diamondlight

Bumping an old thread here if anyone comes across this in a search and is still looking for a solid recommendation. In no way affiliated, but I know recommendations can go a long way. I went to Scalp Micro in NYC - Matt lulo is said to be a pioneer in this field. SMP is their profession. Not an additional service meant as another source of revenue. They also have an office in Houston if curious. Matt helped treat my donor area scar and I couldn't be happier. It wasn't so much the scar that needed to be covered up as my Doctor did an incredible job of making this as tight as possible, but more so the surrounding areas of the scar where it was becoming thin. Anyone using dermmatch to help conceal that area? I was. Now a part of the past. A beautiful thing.

Very exciting time here. I had just undergone my third transplant with a highly recommended doctor on this forum and I could spend all day sharing how enthusiastic I am. A lot of donor pain, may need a strong pain med, but excited! We've been working to achieve density in the frontal 1/3rd and with this procedure, I should reach my desired result. Small density touch ups and light hairline/temple framing may be in my future for the record. I can go on and on about how this will restore my confidence, going about my life day to day in an easier more stress free fashion, less cosmetics and struggle, but I thought I would highlight something I found interesting. While this is "extremely" soon and as many of us do, we share our questions/concerns with our doctor and this forum leading up to and following a procedure, I thought this was an interesting topic as I haven't seen much on this. I received just over 1,100 grafts into the front 1/3rd portion and while attached pictures may present a higher degree of a red coloration (lighting/camera?) than what is there to the naked eye, it will at least provide reference (and who doesn't like pictures). In previous procedures, I've had the immediate, bloody scab surrounding where the grafts were planted just as many of us do. This lead to the typical progression of healing, massaging off scabs, some shedding and so on. This go around, I can probably count 100 red/scabs throughout my recipient area. While I'm not concerned as I know I am in great hands with my doc and staff and they all did an incredible job taking their time with me, again I thought this was quite interesting as I haven't seen or read about this happening and figured I would open this up to the forum. For the record, I am using the post ATP spray and blasting the area roughly every hour.

If everyone has to start somewhere, how would you feel about the tech planting your grafts, it being their first time doing so?

This was along the lines of what I was thinking, but in regards to those who have exhausted strip options etc and are cornered with only cloning left as an option with nothing else to fall back on. When you are in that position, you're either paying to play or living with where you're at.

My fingers are crossed that it will be noticed as a "breakthrough" to "help" those suffering from mpb without breaking the bank.

Of course, I guess it was directed more towards a small topic of conversation (which I'm sure there are other threads about) opposed to expecting a definitive answer.

just throwing this question out there but in your opinion when and if this treatment ever becomes available will it be the answer to hair loss for many or only an option for those who are financially wealthy with deep pockets

Make sure to be taking in 3000mcg of Biotin for those that are.

Another point to make mention of is in my donor area had some decent scar tissue built up from my prevous two transplants. It was a bit bumpy in some spots if you were to run your fingertips top to bottom over the scar. Dr. True, as planned, did a great job of removing most of it and its smooth to the touch now. Fingers crossed for things to fill in at the middle portion about an inch give or take behind hairline that I outlined in red above. The hairline is filling in nicely and as I mentioned above at this point, it's coming in quicker on the left than the right.

7 months Post Op After feeling rather pessimistic about things, I emailed Dr. True about things and sent him some pictures. I know waiting is the name of the game, but I was really starting to have some doubt about placement, amount and will it really fill in. The reason it worried me so much is because I have (realistic) high hopes for this procedure and its outcome. Dr. True assured me there is nothing to worry about and things look to be right on track. Come the next stretch of a few months is where things should start to really pick up. If I'm to go by a respected graph timeline of growth on the forum, at this point I'm about 70%. Obviously so many factors play in and you can't take this for granted but, if to play along, I hope this next 25% really shines!!! Thoughts at this point? Where do I stand? Donor Area/Scar From a little to the left past the middle point of my donor area and all the way to where the scar ends on my right has filled back in nicely. You can barely notice any scar at all when running my hands through looking for it. Yes my hair is a little longer at this point but, it's looking good to me. Now going to the left, there are points where the donor area is still a bit thin, but I feel it is coming along and am still left with that one bald spot which I'm still praying fills back in. Dr. True reassured me that over the course this should slowly fill back in. Recipient Area Things are without a doubt coming along. I have to say I am pretty happy at this point, but some concerns can't seem to escape me. Do they ever? The left side is definitely ahead of my right side in terms of growth. If I push my hair up when it's dry, you can still see it's rather thin and see through. However, I can wear my hair down with nothing in it and everything looks pretty good. However, if I move the hair a bit out of place and push it back in certain areas, you can see it reveal a lot of thinness. I would think this is telling me the amount hair is there that when pushed down they fall on top of each other creating thickness. However, it still needs its time to thicken up to not look so see through, thin and scarce when pushed up. Another (if to say silly) reason I see things are shaping up and coming along is that each month I'm able to use less dermmatch to cover things up. The growth is doing its job and filling areas in, now we just need some thickness My fingers are crossed that I'm a "late bloomer" and that post op growth graph is completely inaccurate in terms of growth for me and I still have a lot more progress to be made and many more smiles to be had! The pictures are a "tad" misleading and you can see the illusion is there. A picture from the side makes my hair look pretty darn good but, when I tilt my head over you can see it's rather thin and spotty still. The pictures I attached are of my hair wet and then dry, no concealers we're used in these pictures. What does everyone think?

