asterix0

I've already had one transplant where I shaved my head so I know how it goes...but fortunately I worked from home during the ugly duckling stage so no one saw me haha. This will be a little trickier, but I don't look terrible with a shaved head either way. I was hoping to just conceal it better.

I have an upcoming FUE procedure where I was told in theory that not shaving the recipient area will not affect my yield, it will just make the surgery last longer. I anticipate it will be something in the 1500-2000 graft range. My question is, since I recently changed jobs I really did not want to shave my recipient area and sort of hide what was done as much as possible. What I am concerned with is keeping my head clean post op, and that having longer recipient hair will make it more difficult to follow proper post op care. Is this concern valid? Also, I will take a week+ off from work, so when I come back it will look like a buzzcut mostly. The main issue is the ugly duckling stage when all the grafts fall out, where then it will be obvious and my appearance won't able to be fixed even with fibers, since the hair length wont be long enough. To add, I will just be adding density to the hairline and midscale, not lowering the hairline.

Yes you did, unfortunately you are going to Norwood 7 now, sorry this is common knowledge.

It is a two way street to be a well informed patient and communicate to the doctor what you want as clearly as possible. If this is the guy who went to Dr. Konior earlier, he does seem to have issues of not quite understanding what the possibilities and limitations of hair transplantation are. Nevertheless, I do agree that the clinic should be able to respond to the claims before any judgement is cast. If what he said is true, it is a disappointing result indeed and I understand his frustration.

Watch this video from Eugenix to get an idea about transplanted long term maintenance: https://youtu.be/rJctY_jvd6U

Did you lose native or transplanted hair from your transplant in 2014? Were you slick bald when you had your first transplant?

Yes that is consistent with what to expect.

You also went to Dr. Zarev?

Right in the middle of the ugly duckling, this part is tough mentally but it will soon be a distant, funny memory :)

@washingtondc It will not get much better (maybe 5% improvement tops), you are being gaslighted by being told to wait.

In the short term, eyeballing can work if you are a low Norwood. However, if you assume every patient will eventually be a high Norwood, and every graft should be used as judiciously as possible, eyeballing is not a reliable method to evaluate the donor. The donor may show different regions that are stronger and weaker, it may be denser in some areas and so if you want to homogenize it as best as possible to allow for the greatest number of grafts to extract, you must precisely plan which areas of the donor have which capacity. Different parts of the donor are better suited for the front, midscalp, and crown. It is no coincidence that the best doctors in the world are meticulous about planning out their surgeries, that involves more than a 2 minute glance at a person's head. See @HugoX as an example.

Heart cancer is pretty serious, I don't think oral minoxidil would be on the market if some link was found to that.

This clinic is not at all worth the price you paid, perhaps they were recommended at some point in the past but remember you shouldn't take anything written here as gospel, ultimately it is up to you do your own research (as thoroughly as you can) and choose a surgeon that way. The way I did it is, I literally spent days and days (probably over 100 hours) looking at all the recent results from clinics I was interested in, and comparing their results with the clearest pictures I can find (no combover tricks, dim lighting, etc). with other clinics. Also trying to do the same graft number comparisons with different patients. For your next steps, I strongly advise you to not go back to the same clinic. I think a surgeon like Dr. Konior in Chicago would suit you best.

It likely is over harvested, that post op doesn't look so good. People will ask what clinic you went to, I hope you went to a reputable clinic and not a hair mill, but I doubt that is the case unfortunately.

Fair point, but it's easy to say that when you have plenty of hair. If you were cueball bald I'm not sure you would say the same thing.

The antibiotics post op can give you nausea.

Your post op looks excellent, I think you're on track for a home run result.

The point is, think about it. Why would a doctor undercut their prices so much if they can get 100% more? Hair transplants are a mostly efficient market, where the price is pretty much what the quality you should expect. People gambling with their heads for exceptions to the efficient market are, too me, risking too much. Now, after a certain price point, you get diminishing, or even worse returns. This is mostly to the disparity in US healthcare prices vs the rest of the world.

It is a combination of technique and concentration, tools used, and extreme attention to detail to make sure the donor extraction is completely homogenous.

He posted the pics, look on the first page on Jan 30th.

Deleting the "bad" postings...I would have responded interesting world you live in where the truth is "bad"...is that a "bad" blue sky you see there, "bad" green grass? Sad to see.

No dude, not to derail the thread but that's not the way to go. Your donor should be closely analyzed by the doctor, as well as your recipient. Anyway I hope your results turned out well.

It will improve more, 4.5 months is still early. The next 2 months you should see plenty more growth so don't worry.

The hairline you want is too low and will look unnatural. Your hair is fine and I wouldnt chase perfection with this whole process.

@washingtondc You have very realistic and fair expectations. Simply put the work is not good, and the result is disappointing at best. Immedietly post op it did not look up to par, and it played out as such. I hope you can get some sort of refund for your troubles, but that is not worth the time and effort and struggle you have had to deal with these past two years. Im sorry that you're in the situation you're in, it's not your fault, you had good intentions.