Robbert

According to my clinic I was advised to leave it on for 30 minutes from day 3 (day 1 is surgery day) to day 9. On day 10 they advised at least 1 hour. Also I used a lotion without any chemicals, parfums or alcohol instead of shampoo. Then in the shower I rinsed off the lotion very slowly and gently. After the lotion I used shampoo which I left on for 2 minutes. Please note that my first washing was at day 3 by a transplantation specialist at the clinic and my last was at day 10 at the clinic as well. At day two they teached me how to wash it. But again, this is my clinic and the first ten days after care are extremely important. Hence the washing was done by them on day 2 and 10. Next to this 1 month before and for the first 20 days after I wasn't allowed to drink alcohol, take drugs (other than prescription), smoke, be in areas where people smoke, bump my head, hold my head down (first 10 days) . Wearing head gear wasn't allowed in the first 3 months. No swimming for the first month, no barber the first 3 months (donor area 1 month), I also had an emergency number (24/7) that I could call in case if I bumped my head. So yeah, pretty serious which made me feel safe 🙂 But be aware that the aftercare regime differs per doctor, just like the whole procedure during the surgery is different per doctor. So please follow the instructions of your clinic strictly as they will know what is best for their patient.

Please note that you should ask your clinic. I removed the last line as I found that the advise from my clinic does differ from others, each clinic has their own reasoning so best thing to do is to send them an e-mail with the last picture and ask for advise, they will tell you what they think the best option is for you

Much, much better. For what I can see very quickly is that the scabs that are left are the bigger ones from your first photo

I wonder how you are so sure? His HT has been a question for years, how much HT's he had (2 or 3), what type, if he is on meds, etc. As far as I could find, he never spoke publicly about it. Only source I could find that made sense was a HT professional discussing it publicly and making an educated guess.

If you could try fin you might find that it would work without side effects. Please note that I'm not a doctor so it's not medical advise but you could ask your specialist about the dose to start in a safe manner. For what I can see on the photo's is a good spread of the hairs, as it's this short then it will look much thinner than it is when you grow it a bit longer and style it upwards. Also, the photo's seem to be taken in the bathroom with a bright light source? As an example what lighting can do, see the photo below of Elon Musk (please note, the before is after Transplant #1 and after is Transplant #2, Dr. Gary Linkov has a video about it) and take note of his hair on the after photo on the side of his head which is clearly see through when it's short. Also, Musk always wears his hair upwards. I style it upwards as well (sides as front) as it creates the illusion of a full head of hair from the sides. Please note, I used musk as an example for this particular thread as I've seen his sides to be a bit less dense from time to time. No other reason

You said you have used baby shampoo but for how long did you leave it on? How are your scabs today?

Hi all, Thank you for all the responses. Today I had my six month check-up and the doctor showed me the before photo and the one taken today. They were taken at the same location on the same time of the day with the same camera. However the first photo was taken in September and the other in May. The photo location is in the office but away from the windows, however the sunlight could impact the non natural office lighting but only if it's a very rainy day and the other a very sunny day. But for me this was not the case, both were clear sky sunny days. The results are good, the last two weeks the growth has been noticeable which I'm happy about My doctor said that I could expect about 30% more density within the next six months. So I'm relieved and the worries are gone

Hope you had a great time in Thailand, what was your reason to increase the fin dose?

I do wonder, just as @BeHappy said above. The research article shared by me above states to use minoxidil to get as much hairs as possible in the anagen phase in order to increase the amount of follicles to survive a HT. Is this something you did? And how did you check how many survived? Also, do you know the punch size they used? How much could they extract in one session? I'm very interested in a chest HT due to the fact that my chest hairs are (for looks) identical als my scalp hair, same thickness, same color and don't curl. Where my beard hair is thick, strong and dark black and does curl very slightly but the longer it gets the more firm it gets as well. For that reason it would be perfect to use chest hairs in my hairline and to thick up the sides even more and just spread them between my current hairs on the top to achieve a natural look, those single grafts are perfect there.

