HappyMan2021

25k! Holy moly batman! 

@tressful11 sorry to hear about your situation. there really is no excuse why your donor should look like that. 

who was the doctor who botched you? unless they have offered you a full refund (and even then) you have no reason to keep the doctor's name a secret. 

I would be hesitant to go to Hasson and Wong. They have been known to butcher the donor region (even if the rest of the hair looks great). Since you are specifically seeking a donor repair I would be wary. 

I think SMP may actually be the best path. SMP can look really horrible on other areas of the head, but I think it would be great on the donor area.

Keep in mind tho that SMP is literally a tattoo. But unlike a normal tattoo it fades super quickly. I've been told you may need SMP touch ups every 4 years or so. 

Concealer could be a good option as well, and you can do that while you are looking into HT and SMP options. May be quite challenging tho getting the concealer on your donor region. Maybe put some on your finger and put it on that way. 

You require a lot of grafts. Even 1 homerun HT from a world-class surgeon may not be enough. I imagine you will need at minimum 2 HT's - and maybe more- before you get a satisfactory result. And even then you may just become turn into a NW3. With your loss  a doctor may consider it very riskly to give you a NW1 type-hairline. 

Not to discourage you at all, but have you given a hair system an honest shot? 

Going down the HT route may be an appropriate choice, but considering multiple surgeries and subsequent growing time, it may be a 3 year yr journey before you acheive a result you are seeking. 

who was the doctor?

@BDK081522 @HairNTear thanks. so any proudct, whether its gel or Reuzel, isn't unhealthy for the hair? its just for styling purposes pomade is the best product to use? 

in an ideal world, every single man who is experiencing hairloss should shave their head, to see what they would look like bald. Imagine spending tens of thousands of dollars, years of surgeries and stress, when one may unknowingly look like Jason Statham just by shaving it all off?

However, realistically, many guys look horrible bald. And even if a guy does have the head shape that suits baldness, baldness also only works well if someone is in-shape, which can be hard for a lot of guys. 

Plus just experimenting with being bald means you will have a buzz cut for a good month or 2, which may be awkward for coworkers, etc. 

@Melvin-Moderator so instead I should use wax, clay, etc? true, products softer than gel are probably best

@qui bono thanks. yea seems gel is ok to use daily/till the end of time as long as I wash it. 

I don't remember what the FU per cm is. I want to say the doc told me 50 per cm, but I don't remember. The density actually is pretty good, its just the hair is un-tameable and its curly whereas my native front hair is naturally straight. 

It could be human/doctor error, but my donor region hair actually does get slightly curly at length. So perhaps transplanting this hair just made it curly on steroids. 

I've definitely thought about getting this transplant curly hair removed and/or revised, but if this is indeed naturally curly hair and not human error, then any revision would just produce curly hair again. My donor is also incredibly thick, not sure if that impacted the texture. 

I'm not completely confident in this theory either - but I've been told a hair cycle can be anywhere from 3-7 years, so there is a chance this curly hair will naturally straighten as the years go by. 

But regardless, I am in no mood to get another HT to potentially correct it. It would be my 4th HT and I don't have it in me to deal with the stress and drama of another surgery. And again, even if I went to a world-class surgeon to correct, if the curly-ness is indeed natural, who knows if the corrective surgery would produce the same results. 

So I have accepted the gel route, even if it makes me come off as a boozy womanizer haha 

18 minutes ago, qui bono said:

2) You could get accused of being a smooth-talking alcoholic womaniser who cheats on their wife

 

haha true....but seriously gel is fine to use everyday? I read that the alcohol in gel can dry out the hair, but that its not a problem so long as you wash it regularly?

Hey. Much of my transplant hair is unnaturally curly and rigid (it sticks straight up). I have accepted this, in part because my hair still looks really good when I put gel in it. In fact-HT or not- one of my favorite hairstyles is a classic gelled Don Draper side part. 

My question is are there any negative consequences for my hair from styling it with gel or other product everyday? Could I just do this forever? I do wash my hair out every night on days I have gel in it. 

Its only been 6 months since my last HT, so my question is really two-fold

1) Can putting gel in daily impede or hurt progress of new transplant hairs that are still settling in?

2) Irrespective of a hair transplant or not, is there anything bad about putting gel in every day? 

Thanks.  

so you want to take healthy existing hair and move it to the front balding section? its almost as if you're looking for a transplant of sorts...

Respectfully disagree that this is a great head of hair. Clear, visible balding at 17 almost certainly guarantees that OP will reach a high Norwood stage in his 20s. 

OP should hop on Fin or DUT asap as long as a doctor says its ok (not sure if 17 is too young or not). 

