brownsugar

On 10/8/2022 at 2:01 PM, baldbalderbaldest said:

@brownsugar any update on this? i too went to Arth and he has quoted 3k-4k grafts for me..consultation was fine but seeing these pics i am worried...

Hey man so here's the thing. When I posted this I was extremely nervous because all over-harvesting pictures online resembled mine. However around 2.5-3 months or so after this post, once the hair were over an inch long it started to blend in and you couldn't tell I got a transplant done from the back. It may even have been shock loss as I have extremely sensitive skin and the antiseptic or whatever applied there really did a number on it. There are two areas however I which have more hair harvested than others and so if my barber cuts too much it shows upon close inspection, but only for a few days.

One small complain I do have is that the hairline looks a bit fake. He didn't spend enough time giving a little fade in the front. Having said that I joined a new job after getting this done and I believe no one has noticed the transplant. I'm fairly happy with the transplant as of now, I cant remember myself from the days of having a balding hairline at all. 

I do want to get another done soon as my original hair is falling out leaving a gap. But I may go for consultation at Eugenix or other ones mentioned in this forum to avoid the panic and fix the hairline maybe. 

Overall I think Arth is not bad. I'm happy with my results. Though with such a huge life decision I wish he'd take more time to consult you and allay your fears. He is in a rush all the time but seems to generally get it right. However a doc in rush isn't very reassuring.  

I'll try to post a series of pictures in this forum if I get the time of my whole journey. 

4 minutes ago, MazAB said:

@brownsugar hang in there my friend. I would agree that it doesn't look good at the start, but consider yourself lucky that your taking control of your situation now. There are many members of this community that went back to the same clinic that did them ugly the first time around for the "make good" session. After everything heals and grows, if your results are below your expectations, by no means even consider going back to the same clinic, even if it's a no charge. Keep us informed and post updates on your progress in the coming months ahead.

All I can do at this moment is wait it out. So I'll do that. And update here how it progresses. There's no chance I'll go to the same clinic to fix it if this happens to not be shock loss. Tough few months ahead for sure. 

2 minutes ago, JC71 said:

Forums seem outdated/antiquated in this day and age, but they are incredibly useful for anybody seeking unbiased information. We just have a very good collective knowledge/experience here. And the results are very open and transparent. The good, bad and ugly ! All here. We might recommend a clinic that’s very well known for doing consistently good work. But yes we have actual patient journeys and not just the cherry picked clinic ones. 

I was a big fan of forums back in the day. Still stumble upon most answers in forums such as this. Guess I'll seek out more of them now. 

In a way it is good forums aren't as accessible as other mediums else it would be easy to end up with shills like everywhere else. Specially in a domain such as this with so much emotional baggage. 

5 minutes ago, gillenator said:

Can you keep us updated as to your progress with pics?

Yes certainly, I was planning to. 

3 minutes ago, digi23 said:

How much do these clinics in India charge per graft?

I'd say about half a dollar. People get it done for even cheaper at shadier clinics in smaller cities. 

1 minute ago, JC71 said:

And a hell of a lot of us here made a poor choice when we was starting out ! Myself included ! I have a shitty FuT scar to show for it. 

Makes this forum all the more valuable honestly. I gave up researching because most stuff I found just seemed like shilling. I don't understand why I never came across this. 

1 minute ago, JC71 said:

It’s the donor area that’s going to the biggest concern here as your aware. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed 🤞 and hope they did actually do less grafts and we can see shock loss. I think both are true. 

Fingers well and truly crossed 🤞.

Just now, JC71 said:

Ask the clinic to see if they kept a graft count, don’t be too surprised if they didn’t though. Normally they have it on a white board, broken down in to singles,doubles, triples etc. But with a clinic doing poor work it’s unlikely. 

They were keeping a count and separating it in twos and threes yes. And while I did ask them how many were extracted I didn't push for an accurate number. Clinics here like to quote the 3k number whether or not they extract that number so that's what they said, around 3k. I'm regretting being so dumb and going into something so permanent with only half the confidence in my choice. 

