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purple18

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Everything posted by purple18

  1. Sorry to quote a big image again, but I think it's good to repost it. One of the biggest things I have noticed as I go through my growth phases is the significant difference in texture/thickness between my newly growing hair and native terminal hairs. For me it's very noticeable. I think it's an often forgotten part of the regrowth process but in my experience it is very real. Also, at 4.5 months I have areas that look like 8 month results and ones that look like 3 months. It's not uniform. Might just have to wait things out.
  2. Your graft retention at 28 days is awesome. Some of the best I have seen. You might still hit the sheds but a lot of guys at this point are almost back to 0. This is likely to be an early win.
  3. I'm nearing 4 months post op. One of my temples retained and grew at least 60-70% of the grafts. It looks like about a 6-7 month result right now. The other one is just starting to sprout. In my crown I have areas of widely different growth so far. It happens. 🤷‍♂️
  4. It seems a lot of your hangup is that you feel you have some kind of genetic right to amazing hair. It comes through over and over how perfect you think your genetics, characteristics, etc. are and it's just so shocking that someone cut from such wonderful timber can be experiencing hair loss. Get over yourself man. We all have our flaws. Maybe yours is hair loss, maybe it isn't. We don't have photos so who knows? Many of the guys on this board have started companies, dated beautiful women, become fathers, saved lives, and more while being bald/balding. Even genetically awesome dudes like LeBron James, Tom Brady, and Tiger Woods have had hair transplants. Hair's nice but there's more to life than perfect density.
  5. Isn't this the case at most clinics/docs? And as you said, don't you want it this way? The shorter the time the grafts are out of the body, the better. More hands, as long as they are skilled, is a good thing. I went to a very well known clinic but not a super well known doc knowing that a lot of the work was going to be done by a team of techs no matter where I went. It was more about the whole clinic and their experience for me. I wanted a team pulling for me on surgery day, not a single surgeon trying to be a hero. Sure enough, I think there were like a dozen people working on my grafts (FUT) on my surgery day. There was very little wasted time because of it. The surgeon is the head coach, but there's a big team helping at the best clinics.
  6. There's a big difference between what your sides appear to be kept at in your actual photos and the couple "dream shots" at the end. The end shots show what looks like a 0 guard. That might even show with FUE. The HT example looks like about a 4 guard, as do your photos above. Those would accommodate a FUT scar. I was able to have my FUT scar not show at 12 days p/o with the staples freshly out at a 4 guard. I once was afraid of FUT because I thought I wore my sides and back shorter than I really did. 3-4 guard is pretty short, and that's with a fresh haircut.
  7. I agree with the person who advised to leave your frontal area alone for now. It's plenty good (when you aren't in a hair transplant forum taking closeup photos of it) and you still probably have a few months of thickening/final growth there left to go. If you do this, you can address your crown loss with a couple thousand grafts. If you want, you may be able to avoid shaving that lovely head of new hair, too. When my crown was done I had FUT and didn't shave at all, which helped keep things a bit more out of sight, out of mind during recovery.
  8. When I left the clinic after my HT they gave me a couple of the little cloth bandanna-ish caps that tie in the back - the same one surgeons often wear. I found those very useful to give me basic coverage while putting the least possible stress on the grafts. Search Scrub Cap or Surgeon's Cap.
  9. You can try minoxidil for your beard too. There's lots of examples out there of guys who got results that way. A few who went from basically nothing to a full beard.
  10. 8 weeks out and just keep telling myself to trust the process. I don't think there are any indicators they survived. I think it's a manage by exception thing...if you didn't notice something wrong, then it's probably OK. The waiting really is the hardest part of this!
  11. Are you on meds? Have they worked? Unlike most guys your age I do think you have enough hair loss to benefit from a transplant, and it appears you are a good candidate. I agree you may be naturally headed for a NW6 and since you have a good, thick donor I would consider FUT. You may need a lot of lifetime grafts (or you may not) so strip would be the most conservative method to prepare for potential future loss at a large scale. I personally would do FUE only if I was quite certain I wanted to wear my hair in a nearly shaved fashion in the future. I didn't get a HT to do that. If you manage things right from a young age you can still lose almost all your native hair on top and come out fine.
