PLEASE HELP ME!!!! Recent FUE transplant

[trizzy]

Hey everyone, I am new to this board. I need help PLEASE. 3 weeks ago I had an 500 FUE's removed from donor area and placed into my hairline. This is a second procedure to fill in from a previous one that was not successful. The Doctor shaved down three rows in which to extract the grafts.

 

2 days ago I got a haircut, and those three rows looked puffy somehow and it had visible see-through. At first I figured maybe it was due to the difference in length between donor hair and shaved hairs. So I cut the back a bit more, and to my surprise, I could see 3 distinct rows of see-through smileys.

 

Immediately I became upset and couldn't believe this was happening. This was supposed to be the procedure to finish up my hairline. This wasn't how I saw other donor areas on FUE transplant photos. I did some research and the only conclusion I can come up with is that too much hair was extracted from the sites. Also, I can see some punch marks that were dark, so I looked at them closely and I can see the hair intact, so there are a number of what appears to be unsuccessful grafts.

 

Please everyone I really need your feedback. I am completely distraught and haven't slept in two days.

 

Is this something that is permanent, could it be shock loss? And most importantly, can this be fixed? Basically, go back and get thin areas filled in?

 

Lastly, at what point should I consider full regrowth from shock loss, damaged hair to be done and whatever state more donor is in will be the final result.

 

I am not going to disclose the doctor yet, as I am awaiting his response to my email. Reason being, I don't want to call anyone out if I am over-reacting.

[Levrais]

At 3 weeks its normal that you would be able to see through still. Normally when the grafts are taken in rows, its done so that the hair can be kept long and the rows will be hidden by the longer hair. 3 weeks is too early to buz it like that as it cancels out the possibility to hide the extraction site. As far as too much being extracted, its hard to tell from these pics, do you have any immediate post-op pics? To have some shock loss is also not uncommon. IMO its too early to say there is a problem.

[trizzy]

Thanks Levrais. I hope you are right. This is the first time I have seen 3 week post-op FUE pics like mine.

[Levrais]

Trizzy,

First of all be aware that its easy to get freaked out when you're 3 weeks post op over almost anything, justified or not. Hopefully your clinic will communicate with you frequently to address your concerns until you get back to normal thinking. We all go through the phase you're at now. When I was talking to docs about my fue, I was told that it could be taken in layers like yours was done and that I should keep my hair at least an inch and a half long if I went that route. The other way to do it is to extract from all over the safe zone which wouldn't be necessary if only going for 500 grafts. So, you wouldn't see pics like yours unless someone buzzed down less than 1.5" like in your case. At this point, if I were you, I would probably just let the donor area grow back and then wait a few months until its fully healed before cutting that short again.

[mars]

I had this done to me by a greek fue clinic,i had only one area overharvested compared to your 3,so i more than most know how you are feeling.

 

Firstly let me say the redness that remains doesnt help.If you buzzed your hair equal lenght 3 weeks post op you should not have those 3 lines that is fact do not listen to anyone else giving you false hope.It goes without saying that this was not a good doc who did this so as with mine some hair will grow back in your overharvested areas due to possible transections,this was the case with me but i was still left with a noticeably less dense area in the back of my head,mine was around 6 inch's long x 1 inch in height.Shock loss is very very rare,only one case of it i seen and that was spex from dr jones.

 

I had to get grafts put back in to the area one yr later it looks alot better now but not perfect.

 

Wait a yr and see how things are.

 

Who was your doc?any idea of punch size?

 

Anyone reading this ALWAYS shave your entire donor area when getting fue,some people shave out lines like above to conceal the work but that is a stupid idea.

[trizzy]

thats not good to hear. thats extremely depressing actually. Why did you wait a year before filling it in? Was your donor area filling in that entire time? If indeed my donor area will not show improvement, i want to fill it in asap.

 

i believe my punch size was .9mm.

[mars]

Im not trying to be ass telling by you something you dont want to hear but i wasted months worrying and wondering what happened will it fill in etc.

