Early Review draft of Dr Diep transplant repaired by Dr Shapiro, 2066 grafts.

[HairRun]

I'm only two months in, but I wanted to start a draft while the memories of the procedure are still fresh, but I'm going to forgot a lot of it by the time a year is up. I'll be updating this every month or so. 

When going through possible surgeons for my repair transplant, I always felt that there was always a certain weightiness in how people describe Dr Shapiro.

I think he might be the most cited surgeon among top hair transplant industry people. My impression from what people say about him is that he's a guy dedicated to learning and teaching, expressed through the books and research papers he's published. He loved conferences and sharing what he learned and learning from others.

From my research, I concluded that he's best in the world for complicated hair transplant cases. I find it really apt that he's in Minnesota, also home the Mayo Clinic, which is often cited best in the world for complicated medical cases.

I remember I saw Melvin once describe him as the most ethical person on the face of the planet. I remember seeing Dr Konior once imploring a patient to go back to Shapiro once he found out he was a former patient. Dr Mwamba said his favorite hair transplant surgeon is Dr Shapiro because he still loves to learn from others, even with his many years of experience. He is also said to be a top choice for hair transplant surgeons themselves to get a procedure.

I would consider myself a complicated case. I had my first transplant with a surgeon whose techniques were described as bad from other top hair transplant surgeons, and what appeared to me as an inexperienced staff, which left me with a lot of complications. But even within the type of techniques that surgeon is known for, I might have had a low yield , and that I may need a skin biopsy to determine if I am a suitable hair transplant patient, and described in this comment

https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/63522-has-anyone-repaired-a-procedure-done-by-dr-diep-who-did-you-go-to-and-how-did-it-turn-out/?do=findComment&comment=641083

So I really wanted to go with the most medically knowledgeable guy in hair transplantation, and I felt that it was likely Dr Shapiro, and the procedure lived up to the hype of my research. It feels really good to be in a similar situation where you ended making the wrong decision the first time, then you make the absolute right decision this time around.

Also wanted to give a shoutout to his patient advisor, Matt Zupan. Over the course of a year, he must've given me couple of hours of advice for my hair transplant journey. It was all massively useful and I am very grateful for it.

Day of the Procedure

I show up around 7 and get photos done and then pick my lunch choice from a menu. I then talk to Dr Shapiro. Matt Zupan had provided him with my entire case history. For this procedure, I wanted to go conservative, for a few reasons.

First is that I wanted a smaller procedure, just in case I somehow get a poor yield again (by now I think the yield will likely be good), which I knew was very less likely with Dr Shapiro than with my first transplant doctor, but I still had a lingering doubt, especially after that one biopsy comment.

2nd is I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted for my final hairline at the moment. I liked the idea of building up the base, and then going from there.

3rd is that I would have needed two procedures anyway, or at least that was the thinking at the time. At the time they were thinking they wouldn't have time to relocate the badly transplanted grafts, and they would do it in a future procedure. So I figured But they ended up doing the punchouts in that procedure. 

4th, I heard FUEis better for hairlines, because they can select the exact grafts for the best overall visuals.

5th, also not really sure if this true, but I wanted to focus all of my body's healing into fewer grafts. I'm thinking maybe this might not be the case, but here's a discussion on it https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/65893-is-there-an-increased-risk-for-doing-megasessions-lower-yield/

6th, actually I wasn't thinking of this at the time, but a smaller FUTprocedure would tax the remaining scalp elasticity more. At 2 months post-op, my scalp still feels a bit tight, and the cutout area a bit sore at times.

I showed him some pictures from some of my older days, where I was a bit into my hairliness, of where I wanted my hairline to be. He came up with a hairline which I thought was a bit more skinnier than that. I was thinking of maybe asking to widen it a bit but I decided to go for it since I was biased to having a smaller procedure. Dr Shapiro also mentioned they can build up on it later, which was what I was thinking as well.

We also discussed Acell and PRP, but Dr Shapiro said Exomes are better, so I opted for that.

Next, I can't exactly remember the order of the next steps, but the following happened.

I think the next part was considering where to take the FUTcutouts. He mentioned that my previous surgeon took the FUTin too high of a region, and he seemed to be considering a lot in where to take the cutouts. Even before the procedure, I had suspected there there may be other complications that I wasn't aware of, and It was moments like this when I was glad I was doing the procedure with a highly experienced surgeon who has seen it all. I remember he was asking questions about my old procedure, I think not just to plan the current one, but he was just genuinely curious about it. He's been very much described as a curious person, who always has the wheels turning about transplantation, and it was cool to seem doing it in person.

