Matt434

Looking forward to seeing an update!

Definitely not the norm, though it seems Dr. Wong is considered a highly regarded surgeon who had the skill to pull off such a large surgery. I'd say 2500 grafts is much closer to the norm.

It appears that you have a good donor, so hair transplantation is definitely something you should consider. I definitely recommend getting on meds/rollers since your crown isn't fully bald and there is hair to save there. As for picking a surgeon, that's a highly personal decision that will take a lot of time to decide. I recommend browsing this site, reddit, and any ht doctor list you can find online and learning about what separates good ht doctors from bad ones and which doctors are good for your specific needs.

I'm sorry you're going through this man, stay strong. Keep in mind that even if more hair doesn't come in, the redness will fade and it'll be easier to hide. And if it doesn't come in then find a reputable doctor to improve it.

Then I would say it's definitely worth it. If you have a ht, the doctor won't implant as many hairs in the areas where native hair still exists. If you lose native hair after the ht, then your scalp will be thin/bare in those areas and full on the rest of your scalp, creating an unnatural look.

I agree with YodaHead, your best bet is to focus on the front and augment the crown just enough so that topik is a viable option again. I would add that you should think deeply about what kind of hairline you would be satisfied paying for. It's important to go conservative with the hairline given your donor, but make sure that you would be happy walking around with whatever the doctors recommend.

For a small scab that size, the natural healing process is about a week, so light pressure would be enough to remove it. Assuming you didn't apply extreme pressure when scratching your head, I'm sure the scab came off without the graft attached. Whether or not you agree that grafts are fully anchored by day 7, rest assured that they are anchored enough that only intense pressure would remove them at this point. Also, to look at it another way, you don't want those scabs on your head longer than necessary. You want the skin to return to normal so the grafts can heal in peace, so to speak. Scabbed skin isn't great for that.

Would love to see an update! For the crown, I think that level of growth after six months is solid, I've heard that hair in the crown can take longer to come in than hair in the front.

I don't have firsthand experience with Dr. Dorin so I can't help you there. While I don't think 26 is too young for a ht at all, understand that you're signing up for a lifelong job managing your hair loss and be ready to face that before pulling the trigger on surgery. Also understand that you're almost certainly going to need a second ht in your lifetime (more on that later). Ask if they use microscopes to prepare and inspect the grafts. This is important even for FUE to ensure that quality grafts are being put into your head, and to ensure the right size grafts are being put into the right places (e.g. smaller grafts in the hairline). Don't be shy, ask to see the microscopes - any doctor worth having touch your head won't be offended. Also ask about how many technicians will be employed to place the grafts in your head. Fatigue is real - a single technician shouldn't be placing more than say 500-700 grafts into your head in one sitting. Number of grafts: first off I want to say that I'm not a doctor and not an expert in this, so this is only food for thought and certainly not medical advice. But if I were you, I'd be thinking along these lines: assuming you aren't using topik in that crown photo and that's what your crown looks like naturally, I wouldn't touch your crown on the first surgery. You're maintaining it well, and by having surgery on it, you risk losing hair back there due to shock loss and by the doctor damaging native hairs. While it is true it won't be ideal to have a strong front with a weak crown, this is common enough among men where it won't look unnatural and won't give away the fact you had a ht. I'd come back to it when it's more thinned out. In the event you do in fact want it filled in, I honestly don't know how many grafts it would take. Going to the front: you're gonna want a conservative hairline to conserve grafts since you're losing your hair in your twenties and are thus very likely to need more work done in the future. I'm going to estimate that you need 1800 grafts to fill in bare spots and 1200 grafts to strengthen the center tuft, for a total of 3000 grafts. Maybe a little bit less, so let's say 2700-3100. But again, take what I'm saying with a huge grain of salt and listen to what the doctor tells you. A final note: because you're already thinning, it's likely that even with medication, you will need a second ht for the crown within the next 5-20 years. A second ht is not just running back the first. If you go for FUE twice, the second time the doctor needs to be very careful to a) not over-harvest and leave you with a moth-eaten appearance in the back, and b) not take grafts out too close to the existing FUE scars, otherwise the scars might fuse and become more visible. Ask Dorin about his experience performing FUE on patients that had FUE previously. Ask him for photos showing the outcomes. Even though it's your first surgery, only go to a doctor who's skilled enough to successfully perform second round surgeries. Think long term so you don't have regrets later. Cheers man, hope it works out.

I wouldn't be able to tell either! Glad to see this part worked out for you.

Looking great! Could you take some photos of the donor area so we could see how it's growing in?