2000 FUE - Dr. Mohebi - 31yo

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

Honestly, it doesn't look that bad for being 5 weeks, usually that's the worst stage, as for no one commenting, I think that's because most guys comment on doctors they are interested in, and while I think Dr. Mohebi is a great doctor I just don't think he garners the attention let's say Dr. Erdogan would.

 

This is my suggestion, go to the barber and cut the sides to a taper fade with a 1/2 guard at the very bottom fading up to a #2, use some toppik for the crown and midscalp, and you will look 100X better, you may want to try dermmatch as well as it may work better with the short hair, ditch the hat, there's really no need to wear a hat for your case, you just need some concealer thats all.

 

Wow! Honestly, I haven't even thought remotely about getting a haircut at this stage in the game. But maybe you're right. Shortening the sides might give the illusion that it's all normal.

 

I have Toppik on hand which I'll use. I think I'm gonna try to wear the hat on the first date though. It's an online date. And I don't want to startle anyone. So I have to lay the groundwork and be like, 'Listen, I shaved my head for the summer.' Rather than just showing up looking nothing like my picture.

 

Why is everyone into Erdogan? I don't really know much about him.

[Melvin- Admin]

Wow! Honestly, I haven't even thought remotely about getting a haircut at this stage in the game. But maybe you're right. Shortening the sides might give the illusion that it's all normal.

 

I have Toppik on hand which I'll use. I think I'm gonna try to wear the hat on the first date though. It's an online date. And I don't want to startle anyone. So I have to lay the groundwork and be like, 'Listen, I shaved my head for the summer.' Rather than just showing up looking nothing like my picture.

 

Why is everyone into Erdogan? I don't really know much about him.

 

The thing with the shaved head excuse is she might be like "let me see your hair" then you'll have to take off the hat and it'll look worse then it would if you just showed up without a hat, cause then it would be obvious you were hiding something, I think your hair is long enough to put some pomade in something like American Crew Fiber with toppik, maybe try a mini faux hawk with a nice taper fade.

 

If you take a hat don't even mention it, cause if you mention your wearing a hat because you shaved your head, your gonna make her curious on how you look with a shaved head and she will no doubt ask to see your hair. Just act like the hat is part of your look maybe throw on some joggers act like you were gonna hit the gym afterward.

 

As for Erdogan, he's considered one of the best FUE doctors in the world and since he's in Turkey his prices are very affordable in comparison to doctors in the U.S. so it would make sense that most guys would be interested in his work, I considered him as well he definitely does good work.

[voxman]

Didn't you get the HT so you could technically throw the Toppik away? LOL! Let it fly, man.

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

Didn't you get the HT so you could technically throw the Toppik away? LOL! Let it fly, man.

 

Oh if only I was there Voxman. I think my second or third HT will allow me to toss the Toppik. I didn't do any crown work yet and that's primarily where I will be applying until I ravage the area with beard and chest hair.

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

UPDATE: Decided to go with the hat for the date. It was going well and so a couple of hours in I said, 'I have a confession to make, I'm wearing this hat because I shaved my head for the summer and I didn't want to freak you out by not looking like my pictures.' She was like, 'Oh that's actually very thoughtful of you.' Then I showed her and she was like, 'I think it looks good.' I drove her home and we made out in the car.

 

JUST 5 WEEKS OUT!!!!!!! I did not think dating would be possible at this point but some girls are nice apparently!

[Triple7]

I think you look good with the buzzed look similar to what your 2 week post op hair length was and it sounds like you can pull it off without noticeable scarring showing. I feel like that look/hair length fits you well. Even if your crown is a little thin, I feel like it will be less noticeable when the rest of your hair is short. You are looking great for 5 weeks. Congrats

[anotherhairlosssufferer]

It didn't look like you were losing any hair in the front or anywhere except the crown, but when you shaved it, it does show way more, looks like the whole top is thinning.

 

You're making great progress, please keep us updated!

 

p.s.

I am also considering Dr. Mohebi soon!

[pkipling]

UPDATE: Decided to go with the hat for the date. It was going well and so a couple of hours in I said, 'I have a confession to make, I'm wearing this hat because I shaved my head for the summer and I didn't want to freak you out by not looking like my pictures.' She was like, 'Oh that's actually very thoughtful of you.' Then I showed her and she was like, 'I think it looks good.' I drove her home and we made out in the car.

 

JUST 5 WEEKS OUT!!!!!!! I did not think dating would be possible at this point but some girls are nice apparently!

