post-op, and most of the transplanted hairs did shed. Around 3.5 months, things started to grow quickly, and at 4 months, I buzzed everything down to one length and used concealer to achieve an even look (not shown in the pictures below). Since then everything has grown in nicely, and although things still look a bit sparse in direct light, I have mostly stopped using concealer. One month post-op: Two months: Three months: 3.5 months: 4 months: 5 months: 6 months: 6.5 months:

Different surgeons seem to have different advice. Mine said to aovid sun for 4 months, and that after that it's not a problem. Some seem to be much more cautious -- I've seen up to a year advised by some surgeons on their web sites. Personally I'm 6.5 months out, and although I've stopped wearing a hat on a daily basis, I do wear one if I'm going to be out in the sun for long. Better safe than sorry, really.

I'm afraid I haven't had time to put together a post yet, but will let you know when I do.

I'm now 5 months and 1 week post-op with Dr Path, still extremely happy and happier every day with my progress. Again, can't recommend him highly enough. You'll pay more for him than you will for many doctors in India, but it hardly needs to be repeated that you get what you pay for.

I've been thinking lately about having a brow lift, as one of my eyebrows droops down significantly lower than the other, and I feel it's getting worse with age. However, it seems to me that both conventional brow lifts (which involve an ear-to-ear incision along the hairline) and endoscopic brow lifts (which involve several small incisions on the scalp) might risk damaging my new frontal hair transplant, as I suppose the incisions would be made in the recipient areas. Am I right in thinking this would be a danger? Should I just try Botox or something else instead?

I've relied heavily on both Toppik and Dermmatch to conceal my hair transplant, with excellent results. Started off with Toppik only, then moved to a combination of Toppik and Dermmatch, then as the HT has grown in, I've been able to use less and less Toppik, and rely more on the Dermmatch (I find Toppik is more important for the '3D' effect, so with more actual hair there, it's less important). I think with any of these products, there's an art to applying them properly. Dermmatch is no exception -- some people struggle with it, but I find if I keep water to a minimum (just a few drops on the brush) and apply it a bit at a time, it works beautifully.

I don't really know. His instructions just say the excess heat is not conducive to growth, or something to that effect.

Dr Path: 1 month (No exercise for 7 days, light jogging/weight training OK after 2 weeks, strenuous exercise only after one month) The only restrictions he gives that last as long as 4 months are strong exposure to sunlight, and using saunas.

I don't really know, I think I did go down to a 4 (back and sides) after about 2 months, but again, it only really looked OK after a day or two of growth following that. I'm not really sure what causes the 'indentation' in the hair along the scar line, or whether it will eventually go away--it's not so much a question of the scar itself being visible (it's not, even at number 4) but something dodgy that happens with the layering of the hair along the scar line.