Eman

For his sake, I hope that he does as well

Great progress. Looks so much better already. Thank you for sharing this journey with the community.

It is an infection and if your body doesn't handle the infection well or it becomes more than a superficial infection (clears up on its own in a couple of days like what you are experiencing), scarring and hairloss can occur. The doc wants to make sure that it is not something more and is taking a proactive approach for you, which is good.

Take the antibiotics first and foremost. Follow the docs instructions to the letter. I had pimples, but I popped them all. But that was me and most say to leave them alone, but mine would have stuck around a lot longer than 3-4 days. Never an issue in the long term in regards to the result

It will come back. Due to the difference in your hair color (dark) and skin color (light) it is more pronounced. Give it time...

WOW...this result is FANTASTIC! The patient was totally transformed and must love his new look. Again, wow!

Looking right where you should be hairz!! If you take a look at my 1-month pics, they look almost identical to yours. Now the waiting game begins. Be patient!

I had the exact same issue as you did. I have blonde hair and the donor hair in the recipient area was darker. This concerned me as well, but after a couple of growth cycles, it lightened up and is now a non-issue. It did take over a year to get to that point.

highjump- I would get on finasteride and give that a year to see what it does for you. In the meantime, spend some time on the forum researching and learning about HTs and the doctors recommended here. This site will be invaluable to you in terms of learning about HTs. After a year, re-evaluate how you feel about your hair and then make an educated decision on what you decide to do. And please, only choose a recommended doc--for your own sake. It is hard enough losing your hair and it is even harder to walk around with a bad HT.

two weeks---looks like you got yourself a little sunburn and the donor area looks good!! Happy healing then Happy GROWING!

The transplanted hair will calm down and blend over time--once it matures. Mine took about a year to do so, but now it matches the native hair.

James- Had the same emotion before mine. I had done ridiculous amounts of research, spoke to countless patients, and even met some patients. All of my preparation didn't prepare me for those thoughts of almost backing out. The night before, I remember being on the phone with my gf and telling her that I think I made a mistake and this is too vain for me. She calmly reminded me all the reasons as to why I was doing this in the first place and all the research I had done. I was going in over-prepared. That little support I got from her that night allowed me to go through with the choice to have a HT that I had made earlier. The anxiety was still there, the what-if questions persisted...until I was having my new hairline drawn in and the shots to numb the area. Still today, one of the best decisions I made for myself.

Vitamin E oil, Pure Aloe, and Minoxidil (liquid)...these are the three things that I used faithfully

Personally, if I had done strip in the past--I would do the same for the next HT. But that is if you do not mind the recovery time associated with strip. From your pics, it's hard to tell what your hair truly looks like due to the low quality and the lighting. But if this were my last HT I would maximize the session and cover as much surface area as possible. Build up the hairline in the front third, add some to the middle third and try to get some coverage in the crown (the "black hole" of your head). And when I say maximize, I mean getting as many grafts as possible safely from the donor using one of the top docs recommended here. That is what I would do...

WOW!! Love what Konior does! You must be thrilled Sam.

Never experienced pain, per se, but like jerzig said it was sore in the recipient and donor area. I don't think pain is something one needs to really worry about when going to a recommended doc. Discomfort, soreness...definitely.

Huge difference and only at 5-months. It will only get better, you just wait and see!! Take a pre-op pic and place an identical posed picture and you will see the transformation. Congrats and enjoy the continued growth!

Nope...just a personal preference. I did the same with the shampoo and conditioner I used for the first year. Overly cautious I am sure. The minoxidil had enough chemicals in it for me--which I was using after my HT. I am not a hippie type (not that anything is wrong with that), but just felt the best thing for me was to go natural with anything that I put on my head after surgery. That is all.

In my opinion, I wanted to stay away from those "cooling" chemicals and went for the all natural variety both gel and liquid from the local health food store. Both needed to be refrigerated. Again, just wanted to be as natural as possible!

Your fourth pic looks a little thin, but really hard to tell as the pictures are not that great. But from the first three, I would wait. I have said this before to people with your relatively little loss...enjoy what you have, wait to see where the hairloss takes you, do a ton of research, and then and only then begin your HT journey if that is the route you decide to go. For you at this time, I would simply wait!

Matt- What I did to lessen the redness in the recipient area was to get as tan as possible prior to my HT. That did help a lot, however, there was still redness in my case...but I simply told people I got sunburned again. Your skin is fairly pale, so the redness will be noticeable--even at the five week mark. There is the issue with shockloss, but it looks like the area that you will have done with 4K grafts doesn't have too much hair in the area anyway, which was similar to my case. So, shockloss will probably be more of an issue for you in the donor area--which hopefully can be covered by longer hair in that area. But I wanted to even the hair out around my head so I cut down the donor area. You will look "more" bald at the five week mark and will look the same way you look now at the 3-month mark. There is no getting past the fact that something looks different with your scalp to people. You can explain it away as a sunburn, as a bad reaction to a new shampoo you tried or some other fun excuse. Expect some looks at the top of your head when you go back to work. But who cares--you know what is about to happen in a few months. Think about it, a few looks for a couple of weeks (which you can explain away) is nothing compared to how good you will feel once the hair comes in. And the doldrum period of the HT journey will be a distant memory!! The result (at least for me) makes the hardship of waiting and explaining totally worth it!

Honestly, I would agree with what some of the others said in the post you linked. You are bothered by your hair now, just as I was when I was 27 and I am glad that I waited until my early 30's. But from the pics, your hair looks good. Remember, we are our own worst critics. I would take a deep breath, step back and really analyze your level of loss and where you think that you will be in five years. I would wait until your hair loss progresses a little further before getting into the HT journey. Once you get the 1500-1800 grafts for your hairline, where is your mid scalp going to be in the next five years? Planning is very important when dealing with a HT. I think you are in good shape right now. Enjoy your hair and as the loss progresses, re-evaluate and then seriously think about a HT.

Great idea...it was fun to follow. Thanks for sharing and look forward to seeing your progress!

What doc did you do the consult with? What level of hair loss do you have? You can go back to work the next day, but it WILL be noticeable. Unless you do a small FUE session and the shaved area in the back is small, and the recipient area is not shaved and the existing hair covers the recipient zone. Otherwise, I would take as much time off as you are able. Looking normal again is different for most and epends on the session size, your Norwood level and other factors

Sweat it out, swim, play ball, workout hard...all are fine on the grafts at this point. Wear sunscreen on your scalp. The healing process is different for everyone, so just take care of your scalp not only for your new HT but also for your skin!