 

Ha! I just caught up on this thread and this update was perfect. Ah, the magic of the early stages of dating and making out in cars... *sigh*

 

Really happy to see things are progressing well for you and that you really seem to have a grasp on the reality of the entire hair transplant process. Keep being patient. You'll have great results before you know it.

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

I think you look good with the buzzed look similar to what your 2 week post op hair length was and it sounds like you can pull it off without noticeable scarring showing. I feel like that look/hair length fits you well. Even if your crown is a little thin, I feel like it will be less noticeable when the rest of your hair is short. You are looking great for 5 weeks. Congrats

 

Thanks!!! Yeah tbh I was thinking about keeping it short. One friend who's a girl who knows I got the HT told me I should always have it buzzed. It's something to consider when it grows in. It certainly would make getting away with my next HT much easier!

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

It didn't look like you were losing any hair in the front or anywhere except the crown, but when you shaved it, it does show way more, looks like the whole top is thinning.

 

You're making great progress, please keep us updated!

 

p.s.

I am also considering Dr. Mohebi soon!

 

Yeah, I know it definitely thickens up and fills out nice when it's longer. Plus the lighting in my bathroom is brutal, especially at that angle. But yeah I felt a panic about getting this HT because I felt like I was moments away from the whole thing finally becoming very noticeable. I'm glad I got it done when I did. I hope the results are positive.

 

Dr. Mohebi says I have about 3000 grafts left to give in the back and those will be used to address my thinning top. The crown doesn't bother me as much, especially with Toppik being an option. But I will hit that with beard and/or chest hair.

 

I don't have a full assessment on Dr. Mohebi. But so far, so good. But I'll wait until I see my final results before giving any sort of recommendation. I will say that the surgery was good, his staff is very nice, and it seems like he was very precise based on my limited amount of shock loss and scarring. I'm not even really that red. Also, I feel his hairline design was excellent. But only time will tell...

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

Ha! I just caught up on this thread and this update was perfect. Ah, the magic of the early stages of dating and making out in cars... *sigh*

 

Really happy to see things are progressing well for you and that you really seem to have a grasp on the reality of the entire hair transplant process. Keep being patient. You'll have great results before you know it.

 

Thanks!!! Yeah I did an obsessive amount of research, and now that I'm going through one myself I feel like a bit of an expert. I'm ready to get done with HT # 3 (after I do HT #2) so I just don't have to worry about this crap anymore! Give me hair!!!

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

Okay two months post-op now and all I have to say is ughhhhh. This has definitely been the worst part of the entire experience. Obviously, all the hairs have shed, I knew that was gonna happen. And I also knew it was going to take a while before I saw regrowth but, man, this has been excruciating. I've been wearing a hat everywhere since Week 2 and I hate it. And with my hat off, I honestly feel like I look like someone napalmed the side of my head. The hair loss I was experiencing is so much more apparent now that my hair is short. It's disgusting. I really, really hate it.

 

My displeasure with this entire situation isn't even tied really to the fact that I'm still waiting for the new hair to grow in....it's more that I'm realizing how bad my hair loss has gotten. I seriously can't believe it. I really didn't even notice it was getting this bad when my hair was normal length. Now it's just out in the open for the world to see. Needless to say, the world has not seen it.

 

TOP/CROWN: It's not so bad but what bothers me is how the writing is on the wall here. You can clearly see where this is headed. The sides and back just outline it perfectly. And since I have not had a haircut or anything the density difference just highlights where my hair is gonna go.

 

RIGHT TEMPLE: This is the worse temple. As you can see, very few of the transplanted hairs are there. This is the part that bothers me the most.

 

LEFT TEMPLE: I can live with this. Most transplanted hairs gone.

 

HAIRLINE: The part that bothers me the most is that you can already see where I'm going to need my next HT here. The frontal third of my scalp is already thinning and I'm starting to see a connective line forming between my widow's peak and above my forelock. I thought I'd be able to enjoy HT #1 before having to go get HT #2 but with the one year of growth, and the way my hair looks now, I think it might be back-to-back. And this doesn't even address the crown.

 

DONOR AREA:

 

I'm feeling very discouraged to say the least. This is taking too long. And I'm beginning to really resent and hate people who have full heads of hair and don't have to deal with this. They're just walking around, clueless to what people like us go through. They have no idea how lucky they are. How they are saving countless hours of stress and tens of thousands of dollars walking around with full, luscious heads of hair. Life just isn't fair. These are also always the first people to say, 'No one cares about hair, just shave it off.'

