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My hair looks worse after my second transplant? (Photos)


JustADude44

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Hi everyone,

Hoping to get some opinions on here. Here's my story:

I am currently 25 years old. I have been taking 1.25mg of Finasteride every day since July of 2017, and continue to take it.

I had my first transplant (FUT) in September of 2017 with a reputable doctor in North America. This first transplant only covered the front half of my head (not the crown). It was apparently 2,900 grafts. This first transplant was fairly successful.

A couple weeks after this first transplant, I started using Rogaine twice a day to my entire top of the scalp, and continued to use it for 1 year. After 1 year, I decided to stop using Rogaine, since I didn't notice any improvements in my crown which I had thought it was meant to help with, and I thought I could save some money. I have also noticed (both when I used Rogaine and now that I don't) that I continue to find 15-20 hairs in my hand in the shower some days (both thick and and thin hairs). 

I had my second FUT transplant in October of 2018 with the same doctor. It was apparently about 2,850 grafts. Around 70% of those grafts were placed in my crown area this time (for the first time), and the other 30% was placed in the frontal area (for the second time).

Now that we're in February of 2019, it's been just about 5 months since my second transplant. I still am not noticing any improvements in my crown, or in the front. In fact, it seems that my crown in particular still looks worse than it did before the first transplant took place. I'd assume that most of the hairs have at least sprouted out by now. I feel like even my front still looks worse. I'd imagine that any shock loss that occurred would've grown back by now.

I have considered that part of this issue could be from me stopping the use of Rogaine before my second transplant. But I have been on Finasteride for a year and a half, and honestly, I would've imagined that the results would've been better by now. I have spoken to my doctor, and he continues to tell me that it's still very early and I should be patient. I personally think that there's something odd going on here. My first transplant grew out so much faster (mind you, I did use Rogaine for that one).

Anyway, I have uploaded some photos of my hair with dates listed in the link below. They are in chronological order from 2017 - 2019, and I have included captions in the photos. I'd really like to get some of your thoughts:
https://imgur.com/a/4lUCLEg

Thanks so much, everyone!
 

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  • Senior Member

I don't know for sure but in my honest, and educated judgement from looking at endless results your second procedure post-op looks like it has only a few hundred grafts. If 70% of that 2850 went in the crown,  I am 99.999% sure you did not get 2000 grafts there, almost certainly under 1000. Also strongly suspect you lost a lot more hair after dropping Rogaine.

As I said I think its virtually undeniable you weren't given as many grafts as you're told unless the photo is somehow completely missing everything (admittedly the pics aren't great) and after dropping Rogaine you have lost more hair than the second procedure could have ever given you with whatever small amount of grafts you got in reality. 

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I think your native hair just continued to succumb to further hair loss progression since you did have some native hair in the areas you state and the loss of hairs that grew from minoxidil use...in my opinion.

As for whether you didn’t receive the quoted amount of grafts or if they a certain number only survived is a possibility, but to me looks like you continued balding.

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A few things here;

i personally don’t see a reason from such a blurry picture to say that the wrong number of grafts were placed in the crown. Although maybe if you shared the name of your doctor we could help see if he has a history of lying about this. But as things stand I don’t see why we would doubt it

I am 4 months post my second hair transplant myself and I can tell you I have noticed it is growing slower than the first. 

I have always heard that the crown grows slower than the front so at 5 months you need to be patient man.

The only thing that worries me in your case at this point is the fact that you stopped using rogain. 

You should have your doctor examine you in person, he will easily be able to determine if you should be worried

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Thanks everyone for your replies,

So I stopped Rogaine a couple weeks before my second transplant, which took place in early October. So it's been just over 5 months since I stopped Rogaine. If I start Rogaine up again now, do you think that I can regain the hairs that I lost from stopping it? Or do you think that those hairs are dead and gone now?

I honestly didn't think that the Rogaine was doing anything for me, since I didn't notice any visual improvements in the year that I was taking it. I also continued noticing a concerning amount of hair in my hands in the shower while I was on Rogaine (I don't know what the normal number of hairs to lose in the shower is). But I suppose that from looking at my photos, the Rogaine was maybe helping the hairs that were already there continue to survive. It's strange that the Rogaine could have been so effective though, when Finasteride is apparently a stronger option for hair loss and I've been on it ever since.

