jimcraig152

Yeah, I have a big ol' mellon head. But the face attached to it is nice to look at :P. Still though, I can't help but to admire the work done on your donor site. Yours is the first testimonial I've run into where a machine was doing the work. The result is excellent! There is one other testimonial that came after yours that described the machine extraction process as well. In both cases, the graft incisions were made first. In just comparing your donor extraction to mine, if I didn't know better, I would say whatever that machine is doing the work is the new gold standard. As for shaving, it saves you a ton of time during the recovery process. No need to worry about stylizing it or what not. Just shave it all even once, then let it all grow from there on out. Us guys that are follically challenged should try the buzz cut for once in our lives. Now is the chance to do it.

Good lord, that is some fantastic work! Will follow your thread closely. Happy growing sir!

Shave it! My one regret now at my 5th week was not shaving my head prior to the procedure. I had very long hair and it could have been donated to someone that needed it. But on the day of the procedure, I checked 'NO' to a head shave. That did not mean that they would work around my natural hair on receipient site. So I had a rooster-type/Friar Tuck hair do just like you do now. On the 4th day, I shaved it all down. It acutally helps a ton during the recovery process. No natural hairs flopping over the receipient site. Being that we are all in quarantine, I don't have to worry about concealing anything since no one sees me.

Geez. I am jealous. Your doctor did a fantastic job. I am in my 5th week post recovery and I didn't look as good as you do now when I was at that point in the process. Just look at all that placement randomness and density. Look at that homogenous symmetrical extraction from the donor site. And most importantly, look at the work that was placed into replicating a natural hairline (my surgeon just made a straight line, then added dangling jaggies). Congrats! Look forward to seeing your results!

You'll feel fine, but you'll look like an extra from the film "The Hills Have Eyes." You'll look grotesque, in other words. Likely, you'll have a huge welt under your eyes as the fluid they inject into your scalp to stretch the skin to make graft placement easier will sink due to gravity and pool around your eyes. Your head will be mishapen for the first two days post surgery too. You'll need to stay out of the sun. So if you do go outside, that means you'll have to cover your head. But as you cover your head, you will have to ensure what ever head covering does not dislodge any grafts in your head. The survivability of those grafts pretty much means, no hats. So that really means, you should be prepared to be shuttered in for those 4 days. You can't eat at a restaurant these days anyways do to COVID-19, so be prepared to order UBER EATS, Door Dash, etc. It is a good idea too to not be on the next flight out after the procedure. Bending over in even in the slightest, I could feel a rush of blood through my scalp in the first few das. I can't imagine doing that as I get seated in a plane, bending over to grab luggage, or whatever. In my experience, I felt tons better after I was able to wash the receipient site after the 4th day. And I felt infinitely better after being able to shower putting my head under the shower on the 7th day. At a minimum, I would make lodging arrangements to stay near my clinic for the first 4 days if I was traveling to have a procedure done. Don't be so quick to resume normal activities. I would say, until you get the scabs out on the 7th, 8th, 9th day, you should just prep yourself to be a hermit. Isolation during the first week will help tons. Keep focused on being relaxed. Be prepared to shutter yourself in; have food, water, things to keep you self entertained (video games, books, movies) during that time. Also, make sure you have acoutrements at where ever you are staying to keep yourself sleeping upright. I've read an account here where someone tied their hands to prevent the scratching reflex from happening during sleep. Sounds extreme, but I wouldn't blame that person one bit for doing it. Once the scabs are out by the 2nd week, you should be pretty close to normal. Interestingly enough, during the 2nd week, my FUE donor site was at it is most uncomfortable. I am now into my 5th week, so all these things are fresh in my mind. Also, find out if your surgeon will shave your receipient site or will work around your natural hair. If they do shave, honestly, you are better off just having them shave it all off on the day of the procedure.

Word, and agreed. Here is a quote from that page for those that are considering HT in general. View my outcomes, objectively documented (as much as I can be), in this thread and make the best possible decision for yourself.

I got my first pimple!!! Considering it lines up to the row placement pattern, it should be a hair rather than acne :).

