06/08/20 Dr. Vories 1500 grafts FUE HT

[brokennative]

I decided to share my experience hoping it will help others to make better decisions.

I'm 27 and I've been experiencing hairloss for about 5/6 years mostly in the frontal hairline. I have been using Rogaine minoxodil for about 2.5 years and have seen really good results with it. However, I started noticing serious change in the hairline last december and have been thinking about doing HT.  I did not want to travel outside of the US since I read mixed reviews of peoples experiences and did not want to become just another case. Since the lockdown started I thought this is the best time to pull the trigger. I went with Dr. Vories of Caroline Hair Surgery. He does the whole process himself and read only good things about him. 

We started the surgery around 9:30am due to me being late for 20 minutes (Stayed in downtown hotel which was a mistake) and we took 15 min break every 45 minutes. Surgery finished around 3:30 and I went back to hotel. It was mostly painless and smooth experience. I was prescribed pain medicine and sleeping pill. When I got back to hotel and looked at the donor area it did not look what I expected. I expected evenly distributed dots. Recipient area looked exactly how I expected. I decided to wait it to heal and the have a closer look after few days. 

After waiting for few days I still saw patches of hairs removed and did not look good (I am on day 6 PO and still the same). I emailed the Dr with my concerns but it was suggested that there has been some shedding of donor hair and it will improve over time. Can hair shed right after the surgery? I read some conflicting other Dr's opinions and if hair sheds, it usually happens after at least two weeks. I might be wrong (I hope I am) but in my opinion it was overharvested especially (right side of head) and not evenly spread out (goodbye short haircuts). I thought it was all about punch size but it seems like density and location of harvested grafts plays a huge role too. If you take bunch of grafts from one area and not take anything around it, it looks overharvested. Like, I said I hope Dr is right and it will come back in few month but I highly doubt from what I have read and seen. 

Recipient area looks like on track and I like the hairline he designed. So there is a good news. There are some blood clots  in recipient area but I assume it will disappear in few days. 

Overall I'm having a mixed feelings right now. Obviously, I need to be more patient but I just wanted to share how I feel and hopefully will have some positive posts next time. 

Cheers!

 

(Day of surgery and 6 days post surgery images)

[hairlosscpa]

This all looks normal to me!

[brokennative]

Can experienced forum members chime in? Is this poor management of donor hair or hair shedding after surgery? I can't figure out what is wrong. But looks terrible.  I'd really appreciate your honest opinion. I still have mixed feelings how it was done. I am posting expectation vs reality of donor area after FUE to compare. Both are one week after surgery. Is this donor area permanently damaged? Mine looks like has been depleted. 

Edited June 17, 2020 by brokennative

[brokennative]

On 6/15/2020 at 5:34 AM, hairlosscpa said:

This all looks normal to me!

Maybe I am expecting more but as you can see from the example something is off. 

[giegnosiganoe]

I don't have first hand experience, but this does not look normal to me. The day of procedure pics show the same pattern, so I wouldn't think native hair shedding has anything to do with it. Also looks like the extractions were restricted to the occipital zone? And there's a vertical line down the middle of the occipital zone where no grafts were taken?

Did you ask Dr Vories and if so what did he say?

Edited June 17, 2020 by giegnosiganoe

[Tbcruz]

Seems like the way he extracted your grafts wasn’t spread out instead it looks like it was acouple grafts in groupings from different areas.

the redness in the area is making it look worse. Regardless there’s nothing you can do now but wait. I’m sure once the redness is gone it will look a lot better.

[brokennative]

9 minutes ago, giegnosiganoe said:

I don't have first hand experience, but this does not look normal to me. The day of procedure pics show the same pattern, so I wouldn't think native hair shedding has anything to do with it. Also looks like the extractions were restricted to the occipital zone? And there's a vertical line down the middle of the occipital zone where no grafts were taken?

Did you ask Dr Vories and if so what did he say?

I did send the 3 day photos but he said this looks like hair shedding and suggested this is temporary!?. I had the exact same question, pattern seems to follow the day of the surgery and hair shed the same day as surgery? but since it was a email and I had many questions I did not get answer for that specific question. I have two week follow up session coming up where I can ask this question along with why he choose to follow this odd pattern of harvesting. Thank god I did not go with 2000 grafts he suggested. I avoided Turkey to not to get butchered but here I am potentially butchered by recommended surgeon. I hope I am wrong and eat my words later.  

[brokennative]

3 minutes ago, Tbcruz said:

Seems like the way he extracted your grafts wasn’t spread out instead it looks like it was acouple grafts in groupings from different areas.

the redness in the area is making it look worse. Regardless there’s nothing you can do now but wait. I’m sure once the redness is gone it will look a lot better.

