PA2

#CaliVibes

Aesthetically, donor is good and can’t tell anything was touched. Only note would be: very randomly and infrequently, say once every two weeks, I’ll have a moment where a spot above my ear gets sensitive for a moment where the donor site was particularly unhappy, but that’s about it.

WELL. 10 months! Basically, all went according to plan. You can see my little natural hairs in the front still, but those will fall out in the next few years as I age.

Haven’t updated in a while, but here’s the quick version: Time has passed without much incident; it really is a waiting game. Basically suffered through until four months and then went back to using Toppik whenever I feel like not wearing a hat. Today marks the five month mark, so here’s some month 4 pictures and a month 5 update pic. It honestly feels normal at this point, because I used Toppik so much before to draw in a hairline that now it just is starting to be more hair/less Toppik as it all fills in. I imagine I’m about 50% of the way there in terms of growth, so now comes the fun part!

One Month They call it the ugly phase for a reason. Bye bye to the new hairs. They’ve been going away slowly for the past week as I’ve been Rogaine-ing and showering, and should expect to keep going over the next couple weeks. I am now hat man everywhere I go, and becoming quite well versed in hat styles. Gonna try and make the Indiana Jones hat work, as well as a sombrero. Good luck to me. Basically life as normal now, and just a waiting game until about the 4 month mark when things will start to get going. Anyone have the remote from Click to fast forward until then?

Here we are at the two week mark! Other than the discomfort in the donor area, everything has been very simple and easy. I’ve managed to not hit my head on anything, and the maintenance has been a breeze (just ran a constant 90 min timer on my phone to remind me to spray with the saline solution). I felt my head for the first time in two weeks yesterday and, to my surprise, the recipient area was completely numb. Strange feeling, that. I was assured by the team at Rahal that this is completely normal. I washed in the shower, some scabs came off, and some didn’t, but I will keep washing once per day going forward. I can see what the ugly duckling phase will look like and BOY OH BOY this is going to be difficult. Result after my Day 14 shower, two different types of lighting: I’m thinking I’m going to have to shave off the wispy hairs on my forehead going forward until they fall out; the same ones I was so desperate to keep before. You can see how he moved my hairline back a bit. When I was in my early 20s, those freckles were covered. Then, late 20s, I lost my temple area hair. Now, all that’s left is that small section at the front. Those will fall out soon enough and my new permanent hairline will be the transplanted one. Time to start the ugly phase. Good luck to me. See you at the 4 week mark!

Hey everyone, Completely new to this forum, but introduced to it by a good friend who went through the process a few years back. Been noticing hair loss in pictures for a while, dating back to maybe 2016, and finally enough was enough. I couldn’t deal with basically having a permanent layer of Toppik on my head, so I reached out to different clinics. Decided to go with Rahal (for many reasons) and flew out the day before. I basically did everything wrong the night before in terms of food and sleep, but the surgery went very well, and now I’m on my second week of recovery. Rahal and his team were fantastic. I enjoyed the simplicity of the guesthouse, as I was flying in from out of town. Waltzed over to the clinic at 4:45am and we got started. Originally, Dr Rahal seemed skeptical that we could get the consulted upon 3000 grafts, thinking it would end up being more around ~2800, but we ended up actually getting more - 3201. Left the clinic at around 4pm. Promptly googled “how to fall asleep in a recliner.” To sum up the last week in a sentence: I overestimated how much pain I would be in; I underestimated how much maintenance and care is needed afterward. The recipient area is completely painless. The donor area has been extremely painful. On the night of day 3, I couldn’t fall asleep, as the donor area had a big burning sensation. Since then, I’ve been taking Advil and icing my donor area before bed, and it’s been better, but sleeping is still difficult (I’m not great at sleeping on my back). Summary: Beforehand: Day 1: Day 2: Day 3: 1 Week: Will update at the week 2, month 1, month 2-3-6-9-12 mark! If you have any questions about the Rahal guesthouse, process, how many Hawaiian button up shirts to buy, and my definitive stance on Advil v Tylenol now, let me know. PA