3051 Grafts FUE - 17 Dec 2018 - ASMED Dr. Koray Erdogan

[LordBaldwin]

4 Months (minus 4 days):

Since I'll be traveling for a week starting on the day that would be exactly 4 months (this coming Wednesday), I thought I'd give an early preview of my (almost) 4 month results.  For the purposes of precision, this is day 117.

While the very front of the hairline is still a bit thin, I'm not even quite at 4 months yet, and things appear to be going very well; even over the two week period since my last update, there has been significant and noticeable improvement.  The clock on my hair loss now looks like it has been turned back about 5 years, and I feel genuinely optimistic that I'm on track for a good to great result.  

On the micro level, I still see many new hairs popping up (as well as many fine, unpigmented hairs that have yet to mature) and density is beginning to look reasonably good, even in harsher lighting.

Once again, I've included pictures in different lighting conditions and from different angles, as well as some of the microscopic images I alluded to above.

Microscopic Images:

Edited April 14, 2019 by LordBaldwin

[LordBaldwin]

4 Months (Officially)

Here are my photos from exactly 4 months.

[VicTNYC]

Looks good for 4 months but still many more months ahead.

[LordBaldwin]

2 hours ago, VicTNYC said:

Looks good for 4 months but still many more months ahead.

Yeah, I've been told by the clinic that the biggest changes usually occur around the 6 month mark (though the real "explosion" seems, from the posts I've seen on here, to start around month 5). 

[LordBaldwin]

I've made a couple of time lapses showing my progress over the past 4.5 months.  Note that I do skip some days here and there. 

[LordBaldwin]

Month 4.5

Here are photos from my 4.5 month mark, from different angles and in different lighting conditions (as usual).

[LordBaldwin]

Month 5

At this point, my hair looks good in soft/low lighting conditions.  In direct light, it still looks a bit thin in front, but I know I have a lot of time left for improvement.  Once again, I have attached pictures from a variety of angles and in different types of lighting.  I've also included micro images that show that there's still quite a lot of hair that has yet to mature (i.e., lots of wispy, fine hair growing).  I take this as a good sign, as I think I've mentioned before, given the fact that this indicates that the grafts survived and there's a lot of improvement likely to come just from maturation.

 

Micro Images:

[Melvin- Admin]

@LordBaldwin

You are truly doing a fantastic job of documenting your journey. In fact, one of the best I’ve seen. A true representation of your results in different lighting and environments. 

Please consider creating a patient website, it’s free and I think it would help a lot of guys who look on our parent website to make a decision. 

https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/blog/

[LordBaldwin]

19 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

@LordBaldwin

You are truly doing a fantastic job of documenting your journey. In fact, one of the best I’ve seen. A true representation of your results in different lighting and environments. 

Please consider creating a patient website, it’s free and I think it would help a lot of guys who look on our parent website to make a decision. 

https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/blog/

Thanks, Melvin.  I'll look into setting up a page on the blog in the near future.

Edited May 17, 2019 by LordBaldwin

[LordBaldwin]

Month 5.5

There's been some improvement since my last update and I continue to see sprouts/maturation.  The hair still looks a bit weak in direct natural light (like sunlight), but hopefully that'll improve in the coming months.

Interestingly, improvement seems to come in brief, but intense, bursts.  Things will be flat for like 1-2 weeks, with no significant changes, then suddenly the hair looks noticeably better, seemingly overnight (I'll literally wake up in the morning and look better than I did the night before).

Edited June 5, 2019 by LordBaldwin

[LordBaldwin]

6 Months

Things have developed a bit more at and around the hairline.  However, there's an area of what seems to be lackluster growth behind the hairline, in the forelock area, which I'm a bit underwhelmed by, as I haven't noticed any significant changes there over the last month or so.  Hopefully it will thicken over the coming months. 

I've actually noticed that changes seem to happen in quick bursts in the beginning of the month, and then the hair stays pretty much the same for the rest of the month (like a step function).  You may notice this as well by comparing my whole month posts against subsequent half month posts (e.g., 5 and 5.5 months), which show a noticeable change, and between the half month post and the subsequent whole month post (e.g., 5.5 and 6 months), which shows almost no change.