I am not sure why he choose to do that way. It looks terrible for only 1500 grafts. I can't do anything with it but I can share my experience and hopefully we can hold Dr's to higher standards. I went with Dr Vories because of his experience and recommendations from the forum. I am little disappointed in myself for not doing even more research before pulling the plunge. 

[Tbcruz]

7 minutes ago, brokennative said:

I am not sure why he choose to do that way. It looks terrible for only 1500 grafts. I can't do anything with it but I can share my experience and hopefully we can hold Dr's to higher standards. I went with Dr Vories because of his experience and recommendations from the forum. I am little disappointed in myself for not doing even more research before pulling the plunge. 

Don’t be bummed out. I think you deff went to good doctor, just have to wait it out. I really believe once the redness Subsides you will be happy. 

[giegnosiganoe]

This is unfortunate, I feel for you. The 4th pic from the original post is quite telling. The pattern looks to be very strange.

Document the recovery with lots of photos. Something clearly went wrong based on the post-op alone and we deserve answers.

Keep your head up. You're still in the early stages of recovery and things should get a lot better.

[hairlosscpa]

Yes I really think you're fine. Scroll through the pics in my link and you'll see I went through something similar but the end results turned out just fine. Hang in there! If the pattern is visible like that after 3 - 5 months then I would be concerned. 

[brokennative]

@hairlosscpa Yes, I just saw your results. Yours seemed evenly harvested, in my donor area there are places where no grafts were taken and some places where hair was extracted too close to each other, especially right side of donor. It may not be visible with long hair, but my go to haircut is very short on the sides. 

Do you have pictures of donor with shorter hair? All of the pictures you posted are with long hair and hard to tell. 

 

 

[brokennative]

Just a little update. Day 22 post surgery. Donor area healed up but looks terrible for 1500 grafts. Right side was overharvested. I was told it is due to shedding and temporary but I doubt it is.

[mustang]

There is no doubt the extraction patterns is completely unprofessional and poorly executed.

This said, you will need to wait 4-5 months to see how your donor recovers, then we can be for certain that the area was overharvested 

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case.

I had my donor fixed with BHT. My case is posted on this forum

 

[Sam818]

Ya I agree with @mustang give it some time I’m sure it will look better in a few months but the extractions were taken too close to each other. Hopefully you get a killer result in the front and you can always get SMP to your donor area in the future it works wonders. But this shouldn’t have happened with only a 1500 graft procedure. 

Edited July 1, 2020 by Sam818

[Melvin- Admin]

It’s still way too early to say anything about the donor. Give it some time to heal. The community is too quick to freak people out before it’s even healed. Thanks for posting your review.

[HTHope]

I believe dr Vories posts frequently here. It would be nice to get his opinion

 

@Michael Vories, MD

[bdu981]

Definitely looks like a shock-loss case to me. Pinning it on over-harvesting with just 1500 grafts doesn't make very much sense, but only time will tell. Like the majority have said, give it that (time). If there's a given constant after perusing these forums for a few years, it's that individual recovery and speed of results differs greatly from person to person. More importantly, how is the front coming along?

If you're self conscious about your current mothballed look, I think you would look particular good with a high to medium fade for the time being.  

Edited July 6, 2020 by bdu981

[brokennative]

34 days post surgery. I had a haircut few days ago. I still doubt it is a shock loss, I feel like it is a result of uneven harvesting (I still can't believe with this much experience Dr can make this rookie mistake). I don't expect this improving based on the cases Ive seen. Ive yet to see the case where "shock loss" improved over given time, it usually goes like give it a 6 month and it will improve and then again give it a year and it will improve, then hair grows long enough to cover the scars. (Link to improved cases please if you seen one). 

[Sam818]

What guard is that? A 2? I highly recommend growing your sides out longer for a while and finding a nice way to style your hair just so you don’t think about it. Maybe a 4 or 5 guard. After 6 months and hopefully seeing awesome progress on your hairline you can reevaluate the status of your donor and if it looks the same see what your options are. 

[ITA]

@brokennativedon't worry, the loss of shock loss,  has returned to me after more than 3 months.

[Montreal]

unexceptable !

[brokennative]

Almost 2 month post op! not thrilled but trying to be patient. 

[Britanium]

Looks on track to me. I think your shock loss has improved looking at your pics. 

[Louisjams]

I may be an outlier here but it does not look too bad to me. This is the reality of FUE...you will have a sparse donor area and I am sure you had some shock loss which takes time to recover, often months. I suspect in a few more months it will look better still.