FUE Experience w/Dr. Diep MHTA Clinic

[jimcraig152]

I was checking out @baldlivesmatter's thread. His early progress mirrors where I am at right now. Donor management stuff aside, his final results look great! This is very encouraging.

I still owe MHTA for the extra 87 grafts that were made during my procedure. Arrangements were made for me to make that payment today (87 grafts/$8 per graft = $696). I emailed MHTA early this week asking them for the following before I made that final payment:

• Set follow-up consultations:  1-month, 3-months, 6-months, 12-months, or whatever is the regular cadence
• A read out of the graft placed:  singles, doubles, etc.
• ......and a copy of the final agreement I signed on the day of the procedure

I got a response today along with none of these things. But I did get something else: the cost of the extra 87 grafts waived, and it is in writing! While a bit of money saved is cool,

• I still want those other things I asked for
• And I am still going to be honest and will be as objective as I can be with this whole process as I go along

In other words, I can't be bought. I'll give MHTA the benefit of the doubt in that, by waiving the charge for the extra grafts, they are being genuine. They did tell me to log into my OnPatient account and ask for those things. I'll do that and report back how they'll respond.

[jimcraig152]

I got my first pimple!!! Considering it lines up to the row placement pattern, it should be a hair rather than acne :).

[GE90]

No graft interlocking.

https://www.hairtx.com/dr-lams-blog/why-interlocking-is-so-important-in-making-recipient-sites-for-hair-transplants/

[jimcraig152]

3 hours ago, GE90 said:

No graft interlocking.

https://www.hairtx.com/dr-lams-blog/why-interlocking-is-so-important-in-making-recipient-sites-for-hair-transplants/

Word, and agreed. Here is a quote from that page for those that are considering HT in general.

Quote

.................. Of course, the total number of grafts that are present is very important to determine the results but if they are mishandled and poorly distributed then the result can be far less than desirable. Only when a surgeon slows down and takes his time to make sites in a careful and deliberate fashion (rather than through rapid fire action) can the principle of interlocking be rigorously adhered to with all of the attendant benefits for a patient who receives that level of attention

View my outcomes, objectively documented (as much as I can be), in this thread and make the best possible decision for yourself.

Edited August 24, 2020 by jimcraig152

[jimcraig152]

MHTA got back to me today via email after I asked them to send me another OnPatient invite. The previous three OnPatient invites filtered out as junk mail, so I never got them and never really was able to consult with Dr. Diep leading up to my 8/24/20 procedure after my 12/26/19 consultation. Those invites had expiered by the time I found out they existed. This latest OnPatient invite dropped into junkmail too. But at least this time I was told it was sent and was able to retrieve the invite from junkmail. I asked for those previous 3 items via OnPatient:

1. Read out of the grafts placed (1's, 2's, 3's, etc)
2. A copy of the agreement I signed on the day of the procedure
3. A request to schedule regular follow-ups (1-month, 3-months, 6-months, 12-months, whatever the cadence is)

Interested in seeing how MHTA performs with follow-up care and will keep you all posted.

Also, a slight update with my current progress. I am now 1 month post procedure exactly. I would estimate that 30-60% of the grafts have fallen out. But I do see small sprouts of hair from the grafts. Will post pics on Friday and let you guys judge if I am seeing things. Also, the earlier pimple I found popped from showering later in the night after it sprouted. Oh well. Hope that makes it easier for the hair to push through the scalp. I do feel sensation in my reciepient area more so than I ever had since the procedure. If I am not mistaken, feels like outward pushing from my skull through the skin on my scalp. I may be imagining this, but that is what I honestly am describing what it feels like. Update on Friday.

[jimcraig152]

End of Week 5 Update:

My natural hair was really starting to come in and my transplants are growing but slowly. As I am a NW3, things are starting to look awkward. I am starting to look like Zangief:

So I decide to take my hair down a bit. I start with a 4 guard but not much is coming off. I switch to a 3 guard and it hits the spot. I also want a closer look at what the donor healing progress is looking like, so I take the sides and back down to a 2 guard. I am still feeling the sensation of hairs in the recipient area pushing through my scalp. Usually, this happens right as I am ending my work day around 5pm. Donor area discomfort is still there. I am still on Min (2x daily) and Fin (1x daily).