I'm on 1mg a day now for about 3 months and I can tell that my sex drive did go down a bit. But then again, I also didn't work out anymore. Next to that my alcohol consumption increased significantly and my diet became really crappy (high carb high fat low protein). This caused a massive body fat spike which does not promote sex drive either.. So there were multiple major changes that certainly could also be (partly) the cause of the side effect. Currently I'm hitting the gym again and back on my former diet. Doing this now for just a week so I need to give it time. Also the alcohol consumption is something I want to push down to max 2 beers or 1 vodka a week instead of 40+ beers (converted heavy liquor to beers so those are included). That lifestyle also messed with my sleep which makes me feel fatigued and that doesn't boost my sex drive either. If this doesn't help I will go back to my baseline of 1mg every other day which was perfectly fine for me. Just wanted to see what the effects were on 1mg a day in regards to har growth and recovery. Another side effect which I had months back (feeling depressed) didn't came from fin as I increased the dose during that time and the depressed feeling went away when the evenings became longer (which I had the year before as well). That's a seasonal thing for me it seems now. What I'm trying to say is that it is important to figure out all changes and try to change those first. Also, I've read that for some there is an adaption phase where they have issues but a few weeks later those are gone again.

Is it also true that the chest grafts will then all go in the telegen phase about the same time, which will give you a thin look? The article I posted above stated that you needed minoxidil to ensure you harvest grafts during the HT as they are in the anagen phase.

Do you have the photos from the sides from before the procedure? I can't say anything useful about it due to lack of knowledge but it might help others.

I shaved it once, didn't like it at all but my friends said it was fine, but they're bald as well. After that, a buzz cut was my go to style, 1mm max. Worked out perfectly. Changed my clothing style to match it and got some compliments. Now after my first HT I'm going to do a buzz cut again but then after the 12 month mark. Just curious how that will have improved. If it looks good I might let go on the second HT wish. But it's still very tempting. However, currently I just want to enjoy the growth phase 🙂

Fully understand your frustration with dating and thinning hair. My best results where when I just used a buzz cut, it shows that you don't give a beep. Which shows confidence. That with a good attitude and character will get you in front of all others. For me, my reasoning for a HT was also partly for my dating life. But as I needed to recover and thus stopped dating I found that I'm much happier when I'm simply not chasing women. So I don't date anymore 😂 I also decline offers from ladies who do want to go on a date with me, I simply do not have the time anymore, much more fun things to do then boring dates. Anyway, do you mind sharing your age? It's an important factor to decide if you should consider a HT or if you should consider fin or minox (before, during and after). I'm not a hair transplant specialist but if you share your age, the ones who are could help you out much better.

I'm still rooting for a genetic hairloss treatment breakthrough in months (nuclear war has become possible within weeks, so why not a cure for hair loss within months). A few companies are extremely close (Korean one I believe), one with the same results as finasteride. There was a Harvard study about Gas6 in 2021 that a lot of people are rooting for as well which would be a topical cream, contender for minox. But maybe these things would cause a zombie apocalypse.

For me redness went away between month 2/3. Numbness stayed for about 4-5 months. I never had pain on my whole scalp (due to the numbness) but only local areas, last month I had a painful patch for a few days not sure why. I don't know when exactly but I also had a pulsating sensation across my entire scalp for about a week which was odd. But as you can see, it's different for everyone. Advice from my doc was to start worrying after 6 months if the redness, pain or numbness didn't go away. But whatever you do, do not scratch your head (donor and recipient area).

What I've read is that beard hair should be used as a filler, never as a stand alone to be transplanted on large areas without any other type of hair? Also, won't beard hair start to curl when it gets longer?

I'm researching this as well, so I'm subscribing to your topic My favorite read on this topic: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5447335/#!po=29.4643 From what I found about chest hair: there are a few negatives compared to scalp hair: 1. shorter anagen phase (30%) and longer telogen phase (70%) vs 85% and 15% for scalp hair. 2. Extraction is harder due to the angle. More experienced doctor is required. 3. There are sources that claim a lower survival rate (never found a study on this only articles from clinics) 4. The grafts are mostly single hair vs 2.1 hairs / graft for scalp on average. 5. Logically to me this would mean that you need much more follicles to be transplanted from your chest than from your scalp (due to #1 and #4): 2.1 * (85 / 30) = 6 times as much. If you include the survival rate it would be about 7 times or higher (found sources stating from 10 to 70% survival rate). [I'm highly in doubt about my logical reasoning on this part due to lack of knowledge. Please scrutinize this.] 6. It's advised to treat the body hair donor area for at least 6 months with minoxidil before surgery in order for the surgeon to pick the right hairs in the right growth phase to prevent low survival rates.. (from the article above). The link above also states that PRP treatments could be used to increase yield after the body to scalp HT. I'm cautious about that claim as I've not really seen much research on PRP instead of it being expensive for something that's extremely cheap for a clinic: needles, centrifuge, knowing which part to use after centrifuging and activating, PRP gun or as some clinics do, just some needles. Which for that obvious reason means that the profits are high and the reason to sell PRP treatments are due to the high profit. Any master medical student should be able to do this for you if you just get the equipment yourself (which is about the cost of one treatment). Please don't do this, it's dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. By a professsional dermapen instead for that money, much better yield for your money. Last discussion I heard between two doctors was that they don't know if it's due to the needle injection (which basically is like micro needling) or due to the PRP. With other words: PRP could just be a marketing gimmick. For beard hair, it seems to be much better then any other hair but for me, my beard hair is thick so I'm afraid it would stand out. Please note that beard hair also has a different growth phase but much better than any other type of body hair. I would like to know, has anyone used body hair? If so, which type and was the result satisfactory?

