hongkongfue

10 month update. Due to the weather I was only able to get inside photos. Fresh haircut yesterday at the usual no. 5 on the sides and back. This would be about 17 months back on finasteride and 17 months off the foam minoxidil. Thx

@jjsrader thanks for the feedback. I did start back on fin in Dec 22 after I reached out for the consult. I do wish I had stayed on it the whole time. I’d definitely be in better shape and plan to stay on it from here out. To your point I think the light color and fine hair did help me achieve the outcome I was hoping with the amount of loss I had. Right now not planning on another pass but I could see it in the future though depending on how things progress. Doubt I could get another 18 years in between again though. Ha! we’ll see how the next few months go with the growth. Hopefully still more to come!

Hi. 9 month update. Inside and outside pics.

@Buffaloboy I don’t think it was a case of not maintaining the transplanted hair from 18 years ago but more of an issue of continued hair loss of native hair. Dr. Wong said the transplanted hair held up pretty well. With diffuse thinning and NW 6 and having started losing my hair younger in life I just kept losing. Regretfully I had also stopped taking fin several years ago. Likely not a wise move. If I can go another 18 years in between I’ll be good. Ha.

Hi guys, 8 month update. Sorry missed a few months. Still very happy with things. It was rainy day today so couldn’t get outside shots. This is about 3 weeks out from my last haircut. Still using no. 5 guard on the sides. Thanks!

Hi, I don’t know about the survival rate. Yeah it was only 50 on each side. And to be fair it was very hard to get a picture with longer hair and certainly the view wasn’t like for like on the full grafted area and full photographed area for comparison. Regardless at 6 months things aren’t final by any stretch. Maybe at the year mark after a fresh haircut I can do some better photos with more accurate comparison. No Dr. Wong didn’t mention survival rate. But I didn’t ask. I’d assume though if it was anticipated to be any lower than the rest of the scalp he’d have said something and told me don’t waste the graphs. But honestly the scar was of little concern to me going in or now. As you can see with my hair length at a no. 5 guard along with my skin tone and hair color it’s a non issue. Atleast in my eyes. You should reach out to Dr. Wong to discuss any particulars on scar grafting. Sorry I don’t know more particulars. Hope that helps.

Looks great man and dramatically different! I think any waviness will settle down. From what I can recall from my first procedure with Dr. Wong the texture improved over time. But definitely a nice problem to have like you said!

Sorry I missed the 5 month update. Here is the 6 month update. It’s also been one year since I started back on Fin and a year since having stopped Minoxidil. Things are progressing about as expected. The top is pretty much back to my normal length. Tried to get a few pictures of the graphs in the scar for @Needhelpwithscar You can definitely see some graphs growing through already. Inside and outside photos.

@Needhelpwithscar I have some pics above that are from day 1 and the next few days they show the graphs in the scar. It’s only 50 on each side of the scar to break it up some. I’ve posted any pics I have. I haven’t tried to get any close ups of the scar recently since I’m just coming up on 5 months and waiting for more growth to start overall. I’ll try to see if can get some with next update. sorry you’ve had any issues with your scar. I’ve been very happy with mine and I don’t wear my hair lower than a guard 5 so it’s not that short anyways.

4 month and 2 days update. Have had a few haircuts now. Hair length is growing out. Pimples have died down. Happy with things. Again my goal was coverage as density is not in my cards. But having light hair and skin I think it helps. Pictures from inside bathroom lights and outside. Only thing I may have changed in retrospect is spending 100 graphs on the scar when I don’t traditionally wear my hair that short on the sides but later if I ever decided to get another procedure to fill in the scar it jump starts that and also breaks up the scar some with how Dr. Wong did it put some on either side to break up one long scar.

I have blonde and light colored hair and it was no issue for FUE. They just colored my hair dark the day before. No way would I have FUT for 1200 graphs, like others have said save that for bigger surgeries.

I have a lot of light hair, it has darked up more over the years since I had my 1st surgery, but still pretty fair and more gray hair on sides. The day before this second surgery with Dr. Wong, they shaved my hair and just dyed the the donor areas really dark. So basically dying all of the remaining stubble.

@Spidey no I haven't. I hadn't even heard of it until I came back for this second surgery since I hadn't really kept up with anything after getting my first one. Guess will need to do some more digging. Dr. Wong did put some graphs on each side to break it up a little on this second pass, but that is all I have ever done to address it since I typically don't wear my hair short. Thanks for the tip.

I've had both with Dr. Wong, FUT then 18 years later the FUE. I did like the healing quicker of the FUE over the FUT and not having to deal with the staples, but since you need a lot of graphs I would vote to wait for Dr. Wong and get the FUT and get as many graphs as you can. You have a lot of real estate to cover also so you are going to be closer to be satisfied with having more the first round then less. Sometimes I feel like on the forum people don't really how fast graphs get eaten up and then they are disappointed, so best to have realistic expectations regardless of what the doctors may tell you. But if you want to keep your hair really short no way around the FUT scar if that is going to factor in for you. I think which either way you go, you may end up wanting a second pass also since even 5k goes quick depending on how you want to use them, for me I was going more for coverage than density. I've shared both my FUT and recent FUE pictures in the review section and lots of other recent Dr. Wong patients as well. I can tell you that also not staying on finasteride the whole time definitely set me back some. I took it the first several years, then faded off when wanting to have kids and never went back until I did my last consult with Dr. Wong for this surgery and plan to stay on it consistently going forward. Best of luck on everything!

