Garageland

Ok.......its been a long 6 months, i have updated my website and will post the pics here aswell, these pics are again taken outside, it is a very dull and overcast day.My observations, from the front on i am very pleased with how i looks, it has made a major difference to when i look in the mirror, i still have some new grafts popping through and a lot of the current grafts are fine and only short in length not making a huge difference to the overall cosmetic look. The bridge and crown area i am dissapointed with......but i have read that these take longer so i will be patient with this and hope it comes good, i have taken a wider range of pics so you can see just how thin the crown is....also remember i didn't have grafts placed into my lower part of the crown and i have only been on propecia for 3.5 months. My scar in the main is not a problem but i have an area of shockloss still, i am concerned that this might be permanant scarring, although the situation improves it is still a long way of being acceptable, still a bit numb in places but that was expected after 4 surgeries. I guess i am at a stage were if it never improved i would say the surgery was worthwhile because i have rid myself of a pluggy look and have more hair up front in which to brush back. That said i have no idea how much my hair will improve over the next 6 months, as everyone is different, i certainly have hair greed and obviously want the hairline to improve as some of the old grafts can still be seen if you look carefully enough and i want the crown and bridge areas to thicken up considerably. Time will tell, but i am optimistic for a first class result, what do you guys think? here's the link to my blog. http://www.hairlossweblogs.com/home-page.asp?WebID=96

Thanks guys, for the positive comments, yeah i know what you are saying about the quiff but it would be nice to try to pull it off. Bill i had 4850 grafts plus about 1000-1500 mini and micro grafts back in the old days

Well here we are 5 months in and the importance of taking monthly updates for your own benefit is again so clear, a few days ago i felt a bit down about my hair, i have been trying to grow it and have not had a proper haircut post op, well on the 1st i went to a salon and paid twice the price of my normal haircut, told the guy straight out that i had a ht and he needed to give me a scissor cut at the back as i still have an area or shockloss that needs to be very careful around. Came out of their with some clay in my hair and a bottle of redken densify shampoo and felt pretty good, so i thoroughly recommend paying a bit more for a decent cut. Anyway i just compared my 4 month pics to my 5 months and again there is a noticable improvement, the bridge and crown areas where i was really bald are now starting to kick in, and i can feel lots of sprouts....believe me this is great. My hairline takes me back about 4-5 years and front on its starting to shape up, ok so i can't do much more than brush it back at present but i am still hopefull of that Morrissey quiff! I would like to grow my hair longer but whilst it needs to thicken up on top, the sides and back needed to be cut as they were becoming too Bushy (no offence Bushy) and making the top look thinner, if you get my drift. What do you think? bearing in mind i am a nw6 repair patient I have updated my blog, but i don;t think my link is working

Well here we are 5 months in and the importance of taking monthly updates for your own benefit is again so clear, a few days ago i felt a bit down about my hair, i have been trying to grow it and have not had a proper haircut post op, well on the 1st i went to a salon and paid twice the price of my normal haircut, told the guy straight out that i had a ht and he needed to give me a scissor cut at the back as i still have an area or shockloss that needs to be very careful around. Came out of their with some clay in my hair and a bottle of redken densify shampoo and felt pretty good, so i thoroughly recommend paying a bit more for a decent cut. Anyway i just compared my 4 month pics to my 5 months and again there is a noticable improvement, the bridge and crown areas where i was really bald are now starting to kick in, and i can feel lots of sprouts....believe me this is great. My hairline takes me back about 4-5 years and front on its starting to shape up, ok so i can't do much more than brush it back at present but i am still hopefull of that Morrissey quiff! I would like to grow my hair longer but whilst it needs to thicken up on top, the sides and back needed to be cut as they were becoming too Bushy (no offence Bushy) and making the top look thinner, if you get my drift. What do you think? bearing in mind i am a nw6 repair patient I have updated my blog, but i don;t think my link is working

Lookin good faceless one, wait till the next few months its gonna look great

Congrats, a big improvement for your money, you sound totally stoked with the whole ht adventure and so you should be. Its amazing how getting hair spurs us on to finally shift that weight that has crept up on us. New hair, new look, new confidence, new man. Well done

Cheers Spex thanks for the words Glock, thanks to you, yes there is a good difference, the crown is lagging way behind so i need that to catch up, but yes my 1 year results will excite me if 4 months is anything to go by.

