At 6 months and very concerned

[beaverbuzz]

Hello everyone

 

I had a transplant with one of the most resepected surgeons in the world 6 months ago (as indicated on this website and many others). I had just under 1000 FUE to thicken up my temple and temple points. Before that I was a norwood 2 with a bit of thinning.

 

I have been extremely patient. I have not had one single hair grow in. There is no stubble. The only grafts that are there are the ones that did not fall out. This is the worst part as they are on the temple points and they are sparse and they are not laying flat.

 

This is so hard for me because I feel like I have jeopardized my appearance. It would be ok to wait till 12 months if those grafts would just flatten out but they wont. They look terrible. Some even have a corkscrew shape.

 

I would really like to have some input here. I am trying to remain positive but it is so hard when it looks like absolute shit. I honestly would love if all of them would fall out and I could go back to my presurgery look.

 

I will try to upload some decent photos.

 

Thanks

 

P.S. yes I have discussed this with my doctor/patient coordinator. They will help me out if at 12 months things are not good, but if such a small surgery on a virgin scalp did not go well I am not going to try again. I appreciate their support but unfortunately I need some from this forum

[Spanker]

Uploading picks would help. Sorry to hear you are unhappy. It is true that most people see some growth by six months. I will add more comments when you add pre and post op photos.

[aaron1234]

As Spanker said, pics please. Who did your work? Don't be shy.

[Blake Bloxham]

Beaver,

 

Like others said, a few images would really help us evaluate the situation and provide helpful advice.

 

Additionally, I'm glad you're in contact with your clinic and they're being receptive and helpful. This, in my opinion, is the most important step at this point in time.

 

While your results are only around 40% matured by 6 months, you should definitely see some growth by this point in time, so I hope you'll keep us updated and ask any additional questions.

 

Good luck!

[beaverbuzz]

Hi,

Sorry I took so long to post these. I needed to take a break from looking at these forums. I am already depressed enough from knowing that this is probably going to turn out horrible. Pretty much in the mindset that I am expecting the worst and hoping for the best.

 

I uploaded pictures of the temple points. This is the part that looks the worst. My temples don't look as bad because the recipient hair already had hair there so it just looks thinning whereas the temple points looks completely unnatural. However in both areas there has been zero growth. After 10 days the grafts started to fall out, without blood, and I asked the patient coordinator as well as the forum if this was normal and everyone said not to worry about it. It is my opinion that this was a bad sign. The ones that did not fall out are the ones you see in the pictures.

 

I am 27. Been NW2 since starting propecia 5 years ago. Slight thinning on top but overall nice hair. All I was looking for was a better framing of the face as I had asymmetrical loss in the temples. Graft breakdown was: 536 1's, 433 2's. I had grafts taken from the nape as well.

 

In terms of healing: The donor healed very quickly. The techs were surprised at how little blood there was when I came in for a rinse the next day. The redness in the recipient area was gone after about 1.5 - 2 months.

 

Thank you for your comments.

Edited September 27, 2012 by beaverbuzz
not relevant

[beaverbuzz]

Sorry I had problems posting. You should read the second post as it mentions my healing.

[hairlosscursed]

Sorry but i honestly can t see something abnormal...actually you are full head thats why i can t see something.but you know better your head and the situation plus black and white photos is not so clear.Be positive and don t forget you have 6 more months to judge your result.any way i don think 1000 grafts will make huge difference for other people than you...

[beaverbuzz]

Thanks for the reply. The current pictures were taken in natural lighting, not black and white. You can see by the spacing in the hair how sparse the temple points are. This is where a majority of the nape hair was put, but they have not grown back.

[Cartesian]

I dont see any abnormality either ! In the coming months, I wish you see changes as you expect. Good luck !

[Spanker]

I really don't have time to show you in the picks where I think you have growth, but you do. I was going to draw it out in paint. Look at the points on your eye brows and compare from pre and post op. It looks soft (which is good) and there is growth. Your hair looks really good. I would be careful not to get too aggressive as you are pretty young.

 

If you are avoiding social situations you may want to seek counseling. I don't mean to be disrespectful but there may be some issues to work through if you are avoiding people over your hair in the condition it is. I would wait it out another six months, but unless you have some perspective, you are probably going to be disappointed.

[beaverbuzz]

Thank you for the comment Spanker.

 

The temple points just don't look natural to me. Perhaps I need to take different pictures in a similar lighting. I know that my surgeon said that he might have to hit some of the hairs with a laser to soften them up, perhaps that is what I am seeing. The hairs just don't blend in well.

 

If I am being too critical at 6 months, then I apologize. I guess that is what the forum is here for. I guess I expected to actually see hair coming to the surface and feeling stubble. Neither of which I have. Maybe because some of the hairs are embedded in native hairs.

[Spanker]

Keep an eye on it, but I feel like there is growth by using the eyebrows and the angle of your new temple points and where they would meet your eyebrows based on that angle as a reference. If the temple point hairs are higher in caliber than you like, laser treatment is an option to soften them. Keep your chin up.

