Tater

Made it to 1 year!

^^ hair is still a bit damp post shower here

Super happy with the results I think one more procedure on the crown and I'll be right where I want to be.

Even have to deal with Burton-esque bedhead again:

Can't thank Dr. Shah enough for his excellent work. My wife constantly says she can't get over how good it looks and how, "Now you're not bald, you just have a bald spot" lol.

I worked outside in the rain about a monthish after my surgery. It's just water, you should be fine.

I missed last month, been crazy.

Here's the month 9 results:

for a candid comparison,  here's me at a wedding in 2022:

Vs a wedding at the beginning of September 2023:

2 hours ago, sftraderHT said:

I think it is looking really good, congratulations. It will keep getting better and better.

How did the beard heal? Any complications with BHT? Can you tell the difference between beard hair and scalp hair?

I am going in next week for my 5th HT, 3 punch methods performed in late 1980s and a FUT in late 1990s.  Doctor expects 1,000 from scalp and 2,500 from beard.  

Wishing you the best!

Thanks, I'm very happy.

I didn't have a ton taken from the beard, but you cannot tell at all. I can definitely pick a few of them out on my head, but I think that's because a large number of them didn't shed initially, and have grown longer and thicker than the hairs around them have had a chance to; a haircut to uniform length would probably fix that. 

Here's a picture from last month, where i felt I could see a lot of them in my mid-scalp:

I was worried that the hairs might be too kinky to mix in well, but when I actually put something in my hair and comb it, everything lays together.

I wonder if beard hairs tend to not shed at a higher rate, if so, your surgery may yield better results early on. Good luck!

7 months:

6 month check in:

Not noticing a huge change this month, but it definitely looks better in natural light. Here's hoping it gets a bit more density.

3 hours ago, BRITA-XL said:

The dipping and loss in this area is showing that you have a Norwood 6 heading to Norwood 7. The surgeon would have seen this area and avoided it yes, since it wouldn’t be classed as part of the “safe zone”

I guess that's what I was afraid of. This is the first time I've seen it at the appropriate angle, when shorter, it looks more like a square or rectangular patch, here it looks to follow that nw7 line... I'm only related to one bald male and he's a nw5...

1 hour ago, mr_peanutbutter said:

its not unusual, that thinning „jumps“ 

 

are you on medication?

That thinning cannae make the jump, I'll have to toss it: 

And yep, I'm on oral minoxidil and a topical fin.

Hello all,

Looking at my crown to monitor regrowth, I'm noticing this small area on my occipital that is thin, but separated from my bald crown. It lies directly on the spot where my hard hat band rested, and I often wore my hardhat tight enough to cause headaches (I bend forward a lot and it would fall off, otherwise. 

I can't find much evidence online that this is even possible,  but I've only noticed the thinning there in the past year or two since I started wearing the hard hat more. 

I'm slightly concerned about what this might mean for any transplanted grafts from that area. Do you suppose the doc would have seen this thin area and avoided it?

7 hours ago, duckling said:

considering the big area size and low grafts count it looks good at 5 months. your hair texture will play a big part in final result (for which you need 7 more months).

any changes in crown with meds?

I think the crown is slowly improving. Not super noticeable visually, but it feels thicker. I can see some thin boys popping up that will hopefully thicken soon.  The odd thing is, it's taking off way more on the right side of my crown, the left side much less of a difference...

2 hours ago, A_4_Archan said:

Going good my friend ....you will start seeing more and more growth from now on...with the number of grafts and your baldness grade i must say your doctor used grafts very efficiently and economically ....will follow your journey closely 

Yeah, that's what lead me to CHI in the first place, was Konior's (and therefore,  Shah and Nadimi's) method of getting more done with less. My biggest fear was that somehow it wouldn't be enough for coverage, and that it would end up looking as it does now at 12 months. Considering we're only at month 5, I'm hopeful for a noticeable change in the coming months.

I feel like I'm seeing more and more high density surgeries this year, so maybe that's where the industry is trending. However, I'm glad we went with a conservative approach, I have a big area to fill and only an average donor.

Five month check in:

A few days late on my 4 month update. When I see myself in soft lighting it just looks like I have hair. Pretty cool.

Or is this a fresh transplant?

(New pics he posted in Rome filming)

15 hours ago, mrmane85 said:

Looks like some good early growth. 

How long have you been on the oral min for? 

I've read it can take up to 6 months to start seeing proper results. 

Started it a few days after the surgery. Hopefully I'll see some change in the crown in the coming months.

