chimpaneasy

12 month

Worth noting, I did another A-Cell injection with Dr. Diep a few weeks ago.  Also worth disclosing (probably more importantly), that a couple months ago I began HRT (transitioning) via injections and am in female hormone ranges now so any results here on out will likely not be typical.  I am considering another crown transplant if my crown doesn't fill in the way I want over the next 6-10 months.

7 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Wow it’s getting even better. Looks like its growing straighter.

Yeah it does seem to be improving, but it seems like I might be hitting a peak on the results, what do you think?

11 Month

10 Month

On 10/29/2021 at 4:37 PM, Melvin- Moderator said:

It’s just icing on the cake from this point forward. 

I remember when you first got the procedure, you had a major case of buyers remorse. How do you feel about the procedure? Are you happy?

Yeah I am super happy with it.  I think it still has a bit of room to improve more, but it's given me a ton of confidence and I am definitely not stressed about my hair the way I used to be.  Thanks to you and the rest of the community who kept me sane during the early phases!

8 Month

7 Month

58 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

It's looking even better man, how are you feeling so far? I recall you were pretty worried about how it would look. I think the improvement is jarring for 6 months. 

I'm definitely super happy with it.  Do you think my results are just coming in early?  Or do you think they will continue to get better?

6 Month

Woah! Looking so great!

5 Month

4 Month

Woah, amazing results!  Congrats man!

3 Month

Been shedding a ton of really short fine hairs, hoping maybe dutasteride is the catalyst.

2 Month

1 hour ago, RandoBrando517 said:

I’ve heard that dut once per week and fin ED is the way to go. Might have to try myself.

I dunno about that, but I do know that Dut .5mg/day will decrease DHT by 94.7 ± 3.3%, where Fin is 70.8 ± 18.3%.  I haven't seen any studies about taking them together.

https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/89/5/2179/2844345

3 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Everything’s looking good. How do you feel on dutasteride?

I'm one week in now, nothing noticeable yet.  I didn't have any issues with Finasteride but I know people claim Dutasteride is more intense.  Might go back to Fin if there isn't noticeable regrowth from it or if I get sides.

1 Month

Worth noting I switched from 1mg/day Finasteride to 0.5mg/day Dutasteride and am using Keto 2x week now

I was working with a pharmacy in SF to compound me some topical dut, but I asked my HT surgeon (Diep) about it and he told me that it won't do anything.  I decided to take the plunge and replace oral fin with dut at 0.5mg/day per his recommendation.

My doctor told me I can start exercising again 2 weeks after my procedure.  I usually wear a cap over a balaclava for covid / sun protection and run for up to 3 hours at a time, pretty intensely.  Is this something I can continue to do when I hit my two-week mark on Friday?  I don't have anything to protect my scalp from the sun and figured sunscreen is probably worse since it's packed with chemicals right?  I just don't want to damage my grafts

Thanks everyone!  I look forward to sharing my monthly updates with you all!

Age 31, NW3
Medication: Finasteride 1mg/day, Minoxidil 5% 2x/day
Hair characteristics: High contrast with skin
Cost: ~$21K total, including A-Cell and Amino Fill injections.  Not being incentivized to post this

Before I get started, MASSIVE shoutout to giegnosiganoe who encouraged me to post here and also helped me so much with depression and buyer's regret that I had following my surgery.  He's an awesome dude and I appreciate him so much.

Hair loss timeline:
18 - Started to notice lots of shedding but ignored it
25 - Crown balding started to become apparent as well as hairline thinning
28 - Decided to start Fin / Minox, have decided I haven't seen progression since beginning this regimen

Choice of surgeon:
Dr. Diep was the best rated in the area where I live, I can't travel because I am taking care of my dying mother, and I wanted to get my crown tackled this year.

Procedure:
Arrived at 7:30am.  Staff took me in the back, shaved my head, and then I met with Dr. Diep who outlined my crown, talked to me about my needs, which I said I wanted to only focus on my crown.  He gave me my magic cup of pills which I took and then I went back to the original op room where I waited for them to take effect.  Afterwards, Dr. Diep came in and began the extraction.  During my extraction the chair I was on broke so they moved me into a back office room where they continued the procedure.  After he finished the extraction, I ate food and the technicians began implanting my grafts to my crown.  There is some stuff that happened here that I am working out with Dr. Diep, hopefully he holds true on his side but I will expand later based on my continued engagements with him.  He has offered me his cell phone number and has been very quick to respond to questions which I appreciate, and seems to really care about my results and my opinion of his work.  I was not provided a breakdown on the graft types that were extracted, so I do not know how many single, double or triple hair grafts were taken.

Recovery:
My donor area looked really extreme compared to other surgeons, but I've been told this is because Dr. Diep uses a 1mm punch which results in better success in graft survival.  I haven't noticed a single lost graft so there might be something to that.  The day after I returned to the office for the staff to wash my donor area and remove bandages. The swelling was quite intense and sleeping was a challenge.  I slept at a 45 degree angle for 10 days and applied bacitracin 3x a day to my donor area throughout this time.  Day 8 I began removing crustings / scabs and I am about finished removing them all, I am now at day 13.

I have asked Dr. Diep to send me my post op photos but have not yet received, but I will share my pre-op, and day after photos.  I will also share my updates as recovery continues.

Feel free to ask any questions if there is anything I can expand on.

Photos:

Aug 2, 2020, was trying dermarolling until Dr. Diep told me it could cause more hair loss which is when I stopped

Pre-op, with markings

Post-op, day 1:




Post-Op, day 7:



Post-Op, today (day 13):