I'm getting all these possibly irrational worries now, like... What if the bandage they wrapped around the recipient area for 1 day after the second transplant actually harmed the grafts... Or what if the technicians who put the grafts in didn't do a great job. I'm a bit of a worrywart.

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  • Regular Member

HI

CROWN AREA TAKES ALOT LONGER THEN FRONT AREA, IN MY CASE 

THE FINAL RESULT WAS THERE AFTER 2 YEARS ( BE PATIENT )

YOU'R TAKING FINASTERIDE, YOU DONT NEED TO TAKE ROGAIN ( WAST OFF MONEY )

JUST RELAX DONT LOOK EVERY DAY IN THE MIRROW , IF YOU WENT TO A GOOD DOCTER

THE RESULT WIL BE THERE AFTER SOME TIME ( AL DEPENDS ON YOUR DOCTER SKILLS )

POST OP PICTURES DONT LOOK LIKE 2000 GRAFTS TO ME, MORE LIKE 500

DITH YOU SAW THE GRAFTS ( COUNTING ) BEFORE THE INPLANTS?

 

 

Edited by jim009
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1 hour ago, jim009 said:

HI

CROWN AREA TAKES ALOT LONGER THEN FRONT AREA, IN MY CASE 

THE FINAL RESULT WAS THERE AFTER 2 YEARS ( BE PATIENT )

YOU'R TAKING FINASTERIDE, YOU DONT NEED TO TAKE ROGAIN ( WAST OFF MONEY )

JUST RELAX DONT LOOK EVERY DAY IN THE MIRROW , IF YOU WENT TO A GOOD DOCTER

THE RESULT WIL BE THERE AFTER SOME TIME ( AL DEPENDS ON YOUR DOCTER SKILLS )

POST OP PICTURES DONT LOOK LIKE 2000 GRAFTS TO ME, MORE LIKE 500

DITH YOU SAW THE GRAFTS ( COUNTING ) BEFORE THE INPLANTS?

 

 

I did not see the grafts before they were implanted. But the doctor did wash my scalp before I took that post-op photo, I it could be that you can't really see all the grafts there?

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9 hours ago, Upshall said:

A few things here;

i personally don’t see a reason from such a blurry picture to say that the wrong number of grafts were placed in the crown. Although maybe if you shared the name of your doctor we could help see if he has a history of lying about this. But as things stand I don’t see why we would doubt it

I am 4 months post my second hair transplant myself and I can tell you I have noticed it is growing slower than the first. 

I have always heard that the crown grows slower than the front so at 5 months you need to be patient man.

The only thing that worries me in your case at this point is the fact that you stopped using rogain. 

You should have your doctor examine you in person, he will easily be able to determine if you should be worried

 

For anyone that is crazy enough to believe that there are 2000 grafts here, I have a bridge to sell you. Good photo quality or otherwise, OP clearly did not get the number of grafts he thinks he did. No amount of trying to explain through other means will get around this.

 

hpXtBq2.jpg

Edited by JayLDD
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1 hour ago, JayLDD said:

 

For anyone that is crazy enough to believe that there are 2000 grafts here, I have a bridge to sell you. Good photo quality or otherwise, OP clearly did not get the number of grafts he thinks he did. No amount of trying to explain through other means will get around this.

 

hpXtBq2.jpg

The day after the transplant, when I went in to have the doctor remove the bandage and wash my scalp, he did clean some of the scabs off. Could that have made some of the grafts seem less visible in this photo?

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39 minutes ago, JustADude44 said:

The day after the transplant, when I went in to have the doctor remove the bandage and wash my scalp, he did clean some of the scabs off. Could that have made some of the grafts seem less visible in this photo?

