general-etwan

It baffled me too for a while until I understood it, at least I think. Not every slit scabs up. There are not gaps/rivers between graft implantation as seen in the scabbing pictures. The scabbing sometimes occurs beyond the actual slit, and for whatever reason the slits next to that one may not scab up, leaving the illusion of a "channel" where there was nothing inserted. Something like that. But it's just an illusion created by the scabbing pattern. You can see after the scabs come off if the distribution of grafts is good.

I tried to make fun of my unprofessional job but maybe wasn't clear enough lol. No tutorial necessary. I sure did go up too far. But I'll have to either set up a complex mirror system in my bathroom and attend to this myself or visit a barber every few days to get the proper fade and keep it maintained. Might be an option short term, but long-term I think the distinction between my lower crown (heavily miniaturized and thin) vs the donor area (still thick and hairs haven't lost diameter length) is so vast that it will have to be addressed. I'll see what Eugenix thinks they could do in the future and we'll go from there.

I appreciate the comments everybody. I decided to buzz the back and sides yesterday for fun. Note it's not professionally faded and just what I did myself in a mirror so of course it's not great . And no wet shave, just buzzed down with a trimmer with no guard. This is what we're looking at: I'm very happy with the appearance at this point. Not worried and feeling confident in giving another 1,000-3,000 towards another redistribution. Melvin: I haven't grown out my hair longer because despite the logic that you shared, that lower crown area does trail behind the area below it visually, and so like you stated, it needs to be faded upward constantly to prevent it looking bad. But I've been so busy that I don't do that right now; I am still a hat wearer for now so I don't attend to it constantly.

Comments included about that. There are cases on this site with tiny dot scars shaved; some look not bad at all and wouldn’t look alarming to the general public. But definitely will be careful and not impulsive when planning future work out.

With all due respect, this is a look that will never look bad, for example: I understand that some range of medium length hair in the donor could look bad if thinned out too much. The idea then would be either to keep it shaved super short all the time or grow it out longer. No middle ground. And yes there is the possibility of tiny dot scars being visible when shaved, but I’ve seen some cases of that here and it doesn’t look that terrible, and in my mind could possibly be mitigated with some SMP to give appearance of more consistent hair tone throughout the area. All things I will have to keep in mind going forward.

Hello everyone. Have some more 3.5 months pics to share. Looks to me like solid progress for 3.5 months. My treatment regime is the following: finasteride every other day; minoxidil and RU58841 daily; ketoconazole shampoo every other day. Plus moisturizer daily for scalp health. That said, for anyone who read the early talk about the procedure design, there was area in the lower crown that Dr. Das and I agreed not to address in this procedure because of the amount of grafts and size it would add to the entire procedure, and wait to see if that area would recover from further medication (at the time of the transplant I had been on finasteride for about 7 full months). It is clear to me at this point that this lower crown area is not going to improve any further with finasteride + minoxidil. Male pattern baldness is simply too strong in my genes and has done its damage. I've been taking finasteride now for 12 months and since I have no major side effects, I will of course continue to take it to further protect the entire head from DHT, but I think to expect any lower crown regrowth going forward would be unrealistic. Looking ahead, I will be embarking on a new career journey in the 2nd half of 2023 and my schedule and ability to travel and attend to things like this will become less under my control. Therefore, I think I want to address this remaining area with more grafts, before the summer, while I can still go anywhere and do anything whenever I want. I think that my donor area at 3.5 months looks great, and despite our early worries about how many grafts we could ultimately take from it, when grown out to this length it looks visibly very great to me: So, with 4,000 grafts already taken from scalp donor, I would think that another 1,000-2,000 could be taken. As I've said from the beginning, even if this entire back area was visibly thinned, it wouldn't bother me as much as it might bother some people. I care far more about hair on top of the head for aesthetic appearance. I could absolutely accept visible thinning in the donor area, so long as it's done uniformly and not in uneven patches. Most people when they are looking at your head, they are not evaluating the back of your head for density or style. There are multiple options to handle that area including actual shaving, fading, SMP, or growing longer to hide extractions. And most people are not looking at the back of your head much. I'm already fully invested in this journey so might as well keep going to max out what we can max out while it's most convenient for me. Here is the back in unflattering lighting. The area above the black line has been taken care of already, at least decently well. Maybe more grafts could be added for more density if necessary. But the area outlined in red is what I will want to address. I just want this area to be more uniform with the area beneath it; the back of the head. Uniformity always looks better, even if thinner, and considering most of my donor area is still pretty thick and dense, it seems like we can do a redistribution here and further even out things across the scalp. I plan on discussing with Eugenix if this is an option we can move forward on, preferably before the summer. Anyone have an opinion on how many grafts might need to be moved to try to even things out between this area and the donor area? I think 1,000-2,000 could do it. I also have beard hair which could be used again, if necessary.

