Tentpole91

@Arminius did your donor area thicken over time, or did it recover to the above appearance within a few weeks of the surgery? It looks absolutely fantastic.

@Medina would love to see an updated photo on this!!

Thanks Melvin. I'm now at day 19 post surgery. The recipient area is shedding as expected, with nothing major to report there. My primary concern at this point is actually with the donor: it's growing in with a somewhat patchy appearance. This continues onto the right side, where there's a pretty clear line between donor and non-donor: Question for you all on the forum: Is there a recovery time for the donor area? Or is this the level of density that I should expect in the donor going forward? Reading the forums there is a clear recovery time for recipient area. It's less clear to me whether there is one for the donor.

Hey all, Day 8 here. One thing I'm noticing is that some gaps are developing in the transplanted area: Day 1: Day 8: The part i'm worried about: I'm not super familiar with the shedding process or how the grafts develop. I've looked at a couple threads to this effect but would appreciate if anyone with first hand experience could weigh in on this and let me know if it is something to be worried about.

Totally TB. My understanding is that you can wear your hair a little bit shorter with the FUE procedure, because while there are more scars, they are less noticeable than the lien. Definitely worth doing your research though.

My goal is to not have scarring on the back of the head that would be on par with FUT. If that ends up being the case, then I would consider the donor harvesting to have been a failure. And of course I would let you all know if that ends up being the case.

Since there’s a lot of text, figured it might be helpful to summarize the key questions I shrill have: 1. Is mild to moderate stress from games like call of duty OK to play during recovery for a few hours each day? 2. Any suggestions to keep myself from rolling on stomach I’d travel pillow isn’t preventing? 3. Did anyone else experience a large amount of weight gain post surgery?

Sorry for the delayed response! He extracted from that point because he had a specific density of extraction, and only needed to harvest from a certain percentage of the head. I believe this is a general practice of his that is not super consistent with other doctors. He also generally uses a larger punch size, so the donor won’t look as amazing as other doctors. His hypothesis, however, is that this approach leads to healthier and more successful graft in the transplant area.

Hey all, Quick update on the state of the transplant (Day 5): Overall the recovery has been solid. Pain has been fairly minimal, and my main pain point has been rolling around in my sleep. I am a hardcore stomach sleeper and have been building pillow forts + using a travel pillow to keep myself from rolling over. But it hasn't always been effective. The other thing I've worried about is how much baseline stress is OK while the grafts are healing. I am playing some Call of Duty in my downtime, which Dr. Diep has said is totally fine, but I'm limiting it because I don't want the stress to affect the healing process. Questions for you guys 1. Any suggestions for making sure I don't roll onto my stomach while sleeping? Am I totally fucked if that happens? 2. Have you received advice around minimizing any activity that gets your heart rate >90bpm, such as a video game? I have had a lot of time to kill but suppose I could lean more into Netflix..

Hello and congratulations on the surgery! Would it be possible to see a more diverse set of current day photos? I’d love to see what your hair looks like wet, combed back a bit to expose the roots, and with a bit more of your face showing. no worries I’d you aren’t comfortable with this. Congrats again!

Would love to know more about what you mean here - feel free to PM me so we can keep this thread on track. So far things have been healing nicely. @Melvin-Moderator can you move this thread to the right section or do you want me to re make it?

Thanks guys. I ended up using all of the pillows at my hotel to make a 45° angle and used the provided Valium to help sleep. I didn't wake up once during the night. One thing that seems odd to me is that I don't have any pain right now. The surgery was yesterday, it's currently 9am, and everything feels....fine. I'm certainly not complaining, though. Attaching a couple of pics. @Melvin-Moderator, if I want do do a more robust review should I put it in the "Hair Restoration Results Posted by Patients" forum? Finally, one thing is that I noticed there is more regularity in the pattern for the implants on my right side. The sides were done by different members of the doctor's team. Pre-Operation Immediately Post-Surgery

Hey all! First off, want to thank everyone on this board who has been immensely helpful in my hair loss journey to date. Been lurking for about two years now, and finally have an FUE tomorrow with Dr Diep. 1300 grafts, NW2/3 front pattern only. Outside of the normal instructions provided by clinic, do you guys have advice for key things to do over the next week during surgery and in recovery? I remember one person tying their hands to the bed to make sure they didn't scratch their scalp in their sleep. Is this actually a thing?

@FUEblonde1985 I was browsing Dr Diep's profile on HRN and saw this in his bio: "Dr. Diep feels that his FUE procedure can rival that of strip as long as follicular units are viable upon extraction. He developed his own FUE instrument called "The Diep Extractor", which he believes helps to minimize transection and damage to the follicles during the extraction process." (source) I'm curious if perhaps his FUE instrument for extraction is subpar to the techniques of other doctors. It certainly feels that way in terms of initial appearance, as others have said on this thread. If not for anything else, the 1mm punch is larger than you get from other doctors right? That said, his technique does specifically call out the minimization of transection as a benefit. And the results in the recipient area speak for themselves.