 

With scar tissue you need to wait a yr before grafting,scar tissue us not as vascuralised as normal tissue.

 

500 grafts with a .9mm punch should not leave that amount of a drop in density in those 3 areas just my opinion,can you upload clearer photos?

 

How short is your hair in the photos?how do you feel buzzing to a 1 guard just to see how it grows out and try to examine with 2 mirrors to see what is going on the areas?i used a magnification mirror used for contact lenses to see in really close and it was obvious pretty early on that i was overharvested.It filled in maybe 10% their after thats all.

 

Go on to hairloss experiences forum i have my pics up on the patient section under 'fue repair at shapiro medical group.

 

Is this your first hairtransplant?if so is this first ht with this doc,reason im asking is im curious about your receipient area.

Edited November 26, 2011 by mars

[Levrais]

trizzy,

there was a lengthy discussion about fue extraction patterns on another thread not long ago. I'm not sure if it addresses your exact questions but may add some perspective while you're waiting for your clinic's reply. Here is the link if you're interested

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/162646-fue-extraction-patterns.html

[trizzy]

I read your story Mars. Almost like mine. This is my 2nd HT. First one had grafts placed way too low on my hairline (strip surgery). On this 2nd surgery, I had around 200 grafts removed from hairline. Some of the grafts were close together so there are about 120 more left to be removed. From back donor, had 500 grafts (I think the actual try was more since there are still hairs present that were attempted to be punched out). Those grafts were placed to reinforce my hairline, and I am happy with that part.

 

Here is the best I can do with close up pics.

[trizzy]

to answer the rest of your questions Mars, i used clippers at 10.5mm on the back of my head 2 days ago. The latest set of photos was taken just now.

 

I cant shave it down to a one due to work. Its already gonna be embarrassing, will probably have to take a week off. Also, these latest pics diminish the prominence of the lines, they are much more visible in person.

[mars]

on the new photos i was going to say the lines arent half as prominent,is all hair on the back of your head equal length on first set of pics?

 

Looking at the new pics in doesnt appear you were overharvested,i had empty patches like some areas were over 50% harvested,you first set of pics looked bad your last set dont!!

[trizzy]

Im pretty sure they were all the same length, with exception of those hair that were unsuccessfully harvested. Here are the latest pics, taken at level and tilted view. At level it looks goo, but once my head is tilted, the lines become visible.

 

I absolutely hate looking at these photos. When I look at tilted view, I still question if they over-harvested.

 

I guess I can only wait and pray it fills in enough.

[mars]

The tilted view is a killer for me too still,one thing might be worth mentioning after my fue's for the first few weeks the hairs in the harvested area appeared to have been slightly effected by neighbouring extractions in that they didnt appear as strong,i put this down to the supply being effected-most of the blood going to heal the holes rather than to the hair follicle,this may have happened to you and it may give you an extra 10% more fullness in the areas but this is just a theory of mine and may have no substance at all.

 

If you have to get grafts put back in there then do it by harvesting the virgin areas in the back to make it all blend in,bottom line is wait 9-12months then look in to repair if your still bothered,how short do you usually wear your hair?

[trizzy]

my goal was to cut it with a 3 guard. yeah i'll wait for a bit and see the outcome. nothing else i can do. In the meantime i can finish up the hairline punch removal and buildup in a couple months. I tried to message you but cant find it. I wanted to ask you some questions regarding your procedure in Minneapolis.

[mars]

i pm you

[Janna]

Hi,

 

I received your email. I'd be happy to speak with you over the phone this week regarding your case. In the meantime, it'd be a shame for you to miss work due to see through lines in the donor area. Do you have Dermatch? Other cover ups such as Toppiks or Nanogen will work too, however, it'd be messier and more difficult to apply properly. These cover ups can work wonders to hide the skin to eliminate the see through look. If you don't have access to Dermatch in Egypt, you can substitute certain make up that are hypo-allergenic like MAK make-up. I can give you more details when we speak.