For hand extraction and consultations, doctors use experience and skill at a minimum for the calculation. The better doctors will use some sort of scope to be more precise. On procedure day, better doctors will map out the extraction site and perform the extraction homogeously for best aesthetic result. In your case, the incisions were made first. Once the incisions were made, they know the exact amounts of extractions to make. So the machine doesn't actually do the counting. It is programmed right in how many extractions are to be taken because the amount is known. I can tell you (without bias and with absolute honesty) your donor site looks infinitely better than my donor site. Hand extraction is said to still be the gold standard. But your thread and another thread in the past week where there was a machine used is definitely better than the hand extraction performed by my surgeon. The chance of overharvesting and assymetrical harvesting IMO is greatly recuded when the incisions are done before the extractions. Trust me when I tell you, you have nothing to worry about with your donor site. Something I wish could be said about patients that went with my surgeon. Will follow your results closely. Happy growing sir!

Good lord man, that is some outstanding looking work! Everything is diffuse and random. That machine and Ufuk did a whole lot better job than the surgeon that did the extractions during my procedure. Also, you have twice as many grafts as I did (I had 2337). Also the punch used in my procedure was a 0.9-1.0 punch and the site on my donor is larger than yours. Subscibed to your thread and will follow it closely.

I was checking out @baldlivesmatter's thread. His early progress mirrors where I am at right now. Donor management stuff aside, his final results look great! This is very encouraging. I still owe MHTA for the extra 87 grafts that were made during my procedure. Arrangements were made for me to make that payment today (87 grafts/$8 per graft = $696). I emailed MHTA early this week asking them for the following before I made that final payment: Set follow-up consultations: 1-month, 3-months, 6-months, 12-months, or whatever is the regular cadence A read out of the graft placed: singles, doubles, etc. ......and a copy of the final agreement I signed on the day of the procedure I got a response today along with none of these things. But I did get something else: the cost of the extra 87 grafts waived, and it is in writing! While a bit of money saved is cool, I still want those other things I asked for And I am still going to be honest and will be as objective as I can be with this whole process as I go along In other words, I can't be bought. I'll give MHTA the benefit of the doubt in that, by waiving the charge for the extra grafts, they are being genuine. They did tell me to log into my OnPatient account and ask for those things. I'll do that and report back how they'll respond.

My phone's charging port doesn't work any longer so I can't connect it to my computer as of now to retrieve photos. Will post them and edit this post when I solve this problem. End of Week 4 Update I continue to shed transplanted grafts at a rather slow rate (?). I honestly thought they would all fall out all at once at around the 2 week mark but that is not the case. What grafts are still in there continue to grow. The good news is I can see what appear to be hair sprouting out of some of the grafts. Though, it is hard to tell even in the pictures. I am also more aware through sensation of my receipient site than I have been in previous weeks. At times there is an intense itch. At other times it feels like dried eggs on my head. Perhaps that is the sensation from hairs sprouting through the skin. If so, I hope so. I experienced some intense itching in one spot at the back edge of my donor area for several days. That intense itch has now went away. Donor discomfort hasn't increased or lessened in any way since the previous week. I've also noticed just to the right of my vertex what appears to be thinning. I see from the pics just after my procedure that Dr. Diep went really high with extractions on that side. Now that the scabbing is healing, it makes things like some thinning in this area. I'll have to pay attention to it. I've also adjusted to how my face looks now with my new hairline. I can't even remember what my old hairline and self looked like anymore. Before this procedure, my hair was long and it was long for years. I am sporting a buzz cut for the first time in life which is quite an adjustment. Not needing to come out immediately after a shower and spending 20-30 minutes with a hair dryer, maximum hold hair spray, and using comb over/receding hairline concealing techniques I've perfected over the years is quite a blessing. Also, since my hair was long, everytime I showered and brushed it while wet, I would have to detassle my brush like you would if preparing corn for eating. I haven't had to do that in a while (thank you finasteride!). On the other hand, no one I know has seen me since the procedure except the folks at the stores I frequent for food and supplies. My neighbors might have drove by and noticed I shaved my head, but haven't gotten close enough to say or ask anything. My only regret out of the dramatic change in hairstyle was that there was an opportunity to put my long hair into little pigtails, shave it all off, and donate it it. It was that long. But today, I will go visit a friend to pick something up. I am wondering how he will react. Honestly, I've always been good at hiding my receding hairline. When I was younger, I was known for having nice hair despite being at least a NW2, possibly a 3. Maybe he won't notice anything. We'll see. Aside from that, still on finasteride once daily. Still on minoxidil twice daily where I am applying to the crown and vertex. Also, I will be posting pics taken from another area of the house where the bathroom does not receive any natural light. Been noticing some inconsistencies with my photos depending upon what time of day I've taken the pictures. So going forward, will be posting pics taken from a second bathroom where there is no natural lighting. EDIT: So there are the pics. First the good ol' hairline comparison pics. At about a month in, you can see that I have close to 1/2" natural hair growth. My hair normally grows faster than a typcial person's. That's fhine straight black Asian hair for you. You can also see the progression of shedding, particularly above where the letters D and A are. But if I am not mistaken, I do see what appears to be sprouts of new hair? Too early to tell. As far as the angle of insertion goes, you can see that my natural hair grows pretty much perpendicular from my scalp. This works for me and my ethnicity. But if you aren't Asian, I can see how this can be a problem. Couple of shots of the left corners. You can see the corn-rowing in this shot. Although, any MHTA patient will tell you that the left side is always better than the right side.......... So here is the right side. The corn-rowing is more pronounced. As is the shedding at this point in time. The donor area speaks for itself at this point in time. New overhead shot; the classic NW scale shot.

