Eugenix (Drs. Das/Somesh/Vinita) | 11,102 grafts | NW 6/7 | 28 yrs old | 2022/2023/2024

[Gatsby]

Looking good mate. Month four is when the fun starts. 👌

[SLA]

11 hours ago, general-etwan said:

Hello all,

Have some recent pics to share. Been super busy with life. I would never have allowed myself to be this busy if I hadn't chosen to embark on this journey and fix the most fundamental problem I was gifted. Simply having hair, as a young man should, was by far the most important thing I needed to take care of to simply pivot to a feel-good daily life.

4 months post-HT #2; 13 months post-HT #1

Combed backwards for evaluation as requested (I don't wear it like this daily):

 

 

Obviously, considering my original starting point and the massive area to cover, it's not super high density. But the great thing is that really no one even cares or notices. It's enough that it appears as a pretty normal head of hair to the vast majority of people.

Here are some more pics of forward-laying (hair is often just messy; I still wear hats so I don't spend too much time on the style; most days I just spray in a tea tree oil conditioner and ruffle it up and go):

 

 

 

Here you can see the progress on the rear lower crown; growth starting to come in stronger the last few weeks. I have just been buzzing the back and sides myself at home once a week, so don't be too hard on the look; I haven't been getting it consistently professionally faded yet. Once the growth kicks into consistency, then I'll have it faded by my barber every week:

Hairline region:

 

 

And finally, you can see where there is some see-through when looking directly down from the top. This is no surprise; as said earlier, I am very realistic about density. I was thinking about buzzing all the hair shorter to uniform length, but I'm a bit afraid of the density still being too low to match the sides and back, and it looking too diffuse:

 

 

I purchased fibers last month and used them once or twice and yes, they do a good job at visually filling the transparent-risk regions. However, I don't see them as something I want to use on a regular basis as I am very active and have to change my clothes multiple times a day as I engage in varying responsibilities. The fibers come off as dust on your hands and clothing, and ultimately are incompatible with water and the elements.

I am thinking about if there's anything else I'll want to do in the future for appearance of added density. An option as mentioned months back is SMP on the recipient area to create that illusion. If I were to do that, I'd have to buzz my hair all the way down to a short buzz-cut and then have it done. And I would just have it done on the entire top to help even the appearance out with the back and sides as much as possible. If I decide to do this, I'd want to do it this winter. But still undecided as I haven't seen enough cases of it yet to evaluate its success on others.

 

Looking excellent @general-etwan- You are right on track! As you mention, even at this point you have the appearance of a pretty normal head of hair!

As your donor recovers over the coming months and hair grows in, it will reach a new level. I think as you blend the donor with the crown, it will look even better.

Looking forward to seeing how this unfolds over the coming months.

[Al - Moderator]

I think it may look pretty good totally buzzed down if you decide to try that.

 

[HairFunk]

This is coming on nicely. Definitely keep us all updated. Like Gatsby said above this is where the fun starts!

[Steeeve]

On 10/18/2023 at 1:19 AM, general-etwan said:

I am thinking about if there's anything else I'll want to do in the future for appearance of added density. An option as mentioned months back is SMP on the recipient area to create that illusion. If I were to do that, I'd have to buzz my hair all the way down to a short buzz-cut and then have it done. And I would just have it done on the entire top to help even the appearance out with the back and sides as much as possible. If I decide to do this, I'd want to do it this winter. But still undecided as I haven't seen enough cases of it yet to evaluate its success on others.

First of all, you have made the most impressive progress from where you started. Congrats because it’s only going to get better and better.

You don’t necessarily have to shave your entire head to get smp performed unless you just want to. Most places will fill in those weak areas without shaving. There are a lot of examples on the forum but you really have to do some digging. Check out Ahead Ink on Instagram. They have a ton of examples of guys who didn’t shave their heads.

Also, maybe I missed it and you said it but I would wait until your hair fully matures before pursuing smp. I would want to know what my coverage looks like at fruition before filling in any gaps-again, you may have mentioned it and I’m talking out of my a$$. My apologies, if so.

On the opposite side of not having to necessarily shave your head, I also agree as others do that you would look great if you shaved your head at this point. You might look like a guy with some diffuse loss but your current coverage should really make a difference from where you started. You were a pretty bald guy Pre-HT so you’ve already seen the worst that it could ever be. It’s all uphill from here.

Congrats! I look forward to following this to the end.

[asterix0]

So actually, for a diffuse thinner, a buzz cut makes things less noticeable because the hair is more orderly. Since you now have a hairline to frame your face it could potentially be a winning combination with smp.