What's the benefit of oral minox? For what I understood how minox works is that it increases blood flow locally, so how would it be beneficial for your scalp hair if you take it orally? Wouldn't hair start to grow basically everywhere on your body? I also believe that dutasteride block both types (I and II) of 5alpha-reductase. Where finasteride only blocks type II. So I'm very confused why doctor Freitas would subscribe both and the strongest one only twice a week.. I'm not a doctor but research states that 0.5 grams a day would block >90% DHT where fin blocks ~70%. So why take the risk to just get a little over 70% with the 2 Dustasteride pills swap a week with possibly more side effects? I'm confused.

If you would've lost a graft then you would've seen blood on your pillow or neck pillow, or maybe on the very first day you might have lost one but then you should've seen it. So if you didn't see that, then you didn't loose any. From you photos, I cannot see that you lost a graft. The 10 day picture looks really good. I'm on finasteride, they told me not to use it for a month after surgery so I didn't use it. But after my first month follow-up I asked if I could get back on it and they said that I could. I don't have any side effects and take 1mg a day. Don't think that fin will thicken your hair, it will just stop the hairloss (sort of). You can try to start with 3 pills of 1mg a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you get sides (which I highly doubt) then you just stop and the sides go away. But bare in mind: most people on fin get sides because they have read about the sides and the mind starts playing tricks on them, it's very common with a lot of meds. For that reason I never read the documentation that comes with it, I just follow my docs advice on how to take it. Once I noticed something (hangover headache) with sleep medicine, called the doc and he gave me another brand. But beware, do keep the packaging and documents, if I go for medical care I always bring those to be sure. More important is not to smoke or drink alcohol in the first month after surgery. I've been extremely strict with that and also cut off any caffeine products and areas where people smoke.

As I'm reaching my 7th month post op I'm currently researching my options for a second HT as I'm not going to get a full density from the first HT, which is ok as at the moment I'm already quite happy with the results. However I believe it can be improved. What I noticed is that some of you used grafts from your beard to implant into your scalp. As my beard hairs are twice to three times as thick as the hairs on the side of my head I wonder if that would be an option for me. Also, how do beard hairs feel after a year? Do they blend in with the non-beard scalp hairs or do they stay thick and you can feel it as well? Another option for me would be to use: chest hairs or neck hairs, they could easily take 5k grafts from my chest without much notice but those are all single grafts plus the growth phases are different but for me somehow much faster, 1.5-2cm a month. The reason why I'm looking for other donor areas is because I would like to preserve my scalp donor area for the time I will start thinning on the sides.

Hi Urmat, For what I can see they did a great job, it's placed very well and the follicles seemed to be kept moist for what I can see in that picture. At the 17 day mark you really cannot say what the end result will be. I lost my hair for about 4 months after surgery (lots of hairs in the shower) but some hairs kept growing (and still are, those are much thicker then the others). Remember that Turkish hair transplant specialist are good in their jobs, I have no regrets that I chosen a Turkish clinic in my country. However, as you, I'm also worried but then again as everyone told me: don't worry you are on track just fine. So please do not worry for eat least the next 6 months. And for what it's worth I think your hairline looks really natural on the 10 day picture. How did you got through the 10 days sleeping upright? Also, are you on any medications such as finasteride?

Yes the hair transplant specialist did the incisions. She also was the one who extracted the hairs. There were two assistents that placed the hairs. I do wonder, how much time can a hair be safely outside the body?

Thank you for all the responses, it helps to get some good feedback. 😊 Today I took a photo as it's the 6 month mark. It's a photo with natural light.

The first picture in the openingpost is my pre-op picture. I will make a new photo soon and post it here