Anon94

Small update at 4 months here. I feel like I've started seeing signs of growth within the last two weeks or so (apart from the grafts that never shed of course). Still a long way to go and it's thin - especially in harsh overhead lighting. But it's heading in the right direction imo. Two pics are dry immediately after the shower, one is wet and exposing the hairline. I feel like you can more clearly see the individual follicles and hairline in that one.

The crown can really eat up grafts. Density and area there could absolutely be 3400 grafts

Starting to see some visual progress. I'll probably post an update at 4 months

Hey guys! Maybe someone has a tip for me: I've got a bunch of grafts that never shed, but aren't growing either. The clinic says that I should try and pull them out, if they give no resistance. Is that necessary? I have tons of them in-between my native hair, and think I'd end up pulling out that on accident if I actually went at it with tweezers.

It'll almost certainly turn out great, but I think it's absolutely crazy to use that many grafts on what's really a fairly minor case. If this were posted from most other surgeons they'd get blasted about that.

If the plan was for a more feminine hairline (and appropriate medication to stop hairloss is taken) then both design and graft number makes total sense.

You're definitely not a fast grower. It looks like some improvement is happening still, so it might very well still turn out great. Some people just take a lot longer for the transplant to really develop.

She asked me what I wanted during communication prior to booking. I wasn't interested in a something more aggressive, so we never talked about it. I've seen more aggressive cases than mine from her though.

Right now I'm at peak ugly duckling. The top of my head looks worse than it ever has 😅 (Tried to take some close ups too)

Hey guys! After a looking time of reading up on transplants and inquiring with various doctors I finally had my transplant about two months ago. I ended up going with Dr. Patty. There were a number of doctors that I was interested in having my procedure with, but timing worked out very well for me with Dr. Patty, and the work I had seen (here and elsewhere) had me confident in that choice for my specific case. I've been on 1mg of finasteride and 2.5mg of oral minox for ages at this point, and had stabilized my hairloss for a while. Still, I wanted to be conservative with the hairline. For one I prefer that look for myself. I also didn't want a huge change in how I look. Future hairloss for me is unpredictable (my family has basically everything from none to NW7) --> every graft is precious. These pictures are: 1 - 3: Prior to surgery 4 - 7: Day after surgery 8 - 11: 13 days later

You really shouldn't move the hairline/temples/temple points at all. None of those are an issue, and your donor has already been thinned out a lot. Density is all you should be thinking of. Your available hair just isn't enough for anything more aggressive.

That hairline looks like it'll be DENSE

Unusual for a graft to come out this late really. Did you pull on the scab? From my knowledge everything should be pretty much secure by day 6. Had you actually pulled it out despite it being grown in it should have caused a good bit of bleeding. Either way it's one out of 2800, so it won't really have any effect on the outcome. You almost certainly won't be able to tell were it was in a short while.

I'd choose Gur over Yaman any day. Both have many good cases, but Yaman seems to have significantly more that don't turn out well.

How are you looking these days?

Doesn't matter which one you get as long as it's Minoxidil. How much of an effect it will have is important to predict. Might be nothing, might be tons. I personally try to stock up whenever I'm on vacation somewhere that sells it cheap (100pills in Thai were like 4€). I personally vastly prefer it to topical Minoxidil, and have definitely seen an improvement in hair thickness.

I was responding to a post that said Dr. Nader was recommending that in his post op instructions. And as I said it's not entirely unreasonable. I know some other surgeons like Bloxham say similar things

There are definitely cases where patients shed very little or not at all. That's the minority though. You can find a few on this forum. I think Dr. Pekiner has a few for example, and some other doctors too.

Don't overthink it. As long as you aren't unreasonably aggressive and keep the area clean it really doesn't make much of a difference. I was washing the recipient starting on day 1 after surgery. (First time at the clinic, by myself after that). You don't need to rub, but from the little that exists for studies it seems that the hair is already quite secure by day 4. Mind you, this was with older surgical methods (bigger punches and incisions than today) that caused more trauma and likely took longer to heal. But with that they found that by day 4 pulling on hair didn't cause the graft to get lost, but pulling on the scab did until day 6. It's likely that with the methods someone like Dr. Nader uses (small punch for extraction, cutting the channel not log before implantation, and implanting with a dull implanter pen) will have you healing enough sooner than that. So light rubbing by day 3 and more aggressive rubbing after about a week seems safe. You don't want scabs to be present any longer than needed for optimal results anyway.

What surgeon are you referring to? Zarev doesn't have cases like this, FueGenix doesn't, Bisanga doesn't, etc.

I think the result at this point is unacceptable at every level. Your case was a very simple and straightforward transplant. Your donor quality seemed very good, and your recession was purely in the frontal third. Considering the amount of grafts used and the price that HLC charges (afaik they are the most expensive you'll find in Turkey) you should expect way better. A double here or there in the hairline is understandable. Some grafts might contain a hair in telogen, which can be seen under a microscope, but is an excusable miss. The amount in your hairline can only be explained by carelessness. I also don't think that you have - at least at this point - gotten the density that should be achieved with the grafts per area and your hair quality. Hopefully this part sorts itself over time, but compared to other HLC cases this is not up to the standards they advertise.

Recipient area looks fantastic. Very clean for it being right post op.

You should expect the scar to become less noticeable over the coming months. There is almost certainly some shock loss around it making it more prominent than it should be. It really shouldn't be this noticeable at that hair length.

As for your shedding question: How much you shed is really unpredictable. Some shed all the hair + even some of the native hair, others don't shed at all. Most are somewhere in between. There is nothing unusual about some hair not shedding during that phase. As long as the grafts weren't damaged during harvesting or implantation they should all start growing at some point. The clinic you went to isn't a place that would normally be recommended, but it looks like you received decent work by whoever those techs were. Should turn out well.

I don't think this should really be a debate. Anyone that has the funds and can get an appointment should consider Zarev as a top choice. His work is peerless right now for high NW cases. Hopefully he teaches many future surgeons.