FUE With Dr. Nader on July 12th-13th, 2022 | 3,200-4,000 Grafts | 30M American.

[Trichotrophy]

4 months

At long last, I'm above baseline.

I got a much-needed buzzcut shortly after the last update, yet my scalp is less visible now than it was with longer hair last month. Indeed, the vast majority of my shock-shed native hairs have recovered, and my transplanted hairs have slowly but noticeably continued to regrow.

Most noticeably so on my crown, which looks the densest it's been since the Obama administration. It went from bald (pre-op) to balding (last month) to diffusely thin (now). When unlit, the hair loss there is hardly even appreciable anymore—and at this rate, it'll take lighting and keen scrutiny to register any thinning there from most angles.

Declare me certifiably blind if it hasn't markedly improved in recent months. For the first-two post-op months—when my hair was so thin that I constantly itched to shave it off altogether—I was honestly apprehensive that much of the shock loss might have been permanent; now, like most of my hair-transplant fears, that's proving to be groundless. I'm confident that more improvement is in the offing, given the continued minimality of my shedding (yes, I roughly keep track of that in the shower every morning).

The folliculitis has mostly recovered, much of which is attributable to a Neutrogena acne wash Dr. Nader recommended. I only have some vestigial scalp acne that's slowly fading away, and I haven't had any new outbreaks for nearly two weeks.

I'm a bit concerned about how depleted my posterotemporal donor region looks, however, especially on my right side. Sure, the rest of my hair will conceal it once it grows in, but it does show how limited my donor grafts are—which'll be problematic if I want to get an FUE touch-up.

Whether or I will or not hinges, it seems, on how well my lowered hairline recovers: will it be up to parity with the rest of that region when it's all said and done, or will it be comparatively sparse? 

My temporal corners seem to be recovering adequately, but the midpoint—where I once had a genetic widow's peak—leaves a bit too much to be desired. It looks obtrusively thinner than the rest of my hairline at the moment.

Again, I'm questioning if 1,300 grafts were enough. Not that I blame Nader for being conservative—there's a diminishing-returns effect with how many grafts are used in one sitting, and my total of 3,900 was already pushing it—but the bottom line is that I might need more.

That's literally my only misgiving about this operation at the moment, and a mild one at that. It's obviously still way too early to make any conclusive judgments, especially since it's unmistakably improving compared to last month's photos. I'm confident I'll at least be able to pull off the illusion of natural hairline density once I've realized my full results.

Overall, I'd say (or hope) it's shaping up to be a Konior-esque result. If it continues to improve at this rate for just 2-3 more months, that'll foreseeably complete my hair-restoration journey.

[GoliGoliGoli]

Results are looking really good so far I think. When you hold your hairline back like that I think it's normal to see some thinness so I wouldn't worry about that center area too much. Obviously 6-8 months will tell a fuller picture but it doesn't seem like any problems anyways in the pic of you not holding it back. 

[GoliGoliGoli]

Also you made a comment about having some concerns around your donor. Did you know going in that maybe you had an average donor, or did Nader say that during the consultation? Or are you basing the concerns around your donor just on how it's regrowing in so far on that right temporal side? 

You seemed to have a really good number of 3 and 4 grafts. 

[Trichotrophy]

4 hours ago, GoliGoliGoli said:

Results are looking really good so far I think. When you hold your hairline back like that I think it's normal to see some thinness so I wouldn't worry about that center area too much. Obviously 6-8 months will tell a fuller picture but it doesn't seem like any problems anyways in the pic of you not holding it back. 

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm most likely just overthinking it. I still think it looks a bit too gappy around my widow's peak, though it's impractical to judge the density of the transplanted hairs in relation to native ones at this point in time; clearly not all have regrown yet, and many of those that have are still comparatively short due to all the shock-loss cycles. Looking at some of my post-OP closeups, there seem to be enough grafts; it's just a matter of regrowth and stably achieving the same length as my native hairs, which I'm confident about.