  12. What kind of helmet is it? 11 days is probably fine but might be cutting it a little close. I think it matters some how tight the helmet is and how much it rubs when coming on/off, and how often you do that. Does it get sweaty under there?
  13. This is what I would do. There's lots of qualified surgeons who can do a great job that can get you in sooner than that. Find a surgeon who has a time that works better for you. Having a low stress recovery period where you can take great care of your fresh grafts and feel socially and physically comfortable probably means more than having famous name surgeon XYZ that was talked about in an Internet forum. When I suggested you could work the next day, I certainly didn't recommend it. I'm saying you could do a desk job and not get seriously ill or destroy your transplant. You would still stick out like a surgery patient to all your co-workers and probably be quite fatigued or under the influence of meds. Your hair will be all gunked up or shaved off and you will likely have a visible wound. If you can work from home from a bed or desk it's doable but still not ideal. Don't go to the office the day after surgery. They also ought to refund your deposit if you are canceling over 5 months before your surgery date. I would consider that pretty nasty to keep if they are that far out and fill that easy.
  14. At this point by far the most rational choice is to let it go, and let it grow. This many days out you aren't getting that many grafts out without a lot of hassle, cost, and perhaps scarring or complications in the most visible part of your hair. Enjoy having a lot of hair. I think the density will be OK. The hairline seems like it might be a little low but wait for it to grow in. You may like it then. It seems you are pretty full in the top and back so having a low hairline would fit. If not, there's still options for hair removal, or to add density later on if that doesn't match your expectations. Don't go whacking grafts because you are a mm or two low in the hairline.
  15. If I were you I would let it go for now. Just stick with meds and if it really bugs you, do a little SMP. I don't think what you are showing in these photos warrants another HT, especially if you may have donor availability issues.
  16. You probably could at a sedentary, clean job. I wouldn't want to try it with any physical activity or something where you could get dirty/infected. With FUT you will have staples and a wound back there for 10-14 days, though mine were much easier to cover up immediately after surgery than I thought. You obviously have time to grow out and prepare for that part. Can you at least get a Friday appointment? Even having those extra couple days to get through the most acute part of the process will have you safer and looking much closer to "normal" to others.
  17. Actually, this has been studied and tried. It worked a little in some people, but didn't really do anything conclusive. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022534717352175 But seriously. Either I came out the other side on a side effect window on Fin, or this Minox has solved all my problems with Fin. It's the only variable I changed.
  18. I recently had a HT about 6 weeks back, and at that time began using Finasteride. Was on no hairloss drugs prior. I was having some major sexual sides initially - felt like my penis was totally dead. I then started to use Minoxidil about 4 weeks post HT. Once I began to use minoxidil, I noticed that the sexual side effects I attributed to Finasteride ceased, and the past couple weeks I have had even more erectile activity than prior to beginning all of this. Minoxidil's a vasodilator, so it makes logical sense. Why is all the talk on this pointing in the direction of ED, but I'm getting a boost? Experiences?
  19. I'm not sure who you are talking about, but I'm not this person come back from the banned. Just a guy who recently had a HT and posted a couple legit questions and shared some research he did on a woefully understudied topic. THC is a vasodilator. Just like Minoxidil is. That makes it fundamentally different from nicotine, a notable vasoconstrictor. Many folks hear "smoking" and consider it the same. Sorry for using an old thread to do it, I guess. 🤷‍♂️
  20. I did a lot of research on this prior to HT. My understanding is that the main reason smoking tobacco is contraindicated for HT or basically any type of surgery is because nicotine is a vasoconstrictor. This means it constricts the veins, raises blood pressure, and can cause less blood supply. It’s why smoking is associated with heart disease and high blood pressure. It’s known that nicotine is bad for wound healing which needs blood flow to be optimal. Cannabis/THC is generally understood to be a vasodilator. This means it opens the blood vessels, increases blood supply, and lowers blood pressure. It’s why THC can be a wonderful medication for glaucoma, for instance, as it can reduce intraocular pressure. In theory, this may be good for newly placed grafts. It’s at least probably not as bad as nicotine, particularly if vaped or eaten. My understanding is that the act of lighting any plant on fire isn’t really the thing here, it’s the blood flow effects of the active ingredients.
