Glasswing

Hi again, been a while. I wasn't really keeping up this time but I did finally take some pictures. Two of them are with wet hair, all are taken in the bathroom with direct white light. My left side (the one I got retouched) still feels weaker to me than the right when I look at it in person, but in pictures I don't agree with that. Both sides are thinner than I'd like, but obviously better than before the procedures. Scalp shows through and I do still try to cover that up with styling. I'm self conscious about it but am getting less so as time goes on. Recently a couple times I wore my hair combed to the side. In certain (bright) lighting it feels pretty exposed and noticeable, but other times I think it looks fine. Or good enough. Wet hair left side: Wet hair right side: Front: Left side:

I'm still glad I did it, and I'm pretty happy with the right side. We'll see what comes of the left.

Hair was added to spots where hair used to be but was no longer

Sorry, I didn't take many new pictures, just a quick update. My left side never caught up to my right and so today I had a free touch up. Not even sure the exact number. I know 500 something was mentioned but I don't know if that was grafts or individual hairs or what. My immediate concern upon looking in the mirror once I got home is that way more extractions were made on the back of my head on the right side compared to the left. Very lopsided. Hoping that won't be noticeable once it grows in.

It was expensive, but certainly not $20k

Been a while! Sorry about that, and sorry about all these images I'm about to dump: Right: Left: Eight month mark. I upgraded (?) my phone in February, which is why the pictures are suddenly worse and yellow tinted beginning 2/03. And despite what the closeups may imply, the left side is still clearly less impressive than the right side in person. I did the right side a disservice by taking the worst possible closeups with hair pointing in every direction. In fact I did everything a disservice by staging the photos directly under harsh white lighting. Perhaps it would be more fair to soak my hair and comb it before taking pictures. I'll look into that. Very shortly after my last post in late December, I was in contact with the doctor. Exchanged emails, spoke with the doctor directly. He did agree with me that the left side was lagging behind, and reassured me that we would do a free touch up if needed to get the left side on the same page. It looks like it's needed. Haven't spoken with him since, but I'll work on that. I'll now attempt to summarize all my current thoughts on the whole process up to this point. I kind of feel like I need to separate my thoughts into two, one for each side. Taking just my right side into account, I'm decently pleased with the results. It actually looks pretty good when I manage to cut my hair well and don't intentionally try to expose my scalp. Taking just my left side into account, I'm underwhelmed. I definitely feel the need to make an effort to comb my hair forward and at just the right angle on that side to help cover the thinness. Is it better than it was? I guess. I do have some hair where I previously didn't, so at the very least I need to make less of an effort than I once did. Overall, I don't regret that I got the procedure. Hindsight being 20/20, it's hard to not look back on the specifics of my procedure and wonder how they could have turned out differently. I spent a premium to have a well-regarded and nearby doctor perform the procedure. While I was concerned about the lower than average graft estimate, I tried to see the positive: higher chance that more individual grafts would survive; preservation of more donor hairs for future procedures if needed; maybe I'd be satisfied with the final density. But now I'll probably need a second procedure. Which means using more of my donor hairs. Which means potentially a final tally of 2,000 grafts for a result that looks like 1,400 grafts. What if I had gone to someone that did 2,000 grafts from the beginning? Would I only have needed one procedure and achieved denser hair for less money? Or would I have had similar or even worse issues? I have my theories, but I can't know for sure, so I guess it's not really worth thinking about. That all sounds negative, but I'd still consider this an overall positive. Not a miracle by any stretch, but positive. I have more good hair days than I did before my procedure. I'm less concerned that my carefully styled hair will fall out of place and expose my scalp than I was before my procedure. I spend less time panicking while researching my prevention and styling options than I did before my procedure. And for all that, I'm happier than I was before my procedure.