Holding tight for the both of us! It's definitely coming along and am gaining more confidence in my growth every few weeks.

As far as recovery and looking "normal" again, yes you should be good to go. You obviously wont be sporting any new hair styles, compliments of your new growth at that time though as I'm sure you're aware.

Is there a way to determine whether a hair that has fallen outis from dht/permanent or just seasonal shedding ? I thought I remembered reading something about if the hair that came out can still be seen with a bulb attached to it, then it's dht dead?

6 Months Post op (the 6th of October) Ok, so where am I at this point. I have to say since my last update, nothing has really happened. I haven't noticed any additional growth or any noticeable difference in the way my hair looked. Yesterday I got a fresh cut, well...given what I am allowed to get with what my scar in the back now holds me too. I'm still waiting on my hair to grow back into my donor area where the scar is. Even at one spot, there is an actual patch of loss. Six months later and I've seen it fill in some but, it is still very noticeable if I sweat a lot and the hair gets wet or if I were to cut my hair to low. You can just see a strip of almost...no hair. This is "not good" and I really hope this turns around for the better over the next course. At this point, I am praying that the months from here on out take a turn for the way better. I'm expecting to see more density behind the hairline and back (where is marked off in red) to where I can back off of dermmatch which was our plan of action. We aimed to further increase a polished and natural look while adding density to areas marked out, but also to finally get me away from using dermmatch. I can say however that there is an obvious change at this point because when I use dermmatch now, I can apply it so much quicker, I can use less and my hair looks thicker than it did using dermmatch previous to my recent hair transplant this past April. If no more growth is to come from here out though, I would have to say I would end up very disappointed. If all that is to come from here out is what I have just thickening up (and no more growth), unless the thickening up is to make a drastic difference in scalp coverage, I can't see how I could be content with everything I just went through. BUT, I am not quick to judge and will try to remain staying positive as I know it's no where near the time to judge the outcome. I have plenty of time left before I can properly assess the good and the bad or what I did or didn't achieve. I've attached some pictures below showing my current look: The first 5 pictures are after my hair has been blow dried. The view from the top can be a bit misleading because of the camera not being capable of capturing a crisp image. In the middle how it looks thin and a bit patchy if to say that, that's how it looks closer up to the hairline as well. I also outlined where we added 2000grafts for my second transplant with Dr. True. The last two pictures are with dermmatch in, still a bit wet and the hair spiked up.

That's about what I gathered.

In my eyes I guess it depends on how quick you can recover and look normal again. Around the holidays I spend a lot of time with family so, laying low and undetected isn't much of an option for me. I would book right after the new year and grow into the summer.

I understand there is a rough guideline in terms of what to expect at each month post op. After a certain point, I would think all new growth has basically taken place and at that point it becomes the follicles maturing and thickening up. The general answer could be that new transplanted hairs could sprout at any given time but, is there a rough cut off point in which one could not expect to see any appreciable new growth of transplanted hairs?

In your 5th and 6th pic in first post, where you hair is spiked a bit, it's almost scary because the profile pic looks very similar to mine lol You've come a long way my friend in rebuilding what you've lost, I too share that similarity as well. I hope for you and I both, our recent hair transplants take us to a whole new level. I'm in for the ride...

Just under 5 months post op So where am I at this point? Not too long ago with my previous update, you can see things weren't picking up too much and was still in the waiting phase. At this point post op, things are now starting to pick up. I'm starting to see good coverage throughout my entire frontal portion of where I had work done. This includes the hairline and about 2-3inches back I'm not seeing anymore patches of scalp. This is great and shows much promise as to what is to come for this portion of my recipient area. With my hair up, there is still the see through effect when looking at my hairline, but this should change drastically once the new transplanted hairs start to thicken up and some shock loss grows back. When viewed from above, you can still see this portion is quite thin and is going to take time to fill in before I can start to smile about that. My scar area still has a hint of redness to it but on the bright side a good amount of hair I lost to shockloss is starting to fill back in and hide my scar. I actually can't wait for this to be back to full health again with all my hair grown back so I can start to get tighter hair cuts. I've been clipping my back and sides with a 6 to keep decent coverage while that area grows back in.

Better late than never Maybe now you'll be in for the ride over the course of the next several months where it should start to really get good. I appreciate the reassuring words and will be following your journey as well now.

