Coping With The "Ugly Duckling" Post-HT Phase

[FriskyDingo]

"You guys are coming back, right?"

 

It's probably not entirely sane to talk to your hair follicles, but I've caught myself doing it lately. It's been just under a month since I had 2000 FUE grafts, and every morning I find myself peering intently into the mirror, looking to see how many little hairs are still doggedly clinging to my new, hopefully improved hairline - things are definitely starting to look sparse again, and I'm really starting to feel the onset of the dreaded "ugly duckling" phase that so many HT patients talk about.

 

Hair transplants must be one of the few cosmetic surgeries where things look a great deal worse before they get better. Imagine a woman getting a boob job where her newly-augmented breasts shrink to an A-Cup before slowly building up to Ds, or botox where you go through a period of being mistaken for a shar pei before your skin gets baby-smooth. Hair transplants are a bit like that...hey, look at all these great new hairs where none were before! Oh wait, they're all going to fall out again and you'll be as bald (or more so, if you count shock loss) as before!

 

Even when you know it's coming and did all the necessary research beforehand, it's still a bit of a psychological battle, if only because as MPB sufferers we've come to see loss of hair as something wholly negative for so long that even when it's a supposedly positive sign - for once! - it's really tough to see those tiny little graft hairs in the sink and not attached to your noggin. I feel like I'm re-living those early days of my hair loss where I was losing in confidence and gaining in shiny forehead, when it was all horrifyingly new and seemingly unstoppable (I was, unfortunately, late to the Rogaine party, and Propecia wasn't readily available when I started to go bald in my late teens). Only this time it's happening in fast-forward and not over the course of many months/years! I keep looking at post-op photos where I can see all the grafts and telling myself that, yes, most of those hairs are actually going to come back in a few months, but the uncertainty and stress is definitely greater than I thought it would be before I had my surgery.

 

So, fellow HT patients, how did you weather the early days? What were your coping mechanisms?

[s2thoudriver]

My best advice.... focus on everythign possible to ensure that when you do grow out, you are looking the best you can possibly look.

 

Lets be honest, a big driver for any of us HT guys is to build, or re-build confidence, both internal confidence and confidence in our asthetics.

 

So, set out a timetable plan of things you can do to support your 'new look' and further build your confidence up, whilst also promoting healthy follicle growth in the process. A few examples:

 

- Start a new diet to help get in shape and maintain a healthy body/mind

- Stop smoking if you smoke (now is the best time to do it if you do as it restricts circulation to the scalp!)

- Cut down on drinking/change to a healthier tipple like vodka lime and soda

- If you fancy it, do other light cosmetic tweaks liek botox or teeth whitening to aid the 'frefreshed look'

- Save up and go shopping for a new wardrobe of clothes to compliment the new hair

- Go on holiday, takes your ind off it

 

With regard to the daily checks, i'm sorry to say but it's unlikely you will stop doing that, it's human nature.

 

Just keep a copy of the post HT growth timeline handy to remind yourself where you are up to and also take lots of pics on 1 month anniversaries as this will illustrate changes in growth more clearly than daily changes.

 

 

All in all, relax, the hard work is done, just sit and wait and enjoy :-)

 

Rob

[Cant decide]

My best advice.... focus on everythign possible to ensure that when you do grow out, you are looking the best you can possibly look.

 

Lets be honest, a big driver for any of us HT guys is to build, or re-build confidence, both internal confidence and confidence in our asthetics.

 

So, set out a timetable plan of things you can do to support your 'new look' and further build your confidence up, whilst also promoting healthy follicle growth in the process. A few examples:

 

- Start a new diet to help get in shape and maintain a healthy body/mind

- Stop smoking if you smoke (now is the best time to do it if you do as it restricts circulation to the scalp!)

- Cut down on drinking/change to a healthier tipple like vodka lime and soda

- If you fancy it, do other light cosmetic tweaks liek botox or teeth whitening to aid the 'frefreshed look'

- Save up and go shopping for a new wardrobe of clothes to compliment the new hair

- Go on holiday, takes your ind off it

 

With regard to the daily checks, i'm sorry to say but it's unlikely you will stop doing that, it's human nature.

 

Just keep a copy of the post HT growth timeline handy to remind yourself where you are up to and also take lots of pics on 1 month anniversaries as this will illustrate changes in growth more clearly than daily changes.

 

 

All in all, relax, the hard work is done, just sit and wait and enjoy :-)

 

Rob

 

Great advice!!

[Garageland]

The one month stage is a tough one for sure as they hairs have shed and you are in the waiting period and with very little that is going to happen apart from the healing process for the next 2-3 months you would be best advised to focus on something new. Taking monthly photos is a great idea and doing other positive things like getting fit and healthier is a great idea. If you can't afford to do the ideas suggested by Rob or you might be hiding away a little from people then try to take up a new interest or hobby anything to stop the constant checking in the mirror which is really difficult not to do.

 

It is perfectly normal to be anxious as you have invested a good deal of money into your new hairs and it is upsetting to see them disappear but believe me it is so so satisfying seeing new hairs come in from month 4-6 onwards.

 

All the best with it all

[ThinToWin]

I tried my best to "plan" for this stage. I had my HT done at the end of January, after the holiday party crush, when it's cold and dreary, and I wouldn't have much cause to be outside without a hat on. I also timed it for just after a monthly meeting I have -- and informed them that I'd miss the following month's meeting, giving myself some more time to let things look bad without as large an audience. This all worked out pretty well.

 

Also, my golf club was closed at this time, so I wasn't around my golfing buddies during this time. I had told my co-workers that I was having an HT done just days before, so they were already on board (so no problems there). To the people I informed beforehand, I let them know that things were likely going to look a lot worse before they looked better. Letting others know this eased the anticipation, too.

 

But the best mindset you can have during this time is one of hope with each passing day, which is the exact OPPOSITE of the mindset I had before deciding on a HT. My hair continued to look worse and worse with time as it thinned, and before opting for a HT, the idea of becoming completely bald was pretty disheartening. After the HT, however, despite looking worse at first, I new that each day was getting me closer -- not further -- from looking better and feeling better about it. And in that short period of time before the hair starting coming in, I suppose I got a brief glimpse at how things would have looked soon if I HADN'T gotten the HT. I wasn't really any worse off temporarily than I'd have been permanently. So, if it meant going through that stage briefly to avoid a lifetime of looking that way, then, hey, that's not a bad deal, is it?

 

Hang in there!