Just now, JC71 said:

Question is did they say it was 3k of hairs or 3k of grafts ? Big difference 

I will check again. I'm certain they were referring to grafts. 

Would be kind of impossible to tell I agree, but from the recipient picture does it look like 3k grafts compared to the 3k other folks here have posted? I'm looking around the forum to gauge that till I can go to the clinic tomorrow. 

2 minutes ago, JC71 said:

Damn man he thought that extraction pattern was ok 😬

I guess I can only hope 3k weren't extracted and there is shock loss 🥲

8 minutes ago, digi23 said:

Yes the area where the extractions has been made looks to be way to small for 3000 grafts. So either you are extremely overharvested or the Dr did not extract 3000. You need to have some sort of magic skin healing because after 3 days you basically have no dots.

This is what I don't understand myself. I have extremely sensitive skin and always thought I heal relatively slowly. But end of Day 3 and there was no perceptible holes whatsoever.

Just now, JC71 said:

I know the Dr is a plastic surgeon, how much of the work did he do ? Was the extraction/implementation done by techs ? 

He did the holes and oversaw the extraction. Implant was all by the techs. 

6 minutes ago, Berba11 said:

I won't lie to you - my initial reaction to seeing that donor area was not a good one. It's early in the day and the hair is very short so will always look worse, but to my eye that donor area looks way too small so such a large amount of extractions.

Also, 3,000 grafts over your hairline, midscalp and start of the crown is a small amount for such a large area. Most people will require double that number plus some beard grafts to pad out the whole area to a good degree. You've possibly got multi hair grafts in the hairline as well, but it's hard to say from that angle of photo.

I'd honestly be a little worried by the donor area at the moment if it were me. That might not be what you want to hear, but there's no way to sugar coat it.

Could you tell us which clinic & which Dr did this work?

I am worried about my donor area too. I do have some native hair in midscalp and some in crown. Thinning heavily though. So they spread out some hair in the mid-scalp and some in the crown. I am hoping this turns out okay with time but I will definitely go to a better clinic to get this fixed at some point. 

Just now, JC71 said:

I don’t actually think that’s 3k worth of grafts that’s been extracted or implanted.

This is what I'm hoping. At this point I'm unable to gauge what the count was. 

@Berba11 @digi23 the doctor was Arth Shah (Ahmedabad, India)

6 minutes ago, digi23 said:

Yes would be good. I can say that it looks potentially like a pretty small area to extract 3000 grafts from. I had 2550 grafts and mine was spread out alot.

 

The area looks sparse as compared to the area around it, at least 1/3 the density roughly.

The surgeon mentioned they'll be taking the grafts from the safe area only that is prone to lesser shedding later. I wish at this stage it was more spread out like yours and unsafe area to not have this weird crescent if I wanted to keep my hair short, which I did.  Oh well.

Any thoughts on recipient area? 

Just now, digi23 said:

Who was the Dr/clinic?

Its difficult to say about the donor because its uneven shaved as you said. You need to let it grow out abit more to see.

You dont have any photo of the donor area post surgery? Like just after.

Don't have it just after surgery unfortunately. The clinic did take those and I'll ask for it. 

Hello everyone. I got my FUE transplant done with around 3000 hairs 5 days ago. I must admit that I went with a recommended doctor from a contact but didn't fully research as much as I should have. It is only after the surgery that I came to this forum and I'm facepalming hard because a highly recommended clinic on this forum was accessible to me and I ended up not going for that.

What is done is done, I guess. The reason why I am here now is the post operative stress about did they do it right.

Attached are photos from day 4. 

My recipient area looks like the attached image from the first day itself. There's no blood clots or white tissue I see on photos here and elsewhere.

My donor I don't see the red dots that I see on everyone's photos here. It has been like this from Day3 when I removed the bandage. I'm wondering if this is normal? And does the donor look overharvested? Note that hair was trimmed unevenly in that area so it may appear patchy, at different lengths. (edit: added a photo from Day 5) 

I'm constantly worried if it's been done right and finally decided to post here to either ease the constant tension or resign to the fate. 

This is a wonderful community and I wish I had found it sooner. Might have saved myself a lot of time and stress.