 

I'm really upset. I hope I look back on this post and realize I was being silly once my hair continues to grow. I hope I can piece together a regular transplant, beard and chest hair to cover my head.

 

And one major thing that's bothering me, I don't have a girlfriend. And this certainly isn't helping. My one major recommendation for anyone considering getting an HT. If you're gonna do it, do it when you're married. If I was married and had a supportive wife while doing this, I don't think I'd really be bothered at all. I'd just patiently continue on while I fixed my hair. But, I don't. I don't have a girlfriend either. And I'm trying to find one while my hair is doing this. Not good.

[voxman]

If all of the hairs have shed and those pics are of your current hair's state - you've got nothing to complain about.

[anotherhairlosssufferer]

I can't tell if you have less hair now than in the pre-op pictures. What do you think? As in, do you think that you had some shock loss?

[pkipling]

I totally understand the frustration you're feeling, but believe me when I say it is way too early to be having any sort of panic. You're about 2 1/2 months out, which means you haven't even hit the stage where the transplanted grafts will start growing.

 

To the best of your ability, try not to analyze your hair at all right now. The reason you're not seeing any growth at the right now is because you're not supposed to be seeing any growth - because it's simply too early. As a general rule, I wouldn't expect any significant improvement until month 6 or so, and even then that's often on the early side. (Everyone's growth is on its own timeline, so there's no hard and fast rule for when you can expect results.) And the fact that it's looking worse before it looks better is just an unfortunate side effect of getting a hair transplant.

 

So keep your head up and try to place your attention and energy elsewhere for the time being. As difficult as that is, I promise it's what's best for you emotionally/psychologically at this stage. The more you can put it out of your mind, the more satisfied you'll be when you look in the mirror one day and see an improvement.

 

PM me if you wanna chat on the phone and need a pep talk.

[Melvin- Admin]

Hope all is well, I know your situation all to well, as someone with diffuse loss it's easy to forget reality, for the longest time I thought I was Norwood II because of my hairline, but when I shaved my head I could clearly see the horse shoe pattern, it was right there in my face, my future, and at first it was difficult to accept, but now I'm actually glad I know, because at least the fear is gone, you'll notice guys on here Norwood II dependent on finasteride live with that fear everyday, my fear is gone, I've lived as a bald man already, I've experienced the worst and came out the other side, in a way it's liberating, the only left for me to worry about is whether my sides will drop, but that's nothing in comparison to a Norwood II worried about becoming a Norwood VI.

 

The positives from this is that now you can prepare yourself for the future, it appears you'll be Norwood 5-5a which isn't bad for transplants the crown stays high and the sides as well, it's all about how you approach your surgeries from here on out, with this new information you are less likely to be hung up on placing 4K plus grafts in the frontal third and be more conservative to get a better result that will last as you age. All is not lost, I was a lot balder than you are and I managed well, it's all about the approach and the master plan.

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

I can't tell if you have less hair now than in the pre-op pictures. What do you think? As in, do you think that you had some shock loss?

 

I do think I lost some hair on the hairline. Not due to shockloss but permanently. These are hairs that would've fallen out in 1-2 years anyway, supposedly. I'm fine with the transplanted hairs growing in, I think that part will be fine. I did not get anything done to the top of my head, so shock loss there wouldn't happen.

 

What I'm upset about is seeing straight up how thin my hair has gotten and how I'm going to have to hurry up and get another transplant to fix it so soon. I thought I was better off than this. It's just a rude awakening. My older brother and my dad seem to be doing better than me especially when they were my age, I just don't get it.

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

I totally understand the frustration you're feeling, but believe me when I say it is way too early to be having any sort of panic. You're about 2 1/2 months out, which means you haven't even hit the stage where the transplanted grafts will start growing.

 

To the best of your ability, try not to analyze your hair at all right now. The reason you're not seeing any growth at the right now is because you're not supposed to be seeing any growth - because it's simply too early. As a general rule, I wouldn't expect any significant improvement until month 6 or so, and even then that's often on the early side. (Everyone's growth is on its own timeline, so there's no hard and fast rule for when you can expect results.) And the fact that it's looking worse before it looks better is just an unfortunate side effect of getting a hair transplant.

 

So keep your head up and try to place your attention and energy elsewhere for the time being. As difficult as that is, I promise it's what's best for you emotionally/psychologically at this stage. The more you can put it out of your mind, the more satisfied you'll be when you look in the mirror one day and see an improvement.

 

PM me if you wanna chat on the phone and need a pep talk.

