Rolandas

Month 10

Very late update, but it's worth mentioning.

While transplanted hair grows nicely, I've noticed increased shedding for the last few months.
Most of the time they're thin, miniaturised-like hair, but sometimes they look really strong, transplanted-like hair.

Of course at first I wasn't bothered as I know this is due to hair growth cycles of native hair as I've started oral minoxidil almost a year ago (it's about time for them to shed after all!), but since it was happening for a few months, even I of all people started slowly getting worried.
In terms of thicker hair that shed it's likely due to, again, hair growth cycles, or rather de-synchronisation of the anagen phase, since we know all transplanted hair are forced to go into the same anagen phase after the Transplant, so some of them usually go back to their original cycles at about 10-15 months after the transplant.

Anyways, I've discussed this in more detail in this video alongside some pictures and videos 

It really depends on your hair loss. If it's NW3 or so and there's no more hair loss in the family, then I don't see why would you need more than 1 surgery if its done well.

Ofc there's no 100% survival even in best hands, hence you might need a 2nd one just to fill in weak spots If you're not 100% happy.

Finasteride doesn't necessarily stop completely your hair loss and you will likely recede further, albeit much slower. This will of course depend on your individual hair loss severity.

IMO Dr. Reddy is top notch alongside Dr. Ball (he is a bit more conservative though)

Apologies for just dropping a link, but it's much easier to do so as I've put quite a few doctors (mostly UK) who can prescribe OM, their price etc. 

Really nice result. Proper implantation angles.

How do you feel, are you tempted for more work since you know what to expect? haha

Month 9

In this update I've ONLY focused on close-ups under lots of natural light, dry hair, wet hair, tried different hair styles with some product - ALL at the same place with the same light condition, so you can see it ALL  

7 minutes ago, Curious25 said:

Would you consider going 5mg daily oral minoxidil? 
 

I think what you are experiencing with the crown is;

1) at longer lengths, your natural whorl being more noticeable than shorter lengths (this is very common due to the length and weight of longer hair, pulling it in the various directions a whorl produces, opening up more reflection of light against the scalp) 

2) like you mention, other surrounding areas now denser than before , creating a more extreme contrast to what you were used to before hand. 
 

Needless to say you’re looking great, and I continue to enjoy catching up on your videos.  

 

Thanks mate!

Indeed one of the options on the table is increasing OM to 5mg/day. According to all evidence I've seen it's much more superior than 2.5mg, but also comes with more potential sides, which is something I'm not 100% comfortable with. Possibly more long term positive data on 5mg would convince me, but I haven't seen it as of yet.

Another option is ofc transplant. It would be guaranteed result, but I don't think I'd do only crown, probably would get "hair greed" and do more work like lowering temples/adding density into temple peaks etc.

We shall see I guess 😅

Month 8

Hi Peeps! It's been a while I've updated my thread! O_o

The other day I was feeling like I have a "second chance" in life with my hair. First time around I screw up by not treating my hair loss. Now I've got 2 transplants and it looks great!

Crown that wasn't touched looks thinner and thinner the more hair I have in other areas (and growing my hair longer on the sides), so I'm torn on what to do. It doesn't really bother me, but the more I look at it, the more I think "it could have been better!".

Video as always going into more detail + usual close-ups.

HLC

On 1/6/2022 at 5:09 AM, JoeMan said:

I guess I'm still learning. Im not sure if I need temple fill or temple points? Or maybe thats the same thing? 

Maybe this is less complicated? Just looking to add a few hairs around the blue arrow to make a more natural curve if that makes sense. 

As you can see i have some loss high in the temple area.

If I were you I would definitely ask to put 100 or so grafts in temple peaks just to give more structure. 
Yours look exactly like mine did and just with few hundred grafts it looks already great.




Surely few grafts are a bit thicker than the others but it doesn't really stand out (don't mind the length, I'm growing them out, so obviously transplanted ones are growing a bit faster). It also looks very natural as implantation angles are great and singles are picked well. 

2 minutes ago, RandoBrando517 said:

What size punch did you get? Change the hairstyle bruh 

0.8mm & 0.85mm

Hairstyle - Lol, as I said in the video, I did a high skin fade only to expose scars, so I can compare it down the line.

no, I'm happy the way it is. I'm doing it not for myself, but mainly as an experiment. If this will turn out positively, a lot of people could greatly benefit from it.

16 hours ago, Gatsby said:

Scars continue to improve long after 12 months. I have scars that I have had from two poor hair transplants and repair work for the past 37 years! Over time they do change and as I said improve.

After my 1st transplant I felt like my scars got a bit worse 12 months in, than they were 6 months after the surgery. Essentially they reduced their pigment and became a bit more obvious.

Yeah indeed i like this length on top and shorter at the sides. Will possibly have something like this guy in the picture 😁

55 minutes ago, Curious25 said:

In your video you mentioned that you won't be shaving your hair this short on the back and sides in future because you feel the style doesn't suit you - IMO this is the best look you have had out of all the times I have seen you in vids and pics. You're rocking it 

I need some bulk at the top approaching lateral humps, to create a bit "boxy" look as my head shape is like an egg.

Attached example. Surely it won't be perfect, but it's better than just pure high skin fade.

55 minutes ago, JDEE0 said:

I think it's worth a go, honestly I wouldn't expect too much from it, but it might help. Who knows, it might help a lot.

As a side note, how long do you think it took for the scars to reach their current hypo-pigmented state in your case? I'm going to shave/fade my donor area in the next week or two (at 4-5 weeks post surgery) to get an idea of how the scarring looks, and your case made me wonder how close whatever it looks like will be to the final outcome once all is said and done.