Ok so...here we are about a week after 4months post op. I haven't updated much because there really hasn't been much to make mention of. However... Where am I at this point? Scar Fully healed and still the slightest bit red. Where shock-loss occurred in the donor area (basically along the scar and just above it) has grown back maybe a little less than half of what was lost. Still about 3/8 of the scar length on the left side drops off a bit and is a tad patchy and very noticeable so, I can't cut my hair short in the back without fully exposing the scar. The rest of the scar/hair growing back in seems to be coming along slowly but surely. The right side of my head where to scar starts to where it goes a little past and to the back of my head is coming in the fasted and concealing the scar, it starts to dwindle as you make your way around to my left ear. Recipient area Temple region had some grafts put in to add some density to the part where is just about half way down from hairline and forms a point. Great outline and structure, I can absolutely notice growth there and can see both sides have taken nicely and look strong. I used to add a little touch of dermmatch there just to fill it in and make it look more natural. That is no longer as it looks great on its own. So that is my sure tell sign. Hairline and behind where the most work was done to add density I can't really comment on just yet. What I can say is that the area is healed fine, no redness, no redness at all anywhere except just the scar a bit like I mentioned above, no scabbing or anything, looks clean and healthy, but still see through. I "think" I'm starting to see it fill in but, it could be either or. I know this is where I'll have to wait it out to truly see results. Say for instance I have 1/2 density and am looking to achieve 3/4 density, being that the 1/2 I already have I would say is at max thickness of the hair shaft, I feel that the 1/4 that was transplanted won't shine until it really starts to thicken up in several months. I think I'm noticing less skin tone on my scalp as more could be sprouting and fill any gaps but, to have the see through style thicken up, that will take some time I'm sure : / Mood I'm just trying to stay positive and optimistic that this is going to exceed my expectations and really help take my confidence to the next level as well my social capabilities.

One pic is with my hair wet and the other is with it dry - this was 2 weeks ago I got these pictures and had thought I posted them up. Some of the redness still remains as does the shockloss to the area.

Darn Raymond, I just noticed I didn't upload the pics of my scar. I took them and have them on my phone and could of sworn I added them to my log. I'll get them up tomorrow. As for the pictures of my hair, yeah it's not too bad, but it takes a lot of work to get it where I want and it basically doesn't ever leave that style lol I'm really hoping that with the growth of this HT it will allow me to: -Do without much concealer if any at all in the front -Allow me to use different hair styles and maybe just (not to sound like a girl) wear my hair down...unstyled, no product just kind of pushed forward or whatever it be. -Gain a good amount of thickness to about the top half and forward portion all where I have hair obviously. If I gain what we were shooting for, this should allow me to do all of the above. In turn that will allow me to shampoo my hair more often. Go swimming, waterparks etc and just live free. I'm bound to what my hair allows me to do and it goes quite deeper than I could explain. As I'm coming up on the 2month post-op mark, all of these things are going through my head. How much and how good of growth in relation to my expectations will come of this? Should I really be as excited as I am looking towards all of the possibilities?

I forgot to add that scar is still a bit red and I have to continue to use concealer in the donor area for now to add a bit of thickness to help with covering up the shockloss. Fresh out of the shower you couldn't notice the scar there but, when I run my hands through my hair back there you can notice the shockloss. The hair drops off a bit below the scar and that's where I need to add coverage for now because when I sweat a lot say due to an intense session of cardio, the scar starts to become visible through my wet hair. This has actually kept me from getting a hair cut because I'm afraid that at this point in the game, if I cut it too short in the donor area, no coverage will help. I did however take a clipper to the sides and back at a inch and a half and it seems to be just right for now. Not too short and revealing and not too long and sloppy. I'll keep at this pace till the loss in the donor area grows back. My hair was just starting to get too long so I had to do something about it. On another note, I spent some time looking at my photos yesterday that are posted on page one and just wow. Talk about a HUGE reminder of the great things to come. I can't wait to see the results start peeking through and growing in to what I already have. Very excited!!!

My hair "literally" stays in this position 24/7 because that's what seems to "work" with what I have without making it too apparent. I hope that the added grafts will improve coverage/thickness and allow me to lay my hair flat say...after a shower or whatever and not worry about always having it up "touched up perfectly". You can see I've been able to sit pretty well while I "wait". I of course am in no way trying to boast because I share the same problems or what have you that the rest of us do but, (should I shout?) MAN I CAN'T WAIT SEE WHAT HAPPENS IN THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS. Yes I know it's the months there after and then some that really show the true results but, given my profile, I feel just some slight growth will actually make a nice improvement on what I already have. Raymond...my next shower when my donor area is squeaky clean, I'll snap some shots for ya brotha! I took a few but...after looking at them it really doesn't do any justice with the dermmatch thickening things up and all. These pics are with dermmatch and toppik about 1month 1 week post op