Day 14 into this process was the peak as to when the transplanted grafts were still viable and growing before they started falling out. Everyday in between, more grafts fell out and were replaced by new growth (at least I think it is new growth). Grafts shedding has slowed to just about to a halt. Nothing is falling out as far as i can tell. Let me know if you guys are seeing the grafts growing in.

Another shot at the hairline from another angle.

Left side of the hairline.

Right side of the hairline. Good ol' Dr. Diep cornrows in full effect!

With the hair taken down to a 2 guard in the back, you can once again see the over-harvested asymmetrical extraction.

Right side of the donor area.

Left side of the donor area.

Overhead shot.

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by jimcraig152
Removed an extra photo.

[jimcraig152]

End of Week 6 Update:

I took my hair down to a 1/2 guard to get a better look at the donor scarring. I figure we are in quarantine anyway, so no big deal and it will grow back quickly. Much of the transplanted hair in the middle above my forehead hasn't fallen out yet. Hair in the corners have fallen out but are being replaced by slow new growth. Hoping this is the worst of the ugly duckling stage. I will put away the clippers and just let things take their course from here on out. I am seeing new pimples. There was a rather large one in the middle just above my hairline that quickly popped.

The grafts in the upper part of the corners are filling in here well. You can see some pimpling.

Same for the right side. The upper grafts are starting to fill in. But still, this bugs the hell out of me because, well, they are placed in rows. But those rows are so widely spaced apart.

Hard to take a pic of the back donor and to get an accurate image of the state of things. You really need the camera pointed upwards towards the donor area to get the best picture of the scarring.

Side angles show the scarring better.

Right side.

As you can see, the grafts in the upper areas are coming in well in this overhead shot. Left side is filling in faster. Frontal area hasn't lost many grafts.

Edited September 5, 2020 by jimcraig152

[LonelyGraft]

The recipient is doing quite well. That’s great that you haven’t lost all your grafts yet. The donor still needs more time to heal and recover. Thanks for documenting this

[aaron1234]

Yeah, the ugly duckling phase will last between months 1-3, maybe longer depending on how short you keep your hair and how much shock loss you have.  But I can already tell you that your transplant will look better with the hair grown out than with a shaved head... so let it grow!

Donor is healing gradually, but obviously slower than if you had the extractions done with a smaller punch.  Still, it's looking better.  With short hair maybe organic aloe (or some kind of lotion) would help speed up the process. I've been applying it once a day since my FUE three months ago and it has kept my scalp feeling healthy.  

You may have mentioned this already in the thread, but what is that circular blurry spot on the left side in your recipient area?  

 

[jimcraig152]

3 hours ago, aaron1234 said:

You may have mentioned this already in the thread, but what is that circular blurry spot on the left side in your recipient area?

I shopped out a mole that is very visible IRL so I can be more conspicuous.

I am putting away the clippers from here on out until which time when I can give myself an actual haircut. Probably around Thanksgiving. But the reason why I took things down low was I wanted to count the extractions in the donor area. But it seems I lost that opportunity weeks ago now as the scars are too healed to get an accurate count.

I marked off my donor area with a pen to do the planned extraction count (no double counts as I moved around my head). I am abandoning the counting process with these pics. But decided to see a comparison in grayscale so that the redness is eliminated. You can see how things are very much a line and the overharvesting at the lower edge of the donor area is very visible. Being Asian, we typically wear our hair very short on the sides and the back (as much as zero-1/2 guard). So throughout this process I will be keen on figuring out what is the lowest possible guard I can use for haircuts going forward.

And here is a shot of the hairline in natural indoor lighting (fresh out of the shower). I left in my parts of my eyebrows so that you can see the hairline placement and design in relation to my face. I do feel this is done very well. Could have been better. But once this 12 months is all over with, will need to decide if I need to do any repairs as a result of the cornrowing. Also, the hairline is very linear. I know zig-zags/stair steps were added in to break up the linearity. But that will need to be assessed after the recovery period is over too.

