shucity

Hey hey, yeah sorry for the late response. Here's some pics I took 2 months ago at the 6 month mark. I haven't taken any since but it's filling in a bit more. I'm pretty happy with the density on the hairline, it is quite a bit less dense in the middle behind it, but I'm hoping it continues to fill in. Will take some 9 month photos at the end of this month and upload. Honestly I saw a ton of growth on the hairline by the 5 month mark, it's continued since then but has looked kind of similar overall. I don't have recent pictures of the scar, but it did stretch a bit on the sides. I get haircuts w/ a 5 guard and it mostly covers it but is noticeable if someone's standing close and looking. It needs to be a bit longer to be imperceptible.

It's a 1.5 on a back and fades up to a 3. The hairs right above the suture line are a little bit longer b/c it's hard to get a consistent buzz there as the skin is a bit uneven. I knew the scar would for sure be very visible at that length but didn't mind much and was curious to give it a look.

Thanks for the kind words all - sharing 1 month photos for the record. Nothing too exciting up top - most but not all of the transplanted hair has fallen out now. I expect the rest will in the next few weeks. I got the sides buzzed for the first time and got a closer look at the scar. Definitely some shock loss around it and the redness makes it look a little worse as well. Haven't been doing any lifting/going to the gym, plan to stay off that for at least another couple months.

I went in today to get my sutures removed. The process was simple enough, I got there a bit before my appointment time but they saw me pretty much immediately and I was out within 15-20 minutes. I didn't see Dr. Diep, but the person removing the sutures told me that the scar is looking good and there's nothing to be alarmed about. I asked her to take a few photos, I'm curious to hear what you guys think. Parts of it look a little scary, but I think it might just be random splotches of redness and maybe dried blood

Awesome, thanks for linking this video! Watching it now and it's what I needed to see. Appreciate the support 🙇

Also, do you guys have any tips for itchiness in the recipient area? I was a little surprised Dr. Diep advises against using any spray/mist for the recipient area since in reading other threads I thought that was pretty common practice. He did suggest taking benadryl or allegra for the itching, I gave that a try yesterday but don't think it helped that much. I won't second guess the doctor and do anything against his recommendations since his method gets results, but I'm curious what others do for the itching. For now i'm just sitting on my hands when the itching starts and just wait for it to go away lol

Not much to update on Day 3 post op, but thought I'd upload some more pics. Today was the best the pain has felt but I definitely still needed the meds shortly after waking up. I also had almost no discharge out of the donor site last night, which I'm going to take as a positive sign. I haven't touched the recipient yet, but it felt great to give the donor strip a wash this morning. Tomorrow will be my first time rinsing the recipient (not supposed to actually touch it until day 8 though). I haven't had much swelling yet, was expecting more of that. Yesterday there was some along the sides of my face and forehead, today it's a little more concentrated on the middle of my forehead, I guess at some point it will travel down to my nose and eyes but it doesn't seem to be too much. I live by myself so it's been hard to get a proper view of the scars, but the photos I got today are probably the most I've seen of it so far.

When you get a second procedure done do they try to align the scars so they're right next to each other, or do they have to be separated a bit? It's a long way in the future for me, but I'm curious how that works with having two scars. Your healing looks great, maybe I'm just crazy but I honestly can't confidently tell where the scars are in that photo...

I feel like I'm healing mostly ok, definitely need the pain meds but they help take the edge off a good bit. I have swelling along the side of my face, but it hasn't worked it's way over to my nose or eyes yet. I washed my donor area for the first time today and I was so nervous to touch it for fear of messing anything up. I can't even imagine how scared I'll be when it comes to cleaning the recipient area! I'm also running out of the clean pads the doctor gives for using over a pillow. He only gave me 3 and I've basically been using one a night to soak up discharge from the donor area. They aren't that dirty, so I suppose I could re-use if needed but would rather not. What did you guys do at that point, just switch to normal sheets or a towel? I tried stopping by walgreens but they didn't have anything similar

Yeah, a good reminder to keep expectations realistic. I can't help getting excited seeing some of the growth some folks manager after just a few months! All in good time either way.

Hahaha it's all good guys, I was actually reading through both your threads over the last few weeks to get a better idea of what I was signing up for. I had put the dating game on hold for a little when California shut back down, I'm hoping to be back at it better than ever in a few months!

Hey all, after following along on this forum for the last couple months I thought I'd share my experience here as well. I just got my FUT procedure done yesterday with Dr. Diep and I'm pumped to start seeing results in the coming months. A little background, I started noticing thinning and a receding hairline in my early 20s. I've been using minoxidil for about 5 years with limited success, the purported side effects of finasteride always had me too scared to give that a try. I'm 29 now and finally went ahead with a procedure after getting to relatively advanced hairloss, Dr. Diep said I was close to a 5 on the norwood scale. I chose Dr. Diep after reading reviews and seeing his youtube videos, also being local to the bay area I was able to get an appointment super quick. I had my initial consultation with him 2 weeks ago and because of a cancellation I was in surgery yesterday! I'm really happy to be able to get through this while I'm still working from home, hoping I'm seeing real growth by the time life is back to normal. He told me because of my advanced hairloss, I'd likely need a second procedure in the future to fill in the back and the crown. He recommended FUT to maximize my yield this time around and keep my options open for a second procedure to fill in the back. On the day of the procedure, everything seemed pretty professional and smooth. Dr. Diep talked me through what to expect, he drew out my hairline and asked if I had anything I wanted to change. By far the most painful part for me was the numbing/anesthesia. I slept through most of the strip removal but was awake for pretty much all the grafting. After lunch I was starting to feel pain in the donor and was feeling a bit restless so I asked to get some more numbing injections and he gave me another xanax to help relax me. This helped the afternoon go really smoothly. Once I got back to my hotel, there was quite a bit of pain in the donor area. I had to take pain meds twice to fall asleep, but I was feeling quite a bit better once I woke up and am feeling much less pain today I ended up opting for both the A-Cell and Amnio injections to help with the scarring and got 3900 grafts FUT, the breakdown is 681 - 1 hair 2006 - 2 hair 782 - 3 hair 433 - 4 hair Anyway, here's some pictures. I'm really happy with how the hairline is looking especially compared to some others I've seen. I haven't yet been able to get a good look at the scar but they told me it was looking pretty good when I came in for cleaning. Would love to hear what you all think!