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My Donor 6 Years Later


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I recently cut my hair, and there’s been a lot of talk about donor scars, I thought it would be a perfect time to share these pictures. 

For some of you who may not know, I underwent three FUE procedures, two with Dr. Diep, and I’ve had a total of 5,300 grafts. 

I cut my hair with no guard to 1/2 guard up to a #1 and #2 at the very top. I made this post, because it’s important to remember that scars are largely physiological and the appearance of scars varies widely.

I have dark hair and ligter skin, so my scars will be more visible than someone with dark hair and skin, or light hair and skin. 

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I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

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Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

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Based on those pictures it doesn't look like you had any surgery. Perfect example of why going to the right surgeon makes all the difference in the world for both results and wound healing. 

Edited by Dr. Suhail Khokhar
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My advice does not constitute a patient-physician relationship nor as medical advice and all medical questions/concerns should be addressed to your medical provider. 

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Sure, I can see the scars.  But what a dense frontal third/hairline!  @Melvin-Moderator Think you got any more sessions left in you?  For the crown, perhaps?

Dr. G: 1,000 grafts (FUT) 2008

Dr. Paul Shapiro: 2,348 grafts (FUT) 2009 ~ 1,999 grafts (FUT) 2011 ~ 300 grafts (Scar Reduction) 2013

Dr. Konior: 771 grafts (FUT) 2015 ~ 558 grafts (FUT) 2017 ~ 1,124 grafts (FUE) 2020

My Hair Transplant Journey with Shapiro Medical Group

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32 minutes ago, aaron1234 said:

Sure, I can see the scars.  But what a dense frontal third/hairline!  @Melvin-Moderator Think you got any more sessions left in you?  For the crown, perhaps?

Dr. Konior said I’ve got maybe 1,000-1,500, but he advised me to get small sessions. Maybe 700 grafts, then a year later another 500 so on and so forth. That’s the best way to keep from looking too depleted. 

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I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

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22 minutes ago, hanginginthewire said:

I see no scars.  
 

I’m confused as to what lengths you are cutting your hair though.  What’s a #1 and #2 at the top?  1 and 2 inch you mean? 

A #1 is 1/8 of an inch, they’re clipper guards.


I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

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Hair looking in great shape still Melvin, good to see! And your donor equally strong! 
 

Who would be your first choices for FUE crown work, when you decide to eventually bite the bullet? 
 

Your beard also looks good, would you consider extracting from under your chin to enhance up top even further ? 

Edited by Curious25
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Looks good and only those who know about fue and are looking for it can tell something may have been done.  I find that the larger scale fue procedures make it harder to see as it's scattered throughout the donor area and looks more uniform. Whereas with a smaller procedure the dots are more spread out and easier to pick out. 

I have to say though that the shortest part of your hair looks like a #1 and not 1/2 guard. 

 

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Firstly, what a great head of 'natural looking' hair on your head you have Melvin! Second to that, no one outside of a hair transplant forum would pick or view your donor area as scarred. On top of that, your hair is cut so close to the scalp and it still looks great. If you were ever concerned yourself then a top SMP artist would be able disguise your donor perfectly. FUE scars are very easy to hide compared to FUT scars. I have large punch graft scars in my donor (like 5mm round) that SMP hides completely. Linear or FUT scars are much harder to disguise and attract the eye.

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Looks great Melvin.  Even with the very short hair cut there is little or no evidence of discernible scarring.

I am an online representative for Carolina Hair Surgery & Dr. Mike Vories (Recommended on the Hair Transplant Network).

View John's before/after photos and videos:  http://www.MyFUEhairtransplant.com

You can email me at johncasper99@gmail.com

I am not a medical professional and my opinions should not be taken as medical advice.

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8 hours ago, Curious25 said:

Hair looking in great shape still Melvin, good to see! And your donor equally strong! 
 

Who would be your first choices for FUE crown work, when you decide to eventually bite the bullet? 
 

Your beard also looks good, would you consider extracting from under your chin to enhance up top even further ? 

I don’t know, most likely someone who can do BHT. Bisanga, Sethi, Konior, they all seem like good candidates.

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I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

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8 hours ago, Spidey said:

Looks good and only those who know about fue and are looking for it can tell something may have been done.  I find that the larger scale fue procedures make it harder to see as it's scattered throughout the donor area and looks more uniform. Whereas with a smaller procedure the dots are more spread out and easier to pick out. 

I have to say though that the shortest part of your hair looks like a #1 and not 1/2 guard. 

