DenverBuff1989

honestly I think your hair transplant is an improvement over being bald. And in a crowd of people I don't think your hair would stand out. But in the hair transplant world, I agree with others the hairline design is a bit feminine.

@cbc3113 100% agree. its not hard at all for someone with amazing results to post pics and receive an echo-chamber of praise from everyone here. It takes courage and alot of openness to post bad HT results on here. This being the internet, alot of remarks are not constructive feedback, but are just basic insensitive remarks. It can be doubly hard bc not everyone has the means to immediately stop everything they are doing and get a repair HT from an elite doctor. Many people do unfortunately have to just accept and live with bad HT results, so it can hurt to get comments such as "wow your hairline sucks bro call Dr. Konior asap"

if you have hair loss at 16 its not male pattern baldness.

are any hair doctors local in your area? even if you don't want to have surgery with them, I would schedule an appointment so they could look at your scalp themselves. If you don't have any local HT docs, I assume you have at least one decent local dermatologist who could do the same. I admire your focus and drive in this issue, but this is a lot of analysis and -quite literally, a lot of microscopic observation- for not have even seen a doctor about this yet.

@ciaus I think you are right that the cause might have been the density of the grafts. My 1st HT - 1200 grafts, was the only one which created the hairline, and I think it makes sense that the hairline grafts were the most dense. The 2nd (600 grafts) and 3rd (2000 grafts) were to fill in gap areas. While the 3rd HT used more grafts than the 1st, it makes sense still, that the 1st HT which constructed the hairline, was more dense than the latter 2 HTs, which were more spread out. For whats it worth, my self-care post HT was good after all 3 HTs. I would actually say my self-care after my 1st HT was the most impeccable.

Looks like your a Norwood 4 or 5. Significant hair loss, but nothing out of the ordinary really. I would guess it would take 2 HTs in the hands of a good surgeon to achieve good density in both the front and crown. Many doctors will be resistant to working on your crown if your hair loss is not stable yet, and also depending on your age.

At 3 months in there is literally no action that would positively or negatively affect growth. As the above person said, grafts are anchored in by 10 days and would need surgical intervention to be removed. To err on the very conservative side for overall scab and scalp healing, I would avoid intense exercise or physical head contact for the first month. But by 3 months, you could be a boxer getting hit on the head, do handstands, etc. Nothing will have an impact good or bad

@guizza111 nice!

@guizza111 curious how the transplant hair texture is? does it look any different from your native hair? As everyone else has said, really good results especially for only 3 months!

After my 1st HT, my scalp and all the scabs healed up pretty nicely, but my recipient area had a somewhat visible redness to it lasting for appx. 2 months. It was not severe, but more of a faintly visible redness. My 2nd and 3rd HTs did not have this redness in the scalp at all. My 1st HT was poor in many ways - I am wondering if this long-lasting red scalp is also indicative of a poor HT? I'm curious, all else being equal, why my scalp was red for my 1st HT but not my 2nd or 3rd. I've seen many posts on here saying a post HT red recipient area is nothing to worry about...So I'm interested in knowing what factors during the surgery lead to the recipient area having some redness, in some cases lasting months. Thanks!

I would be over the moon if Dutasteride makes it harder to conceive, the last thing I want is kids (I kid, I kid 🤣)) I'm not sure of any studies, but for whats its worth I've been on Dut for almost 2 years and have zero sides.

@Gasthoerer so refreshing seeing positivity around simply shaving one's head on this forum lol. It would be hypocritical of me to say I would be ok myself with a shaved head, but the older I get (currently 31) the more I see there's nothing wrong with rocking the bald look.

@Westview nice thanks!

its actually quite common for doctors to take donor hair from outside the classic NW 7 "safe zone". The reason being your doctor may predict you may never reach NW7, so they work outside of this area because it gives them more options to work with in terms of donor hair. Do you have pics of your donor areas(s) immediately post-op? My guess is you are experiencing natural hairloss progression + the doctor was way too aggressive in selecting the donor hair.

@Prof101 more than anything I'm just curious how you took pictures of a microscope pointed at your scalp? I would be interested in doing the same but not sure how you accomplished it.

to be honest I do think that would unfortunately not look great. Your crown loss is quite significant. There are plenty of guys who naturally have an amazing hairline but bad crown, so I think the result would still look natural. However, even tho it would still look natural, it would still not look good. Many, perhaps most, guys can get away with a little crown balding/thinness. However in cases such as yours I think no matter how great your hairline looks, your crown would overshadow it. I do understand the doctors saying they don't want to work with more than 3000 grafts in one go. But I'm unsure you'd really need to wait a long time before getting your crown done? How long do the NYC doctors say you need to wait in-between surgery? You may want to look into concealer for your crown if you do decide to wait before getting work done on it. My crown loss is relatively mild, but concealer is amazing on it. Its worth a shot.

