Receipient area scars

[Sam23]

Hi

 

I m checking the receipient area after 5 months i do not see scars or injuries but i see many small circles where they put the grafts,

 

Are those the scars ? Or ungrown grafts? Will they go away with time abd the skin be healed and back smooth again ?

 

What can i do to rid of of those things, they look like small eggs ?

 

I want to shave my head but i cannot because i see those things

[Mickey85]

Any clear photos? Should not be any small circles within the recipient area at all.

[Sam23]

I cannot have clear pic, they are so small

 

It is like the pumbs or hair roots, but they are shine under light, and the skin surface is rough not smoth, when i passed my hand, i feel it the skin is not normal anymore, definetly better than the time of surgery, but still rough and not clean & smooth

 

Definetly if i shave my head they will be clear

 

it can be healed or these permanents scars ?

[gillenator]

It's hard to say whithout pics Sam. An IPhone should be able to take clear enough pics and then you can enlarge them before downloading to this site.

 

Sometimes there is small pitting where the recipient sites are but instead it sounds like you have tiny bumps?

[Spanker]

It sounds like you are describing cobblestoning, but maybe not. Also, Spencer is right. You can see some slight scarring or ridging that can go away.

[Sam23]

I add the best pic that i can

 

Showing that the skin is not smooth anymore

 

I do not know what those things, ungrown grafts,cobblestonnings, inflammation, maybe from minoxidil

 

Or this normal ?

 

But it is like a war territory now by this close

 

I will see a doctor to check my scalp

 

I do not know if shaving would be fine

 

After 6 months from now, i will decide based on the results, if it is ok and thick i will continue with another surgery with softening the hairline, if not i will start removing everything step by step even if take me years

Edited January 7, 2016 by Sam23

[Sam23]

This is the growth for 5 months and 7 days

 

Look ugly, thin and it gives from front the illusion of fullness but from up it looks ugly

 

Right now, i will pay anything just to remove it, this is disfigured me

[Spanker]

I don't see what looks so bad? Got any before pics?

[Sam23]

This is one before ( really i like myself in this pic, with cleab scalp , better than war territory now)

 

The hair look so thin and i want to shave my head but i m afraid from any scars or cobblestonning, pitting ridging all of those stuff

 

Beside still the skin color is quit darker

 

The hair is grow only on the hairline and first 2, 3 cm it look like a circle of so thin hair

Edited January 7, 2016 by Sam23

[Dolph1969]

Sam,

 

Try giving it longer. It's only 5 months. I would say, You're definitely not seeing what we see. As Spanker says, you look a lot better than before.

 

Try some toppik to thicken the existing hair and maybe cutting it shorter at the sides. Are you using oil or gel, as the hair looks clumped together.

[Sam23]

Thanks, i will go to the barber tomorrow to see what i can do

 

To be honest, my expectation was more than that and not like this hair

 

I will be patient and wait 7 months and after i will decide (good growth/ another surgery) (poor growth/shaving, lasering zone 1, 2 in case the scalp is norma)

 

My problem, is why they started from front and i m so bald, i was against that and i want to start from middle or crown but they convienced me this would be wrong as the front scalp is more important

 

But now i think they did that to force me to do other surgeries to cover everything, if they started from crown maybe i will not like the whole thing and it will not affect me at all as it is on crown, but now thin hair in front, large bald spot in whole head, this so ugly and disgusting

[Dolph1969]

I think the surgeons idea,was to frame your face with a restored hairline, which appears to be developing. I think a good haircut and some toppik/cabooki, will give a good appearance all over. It's still early on in the transplant/growth process.

[Sam23]

Yes, that what they said and nobody usually look on crown

 

Anyway, the hairline is another problem also, which is so straight and not soft, i will remove some hair to make it random but for sure not now

[Dolph1969]

Don't start plucking or tampering with your hair until you give it a few months. If you're not happy with the result after a year or so, consider seeing another surgeon. I wouldn't recommend any DIY hair removal at this point.

[Sam23]

No definetly i will not do anything now and without doctor recommendation

 

My scalp is always oily, espically evening, when i use ketecebazole shampoo, the hair look healthier

[Dolph1969]

Maybe use a thickening shampoo and try the likes of toppik or another thickening fibre. They really do give a lot of volume to your hair. You'll also hopefully see some more growth from the transplant in the next few months. Take it from me, your hair looks a lot better now than in the before pictures.