You're also right that I'm unnaturally accentuating the thinness with my fingerhold. Even if I were to end up with a density deficit, I could easily conceal it with, again, the appropriate hair length.

And, of course, more regrowth is typically expectable after 4 months, especially amid my current progress. My transplanted hairline is no longer completely see-through as it was last month, which should be convincing improvement.

4 hours ago, GoliGoliGoli said:

Also you made a comment about having some concerns around your donor. Did you know going in that maybe you had an average donor, or did Nader say that during the consultation? Or are you basing the concerns around your donor just on how it's regrowing in so far on that right temporal side? 

You seemed to have a really good number of 3 and 4 grafts. 

Neither Nader nor I found my donor area remarkable; we just knew that it was plentiful enough for the recommended grafts. I knew I didn't have the donor capacity needed to exhaustively treat, say, a Norwood 6+, but I was sure I naturally had enough for my first procedure since my hair loss wasn't that advanced or unpatterned.

Nader estimated that I had 3k-4k safely usable grafts left, which sounds normal in my situation. I'd imagine the lion's share of that supply comes from the back of my head, as my temporal region looks too scanty at the moment. I'm hoping it's just temporary shock loss that I haven't fully recovered from yet, which seems plausible enough.

Obviously, I'm hoping I won't have to tap further into my donor supply any year soon—which seems unlikely at this rate. Whenever I do is hopefully long enough down the road that a magic-bullet solution, such as hair cloning, has come to fruition.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Trichotrophy

[GoliGoliGoli]

20 hours ago, Trichotrophy said:

Neither Nader nor I found my donor area remarkable; we just knew that it was plentiful enough for the recommended grafts. I knew I didn't have the donor capacity needed to exhaustively treat, say, a Norwood 6+, but I was sure I naturally had enough for my first procedure since my hair loss wasn't that advanced or unpatterned.

Nader estimated that I had 3k-4k safely usable grafts left, which sounds normal in my situation. I'd imagine the lion's share of that supply comes from the back of my head, as my temporal region looks too scanty at the moment. I'm hoping it's just temporary shock loss that I haven't fully recovered from yet, which seems plausible enough.

 

Well if Nader thinks you have 3-4k left in addition to the nearly 4k you just used I would say you have a very above average donor! 

[Trichotrophy]

5 months

I just turned 31, yet I feel closer to 21 with my juvenescent hair. Even younger if judging strictly by my dome, because I gave up on styleably longer hair shortly after reaching legal drinking age.

My once-bald spot is as good as inexistent now. A couple of months ago, I started worrying if the crown would be a black hole, yet those 1,500-1,800 grafts seem to be making a worthwhile difference.

The little scalp visibility that remains there? It's so interstitial at this point that one might just chalk it up to the cowlick, not my hair loss. It's not done densifying, to boot; I can still feel many newly sprouted hairs there.

No bald spots midscalp, either; just some diffusely thinned patches as far as anyone can see.

Unfortunately, my right temple still looks a little depleted. It's unlikely due to delayed shock-loss recovery (which should be a done deal at this point), so I'll just have to cope with it. It's at least not noticeable head-on, and it's easily concealable at longer lengths. It's certainly off-limits for further FUE harvesting, however—not that it'll foreseeably matter since I won't need a touch-up anytime soon at this rate, looking at my current progress.

My transplanted hairline's density has blended in further. It might never be fully indistinguishable from my native one without further touch-ups, but the deficit is negligible enough at this stage: who'll suspect my FUE from it (other than us)?

At worst, I'll just need to volumize it a bit, though I doubt even that'll be necessary for fullness when it's all said and done; you look at the closeups and tell me.

In any case, it's improved enough that I'm no longer too insecure about my forehead (at least when I ignore zit-like lesion on my right temple) to expose it. Whenever my hair was this long, I'd sport a fringe hairstyle like this. I did it back in middle school because I found it stylish (thanks to the once-idolized '90s Backstreet Boys); I did it in adulthood so my bangs would cover my mildly receded hairline. Except it no longer looks receded now, and I'm keeping it more by default than by choice.

