Regular Member HairlessUser Posted August 30, 2017 Regular Member Share Posted August 30, 2017 Hi everybody, I will be sharing my FUE hair transplant experience that I recently had done with Dr Diep. I would like to thank everyone who are actively posting on this forum (especially HTSoon his results were unreal and were an inspiration for me to choose Dr Diep) as it helped me immensely and after months of research I hope I made a wise choice in Dr Diep. We will see in the months to follow . A bit about me: Race: Asian Age: 28 Hair Quality: Medium/Coarse Norwood Scale: 6 Procedure Method: FUE No. of Grafts: 3200 Surgeon: Dr. John Diep Some background: I have been tackling hair loss since my early 20's and it has always bothered me. I am a good looking guy and used to get compliments in and out on my looks until I started losing hair. I felt like I was losing an important phase of my life to hairloss. I am destined to be a Norwood 6. My father is a Norwood 6 and a lot of the males on my father's side of the family are Norwood 6's. However, all males on my mother's side of the family have great hair. I was unlucky to have received the bad genes from my father's side. Previous Surgeries: This was my second FUE hair transplant after I had around 2300 grafts transplanted by FUE a couple of years back with a different surgeon, the results of which I feel were ok, not good or great. The aim of the first surgery was to cover basically half of my head extending into the middle of the top areas. Medications: I currently take Minoxidil and 1mg Finasteride daily. I was initially very reluctant in taking Finasteride after reading horror stories online but I decided to give it a try, thinking that I would stop it if I had sides. Luckily, Finasteride has not had any effects on me so far and on the contrary has been helping me keep a lot of my hair in the crown area. Choice of Surgeon: After my first hair transplant, I wanted to give the best possible shot on my second hair transplant. My aim was to restore a natural looking frontal hairline and add density into the already transplanted mid scalp. I narrowed down my choices to 3 surgeons; Lorenzo, Erdogan and Dr Diep. However I decided to go with Dr Diep as he tends to produce very natural looking hairlines. Consultation: I had my consultation with Dr Diep in March. He was very down to earth and willing to help me in any possible way. I told him about my previous FUE surgery and he immediately looked at my donor area to see how much hair I have remaining. He praised the quality of my hair and told me he can easily extract 2500 grafts this time and have around another 2000 - 2500 remaining in the donor for future procedures. I was satisfied with the consultation and decided to book a surgery date. The waiting time was around 7 months but I made it a point to Dr Diep's receptionist to let me know if there was a cancellation. Surgery Date (26 August 2017): My original surgery date was scheduled for 7th October however I was informed that there was a cancellation and since I was already on vacation from work, I decided to confirm the new surgery date. I woke up around 5 am and had a light breakfast. I was asked to arrive at Dr Diep's clinic at 5:30 am. I arrived at the clinic at 5:30 am and the receptionist gave me some paperwork to fill out. Once I was done with the paperwork, I was taken to Dr Diep's office. He reviewed the paperwork and then we started discussing possible hairline designs. He went very aggressive initially with the hairline placement but considering the extent of my hairloss, I tried to convince him to take a very conservative approach. We eventually decided to meet somewhere in the middle, not too aggressive and not too conservative. His reasoning was that the hairline should not be too low so that it draws attention and at the same time it should not be too high again to draw attention. He also mentioned that the frontal area is where all the money is. This convinced me to take the proportional route. After drawing the agreed upon hairline, they gave me some pain meds, anti anflamtory meds, and valium. I was taken into the surgery room and I had 4 nurses and Dr. Diep attending to my procedure. I changed in to my scrubs and sat down in the chair. By this time, the valium was kicking in and I was super drowsy. I don't remember when I was knocked out and fell asleep. I don't exactly remember but I woke up a couple of times for a few seconds during the extraction phase where I could hear Dr Diep and the nurses talking when he was extracting the follicles. I woke up for lunch around 1 pm. To my surprise, Dr Diep told me he was able to extract around 3200 follicles. He said my follicles were extremely easy to extract so he got a lot more than the initially planned 2500 grafts. I was shocked to hear this because the doctor that I had my first FUE surgery said my grafts were difficult to extract as they were very deep. I guess this proved Dr Diep's superior FUE skill set. Dr. Diep then started to design my hairline and slots where the hair follicles were to be inserted. Once the follicles were ready for insertion, I had 2-3 nurses working on inserting. The procedure was done at 5:30 pm and I slept through most of the insertion phase as well. Dr Diep was very professional and he assured me this transplant would change my look. I was very happy to hear that. Below you can see the attached photos right after the procdure and the last one being taken 4 days post op. I will be posting regular updates and If you have any questons or concerns, do not hesistate to ask! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member spyk777 Posted August 30, 2017 Senior Member Share Posted August 30, 2017 Congrats HU. All the best. Clean work. Keep updating, till the finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member mikenguyen Posted August 30, 2017 Regular Member Share Posted August 30, 2017 A fellow Asian and Dr.Diep patient here (2 months post op). Everything looks clean and you should have a great result. You can follow my thread here: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/187394-2215-grafts-dr-diep-23-years-old-turning-24-a.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Melvin- Admin Posted August 31, 2017 Administrators Share Posted August 31, 2017 Congrats on your new procedure, the hairline design looks really good happy growing. I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice. Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey: View my thread Topical dutasteride journey Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog. Follow our Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and YouTube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill - Seemiller Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 Hairlessuser, I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience in photos. Dr. Diep does fantastic work as is evidenced by your photos. Your scalp looks nice and clean and I expect that you'll be very happy with your result in the next year. I encourage you to create a patient website to document your journey by going to http://www.hairlossweblogs.com. There you can share your experience, photos, videos and organize it by month and doctor, etc. You can even link to it in your forum signature. Just click on "your info" and then "edit signature" in the left hand sidebar. Best wishes, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted September 1, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted September 1, 2017 Thanks everyone. Appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted September 3, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted September 3, 2017 Day 8 Update: The healing has been really good. It took me almost 2 hours to get rid of 95% of the scabs in the donor and recipient areas. Very few transplanted hairs fell out during the process. These photos were taken today morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member E39 Posted September 4, 2017 Senior Member Share Posted September 4, 2017 Looks good. I had around the same number of grafts done by Dr Diep as well. I'm sure you'll be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted September 8, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted September 8, 2017 Looks good. I had around the same number of grafts done by Dr Diep as well. I'm sure you'll be happy. