EvoXOhio

Everyone is different, as it will depend on if you get shock loss, how long your scalp stays red, how long the ugly duckling phase lasts, etc. For me personally, it was a full 3 months before I was comfortable going anywhere without a hat. At 3 months I just started to look like I did before the HT. I think even then I still had some shock loss on the crown, so I technically looked balder. But I didn’t have a visible scar, no redness, etc. 

I see many more bad temple point restorations than I see good ones. As you said, it seems to be the trickiest area to get to look natural. In my case, my hairline restoration is still that of a receded/age appropriate hairline, so in my case I think having thinned temples make my results look more natural. Now, if you had your hairline restored to that of an 18 year old, having no temple points would look odd. So it all depends on what you’re getting done. But the worst thing you could do is get a bad temple point restoration, as that screams HT to anyone who sees you. 

2 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

A flat iron, while looking feminine works best IMO. Especially with long hair.

With my hair, using either a flat iron or a hair dryer leaves my hair looking so flat. I have considerably more volume when I towel dry my hair. 
 

but even if that wasn’t the case, the thought of having to flat iron my hair every day would make my ancestors turn in their graves. 😂

13 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Don't do the Keratin treatment, it will ruin your hair. My friend has naturally curly hair and he has hair of the gods. After he did the treatment he looked like he was slightly thinning. It burnt his hair. 

Yeah I have gone back and forth but ultimately decided against it. I have seen tons of amazing video reviews of great results, but then also read horror stories like yours and even worse ones. Sounds like it’s hit or miss, or it’s easy for the barber to do it wrong. Definitely not worth the risk. 

I’m almost at 12 months and mine is still pretty wiry. So much so that I considered a keratin treatment to fix it. I do hope it calms down soon. It will likely take me longer to notice improvements since I am growing my hair long, so I’m not cutting the ends off, which will remain wiry 

My hair from my temple points  to my ears has always been different. It’s thinner, it doesn’t grow very long, and it’s wiry/curly. When I was 16 I grew my hair down to my shoulders, but that area around my temples and ears never grew longer then 2 inches. When my hair is shorter, my hair looks similar to yours in that area. I’ve had this since as far back as so can remember (age 16 if not younger). It has thinned out more over the years, as is common for balding men to lose their temple points. But the point is that even before I had hair loss I had this same issue. So it’s hard to tell if you’re the same or if it’s something else. I’ve attached a pic when I was 26 (I can’t find any older pics that show my hair from this angle), which was before my hair loss started. You can see that the same area is much thinner. My hair was cut the same length all around the sides, but you can only see scalp on this area due to the thinness. 

3 hours ago, hairlosscpa said:

Dude the NYC location is a block away from my office. Thanks!!

Nice!

7 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

It looks thin, but at that length I’m not sure smp will help. You need to shave down short for smp illusion to work.

There are lots of examples (myself included) where SMP density treatments add the illusion of hair even if your hair isn’t shaved. The place I went to has examples from people of various hair lengths. The key is not hair length, but rather making sure you have enough hair density in the area to get the illusion. You need to have enough hair so that you’re just filling in small gaps. Meaning a fully bald crown you can’t do anything about, but thin areas like I have and the OP has would work. 

27 minutes ago, hairlosscpa said:

That looks awesome man! I live in Jersey and really don't want to travel much for SMP if I can find a reputable clinic here. If it were a HT it would be a different story.

The place I went to (Hairline Ink) also has a facility in New York, but not sure how far away from it you are. 

2 hours ago, SLA said:

I know @EvoXOhiorecently had SMP done as a thickening effect. I think he went to Hair Ink Chicago. You might want to reach out to him- his results look excellent!

Also, @Gatsbyhas SMP and seems to know quite a bit about it.

Yeah check out my thread: 

you can see my before pics, pics after one session, and pics after two sessions. I also posted a video of my results after the two sessions. 

2 minutes ago, Legend007 said:

Man your hair looks thick n full .. FUT is still very viable .. n delivers .. 

U have great donor hair.. I don’t think u ever be bald again .. 

Thanks! Yeah I’m hoping with my regime of daily fin and min plus my weekly topical dutasteride that I will not lose any more hair. 🤞

Stepped back a few steps so not under the immediate harsh light and took these pics, which probably better represent how it all looks in normal lighting. 

11 month update. Like I said last month, at this point my thread is just an update on how long my hair is growing. 😂

Tried something different for a few of these pics, instead of using front facing camera I used the regular camera and took a picture of me in the mirror. All the pictures are in super harsh bathroom lighting. 
 

im starting to have a big ole mop of hair and I’m loving it. I plan on growing my hair pretty long, assuming no more hair loss. 

