FaganBecker

Appreciate all the advice here - I definitely have a lot to think about. 
 

will try and get more information from HLC in the meantime and probably take it from there 

37 minutes ago, Berba11 said:

On the basis that I’ve never seen any such case from them, never heard anyone have this done with them and that they seemingly haven’t talked about this with you. In fact, it’s extremely rare for any clinic in Turkey to do hairline punch outs. Most people who get hairline punch outs do so because they went to Turkey the first time around! Unfortunately Turkey is the place that people tend to get botched - the repair job will usually be somewhere more expensive in Europe. 

HLC seem very confident they can clean this up easily and give me a result that will “make me happy”

but they also seem very reluctant to give any information about how his will work until I book and go back in person.

they have said that they can do punch outs and moving multiple grafts, but they told me that in a 5 word text. It seems a little too much like, stop asking questions just trust us! 

47 minutes ago, RTC said:

Because you're worried that removing grafts would be counter-intuitive as it's already thin, but in order to fix things sometimes you have to take a step back. Removing some grafts now would leave things thinner yes, but then you can go back and re-implant properly in a few months

Taking half measures with a repair does not work out well, take it from me

But why would you advise against doing these things at the same time? 

4 minutes ago, RTC said:

Then your best bet would be to do this over 2-3 sittings. Remove, wait a few months, then add. And yes, as Berba said, the grafts removed would be recycled further behind, i.e. in the sparse areas.

Not sure I follow sorry. Why would that be my best bet? 
 

obviously need to take into account practicality too. Travel back and forth to Turkey like that is expensive and hard to fit in with my work life 

I’m basically resolved to not get it lowered at all. Especially at the front anyway. I think HLC would be adding density to weaker areas as part of the deal. But how they intend to deal with the pluggy unnatural look, I really don’t know. 

however, you seem to doubt that the removal of grafts falls within their field of expertise? Do you? 
 

from certain angles I think the front of my hairline already appears to be too low. Far too close to the creases of my forehead so tactful removal seems to be the way forward 

Part of me does just want to let the people who I’ve always paid £8K to make good on their initial promise. A natural hairline. 
 

but I agree. At this stage, it is more complicated then just adding singles at the front and a slight softening of the temple angle 

16 minutes ago, Berba11 said:

In the absence of a clear plan from HLC I'd personally have reservations about going back to them.

I also think that camouflaging the multi graft hairline by lowering the hairline is probably ill-advised in your case as your hairline is already quite low. You'd run the risk of having hairs attached to your frontalis muscle which is bit no-no.

What your hair line needs is more irregularities and more singles. You can actually achieve this by reverse engineering the hair line, so to speak. Dr Sever from Hattingen does this - extracts a load of multi's in a broken up, 'irregular' fashion and add a few strategic singles. It's something I'm strongly considering doing myself with Hattingen (I don't have multi's like you do, but my hairline does lack irregularities), and we have a really nice result from @RTCrecently that shows what can be achieved. I'd suggest having a look at @RTC's thread and reaching out to Dr Sever for a video consultation. You may still choose to go ahead with HLC, but it would be unwise to not at least get a few consultations & opinions in the bank before committing to booking flights to Turkey!

Thanks for your response.

I think the thing I find tricky here is the idea of removing healthy multiple grafts would obviously thin it out a bit, and particularly on the left side the density is already poor. There are very few lightings in which it doesn’t look very sparse. 

The other issue is £££. I don’t have much of a budget for it, so if I don’t go back to HLC, I may have to wait years before I can justify another essentially optional cosmetic procedure, such as a hair transplant. HLC have guaranteed that there will be no cost if I go back.

However, the thing that does unnerve me is that they have refused to left me speak to a doctor and maintained that the only repeat ONLY way that they can gage what needs to be done, is with me sat in the hot seat with them in Ankara. Seems an awful expense in both time and money (getting there) to just be told that they can quite easily add a few singles in the front. Especially when the line is already so bold and unnatural looking. 

What do you think of the result so far? A glaringly unnatural result, or something that looks fine if you don’t look to closely at the line itself? 

On 4/12/2024 at 4:15 PM, CoolngMist said:

So I went back for a review and they found my scalp was really dry, all over, not just transplanted area.

I am now taking 2.5mg oral Minoxidil and top up Vitamin D to go along side the 1mg Finasteride and vitamins I have always taken.

While I was with them they did PRP. I left and came home but they consulted with a Dermatologist to review the microscope pictures they took and came back to me to use Betnovate lotion and prescription shampoo.