I know that it takes longer, up to or even over a year, for a scar to generally heal to it's final form, but I was just wondering if you think yours probably were as white in the following months after your first HT as they were when you shaved over a year later for your second?

 

In the first few months scars definitely were a bit pink. It definitely takes a long time. At 6 months you will have a good general idea. Possibly it's 80-90% of its "final form".

I have started an experiment on my channel on my 6500+ fue scars. They have almost no pigment, very white and stand out quite a lot when the hair is shaven very closely to the skin.

I was thinking, since Microneedling has been used for variety of scars to disguise them, I was wondering if it's even possible for FUE scars.
I couldn't find proper info on this, so obviously decided to do it myself.

Current regiment:

First month
- Dr. Pen M8, MAX speed, 16 needle cartridge, 1mm needle length, 1 x two weeks

Second and following months
- Dr. Pen M8 MAX speed, 16 needle cartridge, 1.5mm needle length, 1 x every week

Oh, I did a high skin fade to see the scars properly and so we will be able to compare them 6 months down the line where I will do it again.

Let me know what do you think!

Month 6

It's one week over 6 months and so far I feel like it's the end game for me. Truly can't see how much better it can get (ironically I'm the one always saying to others full results to be expected at about month 10-12).

In short - GOD DAMN THIS LOOKS GOOD! Just like I predicted few months ago, I expect very nice result combining about 2000 grafts into mid scalp and top of the crown alongisde oral minoxidil.

Also had some fun styling my hair and it looks pretty good.

You might noticed my hair is very short in the donor. I did a high skin fade 7 days ago to expose all scars as I'm running an experiment on my channel.

In the video I'm showing my result in various light conditions with Dry | Wet | Styled hair as well as good close-ups (as usual).

1 hour ago, asterix0 said:

@Rolandas congratulations man you've come a long way, enjoy that beautiful mane 🤠

No doubt finasteride strengthened your donor and recipient, helped to boost the oral minoxidil, your case is the perfect example of doing the trifecta 

1) Getting on meds and staying consistent

2) Picking an excellent surgeon who uses grafts wisely

3) Having realistic goals, not going for a low Norwood 0 lego man hairline, but a natural one where no one would suspect you had a transplant, and yours looks 100% undetectable.

Thanks!

Yep I consider myself doing all the right steps when approaching hair restoration. Sadly can't say the same about managing hair loss at an earlier stage 😅

31 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

The perfect haircut for the perfect head of hair! You are looking great Rolandos. You're not even 6 months post op from the second surgery! How are you tolerating the finasteride and are you taking anything else? All the best and thanks for sharing!

Thanks mate! Really happy how it looks after the haircut 😁

I'm on Fin 1mg/day for over 2 years now with no issues that I know of. I'm also using Oral Minoxidil (started 1 weeks after 2nd transplant), currently on 2.5mg/day.

Haircut + Wet Hair

This is another aspect I've been enjoying sharing after my last year - how my donor area looks like with various hair lenghts as well as how my recipient area looks when wet, so YOU know what to expect in various situations in life after your hair transplant.

In general, these extra 700 grafts in the frontal 1/3 did the trick and it looks a mile better already. Even though my hair caliber is very thin (50 microns), it still looks great even with wet hair. Mid scalp and crown of course have slightly lower density (rightly so, after all It's a Hair Transplant - illusion of density), but overall I'm really happy as I don't need to worry about wind, rain or going swimming.

Month 5

So I've missed a couple of updates in here... I apologize! Seems like we will have to jump from Month 3.5, to Month 5!

To be honest it feels like I've got a full result already. This time I've been an extreme early grower. I would atribute it mainly to Oral Minoxidil. Right now at 5 months I've got full head of hair (except that small part of the thinning crown that wasn't touched with surgery... yet...).

I've noticed lots of hair started popping through at month 3-3.5. That's where the magic happened. Of course I still had lots of miniaturised hair in mid scalp that got a great boost from Oral Minoxidil too.

Here's an overview of my 5 Months in video format.

BTW If you wish to see more of me, I'm posting many more videos on my channel where I'm more active (I wish I could have more than 24 hours a day to be active everywhere! 😃)

1 hour ago, mtb said:

Curious why you're encouraging him to do FUT first? Even in the world of Zarev, Ferreria, Cuoto, and Eugenix? I'm looking to gain more knowledge. What is your perspective as someone who has done a significant FUE procedure?

You have always keep in mind, most amazing "fue megasessions" are done on NOT average donor. An average patient won't be able to get huge amount of grafts.
FUT on another hand can be superior, especially for someone with average donor. It all depends on the donor and hair loss area.

Even in my case, after taking 6500 grafts via FUE I still think future FUT would be an option to get as many grafts as possible should I need.

3.5 Months

Hey guys, I apologise for posting so infrequently!

Here's my latest 3.5 month update on my 2nd Hair Transplant.

- It appears I've got finally some new transplanted growht happening, not much, but it's a beginning

- Temple peaks are getting into shape

- Mid scalp & Crown is filling in nicely (although it's mainly due to oral minoxidil). But overall I'm very confident going through my daily life without any concealer

- Difference in light can make everything. Indoors looks great, but as soon as I step outside it doesn't look all that good haha

Looks great. Gotta love the way Dr. Ferreira is building hairlines. Fine singles in the front (i see he took yours from around the ears) with very irregular pattern.

Best of luck with your healing.