  21. Wearing a dark black bandanna whenever I’m in the water to avoid any rays penetrating to 10-20 meters depth (scuba not spending time on surface swimming), but also not pull a tight cap. The instant I exit the water, another thick baseball cap (Go Cubs Go) covers the bandanna. So I’m double layered on the recipient which was 90% in my crown.
  22. Thanks guys. Also followed up with my surgeon (at 4 am here in the Philippines) who was also not concerned. The next day’s 4 dives left a lot of little shed hairs in my cap but now know that a very tiny white bulb at the end isn’t the root part of the hair required for regrowth. Knowing this none of the hairs I saw in the cap yesterday concerned me at all. Recipient area is now absurdly white while the rest of me is rocking a nice tan. Which was the goal for now! Maybe the 4 hours a day of gentle saltwater immersion will do me a little good? We’ll see! I’ll sure miss it during the American winter ahead.
  23. I’m 20 days post op and shedding. I know this to be normal. When the hairs shed, many seem to have a very slightly thicker area at the end of them. Is this the root/follicle??? I don’t feel pain or see any blood, I’m just freaked out that seeing a tiny thicker area at the bottom of the hair means I’m losing grafts, even 3 weeks out. I’ve been doing some saltwater scuba diving which my doc said was OK to do at this point. I’ve added an example. This one is more pronounced...some have this, others less so, others not.
  24. I went with Dr. David Josephitis of Shapiro Medical Group in Minnesota. Photos are 19 days p/o under bright lights after my first post-op ocean scuba dive. (Hat on religiously before and after I go underwater to protect from sun) It looked basically like this when I got a back-and-sides trim only a day after the staples came out (day 11). I decided to book my operation sort of last minute so I was worried I didn't prepare enough by growing out the donor beforehand. Was worried I was going to have a big smiley back there for awhile. It didn't seem to matter. I can feel little hairs near where the scar is starting to grow, either from shaving near the area or the closure method, not sure. Will likely give it another small boost when that's mature. I still am sweating if the 2675 grafts were enough to fix the crop circle that is my vertex/crown (fingers crossed) but feeling very positive about how my donor area looks. This is around the length I wore it before the op and plan to afterwards. The only (temporary) regret I have about choosing FUT is that I kinda wish I could buzz it for the regrowth phase and let my crown match the surrounding areas. It's gonna look funny as hell for a while. 🤷‍♂️
  25. I'm only 2 1/2 weeks post-op so I don't feel compelled at all to post a review or an outcome yet, but I wanted to leave one note here for guys debating FUE and FUT. I was nervous as heck about the FUT scar but went for it for superior donor availability and survivability. I don't know what the future may hold, or how my crown/hairline will wind up but so far the FUT scar issue has been like a kitten wrapped in blankets of candy for me. At 10 days I had my staples out. At 11 days I got a haircut on just the back and sides to prepare for my "ugly duckling" vacation. The journey of many hats Prior to FUT I had my donor area cut to a #4 guard as typical, and had grown out for about 3-4 weeks. Even just a couple days post-op and with staples in this was enough for 95% coverage. Told my stylist exactly where my strip scar was and what I had done. She faded my sides and the nape of my neck, leaving it as-is around my strip scar. Almost no show even relatively early and with almost no regrowth around the scar yet. I'm sure things will continue to improve. I may still have 99 problems with this but a scar ain't one.
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