ablurker

6.5 months in and it's grown in enough for a haircut. There's still a bit of a bald spot in the middle that shows up if I'm not careful how I style things. Hoping the next six months will fill that in. The donor has fully healed and there's no sign whatsoever of the extraction at all. It's still pretty thick too.

Been a while since my last update. I'm about 5.5 months in and it's still a bit thin for my liking but it's definitely coming in a week or two at a time. It really depends on the angle and lighting, but I'm also trying to let it grow out again after I trimmed it approximately 3 weeks ago. The trim was pretty much essential because the other areas of my head were just so long compared to the new growth. The first pic is a "bad angle" and the second pic is a "good angle". I don't wear a hat out in public because I'm feeling pretty good about how it looks compared to my pre-surgical hair. I'm also struggling a bit with how the new hair is a bit curlier than the old hair, but I think that'll disappear as the hair matures. Both of these pics are unstaged. I didn't put any effort into carefully stying anything, and it definitely looks better if I take a pic right after a shower. I'

Things are definitely thickening up. There's a few patches are seeing as much growth as I like, but I'm hoping those are just dormant a little longer. Considering how much growth there is week-to-week, I'm feeling optimistic about the end results. This is 3 months + 1 week. I'm dying for a haircut but it's going to be tough to get this current mess looking good until it thickens in a few more places.

Finally at the 3 month mark! I'm watching things so closely it feels like it's been longer. You can start to see it thickening around the hairline. The redness is mostly faded but occasionally flares up. I can't exactly put a finger on what triggers it. Lots of ingrowns too. This is one of the least ingrown days I've had the last couple of weeks. I really can't wait to see the hair here grow out more. Every couple of weeks I'm doing a rough buzz of my whole head to keep things from getting too long everywhere else.

I take daily pictures so I can scroll back a few weeks and see the change. This is a sloooow part.

That's looking good for two months, wow.

What a difference two weeks makes... Still too many bald-ish patches to really go hatless or get a haircut yet. I'm occasionally trimming the the hair to keep it from getting too crazy long as well. Redness has dropped quite a bit and it's more of a pinkish hue around the hairline that gets red when I shower. The numbness in the scalp is improving slowly. I expected that the nerves would heal front to back or vice versa, but instead they appear to be healing from the side. The numb patch is basically a strip down the middle of the top of my head now. I am really temped to have a barber do a buzz at a 3 all over to clean up the length but I'm doing my best to stay patient and just "let it grow".

I sure hope I've reached peak-ugly-duckling about two months in... I can understand why you just don't see that many pictures from this phase. 24/7 hat time! Redness is fading quite a bit, but sometimes it's pretty evident as seen below. As the hairs grow in you get this bonus redness as well: like teething for your hair. See everyone in a month!

I thought I read somewhere that hairs can be implanted to specifically soften scar tissue and restore skin function. This small study from 2014 suggests that 65-95% of FUE grafts can survive in scar tissue: https://www.pulsus.com/scholarly-articles/follicular-unit-transplantation-for-the-treatment-of-secondary-cicatricial-alopecia.pdf (it's a small study and some of the patients had beard/eyebrow grafts rather than scalp)

Update from about five weeks in. The shedding started about two weeks ago and all that beautiful transplant hair is popping out with the little telltale J shape. It's officially ugly duckling season for the next few months. I got the go-ahead to get a hair cut (apparently waiting two weeks is all Dr Hasson wants) and I'm considering buzzing it down while things start to grow out. Any recommendations for ugly phase haircuts? The photo below isn't a flattering angle, but it really shows the contrast between day 1 hair (the front), day 2 hair (just behind), and my existing hair on top.

He did the hairline and incisions. The nurses did the remainder, as far as I remember. The staff was excellent: even the nurses doing the hair washes felt extremely qualified.

It's entirely possible that I am too passive of a patient and others who have more active interest in the details of the surgery, and that the pain was just because I'm more sensitive and I'd have that painful experience with any doctor. I don't think that it should discourage anyone from looking at Dr Hasson. In fact I'd still recommend him on my experience. I just wanted a fully transparent review of the good and bad. The results so far have been amazing and I realize it's a lot of money but a high likelihood of an excellent result was part of the reason why I chose him.

A small update from approx four weeks later: no major shedding yet, the redness and skin damage have pretty much entirely disappeared. I think I have about 80-90% of the hairs that were transplanted in place. Not a lot of info out there on why shedding wouldn't be happening yet.