2 month update. Not much to report as expected. Getting first hair cut tomorrow just to clean things up a bit. Inside and outside photos.

Looking great. I am sure you will have an awesome result! Now just have to be patient and wait it all out!

Dr. Wong also recommended to me to stop topical minox also since he said it ages the skin. I have not gone back on it, but I do really question if I should. But it is hard not to follow his advise since he has now done 2 surgeries on me, albeit 18 years apart.

I feel like the recovery has been a lot easier with the FUE than strip, but with the 18 year gap it's honestly hard to recall how it truly was then, I know I was a lot more nervous the first round. I feel like my redness faded quicker this time also, but it probably helped I had half the grafts this time compared to the FUT so less trauma to scalp. I think back then I was slathering emu oil every day since that is what was popular at the time. This go round I have not put anything at Dr. Wong's recommendation. I also got back on foam minox after the FUT, but again following Dr. Wong's advise I discontinued usage after the consult 7 months before surgery and have not gone back on it, which I have to say I do felt like a lost a lot of hairs or atleast had a big shed when I stopped. As for why FUE over FUT this time, after the scalp exam he said that my laxity on the sides was good, but the back not so much, which honestly I had a feeling he was going to say that even though I had 6 months of stretching. He said we could proceed with the FUT but that probably 1,800 max units and could not use the trichophytic closure as there wasn't enough laxity ( he was not using that closure technique when I had the FUT). I appreciated his candor as I was really wanting to aim for 2,000 units. He said that if I wanted to do FUE instead he felt confident he could get to 2,000. So that is the direction we set off in. Which in retrospect I am glad it worked out that way as I felt like things healed up quicker and not having to rock 50 staples in my head for 2 weeks was nice! The other thing I was not expecting was shaving my hair in full the day before surgery since last time with FUT they just shaved the parts working on. But I am glad to have shaved the whole head this time, it looked a lot more normal. Also this time they had to use 2 boxes of black hair dye the day of consult since I had so many gray hairs on the sides and back. Guess no my hair is a full on hodge podge of gray, blonde and dark colors.

Here are day 53 update photos taken August 29. Not much to report other than I really need to shave my neck hairs! ha. Feels strange to have now gone 2 months with no haircut. Since so many of my hairs are either blonde it is hard to capture them in the photos at a short length, but at this point I am just waiting for my old hair to grow back to the prior length which I will be happy for but I have to say shorter hair has been nice for the summer. I seem to have had more pimples in the donor area than receipt area but between the 2 there are usually several at any given time. al.

Here are 30 day update photos taken August 6. .

@mrmajified I think you are looking good. With all of the real estate you and I needed to cover with our surgeries, high density and low hairlines were never going to be an option! And it seems like sometimes anything short of that is not considered a success! I know my second surgery is not going to be a mind blowing result, because I wanted coverage and not density, with our light hair and skin and needs, I just know I personally feel like I look better with thinner overall hair then if I went in with load up the front and let the rest be totally bald. I think like you said it will continue to look natural as you age. And for me I have had a high hairline for ever it seems like now so it would have looked funny if the temples were all the sudden filled in. Keep up the good growing!

I just returned to Dr. Wong in July from an 18 year gap from my first HT he did. The biggest difference was going from FUT to FUE. I went in thinking I was going to get another FUT since why not, I already had a scar so what was the point of spending more for FUE when I don't cut my hair short to begin with. Fast forward to 7 months after booking when it was day before surgery and seeing Dr. Wong for the first time in 18 years, he said we could do FUT and 2000 grafts would be the goal, but also told me I run the risk of scar stretching because the laxity on my sides were good, but not so much for the back and that he would have to be conservative with the strip removal, and that was with me working on laxity exercises for 7 months. He left it to me, but ultimately I decided it was worth it to go ahead and pivot to FUE and ended up with 21XX. And let me tell you, I am glad I did. I felt like things healed up so much quicker, no staples to deal with etc, mind you after 18 years I don't remember everything from the first one, but just felt like I got back to normal quicker with this one. To bad FUE wasn't an option for me 18 years ago. I am sure there has been some blade improvement as Dr. Wong is always refining his process. Looks like you were in same original boat as me and needed a lot of grafts and they can only go so far with that much hair loss and finite number of graphs. I was happy with the first surgery and with all the different variables, I didn't want to take any chances going to a different doctor, so I was happy I went back to Dr. Wong for the second pass.

I’ve posted a lot of photos in the review forum for my FUE procedure that I had done recently if you want to check my username. And I also have FUT scar and was full shaved for the FUE. You can see how it looks over 10 days each day and I’ll be taking my 14 day photos tomorrow. There are clear photos of old scar also so you can see how it looks. I do have light hair and skin tone though.

Your scar will be great. Here’s mine from Dr. Wong 18 years later and it was done without Trichophytic closure. No railroading.

Hard to say since I lost so much non transplanted hairs over the years. I wouldn’t rule it out but since it’s been 18 years that’s a lot of time. I didn’t specifically ask Dr. Wong if it looked like that. He just said it looks like it held up very well and when I asked him how much non transplanted hairs were still in the transplanted areas he said what was left was prob 95% transplanted hairs at this point in those areas. That was just conversational number during consult. . I feel pretty good that if I did lose any I lost so much non transplanted hairs the difference is minimal for loss of any transplanted hairs. Like you said hard to tell from photos and I’ve never dwelled to much on it when looking at things in the mirror over time.