Considering a no shave surgery? Consider this...

[Richie888]

So I am 2 weeks in from having a HT. my hair has always been high at the temples and just continued to recede over time. Being tall and having quite thick hair, what was going on at the mid or back never really caused me concern and I didn't really think there was much going on. I have never had a shaved head in my whole life. Period. It's just not my look and I always sweeped it over so when it came to choosing surgery I was pretty much set on finding someone to do the grafts without shaving. Luckily I saw sense in the fact that if you want a transplant you need to see what's going on with the only exception being if you've had a transplant and you are just touching up etc. 

Fast forward to now and what I learned is my MPB is probably more pronounced then I would like to admit but luckily I'm at an age(32) where I could put the brakes on. If you look at my regrowth pic below taken today, you can see the hair growing back at different speeds and basically outlining where is possibly struggling due to DHT. This was never apparent to me and would never have come on the radar without the shave due to how thick my hair is/was 😢. The moral of the story is I think people should accept a full shave as part of the journey. And good luck to anyone who embarks on it. 

P.s I've already shed quite a bit so it does look light at the front 

[TorontoMan]

Yep had the same realization only 3-4 weeks outside of surgery unfortunately. Veterans on the forum do recommend shaving your head or at least buzzing down to reveal true damage. If I had done that earlier, my strategy moving forward would have likely been slightly different. Do recommend everyone man up and buzz down

[giegnosiganoe]

I agree shaving is a no brainer. I also hear complaints about how difficult it is to keep the area clean during post op when you do no shave.

What did the doctor say about your case after shaving down? And are you on any DHT blockers and if so since when?

[Melvin- Admin]

29 minutes ago, TorontoMan said:

Yep had the same realization only 3-4 weeks outside of surgery unfortunately. Veterans on the forum do recommend shaving your head or at least buzzing down to reveal true damage. If I had done that earlier, my strategy moving forward would have likely been slightly different. Do recommend everyone man up and buzz down

^this 

It’s a good idea to shave, to see if a shaved head is something you could live with.

[Richie888]

9 hours ago, giegnosiganoe said:

I agree shaving is a no brainer. I also hear complaints about how difficult it is to keep the area clean during post op when you do no shave.

What did the doctor say about your case after shaving down? And are you on any DHT blockers and if so since when?

We knew the crown did need work although it always looks worse without hair. I don't really want to touch the crown until I see a pattern of how my hair is proceeding as I don't think it's something that should be touched up for the sake of it. 

I'm gonna try topical fin and poss min in the new year and see how my hair reacts. If not a dramatic enough effect then I will do down the oral fin route on a low dose

[Richie888]

9 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

^this 

It’s a good idea to shave, to see if a shaved head is something you could live with.

Yea I don't think it is an idea pushed forward enough plus I know I wouldn't of been keen to shave it off just to see so I can understand why it's not popular as important as it is