For the steps where I was laying down, I can't account every single thing since I was dozing in and out of sleep (I didn't sleep much the previous night)

I think the next part was the anesthesia. The whole staff seemed really experienced, and at several points Dr Shapiro wanted to hear their thoughts on how this part was going, which I think speaks a lot about the staff. I was surprised at how long this took, they seemed to take their time and they seemed to be very focused on precision. They asked a lot of questions about what exactly I was feeling on each part of my head. At my first procedure I believe he just gave me some meds and and a few shots, but I didn't feel anything at that procedure either. Dr Shapiro asked me if Dr Diep did a procedure like this during my first transplant, I said they didn't. Dr Shapiro said they probably used a novacaine shot. But actually after the procedure I looked at the record for the first procedure and they did indeed use Anesthesia. I wonder if there was any consequence for the detailed vs rushed procedure. For my first procedure, my scalp didn't have feeling about a year from the procedure, which is normal. However, after Dr Shapiro's procedure, about two months later I have feeling return on just about everywhere on my scalp except for a region at my left-back. So this might be a result of the time they took for the anesthesia step.

During this step, I saw a Matt Zupan-looking blur (I wasn't wearing my glasses). I had been speaking to him over phone for a year, but this was my first time talking to him in real life. When I was having lunch, I got to chat more with him (this time with my glasses).

Dr Shapiro did all the incisions himself. This step took a while. One difference I noticed between my two procedures is that Dr Shapiro made each of the incisions one at a time. As for my first procedure, I felt that Dr Diep was using a tool that had many points on it, so that he could create multiple slits at the same time.

At some point I look up and see a Dr Josephitis looking blur (I wasn't wearing my glasses lol). I recognized him from their youtube videos. Dr Josephitis did the punchouts of the badly placed grafts from my first procedure. He said there was about a 100 on each side, and that he used the smallest punch. I gave him his own review here

The last step was the graft placement. This was done by 2, maybe 3 techs (I wasn't wearing my glasses). Dr Shapiro stepped out for a bit during this part. After a while Dr Shapiro came back in and analyzed the progress, then made some more incisions, and planned and guided out what to do with the rest of the grafts.

At the end I got to see what it looked like. I was a bit shocked lol because I have never seen my self bald/bald-ish before. It looked like I was out of an apocalyptic future because I looked really old and the recipient area was a bit bloody. I opted for the conservative hairline for this round, but it was a bit surprising to see it in the post-op phase.

After this, there was the debrief. Dr Shapiro said that the grafts were in there pretty good but friction, like where you directly rub against them, good lodge them out. From this description, it seemed like they were really in there, compared to my first procedure. I remember after my first hair transplant procedure, I dropped something and went to pick it up, and Dr Diep and his two technicians freaked out because they didn't want me to mess up my transplant. They said that I shouldn't lean over for the next couple days. So it seems like in my first procedure, the grafts were looser than this procedure at end of the day. I think this had to do with Dr Shapiro doing all the incisions himself and being very precise about it. Vs Using a tool with multiple points to create many incisions at the same time (if that's what happened). I feel like with the current transplant, I could probably pick something off the floor and not worry about loose grafts, but I wanted to be safer than sorry so I stayed upright for the first 2-3 nights, including sleeping upright.

When I got back to my hotel room I was still a little perturbed by the sight of me lol, but it got a lot better once the excess blood came off with the ATP solution they gave me. It was a liposomal ATP solution that you're supposed to spray on your head every 30 minutes. Eventually after spray sessions, the excess blood came off and I was looking at a lot better.

The next day I went to the clinic for a wash and followup. After the wash, the medical professional said she was going to press any sticking out grafts back in, but she couldn't find any. In fact, she said I was a fast healer, which was cool to hear, especially as I was worried about potential yield issues.

The next several days I spend camping out in my hotel room. After a few days, I went to take a tour of the legendary Mayo Clinic. The people who gave me the tour said that they focus on accepting people with the most complex cases. I thought it was a great coincidence because I want to Dr Shapiro's clinic for that same reason.

The day of my flight, I went back for a 2nd followup to make sure everything was ok. They're really good with aftercare, and gave me the number of one of the medical professionals to text in case something comes up.

There was a few things I was nervous about post procedure. One was scarring, I scar easily and was worried about polkadot scars at my temples. 10 days post I can tell you the punch outs healed without a trace.

https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/65667-review-excerpt-about-200-temple-punchouts-from-dr-david-josephitis-of-shapiro-medical-group-repair-to-transplant-by-dr-john-diep-10-days-out-and-did-exsomes-regenerate-my-hair-and-prevent-scarring/

There is however, some discoloration, not from this procedure, but from the first one, it's something I've sorta noticed but with the hairs removed it's easier to see. I hope to cover some of it in my next procedure.

