One Day Post-Op - Dr. Gabel 1,554 FUT

[OtherSyde]

OK! One day post-op. This post started as a reply in my other thread here, but I decided it would be more appropriate to place it here in this forum.

 

Here are my one-day post-op pics.

 

I went to the office around 1pm after checking out of my hotel, and Aileen cleaned me up and gave me some more post-op instructions. Then we did a photo-shoot in Dr. Gabel's mini-studio. It's a whole room devoted to patient pictures, with a rotating stool with a backdrop on the wall behind it, two large professional and VERY bright adjustable photography lighting fixtures on tripods, and two or three very high-end cameras mounted on a professional tripod; he takes pictures from all sides and angles, both pre- and post-op, and really catches a lot of details with his setup. Look for those pics and video interviews soon in the forum for Results Posted by Leading Hair Restoration Clinics.

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Anyway, I wanted to show these picture because the HT I got this time is SOOO much less conspicuous/obvious than last time! I went shopping at both Walgreen's and Target today, and scarcely seemed to get any odd looks at all. Even having a bit of my hairline shaved down for ease of graft placement in that area, I can still comb forward and style my remaining hair to largely cover most of the recipient area (a little still shows, and I do sort of look like a goober with this 'do, but it's better than walking around with my head all shaved and bloody, looking like I tried to exfoliate my scalp with a cheese-grater)...

 

 

 

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It's actually amazing, considering just how much I am actually concealing here; I didn't think I'd be able to hide this much:

 

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Right now the scar looks a bit nasty like any FUT scar (but fairly clean as far as scars go, at least), although Dr. Gabel did do a great job as always with his double-layer suturing job and I have no doubt it will heal beautifully, just as it did last time. Since I left my hair much longer in the back this time, I can hide the scar much better, too...

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Mind you, being very a fresh incision, it certainly is still visible under any kind of bright lights (and the Polysporin making my hair gooey doesn't help much either), like these scathingly honest bathroom vanity lights, but in regular lighting it's generally low-profile enough to get by without too much attention; I don't even have to wear a hat like last time, which is awesome. I mean, for an FUT scar I just got yesterday, I'm not in too bad of shape!

 

 

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And most excitingly, my hairline has been shaved back a good centimeter or so, and it's still long/thick enough to comb forward enough to give me a relatively young appearance... When all those new grafts really start growing out and filling in that lower and denser new monster of a hairline, an entire centimeter or so lower than it effectively is right now, I can only imagine how it's going to look! Clerks at cash registers are actually going to start ID'ing me for liquor again, and this time I will actually like it

[OtherSyde]

[EDIT] - Got stuck in traffic outside Seattle for like 35 minutes today so I snapped a couple pics. I figured out how to style slightly better, and also this gives a better example of how it looks in regular, real-world lighting.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2013 by OtherSyde

[OtherSyde]

A bit more picture-whoring, but just for the sake of explaining my goal, which some people seem to view with one eyebrow raised in skepticism or confusion.

 

The point to this second procedure was that, although my frontal scalp region was freakin' good-to-go, the hairline was sparse and difficult to style, and most annoyingly, my forelock in the very front was very thin right in the middle, consisting of only a few hairs. I have been doing this little "flip-up" hair-do thing in the front for a little while now, sort of like Tintin's but not quite as dramatic...

 

 

 

 

It's funny because it started out sort of facetious and silly - just as a change of style to celebrate my moving to Hawaii about a year ago and also to indulge in the ability to style as my first HT really began to take hold and start growing in thick around the 10-month mark, but it was just like a goofy style that I didn't really plan to wear all the time... But my coworkers became so accustomed to me wearing it like that and never seeing me any other way, they actually kind of freak out if I don't wear my hair like this They coined it the "flip" and superstitiously demand that I wear it this way, lest its absence bring about bad luck for the day... And who says hair has no real bearing on life? Apparently mine functions doubly as a daily horoscope.

 

Anyway, the problem in the front was that the hair there was so thin that I had to grow my mid-scalp hair out extra-long and comb it forward in order to fill in the center of the "flip," or else it would be empty in the center and strong on either side, looking sort of like a pair of ant pincers protruding from my forehead, like this:

 

 

So with the goal of strengthening my head-mounted, hair-spray-fueled cosmic horoscope indicator, and also the goal of strongly beefing up my hairline, Dr. Gabel packed over 1,550 grafts along a relatively narrow band running along my hairline. As you can see from the GIF I made below for comparison, it didn't really lower my hairline much, per se, but it sure as hell made my hairline and my forelock into a formidable phalanx of stalwart hardiness...