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted September 9, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted September 9, 2017 2 weeks post op: These photos were taken approximately 2 weeks post op. I was scab free around 8 days post op and cannot believe how well I have healed. I have been getting a lot of compliments and glares on my hairline from a lot of friends and colleagues. Still waiting for the ugly duckling stage but I see a lot of transplanted hair growing like my normal hair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Gothairr Posted September 10, 2017 Regular Member Share Posted September 10, 2017 Can you detail how you got scabs off so easily/quickly. I know every individual is different however what was your process? I just want to make sure I don't damage the grafts. Today is day 8 for me so I did my first 20 min shower and gently ran fiingers across recipient w not immense pressure and there is still scabbing and crust post shower. Dr Diep said this is ok and it may take a few days and showers to get all scabs off. What was your strategy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted September 10, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted September 10, 2017 Can you detail how you got scabs off so easily/quickly. I know every individual is different however what was your process? I just want to make sure I don't damage the grafts. Today is day 8 for me so I did my first 20 min shower and gently ran fiingers across recipient w not immense pressure and there is still scabbing and crust post shower. Dr Diep said this is ok and it may take a few days and showers to get all scabs off. What was your strategy? It was not easy. But on day 8, I put my head in the water for almost 20 minutes. This helped soften the scabs. It then took me 2 hours to get rid of 95% of the scabs. All I did was gently move my fingers through the transplanted area in circular fashion. This helped loosen the scabs and then I poured a cup of water through the recipient area so some of the scabs came out. I repeated this multiple times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted September 30, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted September 30, 2017 5 weeks post op: Hey guys I have hit the ugly duckling stage 2 weeks back. Here is a photo I took this morning (i.e little over a month). I look absolutely horrible. I have had some shock loss and I would say I have lost around 90% of the transplanted hair. Some hairs that still remain on the scalp appear to have shed but do not seem to be coming off easily when I shower even with aggressive washing. In any case, I am starting to see some pimples since the past few days. I don't know if its a sign of new hairs pushing through. Any feedback is appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member E39 Posted September 30, 2017 Senior Member Share Posted September 30, 2017 Everything looks normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member AllAboutHair Posted October 1, 2017 Senior Member Share Posted October 1, 2017 I had those pimples too, I believe its normal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted October 4, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 4, 2017 Everything looks normal. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted October 4, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 4, 2017 I had those pimples too, I believe its normal I hope so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member mikenguyen Posted October 4, 2017 Regular Member Share Posted October 4, 2017 5 weeks post op: Hey guys I have hit the ugly duckling stage 2 weeks back. Here is a photo I took this morning (i.e little over a month). I look absolutely horrible. I have had some shock loss and I would say I have lost around 90% of the transplanted hair. Some hairs that still remain on the scalp appear to have shed but do not seem to be coming off easily when I shower even with aggressive washing. In any case, I am starting to see some pimples since the past few days. I don't know if its a sign of new hairs pushing through. Any feedback is appreciated! 3 months post-op Dr.Diep patient here. I also got the pimples and they still happen today. They will go away by themselves dont worry. You can see them from my thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted October 8, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 8, 2017 3 months post-op Dr.Diep patient here. I also got the pimples and they still happen today. They will go away by themselves dont worry. You can see them from my thread. Thanks Mike. Yes, I have been following your thread very closely since we have almost similar hair characteristics and got roughly the same density of grafts in the frontal hairline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Hairhope4ever Posted October 9, 2017 Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2017 Congrats buddy! I think your results are going to be fantastic. Please keep us posted going froward. About my hair loss journey: Happy Patient's Blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted November 4, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2017 Hello guys, Just wanted to post a quick update. I lost most of my transplanted hair between 2 and 4 weeks post op. In the last 2-3 weeks I have been getting a lot of pimples in the recipient area. There is nothing much to report but I do see some growth, a small number of hairs poking through the skin. Hopefully the growth really kicks in in the next couple of months. These photos were taken approximately 2 months and 1 week post op. As you can see, there is a little bit of redness but nothing abnormal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member kaledale1 Posted November 4, 2017 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2017 Hey, your results are looking good and it seems we have almost the same exact experience. Had my HT with Dr. Diep two days ago http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/188307-2685-grafts-fue-dr-john-diep-nov-2-2017-a.html I'm wondering if I should move my thread over to this section of the forum as it seems to be getting more traction over here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Markee Posted November 5, 2017 Senior Member Share Posted November 5, 2017 Does Dr Diep require you to shave your head for fue ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member HairlessUser Posted November 7, 2017 Author Regular Member Share Posted November 7, 2017 Does Dr Diep require you to shave your head for fue ? I am not sure about the recipient area but yes definitely the donor area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member BlessUp Posted November 7, 2017 Senior Member Share Posted November 7, 2017 I had to shave my head for both recipient and donor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now