OverharvestedAndSad

Yes I am on minoxidil, only once a day though at night and sometimes I forget. Also taking finasteride still daily. At this point I'm still just waiting. Hair is still growing in on the top so I likely won't see full results until mid 2024. It sucks though because I still feel insecure about my hair especially with how patchy it is on the sides. The whole reason I got a transplant was so I wouldn't have to think about my hair again.

Sorry guys been busy with life. Here’s an almost 4 month update. At this point I’ve lost hope of a full recovery. You can clearly see the donor area vs the rest of my sides. Top of my head is still growing in. I have about as much hair on top as before the transplant lol. I think I’ll see better results in a few months since my transplant was so big guessing I had more shock loss. Crown is still lagging behind

I think it is growing back a little bit but I can’t really tell. There is still a very clear patch where the donor hair was taken. I’ve kept the hair on the back of my head long in sort of a mohawk fashion. It looks somewhat normal you can see the low density if I take a picture with flash on or if I’m in bright sunlight. I’ll post a picture update early august which will be 3 months from my transplant. If the side patches of my head recover to what the back looks like I’ll be somewhat relieved.

So I cut my hair short on the sides (by myself) because I couldn’t stand the big patch. I can sort of see a scarring pattern. Just not sure if its the white part or red parts that are the scars. It seems to me the little hair I have left is growing out of the white parts which I assumed would be the scars but idk. If all else fails, I guess I’ll just have to rock a skin fade mohawk for the rest of my life lol

You guys are right. I will just post updates monthly in case anyone is curious or in the same position as me and wants to know how it ends up. Fingers crossed for a happy ending lol

About a month after transplant now (final session was may 5th) From the earlier pictures it does look better, but just because my hair got longer not necessarily because more hairs grew in. If there is shock loss, how long would it take for even small hairs to start growing in? The sides are looking really bad still losing hope every day

Thank you, I’ll try my best to be patient. With regards to shock loss, when I zoom into my donor with my phone camera I don’t really even see any dark spots where (im guessing) a hair follicle should be. Is that normal? I don’t even see any velus hairs growing.

I will try and upload pics every month or so as long as I remember to. I am in India for 2 more months before I go back to the US so hopefully it looks better by then. My case is honestly the worst I’ve seen online with regards to shock loss/ overharvestation. Most people’s donor areas look healed by week 2 and mine still looks like I got 3rd degree burns all over lol

Can you explain what homogenous extraction means in this scenario? By looking at the punches on my donor would you say mine was homogenous as well? Thanks

These are some photos I took within the first week post op, you can sorta see the punches. Do they seem spaced out enough?

They’re in Mumbai. Yes they told me 0.7 mm, and on their website it also says they use a 0.7 mm to 0.5 mm conical punch. Not sure what that means exactly. Also yes I’m on medication. I’ve been taking finasteride for 2 years hair loss had stabilized before transplant. Still taking it. Will start applying minoxidil too. I’m also getting some PRP which was included with the transplant package. I don’t have immediate post op photos of the donor unfortunately as those areas were bandaged up. I have some a few days post op.

Photo of beard for reference. I don’t really care if they overharvested beard since I’m usually clean shaven. But it seems there may be shock loss there too? Second photo is a closer look at my donor scalp I think you can see the punches some of them are still red 2+ weeks after extraction. Am I healing unusually slow?

This was actually done over 5 days. So about 1.5k ish grafts a day (last day was just beard) I got it done at the Assure clinic in India, they’re known for high density hair transplants. My surgeon had been working there 6 years I believe and all extraction / implant was done by surgeon not technician. Also supposedly they used a 0.7 mm punch for extraction. I also have a low pain tolerance so they may have used more anesthesia (not sure about this). Maybe that contributed to shock loss. Still though when taking photos with flash you can clearly see huge patchy areas with absolutely no hair throughout my donor. Ill upload a closer picture to possibly show punch size and the extractions.

I am a little over 2 weeks post op. Extracted 6k+ grafts over 5 days (plus another 1.5k from beard which also looks the same as scalp). Am I screwed? Can I transplant beard hairs into my donor in the future to fix this? I still have a lot of beard left (and lots of body hair fwiw)