 

 

 

 

I took the After picture 2 days post-op, and tried to line it up as equal as possible in terms of height, width, etc. with the Before pic (using the tops of my ears and tip of my forelock as guides), to give an accurate depiction of the changes made. In particular, notice the high increase in density both at the tip of the forelock and back at the temple points.

 

 

 

 

And that, ladies and gentlemen (mostly gentlemen I suspect), likely sums up my endeavors in the HT world for quite some time to come. Time to start saving up for that WRX STI.

 

Thanks to all the positive support and smart advice from these forums, and of course to the expert hands of Dr. Gabel and his crack team; with the help of all of them, I can happily say I've achieved my goals for the time being.

 

Some day, when my stubborn crown finally decides to give way, I will have Dr. Gabel on speed-dial and my camera ready to document the whole shebang again.

 

For now though, it's time to wait, and I will post more pics as things develop over the coming months.

 

[EDIT] - I updated my blog (My Hair Loss Web Site!) linked below in my sig with several new entries; please take a look and drop a comment if you have the time and energy

[DE]

Nice result and look forward to seeing how it develops.

 

I had a FUE procedure 3 weeks ago focusing on hairline and temples. I shaved my head for the procedure and kind of regret that now seeing that most of the transplanted hair was forward of my pre-op hairline.

 

The recipient area is red and contrasts against my native hair. I am back at work tomorrow and a bit nervous about the looks I will receive. I have been practicing on cover up method such as bronzer etc... but I think it will still be pretty obvious. Any further hairline work I will definitely not shave down.

 

Good luck and looking great so far.

[OtherSyde]

Nice result and look forward to seeing how it develops.

 

I had a FUE procedure 3 weeks ago focusing on hairline and temples. I shaved my head for the procedure and kind of regret that now seeing that most of the transplanted hair was forward of my pre-op hairline.

 

The recipient area is red and contrasts against my native hair. I am back at work tomorrow and a bit nervous about the looks I will receive. I have been practicing on cover up method such as bronzer etc... but I think it will still be pretty obvious. Any further hairline work I will definitely not shave down.

 

Good luck and looking great so far.

 

Thanks for the props!

 

And oh, despite your predicament as far as hiding the recipient area, I envy your FUE; I think this will be my last bout with FUT myself... Now that the entire front of my head is pretty much done, and my crown is holding pretty strongly, I probably won't need huge amounts of grafts at a time - meaning I can experience the joy of FUE for myself later on

 

Also, my post-op instructions even forbid me from getting any significant amount of direct sunlight exposure for 2-3 months post-op; do you think it's OK/safe to put a chemical like a bronzer on your recipient area a mere 3 weeks post-op? I was always super-careful - I'm just wondering, since I'm sure many others are the same boat as you.

[DE]

Thanks for the props!

 

And oh, despite your predicament as far as hiding the recipient area, I envy your FUE; I think this will be my last bout with FUT myself... Now that the entire front of my head is pretty much done, and my crown is holding pretty strongly, I probably won't need huge amounts of grafts at a time - meaning I can experience the joy of FUE for myself later on

 

Also, my post-op instructions even forbid me from getting any significant amount of direct sunlight exposure for 2-3 months post-op; do you think it's OK/safe to put a chemical like a bronzer on your recipient area a mere 3 weeks post-op? I was always super-careful - I'm just wondering, since I'm sure many others are the same boat as you.

 

The bronzer is just for the face up to the hair line which has redness. Creates less of a contract between the reddish new hairline and my normal pale skin. I am less careful about the new grafts since I am 3 weeks post as I understand they are now permanent. By less careful I mean like wearing caps, sleeping on the grafts, lightly massaging shampoo into the recipient area etc....

 

Once I am through the worst of the redness I don't care how I look while I wait for new hair to sprout!

 

You will probably have higher yield, if you need it, by having FUT and possibly FUE later than just FUE harvesting. Again, this is highly individual depending on extent of loss and donor area.

 

Happy healing!

[OtherSyde]

Alrighty... As of this posting it's now four days later, with a few positive developments, so I'm continuing it in THIS THREAD.

[SADbutTRUE]

heal well and great growth to you.