Also, please note that these images were taken the day after a haircut, so there isn't much layering going on.

[LordBaldwin]

6 Months (Continued)

Also, since I'm at 6 months and should theoretically be about halfway through my growth, I've included shots with a better camera from the various angles, with and without flash.

Without flash (the darkness softens the images considerably): 

 

With flash:

[CosmoKramer]

Progress looks good and your donor area looks really good.

I too, also noticed that at the beginning of of the month (every few months) I felt and saw new hairs had sprouted and then just growth of those the rest of the months.

 

[LordBaldwin]

On 6/16/2019 at 5:15 PM, CosmoKramer said:

Progress looks good and your donor area looks really good.

I too, also noticed that at the beginning of of the month (every few months) I felt and saw new hairs had sprouted and then just growth of those the rest of the months.

 

Thanks, man.  I appreciate the feedback.

[LordBaldwin]

6.5 Months

There have been slight improvements since my last update (I think).  I contacted the clinic regarding my concern about the thinner area behind the hairline and was told that most of my transplanted hair has popped, but it is normal for people who do not take finasteride to see delayed thickening (and that it will happen in the coming months).  My microscopic images lend credence to this explanation, as there still appear to be many immature hairs.

 

 

Microscopic Images:

[CosmoKramer]

Looks like some improvement and donor looks good. I’m not so sure I agree with the rely you got back from the clinic that all your grafts have “popped” out at 6.5 months, I saw some new sprouted grafts even in months 7-9 and some in my hairline at month 10, and the info graphs on HT timelines that I’ve seen show 30-40% possibly more new growth.

[LordBaldwin]

3 hours ago, CosmoKramer said:

Looks like some improvement and donor looks good. I’m not so sure I agree with the rely you got back from the clinic that all your grafts have “popped” out at 6.5 months, I saw some new sprouted grafts even in months 7-9 and some in my hairline at month 10, and the info graphs on HT timelines that I’ve seen show 30-40% possibly more new growth.

Yeah, they didn't say all of the hairs have popped; they said "the majority" have.

[CosmoKramer]

5 minutes ago, LordBaldwin said:

Yeah, they didn't say all of the hairs have popped; they said "the majority" have.

Oh I see.

If you’re not doing so, I do recommend using organic virgin coconut oil or pure 100% emu oil as a nightly scalp massage , i alternated between both from after my 1st month post up even up until now but just a couple or a few nights now and I really feel it helped me.

[LordBaldwin]

2 hours ago, CosmoKramer said:

Oh I see.

If you’re not doing so, I do recommend using organic virgin coconut oil or pure 100% emu oil as a nightly scalp massage , i alternated between both from after my 1st month post up even up until now but just a couple or a few nights now and I really feel it helped me.

Hmm, interesting.  Why do you think those oils helped?  Like, what's the mechanism of action?

[CosmoKramer]

7 hours ago, LordBaldwin said:

Hmm, interesting.  Why do you think those oils helped?  Like, what's the mechanism of action?

I believe it’s from the natural acids and nutrients in the oils that help give follicles some nutrition to gain strength and grow. 

There was a study long ago how pure Emu oil helped with hair loss/growth down to the follicle root level and if I’m correct it’s the only oil that’s able to penetrate to deeper layers of the skin, I use it also for cuts or burns/sun burns and it has healed my skin faster, the Aboriginal in Australia have used it for hundreds of years or more and I’ve never seen a bald Aboriginal haha.

Edit: i also theorize that using a good clean pure Coconut/Emu/Jojoba oil a few nights a week in scalp massages helps prevent the newly implanted grafts from being suffocated by sebum, since the new growing follicles need to gain strength from the newly created nerves that the body producing too much sebum due to graft/follicle/scalp dryness, could be detrimental in those early stages of growth and having clogged suffocated grafts which has been shown to block growth and that utilizing oils that penetrate deep enough tells the body not to produce as much sebum as there is oil there already (not really “inhibiting” sebum but competing with), also, that these oils viscosity don’t get to the point of hardening as sebum tends to, also sebum can harbor DHT that at such an early stage could also be detrimental even if the grafts are “genetically” resistant. But this is just my Bro-scientific theory.