 

Thanks I'm trying to not think about it but when you're dating it's impossible not to. I'm glad I did this first HT since I'll likely need 2-3 more over time and I'd rather get started now and be done with it sooner. But yeah, the top of my head, I'm just shocked at how little hair I have up there.

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

Hope all is well, I know your situation all to well, as someone with diffuse loss it's easy to forget reality, for the longest time I thought I was Norwood II because of my hairline, but when I shaved my head I could clearly see the horse shoe pattern, it was right there in my face, my future, and at first it was difficult to accept, but now I'm actually glad I know, because at least the fear is gone, you'll notice guys on here Norwood II dependent on finasteride live with that fear everyday, my fear is gone, I've lived as a bald man already, I've experienced the worst and came out the other side, in a way it's liberating, the only left for me to worry about is whether my sides will drop, but that's nothing in comparison to a Norwood II worried about becoming a Norwood VI.

 

The positives from this is that now you can prepare yourself for the future, it appears you'll be Norwood 5-5a which isn't bad for transplants the crown stays high and the sides as well, it's all about how you approach your surgeries from here on out, with this new information you are less likely to be hung up on placing 4K plus grafts in the frontal third and be more conservative to get a better result that will last as you age. All is not lost, I was a lot balder than you are and I managed well, it's all about the approach and the master plan.

 

What do you suggest my master plan should be? My doctor told my I have around 3000 grafts to play with on the back and sides. Then I have very robust beard hair, and chest hair that the doctor feels very postiive about.

 

My plan was at HT 2 to do 1000-1500 normal grafts to address the area directly behind my hairline. And then, if that area requires less then to distribute less and less dense going back.

 

THEN do 500 beard grafts directly in the crown. That's really the one thing I know 100% for sure is that I'm going to put beard grafts in the crown. So I might as well start that process now.

 

Would you recommend something different?

[Melvin- Admin]

What do you suggest my master plan should be? My doctor told my I have around 3000 grafts to play with on the back and sides. Then I have very robust beard hair, and chest hair that the doctor feels very postiive about.

 

My plan was at HT 2 to do 1000-1500 normal grafts to address the area directly behind my hairline. And then, if that area requires less then to distribute less and less dense going back.

 

THEN do 500 beard grafts directly in the crown. That's really the one thing I know 100% for sure is that I'm going to put beard grafts in the crown. So I might as well start that process now.

 

Would you recommend something different?

 

1,500 grafts to the midscalp sounds reasonable, I would limit the beard hair grafts to maybe a 1,000 mixed with scalp grafts for the crown. This is all suppositions, when your hair grows longer you'll likely forget about it trust me, if I cut my hair short I'll see scalp, you have to grow your hair out and wait for the transplant to grow, patience it's tough but you have to be patient.

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

Okay so here I am at the 3 month mark. Technically, its twelve weeks. I got the surgery on June 7th, so 3 months would be September 7th right? But that would put me at 13 weeks, so I'm counting this as the 3 month mark.

 

Since I'm definitely going to get another one of these things I want to make clear how I feel at this point. I know and understand that its early in the growing process and that I barely even started. And I DO see tiny hairs springing up where they should which is nice. But the cosmetic impact at this point is minimal. It may look like I have hair in these pictures but that's just the hair I always had, except less than ever. As mentioned in my previous post where I was feeling terrible, I'm still just shocked at how I have so little hair up there in my NW5 area.

 

So, I have to say, at this point the wait has been excruciating. I'm beginning to wonder if this is what the final result is like? Is it going to be that much better than this? I look at the hairs springing up and I think to myself...did I get more hairs implanted than this or is this all of them? Is this going to look dense at all?

 

Close up you can actually see the hairs. But if you pull far away it just looks like there's nothing there. I saw a picture of myself today and it looked like my hairline to a huge dip back on the left side but I don't see that same dip close up. I'll post for reference.

 

So this is three months. I've passed the threshold....now it's just growing from here on up. So I'm excited to see how this turns out. But, yeah, right now I'm basically seeing nothing that wasn't already there except a few hairs that don't make a cosmetic impact.

 

THE CROWN: Looking at this makes me yearn for my second hair transplant.

 

HAIRLINE: This is pretty much where I was before, except with a shorter haircut.

 

LEFT TEMPLE: My better temple

 

RIGHT TEMPLE: I did a lot of work on this one, it was pretty well receded. Up close it looks like there's a lot of hairs springing up but from a distance you can't see them at all.

 

THE PIC I MENTIONED: Here's the pic I mentioned. As you cna see it looks like my hairline dips back on the left side. I don't really understand where that's coming from when I look at it up close. Also, not sure my HT is gonna cover all the way back where the hair's missing.

