jimcraig152

Interesting. I was thinking for FUT it is better to be seated upright because after the strip is removed, the head can be tilted back to help with closing the excision. But now that you stated that you were face down with your FUT procedure, the more I think about it, FUT in a face down position might be better surgical method. The head is basically immobilized in that position.

For my FUE procedure, I was seated upright in a chair the whole time during extraction. I am wondering what is the general experience for others, whether you had FUT or FUE. Please answer these questions related to the surgical donor extraction process (of course you are reclined on your back during implantation): FUT or FUE? Upright in chair or face down on gurney? Taken under with general anesthesia or awake?

You get FUE so that you can have less noticeable scarring. You pay a higher premium for FUE too. But yet when people post their FUE results, hardly any focus is placed upon the donor area in the pictures. After doing this for 3 almost months, it is pretty damn tough to take photos of the back of your head. So, made an inexpensive investment and bought this selfie stick. Has a remote, fill light, and tripod stand. It works with my big-ass iPhone XR even with the case. Holds the phone in place very snuggly. I am putting it through its paces now and getting used to the learning curve. I should be able to take better and more consistent photos going forward.

God damn! Fast progress is a huge plus but the more important thing is, no visible scarring in the donor (that is why you pay extra for FUE) and a natural appearing restored hair line. Congrats man. Only 2 months in and you must be excited as heck!

Regarding Finasteride, the recommended timing differs between surgeons as to when you stop taking it just before surgery and when you should resume it after surgery. Usually, stop 1-2 weeks before, start again 1-2 weeks after. Or some recommend not ever stopping if you've started before the surgery. But it is generally unanimous that you should be on Finasteride for as long as you feel you need hair unless you have side effects. Now that you are 2 months past your surgery date, no reason you should not be on Finasteride. I am wondering why Bicer hasn't given you an answer for this now that you are 2 months past your surgery? I always wonder why people on forums state that they've had a FUE procedure, but never bother to show their donor area before, immediately after the procedure, and as they go along through to the end of the 12-month recovery period. In most cases, if you have hair now where you were bald before, you are going to look better. It is where you've had hair before, then had donors extracted that should be of immediate concern. That is why afterall why one would pay more for FUE. So, please post plenty of photos before your surgery, immediately after your surgery, then post pics of your progress as you go along. As well thought out as your testimony is, they pale to good old photos. Also, download GIMP from gimp.org. Learn to use the cropping tool and how to resize photos. I find resizing photos to 800 horizontal pictures is best.

My grafts grew for a good 2-3 weeks, then most fell out. Here is the progression of my graft fallout followed by a rebound from the ugly duckling phase (now just under 3 months): https://content.invisioncic.com/o278943/monthly_2020_10/Comparison.jpg.c8d292cb2b9b673c367f073057d35d17.jpg For some folks, it never falls out. This recent example seems to be such a case: https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/58033-regretting-hair-transplant-as-25-years-old/?tab=comments#comment-558683

Very normal. Though crust flakes are generally smaller. In this picture I'd imagine the crust flake is large because the blood pooled into a thick gob, then dried. Nothing out of the ordinary though.

