Shock Loss - FUE - Donor Area - HELP!

[John174]

Hello,

 

I had an FUE procedure three weeks ago - 1500grafts. This week I began to notice a golf ball shaped bald spot on a donor area. It has only grown larger this week. Is this a permanent situation? Is this the result of over harvesting? Any help or insights would be appreciated!!!

 

Thanks,

Johhny

[Melvin- Admin]

John, do you have any post op pictures of your donor area that would show where the extractions were taken from? the reason I ask is that typically extractions are not taken that high up your sides, just in case your sides would ever drop that area is not always permanent if you're destined to be norwood 7.

 

With that being said, just based on the picture you provided, and the size and look, im gonna say that's more than likely shock loss, over harvesting has a distinct patchiness, yours look like a small bald spot, so this leads me to assume that it is shock loss, typically shock loss grows back within a few months, my shockloss took about 3 months to start growing back, but now at 6 months it all came back, my donor looks better today then it did at 3 months.

[John174]

Hey Man,

 

Thanks for the reply! I just read through your thread. Awesome results man.

 

I have a photo that is about 4 days post-op. Yeah, for whatever reason he did seem to harvest hairs pretty high up. Until you mentioned it, I didn't realize that this could be an issue.

 

So three months would be your guess? How did you conceal your spots?

[Melvin- Admin]

Yea he did extract pretty high up, the good new is that Norwood 7 is quite rare, I highly doubt you'll become a Norwood 7, with that being said, it is shock loss, best way to conceal it is fading up to the bald spot, keep the sides short and do a high fade to blend in to the bald spot, it should grow back within a few months, but nevertheless reach out to your surgeon and show him the pictures and get his opinion. Applying minoxidil on the affected area could stimulate the growth I did that to my donor for the first 3 months.

[myfueblog]

Do not worry (at least for now). I had a similar shock loss on my first 2 surgeries and the density returned after ~3-4 months. Meanwhile as HTsoon wrote to you, buy some dermamatch or something like that to conceal the issue.

 

Good luck.

[John174]

Thanks.

 

Any way to tell the difference between shock loss and alopecia aerate? My bald spot is pretty darn smooth which is disconcerting....

Edited January 16, 2016 by John174