 

It's too bad you cut your hair so short in the back. I feel for you that you are going through this without the support of your clinic. Whenever a repair work is needed, you have to have patience despite how difficult that may be. Keep a cool head and go about with a level head. Nothing is quick when it comes to hair transplantation.

 

Speak soon.

[trizzy]

Thanks Janna for the reply. I will contact you this week. Looking back I probably shouldn't have cut my hair at all, but figured after three weeks, it should be fine (based on all the photos I saw).

 

I did order Toppik yesterday, a family member happens to be coming here in 2 weeks, I might not need it by then, but got it just to be safe. Not sure if they even have MAK makeup in Egypt.

[patwillpat1]

what you have can easily be covered up with toppik/dermatch until the shockloss fills up.

Its not like you have a visible smiley scar that screams out "yes i got a transplant". What you have looks more like a barber mistake (if someone asks). Anyways, I think toppik will work best.

[Levrais]

trizzy,

How's it going bro? Have you heard back from your clinic yet?

[trizzy]

Levrais,

 

The clinic did send me an email, saying appearance is due to where they shaved hair down for extraction, and in 3-4 weeks it should be normal. I'll upload another pic in a few weeks.

 

Thnx for asking!!

[RichFrog]

Did this turn out ok in the end? :confused:

[trizzy]

Its been 5 months since my FUE procedure. Only in the past 6 weeks have things started to thicken up to the point where I can make the lines blend together. I really hope it thickens up some more.

 

The bottom has blended in ok, but the top two lines have been overharvested. Bottom line is I have to get this fixed. I will probably do so later this year once it heals completely.

 

These past 5 months have been the absolute worst in my life. From not being able to sleep, to having a break-down at work, I wake up everyday, look in the mirror, and just get depressed. Every negative thought you can think of has crossed my mind.

 

The only good thing that came out of this is that I no longer care about my hair. I am planning on reversing everything I did and just shave my hair. I will start with my linear scar, and am planning on having it lasered with a fractional CO2 laser to remove the scarred skin and replace it with more normal skin. My scar is good enough that I believe the laser will blend it in completely with surrounding skin. Then from there will fill it in. I will write about this on another post.

[BadBeat]

Sorry to hear about all of this Trizzy. How did the hair in the recipient area turn out? Was that also not to your level of expectation or are you just disappointed with the donor area?

[trizzy]

Its a cumulative effect. The first HT I had wasn't good. The hairline was too sporadic and brought down very low. So I had a 2nd FUE HT to remove 250 grafts from my hairline and 500 from donor area, and use all of those to fill in behind my hairline. I thought this would do the trick.

 

Now I am worse off. I would have never imagined that 500 grafts from my donor area would do this too me. I hope that there are still dormant hairs back there that will pop up and fill in the areas.

 

So now instead of just removing the remaining hairline grafts, I have to basically remove the new hairline grafts and put them back into my donor FUE scars.

 

I know that I will most likely lose more hair in the future, and I dont want to have to mess with anymore HTs. I have done a lot of research on scar treatments, and have consulted with top docs, and I have made a plan to reverse my HTs, and treat the scars as well. So for me, just removing what I placed in the hairline, putting it back in my donor, and shaving my head is fine.

 

I am still "repairable" in terms of minimal damage to my donor. If I place grafts back into my FUE scars, there is a very high chance that the pigment will return to the area, solving the issue of hypo-pigmentation marks. And the majority of my FUE donor marks actully healed with normal color, I contribute this to my skin color, which contains more melanin. And doctors are now treating hypo-pigmentation with Latisse, as it has been shown to stimulate melanin production. As for my strip scar, I had some grafts placed in it in this last HT, and the hairs are starting to fill in. With the laser, and another round of "fill-in", I think my scar will be gone.

 

In regards to your question as to filling in of the hairline, there has been some filling-in, I think its too early to say.

 

And of course, my plan all depends on how well my donor scar can be treated. I do have faith in the doctor I am going to, she is a pioneer in laser scar treatment. My appt is this Thursday, so I will see what she says when she sees it in person.

[RichFrog]

Hope everything turns out ok, Who was the clinic?? Was it reputable off this site?