[aaron1234]

1 hour ago, jimcraig152 said:

So throughout this process I will be keen on figuring out what is the lowest possible guard I can use for haircuts going forward.

Yeah, I experiment having my hair cut short once in awhile to see how noticeable my strip scars are.  If it's too short then a few dabs of dermmatch camouflages the scars very effectively - I imagine the same would be true for FUE scars.

[jimcraig152]

I've never used concealers. I tend to sweat a lot. Always have. Not sure if it is a good idea for a guy like me to use concealers. I am going to keep my hair short-ish through the 12-18 month recovery period, then grow it back to shoulder length. Going to be cool to be able to have long hair without forming over hair and locking it down with lots of hair spray to cover up the receded corners. That is of course if I don't need a repair procedure.

Oh, on a side note. Absolutely zero response from MHTA even after I set up the Onpatient account.

[LonelyGraft]

8 minutes ago, jimcraig152 said:

I've never used concealers. I tend to sweat a lot. Always have. Not sure if it is a good idea for a guy like me to use concealers. I am going to keep my hair short-ish through the 12-18 month recovery period, then grow it back to shoulder length. Going to be cool to be able to have long hair without forming over hair and locking it down with lots of hair spray to cover up the receded corners. That is of course if I don't need a repair procedure.

Oh, on a side note. Absolutely zero response from MHTA even after I set up the Onpatient account.

If you have an urgent question and need a response I’d reach out to Melvin and he could probably help u.

[jimcraig152]

7 minutes ago, LonelyGraft said:

If you have an urgent question and need a response I’d reach out to Melvin and he could probably help u.

It is not urgent. Just want to breakdown of the grafts (singles, doubles, etc.) and to have follow-up consultations scheduled.

[jimcraig152]

End of Week 7 Update:

Not a whole lot of progress. Sprouted grafts are growing but no new sprouts as far as I can tell. I did manage to take the best pic yet of the donor area. Hope I can reproduce this going forward. Too bad I wasn't able to take it last week when the hair was taken down to the lowest since the procedure. I also finally got some better aloe vera. Took Amazon a month to get it here. It's not magic pixie dust or anything, but it works a lot better than the stuff I got at Target. Alright, here are the pics:

Let's start with the donor stuff this time. The over-harvesting is still quite visible at the lower area of the donor site.

Right side.

And the left side.

Overhead shot:

Right front side. You can see the linearity o the hairline is on the right side in this shot. And of course, the signature Dr. Diep corn rows. Some pimples that have since popped and scabbed over. Also, I have my back towards the light source which is how I will take this photo going forward as it seems to produce a better view of the status of things. In previous photos, the linearity of the hairline is sort of washed out from the lighting.

All I can hope for is here are these grafts to come out:

1. Nice 'n thick with rows to sprout between the rows that are visible now. What are the chances?
2. Those zig zag/stair steps that Dr. Diep puts in front of the hairline to diffuse the linearity of his incision/grafting technique. But as you can see from my Day 4 photo, there aren't many zig zags/stair steps that he put in on the right side.

Left side. Hairline is less linear and cornrows are packed closer to each other. But it may be less linear in that grafts in the front have fallen out but have not sprouted yet.  There are more sprouts than on the right side. Also, my back is facing the light source in this photo as well.

And the cumulative pic. The right side (photo's left) has hardly any zig zags/stair steps as mentioned earlier in the Day 4 pic.

Front middle grafts have largely not fallen out yet thankfully. Those grafts in the middle front are making the ugly duckling stage that much easier.

[hairlossPA]

great documentation. i love the ongoing day pics stitch

[jimcraig152]

Some folks have been asking me about how I edit my photos. I use GIMP (GNU Image Manipulating Program). It is an opensource photo editor that has nearly all the professional functionality of Adobe's Photoshop with a price tag of $0 dollars.

Basic functionality is easy to learn (crop, resize, deleting out facial features, compositing layers--as in my cumulative pics--) in 1-2 minute Youtube videos or Google searches. I keep all my posted pics resized to 800 horizontal pixels so that the page loads fast but still allows the image to remain clear. I still have the hi-rez photos kept locally. 

So for those folks out there lurking and want to be discreet, hope this compels you to share. It helps others tremendously.