I wouldn't even think about getting a HT until you are at least 25 (and even that is really young), otherwise you are setting yourself up for a long stressful path of multiple hair transplants and chasing further loss. 

In the meantime, if your hairloss gets worse, maybe explore shorter-length haircuts. 

@Dr. Neil Verma Hi Dr. Verma, if no shave helps see the natrual angle and direction, how come other people say shave actually helps more with this?

so interesting I didn't even think about Kevin James wearing a hairpiece. He seems like such a low maintenance guy, and a hairpiece is the epitome of high-maintenance. 

Plus, every role Kevin plays in he is the dorky, beta, guy-next-door, average Joe everyman, and being bald kind of plays into that stereotype (no offense to anyone). 

Also agree that baldness suits him. 

Good for him for leaving the hairloss war behind and just being done with it all!

@Nasau  sounds like you are very stressed and angry at this doctor. The best thing you can do is try to put this doctor completely out of your mind, cease further communication and visits, and just cut your losses and move on. The MD-DC metro area is huge and I'm sure there are many other good plastic surgery options around you. 

The only situation I would consider keeping this doctor in your life at all is if you think the doctor was negligent or any other case where you demand a refund or some type of monetary compensation. But even then, the stress of the situation may not even be worth it. 

TLDR: Cut your losses with this doc and move on

17 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

@SadMan2021

I totally get your frustration and stress, but we do have female members who could be offended by that comment. 

sorry about that. I wasn't thinking. 

But yes @Melvin-Moderator can you clarify your first response? Do you think its realistic that this brief 2-3 week period of stress could have a negative outcome? 

Would it just be delayed growth, or could the stress cause some of these baby grafts/follicles to simply not grow? Does the fact that the HT was 6 months ago negate a lot of this? 

47 minutes ago, Westview said:

I think even prisoners are allowed access to meds, but I could be wrong

I'm not sure prisoners are allowed cosmetic medications. Maybe they would have access to Fin/Dut if they had a diagnosed prostate issue. 

Trans/Gender-Fluid prisoners can get access to their gender-medication, but again thats bc it is deemed a medical issue, not cosmetic. 

2 hours ago, Shifty said:

You think you have stress now? Wait till he doesn't fire you. 

Trust me I'm going to get fired....to be fair I literally have been on a full-fledged job search the last 3 months and my current job has taken a backseat. I honestly don't care that much about being unemployed, its more this PIP process is pure torture.

6 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Stress can certainly affect the growth, it can definitely delay it. 

@Melvin-ModeratorTo clarify, realistically- do you think worst case is any growth is just delayed? Or could stress permanently stunt or destroy any of these baby grafts/follicles? And you think a few weeks of stress then a return to normal is still enough to cause this? Thanks.

@ciaus I'm being fired for performance reasons. I'm pretty sure I would still qualify for unemployment. 

But yea kind of tricky to end the PIP early but make it a termination. I'm thinking of emailing HR something like "for the record I am not resigning, but I cannot complete the goals of the PIP..." and just leave it pretty open ended.

Do you think my hair will be totally unaffected by the stress? Or likely there could be some delayed growth? Even if its just temporary delayed its still really nerve-wracking to think about. 

I got a HT October 20, 2020. So far its been growing in great. 2 weeks ago my boss put me on a 30 day Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) and without going into details I will 100% be fired at the end. From the moment I got put on the PIP 2 weeks ago, my mental health has totally nosedived. I am 100% stressed and super anxious, barely getting any sleep (I'd say 4-5 hours on average) and having 6-7 shots of espresso to compensate. I am stressed to the MAX. I am going to throw in the towel early tomorrow and get my boss to fire me so I can get unemployment (yay COVID for generous unemployment bennies and subsidized COBRA). I honestly hated this job and am glad to be able to devote all my time to a new better job, this PIP is just total agony. I wish my boss had just fired me right away instead of putting me on this legal song and dance.

Anyways, I am super concerned that the stress of the last 2 weeks can impact my hair transplant from October. I know high stress can cause hairloss, so I am super concerned. 

Do I have anything to honestly worry about? I am honestly sure once I am fired my stress will go away. I've honestly been wanting to get fired, its just the PIP hell is pure mental torture. Just concerned that the last 2 weeks of INTENSE STRESS, little sleep, anxiety, and so much anxiety could have adversely affected my HT. 

One thought I had is since the hair transplant is "strong" and from healthy donor areas, stress wouldn't affect it as much as native hair that is on its way out anyways. 

My HT was 1600 in the front and 400 in the back. The 1600 have been growing in. I'm not sure there has been any crown growth yet. I'm worried the stress will totally prevent the crown from growing. 

TLDR: Can 2 weeks of crazy stress adversely affect my HT? If I do lose native or transplant hair from this stress will it just be temporary loss?

Thanks.