Day 7. Today was the first day I was allowed to shampoo gently with the pads of my fingers, which removed some of the smaller scabs that were ready to come off.
Now that I've documented the first week, I'm going to hold off posting until the scabs are gone, hopefully in a few days.
The one thing I still struggle with is that I have no idea what to expect for my new hairline in terms of density. My only complaint with Cooley was that they didn't explain what it could potentially look like a year and a half from now. I brought it up a few times during consultation and pre-surgery, but the only response I got was that I would be "very pleased with the results". During the consultation, I asked if they could send me examples of previous clients that were similar, but I never received those. To be clear, the decision was 100% mine to sign up for the surgery without getting my questions answered, but that would be my ONLY complaint. Everyone at Dr. Cooley's office was amazing.
I don't know the breakdown of the grafts since he did most in the front, some in the back, and then some on the temples as well. I do have an appointment to get my stitches removed in 12 days, so maybe he can give me those answers then.
With that, I've been searching the forum for other people who have similar balding patterns to myself and a similar number of grafts. I am pretty realistic about my expectations, but I also have no idea what those expectations are. I also think a lot of this is just coming from the excitement and nerves of this entire process.