DontWait

I am still growing from my second surgery, haven’t posted anything final. My procedure was manual, Artas wasn’t an option and I believe he mentioned the device has been retired for at least a few years.

5000 grafts FUE across 2 surgeries as a Norwood 4-5a. 2 surgeries were planned from the beginning. 6ish months out from the second. I would have loved to have FUT as an option but my skin has no laxity, very tight. I would like a 3rd, small session to address the frontal Crown. I did do PRP for both, if nothing else, to speed up growth. I would say do your research and come up with your own conclusions. I will be doing PRP for my third.

I was in the same position as you, its not that I couldn’t leave TX, its that I couldn’t imagine going for a surgery and having to travel or not sleep in my home afterwards. Just a comfort level thing. I chose Arocha, happy with results and going again to work a bit further back.

Arocha has an area of his Clinic dedicated to photography. He has the ability to use a high end camera. For all of my before and after pics, he used an iPhone. Doesn’t bother me since I am chronicling my own experience but he is doing himself a disservice. I don’t think it is intentional to hide or obscure results, its just easier for him to whip out his phone. Should probably put more effort in this area.

Not sure I had much to shed in the beginning, lol. My crown does go through a shed every couple months. Always comes back a tad stronger.

6 Month Update:

5 mg/ day.

4 month update. I shed around 50% of the hair. Early growth seems good. Oral Minox is regrowing quite a bit on my juvenile hairline. You can see the weaker looking hair well below my transplanted hair. Crown is doing very good from the minox, but seems to go through frequent shed cycles, which is assume is good. Started oral minox around 6-7 months ago.

Ill be updating my Arocha thread in a couple weeks when I hit 4 months. I am already loving what I am seeing. Arocha is on the very conservative side of things, originally he recommended 2000 for me and after I detailed my goals we went for 3000+ with plans for another session. Most of his work is in the 2000-2500 range based on what I have seen. His designs may not line up to some of the popular styles like super dense hairlines and some of the aggressive temple points. These are just my opinions.

Take a look at my post, I would say I was a "great" responder to those medications, plus Microneedling & LLLT. I really threw the kitchen sink at it. I would say a "good" responder would just gain some in the crown. Even with great medication results, a HT was always on my list. With the meds, keep expectations in check. Be happy with keeping what you have, any new hair is a bonus.

I asked this question in a Patient results thread, but wanted to create a new thread. So what is it that makes a good transplanted hairline? What is the technique, pattern, distribution, etc? How do you create that natural look?

Looks very good.

10 Day wash. Harsh Bathroom Lighting. Density looks pretty good, hopefully 90%+ makes it. But, this was never meant to be only 1 surgery.

Here are my pictures right after the surgery. You will notice some thin hairs below the new hairline, that is regrowth from the medications. We will see what those end up doing in the future, if they grow, cool, free hair :). The donor looks spectacular, in my uneducated opinion. Nice even distribution of extractions (difficult to tell in pic due to lighting) and the punch is so small. I like to wear my hair short, so this was nice to see. MOD: Please delete the above two "reserved" posts, thank you.

Below are some pictures of my baseline 6 months ago, before DUT, MIN & PRP. The other pictures are after 4 months, unfortunately I didn't take pictures after 6 months, right before the HT. They improved a bit over the 4 month pictures, especially the crown.