Stay on finasteride, don't go to Bosley, and you are a great candidate for non-surgical hair restoration. If you are going with the non-surigical route, check out this great thread:

@Shifty, can you point to a video, if there is one, that best describes your application of the derma roller?

I especially like that you took to heart my comment on convenience. You said that you have family near MHTA, that would save you what, $700 in lodging? Peace of mind > Convenice/$700 Keep us posted!

@NicoAustralia, will do mate!

I can't wait until I am further along with this process (now on my 4th week post procedure by Dr. Diep), not just to see the results, but to give my disseration and final review. Each time I post something in my thread, I end up deleting 3/4ths of what I wrote before I hit the post button. I take out all the subjective comments (or as many as I can) because I want to be as objective as possible until the final results are in. I won't delete anything in my thread along the way though. If it ends up being criticism, so be it. I've said in my thread, it is not the criticism that matters. What matters is what one does with it.

I am referring to his hairline placement with respect to face, forehead, head with the factor of donor supply. He does well in this area. We all know his graft incision and placement pattern looks like lines on college rule paper.

That motorized extraction machine seems to do definitely did a better job than the surgeon that did my FUE by hand :). Very symmetrical. Very diffuse. Looks like you have nothing to worry about with your donor area. Your receipient site looks good too. Also, your experience on the day of the procedure is the way how things should be. Trust me when I tell you, alot of us patients are just put on an assembly line. I also like how they made the graft incisions first actually. The only concern would be from coagulation as you need to wait for the extraction to complete. But I am sure they have that accounted for with meds. From my experience, inconsistency with incision patterns might be from extracting a set number of grafts first, then as the incisions are made and exceed the grafts extracted, some shortcuts are then taken. Seems very smart to me to do the incisions first although is atypical. Look foward to seeing your results. Please make sure to keep it updated regularly.