[Sam23]

Thanks, i will try it

 

And i will wait 6 months before doing anything,

 

I m obssessed now with the idea of bald guy with hairline, and make me nervous and mad because it is unatural,

 

I always see people high norwood and restore the hairline without anything behind,

 

I never imagine i will become one of them someday

 

so that s why i will remove the first zone i think in the end, i hope now i can remove it and make my hair more receded, so if i shave it look natural

Edited January 8, 2016 by Sam23

[Dolph1969]

Sam, go and get a hairdressers/barbers opinion and get a haircut, shorter at the sides possibly. Try some concealer when the hair is dry and see what it is like. Don't consider getting anything removed or tampering with it until you can assess the end result. Trust me, it looks better than before.

[needmoarhair]

Sam, I've read a few of your threads and I can see you are going through an ordeal. Looking at the pics you posed I think your new hair is a big improvement! I would definitely give it a bit longer and as Dolph suggested, some concealer would work wonders, you may even look like you have a full head of hair!

 

I really hope you start feeling better about your surgery, all the best my friend.

[gillenator]

Sam,

 

At 5 month post-op you have coming. And BTW, that's not cobble-stoning.

 

Here's the deal. You have very black native hair that is producing a wide color contrast. Your rims are very dense looking and why your recipient area looks thin. Still, you do look like you have considerably more hair than your "before" photo.

 

You will definitely need more coverage and you might want to start researching surgeons that produce the best visual coverage for the number of grafts used.

[harryforreal]

Greetings, Sam!

 

I couple of months back I had a micro-needling procedure at a dermatologist's office (not the office of the hair transplant surgeon where I had my surgery) to smooth the bumpy texture and skin "collaring" around the transplanted graphs like you've described. The micro-needling procedure really produced a noticeable positive, result - so much so that I honestly think it needs to be further investigated as a standard part of the hair transplant procedure to soften the results of a hair transplant - or maybe not everyone ends up with a bumpy texture, and your and my experiences are the exception rather than the rule. I really can't say if the bumpy texture afterwards is the norm, and if it is, it apparently doesn't bother very many people who get a transplant; really, sometimes the mantra to me seems to be "hair on the head is the only thing that matters". I hate to write that, but I consistently hear praise for things that look shocking to me!

 

So I know how you feel. I was very dissatisfied with my result and honestly never imagined it would look so bad. The thought that it could look so unnatural to me never even occurred to me - but I should add I really didn't do anything in the way of research prior to the procedure. I just went in for a consultation after seeing something on tv, and walked out with a brochure that seemed pretty convincing that everything would look perfectly natural. Ha! I was quite naive.

 

I'm still not especially happy with the result, but I can at least say that the micro-needling procedure really helped to smooth the texture of the skin. Three weeks ago I had another dermatologist's office "laser V-Beam" the area to reduce redness, and when I hit the 4 week mark next week I'll post some photos of that procedure. In other words, at least I have hope for improvement, and to that end I've had some modest success so far, though certainly not the result I had hoped to achieve when I went in for the original hair transplant.

 

Like you, I also think it would have been better for the doctor to have started at my original hairline and work forward, as I have some gaps between my original natural hair line and the new hairline. It really greatly annoys me and just pisses me off. I don't understand the aesthetic reasoning of this.

 

I have heard others speak of "framing the face." I don't understand this obsession with "framing the face" with a very defined hairline of several millimeters and then it's thinner behind it. To be bluntly honest and without meaning to offend others on this forum, I question if many people's obsession for transplanting hair impairs their ability to objectively assess the total aesthetic result; again, I don't wish to offend and I'm not trying to be accusatory, but it is a question I find myself often asking. Or perhaps it's more fair to say that different people have different aesthetic tastes.

 

For me I'm inclined to agree with you - a thinning head of hair that is soft and 100% completely natural is better than a wiry rug "sewn" into the scalp. I've been plucking the hairs out of my transplant for well over a year now, trying to "soften" it. I am planning on having a lady use electrolysis on some of the most ugly grafts (some thick doubles and triples/quadruples in the hairline).

 

One thing I've wondered about the bumpy texture and such of my transplant, is the doctor used implanter pens, and I've wondered if pens are more prone to producing such results. Just curious, do you know what your doctor used? Implanter pens or blades? Not saying that would make a difference, but it is something I've often wondered about, and others are free to chime in with their experiences.