 

HAIRLINE COMPARISON: Don't be fooled, that's not transplant hair, that's just my hair. Look at week 2 - 12 for comparison.

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

Here's another post for me. I was walking around outside today and snapped this picture of my right temple and was horrified.

 

 

 

It must have been the worst angle and lighting of any photo ever taken, I don't think I could re-create it if I tried. But I was looking at this photo thinking, "I thought my hair was starting to look better!? I'm 3 months and a week in and I see little hairs sprouting up. When I look in the mirror I can see where my full-fledged hairline is gonna be. But in the natural sunlight, there is no evidence of that AT ALL. And I started thinking WTF is this?

 

For those of you in this stage of the game, or for me when I go into HT #2, I have to say, this stage of the game i absolutely brutal. I felt at two months it was brutal. Nope I was wrong. Now I'm 13 weeks into this nightmare and still no cosmetic impact.

 

So what I did is I created a comparison shot of my right temple to see the progress its made. And I was able to take a close side-by-side look at the photos and I realize...very little progress has been made. It's tiny.

 

You can see some slight change from Week 5 to 8 to 12. But that's mostly just my regular hair growing longer. And if you look at the 13 week image shot outdoors, WOW, that looks horrible.

 

But here's where this actually benefitted me. I then took my pre-op photo and put it up against my 13 week photo. And I realize, there is marginal improvement. Which made me realize....that horrific 13 week picture I took today....that's how I looked PRE-OP. So basically, I looked horrible THE ENTIRE TIME. Phew, I guess. Somehow that made me feel better.

 

[anotherhairlosssufferer]

@HairThereAndEverywhere

 

What did Dr Mohebi tell you when you went for a consultation? Did he tell you what is your potential (eventual) Norwood level?

 

Also did he advise you as to what to work on in your first HT? It looks like maybe you could/should have done more more this time, at the very least you could have gone more behind the hairline and the doctor should have advised you to do that.

 

Looking at your before pics, I don't really see the problem with your hairline to be honest.

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

Well, here I am at 4 months. What can I say, the wait has been excruciating, I think you can tell that from my posts. But at four months, I'm finally back to around where I was pre-op and I think actually even better. So I'm happy with my progress so far and definitely think I'm ahead of the curve here but man, just to re-iterate, do not sleep on how long you have to wait before you see results. Doctors should make that more clear. That it's going to be a while before you're happy with what your'e seeing.

 

The ONLY reason I'm happy now is because of Toppik. It truly is a miracle product. Because I have decent baseline of hair to work off of, with Toppik it looks like I don't have any hair loss at all. The hairline is a little more difficult to maneuver but luckily that's the part that I addressed. Applying Toppik to the crown takes five seconds and could not be easier. It stays in even when you sleep or seat and doesn't come out unless you shampoo it out. No one can tell when it's in AT ALL. It's an incredible product.

 

I used have reservations about using concealers because I felt like it was a lie. And the one downside is what if I get serious with a girl, having used Toppik, and then one day all of a sudden I don't put it in? Well, I think I'm in decent shape there because I'm using Toppik on my hairline now, but that's the part that's supposed to be fixed. I'm going to get another HT after this one and go after the area behind the hairline, and then finally the crown. But once the actual hairline and the framing of the face is complete, applying Toppik is a breeze.

 

NOTE: NONE OF THESE PICTURES HAVE ANY PRODUCT OR TOPPIK IN THEM.

 

Hairline - This is actually a remarkable improvement from pre-op. It's growing in but not much, but even the tiny amount of volume I have added is enough to form a hairline.

 

Here's a comparison pic of the hairline pre-op to 15 weeks. It's week but it's a hairline none-the-less. This is without any product or concealer.

 

 

LEFT TEMPLE: This is the better temple, and it seems to be doing good but this isn't far off from where it was pre-op.

 

RIGHT TEMPLE: This temple is the part I most wanted to fixed. I hated how far that temple point receded. You can see where the new line is going to be but it kind of just looks like a light brambled mess at this point only making cosmetic impacts in certain light. I usually push forward my long side hair to fill in the temple point.

 

 

Here's a comparison shot of now 16 weeks, to pre-op:

 

 

And here's the crown which I basically did no work on at this point. Like I said, because I have the slightest amount of hair there, with Toppik that bald spot completely disappears. But that's not going to stop me from getting another HT to address it.

 

[anotherhairlosssufferer]

5 month update?