Shockloss or over harvested? (pics included)

[alex85]

I am very concerned about my donor area. Recently (29 april, 1 month ago) I got a 860 grafts FUE hair transplant. Unfortunately my donor is not what I expected, it looks very thin in my opinion (with just 860 grafts taken out!)

 

I think there a three options:

 

1. They over harvested the donor area (to much grafts on too small area)

2. Shockloss

3. It is normal and will get better soon

 

You can find the pictures here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BybI23u60yUafnpfYzhiWUl6TjAwOHBxdi1oOWdDSUQ5eXJfM2VpdkxiM3EzWU1uZmVvVm8&usp=sharing

 

What do you think?

[Dr. David Josephitis]

Alex85,

 

From your one week post- op pics, it does not appear that the donor was over harvested. The FUE sites actually look appropriately spaced. Even though there was not a large area of your donor used for the procedure, you had a relatively low number of grafts removed in one session. If you had a greater need for grafting, in my experience, we could have yielded 2500+ grafts over your entire donor area in the span of two days.

 

I believe the choices you gave of #2 and 3 may be more in line with what is actually occurring. Some people's follicles are more susceptible to shock loss than others. I believe this is what we are seeing. It may take a few months before the donor area returns to normal.

 

How is the Recipient area in front responding?

 

Some physicians advocate the use of laser treatment and/ or minoxidil at this time to try to speed up the regrowth of the donor.

[alex85]

Dear DrJosephitis,

 

Many thanks for your reply, really appreciate! And good to hear it is nothing to worry about. Hope you are right .

 

Recipient area is healing very well, just slightly pink and almost all the hairs have been falling out.

[alex85]

I am using fullmore to cover the thinned (shocked) donor area.

 

Is it safe to use it, or will it harm my shocked follicles?

[pkipling]

Your pictures look totally normal to me. My donor area was quite a bit thinner for a while as well, but started filling back out after a few months. Give it time and I think you'll be just fine. Keep us posted.

[alex85]

Today I made a close-up photo of the thinned area. Could you see something which really point to shock loss? (you can zoom in!)

 

Thanks!

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BybI23u60yUad3ZQWjgwZXFRREE/view?usp=sharing

 

and:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BybI23u60yUaX1YtdEFjbVR4cnc&authuser=0

Edited June 2, 2015 by alex85

[pkipling]

Hey Alex. Now that it's been several months since your hair transplant, I hope you've seen some significant regrowth in the donor area. As previously mentioned, my donor area looked quite thin for a while as well, and it wasn't until about 7 months where I really felt like it was back to normal. So even if it still seems thin at 3-4 months now, I think chances are you'll be just fine. Hoping you've made some progress since your last report.

[Mikey1970]

that looks great to me. i have seen lots of fue where it looks like a mouse has been chewing on the persons head. nothing at all to be worrying about....