DutchHair

Here's a 10 month update. No major changes. Taken inside but from the sunroom with natural light.

Hair in front is getting super curly, which is much different that what it was like before. I like the change though, although it was very unexpected.

Reception has been universally positive. Can't say I would change much about the outcomes here. For 3700 grafts with my initial level of loss + decision to split it up into two procedures, this has exceeded my expectations. 

I am in no rush to go back for another transplant, but will likely get a touch up at some point in the future. I'll post a one year pic and video in April to document the full results!

On 12/30/2023 at 4:09 AM, Pukimay said:

any finasteride intake so far? how much dosage you use daily mate? cheers

I take 1 ug per day -- that's been steady since the beginning.

On 12/23/2023 at 7:23 AM, Sunset Dune said:

What brand did you switch to? Propecia?

I initially was using the Keeps oral Finasteride when I was living in the US and had some good results with crown filling in. When I moved to NL I switched to Minoxidil Max topical and started seeing significant hair shed again. I recently switched back to the Keeps oral Finasteride and it's been working amazing. Even had some hair regrowth in the crown and mid scalp over the past 9 months.

I had no side effects on either, and it's entirely possible the topical Fin just coincided with a regular shed. But interesting nonetheless.

23 hours ago, Cooper48 said:

Looks great!  Can your barber even tell you had a transplant?

He definitely knows since I went back to him to trim down the sides and back pretty early on. I think most people can tell though since it's a pretty big transformation.

9 months and a fresh cut.

As always, ignore the facial expressions 😐

A few other random observations from my experience some people may appreciate:

- I had new hairs popping through as late as 7 months post-transplant, especially where multi-hair grafts were implanted. Most of the multis started out as a single hair and then sprouted additional hairs over time.

- I had a very itchy scalp, even where no work was done, from months 3 to 5 or so podt-transplant. I think it was mostly dry scalp from the transplant and antibiotics, since switching to a more hydrating condition absolutely solved it.

- Hair is continuing to thicken up and change texture every week. Some hairs in the temples started out with weird angles but now have fallen into line over time.

- I wore a hat from almost immediately post-surgery until well into the ugly duckling stage and don't think it affected the final result at all.

- Also, pretty much all of my hairs shed with an "L" or "J" shaped kink -- all of those eventually grew back.

- I estimate over 90% yield based on the immediate post surgery graft placement pictures.

- Communication from the clinic has been pretty good actually. They've reached out a few times and have been quite responsive to emails.

On 12/8/2023 at 9:25 PM, Steeeve said:

From this

to this

is truly amazing.

Again, Congratulations!

Thanks! Although of course the "before" picture is styled to show where the hair loss is, so it's not an entirely fair comparison.

I'll try to find a couple "natural" pre-surgery pictures for a fairer comparison. But even then I think it's a massive difference.

On 12/9/2023 at 1:00 AM, jakos said:

idk man. i see that's definitely a potential reason but he was already 1 year on meds when he had HT

I think most of the gains are still from meds. I switched finaseride brands right before my surgery and definitely noticed big gains on the vertex with the new fin. I've actually stopped min for the past couple months now, but will be re-starting a lower dose of oral min next month.

I also did get 100 or so grafts to the mid-scalp, so that helped fill in a bit there. 

Here are some outdoor pics from today. Straight from taking off a beanie with a minor "hand comb", so ignore the mess if possible. There's two different top down pictures due to different layers of cloud cover.

Will add full sun pics too...if it ever gets sunny here this month.

On 12/3/2023 at 12:19 AM, jwolfe890 said:

 

did Dr. Mwamba not feel it'd be possible to get sufficient density in one surgery? Why was it planned for two parts from the beginning?

There was some concern about how many grafts I could get from my donor, so we decided to play it a bit a safe and do it over two surgeries to evaluate how the donor would look.  I wanted to be as conservative as possible since I didn't have the greatest donor area.

Hey all - sorry for a late update. Here 7.5 months now after my transplant. Obviously super happy with the results. Letting my hair grow out a bit now so curious to see how things look as it gets longer.

This was initially discussed as a two-part surgery, so I may go back to add a little density in some spots we chose to ignore the first go. But I don't feel a lot of urgency to do so yet - so we'll see.

On 10/26/2023 at 8:26 PM, Rec.M said:

Briljant! Looks so good. Thanks for updating and sharing.

What was the toughest part of recovery? 

The ugly duckling phase was definitely rough. Just the anxiety of not knowing whether things would grow back perfectly, or whether you would end up with a botched result was pretty tough.

6 months since surgery!

I took these pictures in three different lighting conditions. Obviously a couple thin spots in bright lights, but that's being nitpicky. Overall very happy with the result.