I'm more of a person that finds a doctor that is highly recommended and goes in trusting they'll do an excellent job. I think the clinic could do more with discussing the procedure beforehand (and as others pointed out, would be nice to have a follow-up). We never really figured out the issue with the pain. While it was unpleasant, now that it's almost a month in the past I can look back and say it was worth it. I may have just been an extra sensitive person on the pain scale. I cannot say for sure because this is my only real surgery in my life (aside from wisdom teeth that I was knocked out for). I can say that I'm very happy with the results so far. Looking forward to seeing it further down the line

My updates will probably slow down here as the shedding and regrowth phase starts, but things are looking good two weeks in. The area in front that was transplanted on the first day appears to be growing, but part of me wonders if that's just the graft settling in and and inflammation going down (revealing more of the hair shaft). If it has grown, it's not nearly as fast as the hair on the side has grown in the same amount of time. There's a bit of redness in front, but I've been taking my hat off indoors and enjoying the look of a full hairline and nobody bats an eye. If I had my hair buzzed again I don't think anyone would see anything. Any ideas when I should expect the shedding to start? I keep thinking I'll take a shower one day and it'll just be a hair massacre. Does it happen slowly or all at once?

12 days post recovery and the crusts and dry skin are virtually all gone. Some shedding has begun, but it's pretty minimal overall so far. I'm loving where things are right now and I'm going to be a bit sad to wait the 6-8 months for this to fully grow back. I don't ever plan on having a buzz cut like this, but I'm probably going to rock this for a bit, at least until I get some regrowth in front to style. The post-care has been pretty light touch. I send email updates with pictures of my scalp and get updated care instructions with more and more aggressive care (adding gentle finger pressure, soaking, towel drying).

I put 100% of my trust into Dr Hasson, so I didn't question the graft count or shape or anything. I really don't know what the experience is like if you have really strong opinions, but other threads suggest the patients end up a bit less happy. I really just wanted to enjoy an age-appropriate hairline (it's actually the most hair I've had in my life) so my experience is going to be different than others. They'll give you a plain black to fly home in. You'll be paranoid about bumping your head and it'll itch, lol, but the hat will cover up all the mess. If you can extend your stay to 3 beyond the end of the procedure, you'll have a much better time. I still had puffed up eyes on day 2 after! The after-care from the nurses there is top notch and having them wash the grafts for most of the implant healing time was very reassuring to me.

The first day was 1-2 on the pain scale and I honestly fell asleep during most of it. The second day of extraction had a bit around 5-6, but the additional anaesthetic and pain meds really helped. If I can do it (as a pain wuss myself), you can definitely do it too! I made the mistake of only taking half of a dosage of pain medication that was offered to me. Remember the end result. It's 100% worth it.

I think my pain was unusual. The second day is definitely harder but I'm a big wuss when it comes to pain and even I survived it. I was very tempted to skip the last 500 grafts but some strong tablet pain meds helped and I made it through. The other thing to keep in mind is that the pain is mostly in the morning during extraction. Once you're numbed, additional anaesthetic tends to be pretty painless and they can give that to you any time you say it's starting to hurt. Also, you get zopiclone to zone you out a bit which is really helpful to disassociate from the fear and pain, lol.

I agree. NW3 was what they officially stated in the quote but I believed it was more. I didn't get an official final NW rating from before but the hair in front was extremely thin. My pre-existing high hairline also seems to have drastically exaggerated whatever NW rating I was, so we were repairing that as well.

This was missing for sure. I think it might have been nice to have a sit-down with him, even if it's just a cheers to "we made it". I spoke to him briefly afterward, but it was mainly a passing conversation in the waiting room. I will say that the staff were excellent, however, so it's not great that you don't sit down with him but you still get lots of useful info. I'd probably recommend to their team that they schedule a debrief the next day right after the hair washing. That way you're not sedated and usually feeling pretty good having slept hard off the zopiclone.

Interesting. I understand some of the complaints, but I think I probably trusted Dr Hasson with my hairline more (I told him very rough goals and gave him the thumbs up at the end to his hairline). It took a long time to draw the hairline. I think we were there for about 30 minutes sketching on my forehead.

Which is the other review? I thought that the after care was good (though I feel like more formal education would have been nice). I spent three extra days in Vancouver basically grilling the nurses doing my hairwash and got lots of information there. It might have also been nice to have a prophylactic steroid dose to avoid the swelling, or some better education around that. In my case I did some research, avoided sodium and drank as much water as I could force my body to drink and it went down in 1/3 the time the nurses suggested it would.

I think so. I had "really good" donor hair, but I don't have the exact count. I've always had the high hairline and I really just wanted to have a strong hairline for the next 20-30 years to look in the mirror at. I know that I'll thin a bit more on top genetically, but TBH I don't feel as self-conscious about the thinning top. I don't recall if I ever got the number directly, but it was described as being very suitable It was pricey, but they were very transparent about the cost (including starting with the calculator on the website). When I was considering practitioners, my main factors were risk/reliability/quality and North American location and Hasson was the top choice for me. It's been a while so I don't recall the other ones I considered. The calculator link: https://hassonandwong.com/hair-transplant-surgery/hair-transplant-cost/

@HappyMan2021I'm in my early 40s. It was pretty good and I'm happy with the results! I don't mind lurking and searching. I found that I could answer most of my questions in previous discussions.