Thanks for those details. I really wanted to understand with FUE how much time a surgeon who puts their efforts into the patient first needs to spend during extraction to allow a patient to pull off the "Like a Virgin" facade that fools even your parents and family members. I mean, the goal with FUE is less visible scarring so that you have the ability to wear shorter hairstyles. That's why you pay more. Dr. Reddy grades out well beyond an A+ in this regard based upon your case. In any case, my surgeon whips through administration of anesthesia, donor excisions & extractions, graft incisions in one hour flat per 1000 FU's. The outcomes are reflective of it. Patients generally end up with good yield and so they forget why they paid extra for FUE in the first place. Though my surgeon's patients donor sites look like extractions were performed by a graduate of Black Market/body-organ-harvesting-clinics. It is quite polarizing when topics of discussion with my surgeon comes up. My question was so I can mentally contrast the efforts between my procedure vs. yours. My reaction to your HT has little to do with your non-shedding. As I do with every new journey thread I come up on, I check out the photos first. When I see good work, then I'll read the posts. My reaction is in the quality of the work. No incision was wasted. Not only are the angle of insertion perfect, but also the direction of each. The micro irregularities aren't achieved with tricks like punching a straight line, then dangling zig zags in front of the hairline to break up the linearity. A real effort was put into planning the incisions as if Dr. Reddy was viewing your hair line through the eyes of Mother Nature herself. Your follicles lay on each other like dominoes falling over on themselves. Naturalness is the primary goal of transplanted grafts. That you got density and have super hero mutant healing factor is just the cherry on top. Congrats and kudos to Dr. Reddy.

The fade is looking really good Micky! Your barber did you a solid. Only if someone comes within the 6ft physical/social distancing guideline would someone know you've had a HT. No vertical striation or indented concaveness at the seam; AKA, no stretch. Some shock loss around the scar which should recover over the next 10 months, but otherwise it is looking bonded and narrow. Also, I noticed you are unique among black men in that hairline between your temple corners to the corner of your hairline sweeps back at 45 degrees. Typically, that is vertical for black men. The result should be dramatic for you if all turns out well. Make those subtle adjustments do keep that scar bonded and you should be good to go.

"Thin". Hahahaha. Your brother would be jealous of your hair right now. Your donor looks like you went into surgery with a chastity belt on; virgin. Hold on tight, ugly duckling phase is right around the corner. Take lots of pics now. Also, use two hands when taking that donor pic. Ends up being a more centered picture.

Hi Micky, we are doing good over here bud. Thanks for asking! Looks typical actually. FUT scar healing and maturation takes much longer than FUE. It will be a while before that returns to normal skin texture. Do everything you can to prevent that from stretching. Little things like, elevating your computer monitor to eye level + sitting lower. Texting while holding your phone at eye level. Sitting more upright in your car while driving. Cooking and food prep while seated, not standing. Anything you normally do at home or at work while standing, do it sitting, if possible. Reaching into your pockets withing looking down towards your pockets. Turning your body at the shoulders instead of at the neck (like Robocop). Subtle adjustments in life to keep your head from craning forward until that seam is cemented. I see no vertical banding in the scar. Which is good. Means there is no or minimal stretch after the wound healed. I do see shock loss which should recover to some degree and make the scar less noticeable, which is also good. In those white bumps, I see hairs growing out of them. So it could quite possibly be you have ingrown hairs that were folded over into the suture. If that is the root of the appearance of the white bumps, then the bumps should subside. Also, towards the back of your donor where your fingers are in the photo, the scar appears less noticeable. Lastly, I can't see any skin folding as a result of pulling the incision to closure. Also good. Worst case, that is keloid scarring. If so, there is not much you can do about it. One's ethnicity and physiology makes them more prone to this than others. For instance, with acne. One can pop a large pimple, the scar then subsides to a scab, the scab falls off leaving a healed pinkish wound, the wound darkens, before eventually fading. Then another person can do the same thing and the result leaves a raised more reddish scar. If it is keloid scarring, nothing you can do about it. But there are subtle things you can do to keep that FUT scar from expanding. Looking forward to see you on the cover of Jet Magazine in 11 more months!

Your hairline is utterly ridiculous. Looks more like you've aged in reverse rather than had a HT. Every single one of the incisions were made to count. One of my cousins got a boob job. I remember that holiday dinner was awkward. We all wanted to ask if she did. But that would mean admitting to staring at a family member's breast. And so what a testimony that is @timcfc. The goal of FUE is less visible scarring. The goal of transplanted grafts is, first and foremost, naturalness. That your own family didn't look at you with bewildered amusement is just profound! HT of the month/year/less than a year-old decade landslide/unanimous winner! How long was the procedure? Just wondering how much effort goes into such work. How long did Reddy take on the excisions. How long did he take making the graft incisions?

