Bucky O Hair

Yea, now that I have some hairs in the temples, it allowed me to cut my hair shorter and I got a lot of compliments on my haircut and how I should always keep it this short, ha ha. Funny thing is, I've cut my hair this short in the past, and nobody complimented me on it (because shorter hair doesn't look good with deeply receded temples). Now, it looks better because I have a better framed face with the new HT, as my deeply receded temples are slowly filling in. Although I am still recovering and the hair is a little too thin in the temples, it still does a lot to frame the face and work with your existing native hairs to make things appear fuller. I agree with you that most people are not that detail oriented at all, and can't even tell the obvious change from a NW5 to a NW2. It's only when you actually go from a non-shaved head look to a shaved head look (and vice versa) when people begin to notice. I know a guy who was somewhere between a NW2 and NW3, but always shaved his head on a zero guard. He got a hair transplant to straighten his hairline, then grew his hair out. Everyone is shocked at how good his HT is, but most of that shock comes from the fact that he grew his hair out from a zero guard to long hair. The hair transplant was pretty minimal, and they are wrongfully attributing his newly grown out native hairs with the hair transplant overall, ha ha. How everyone wants one, but they are using the worst possible example and all have inflated expectations. I think though at 2 months the "shaved head look" is going to draw more attention than the HT itself (especially if you sporting a baseball cap outdoors, lol). Gotta come up with an excuse to explain why you are repping your favorite baseball team during a wedding.

I hear ya. For this same reason, I ended up scheduling my HT to occur AFTER a big family wedding that I was invited to (otherwise I would have scheduled my HT a couple months earlier). Like you, I am fine with some people knowing, but I don't want the world to know (especially those nosey ones who love to talk about others) so I get where you're coming from. I never want to give them more things to talk about. The bad news for you is that the 2-month mark is easily the worst point in the HT journey. You will have gone through the shed, will unlikely have any new regrowth yet, and your scalp will likely still be a bit pink. I don't think "concealing" it is an option...unless you had a very small HT and a lot of native hairs that you didn't shave off. Your options are either to... 1. Not go to the wedding (and play off the recent COVID spike and claim that you're feeling sick, ha ha) 2. Go to the wedding and say that you have been diagnosed with psoriasis on your scalp (and that you shaved your head so you can apply betaderm cream on it) which is why your scalp is a little pink The good news is at 6 months, you should be more than fine as your native hairs will have grown back, along with many of the newly transplanted hairs. If anyone asks why your hair looks different, just play dumb and say you got a new haircut. "I am a new tie wearing"

Funny thing is, I see natural hair loss patterns that look like bad hair transplants lol. For example, I myself have a large bald spot on my crown but I have a patch of hair in the center of it (like a donut). You could make the assumption that I had a hair transplant in the crown, and that my loss just progressed around it...but I never did, lol.

Hello all, After a transplant, has anyone here experienced early growth (within the first 2-3 months)...but then have zero new hairs grow (for a couple of months)...then get hit with a second wave of new hair re-growth after that? I am currently 4.5 months into my postop journey. I started to get some decent growth at the 2.5 month mark...but in these past two months, I haven't noticed a single new hair grow out. The shafts in my newly grown hairs (that grew during that 2.5 month mark) have started to thicken up...but I was under the impression that there would at least be some degree of consistent growth of new hair follicles on a month-over-month basis...but I haven't experienced any new hairs growing in the past 8 weeks. On this forum, I generally see a month-over-month improvement in hair count when it comes to postop regrowth photos. I've also seen a lot of "late growers" on here who had very little (if any) growth during the first 4-5 months...but then explode with hair after that. However, I don't think I've ever seen anyone experience early growth (2-3 month mark) then have it plateau for several weeks or months before getting a sudden hit of new growth. I am enjoying the improved hairline and the thickening of the hair shafts (in the hairs that have already come out), but I am beginning to worry about the fact that I haven't seen a single new hair since mid-July. I know it's still early, but curious if anyone has seen or experienced this.

