5 Months Post Op. Does this look normal?

[Rick V.]

I had a fue procedure this past March 2021. I’m now at the 5 month post op mark, but there is very little growth so far. I had 1300 grafts placed along the hairline and temple regions. Nothing on the crown was needed. The 1st two pics are shortly after the procedure. The next 3 are from now. Should I be seeing much more growth by now or am I just being extremely impatient? Any feedback would be appreciated. 

[Britanium]

Please could we have some more details ? Who the clinic and Dr were for example  and anymore pics you have of pre/post op in particular. Thanks. 

[Rick V.]

I’m gonna hold off on the clinic reveal for now, but here are two pics pre op. My hairloss was definitely not as extreme as most people. Just some recession of the hairline which bothered me, hence why I decided to get a hair transplant to add more density. 

[Melvin- Admin]

47 minutes ago, Rick V. said:

I’m gonna hold off on the clinic reveal for now, but here are two pics pre op. My hairloss was definitely not as extreme as most people. Just some recession of the hairline which bothered me, hence why I decided to get a hair transplant to add more density. 

Are these your recent pictures 5 months post-op? 

[Rick V.]

The two most recent pics posted are pre-op. The set of pics I posted at the creation of this post are post op shortly after the surgery and then those are followed by pics of 5 month post op. The last two pics posted in this thread are from several months pre op. Someone had asked to see pics pre op, so I added them to the thread 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Rick V.

[SD1984]

Call me crazy but in that one post-op photo it doesn't even look like 1300.  That being said it definitely doesn't look bad right now. Still plenty of time to go. I'm also curious about why the recipient area looks kind of red/off colored (4th pic)

[Rick V.]

The red/off color is just from the lighting bouncing around in my bathroom 

Edited July 21, 2021 by Rick V.

[Rick V.]

Here are 3 more 5 month post op pics taken in better lighting. 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Rick V.

[JDEE0]

Looks like a fair amount of it grew to me, but from your second pic post-op, it just looks like there weren't enough grafts planted in the first place unfortunately.

I would say for the size of the area grafted, you could have done with roughly double the amount that I can see from your picture; I'm not convinced that it is actually 1300 grafts. It may well be, I don't think it's far off that amount in any case, but it's hard to tell from your pics as the second one is the only clear shot of the implantation.

I think a procedure in the low to mid 2000 range (no. of grafts) from the get go would have provided good density for the area they implanted into, but the good news is that it doesn't look bad, i.e. no multi grafts etc in the hairline, and won't need 'repairing'. Another pass of 1000 grafts, maybe a little more, should sort you out.

Saying that, you are only 5 months post op, so you've still got a number of months to go for growth, it will fill in more, and I could be wrong. It just looks sparse in the second picture like I say, hence why I think you'll need a top up. Do you have any more pictures post op of the recipient?

[Rick V.]

Those are the only two immediate post op pics I have really. I just didn’t take a lot of pics then. I’ll post another round of pics in 2 months. Hopefully there will be more growth by then. 

[JDEE0]

You'll see improvements for sure, you're only 5 months in. If it turns out it's not as dense as you'd like, it's not the end of the world, obviously a bit of a disappointment but it would be a very easy fix!

[Rick V.]

The size of the area grafted was by no means severely bald. I chose not to lower the hairline because I didn’t want it to look too unatural. The surgeon shaved a small portion of my hairline off across my forehead and had to carefully place implants around the native hairs still within my slightly receding hairline. Plus some hairs were added to the left and right side pointy temple regions (not sure what that’s called) to fill in there as well. Hopefully it will all fill in nicely. I was just expecting more visible growth by now instead of sporadic new hairs here and there. It’s difficult to be patient and not worry. That’s just me. 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Rick V.

[JDEE0]

Yeah, take my first comment with a pinch of salt as, like I say, I was just going by that second picture. But you look like you're having good growth so far anyways and you still have a while to go, it will fill in more! I think it will be decent either way judging by your progress so far, worst case scenario, you may want a small touch up, but if you already had a decent amount of hair there it very well may come out looking nice and dense in a few months time.

[Rick V.]

I’ve been taking Propecia for several years, so I’ve been fortunate to have stopped any hair loss in the crown. That area is pretty full thankfully.  It’s very well known though Propecia doesn’t really stop the hairline from recession, hence why I decided to fill it in with hair transplants. Is it safe to use Minoxidil on the transplanted hairline??

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, Rick V. said:

The two most recent pics posted are pre-op. The set of pics I posted at the creation of this post are post op shortly after the surgery and then those are followed by pics of 5 month post op. The last two pics posted in this thread are from several months pre op. Someone had asked to see pics pre op, so I added them to the thread 

So was your hairline lowered? Or was there additional grafts placed in the existing hairline? 

[Rick V.]

Additional grafts were placed into my original existing front hairline. It was not lowered. Once the surgeon got to the temple regions those areas were lowered slightly to achieve more of a fuller straighter hairline from side to side all together.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Rick V.

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, Rick V. said:

Additional grafts were placed into my original existing front hairline. It was not lowered. Once the surgeon got to the temple regions those areas were lowered slightly to achieve more of a fuller straighter hairline from side to side all together.

If your hairline was not lowered, I’d say you may be suffering from shock loss. Thus far, it looks like net gain. That said, its only 5 months with 7 months left of growth and maturation. It’s always a risky proposition to place a lot of grafts in between native hair for this very reason. 

[Rick V.]

Thanks for your observation. I’ll post again in a few months. Hopefully it will be satisfactory. This waiting game sucks. 

[Al - Moderator]

You had a significant amount of hair in the area already, so you probably had some shock loss. At 5 months you are probably somewhere around 60% of the transplanted hair growing in and 60% of the previous hair growing back in, so you are only slightly better than prior to the transplant right now. Give it a couple more months to grow and then reevaluate.

 

 

[Rick V.]

Thanks so much. My receding hairline was mild compared to most individuals seeking hair transplantation. Hopefully it will all fill in nicely to achieve the density I am hoping for 

Edited July 21, 2021 by Rick V.