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UnbaldEagle

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Everything posted by UnbaldEagle

  1. Hey @Redhead. It's been a while since I posted here. I just read your post and felt like I'd share my own experience with these issues. Know that there's hope and treatment options, but those are not called Aloe Vera, topical steroids or pretty much any ointment that your dermatologist might prescribe. Dermatologists who do not operate lasers can offer little help apart from telling you what's typically advised here: just wait a little bit more, it will fade. Even though from what I understood, it's been years in your case. The problem is, especially considering scar redness is that if it didn't fade in 7 months, it is pretty much a permanent condition. In some rare cases it would fade until 1 year, but it just stops improving after that. First of all, it is not your skin that is red per se, nor is it postoperative redness (i.e. erythema) as it was offered by someone above. That's a normal stage of wound healing, whilst having this amount of redness 9 months post op is simply not. As I said, when it comes to redness it's not really your skin that needs to be healed, but rather the capillaries which were ruptured by the thousands of incisions. So it's the broken capillaries that are causing the redness (they are not actually broken, but remain more dilated than before), hence it's a 3D problem rather than 2D. As far as treatment options are concerned, yes, dermatologists would sometimes prescribe a topical steroid, as they are anti-inflammatory, and some of the stronger ones, such as clobetasol propionate, are vasoconstrictive, so in theory they would constrict these dilated capillaries which are causing your redness. However the blood is still pulsing under pressure from the heart, so it would require long term use to see a noticeable reduction in redness, which is a problem because steroids would thin the skin, potentially leading to skin atrophy, which is irreversible and would make telangiectasia even more visible. So it's best to avoid topical steroids, or use them sparingly. I've tried a few myself and haven't seen any improvement. If you really want to try out any topical, there's tacrolimus which acts just like a steroid, but without causing any thin skinning, or silicone sheets, for which there are some studies showing they could reduce the appearance of hypertrophic scars, including redness and cobblestoning. The only problem is it's difficult to apply them on a hairy area. But of course do consult with a dermatologist, maybe they will tell you something new. The gold standard for treating redness are lasers, which would also cause permanent hair loss, apart from one pulse dye laser called Vbeam. It is generally used to treat rosacea, but they're equally effective with other vascular issues. Vbeam targets dilated surface capillaries, causing them to shrink, or with purpuric settings (more Joules and different spotsize), causing them to effectively burst and disappear. The blood vessels feeding your follicles are much deeper and at a wave length of only 595 nm, Vbeam wouldn't reach them (the other pulse dye laser, Nd:YAG most likely would). I've had a total of 4 Vbeam treatments thus far and the redness is much better these days. I would say mine was comparable to yours at around the year mark. I didn't shave my hair for the first 3 treatments so it's possible that my hair has absorbed the energy from the laser and that's why my forth treatment, for which I shaved my hair, appeared to be more effective. I'm planning to do 2 more treatments and then hopefully move on with my life and try to forget I ever had this dreadful HT. Lastly, for the cobblestone appearance of your skin, there's microneedling, but again, that would require a few sessions. I would recommend going to a professional rather than buy the dermaroller or dermastamp and DIY. A forum member here, @harryforrealhad some great success in treating his own plucked chicken skin. All the best and I hope you find a way. If it's any consolation, I think your hair looks great otherwise.
