Dr Mwamba June 2022 - Asli Tarcan botch job repair

[RTC]

As I said, the photos are not high enough quality to see the issues. I can assure you it's very pluggy and the first two or so cm of my hairline are classic Turkish botch, see-through.

[BaldReaper]

49 minutes ago, RTC said:

Photo is very deceiving. It's extremely pluggy. If I had HD photos you would see the issue. i just want to remove the hairline now

Can you post a revealing photo then?

[Melvin- Admin]

The hairline looks pretty good in these pictures. But, repairs are always tricky, especially when you’re camouflaging previous poor work. I think one second pass would get you to where you wanna be. The good news is you have a solid baseline.

[BaldingtimetoLdar]

Although it's probably not as noticeable further away, I can see why you're disappointed. Good luck on your repair if you decide to go for another transplant.

[Doron Harati]

Much better than before, the donor looks very good now and the hairline got better, as a botched fellow by a hair mill in Turkey I completely can understand you, we need a tremendous mental strength to go through repair journeys, I wish you'll achive your goal and keep updating us👍🏻

[Dillpickle123]

I get why you mean by the density def needs a few hundred grafts more 

[CharlesBarkley]

On 5/11/2023 at 1:27 PM, RTC said:

You can see that the left side in particular is very thin and not dense. This is not a very high res photo as it's the front-facing camera, but the hairline is still pluggy and and thin for the first 2 cm.

 

Wow, the change you have had is really good. 
Those temples are shaping your face again in a very natural way. 
And the hairline looks quite good too. 

You are right that sometimes the quality of the photo could mislead, so we will have to see better quality photos to give a final assesstment, but man, I like what I see. And again, your donor is great for another round if you would be up to that.

[hairlossburner1234]

I know it's not where you want to be yet but honestly I think it looks great. 10X better than before

[SXP92]

On 5/2/2023 at 7:46 AM, RTC said:

Hey everyone

Progress has been very mixed

The back looks a 100 times better but could still be improved.

Hairline shape and temples look much more refined and natural.

The top has not grown in.

I'll be going to visit the Doc later this month and will make decisions then.

Any updates on how meeting with Mwamba went? what's next?

[RTC]

38 minutes ago, SXP92 said:

Any updates on how meeting with Mwamba went? what's next?

Hey bro

So there is no definitive answer about why the hairline didn't grow in, but a possible reason speculated on by Dr Mwamba is that too much may have been happening at the same time - too many new grafts and punch outs on the hairline, this causing trauma etc. Maybe too much attempted density is something I feel could have contributed too.

While the hairline isn't great, I am tempted to shave my hair down to see what the state of the 'botch corners' are - they seem like they're a little denser than before the op with Mwamba, but I can't tell for sure right now.

We discussed removing (and recycling to the FHL) a few more grafts from around my hairline/temple points (maybe 50 in total), and doing a small harvest of the dark patch at the bottom of my donor, to be used in the FHL.

This would be a couple of hundred grafts at the most to be used in the FHL. This way we could keep things under control better and not overload the area with too many grafts. While I know this would not be enough to get full density or coverage, anything is better than nothing, and plus I want to get rid of some ugly grafts around my temple points anyway, that could be better put to work in the front. I definitely do not want to take another 1000 grafts from my donor to try and fix the front when there's no guarantee of growth.

I also want a couple of hundred beard grafts to be put in my donor to improve it even more. After that, I think I'm done with all this (I hope).

But I am taking my time making a decision on this right now as I want to explore all my options. 

Unfortunately, I am finding that most doctors just want nothing at all to do with punch-outs or beard grafts. As a result, many of the doctors I have enquired with just point blank refuse or start ghosting. 

Regardless, I won't take any action until I'm certain in my decision. 

[RTC]

[RTC]

The donor doesn't look bad when shaved down. But when grown out for a week or two the right side shows a large barren batch (again, way better than before though).

[HappyMan2021]

6 hours ago, RTC said:

most doctors just want nothing at all to do with punch-outs

can you clarify, do you mean they don't want to deal with extracting badly angled recipient grafts? 

that is really dumb as extracting badly angled grafts is basically the same process as extracting fresh/new grafts from the donor area. 

If you only have a handful of badly angled grafts, I would maybe consider electrolysis before your next surgery. It's helpful too that it seems these bad angled grafts aren't around dense hair. 