Speaking of which, I need to learn how to actually style my hair. No, seriously; I haven't had that done since sometime when LeBron was ringless. My hair looks too limp and disheveled as it is. I'm loving the improved density, but the end goal was always not just fuller but better-looking hair.

I'm at a loss of how to arrange it, especially when factoring in all my cowlicks. I wish I internalized all these haircare nuances when I was younger. I'll get a consultation when I go in for my overdue haircut this week. No more vanilla buzzcuts for me; I know that much.

But that's a great problem to have on a board like this, no?

I'm hoping for—and realistically expecting—further progress in the months to come, and I'll most likely present it with a different hairstyle by then. If I'm being honest, though, I can't say I'd be dissatisfied if I mostly plateaued at this point. I wouldn't be happy about it, of course, but I wouldn't feel the need to get a touch-up. I've already mostly achieved the illusion of full hair, which is my holy grail; it's mainly just a matter of maintaining and polishing it from this point onwards.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Trichotrophy

[E39]

You look great! Congrats!!!

[Melvin- Admin]

Looks fantastic, Dr. Nader is a great surgeon.

[Trichotrophy]

1 hour ago, E39 said:

You look great! Congrats!!!

Thanks!

15 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Looks fantastic, Dr. Nader is a great surgeon.

Thank you as well!

High time to add him to the forum-recommended list?  He's easily the best case for including Mexico on it.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Trichotrophy

[Gatsby]

You look excellent @Trichotrophy! Especially for only five months. 💯👌

[GoliGoliGoli]

That whorl looks really great, awesome to see this starting to take shape 

[Dillpickle123]

@Michael D 

[Obendo13]

Can you please comment on the whether you felt safe being in a high risk border town ?

[Steeeve]

1 hour ago, Obendo13 said:

Can you please comment on the whether you felt safe being in a high risk border town ?

I can say, being a native to Texas, having been through McAllen on several occasions (and having stayed overnight more than once) I’ve never felt unsafe. There are lots of documented Nader cases where the poster also said that they felt safe being picked up by his driver and driven over across to his clinic.

That’s my 2¢. If you’re considering Nader don’t let it being a border town deter you. I would love to hear what OP has to say, though.

[GoliGoliGoli]

20 hours ago, Steeeve said:

I can say, being a native to Texas, having been through McAllen on several occasions (and having stayed overnight more than once) I’ve never felt unsafe. There are lots of documented Nader cases where the poster also said that they felt safe being picked up by his driver and driven over across to his clinic.

That’s my 2¢. If you’re considering Nader don’t let it being a border town deter you. I would love to hear what OP has to say, though.

 

22 hours ago, Obendo13 said:

Can you please comment on the whether you felt safe being in a high risk border town ?

I think he's asking more about Reynosa than McAllen, but either way you have absolutely nothing to be concerned about. I went to Nader in November. At no single point in either Reynosa or McAllen did I feel anything other than 100% safe

[Steeeve]

2 hours ago, GoliGoliGoli said:

 

I think he's asking more about Reynosa than McAllen, but either way you have absolutely nothing to be concerned about. I went to Nader in November. At no single point in either Reynosa or McAllen did I feel anything other than 100% safe

🤣 I know that. You’re staying in McAllen, though. That’s where the hotel that the clinic offers accommodations is located. You wouldn’t be staying in Reynosa, I mean,  unless you just wanted to. And the concern is that people will be crossing over from Reynosa into McAllen.

All the best ✌🏻

[Trichotrophy]

On 1/4/2023 at 11:18 AM, Obendo13 said:

Can you please comment on the whether you felt safe being in a high risk border town ?

I felt completely safe during my experience there.