This was initially planned as a two part surgery, so the fact that it looks so good (in my opinion) already is really encouraging. I'll probably wait to get a touch up and to fill in some of the less addressed areas until late next year 

Let me know what you think!

Hi all,

Here's my 5 month pictures!

As you can see, hair has continued to grow in and thicken. There is still new hair sprouting and growing, but it's definitely slowing down.

These pictures are with normal outdoor light above, so you can see it in a realistic setting. The hairline looks good to me, temples have filled in nicely, and the rest of the frontal third is much improved. There are still a couple weak spots where I was slick bald before, but they continue to thicken. Also, I need a haircut to even up some of the areas...

Honestly, if this was the final result I would be 100% ssatisfied. I'll probably grow out the hair for a few months now and see what I want to do with it style wise...

Any feedback is appreciated!

On 8/22/2023 at 12:52 AM, Tybwl5 said:

How much was it for the surgery and how many grafts?

It was 3703 grafts according to Dr. Mwamba.

The total was €13068 - or about €3.5 per graft. 

Also, got some photos from Dr. Mwamba pre-surgery and immediately post-surgery.

Order is as follows:

- Wet pre-surgery

- Dry pre-surgery

- Hairline design

- Immediate post-surgery

Hi all,

Here's the 4 month update. This is a couple days after a haircut. Ignore the stupid expressions 😛 

Almost 3.5 months now - seeing good growth and gaps are getting darker and shrinking. There are still small hairs popping up everywhere -- most stubble is growing consistently, some has just started growing after being paused, and some is now has now popped through and then paused. 

I think at this stage is everything grows that has already poked through and thickens up, I'll be very happy with the result. 

Any update to whether those small hairs started growing? I have a few stalled small hairs as well that popped up through and completely stopped growing. 

2 hours ago, hairywannabe said:

Looks clean, you have to be patient, more significant growth should occur around 5th (or 6th) month.

It's so difficult being patient haha. But I'm very happy with the amount of hairs poking through. I am seeing more and more every day, and it looks like they are all growing pretty well too.

Hi all,

Three month update-- this is shortly after a shower and applying minoxidil foam, so excuse some residual whiteness in the hair 😬

Different angles included, all with natural lighting. 

I've seen a lot of hairs pop through in the past two weeks, and more coming each day. I'm hoping (and expecting) this to continue over the next month or two. Overall I think its good progress so far, and expecting a bigger visual change in month 4. However, already looking at month 2 to month 3 shows pretty nice progress, in my opinion.

I got a cut a couple weeks ago down to a 1 on the sides and back, and you couldn't really see any difference in the donor compared to pre-surgery, which is really encouraging. 

The redness is just about gone, although it looks worse in the pictures than it does in real life. The recipient area is itching quite a bit -- especially around the forelock. I'm thinking of adding in Nizoral shampoo once a week just in case.

Let me know what you think!

Still in the heart of the ugly duckling phase with not much to update as of 2 months post-surgery. Shedding has stopped completely now and there are signs of life as small hairs start to poke through the transplanted areas. Every day I'm noticing a couple more hairs peeking through, so it is a nice early encouraging sign.

Ive attached some pictures of the front from a couple angles, plus my donor area. I shaved down my whole head to a #2 a couple weeks ago and there was pretty much no indication of any difference in the donor compared to pre-surgery.

I think everything looks on track, but happy to hear your thoughts at this point.

31 minutes ago, Maballack said:

Can you please let me know if you remember how much time the hair follicles stays outside the scalp in average Thanks ?

For me I'd say there was really no point the follicles were outside my scalp for longer than 3 hours at an absolute maximum. Since my surgery was broken down into mini-sections, the vast majority of follicles were out and then back in relatively quickly (1 hour) -- longer times happened when they needed to hunt for single grafts for temples and hairline.

I think it will vary by surgery, day, patient, etc. so interesting to hear others' experiences. But I don't have any results yet since it is too early.

11 minutes ago, knivesout09 said:

No small amount ~1300

That's crazy to me they took so long for ~1300. How much time was the surgery itself?

I went to Mwamba in April and they did 3700 in 3 days, although the first day was only ~100 grafts as a test after all of the prep work. The second day was 1900 over 4 sessions (from 8 am - 11 am, 12 pm - 3 pm, 4 pm - 7 pm, 8 pm - 11 pm) and the third day was 1700 over 3 sessions (12 pm - 3 pm, 5 pm - 8 pm, 9 pm - 12:30 am). Even then I felt they could have been a lot more efficient, but at least the time from extraction > implantation was incredibly rapid. 

Did Mwamba do all the work himself, or did Dr. Ali assist too?

Amazing result! I also had my surgery with Mwamba back in April for frontal third + temples with a similar amount of grafts, so hoping for a similar result!