You're a mutant with Wolverine's healing powers. Your donor looks virgin and that is the reason why one would pay extra for FUE vs. FUT. The new non-aggressive hairline is ridiculously natural and dense. I bet people you've known all your life that haven't seen you in 3 months wouldn't even know you've had anything done. You got us all wondering what your food/vitamin/topical treatment regimen is that allowed you to get such fast growth in such a short time. Awesome results man. Congrats!

Good lord. Trying to find an excision in your donor area is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. This is why you pay extra for FUE over FUT. Congrats man! Will follow your progress closely.

Quit lyin' man. You don't have a FUT scar! Amazing. Have fun bedding those Instagram models sir! 🙌

Looking good man. FUT or FUE? How many grafts? What does the donor site look like?

Quit lying man. You don't know what is is to suffer from hair loss!! Just kidding. I am being facetious. Awesome results. Can you show the people what the FUT scar looks like?

The primary goal of hair transplantation is naturalness. You've got that. Density, while also desired may take two procedures to achieve. Most surgeons will say most individuals will require two procedures to achieve both. Homeruns aren't the norm. Put it this way, let's say you got density but no naturalness. Now you are going in for a repair in your second surgery. Instead, your second surgery is going to increase density. You just need a 2nd procedure to increase density. Makes you no different that most guys. You've come a long way and look good.

No need to opine or speculate: Approximately 1 hour in total is spent in surgery by Dr. Diep per 1000 FUE units. That includes: Administration of anesthesia, local and general Administration of scalp expansion fluid FU excisions and extractions Graft incisions This excludes any effort to map out the donor area for diffuse/even extraction and less scarring. And whatever else would lend to achieving less noticeable scarring, which is why you pay extra for FUE in the first place. The rest is done by his techs. This is based upon my own experience and the experience of others that I've collated in this post. Check my last post for the immediate outcomes. 3 people have DM'ed me here and elsewhere with responses from their surgeons. I can't of course post them for obvious reasons. But the consensus is their surgeons are appalled. Interestingly enough, just around the corner from my house is an almond farm. I took the panoramic photo from right between a row. Just like @Noodles123 says, it doesn't lead to density. You can see barren dirt all the way through the end of the row. Also, when the crop calls for it, row cropping is used. When the crop can be harvested without a barren row between the crop (alfalfa, flax seed, etc.), planting is done with random disbursement. You made a well informed decision. I didn't.

You're ahead of the recovery curve sir! I believe you got a FUE procedure? If so, the merits of the work done on you cannot be assessed on the recipient area alone. We need donor pics. Otherwise, things are looking really good. Congrats!