[jimcraig152]

These photos are the same as the previous ones but are in gray scale mode to eliminate the redness. The redness darkens the skin at a glance and gives a false illusion of density. In gray scale the redness is reduced/eliminated so you can see the hair against the scalp. I'll post these photos from time to time until the redness is gone.

I noticed before the last buzz cut that to the right of the vertex, the hair was really thin from the extraction which was done very high. I mentioned this previously but did not post photos. I'll document these shots from time to time as well.

Here is the right side that shows how far up and near the vertex that the extractions were performed by Dr. Diep.

And the left side. Extractions are not quite as high, but are still pretty darn high.

[Goodvibes]

Thank you for photos!!  You are looking good! A few more months and redness should come down...  Thank you again for keeping us in the loop.. 

[jimcraig152]

12 minutes ago, Goodvibes said:

Thank you for photos!!  You are looking good! A few more months and redness should come down...  Thank you again for keeping us in the loop.. 

You're welcome.

I had shoulder length hair until the procedure when it was shaved to a ridiculous looking do. I am hoping I don't have to wear a beanie to the Thanksgiving dinner table :).

So I found this photo on my phone. Closest to an overhead shot I took during those early days. Composited it to a shot of where I am currently at. Dr. Diep did feather grafts into my natural hairline. I don't think my natural hairline went as far as the grafts do. Also, much of the hair in the upper regions of the hairline are growing out in random patterns instead of rows as I would expect from how they were planted.

 

[Goodvibes]

Well every hair is an individual organ basically.   So every hair will grow different.  I am at 4.5 months now.  And have one side growing faster then the other side.  From reading many doctors and dermatologist articles they explain that synchrony can take 18 to 24 months before all your hairs are back to normal.  But seem that most people see synchrony at 12 to 16 months.  

[jimcraig152]

2 minutes ago, Goodvibes said:

I am at 4.5 months now.

Post an update on your thread.

[jimcraig152]

End of Week 8 Update:

Note to self:  For better quality pictures, take them with the camera on the back of the iPhone and not the one facing the screen (AKA, the selfie camera).

With that said, I do see some new growth as very thin wisps. No avalanche of sprouts or anything. I am full-on in the ugly duckling stage has some of the left over transplanted hair in the front middle above the hairline is starting to thin out. No response at all from MHTA. Now that they have money, looks like I am on my own. MHTA certainly hasn't lifted a finger to schedule any follow-ups; Might as well remove the "M-for medical" out of MHTA. Other than that, nothing else to say that hasn't already been said. Here are the latest pics:

 

 

 

 

[yalla8]

Thanks for your methodical updates! I'm about 2 weeks behind you, so it's fun for me to see what may be in store.

I think you're progressing nicely in the recipient site from what I can tell! That being said, it makes me MAD to see your donor. I simply cannot believe that a doctor who takes tens of thousands of dollars for this surgery is handling the donor in the way exemplified on your scalp. Honestly they should have to answer for themselves. 

[jimcraig152]

On 9/22/2020 at 2:22 PM, yalla8 said:

Thanks for your methodical updates! I'm about 2 weeks behind you, so it's fun for me to see what may be in store.

I think you're progressing nicely in the recipient site from what I can tell! That being said, it makes me MAD to see your donor. I simply cannot believe that a doctor who takes tens of thousands of dollars for this surgery is handling the donor in the way exemplified on your scalp. Honestly they should have to answer for themselves. 

I know. But don't get me started. Dr. Diep has mafia protection on this forum. I really feel I am helping people lurking on these forums. Many have reached out to me on this site and Real Self, so I don't want to get another DM from a mod and banned until I do have the chance to get let it all out.

But check out a quote from my OP down below to get a better idea how my donor was handled:

On 7/29/2020 at 12:09 AM, jimcraig152 said:

I must have fell asleep sometime after the local anesthesia was administered. But I woke up at some point during parts of the extraction due to pain and discomfort. No biggie. I told Dr. Diep I was in a bit of pain. He told me to let him know if I felt pain. And I could feel him administer more local anesthesia. Then I went under again. Don't know if I was given more general anesthesia.

 I was woken from general anesthesia from the pain during extraction!