I knew that the number of grafts may not produce a home run at my first bat, but I was (and still am) hoping that it would at least be a drastic improvement over what I had there (nothing). And then I'd consider my options from there. To be honest, I'd be pretty happy if both my sides looked like my right side does at this point. In fact I may even be happier if both of my sides looked like my left side, since then I could more easily convince myself that there aren't potential issues, with both sides being consistent. If that makes sense. The part that's hard to come to terms with is the clear disparity between sides. But I won't give up all hope just yet, and will of course try to heed everyone's advice to stay calm and give it some time. For the vast majority of the graft placements, one tech was working on one side at a time, yes. In fact, for the left side, there was only one tech and nobody else at all in the room basically from start to finish of the placement process. As for the mask, if I remember correctly (without going back and looking at all my notes), I believe I had to wear it the whole time I was being worked on, except when my grafts were being extracted (because for that portion I was face down). I also don't recall them asking if I had been tested recently, but I wasn't. Thank you, Gasthoerer and digi23! It makes me feel better to hear that I'm not all alone in this boat of mine 😃 And thanks everyone for the responses! Appreciate honest feedback

One week shy of four months, here's another update: In retrospect, these collages I'm doing aren't the most useful considering they cover up most of the transplant area. Oh well, I'll still see it through. But with this update, I must admit that my optimism is dropping quickly. As the days pass, the disparity between the two sides seems to widen. My right side has clearly denser growth, as well as a less red scalp. Right: Left: Middle: So how worried should I be? Because I can assure you that I am very worried. Is this at all typical? I still can't help but think back and recall the one single difference between the two sides throughout this whole process; the grafts were placed by two different techs. That leads me to the uncomfortable thought process that the left side was implanted incorrectly and is destined to fail. Or am I jumping to conclusions?

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone! Unfortunately, I wouldn't call it a hair storm just yet, but nonetheless it's been a while and so it's time for an update. And don't worry, I plan on seeing these updates through at least a year post-procedure, good or bad. Some of the questions that were asked I will answer via PM. Image dump: And closeups from 12/12/2021: As far as where I'm at now and my overall thoughts: I'm trying not to jump to conclusions, because I know that in the grand scheme of things I'm still quite early on at about 3.5 months. Easily my biggest concern (as it has been since the first week or two) is that there is a clear difference between the two sides. My right side (first closeup picture above) has noticeably more hair growing in compared to my left side (picture immediately below it). I'd say it's even more clear in person. And I can't help but remember that my left side was almost completely done by one tech who didn't work on the right side (there's that conclusion-jumping I'm trying to avoid). All I can do now is wait and see how it pans out. Like I said, still early on so I'm still maintaining a certain level of optimism. As you can also see, the pinkness is still there a bit, and I do try to cover that up, but I don't doubt that that will continue to fade. Checking now, I think the numbness is all gone. Hard to tell, to be honest. It did at least last until relatively recently, I'd say, but that was never my major concern.

Not much excitement at this stage. Lost pretty much all the hairs, but here's some more pics that I still continue to take weekly: I suspect there won't be much excitement for a few more months, but I'll be damned if I skip a week.

Thanks. Week four update, not much to add since last time.

Thanks! I'm pretty patient, we'll see how it goes. Here's my third week update. Shedding definitely in full force.

Thanks, all. As I continue to feel around the area, I notice more and more hairs falling out. There's no blood and I don't see anything that I'd consider to be the root of the hair. I assume this is all to be expected at this point, and is of no concern?

Two week update. My concerns: The two sides still look noticeably different to me. I don't know if the density will end up being enough to make me happy. I have a hard time not touching the area, feeling for hard pieces and trying to rub them off. I exacerbate some of the hairs falling out because of this, but I guess they're going to fall out regardless, so not a huge deal? I'll be going into work for the first time on Monday. A bit nervous about that, but I already told everyone so that takes a lot of pressure off. Otherwise I still hide away. But I don't look as ridiculous as I thought I might at this point. @stephcurry30 nice, welcome. I take it you haven't opted for a procedure yourself, yet?

Thank you! Fingers crossed. Does anyone have a theory why the hairs on one side appear longer? And does it matter?