As I detailed in my day-of-operation posts, my exposure to Reynosa was minimal. I hotelled in McAllen and received door-to-door transportation from Dr. Nader to his clinic. The streets en route looked as shady as reputed, granted, but I didn't have to set afoot in Mexico until we reached the hair-transplant centre. There weren't any pedestrians, much less would-be pickpockets, milling around there since it's not a populated street.

I was leery about the crime-ridden city originally before I consulted and researched other patients as you're doing. None of them found the experience dangerous, and I can attest it wasn't any different for me. I even asked the doctor about it, who reassured me that none of his patients got assaulted around his premises.

[Obendo13]

21 minutes ago, Trichotrophy said:

I felt completely safe during my experience there.

As I detailed in my day-of-operation posts, my exposure to Reynosa was minimal. I hotelled in McAllen and received door-to-door transportation from Dr. Nader to his clinic. The streets en route looked as shady as reputed, granted, but I didn't have to set afoot in Mexico until we reached the hair-transplant centre. There weren't any pedestrians, much less would-be pickpockets, milling around there since it's not a populated street.

I was leery about the crime-ridden city originally before I consulted and researched other patients as you're doing. None of them found the experience dangerous, and I can attest it wasn't any different for me. I even asked the doctor about it, who reassured me that none of his patients got assaulted around his premises.

Thank you for your response as well as Steeeve's and GoliGoliGoli's. Nice to hear the same thing from many people. I guess I am paranoid but is there any chance at all that your car get stopped on your way to and from the clinic ?

[Trichotrophy]

2 hours ago, Obendo13 said:

Thank you for your response as well as Steeeve's and GoliGoliGoli's. Nice to hear the same thing from many people. I guess I am paranoid but is there any chance at all that your car get stopped on your way to and from the clinic ?

We never stopped outside of routine stop signs (or alto signs apropos of Mexico) and traffic lights.

There shouldn't be any legal grounds for you to get pulled over. You'll have a professional cabman at the wheel whose goal is to drive you to the clinic as seamlessly at manageable.

Your only drawn-out stop will be the drive back to the hotel, where you have to go through the Customs port in Hidalgo. Screening doesn't take long provided that you remembered your passport—the agents just ask about your business purpose for visiting Mexico and any on-hand articles—but it's a time-consuming traffic jam to navigate through. No sane vagrant will target cars in that overcongested traffic—much less single out yours—but it can be an unpleasant wait given Mexico's humidity.

[Obendo13]

5 minutes ago, Trichotrophy said:

We never stopped outside of routine stop signs (or alto signs apropos of Mexico) and traffic lights.

There shouldn't be any legal grounds for you to get pulled over. You'll have a professional cabman at the wheel whose goal is to drive you to the clinic as seamlessly at manageable.

Your only drawn-out stop will be the drive back to the hotel, where you have to go through the Customs port in Hidalgo. Screening doesn't take long provided that you remembered your passport—the agents just ask about your business purpose for visiting Mexico and any on-hand articles—but it's a time-consuming traffic jam to navigate through. No sane vagrant will target cars in that overcongested traffic—much less single out yours—but it can be an unpleasant wait given Mexico's humidity.

I was thinking of some sort of carjacks when the car has to slow down or stop but what you have shared is reassuring. Thank you.

[Trichotrophy]

6 months

They call this the halfway point. Indeed, it takes around 12 months to realize the full results, but it's not a linear outcome by any means; most of it has already come to fruition before then, typically around this time.

It's for that reason I won't be posting monthly updates from this point onwards. It's safe to conclude most of my transplanted hairs have regrown by now; further improvement mainly boils down to stabilizing and thickening them up, which'll take multimonth regrowth cycles. There's much more minutiae left to paint, but most of the broad strokes are already on the canvas.

Not that I can complain. As I've previously opined, I'm already satisfied with the outcome, and further improvement (albeit, decreasingly noticeable) has reinforced that. Additional progress is just gravy on an already-wholesome plate of meat and potatoes: I'll savor it, but I can sate my appetite without it.

