Have I been over harvested?

[Mr Sinister]

I’m 5 weeks post surgery. I had a 3500 fue in Turkey. I’m a little concerned I’ve been over harvested. 

Take a look at the attached 4 and 5 week pics of my donor area. Does this look normal? Is it shock loss? Most pics I’ve seen of donor areas after 5 weeks seem a lot more recovered and less red.

any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[hairlossPA]

i’m afraid it looks like it is over harvested. do you have pics of your donor area pre-op?

[ITA]

unfortunately, it seems to me that they have pressed more than they should have, wait for another month and a half - two, you will also have had a bit of shock loss, but I have the impression that the withdrawals are too many and made even in malo  way.

[Melvin- Admin]

It is too early to tell. At 5 weeks, you're likely suffering from shock loss. You have to give it time, no one can say for sure. I have seen much worse improve a lot after a few months.

[Sean]

If that is 3500 fue then it is possible they made more attempts To get grafts that look healthy to them.  I do not like that extraction compressed pattern as i faced similar krap.  All you can do is wait and 8 months will clarify your situation to see if you have hair that grows back.   Key thing is when it grows back, it doesnt look like a faded rectangle at the end.  Mine apparently didnt heal and i ended up with density drops and halos aside from other bs.  I hope it works out for you but its too early to tell how it will look.  Best of luck

[Pete-from-Farjo]

Doesn't look good but it's still early days and it could well recover. All you can do is be patient and hopefully the next month or so things will improve.

[Mr Sinister]

Thanks for the feedback. As I suspected 😡

I’ve sent pics to the clinic and they’ve said it’s shock loss - obviously they will! And I’m sure they’ll just keep telling me to wait a few more months for it to grow back, rather than own up to their mistake. I’ve attached a pic of my donor pre surgery.

Fingers crossed the recipient area grows through 🙏🏾

[Al - Moderator]

On 11/20/2019 at 2:10 PM, Mr Sinister said:

’ve sent pics to the clinic and they’ve said it’s shock loss - obviously they will! And I’m sure they’ll just keep telling me to wait a few more months for it to grow back, rather than own up to their mistake. I’ve attached a pic of my donor pre surgery.

 

They gave you the correct answer. You need to wait at least several months as it could be a lot of shock loss. That's the same answer you will get here. If after 9 months it still doesn't look very good then you can complain that it is their mistake. I think there are too many people who don't want to realize that FUE by definition thins out the donor area. They are taking follicles out of that area, so of course you will have less there and it may look thinner. You can either do FUT which takes grafts from a concentrated linear area and then sewn or stapled back together to reduce the visibilty of the area removed or you con do FUE which takes grafts from a much wider area, but can do nothing to reduce the visibilty of the area that was extracted other than to spread the area of extraction out to a larger area. FUE is going to leave you with a thinner donor area whether you notice it or not.

 

Edited November 23, 2019 by BeHappy

[Mr Sinister]

On 11/23/2019 at 3:05 AM, BeHappy said:

 

They gave you the correct answer. You need to wait at least several months as it could be a lot of shock loss. That's the same answer you will get here. If after 9 months it still doesn't look very good then you can complain that it is their mistake. I think there are too many people who don't want to realize that FUE by definition thins out the donor area. They are taking follicles out of that area, so of course you will have less there and it may look thinner. You can either do FUT which takes grafts from a concentrated linear area and then sewn or stapled back together to reduce the visibilty of the area removed or you con do FUE which takes grafts from a much wider area, but can do nothing to reduce the visibilty of the area that was extracted other than to spread the area of extraction out to a larger area. FUE is going to leave you with a thinner donor area whether you notice it or not.

 

Thanks for your thoughts. Yea I guess I just have to be patient and wait now.

I’ve managed to dig out a picture of my donor area which was only a few days post surgery. Does anyone with experience have thoughts on the extraction? I appreciate it’s difficult to see because of the redness. But it looks like a lot of hairs have been extracted close together rather than having an even pattern. I’ve highlighted a red rectangle which appears to have have a lot of holes close together. That strip seems to coincide with the lack of hair I currently have above my neck.

there also seems to be red blobs/chunks. Not sure what that is?

[Al - Moderator]

In the second picture it looks like there are a number of tiny hairs growing, so let's see how much improvement you get in the next few weeks.

 

[Future Hair Doc]

Looks like shock loss to me. I wouldn't worry until about 6-9 months post procedure

[Mr Sinister]

Hello All, it’s now been exactly 1 year since my transplant and here are some pics of my donor area. Despite some people on this post thinking it was shockloss, I think it’s fair to say I have clearly been over harvested as there are still 3 notable areas where the hair has barely grown back. Behind ears on either side and low neck area.

Bare in mind, I’m having to keep my hair fairly long on the sides. I would ideally love to have a zero fade or go down to a 1, but I have to keep my hair at a 4 or higher to avoid it looking too bad.

Extremely frustrating as the clinic area still in denial and won’t own up to the fact that they have unqualified technicians working for them😡

Please all avoid cosmedica and dr acar in Turkey 

[ITA]

@Mr SinisterI'm sorry that it was likely over haversting, I wrote it to you on November 19th, I already realized the problem, but don't worry, you could fix it with an smp, but at least, in the receiver you had a  regrowth as you wished?

[MagnificentAl]

Wow, maybe after a year and a half it will get better?

Edited October 10, 2020 by MagnificentAl

[Louisjams]

Hey man sorry you are dealing with this. A few thoughts:

1) I agree with you that you got overharvested. 

2) IMHO, it really does not look that bad compared to a lot of similar cases. From the back it is not really cosmetically significant to my eyes (i.e. yes you can see that you were overharvested, but most uninitiated people on the street would NEVER know it).

3) Your surrounding hair is dark and coarse, which helps you a lot. If you either grew your hair out a bit, used fibers, had SMP,  or some combination thereof you could probably get good camouflage to this area.  

4) Even if you did nothing, many people would not even notice. 

 

[aaron1234]

I've seen worse out of Turkey.  Did the grafts grow at least?

[Mr Sinister]

I’ve already started the smp process. Had one session so far. Pics below. If you zoom in you can just about make out the pigments. I think I’ll need a few sessions to get any decent density. 
 

the new grafts on my hairline have grown, quite dense. But very wire like and at slightly odd angles. And a few double grafts along the hairline which doesn’t look great. Grafts on my scalp didn’t grow at all. 1 year on and I just have dead stubble on my crown area.

All signs of an amateur job, which I’m aware of now, but I didn’t do the required research beforehand 🤦🏾‍♂️
 

 

Edited October 14, 2020 by Mr Sinister