 

Must mean I’m getting better at fading my hair 😁


I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

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1 hour ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I don’t know, most likely someone who can do BHT. Bisanga, Sethi, Konior, they all seem like good candidates.

No doubt you really will be the finished product under the hands of any of those three doctors.

It'd be nice if they could help put together a vlog of some kind with you in return for all you do for the community 👍

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8 minutes ago, Curious25 said:

No doubt you really will be the finished product under the hands of any of those three doctors.

It'd be nice if they could help put together a vlog of some kind with you in return for all you do for the community 👍

I will definitely vlog my journey next time. That said, I’m not really looking forward to the ugly duckling phase lol. Right now I can look perfect with dermmatch, so that’s keeping me out of the chair.


I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

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11 hours ago, Gatsby said:

Firstly, what a great head of 'natural looking' hair on your head you have Melvin! Second to that, no one outside of a hair transplant forum would pick or view your donor area as scarred. On top of that, your hair is cut so close to the scalp and it still looks great. If you were ever concerned yourself then a top SMP artist would be able disguise your donor perfectly. FUE scars are very easy to hide compared to FUT scars. I have large punch graft scars in my donor (like 5mm round) that SMP hides completely. Linear or FUT scars are much harder to disguise and attract the eye.

Would be great if you could share some pictures. I’m sure it would help guys with bad scars.


I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

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23 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Dr. Konior said I’ve got maybe 1,000-1,500, but he advised me to get small sessions. Maybe 700 grafts, then a year later another 500 so on and so forth. That’s the best way to keep from looking too depleted. 

Melvin, this is exactly what I am doing with Dr. K. 

800-1000 per year. 👍

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I agree your donor still looks great, looking at the back of your head without knowing, I would chalk it up to being a rough-housing boy with some scars to show for it (like me, in addition to my thin little fut :D)

Great temple points still, widows creep to front hairline intersection, worthy of an HT forum moderator who puts his time and money where his keyboard is.

 

But my question for you is...how much commitment are you willing to make to keep these CRITICAL areas circled? (my emphasis)  -would you risk trying to re-create your temple points if you lost them down the road?!  Enquiring minds want to know. ;)

 

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image.png.3da3888bf6fadad8aa8474f1e2fe1cf5.png

 

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1 hour ago, Skyb said:

Melvin the back of your scalp still looks Virgin..  touched for the first time. 

That made me laugh bro haha


I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

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44 minutes ago, ciaus said:

 

I agree your donor still looks great, looking at the back of your head without knowing, I would chalk it up to being a rough-housing boy with some scars to show for it (like me, in addition to my thin little fut :D)

Great temple points still, widows creep to front hairline intersection, worthy of an HT forum moderator who puts his time and money where his keyboard is.

 

But my question for you is...how much commitment are you willing to make to keep these CRITICAL areas circled? (my emphasis)  -would you risk trying to re-create your temple points if you lost them down the road?!  Enquiring minds want to know. ;)

 

image.png.082700230c8ba7e0bca173db0429b052.png

 

image.png.3da3888bf6fadad8aa8474f1e2fe1cf5.png

 

I would like to rebuild them, and maybe some day I will, but I think the crown is more important to me. It all depends on my donor supply.


I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

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Not meaning to hijack your thread Melvin. This is what the back of my head looks like when shaved (pre SMP). The top scar looked like the bottom scar and I had it removed in a strip like procedure maybe 20 years or so ago. I was going to have the bottom scar removed also in a strip procedure but just gave up on the idea. This was in the days when I wore a hair piece and I started to toy with the idea of maybe shaving my head. The next photo is after the final treatment when I first had SMP about three and a half years ago.

IMG_0056.jpg

thumbnail_IMG_2672.jpg

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On 8/24/2020 at 8:08 PM, Melvin-Moderator said:

Dr. Konior said I’ve got maybe 1,000-1,500, but he advised me to get small sessions. Maybe 700 grafts, then a year later another 500 so on and so forth. That’s the best way to keep from looking too depleted. 

Did he make any comments regarding the scarring?

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9 hours ago, Gatsby said:

Not meaning to hijack your thread Melvin. This is what the back of my head looks like when shaved (pre SMP). The top scar looked like the bottom scar and I had it removed in a strip like procedure maybe 20 years or so ago. I was going to have the bottom scar removed also in a strip procedure but just gave up on the idea. This was in the days when I wore a hair piece and I started to toy with the idea of maybe shaving my head. The next photo is after the final treatment when I first had SMP about three and a half years ago.

IMG_0056.jpg

thumbnail_IMG_2672.jpg

Looks amazing wow very impressive 


I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

Follow our Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and YouTube.

 

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