I think SMP can work if you're applying the ink in areas where you have transplanted hairs. I think where SMP looks fake is when it's done on an entirely slick bald area, where there is no 3D effect and it comes off extra shiny (due to the light reflecting off the slick bald head). In your photo above, where you have your head buzzed down...I think SMP could work quite well to close that density gap between your safe zone and the balding zone. The transplanted hairs you have in your vertex and crown will create that 3D effect and eliminate the shiny appearance, and the added SMP ink will close that gap. Obviously, it's always better to grow out hair and use all that length to create density (like you do in your first photo). But down the road, as your hair continues to thin as you age...SMP seems like it would be a great supplement to your hair transplant. I think it would work (although I am intrigued by the use of body hair first for something like this).

Since it's only been 4 days, maybe it's some leftover anesthesia? I know this stuff can settle in places on your scalp and cause swelling. Maybe it's a weird spot that it chose to settle.

Isn't a sebacious cyst a common side effect of a hair transplant? I've been getting these random deep "pimples" (or cysts) under the skin of my donor. I looked it up, and they're trapped sebum from the sebacious glands from areas where you removed the follicle, but the pore is 'healed over' so there is no place for your sebum to escape anymore (and get trapped under the skin). After several days, I just force pop them and it's just oil (no puss) that comes out, which confirmed that it's just a bunch of trapped sebum. Maybe this is it, and you just need to get it drained via a sterlized needle from your doctor.

Kind of aggressive hairline, no? I don't think you have to lower that forelock that much. Just lower the temples and reinforce the hairline at the forelock. Maybe even leave the temporal points where they already are, and reinforce that too.

Taking finasteride now is not going to save your hair transplant. If you were advised to not take it (as you are planning to have children) then why not just wait until after you get your wife pregnant, before getting on it?

Well you may need to shave your head anyway, if you continue to lose hair over the long term. Shaving your head is a long term play, in case your hair continues to fall out and your hair transplant no longer can stand on its own anymore.

It's because he lost so much hair that he has to. He's stated before that he regrets getting a hair transplant. Mind you, he got FUT and has a nasty looking strip scar on the back of his head, so this is likely the main reason why he regrets it.

I mean, hairs from your donor that may end up falling out in the future. The hairs on the sides and back of your head that are in the safe zone are "resistant" to hair loss, but they are not guaranteed to remain forever. Granted, it may take a very long time for them to fall out, but even transplanted hairs should eventually thin out over time.

Shedding is your baptism into this religion. We all had to do it, and so will you. Avoiding it is blasphemy!

Lots of people do surgeries in two straight years. I think it's moreso about making sure you don't deplete the donor, and that you have enough hairs there for a sizable second HT (but this is best determined by your surgeon). The only disadvantage would be if you end up transplanting a bunch of hairs that are likely to fall out in the future anyway.

Slick bald may be tough. Buzzed down to a one guard (similar to that actor Jason Statham) would be better. I say this because you may get visible FUE scarring in either the donor or recipient area during a transplant. I ended up getting no visible scarring in my donor, but oddly enough, I have FUE scarring in my recipient area. I'm still only 3 months postop, and I expect it to improve, but I expect there to be at least some visible scarring left there (which is people can see in bright light if I were to wet shave my head). However, it's not noticeable at all when I have buzzed hair there (which was evident during week 3 and 4 postop, before my newly transplanted hairs had shed). My plan is the same as yours, where I think I'll look good for about a decade, but I'm not confident it will hold long term and I want to buzz my head (and still at least retain some of that stubble to give me a nicely framed hairline despite the density going south). I don't ever plan on shaving slick bald though. I prefer a thinning buzzed look (with a nicely framed hairline) instead. I'm hoping this should hide any of the FUE scarring. Maybe try it out with some SMP mixed in there to add some density and blend it with the remaining terminal hairs.

I had PRP during my surgery, and I did two more sessions (at month 2 and month 3) and I think I'm good now. I can choose to continue to do this every 6 months from now onward, but I haven't decided if I will. I only did it because I wanted to make sure I had the smoothest recovery possible and figured "why not" if it can promote healing and possibly early growth. Plus I did read some medical journals that did show that it promotes growth and healing. I can't really confirm if it worked because I can't compare it to a version of me that didn't do the PRP. But worst case scenario, I wasted some money for no reason. I did start to experience new hair growth at 2.5 months, but my scalp redness still (barely) remains and I am slightly over 3 months. I experienced zero shockloss in my donor and recipient area, and I had a lot of miniaturized native hairs that we were transplanting into. So take that for what it's worth. My recommendation is, if you have the money, then go for it. If you're tight on cash, then I think it's just a luxury thing that is probably not going to make or break your hair transplant.