What is important though is to pick the right smp clinic, and have them make it subtle. Light smp of the donor and recipient will look much more natural than full blown smp which most of the time is very obvious in person, due to it being shiny and eventually changing cover over time.

So, long story short, light, spaced out smp that makes you look a little balding overall is the way to go. As Dr. Zarev said for example, it is much better for a transplant to look natural than it is to have either very high density, or a very straight hairline, or anything else that would make the common person think twice when they see it.

[general-etwan]

On 10/20/2023 at 5:04 PM, asterix0 said:

So actually, for a diffuse thinner, a buzz cut makes things less noticeable because the hair is more orderly. Since you now have a hairline to frame your face it could potentially be a winning combination with smp.

What is important though is to pick the right smp clinic, and have them make it subtle. Light smp of the donor and recipient will look much more natural than full blown smp which most of the time is very obvious in person, due to it being shiny and eventually changing cover over time.

So, long story short, light, spaced out smp that makes you look a little balding overall is the way to go. As Dr. Zarev said for example, it is much better for a transplant to look natural than it is to have either very high density, or a very straight hairline, or anything else that would make the common person think twice when they see it.

Yeah, definitely will consider this over the coming months.

[Melvin- Admin]

I’m gonna go against the grain, don’t buzz. You’re gonna look way balder. You’re back to basline. This is where the fun starts. I would keep the same style. You can use hair volumizing powders that don’t come off, they’re actually hard to get off with regular water. 

[general-etwan]

Sorry Melvin, read your comment too late. I went to my barber and he really insisted that we go short. He is really good at his artistry and even though I was nervous I said fine let's do it. He is not a fan of the bangs alongside the current crown situation and insisted we get rid of them for now. I like how it came out. I can grow it back out when the 2nd HT region catches up fully with the surrounding area.

 

 

Experimented with adding some fibers in the back half of the top and crown and think it helps for now:

 

 

^ This right here is getting impressive, I think. First full day I went out and about without sporting a hat at all and felt like the fear that I've always had of the "ring pattern" being super obvious finally went away. Rubbing some fibers into the crown area really helped. Not perfect yet, but such a recovery so far.

Edited October 28, 2023 by general-etwan

[Technoir]

Massive improvement on your starting point and the haircut really brings it up a notch.

 

And with more to come!

 

Congrats man.

[Murat-kz]

On 10/28/2023 at 10:34 AM, general-etwan said:

Sorry Melvin, read your comment too late. I went to my barber and he really insisted that we go short. He is really good at his artistry and even though I was nervous I said fine let's do it. He is not a fan of the bangs alongside the current crown situation and insisted we get rid of them for now. I like how it came out. I can grow it back out when the 2nd HT region catches up fully with the surrounding area.

 

 

Experimented with adding some fibers in the back half of the top and crown and think it helps for now:

 

 

^ This right here is getting impressive, I think. First full day I went out and about without sporting a hat at all and felt like the fear that I've always had of the "ring pattern" being super obvious finally went away. Rubbing some fibers into the crown area really helped. Not perfect yet, but such a recovery so far.

Nice! How about a staright frontal photo?

[Al - Moderator]

Looking good

[asterix0]

So yeah I think some light SMP in your donor if you keep that short on the sides cut would really complete the look. But probably isn't even necessary to do that. 

[Melvin- Admin]

On 10/27/2023 at 9:34 PM, general-etwan said:

Sorry Melvin, read your comment too late. I went to my barber and he really insisted that we go short. He is really good at his artistry and even though I was nervous I said fine let's do it. He is not a fan of the bangs alongside the current crown situation and insisted we get rid of them for now. I like how it came out. I can grow it back out when the 2nd HT region catches up fully with the surrounding area.

 

 

Experimented with adding some fibers in the back half of the top and crown and think it helps for now:

 

 

^ This right here is getting impressive, I think. First full day I went out and about without sporting a hat at all and felt like the fear that I've always had of the "ring pattern" being super obvious finally went away. Rubbing some fibers into the crown area really helped. Not perfect yet, but such a recovery so far.

Actually, I like this, I thought you meant buzzed at a zero. I think this length is perfect.

[Silent123]

Hey man, this is looking really good !

[Melvin- Admin]

Did a comparison, wow what a difference 

[Steeeve]

1 minute ago, Melvin- Admin said:

Did a comparison, wow what a difference 

This is remarkable.  @general-etwan, you’re not even close to the finish line but you’re already another @Eugenix Hair Sciences GOAT.

[nevo]

How many grafts? Use beard also i guess?

[nevo]

I also want to ask i know tgey take from the side locks it is like scalp hair?