Edited July 1, 2019 by CosmoKramer

[LordBaldwin]

5 hours ago, CosmoKramer said:

I believe it’s from the natural acids and nutrients in the oils that help give follicles some nutrition to gain strength and grow. 

There was a study long ago how pure Emu oil helped with hair loss/growth down to the follicle root level and if I’m correct it’s the only oil that’s able to penetrate to deeper layers of the skin, I use it also for cuts or burns/sun burns and it has healed my skin faster, the Aboriginal in Australia have used it for hundreds of years or more and I’ve never seen a bald Aboriginal haha.

Edit: i also theorize that using a good clean pure Coconut/Emu/Jojoba oil a few nights a week in scalp massages helps prevent the newly implanted grafts from being suffocated by sebum, since the new growing follicles need to gain strength from the newly created nerves that the body producing too much sebum due to graft/follicle/scalp dryness, could be detrimental in those early stages of growth and having clogged suffocated grafts which has been shown to block growth and that utilizing oils that penetrate deep enough tells the body not to produce as much sebum as there is oil there already (not really “inhibiting” sebum but competing with), also, that these oils viscosity don’t get to the point of hardening as sebum tends to, also sebum can harbor DHT that at such an early stage could also be detrimental even if the grafts are “genetically” resistant. But this is just my Bro-scientific theory.

Hmm, so I can't find any studies or evidence to back up the claim that these oils improve hair growth...but there is some evidence that they're healthy/good for the skin overall and could reduce inflammation (which maybe indirectly helps hair)?  Idk...might be worth a shot, anyway.  Unless it's super expensive, there isn't much of a downside to trying, I guess.

[CosmoKramer]

39 minutes ago, LordBaldwin said:

Hmm, so I can't find any studies or evidence to back up the claim that these oils improve hair growth...but there is some evidence that they're healthy/good for the skin overall and could reduce inflammation (which maybe indirectly helps hair)?  Idk...might be worth a shot, anyway.  Unless it's super expensive, there isn't much of a downside to trying, I guess.

Here are some links you might want to check out if you haven’t already:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4812284/

 

https://www.hairguard.com/sebum-buildup/

 

https://www.hairguard.com/amazing-benefits-of-emu-oil-for-hair-growth/

[Melvin- Admin]

It looks good, there is still plenty of time, despite what all the hyper OCD/anxiety ridden posters have stated recently. I really think that you will be happy by 12 months. You're half-way there and already vastly improved.

[LordBaldwin]

7 hours ago, CosmoKramer said:

Here are some links you might want to check out if you haven’t already:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4812284/

 

https://www.hairguard.com/sebum-buildup/

 

https://www.hairguard.com/amazing-benefits-of-emu-oil-for-hair-growth/

Thanks.  I'll take a look at these.

[LordBaldwin]

6 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

It looks good, there is still plenty of time, despite what all the hyper OCD/anxiety ridden posters have stated recently. I really think that you will be happy by 12 months. You're half-way there and already vastly improved.

Thanks, Melvin.  Honestly, I'm not too concerned, and here's why:

- I never expected perfection.  My goal was to restore my hair to the way it was about 5 years ago, and I think that goal already has been more or less achieved.  At this stage, baldness isn't evident and doesn't really detract from my looks (I've already gotten a lot of complimemts and feel significant relief when I see myself in the mirror).  Additional improvement is icing on the cake.

- I feel like it actually looks better in the mirror than in photos (even though most people usually say the opposite).  Maybe it's because the cameras (especially phone cameras) I've used are particularly sensitive to contrast between light and dark?  The higher quality camera images seemed to look better (i.e., hair looks thicker).

- I agree that more improvement is likely.  According to the math I've done, I should be about 50% complete in terms of coverage improvement.  I still see a lot of fine white hairs under the microscope that could thicken over time.  Also, the idea that there's a lot of potential improvement to come is consistent with what the clinic told me (specifically, that the fine white hairs are transplanted hairs that have yet to thicken and that I'll likely be happy with things when all is said and done).  I'm pretty sure, at this point, that I'm not a fast grower, and I'm ok with that (assuming that my result isn't complete).