Hi as spursman says the hair will always fall out initially and then re grow from month 2-3 onwards, what is done is done try not to stress out too much as this will only make matters worse. Good luck

Troy, your hair looks amazing, no need to go back imo or bother with the hassle of concealers. Its a good job done, congrats

Hi Pat, thanks very much, i am enjoying taking monthly photos and having a blog to be able to easily compare pics, month by month....i really recommend everyone does it....if not for the sake of others who want to see the tranformation, for yourself to see how far you have come. I thought i had a reasonable progression, but when you look at my H&W pre op pics i have come on very well for 4 months...still want lots more hair though. I am lucky i belive that i have good donor characteristics which have helped me, and that i had my exsiting ht hair and some fine original hair (which has grown back- despite being very thin) this is all adding to the mix. I am certainly looking forward to what the next few months will bring. Cheers

Hi guys, the 4 month stage has been reached, pics are in my weblog Some observations, i started on proscar and had some shedding on the crown for the first 4 weeks, this how now slowed right down. I am pleased with the progress so far, i just looked at my pre op H&W pics and i am shaping up nicely at this early stage, from the front on i am very pleased, the bridge area, where i had no hair before, is still very thin as is the crown, this i understand comes in slower than the frontal area, i can feel new sprouts coming in all over so i am hopefull of a good result, i am growing my hair as long as i can to see how it looks and intend to brush it back like it is now. All the pics are taken with no flash on One thing i am really pleased with is that the texture of my hair and styling it is much better, it used to stick up all over the place, now i can brush it neatly back, without needing to use any wax, i put this down to the weight of the hair laying on top of each other. Every morning i would get up and my hair would be sticking up and the only way i could get it to brush back was to wash or wet it....now i can get up and just brush it back......job done. Also even at this stage the new hairs coming infont of my old grafty hairline has really softened it already when i look at my hairline i don't cringe anymore and see plugginess. Can't wait to see what next month brings

Hi guys, the 4 month stage has been reached, pics are in my weblog Some observations, i started on proscar and had some shedding on the crown for the first 4 weeks, this how now slowed right down. I am pleased with the progress so far, i just looked at my pre op H&W pics and i am shaping up nicely at this early stage, from the front on i am very pleased, the bridge area, where i had no hair before, is still very thin as is the crown, this i understand comes in slower than the frontal area, i can feel new sprouts coming in all over so i am hopefull of a good result, i am growing my hair as long as i can to see how it looks and intend to brush it back like it is now. All the pics are taken with no flash on One thing i am really pleased with is that the texture of my hair and styling it is much better, it used to stick up all over the place, now i can brush it neatly back, without needing to use any wax, i put this down to the weight of the hair laying on top of each other. Every morning i would get up and my hair would be sticking up and the only way i could get it to brush back was to wash or wet it....now i can get up and just brush it back......job done. Also even at this stage the new hairs coming infont of my old grafty hairline has really softened it already when i look at my hairline i don't cringe anymore and see plugginess. Can't wait to see what next month brings

I'm afraid everyone is different, some seem to do a lot of their growth early on whilst others see minimal growth at 6 months, this is why they say don't judge it till you are at your 1 year stage. Basic- i am 4 months, your are in the stage where it is just about to kick off (hopefully) i can feel lots of new hairs coming through now, they are dark hairs but they don't seem as thick as my existing donor hair, not everybody gets those white fine baby hairs that some people seem to talk of.....i guess this is what seems to look like early growth.......the fact that your new sprouters are coming through thicker.........i can only guess that it is to do with the coarseness (is that a word) of your hair shaft in the first place. Either way the hair does mature and thicken up from what it first appears like. Good growth to you both