I agree in saying it would be a great idea for @Eugenix Hair Sciences to list biographies of each doctor on their website. Sethi (if performing HTs anymore), Bansal, Das, and Somesh. Put some pictures up, some background info, make ‘‘em look real nice!

Minoxidil, RU58841, and ketoconazole shampoo. That’s everything.

Depends on how severe the hair loss is and how much you personally value aesthetic appearance in life. Maybe, maybe not. I’d say a good HT can definitely help the way you feel about your aesthetic appearance, but true confidence in life is more innate. If you decide to have ultimate confidence in life, you’re going to have it regardless of a hair situation. You can be your own God…if you choose to be.

No worries. Jack off at will and bust away. Your hair will be fine. 💪🏼

Not worth the investment. I spent like $800 on one, but quickly determined it’s mostly insignificant and has a small effect on hair restoration compared to other strategies. Luckily I was able to return it and get all my money back.

3 months. There is no way I can easily explain the renewed joy I feel simply as a result of having better framing of the face and improved face and head aesthetics. The imperfections in the overall density across the entire head including the retrograde alopecia are relatively insignificant to me and can be addressed in time. And we’ve still got a lot of growth coming hopefully.

I admit I am pretty ignorant on repair HTs. I have no idea about her skill with repair work. I can only attest that she did a great job with my procedure, but even then it’s important to remember she only made slits and their fantastic technicians handled all my extractions and implantations.

120 INR ($1.45) / graft; WhatsApp is the main channel of communication yes.

3 months, harsh lighting lol, very happy with the way it's feeling though:

@Zoomster Based on my understanding, it just seems logical that for the visual effect of SMP to be recognized appropriately, it works best keeping the hair buzzed short. I’m sure there’s nothing detrimental about SMP with hair grown out longer, and no requirement that one must keep hair buzzed, but longer hair will cover the scalp more and so the SMP won’t be seen and appreciated as much. That’s probably the extent of it. I’m going to stay open to SMP for my future situation but I have no rush; want to see how good my growth can get first. Also looking at some other products that keep getting better in technology and that can increase hair aesthetics.

Looks good!

Is 2800 the max donor being taken? I'd think some crown work can and should be done, but most of the grafts should be focused on the midscalp and front, with the crown receiving relatively less work. It likely won't be perfect, but I think it could be improved a bit.

Thanks. I will keep SMP as an option to consider in the future, but want to just evaluate my 8-10 month growth before making any decisions there. Glad to see it can work well when combined with hair growth as in your case. 1) I started talking to Eugenix in very early 2022, and I think around May we agreed on a tentative date for September. I didn't give my full commitment and planning until July though. So technically, 2 months out was when they booked my entire procedure. 2) I'm absolutely sure that even more beard grafts could have been used/could be used in the future. Based on my beard evaluation, they had mentioned 2,000 as a number that implied the max that they would take just by default, before in-person evaluation. They ended up only taking 1,300 based on the requirements for the HT design, but it left absolutely zero scarring and absolutely no decrease in appearance of facial hair at all. I'm still mesmerized by that today, that even I cannot tell anything was taken from my face. So I'd guess that for me, at least 2,000 could have been taken before any decrease in facial hair would be noticeable...and probably even more if I don't care about decreasing facial hair density. I don't know about 3,000-4,000 beard grafts. That is a lot, I think, but it's certainly possible if you don't care about the decrease becoming noticeable.

Sneak peak coming up on 3 months, in da car.

Absolutely. A high crown trucker hat. The crown sits up in the air and leaves space between your scalp and the material. Perfect way to protect the head from any potential impact while not irritating the transplanted area. In fact I did bump my head once a few days after getting home and was glad I had a hat on because if the head is exposed, you have direct trauma. This way the hat absorbed the blow and protected the head.

I did take off from work for the rest of the week after I got home. I got back home on a Tuesday and didn’t go to work until the following Monday. Anywhere I did go, however, I wore a hat.

Yeah, almost 2 months the redness. I really noticed it fade just in the past couple weeks.

2.5 months progress from side profile look. I feel like the growing is going very well. It's not much yet in the grand scheme of things but I am already extremely happy with the way things are looking. I no longer have a smooth head. 😂 PS: I don't care about my retrograde alopecia. Not a big deal. Hair on the top of the head is soooo much more important.

Biased towards the clinics that most consistently and most notably put out great results. There are a lot of other doctors who I’m sure are good as well but they are lesser known/have fewer clients, etc so they won’t ever get as much attention. All you can do is read as much as you can from as many people as possible to help make informed decisions. The Reddit hair transplant community is also useful for looking at doctors and clinics genuine results as shared by patients.