I didn't buy it either. I also asked why grafts weren't mapped out for even extraction. He denied it. He said he extracted grafts from all over while whirling his hands around his head in demonstration. Which is somewhat true. I emphasized that some areas clearly had too many grafts extracted and are patchy. He said I might be experiencing shock loss and to give it a year for recovery. I don't think I am experiencing shock loss. But ok, I'll give it a year. Because what else that can be done? Whether for the sake of speed, efficiency, or to take a shortcut, a compromise is being made. Once one makes that compromise, it makes it that much easier to make that same compromise the next time. Inertia sets in, then everything done is compromise. And that is the state of where Dr. Diep's work is these days; compromised. I think it is a dice roll if you get good work from Dr. Diep these days. Dr. Diep's answer for the row placement is obvious quackery. In any case, I did not ask why he places grafts in rows in hopes of being delivered a reckoning. I was gauging his ethics. And thus the answer received wasn't a lie. It is something much much worse. End of Week 12 Update After just 5 months on Fin and Min, I continue to respond well to the meds. Even with vigorous shampooing, I no longer lose hairs. Regrowth in the corners has been exciting (this is natural regrowth, not the transplant grafts which were planted in rows). Vertex regrowth hasn't happened yet. But I'm early with meds treatment. Scalp sensation is about 80% of normal. Still the fleeting occasion of sharp pain in areas mostly outside of the donor or recipient areas. I might be jinxing myself in that I feel I may be a bit ahead of schedule (1 week and 1 day shy of 3 months post-op) with rebounding out of the ugly duckling stage? You guys be the judge. Maybe my 2x daily use of Min has something to do with it. I am applying Min in the morning after the shower. It stays in all day until just before bed time when I shower again and reapply just before going to bed. And while I was planning to not cut my hair again till Thanksgiving, I was starting to look like Stewie with my hair jutting out on the sides. So I faded the sides and the back and left the top untouched. It is very cool to have the fade line go right up to the where the temple and hairline meet somewhere on my forehead instead of a 1/3rd of the way in back of my scalp. Now for the pics: Hey look, how did I get a FUT scar from my FUE procedure? But yeah, like I said, I'll give it a year. Still have redness. Might be partially due to the Minoxidil. Too many grafts were taken too far up on the right side near the vertex. My vertex shows more scalp now due to the extractions. Wide angle shot under 5k LED lights: Wide angle shot indoors lit from the 6pm mid-October Sun coming through the windows: I am starting to see multi-hair grafts in the hairline. Will pay attention to this closely as the growth sets in.

No suggestions. Remember you have to be critical/analytical with the choice of surgeons. Don't make the mistake of being pragmatic like I did. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Of course man. Always willing to help. That is normal with the liquid. I use the foam which is much easier to apply (for me). I've heard others prefer the liquid because they say it is easier to apply (go figure). I apply about a golf ball size of foam to my scalp each time. I think I spend about 2-3 minutes at most on the effort. My hair characteristics is much like yours; we are both Asian. I'd imagine foam would work better for you. Others with thicker hair or afro hair may benefit from the liquid. I've been on Fin and Min since May 2020 (just 5 months). I use 1mg of the Dr. Reddy brand that I get from Kaiser ($9/month). The lucky ladies are still lucky ladies even after starting the meds. As a matter of fact, today I was chatting on Facebook with a girl that is in her mid-20's that I've been seducing for a while. Stupid pandemic has slowed down the seduction process. And the next part is TMI, but I was getting a little hard from the innuendo she was infusing into our conversation. The wanting to bed her has never diminished, it grows more and more. And as you can tell, my wits are as sharp as ever. Don't know if you will get sides effects. But at least try it. As for my procedure, that is why I mentioned earlier, you must seek out a surgeon for your case/age whose ethics are beyond reproach. I don't know what region of the world you are in, but I would go to a highly regarded surgeon that has been known to reject patients. If that surgeon rejects you, embrace the bald life. If he accepts you, buy a lottery ticket to harness the good fortune.

Thanks for the update. Out of curiosity, did you say "NO" to allowing Dr. Diep to use your procedure for marketing? I answered "NO".

I find that Minoxidil is easiest to apply when your hands and scalp/hair are slightly moist, regardless of length. The rule of thumb I've encountered with Min foam is the longer the hair, the more you have to apply in small quantities. Short/shaved hair, apply in gobs with palm. Long hair, apply in dabs with fingertips. Massage in with fingertips using both hands for 1-2 minutes. I apply in the morning after the shower and towel drying my hair. Then let it sit all day. When it is time for bed, I will either shower, then apply. Or wash my just head under a shower head, then apply. I do it 2x daily. The only time of day when Min is not in my head is for the few minutes twice a day when my head is under a shower head. I use the foam and apply it in a gob on the vertex then work it forward now that my head is shaved. When it was long, I had to dab it in with my fingertips. HL slowed after 1.5 months. HL stopped at about 2.5-3 months. I got regrowth about 3.5 months after starting meds. 2.5 months ago, I got my HT.