I go back at the end of April for the next review, next session of PRP and if needs be they are taking me out to see their Dermatologist.

My point is, hang in there, they are following through with aftercare and my experience so far is they want happy clients.

Sorry for the delay! Appreciate your response. Reassuring for sure. 
 

galling to know I may have another trip to Turkey with little over a year after my first one. 
 

just hoping it’s in their skill set to remove grafts from the front. I think mine looks kind of oddly low at the front wouldn’t you say?

it’s improved somewhat, but kind help but think it looks very far from natural 

5 days off 9 months. Is this HT a nonstarter? Got HLC booked for a top up in august but they’ve said they can’t really talk to me about what they’ll do and what went wrong until I’m there. 
 

thoughts on this? Reckon this one has more mileage or is it a dead end? 
 

On 3/19/2024 at 5:42 PM, duchaine said:

An HT is an illusion of density so it is visibile during direct light.
 

What would you say counts as direct light? 
 

clinics should be more upfront about this. Mine is so thin in outdoor natural lighting that I would never have got it done if I knew it would like this. I’d have just buzzed my head.

Hey mate 

not sure why you linked my post. But for what it’s worth, I’m 8 months in and am already noticing some hair fall. I can tell the difference between the transplanted hairs and natural ones. Especially when transplanted ones have sometimes fallen out with two hairs to one bulb and look more wiry. I’m not sure why it’s happening either, but I have noticed other people either here on Reddit posting about this happening around 8-10 months. Scarily, I’ve not seen any of these posts resolve with it all regrowing 3-6 months later. Though many do just drop off, so perhaps they stopped posting once they were content again! 
 

im going back to HLC in august, as my hair line design really doesn’t suit me at all and mine is pretty pluggy at the front. I hope you don’t have to go through it all again any time soon! 

Thanks again for the responses guys! 

I guess regarding expectations, I was definitely hoping for the appearance of a good head of hair. Not a "most people won't be able to tell what's up with it" job.  If I knew that was where I was going to end up I'd have saved 8K and probably just continued shaving my head or wearing a hair system. So yeah, touch up here I come! 

I haven't got one friend now who hasn't commented on the slight oddness of the straight lines cutting across my head. So basically anyone that looks at my hair line for more than 10 seconds (which admittedly few will do this!) can basically tell I've had something done. 

I know it's not terrible and I've definitely stopped thinking about my hair as much, but it hasn't improved my confidence or self-esteem. It's more out of sheer fatigue with the process than actually being pleased with the result! 

Thanks for the responses. Bloody hoping I get some density improvement! Really don’t want to blow a load more grafts on improving density as well as the shape of the hairline!

Also a question for anyone still bothering with this thread! 
 

is a hair transplant always obvious in direct light? Is it something that is always lighting dependent and will never look like it has good density on a sunny day?

So the hard lines/multiple grafts/not great hairline for my head aside, do you think I’m likely to see more growth on the left side? It seems very sparse and thin. You can basically see right through it at the base of the hair in most lights except very dimly lit rooms. I’m now at 5 days off 8 months 

5 hours ago, KSA91 said:

This may be a private question but other than your girlfriend and family members have your friends and colleagues noticed or mentioned something about your hairline? Thankfully, the fix is an easy one and it requires add-ons of grafts and not removals of grafts. If I were you, I'd go to Doctor Bisanga!

Yeah, friends of mine have said things to the effect of “It looks great! I mean it’s got quite a sharp line across your head, but that will change once it’s finished right?” Which is obviously a little demoralizing to hear. 
 

would you advise against going back to HLC?

5 hours ago, KSA91 said:

I agree with the previous comment that the V is too sharp. There's a guy with a very similar head shape to yours who had surgery done with Dr Bisanga. We can't post links here but if you go to the BHR clinic's YouTube page "BHR Clinic hair transplant specialists" then go to the shorts tab and click on the second video on the list. The thumbnail has a red background with the number 52 in the top left corner. The guy on the clip has a very soft V and it's lowered by only half an inch. He has the same head shape as yours. Watch the video and let me know what you think 

Yeah just watched that - thanks. Definitely what I was hoping I’d get. Soft V with a naturally matured look, the appearance of natural density with a natural look right at the front. 
 

My V shape has very bold lines, emphasized all the more by the number of doubles creating a very pluggy look. 
 

don’t you think lowering it by half an inch now is dangerous? I don’t think I have much room to play with for adding more?

14 hours ago, Gasthoerer said:

Thanks for sharing your case.