Further improvement, yes, but no dramatic differences—other than my haircut and new hairstyle. For comparability's sake, however, my hair—outside of the forelocks, which I don't want plastered to my forehead anymore—is unstyled as it was in all my previous pictures.

My mid-scalp area is textured unlike last month thanks to my haircut, hence the density might look comparatively uneven.

\

Maybe it's just the lighting (I had to change a light bulb in this room), but I think my right-mid-temple region looks fuller than it did last month. I was concerned it was irrecoverably depleted; maybe it is for potential subsequent FUEs, but I'm even more self-assured it doesn't have to be an aesthetic issue at the end of the day.

It's too easy to underappreciate how much my crown has improved. It seems impossible it was once a veritable bald spot, and now it's as if I never started balding there. Not that I actually feel that way—I've been self-conscious about it for too long—but I no longer dread turning my back on others since there's no more baldness to expose—just a bare patchlet around the rear downslope, which is plausibly attributable to my cowlick.

For perspective, this my best preop crown picture. If you told me it could look this thick two years later, I'd assume I'd have to swallow my pride and get a hair toupee.

All but completely blended density between the native and transplanted hairs.

It's just still a bit too sparse on my left side—especially around the middle—and I suppose it'll remain as such, though it's nothing complainable. If I had to do another FUE, I'd get a dense-packing touch-up for that area, but I'm certainly not booking another procedure for that alone. Plus, it's easily unnoticeable beyond face-on lighting, and it's concealable even so.

Speaking of which, I'd like to share some experimental hairstyles, the first of which is a potential solution to that minor blemish.

The slickback. It covers whatever paucity of skin is otherwise visible around the forelock since it uses the hair strands to cover it. I had to angle it because of the cowlicks, and I'll hopefully coiffure it better next time now that I'm more familiar with my cowlicks. It definitely has potential.

The short, textured quiff is currently my favorite. The cowlicks are definitely challenging, but I've learned that sidesweeping them helps illude a more natural patten.

Neither are perfect, but they're a start. Hopefully they're better than the fringe hairstyles and buzzcuts I've defaulted to for over a decade. I have more bad-hair days ahead of myself before I perfect my hairdo, but I'll gladly take those over no-hair days.

Barring unexpected breakthroughs, I'll post my next recovery update at the nine-month mark. For the reasons prefaced in this post, it'll probably take that long for more marked improvement.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Trichotrophy

[Melvin- Admin]

Fantastic detailed write-up. I don't agree that 6 months shows the full results. In my experience, having had 4 hair transplants, my growth rates varied. My last hair transplant didn't stop growing until 9 months. I really like the hairline it looks really natural.

[Trichotrophy]

2 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Fantastic detailed write-up. I don't agree that 6 months shows the full results. In my experience, having had 4 hair transplants, my growth rates varied. My last hair transplant didn't stop growing until 9 months. I really like the hairline it looks really natural.

Thanks, and I agree. I didn't mean to say all; I just said most. Whether that means almost all of them or barely the majority is debatable, but I think the truth falls somewhere in that semantic field.

I also didn't mean to generalize since the rate indeed varies; I was just saying in my case—plausibly based on my personal experiences—though I understand I could've worded that more carefully. As I said, I feel most transplanted hairs have already regrown at least once, though I know it may take more shedding cycles before they thicken and strengthen. I'll be open-minded about it either way moving forward, but I'm already satisfied as it is.

Also, if anyone wants a more followable version of this thread, I've posted a summary in the Results section. I'll still post updates here first, but that other thread is more advisable if you're strictly looking to appraise my results.

[memzinla]

Your results are really good!! I also went with Dr. Nader and seeing the pictures of the tacos reminded me of when I had my HT. I'm now 35 and I remember I had my HT at 29 or 30!! I can't believe it's been 5 years.

[AlexMeister21]

Damn, Nader's work looks amazing. I'd be a happy man with what you have now.