43 minutes ago, stephcurry30 said:

Looking good. Did Dr. Shah mention anything about future plans or future surgeries to get your desired density?

Not really. I have light, curly hair that's always been low density, anyway, so we'll just have to see how this round plays out. I've got a pretty big crown to fill, so that's the next priority,  maybe reinforcing more up front if money/grafts allows.

I was holding out a small hope that the oral minoxidil would help the crown at least a little; it may be helping the grafts grow, but the crown doesn't seem much different.

I know it's only been a week, but I just noticed what a difference there is between today (right) and one month ago. I definitely didn't expect to have this many sprouting after only 13 weeks. 

90 day update.

Redness suddenly started lessening in the last week. Stuff has been sprouting around the hairline for the last two weeks. Let's gooooooo

I wore a chainsaw hardhat 15 days post op, sweating all day outdoors, no negative consequences so far. I asked my doc about it specifically and he said two weeks.

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I really like a hairline like Toby Stephens has:

Also always liked the way Jude Law's hairline looked, until he lost all his troops.

Hey everyone, 

I visited Chicago Hair Clinic last July and had a consult with Dr. Shah. I'm pretty bald (nw5/6ish) and have curly blonde hair, so I honestly didn't know what to expect going in.

Everyone at the office was great and I got a good vibe from Shah from the start. If this were a review about him I would mention that he is very professional, knowledgeable, easy to communicate with, and seeks to blur the line between medical therapy and artistry. But, this is is a post about my journey post-HT, so I think the results will speak for themselves.

I think maybe my goals are less ambitious than some people, so I'm assuming that helped with the positive assessment. Anyway, we agreed on a frontal/midscalp procedure with the knowledge that the crown could be addressed later.

Where I started:

My goals:

I have always had a low forelock and high temples, a look I wanted to recreate. Not only bc it helps with my limited donor area, but it's just how I see myself, and I think it will age well. Shah was great about revising my hairline a few times to get it just right.

People often mention how you can't get native density with a HT, and for me that seems a non-issue, as looking back at my hair as it was thinning, I would be ecstatic just to get back to that. The following pictures reflect that which I would be satisfied with, as well as some example hairlines on models I used as inspiration:

above are me in mid-2016. I knew about fin but was scared to break my penis so I left it alone. You can see significant thinning in the crown, but honestly I was perfectly happy, and I would be thrilled to get near that density in an end-result.

As far as aging, there's a photographer/model I follow in his 60s that has similar hair texture/color/donor area density to me that I would say is my goal as I age.

The procedure:

2735 grafts done over two days. 1600 the first day and 1100 the second. I have an average donor but Dr. Shah said I had a large amount of triples and quadruples (I don't currently have the exact numbers) and mentioned that he really had to hunt for good singles. So I think that's good news. We also took 300 grafts from the beard. Not much to say about the surgery except that it was a breeze and Shah and his team really seemed fantastic. I believe we went 630-8pm on day 1 and 730-5pm on day 2.

Immediately post surgery on both day 1 and 2:

Shots of donor area when I got home the following evening:

Aaand 1 week post:

Anyway, I'm pumped, ready to see how it goes. I am on topical finasteride and oral minoxidil. I'll update as things develop.

Thanks for reading

Hey everyone. Great forum, been lurking for a bit and learning a lot.

I'm 35 and have been balding for about 7 years. Wasn't a big deal, just shaved it and it hasn't bothered me. Recently I saw a few hair transplants in person and thought they looked pretty good so I've been considering getting one. I don't mind being bald but I'd love to have options again. That being said, I'm pretty strictly interested in FUE so I can still have close-cropped hair from time to time. I have a consultation scheduled at Chicago Hair Institute in a couple weeks, but I guess Konior and Nadimi are booked so it's with their new guy Dr. Shah. We'll see how it goes, but I'm looking forward to hearing what a doc thinks of my situation.

After I got engaged last year, I told my fiance I'm growing out my skullet until the wedding. This is the first look I've had at my hair in years and wow I'm bald AF. Most of the men in my family have great hair so I'm just unlucky I guess. 

Below are some pics of my hair from yesterday. Any idea what kind of Norwood I am (I don't really understand the scale)? Does it look like I have good donor area? I have curly, blonde, and (I think) thick hair follicles, does this present any challenges/benefits? I haven't been able to find many people with hair like mine getting surgery. I do use minoxidil now and dermaroll once a week (my fiance got me into it for my face skin, but I do my scalp, too). I also have a ton of body/beard hair, will I pretty much need to use that to fix my crown? I always had a high hairline, so I'm not looking for anything aggressive post-surgery.

Thanks for reading