Now You See It/Now You Don't (Combover Magic/Self-Delusion)

[StillAlive]

I'm one month out from getting my HT and I wanted to bring up something that many of you have probably experienced. 

Now I'm a NW4 with longish hair and freshly washed, under dim light and combed just right (dark brown hair over a tan scalp) it looks like I may just be a solid NW2 or very early NW3. Mess with it and the ugly truth is fully revealed. Take a photo in direct sunshine and wind? Woohoo, could even be a NW5 boy. 

Have you guys experienced this paranoia? Where one second you check yourself out and you are like 'Hoho, I'm doing pretty good, what HT' and then you just run weeping to a surgeon once your degree of shameful balding is exposed? It's truly mental what a combover will do for lower NW's. I think the one thing that I'll enjoy the most after my HT is having actual hair, all the time, no matter how it is styled. I've almost forgotten how that feels. Now it's like 'Needs to be washed, that long, combed just like that, no wind...' and it's all a bit ridiculous. 

[mister_25]

I’m in the exact same situation. In the correct angle with my hair combed straight back it looks like Im just receding a little bit, just beginning Norwood 3. However slightly tilt my head you can see some clear thinning in my frontal third. Photos from directly above you will see I’m a Norwood 4, if I’m under bright lights and my hair isn’t perfectly combed you will see a pattern of Norwood 5 forming. I’ll post some photos when I can, the paranoia does get to me as well.

[Al - Moderator]

I did that in my teens. I started out with crown loss, so at first I tried combing my hair back to cover the crown. I only got away with that for a few months before the mid scalp and temples started going. At that point I had a lot of mid scalp loss, crown loss, and temple recession, but still had a good frontal tuft and high sides, so I was able to comb my hair over and make it look like I only had crown loss. This only worked for about a year. I remember in high school all the guys were talking about getting a mohawk cut if the football team went to the championship and I was freaking out because I didn't have any hair through the entire center strip. There was no way I'd be able to do it. I would look completely bald. I got lucky and the team lost the next game.

 

[NARMAK]

Here's something that kinda used to get me and post HT is weird for me. 

Before, i was classed as a Norwood 2. A pretty solid NW2 some might say too, but i literally had no temple points. They were receded and even thinning out to behind the sideburn part. After, when i was post op up to say a week, it looked like quite a difference in terms of the visual before and after. The problem however i now have is that i've been growing the hair longer, almost at 3 months soon and it doesn't feel like the hair transplant added as much as it seemed to. 

This is the illusion longer hair and styling it a certain way even like forwards over the transplant gives you and that's why i think it's so important to have pictures and keep on top of the progress month to month. 

I feel like once you get to the final 12 months you then can look back at your before and after properly and really notice how much it visually added to your look.