 

In any event, I would check with a dermatologist regarding micro-needling the transplanted area. Newer scar tissue responds better than older scar tissues from what I understand, so might as well look into it sooner than later since there's no chance of damaging your grafts at this point.

 

As for waiting until the 12 month mark or more to assess the final result, that is true; however, it certainly doesn't mean you will be happy with the result when that time comes. But no point in worrying excessively about it now, and I do think you can will find some options for improvement, though no magic one step solution - I mean, we're aging, and the body is falling apart. Such is life.

 

Another statement I'd like to make is this - while I quite like many of the things I've read written by the gillenator over the years, I've heard this one from others as well and I don't quite understand it, "You have very black native hair that is producing a wide color contrast." If the hair was black to begin with, then the color contrast should be the same before and after the transplant. I don't really understand this statement, except that it is not a satisfactory description for why the transplanted hair looks a bit more bizarre. I have pulled a transplanted hair out by the root (well, quite a few - literally sandwich bags every month which I label so I could see if there was any change in the quality of the hair over time), and compared the root of the transplanted hair with a native hair I plucked from the back of my head. I CAN SAY WITH ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE that the transplanted hair is thicker and darker than a native hair. Something about the transplant process has changed the hair, and despite more than a year's passing, the hair was still extra thick and dark.

 

In any event, here's a photo 18 months or more after my original hair transplant - many will say, "Looks great!", but if you notice the difference between the transplanted dark, thick, standing hairs across my forehead versus the much lighter, thinner, softer, flush native hairs on the side of my head, there is no way I will ever be convinced that one would be convinced this is "natural" looking. Now.....most people won't notice as they walk past you in the supermarket - but the girl at the check out line may as she's talking to you and telling you what your bill is...but honestly, these folks are not the one's you really care about....it's that one special person that you're most interested in and about whom you're most worried noticing something's off when you get close. Eh...but such is life. ^^

[zyzz]

Can pitting in the recipient area be visible without shaving? I've been trying to see if I have pitting by looking close in the mirror and scanning in between the hairs and it doesn't appear so but when I run my nails softly through the recipient vs the native site, I feel an obvious difference in smoothness in the native area while my recipient area feels a bit bumpy.

[Sam23]

Harryforreal,

 

You mentioned everything i think about in a better way, that exactly what i feel, the hair transplant will not look natural even with the best surgon in the world if your hair texture is not suitable for hairline

 

No body tell you this or test it at time of consultation, if hair texture will be good in front scalp so, they only tell you it is your hair, so you start imagin your original hair

 

For my case, the hair is growing but it so thick, black extremly thick i can say each hair equal 2 or 3 hairs of my native hairs (which is BTW soft light brown) and they put them on hairline, they look so ugly now i m 5.5 months and there is a giant wall of hair on hairline if i comb it over it gives illusion of fullness and also the hairline look so sharp even it is distributed in random way but from distance it looks sharp, i cannot see myself on the mirror anymore, it looks so fake and if there is harsh light, wow it will look worse than the ugliest wig in the world

 

 

Everyone fools by this illusion but i cannot fool my self

 

I understand Hairline means full hair with natural thickness, if they put hair on mid scalp or crown i would be extremly happy now, cuz it is so natural to have thin hair in mid scalp or crown, and i was already bald so the hair will satisfy me even if i shave or buzz my hair it will still look natural, but Nw 5 with hairline absoultly not

 

Why people cannot see this fact, natural look is better than perfect look, the perfect hairline is so artifical no matter how it is frame your face it still artifical, high nw should not think about hairline at all, only random hair in mid scalp and crown

 

I told my surgon about this he said no HT will not work in the way you think and will not achieve the results, but i understand now why cuz of illusion concept, which i refuse totally to have like a baloon or bizarre hair in hairline,

 

Really i wish if i start from the crown, believe it or not it would give me a boost of confidance better than this artifical hairline

 

Aftercthat they tell you there is a thickness stage after the 8th month, LOL, so then i will end up with black stone on my hairline

 

Still i have 6 to 7 months so i m waiting to see any dramatically change

Edited January 17, 2016 by Sam23

[zyzz]

Have you thought about shaving it off and SMP over the scars and blending the front?

[Sam23]

I do not believe in SMP, it will make it worse, and i think i m not able to shave off before 1 or 2 years i think

 

I m still give HT a chance and in the meantime i will try to treat the skin