  2. Guys, Thank you all for your comments and concern. The reason I no longer post any updates is quite simply because I have nothing new to report. I don't think I can contribute to this forum anymore, after all we're all here to beat this curse called hair loss and I have no idea how my own misfortune could be of any use to anyone. If you look at my earlier posts, I was upbeat and encouraging and an ardent believer in reversing hair loss by all means, including treatment. All I'm using now is finasteride, I've dropped dutasteride and spironolactone and oral minoxidil recently as my frontal third is just a wreck and I doubt I could regain anything with drugs. I also do not wish to become a pity case. Once again I kindly ask @Melvin- Moderator to delete all pictures that identify me as a person. If you feel it's for the best, you can delete this whole thread altogether. @Doron Harati, thank you for your input. Yes, you did get in touch with me recently so for those asking, it's not like HDC has ditched me or anything like that. @Egy and @AZ67, in all fairness the clinic was not trying to silence me in any way, there is no behind-the-scenes agreement between us either. Doron, as I mentioned last time, I'll send you pictures at the 12 month mark. It's rather pointless before that, I want no "it could still improve" remarks. It is generally accepted full results can be evaluated at the year mark. Btw, congrats on your new surgery and I wish you good growth. As for some of your suggestions: 1. Scalp biopsy. It wouldn't be of any help. The purpose of a biopsy is to determine if one has some sort of indolent infection, demodex mites or some other underlying conditions, such as scarring alopecia, i.e. lichen planopilaris or folliculitis. I had neither, determined by multiple dermatologists. I've also followed a good course of doxycycline and ivermectin to fight any infection and I was tested for demodex mites. There's nothing a competent dermatologist can't diagnose without a biopsy if they'll look into all the aforesaid reasons. Also a biopsy leaves a scar which is something I really don't need on top of my existing scarring issues. 2. A trichologist instead of a dermatologist I appreciate this suggestion but I really don't know what to make of it. Trichologists are NOT MDs and I'm not sure about other parts of the world, but in the UK and the US they are not allowed to diagnose your condition and can only prescribe you topical treatments. Trichology is paramedical, a dermatologist on the other hand is someone who studied 6 years of medical school and a few extra years to specialize in dermatology. They're really not in the same league. It's like saying you can go to any HT "surgeon" who is not an MD but has adequate training and experience. I've seen 5 dermatologists already and I studied pharmacy myself so I know a thing or two about biology, I think I covered all the other aspects that could have interfered with my HT. To this day, I don't know what went wrong with my surgery. @Egy, I read your thread and I'm truly sorry you're suffering too. My heart goes out to you. I hope one day we'll figure out how to fix our problem.
  3. @Helios and @Gasthoerer, thank you for your advice guys. I will contact other surgeons too, and least so that I can have an understanding of future options, of any. I'd probably need about 3K grafts to attain acceptable density, but the real concern is whether it's worth pursuing a repair under the circumstance that I now have significant amount of scar tissue built up, so blood circulation is somewhat compromised already. And I fear of making things even worse. But of course I won't know that unless I do contact ethical surgeons in the future. Thanks, guys.
  4. Let's not lose track of the fact that I had a first procedure addressing my temple regions only, from which I had fairly good growth except for my right temple region which was somewhat patchy (although when I first sent photos to HDC they were hesitant to take me on as they didn't think I had a real problem) VERSUS a procedure that addressed my whole frontal third, shocking out my existing hair and yielding me no growth. Sadly I was greedy, but I could have lived with that first procedure vs. finding a hard time to cope with a procedure that has completely ruined my life. I think THIS is what truly calls for a repair procedure. I'm not sure if you can appreciate the difference. I'm still 4 months shy of the "final result", so I will wait until the year mark and contact the clinic then to have a video call for a full evaluation.
  5. Hi @Helios, I can see it was clarified we had our procedures on separate days. When I did my research of HDC I too could only see good results. That, and because they're recommended here is why I choose them. Of course, back then - apart from 2-3 patient journeys dating back to 2017 or so - they were almost all posted by the clinic. I'm not saying these results are not genuine, on the contrary, I'm just calling them what they are: clinic posted results. There's a difference in cherry picking the most successful HTs final results (out of several hundred a clinic does per year) as opposed to seeing actual patient journeys who post from day 1, not knowing how their own final results will turn out. Now there's a recent surge of patient reviews and I can only hope those guys achieve the result they desire. But me and @WonkyHair unfortunately didn't. That's all to it. @Parasol, @WonkyHair, @Gasthoerer, @Legend007, thank you for your words of compassion, guys. With all due respect though I will not post any more pictures. It takes a great deal to muster the courage to look into the mirror these days, let alone take a picture. I hope you understand. In fact I kindly ask @Melvin- Moderator to remove previous pictures too, at least the ones where my face is visible. @WonkyHair already recognized me (that's fine though) and I fear somebody else might too. I can assure you my suffering and shame is genuine so I no longer wish to be associated with something that progressed from an ordeal to a true living nightmare. If that's not possible you can delete this whole thread altogether. @Doron Harati, you keep saying that you "tried" contacting me several times and I feel I have to correct you on that. There's been a grand total of 1 "attempt", to which I responded with a delay of 2 days. I really hope I don't have to screenshot and post our private conversations here. You contacted me to do the Skype video call, I gave you my Skype address and then you told me Israel is under heavy attack and you have to stay in your basements and "let's see how it goes". I responded and told you to stay safe and there was no subsequent follow-up, it's only now, 3 months later your brought up this again. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted this to you being unavailable. I must ask however, what is the purpose of this video call? What is HDC's resolution to failed transplants? I'm really curious. I will say however that I'm not going back to a repair procedure.