[general-etwan]

On 10/29/2023 at 8:04 AM, Murat-kz said:

Nice! How about a staright frontal photo?

No product, no filters, harsh light.

[general-etwan]

57 minutes ago, nevo said:

How many grafts? Use beard also i guess?

8,300 total, 1,300 of which were beard and 7,000 scalp. 

Just now, nevo said:

I also want to ask i know tgey take from the side locks it is like scalp hair?

Yes, they used side lock hair in the 2nd procedure. I had pretty thick sidelock hair still so yes, it is acceptable to use as standard "scalp" hair but is used in the midscalp and crown area; never the hairline area which needs to be softer.

[general-etwan]

First, thanks for the recent comments everyone. Definitely thankful for the growth all the way through thus far.

I want to say though that man, what a difference just a few days after a fade cut makes, and not in a good way. First, let me share some more pics of the situation before I got the fade cut.

 

The diffuse look on the sides was no surprise, as I have always suffered from this since my teens and know it's not just going to go away. I think finasteride and minoxidil has somewhat maintained the situation from getting even worse there, but this is that length where the diffuse retrograde loss is obvious...shorter helps hide it and longer will help hide it too.

Now, last Friday I got the fade cut which you all saw me post. Looked great, I agree, and the "horseshoe" pattern was minimized by my barber's technique, or so it appeared. 

But just 3 days later, the donor area is outpacing the recipient area again as usual and the dreaded pattern is back:

Do you think that my barber took the cut too high into the crown area? Now I think he did. But I think it was out of ignorance because he does not know that these areas are currently behaving different from each other; he may just assume it all grows at the same rate/length and that his fade would maintain the same contrast over the days.

It kind of seems like he made a fade "boundary" here | When it should be more here:

 

I absolutely dread this horseshoe pattern making its return so quickly. The acceptable contrast didn't even last 3 full days.

I know it's still early after my 2nd HT (only 4.5 months) but I still think that just looking at the difference between the areas, the density in the lower crown is still substantially lower than the density of the rear donor area. I know that's usually a reality of hair transplants. I just detest this look from the back and need to have a plan to extinguish this phenomena for good going forward. 

I expect that a few more months down the line, the hair in the lower crown will be able to be kept a little longer than the rear donor and hopefully will look more balanced; something more in the direction of this:

But the thing is, this guy's hair will all grow at the same pace; he does not require constant fades to maintain proper balance. His lower crown hair and rear donor area hair will grow together, and the lower crown hair will remain longer and more dense looking than his upper neck area from this point forward. With me, I don't know if that will ever happen.

On 10/29/2023 at 6:47 PM, asterix0 said:

So yeah I think some light SMP in your donor if you keep that short on the sides cut would really complete the look. But probably isn't even necessary to do that. 

I see what you mean about the donor area, and SMP could definitely be used to fill in those tiny lighter spaces where the grafts were taken. However, my more crucial concern right now is the area above. I feel that if I am to go for a consultation on SMP, I'm going to want it done in this area, to try to make everything appear more uniform:

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by general-etwan

[general-etwan]

Additionally, and this may or may not end up being a major concern, I notice that it seems like my temple areas have continued to recede, despite me being on finasteride and using minoxidil every day. After the fade cut, you can see a gap between where the transplanted hair on the temples ends and the "thick" native hair begins. Or, maybe it was always in the works and it just wasn't as noticeable before.

 

It may be that I just won't be able to end up wearing my temple areas this short in the long run. I don't know. 

I think the unfortunate reality is I may be destined to perpetually move towards a boundary shown here in red:

 

Finasteride and minoxidil may not be strong enough to prevent that. I don't know what would be, or if there is any hope for that area at all.

[GeneralNorwood]

I would try out 2 options

A) You keep same haircut like now, but without buzzing lower crown, let it grow. 

B) You let temple hair grow longer and sides grow longer for next 2-3 months. Then you try this fade, which keeps temple hair longer, but area above the ear is cutted very short  :

 

  

 

Idea of option B is to let temple hair to grow so ilussion of density will start to work and to mask weaker area above the ear by cutting it short. 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

@general-etwan

I deal with the same thing, to an extent every high Norwood does, the way to minimize the contrast is by keeping your fade low. You do a low taper fade, this won’t look as good as it did the first day you had the high fade, but it will look better for a longer period. 

Another option, though more tedious is fading your hair yourself. I cut my own hair. It’s saved me money, but most importantly. I know exactly how to cut it so it conceals scars and thin spots.

Have you considered switching to dutasteride? It is 100% much stronger than finasteride, and it may work wonders. I believe @Bandit90 switched.