Hi everyone - I've lurked the forums for a couple of years now, though perhaps maybe not as much as I should have...
I was 33 and about a Norwood 3 when I had the surgery with Dr. Lindsey and his team in October 2022 (FUT with 2,300 grafts). I'm now 34 and about 15 months post-op, and I'm pretty disappointed with the results. I think the hairline is unnaturally straight and looks a bit too "pluggy," but even worse than that are the issues with patchiness and density. As you'll see in photos, particularly on my left side, there's an area where there's really just not much hair. Not ideal. Overall, there's a stark difference when you go from my natural hair to my transplanted hair, the latter of which is very sparse and wiry. I kept hoping - month after month, really just deluding myself - that the hair would fill in and thicken some more... but it really just never did. The "potential" issue I saw at month 4 is now a very real, permanent issue. My hair follicles are naturally fine/thin, so this doesn't help, and maybe I would have needed another surgery to increase density anyway. But, still - compared to other results posted here, I feel as though my finished product is pretty bad. It's not disaster bad, but it's not at all what I was hoping for. Or maybe my expectations were too high and I'm being melodramatic?
Like many others, I was hoping to have this transplant so that I could walk outside without fearing the wind. That certainly has not happened. While the additional follicles do of course help overall, I still have to style my hair brushed forward, to hide the thin patches and unnatural hairline, and if the wind gets me at a wrong angle, I believe people will naturally wonder wtf is wrong with part of my head/hair. (Part of the problem may also be with how the transplanted hairs were angled during the transplantation?)
Overall I spent $10.5k and used several weeks of vacation. It's frustrating to think that I might have to do this again just a couple years later, to fix/improve what happened in October 2022.
All that said, I'm not here to drag Dr. Lindsey and his team - maybe I just had a bad experience beyond anyone's control. While I mentioned earlier that maybe I didn't do enough research, I did do some. I saw quite a few results I really liked from him, both from the videos he posts and elsewhere on the Internet. I'm sure he has plenty of happy customers, but I'm not in that camp. There's another post on here by a guy who had two transplants done by Dr. Lindsey, and then a third by Dr. Cooley. He commented that it's night/day in terms of their approaches, and I can attest to what was said about Dr. Lindsey's: he pulls the strip out, makes the incisions, and then it's basically two of his techs placing the hairs in. He does stop by a few times, but mostly he's in his office (or, without your consent, bringing a prospective patient back to see how it's done and chat with you, which I found pretty strange). He's a nice guy, and his staff is lovely, but we're all after results, not just a pleasant experience. And the results here just aren't great.
One random note: I wasn't on finasteride at the time of the procedure. I had scared myself too much about potential side effects, and Dr. Lindsey said something to me that like only 10 percent of his patients use it. Well, after the procedure, I finally got over the (illogical) anxiety and started taking fin. All good. Really dumb that I hadn't started earlier, but I guess I convinced myself that I'd be okay without, and that it'd be no biggie to get another procedure in a decade. Again: really dumb. Don't do what I did.
Anyway, I'm a posting for a couple of reasons: to contribute to the community that's helped me along the way, but also so that I can get some feedback. Below are some photos from before and after, at various stages along the timeline. I'm curious as to what others think about where I'm at (Am I being too harsh?) and also what I could potentially be looking for if I decide to try for another procedure. Thanks in advance.