^^this^^ As a recent Diep/MHTA patient, I echo this 100%. I can see where you have have some misgivings with the hairline. There is a bit of Giorgio A. Tsoukalos-action going on where the hair doesn't fit the face. I can say otherwise graft placement technique, yield results, plus the description of your donor managment are excellent! Dr. Sahar Nadimi might just be on mine and @Tentpole91 shortlist of surgeons to fix/revise Dr. Diep's work :). But I also want to make sure you understand what is in store, so I put this together for you: The Diep vs. Nadimi Hairline: Your Nadimi hairline exhibits the appearance of being nature-made. Placement shows no patterns. There are less hairs up front than there are as you go back. There is no clear line at all. Below your hairline is my Dr. Diep hairline at day 4 (I am 4 weeks post procedure at this time of this writing). At this stage, you can look with a critical eye the difference in technique. You can clearly see a line; one drawn free hand without a straight edge, but clearly a line. Especially looking at the first 1/4 of the hairline from the right side. That line is broken up by what is called the signature Diep staggered stairstep. If you can imagine, icicles lights dangling from an outdoor Chrismas line decoration, that is the Diep staggered stairstep analogy. Lastly, take a look at the rows. Find a graft at the hairline and you'll find each nearest successive graft going back towards the vertex forms a row. Also look at the horizontal spacing between those rows. I edited the paragraph above down quite significantly because I want to be objective. But hope that gives you a better understanding of the choice you will make with Dr. Diep. Good luck! Look forward to hearing your choice and seeing your results.

I heard Hayden Christensen got HT as early as when he did the film Jumper (2008). There was just a crease in his hair in Jumper, but no visible scar. Of course, now he isn't in the public conscience anymore. So check this out this Chinese 2014 film Outcast. You have Nick Cage, widely known to have the worst HT in all of Hollywood. Then you have Hayden Christensen. Not just the worst FUT scar in Hollywood, but one of the worst FUT scars ever. If you ever watch the film (firstly, I feel bad for you if you did), Christensen makes no attempt to hide the scar at all. You can watch clips on Youtube as well as interviews for Outcast and that scar just wraps around his entire head right up to the temples. Good looking movie hair is a special effect. Chris Evans wore a hair piece in each of his Marvel movie appearances. DiCaprio wore a hairpiece in Wolf of Wall Street. So how do celebs do it? Same way we do it. Plus make-up, good camera angles, editing, and special effects.

Nah, anyone that has performed comb over techniques has perfected the art of self application (me included). But yeah, I can't imagine how painful the flap procedure must be like. Yikes! Again, Biden in a landslide.

Trump has to spend hours on the combover hiding what is surely a grotesque flap procedure. Biden just embraces his plugs but at the end of the day, they are just bad plugs. Bad plugs > grotesque flap. Biden in a landslide.

Welp, was watching the new Jamie Foxx flick on Netflix: "Project Power". Now there is a definitive answer as to how Jaime Foxx does it. At 1:02:38 left in the film, plain as day you can see how he does it. Although among FUT scars, that is one of the more inconspicuous ones.

Also, @LonelyGraft & @transplantedphil , if I were to answer the question posed in the topic directly, my direct answer is no. I know I am very early in the recovery process. But the technical flaws are readily apparently even to my inexperienced eye at this juncture. I only stated what I feel MHTA does well which as you can see is a short 2-bulletted item list. One of which is being met with strong disagreement already. OP seems to have made up his mind at this point though. So I'm only offering support at this point.

Let me qualify that a bit more. The hairline placement and design does have factors beyond just placement. Donor supply is also a big part of this. Given where the patient is in the NW scale and donor supply, he does an excellent job with placement and design. But yeah, it is subjective. Also, I am an very recent Dr. Diep patient (dare I even say at this point, survivor?). I am well aware of the shortcomings of his techniques. First hand no less. I am sure you've read what I've written on the subject in my thread. Stay the extra day if you can. You'll feel really good after you are able to wash the receipient area on the 4th day. Probably would save you some stress on the flight back too. The first few days, you will naturally be a hermit crab. You might have a huge welt under your eye by the end of the 2nd day and will look awful. And by being so reclusive those first 4 days, you may feel you are imposing on your relatives, stay till the 7th day when you can finally shower. Use day 5, 6, & 7 to hang with your relatives. Shower, then fly back. But definitely take the week off after the procedure. LoLoLoL! Ok, I have no idea what he took in college. Definitely will accept that you've identified he was schooled in the Caribbean as fact. Everyone's situation is different. I don't feel my hairline is perfect. But given the estimate of extractions and the final extraction amount (2250 vs 2337), it turned out really well. His incision and extraction pattern are a different story.