brokennative

Almost 2 month post op! not thrilled but trying to be patient. 

34 days post surgery. I had a haircut few days ago. I still doubt it is a shock loss, I feel like it is a result of uneven harvesting (I still can't believe with this much experience Dr can make this rookie mistake). I don't expect this improving based on the cases Ive seen. Ive yet to see the case where "shock loss" improved over given time, it usually goes like give it a 6 month and it will improve and then again give it a year and it will improve, then hair grows long enough to cover the scars. (Link to improved cases please if you seen one). 

Just a little update. Day 22 post surgery. Donor area healed up but looks terrible for 1500 grafts. Right side was overharvested. I was told it is due to shedding and temporary but I doubt it is.

@hairlosscpa Yes, I just saw your results. Yours seemed evenly harvested, in my donor area there are places where no grafts were taken and some places where hair was extracted too close to each other, especially right side of donor. It may not be visible with long hair, but my go to haircut is very short on the sides. 

Do you have pictures of donor with shorter hair? All of the pictures you posted are with long hair and hard to tell. 

3 minutes ago, Tbcruz said:

Seems like the way he extracted your grafts wasn’t spread out instead it looks like it was acouple grafts in groupings from different areas.

the redness in the area is making it look worse. Regardless there’s nothing you can do now but wait. I’m sure once the redness is gone it will look a lot better.

I am not sure why he choose to do that way. It looks terrible for only 1500 grafts. I can't do anything with it but I can share my experience and hopefully we can hold Dr's to higher standards. I went with Dr Vories because of his experience and recommendations from the forum. I am little disappointed in myself for not doing even more research before pulling the plunge. 

9 minutes ago, giegnosiganoe said:

I don't have first hand experience, but this does not look normal to me. The day of procedure pics show the same pattern, so I wouldn't think native hair shedding has anything to do with it. Also looks like the extractions were restricted to the occipital zone? And there's a vertical line down the middle of the occipital zone where no grafts were taken?

Did you ask Dr Vories and if so what did he say?

I did send the 3 day photos but he said this looks like hair shedding and suggested this is temporary!?. I had the exact same question, pattern seems to follow the day of the surgery and hair shed the same day as surgery? but since it was a email and I had many questions I did not get answer for that specific question. I have two week follow up session coming up where I can ask this question along with why he choose to follow this odd pattern of harvesting. Thank god I did not go with 2000 grafts he suggested. I avoided Turkey to not to get butchered but here I am potentially butchered by recommended surgeon. I hope I am wrong and eat my words later.  

On 6/15/2020 at 5:34 AM, hairlosscpa said:

This all looks normal to me!

Maybe I am expecting more but as you can see from the example something is off. 

Can experienced forum members chime in? Is this poor management of donor hair or hair shedding after surgery? I can't figure out what is wrong. But looks terrible.  I'd really appreciate your honest opinion. I still have mixed feelings how it was done. I am posting expectation vs reality of donor area after FUE to compare. Both are one week after surgery. Is this donor area permanently damaged? Mine looks like has been depleted. 

I decided to share my experience hoping it will help others to make better decisions.

I'm 27 and I've been experiencing hairloss for about 5/6 years mostly in the frontal hairline. I have been using Rogaine minoxodil for about 2.5 years and have seen really good results with it. However, I started noticing serious change in the hairline last december and have been thinking about doing HT.  I did not want to travel outside of the US since I read mixed reviews of peoples experiences and did not want to become just another case. Since the lockdown started I thought this is the best time to pull the trigger. I went with Dr. Vories of Caroline Hair Surgery. He does the whole process himself and read only good things about him. 

We started the surgery around 9:30am due to me being late for 20 minutes (Stayed in downtown hotel which was a mistake) and we took 15 min break every 45 minutes. Surgery finished around 3:30 and I went back to hotel. It was mostly painless and smooth experience. I was prescribed pain medicine and sleeping pill. When I got back to hotel and looked at the donor area it did not look what I expected. I expected evenly distributed dots. Recipient area looked exactly how I expected. I decided to wait it to heal and the have a closer look after few days. 

After waiting for few days I still saw patches of hairs removed and did not look good (I am on day 6 PO and still the same). I emailed the Dr with my concerns but it was suggested that there has been some shedding of donor hair and it will improve over time. Can hair shed right after the surgery? I read some conflicting other Dr's opinions and if hair sheds, it usually happens after at least two weeks. I might be wrong (I hope I am) but in my opinion it was overharvested especially (right side of head) and not evenly spread out (goodbye short haircuts). I thought it was all about punch size but it seems like density and location of harvested grafts plays a huge role too. If you take bunch of grafts from one area and not take anything around it, it looks overharvested. Like, I said I hope Dr is right and it will come back in few month but I highly doubt from what I have read and seen. 

Recipient area looks like on track and I like the hairline he designed. So there is a good news. There are some blood clots  in recipient area but I assume it will disappear in few days. 

Overall I'm having a mixed feelings right now. Obviously, I need to be more patient but I just wanted to share how I feel and hopefully will have some positive posts next time. 

Cheers!

(Day of surgery and 6 days post surgery images)

3 minutes ago, Gasthoerer said:

As you say it yourself:  The extraction pattern appears to be poor. Both micro and macro pattern. 

But in the end,  it is only 1500 FU and 10-20 % of the hair is typically dormant. This hair will grow and you donor will recover (at least partly).

In the meantime all you can do is wait and trust the process. You were lucky that surgery was relatively small. 

 

Thank you for the answer!

Hi all,

I had my first 1500 graft FUE HT three days ago. I am little bit worried about my donor area where 1500 grafts were extracted. I feel like it was little bit overharvested and is not evenly spreaded out. I won't share any clinic details yet since it is early in the process. I just wanted to know your honest opinion. Thank you!