I have suffered with depression all my life, and lost Hat was a whirlwind of emotions. Immediately after I was horrified at how bad I looked, during the ugly duckling phase I was depressed thinking I’d made the biggest mistake of my life. I also would have anxiety thinking that if the HT was a failure, I could never shave my head bald due to my FUT scar. At many times early on in the process I said that getting an HT was the worst thing I’ve ever done. 
 

then time went on, my hair grew in, and now I have basically a full head of hair and I couldn’t be happier. For people prone to anxiety and depression, the short term after the surgery is really hard. 

9 minutes ago, cpfm said:

Any updates?

Also goes for @win200

Nothing yet. I had to stop it for a month when I got SMP, so I just started up a couple weeks ago. 

11 minutes ago, makehairgreatagain said:

@Gatsby said it well. You've been hard on yourself through your postings. Your result looks fantastic so far and he's right about it taking up to 18 months to fully mature. I was fortunate enough to be a quick grower but there were still changes that happened. Don't rush getting a second transplant, your result turned out great.

Thanks! Yes I’m a very impatient person by nature and I have very poor self esteem. I definitely won’t get another HT for at least 5 or more years. 

5 hours ago, Gatsby said:

Any grafts in the crown can take up to 18 months to benefit from. Also did Mike have an issue performing SMP within 12 months of a hair transplant? Looking at your initial pre op pictures you look SO much younger now dude! For a chain clinic you did well!

Yeah I know they can take up to 18 months, but the hairs I have in the crown seem as thick as normal hairs, and I know knew ones won’t be pushing through. That’s why I went with the SMP now, I know I wasn’t going to get the results I wanted from the HT. 
 

Mike said he won’t do SMP if it’s been less than 9 months since an HT. I was at 9 months and a week so it was all good to go. He said he had no issues. 
 

Thanks for saying I look younger! I definitely feel better about my appearance and my confidence is so much higher. I do struggle with hair greed and wonder if I want a second HT to fill in the crown a bit more, lower and thicken my hairline, and do my temple points….. but I’m so happy with these results I’m going to wait. If I start losing more hair, or when my SMP needs a touch up, then maybe in 5-10 years I’ll get a second HT

4 minutes ago, makehairgreatagain said:

Your not a patient person 😂

It looks really good overall

I mean you’re right I’m not patient lol but what specifically do you mean? Not patient how? 

10 month update. Nothing really to report other than my hair is longer, I quit dying my beard, and I put two holes in my ear 😂.

My HT is definitely done, plus I got SMP for density so I’m not going to see any visual improvement from here on out. I’m also on topical dutasteride which will hopefully help me keep my hair and if I’m lucky regrow or thicken some hair. 

Not sure if it’s even worth updating this thread any more as I don’t foresee any changes 
 

https://youtube.com/shorts/tuFvAQnjIAY?feature=share

1 hour ago, Ajamilo said:

Yeah, the reason could also possible be that i wanted to do it on my donor area too since it has patches in some area s after the hair transplant when i grow it out.  

But i will update and see how this goes. I have curly hair so we get 2 differents scenarios for the people who are interessed in this 
 

 

Ah ok, yeah any sort of SMP to fix scars does require the area to be shaved. 
 

What place are you going to?

2 hours ago, Ajamilo said:

Will be doing smp soon too. The smp-clinic recommended me to shave my hair but you did not do it as i can see. 
Do i gain any benefit of it or should i just do it without shaving?

I researched a lot of places that do SMP for density, and none of them required the person to shave their head. Are you sure they know you’re doing it for density and not doing the bald head look? If they’re wanting you to shave your head, I’d be skeptical about them being able to do a density treatment. 

7 hours ago, qui bono said:

its absolutely the density, and the hairline was mainly filled by nape hairs. The surgery was performed by one of the most revered docs in the industry.

They would never tell me the FU per cm so around 2 years post-op I eventually got so fed up I took scissors and started cutting the hairs out along each cm of the hairline. After that the hair no longer curved and I could finally comb my hair again. Ive never felt so relieved. 

im a nw5 diffuse loser as well so ive been pretty upset about everything as its forced me to consider even more surgery. I was never a good candidate for such an approach.

 

I’m not sure I understand, you have yourself a haircut and after that the hairs no longer curved?

5 hours ago, deeznuts said:

That's some pretty good news for my unibrow

I’ve been plucking my unibrow weekly for over 20 years and it’s the same as it always was. 

Yes it would grow back, just like any other hair 

I don’t think your hairline is too low at all. I do worry the density isn’t isn’t there, but that could be the pictures. 
 

what doctor did you go to?