It does. Dutasteride does what Finasteride does but it is a lot more potent. The idea of applying it topically is to try and limit the amount of side effects and keep the drug as 'localized' as possible, but this isn't an exact science, and there are plenty of people on this site who have experienced side effects even when applying it topically. I wouldn't mess with this stuff at age 19. Are you certain you are a NW2? It might be best to post some photos of your hair on here so you can get some feedback from us. Also, are you shedding a lot of hair? I think you need to first confirm if you really are experiencing Male Pattern Baldness before you do anything rash. If you are in fact losing your hair, then maybe it would be best to check your hormone and vitamin levels with a blood test first.

I hear ya. I have some pretty noticeable recipient scarring myself, despite doing the research and going with a recommended doc. I'm still relatively early in my recovery, so maybe it will get better, but it's strange considering others seem to have near invisible recipient scars with the same doc. Maybe it's a physiological thing with me.

To answer your question about hat protection... You need to protect your scalp from the sun for 6 months. You can expose it for like 15-20 minutes, but you shouldn't be tanning (or burning) that scalp in the sun. Re: your comment about crappy wispy hairs at three months postop... I'm in the same boat as you. We both had our procedures at around the same time. I'm three months postop and I just have a few hairs sprouting that are very fine and thin. If this is supposed to be 30% growth, then I'm completely screwed ha ha. But I've seen enough cases on here to know that this means nothing right now. Months 3 to 6 are so variable from person to person. It's pointless to assess anything until the 6 month mark, and even then, your hair shafts will still be thinner/narrower than the final product.

This is a very interesting thread. Looking forward to seeing any progress updates over the next several months/years.

When did you have your procedure? Was it recent? Cobblestoning can improve as your scalp heals, and I believe microneedling is an option to help repair it. There are a lot of good repair docs here that could probably mask or fix the issue. There are a few regular posters on here who had their heads butchered, and they came out great. I wouldn't despair just yet. There are options.

I'm probably the worst person here to ask about FUT since I'm very anti-FUT, ha ha. To me, it's never worth putting a linear scar on the back of your head, simply because it will interfere with my "Plan B" of being able to buzz my head and opting out of all this if the hair becomes too thin when I am older. FUT benefits are also very "case by case". If you have high laxity in your scalp, then you may be able to get more grafts out of it. My only question is..."how many more grafts?". Will the doctor be able to tell you exactly how many more lifetime grafts FUT will get you over FUE? and if so, is it worth putting a linear scar on the back of your head for, say, an additional 1000 lifetime grafts? So instead of 7,000 grafts you end up getting 8,000? (like a 15% increase in density)

Yea, you're always going to get a wide array of estimates between doctors. Depending on size of your head (area of baldness being treated), it's usually a safe bet that the front half will always need around 3,000 grafts and another similar amount in the crown. Obviously this changes based on how much native hair (and you seem to have quite a bit left), so you will need less hairs to be transplanted. But it's always good to plan for the worst case scenario, and ask yourself the "WHAT IF" questions...like what if my hair continues to fall out and I become a NW6/7 patient. Some other questions to think about... 1. - Did you find out how many estimated "lifetime grafts" you have in your donor? Will you be able to have extract 6,000 (or more) grafts in your life for future transplants? 2. - Are you prepared to get more than two hair transplants in your life? (in case your hairloss doesn't stabilize and you have to chase the loss) 3. - Are you comfortable wearing your head buzzed down in case any future loss makes it look too thin to wear it grown out? You're doing good research. You seemed to have done the most important work already. So long as you have a Plan B in case the drugs don't work that well and you continue to lose native hairs.

If you are trying to save money, the ask your doctor what you think is the most important (in case something were to fall outside the normal range). I would assume DHT, Testosterone, and Estrogen would be most useful...but maybe your doc has an opinion on which hormones should be closely monitored.

I had the same thing. Those hairs have probably already shed (and are not growing as a result), but are still stuck in your scalp and just need a little rub or tug to pull them out. This happened to me because I was still being careful when shampooing my head, and when I started to finally get more comfortable touching my recipient area, I was rubbing my head (after 4 weeks) these little hairs all fell out in the sink.