Scabs will almost certainly not be coming off on the second day, even if you went in for a wash, cleaning etc. Again there is a possibility that the photos are somehow so bad I am not seeing what is going on, but even in terms of refinement and the size of the scabs, bloodied areas etc the work to me does not appear of a high standard, I doubt I'm missing any visibility of entire grafts somehow. Also for getting 2000 grafts in the crown, it would be idiotic not to shave the recipient area and the only reason I can think of why they didn't is to make it easier to get away with charging you for more grafts than were placed.

What makes me suspect this moreso is the fact that if I compare these two photos from two month post-first op to final result of the first op, again it looks like you have had substantially less than 2900 grafts yielded. Perhaps around 500-1000 maximum. For example if I showed 99% of the posters here these two photos on a fake account and told them that this was pre-op first procedure, and the second photo the first day of my first op, they would 100% believe it without a second thought.

Again I'm not guaranteeing anything, but from these (bad) photos I feel very confident of what I'm saying. I would absolutely take what I'm saying into serious consideration. Did the doctor take high quality before and after photos with high resolution and detail visible?  You need to find them and take a look.

 

 

 

 

wB4PzlT.jpg

 

hpXtBq2.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 2/27/2019 at 7:29 PM, JayLDD said:

Scabs will almost certainly not be coming off on the second day, even if you went in for a wash, cleaning etc. Again there is a possibility that the photos are somehow so bad I am not seeing what is going on, but even in terms of refinement and the size of the scabs, bloodied areas etc the work to me does not appear of a high standard, I doubt I'm missing any visibility of entire grafts somehow. Also for getting 2000 grafts in the crown, it would be idiotic not to shave the recipient area and the only reason I can think of why they didn't is to make it easier to get away with charging you for more grafts than were placed.

What makes me suspect this moreso is the fact that if I compare these two photos from two month post-first op to final result of the first op, again it looks like you have had substantially less than 2900 grafts yielded. Perhaps around 500-1000 maximum. For example if I showed 99% of the posters here these two photos on a fake account and told them that this was pre-op first procedure, and the second photo the first day of my first op, they would 100% believe it without a second thought.

Again I'm not guaranteeing anything, but from these (bad) photos I feel very confident of what I'm saying. I would absolutely take what I'm saying into serious consideration. Did the doctor take high quality before and after photos with high resolution and detail visible?  You need to find them and take a look.

 

I mean, this photo is from 2 months before my second procedure, and it looks in much better shape than the photo of the day after my second procedure. I'm assuming that this attached photo would be a better reference of the results of my first transplant, since it's not right after surgery.

 

Edited by JustADude44
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3 minutes ago, JustADude44 said:

 

I mean, this photo is from 2 months before my second procedure, and it looks in much better shape than the photo of the day after my second procedure. I'm assuming that this attached photo would be a better reference of the results of my first transplant, since it's not right after surgery.

 

 

SeCaAFG.jpg

No, because the length is completely different. The two photos I used are similar in lengths and lighting and the second more recent, therefore more accurate for referencing, also it wouldn't make a difference that its right after surgery. The one above is not directly below the harsher lighting shining directly on it and your hair looks much longer.

 

But I really think you need to look at the professional quality post/preops that the clinic took, and if there are none that would be a serious red flag.

 

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1 hour ago, JayLDD said:

No, because the length is completely different. The two photos I used are similar in lengths and lighting and the second more recent, therefore more accurate for referencing, also it wouldn't make a difference that its right after surgery. The one above is not directly below the harsher lighting shining directly on it and your hair looks much longer.

 

But I really think you need to look at the professional quality post/preops that the clinic took, and if there are none that would be a serious red flag.

 

I'll definitely do that, thanks!

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  • Moderators

You've had some shock loss and it is less than 5 months after the procedure. You are going to have to wait a few more months to determine whether it's a failure or not.

Al

Forum Moderator

(formerly BeHappy)

I am a forum moderator for hairrestorationnetwork.com. I am not a Dr. and I do not work for any particular Dr. My opinions are my own and may not reflect the opinions of other moderators or the owner of this site. I am also a hair transplant patient and repair patient. You can view some of my repair journey here.

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When I got off rogain for a few months I had a major thinning out. So that along with shock loss prolly not helping the situation. I got back on rogain and seen improvement again so u can hop back on.

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