[chrisdav]

What have SMG suggested, just wait as it is 6 months?

[PupDaddy]

beaverbuzz,

 

You've definitely had growth of the grafts from what I can see. While it is a bit challenging to directly compare the buzzed hair immediately post-op to the long hair in your six month photos (tough to spot moles or other landmarks), your temple points/peaks look to have been advanced considerably. Pre-op, they looked to end at, or even posterior to an imaginary vertical line drawn upwards from the lateral end of the eyebrow. Now they look to be even with an imaginary vertical line drawn upwards from the 1/3 point of the eyebrow (measured from the lateral end). You have a great looking head of hair, and nothing looks amiss at all. The transplanted hairs already showing will mature with time, and you might well get some more popping through as time goes on. Personally, if I saw you on the street, I would be extremely envious of your hair. Enjoy it!

[rev3]

hey beaver buzz

 

don't fret

 

i understand that HT procedures (as do any cosmetic procedures) should be seen on a spectrum; norwood 7 through norwood 2.

 

yours happens to be norwood 2 "finesse work" to frame the face

 

realize not many are here with your situation

 

that said, i see what you are talking about re: the temple points. know that HT to areas where there are no hair might look "like your balding" or "a hair transplant" until full growth occurs.

 

two things:

1) you are only 6 months out and you have at lest another 6 months to see the fullness of the growth

2) even if you need a few more grafts to the temple points to fill them out at the end of your one year, that will be a piece of cake to do.

 

the design is excellent.

 

know this

[StevieG80]

All I see is a great head of hair with an amazing hairline...

[beaverbuzz]

Thanks for the comments guys. Just got off the phone with a patient coordinator and pretty much what rev3 said, that because there was no hair at those temple points, it would take some time for it to blend. He suggested I use dermmatch in the mean time, which I will be doing.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to comment. I appreciate the support.

[Janna]

Hi,

 

After reading your thread and seeing new pics, the transplanted hairs are lingering longer than they should. Generally, majority of the transplanted hairs shed in the first two months. You mentioned that many of the transplanted hairs have not yet shed and that they are lying awkwardly. Can you take a tweezer to those individual hairs and see if they pull out easily? If there is any resistance when you pull, leave it alone as it means it's a grown out hair. If it pulls out easily and effortlessly, it means the hair is stalled out and have not been able to shed normally. We've seen this in the past and once the stalled hairs are pulled out, new growth will occur within a month or two. Also, wiry or strong hairs will calm down after a growth cycle or two. Hope this helps.

[beaverbuzz]

Hi Janna,

 

As you suspected, I took a pair of tweezers and about 20 of the hairs came out pretty easily. They were all wiry and had kinks in them. The temple points are looking so much better now. They look receded as opposed to looking unnatural.

Thank you very much!

[AdamAJ]

for the amount of grafts you had for that coverage...1k grafts isn't a lot

[Levrais]

Beaverbuzz, I have to agree with the others. If these pictures are accurate, I think your work looks good.

[aaron1234]

Work looks great. You're getting growth. All signs point to a fantastic result in the end. Keep in mind that the temple points were bare skin before. The kinky/wirey hair will stand out because of that. But be patient as those hairs will calm down and look more natural in the months to come.

 

Very interesting about pulling the stalled hairs. I swear I've had those before to but I never pulled on them.

[Janna]

Aaron,

 

We've seen this on few patients who come back at 6 or 9 months post op and had a spot that seemed to stall out. When we looked carefully with loupes on, we could see the stalkier hairs present. We took a forcep and pulled on those hairs, which came out quite easily. They reported back that those spots filled out to their satisfaction shortly after. Of course its easy for us with loupes and the right instrumentations to do this. This is one of the reasons why a patient has to wait full 12 months to evaluate their results. It just takes some patients longer to shed and grow all their transplanted hairs.

 

Beaverbuzz,

 

Keep an eye for the temple points. There may be other hairs that may need to be pulled out. Also check along the hairline as well. I'm confident you'll see the growth you're expecting soon. Keep us updated.

[beaverbuzz]

So I am here to update.

 

Now on month 8. Still no growth. I cut my hair shorter, and took some pictures.

 

Attached are the temple points. The hairline doesn't look any better; the only reason it is not bad is because I had native hair there. I reckon that about 30-40 hairs have grown on either temple point, and the same success/failure in the hairline.

 

I cut my hair short to see if I could see new hairs sprouting up and there isn't. As you can see from the pictures, it doesn't look natural. I will continue to wait till the 12 month mark, but I don't see this improving at all. The hairs that have grown have been the same color and thickness for the past 3 or so months.

 

The growth that I have had have been the same grafts that didn't shed in the beginning.

Edited October 1, 2012 by beaverbuzz

[Spanker]

I can see in these pics that the temples are thin. I think they looked better grown out. I do not think that it is unnatural looking, just a little sparse.

 

Do you have any pics if your hair line?