  6. TL;DR: Posted the last update at 5 months with pics and I have the same amount of hair now at 8 months and 1 week. I had no growth whatsoever and quite frankly I have no idea how is that even possible. No recovery from shock loss either so at present time I have much less hair than before the procedure. Some bare patches here and there and a completely destroyed left temple region. On top of this there are severe scarring issues: redness, cobblestoning, fibrosis. I know it's fairly rare to see no growth from a HT so for a while I thought I'm deceiving myself and I must have had some growth despite not seeing any hairs popping out, and despite actually having less hair now than pre-HT. After all it's hard to tell because I had hair implanted between natives. So the only place where it would be more revealing are the zigzags or whatever they are called, which were created in front of my existing hairline. And I look at them and all I see are the little poke holes created by the incisions but no hair. None. Seriously, it just baffles me and I can't find any explanation for it. I knew it can be quite risky to have hair implanted between existing hair but I trusted Dr. Maras has great experience in such cases. I still have the redness and cobblestoning and it's quite depressing to look at it. Of course if I had a great result and I'd have the right amount of hair to mask all of that it probably wouldn't bother me so much. Like @WonkyHair, I spend a ridiculously long time trying to fix my hair whenever going out in order to hide this mess on top of my head. My hair is longish again, but it's mostly a combforward of sorts and it just looks pathetic. I've become a social recluse since my HT, only venturing out of the house for work. I can work from home, but every now and then I do have to go in to the office and my colleagues are looking at me totally bewildered. I'm not sure if they can tell if I had a HT, after all they've known me before the procedure so if anyone suspects that they'd think I should have more hair, right? But I'm certain they can tell that something very unhealthy happened to my scalp. And it really, really sucks. I must confess I've sunk into depression and hopelessness and I have no idea how could I have a normal life again. There's not a single day when I don't wake up regretting all the damage this surgeon has caused me. I'm sorry if I've let anyone down. I'm well aware some people like Doron had a great result at HDC so I'm truly sorry my own post is so negative.
  7. Hi @Doron Harati. Yes, I recall that, it was 3 months ago and I added you on Skype to have that video call but then you told me you're unavailable due to the political turmoils in your country and then you never contacted me again. It's fine, honestly. We can do the Skype video call if you want to, but I'm not sure if it would do me any good as quite frankly I have absolutely no intentions of going back to HDC.
  8. Hey @WonkyHair, I remember you now, thanks for everything. Unfortunately it didn't work out for me and I'm suffering greatly because of it. I just checked out your post, I'm sorry that your result is poor. At least yours could be fixed by a good surgeon if that's any consolation.
  9. Not trying to be rude, but what's the point of sharing a HT journey if you won't even mention the clinic, and deliberately ignore anyone who asks??? Sure, you mention Istanbul, Turkey, as if all hair transplants done there would end up like yours. Highly misleading to newbies.
  10. Recipient area looks much better. It usually takes a long time for shocked native hairs to come back so it might be the transplanted hair! Sounds exciting, can't wait for your next update.
  11. It looks great, I'm pretty sure you'll be very happy with the final result. Best of luck.
  12. It's not a bad result, but the temporal points could have been more refined. They're just too straight and not very feathered. It's quite apparent from the video. What's important though is that the patient is happy with it.
  13. It was disheartening to read this. Sean, I'm so sorry you had to go through this and that something which is supposed to improve your life had made it worse. My prayers are with you and I hope you get the repair you deserve. Really rooting for you. I think some doctors should chime in to this thread.
  14. Hey John. I'm in a state of waiting and trying not to lose hope. Will post an update at 6 months.
  15. Yeah, donor looks a bit scarce in the middle, but the extraction pattern was even so you shouldn't worry about it so early. Happy growing.
  16. Looks amazing, you must be over the moon with it.
  17. There's more to come from the looks of it. May I ask who was your clinic?
  18. It's filling in, man! I believe there's more growth on the right side. I think you're doing great at 5 months, not bad so far. Btw, I can't see any pinkness, but I wish I had yours.
  19. Hypopigmentation. Usually occurs in burn scars due to reduced blood flow. It's quite rare from surgery. There's fractional laser resurfacing as treatment, but unfortunately that would cause hair loss. PDL lasers which do not affect hair follicles are more suitable for hyperpigmentation.
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