The grafts can reasonably still be dislodged during the first 3 days. You're probably fine, but I could - unlikely but theoretically possible - see a 2 day old graft being dislodged from washing it.

I have an acquaintance who is a significant diffuse thinner and when i observe his hair in real life i think what a nightmare it would be for him to get a HT. That's just a personal observation though; I feel like if a diffuse thinner did their research and made all the right moves and went to the right doctor, etc. They could be helped.

@gillenator thanks

@gillenatordo you know to what angle of degree the hairline and temples should be angled at? Any other thoughts? Thanks

@Westview Shelley Lovitt of colorado, just a random doc doing HTs on the side. In hindsight I can't believe I ever thought it was a good idea to see her. The clinic she works at is run by James Harris, who I do actually like and did my repair ht 2 months ago Do you know how the hairline is supposed to be angled? Does badly angled hair lead to curlyness? Its interesting how every single transplant hair has significant curlyness. I would have thought if it was poorly angled it would just be a some portion of the grafts, not all of them. But I wouldnt put it past my 1st doc to get the angles wrong on top of everything else

@giegnosiganoe I just added pics to my original comment. Sorry for the poor resolution for some of them but its the best I can do. thanks!

@qui bonothanks for the help. just to clarify, so what are your opinion(s) on why it occurred in your situation? If it's how the skin grips the hair, I would consider that an (unfortunate) natural response - obviously not a natural appearance, but natural in that its the scalp's reaction to the transplant.

@qui bonoI replied to your PM and just saw you responded here as well lol. Do you have any recommendations on specific waxes you use? It does help me accept this issue more if it really is an unpredictable behavior of the skin/scalp, rather than doctor or tech neglect. Another reason I think it may just be natural behavior is pretty much all my transplant hair has these curls. I would think it would be more on the neglect side if there were just sporadic, isolated cases of this on my scalp. Yes I've thought about getting it removed as well. But who is to say if you get new grafts placed in the same area, the new grafts won't do the exact same thing. And I do like my hairline placement, its just the freaking curls look so out of place. In my case, I'm not sure either I'd want to add more grafts around these problem areas, bc again new grafts could do the same thing, and I wouldn't want my hairline to be any lower. I have noticed as well some parts of the hairline curl more than others. The very front/middle of my hairline is more of a downward curl, and naturally goes downward. The rigid, vertical curls are on the sides/temples.

My 1st hair transplant was just over 2 years ago. There was a lot wrong with it (a visible lack of density), but all the transplant hair did indeed grow. My native hair is thick but straight, while my transplant hair is strangely curly, and its noticeable at the hairline. Multiple docs have stated the primary theory is that my donor hair is curly so this is why it looks that way. When my donor area hair is short it is totally straight, but indeed, on rare occasions when I have grown out my donor hair long, it does get somewhat curly, but not as curly as the transplant hair, which is significantly curly. Furthermore, the hair is not just curly, but really stiff/rigid, even 2 yrs post HT! The curly hair does respond well to gel, but obviously that is a chore and I'm not a fan of the shiny, formal, gel look. It wouldn't bother me that much if I wanted a slicked back hairstyle, but its pretty annoying when I just want to do a relaxed side part. I can accept this flaw if it is indeed just naturally how my donor hair takes shape, but part of me wonders if the doc did a poor job of angling the hair or some other doctor/tech related reason. I know at 2 years I need to accept this hair probably won't soften or straighten, but its hard to accept. I know transplant hair in general fully matures by 18 months. However I did ask Dr. Diep about it during an unrelated consultation and he said the hair should be better in 3-5 years, because hair cycles are super slow. In my pic, you can see the transplant hair extends/points outward; when it gets a bit longer it then does a loop/curl back in the direction of the scalp. Its not a problem when I have a buzz cut or, conversely, when the hair is significantly longer, but the curl is noticeable when the hair is shortish length. All the hairline transplant hair has this shape, its not just a few isolated hairs. As I said before, the transplant hair is also really rigid and stands up. My native hair is soft and relaxed at the base/root, but for all the transplant hair, the first couple centimeters or so the hair is completely vertical and straight, and after that the curl starts to form. Any thoughts on hair changing shape/texture after 2 years? Can anyone share pics/examples of badly angles hair, particularly at the hairline? How is the hair supposed to be angled at the hairline and temple points? Any ideas besides gel on taming the hair? Pics below. Please do not comment on lack of density in the hairline. That is unrelated to this post. I actually had another hair transplant 2 months ago to correct the lack of density. Hopefully the new hair doesn't compound the situation...