Congrats Glock, thanks for your story and pics, always like to see nw6's getting full coverage. Love the 1979 pic, i too used to moan about how much hair i used to have. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Good growth

Hi Jay T, ditto to the advice given, i had a area of shockloss around my scar, not as big as that but enough to worry me.I emailed Joe with a few pics and he put my mind at rest and said it would grow back. At 3.5 months it is filling in nicely and i can still feel new hairs coming in. At 8 months it should have come back, courve is the best for a scar but you will need hair to brush over it to help conceal it better. Good luck and let us know how you get on

Congrats to Dr Feller, he deserves this very much, i have enjoyed his contribution to the boards of recent, he is not only a great surgeon from what i have seen but he also has a tremendous way of expressing himself for all to understand.

Hi Bal, i will echo what the others have said, perfectly safe, by the way i saw your 6 month hairline pics and was very impressed, do you have any up to date pics of the hairline, as you are now 10 months in? Good luck with the new procedure, and congrats to all the docs involved for getting together and arranging it for you.

Interesting point, but i wouldn't say everyone combs their hair back, i lot of people still uses the combover look from one side to another to add a look of density when hair lays on top of one another. To be able to brush your hair back and show off your hairline is a real credit to the work you have had done

This is an interesting debate, personally i feel that this hair count is a good idea but will ultimately lead to problems. Take the two examples posted by cooleyfied Cooleyfied had 778 more hairs than gorpy for instance Cooleyfied paid for 807 more grafts than gorpy These extra paid for grafts were at less than 1 hair per graft!!! So are we to assume that Cooley splits their grafts to produce more one hair grafts as one poster said ripping people off? No we are not, it is down to the patients characteristics. I can see it now, patients bemoaning as to why they got so many single hair grafts, etc etc. We should be looking at results, i can't hear any H&W patients feeling ripped off with their great hair and transformation. Don't get me wrong i would be interested to hear how many hairs where actually moved on my head, but if the final result is great, then will i ultimately be thinking, hmmmmm if only i had a few more 3 hair grafts

Hi i used aloe vera gel for 2 weeks applied twice a day, other than that i was able to let air get to it as much as possible by only wearing a hat when i went outside. The tip of not looking in the mirror is really hard for the first few weeks and than after that i got used to it, i still have a good look every few days though.

Amazing month by month transformation, i'd settle for your month 4 pics as my final result. You must be getting really excited as to what the final results are going to turn out like?

Good luck with the procedure, you will feel alot happier once you are all done

Mr Perfect, everbody grows at different rates, i don't think there is a standard as such, but people can report some new sprouts as early on as 3 months, whilst some people seem to take as much as 5/6 months to see any noticeable cosmetic difference. Unless you are slick bald on top to begin with its very hard to tell what is new growth and what is exsisting hair, as the work these days is so natural. Be patient i am sure things will start to improve soon.

Mark H, good luck with your procedure, 4k should go a long way, why not go for a little peak if thats what you want.I didn't want my hairline to suddenly look different otherwise yeah i might of gone for one. Spex - cheers, 3 months is when it all starts kicking off, i can feel loads of new hairs coming through.

Hi RCB, there are a number of ways to solve your problem, removal of grafts etc to be bald again, but why spend all that money getting to where you where before ie bald and unhappy. I know that a bad ht is far worse than being bald in the first place and i understand why some people go down this route, i have lived with a bad ht for many years now. Your situation sounds similar to mine, corn rows, pluggy look, which started off looking ok until my natural hair receeded and left me with just the unnatural pluggy hairline. Take a look at my blog and my original post entitled 'My hair transplant history from uk to canada in 10 years'. I felt this was the way to go for me personally, and at just over 3 months i am buzzing with excitement at having already lost most of my pluggy look. Good luck and research all those options