[RTC]

1 minute ago, HappyMan2021 said:

can you clarify, do you mean they don't want to deal with extracting badly angled recipient grafts? 

that is really dumb as extracting badly angled grafts is basically the same process as extracting fresh/new grafts from the donor area. 

If you only have a handful of badly angled grafts, I would maybe consider electrolysis before your next surgery. It's helpful too that it seems these bad angled grafts aren't around dense hair. 

Two quite highly rated doctors have said point blank - 'we absolutely do not extract grafts from the hairline'. I guess they are worried about scarring, but as you can see from my photos, I have maybe maximum 50 grafts, if that, on my temple.

I'd much rather try to recycle them than waste them, as I need all the potential grafts I can get.

Very frustrating and really does reduce the pool of potential surgeons.

[RTC]

Donor definitely needs more work

 

Edited June 12, 2023 by RTC

[Konsole93]

Hi, I know  some friends who are born with such a patchy donor or have many scsrs i would leave it for now.

 

In your dispenser you can see punches at the bottom, was hair taken from there too? If so, from mwamba or the other clinic?

That's well below the semi safe zone, were the soft singles used for the hairline? Otherwise the work looks really  good by mwamba. I like the temples very much.

Personally, I don't like the arrangement of mwamba in the hairline in general. But that's a matter of taste, I like the irregular arrangement of the grafts.

Do you still have soft singles for the hair line? , otherwise you would have to use normal singles or share mutlis.

[RTC]

18 minutes ago, Konsole93 said:

Hi, I know  some friends who are born with such a patchy donor or have many scsrs i would leave it for now.

 

In your dispenser you can see punches at the bottom, was hair taken from there too? If so, from mwamba or the other clinic?

That's well below the semi safe zone, were the soft singles used for the hairline? Otherwise the work looks really  good by mwamba. I like the temples very much.

Personally, I don't like the arrangement of mwamba in the hairline in general. But that's a matter of taste, I like the irregular arrangement of the grafts.

Do you still have soft singles for the hair line? , otherwise you would have to use normal singles or share mutlis.

Yes those nape hairs were used for temples

[SXP92]

On 6/12/2023 at 5:25 AM, RTC said:

Donor definitely needs more work

 

If Mwamba's beard grafts to your donor area grew in well, I feel like it would be a safe bet to use him again for additional donor area repair work.

Also, I definitely think it's smart to maybe go for something smaller in the botch corners the next time around. To at least see if anything will grow there before committing to putting in a larger number of grafts in there. 

[gillenator]

On 6/12/2023 at 6:25 AM, RTC said:

Donor definitely needs more work

 

Based on these photos, IMHO you have very good hair quality with your terminal native hair.

[RTC]

7 hours ago, SXP92 said:

If Mwamba's beard grafts to your donor area grew in well, I feel like it would be a safe bet to use him again for additional donor area repair work.

Also, I definitely think it's smart to maybe go for something smaller in the botch corners the next time around. To at least see if anything will grow there before committing to putting in a larger number of grafts in there. 

This is my idea bro. I don't want a large procedure for the next time. Very small and refined.

[RTC]

4 hours ago, gillenator said:

Based on these photos, IMHO you have very good hair quality with your terminal native hair.

Thanks Gill - what is terminal hair tho?

[Turkhair]

3 minutes ago, RTC said:

Thanks Gill - what is terminal hair tho?

Thick coarse hair as opposed to vellus hair

I guess he means your hairs aren’t miniaturised and terminal healthy hairs 

[RTC]

What would you guys estimate I'd need to improve my hairline? I actually think the botch corners have got denser - I'm finding it hard to see the skin in those areas. The only way I'll know for sure is if I shave it though

[botchedguy95]

On 6/15/2023 at 10:10 PM, RTC said:

What would you guys estimate I'd need to improve my hairline? I actually think the botch corners have got denser - I'm finding it hard to see the skin in those areas. The only way I'll know for sure is if I shave it though

It looks perfect mate, even in the sun it looks very dense and natural, how do you feel about it?

[RTC]

Very misleading, and the left side of my hairline especially has hairs that stick directly up and show just how thin and pathetic the hairline is.

In reality i should have those hairs extracted, re-implanted, and then do another surgery to reconstruct a new hairline.

But staying on one year waiting lists for consultations, having an interim NW3 hairline for months, and doing multiple hair transplants is just unfeasible and a horrible prospect. I am neither rich nor patient enough to wait years to fix this.

Edited June 18, 2023 by RTC