Redness 7.5 months after FUE transplant

[Gavin137]

Hello gentlemen,

As a long time lurker on this forum, let me start by thanking all the regular moderators and posters. This site in an invaluable resource for hair loss sufferers and ultimately, it was information I received on this forum that enabled me to pick up the courage to address my MPB.

Anyway, a little background. I am 32 years old and began losing my hair around 10 years ago. Finasteride proved a godsend and I’ve experienced no further loss for the last eight years. While I was of course happy with this, I wanted to get back my hairline - a goal I largely managed to achieve through SMP. Again, this worked well however it had its own obvious limitations and so, having seen numerous, very successful examples of SMP being combined with FUE, I decided to take the plunge. 

That, as the subject line suggests, was 7.5 months ago and while growth has been good, I’m having a bit of trouble assessing the how truly realistic the outcome is due to the fairly significant redness that remains (actually, it has rather a purplish tinge which I attribute to the ink already there). I have scanned some threads by others unfortunate enough to experience this long term redness however the solutions suggested in those were often Fraxel lasers or the like and, given the fact I have SMP, that isn’t really a viable.

Essentially, I would be extremely grateful if anyone could provide either:

1. Any suggestions how I might reduce the redness or,

2. An upper limit estimation as to how long I May need to wait before the discolouration fades (Unlike hair regrowth which can be more appreciable, it’s very difficult to keep track of whether or not the redness is reducing from day to day and while I’m happy to wait for improvement, it’d be nice to have some confidence that it wasn’t permanent).

Thanks for reading and for any suggestions you might have.

Gav

[kirkland]

Did you experience redness from the SMP itself or only after having the FUE? I had SMP done in 2015 and it damaged my skin. After having lasered it off in 2018, I still have a distinctive red 'blush' that is in the exact shape of the tattooed area. I am wondering if the FUE procedure caused too much trauma on top of the SMP, leading to broken capillaries. Can you share non-identifying pics?