In my option you should get at least one (better two) consultations with clinics who have a strong reputations in hairline design (e. g. Shapiro - US; Feriduni - Belgium; Heitmann - Switzerland; ...).

From my point of view the biggest issue is not the growth and not the doubles in the hairline (even it is an truly annoying issue) but the hairline macro design.

The hairline has a (too) strong V-shape (surprisingly this cannot be seen from the immediate post op pics) which does not match your facial features and might be even too low in the middle. Also the connection to the temporal peaks is not ideal. Just adding singles in the front might not be the solution. 

Nevertheless, it is not terrible and can be fixed with a good plan. 

 

Good idea regarding contacting other clinics. I will do that! 

I've also dropped HLC a text asking if we can discuss what the surgery plan is and if I can ask a doctor some questions. One thing I dislike about them is how limited their customer service is. They treat getting a hair transplant like getting a haircut, with a very casual, ok yeah come back whenever you like for a touch up. No detail at all. And very short, limited and usually very late responses to any concerns. I appreciate them inviting me back to correct it, but do find the casual and tardy approach to communication pretty concerning. 

Think you're right. It is a tad too low at the front, marginally anyway. I definitely want to smooth out the lines and perhaps rather than bringing the sides down to where the front is, just curve them more and connect them to slightly more filled out temporal peaks. Does that sound like it would resolve the issue? 

Would you really say then that this hairline is "so badly wrong" rather than just a professional misstep that any surgeon could produce from time to time? You did just say a minute ago that it looks good too... can a hairline that was done "so badly wrong" also look good?!

Regarding growth, do you think I'm at the end of the road now? 

34 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

This last phot looks good. Your previous photo shows doubles in the frontal hairline and a lack of micro irregularities. I would not recommend going back to the same doctor/clinic in my opinion as this is the first tennant of surgery rules that has been broken in creating a natural hairline. 

Is this really what you'd consider a good result? Despite being so thin and sparse at the base and front of the hairline? You can see right through it. Also, closer up it does seem to be almost entirely doubles at the hairline. 

However, when i spoke to them on the phone about this, they did say that shouldn't be the case and that it's because usually they split grafts if it looks like it is going to be a double, yet they must not have done that properly with mine. They told me that it should be an easy fix, to soften the lines of the hairline and make it suit my head better, and to add more singles in to make it appear more natural too...

However, it would also be free. I'm not sure I could afford to spend a bunch on going to a new surgeon any time soon 

Two weeks off 8 months… 

what do we think? Is this a failed transplant? 
 

I know I’m going back for a 2nd touch up one probably around august this year (that will be 13 months since my first) but still obviously eagerly hoping this improves. Am I unlikely to see more growth at this stage? 

3 minutes ago, jjalay said:

Did you get a second opinion from another doctor?

No, not yet

10 minutes ago, jjalay said:

Have you tried different hairstyles to coevr it up? This is another case from the same doctor with the same problem as yours, aka multis on the hairline. But he is able to get away with it by bringing the hairs on the right and a little bit on the front:

If you are in the Uk before jumping into another surgery i would suggest you having a consultation with someone like edward ball or raghu reddy to be sure about your options. Bisanga and Lupanzulal are also into such repairs. I really think that your hairline is already way too low.

Honestly not much that I can do about style yet. It doesn't really brush one way or another and it is far too thin and sparse to be brushed forward without looking kinda patchy. 

Interesting that you think it look too low already! I disagree, personally. I was given three options for where it should sit on my head, all within the realms of what they deemed 'natural' and I went for the middle one. The lower one would hae been about 0.5cm lower than this.

Personally, I dislike the look of hair transplants that are quite high up. I think that as your hair recedes it disrupts the clean lines of a hairline. So when I see guys with pretty neat hairlines that are high up on their heads, I think its a tell tale sign of an HT.

However, the thing that I think is the problem with mine - aside from the multis - is how incredibly straight the lines are. They  don't follow the curvature of my head but cut across it. So it doesn't look like natural recession, which is what I was hoping for! I think HLC agrees with me too, hence their saying they would correct that too. 

So I am now 10 days off 7 months. There has been a little improvement, but the growth is still poor on the left side and the hairline does, to my eyes and my girlfriends, look pretty odd. Obviously, will be returning to HLC to take them up on their free touch up, but probably not anytime soon having just started a new job. 

Here are a few progress pics in various lightings. 

On 1/26/2024 at 3:07 AM, KSA91 said:

I noticed you didn't post a picture of the board with the amount of singles, doubles, and multis they extracted. Do you have that photo by any chance? 

I'm afraid I don't have the photo!