The final concern was the yield, though one thing that was very promising is that all the grafts grew a bit before falling out. Around 1 month in started feeling new stubble. 2 months in, I'm feeling more of new stubble as I run my fingers through it. I'm addicted to feeling my scalp stubble lol. And this is only month 2, which is technically still the ugly ducking month.

The next step for me is to finished off my temples. For my next transplant, I'm going to really enjoy it. I enjoyed the last one a lot since it's been a process I've been fascinated for a while now, but my lingering concerns about scarring and yield prevented me from fully enjoying it. I'm going to really enjoy the next one.

Besides the hair transplant, I have some other things to look forward about. Dr Shapiro convinced me to use a laser hat. If someone like Dr Shapiro says it helps, then I'll definitely try it. Dr Shapiro also recommended oral minoxidil. I also started using retinols in my hair (advice from David Sinclair). It's a bit early to tell, but the oral minoxidil seems to making my eye brows thicker, not something I desire lol, but maybe this a promising sign my head hair will follow? Though It may be that I wasn't paying attention before, but it it works out this may allow me to opt for full face framing in the future, with temple point restoration and everything.

Finally, and this something I am very excited for, is that I can use my beard grafts. I have a really thick, dense, and fast growing beard, which I am not really into. In my early 20s I tried shaving 2x a day before getting too lazy to continue. I think I would be a really strong beard donor recipient but my issue was (or so I thought) is that I scar easily, and I didn't want to have polkadot scars. So it was kind of frustrating that I had a source of maybe thousands of grafts on my face that I don't care for, but wasn't able to use on my head. But after I saw results of Dr Josephitis punchouts, it's like those are finally unlocked. I can't wait to use them, not only for more coverage on the scalp, but also to make shaving a less pain in the ass. I've been researching a lot about beard grafts since. Something else cool that I figured out is that the neck heals really fast since it's a vascular area.

My only issue is that my beard grayed faster than the rest of my hair, especially during the worst of the pandemic. I'm hoping it may be a bit more stabilized so that the black ones can still be transplanted. I've been taking a copper glycerinate supplement 2x a day, eating more bivalves, supplementing with magnesium, and trying to sleep as much as possible.

Even without these, I was thinking about being optimizing the front in general. At first I wanted to spare them in case my crown goes, but I've learned that the first doesn't take as many grafts as the crown, and actually the crown is like a black hole due to the swirl. Aesthetically, the front is much more efficient because the front frames your face. I was worried about ending up like Joe Biden, but being more educated, it won't looks like that since there's enough grafts with the mid too. It would more likely end up like Jon Stewart, who also had crown loss, but I think he looks good since he has good framing of the face. 

Finally, thanks from the bottom of my heart to the community and all the help I received navigating my transplant journey. I found this subreddit by accident, I would have had a very different journey without it.  

Now for pictures

Day 0/1

month 0.5, right before grafts started falling out 

I wish I took more pictures, but it looks like all the grafts grew right? Might be a good sign for yield 

 

 

 

Month 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by HairRun

[HappyMan2021]

Can you clarify why you think Shapiro specifically is a good repair doctor? 

Im a repair patient myself and Shapiro is almost never mentioned in threads specifically as a repair surgeon. 

The gold standard in repairs always seems to point to Bisanga, Cooley, Mwamba, and Feriduni. 

I completely agree with you Shapiro is a world class and world renowned doctor, im just unaware he specifically excels in repairs. 

Maybe it just depends specifically on what your repair entails. 

I feel like a lot of repair patients go to H&W too even though they arent specifically promoted as being repair docs. 

[mrmane85]

Really enjoyed that write up. 

Do you have any pre-op pictures you can share?

[Berba11]

7 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

Can you clarify why you think Shapiro specifically is a good repair doctor? 

Im a repair patient myself and Shapiro is almost never mentioned in threads specifically as a repair surgeon. 

The gold standard in repairs always seems to point to Bisanga, Cooley, Mwamba, and Feriduni. 

I completely agree with you Shapiro is a world class and world renowned doctor, im just unaware he specifically excels in repairs. 

Maybe it just depends specifically on what your repair entails. 

I feel like a lot of repair patients go to H&W too even though they arent specifically promoted as being repair docs. 

Pretty much all top doctors can do repair work. It’s not necessarily harder to do as long as it’s well planned. Graft removal from the hairline is still just extraction similar to any other (but typically with the smallest possible punch). 
 

Our ability to refer to a particular clinic as a “repair specialist” is largely limited by whether or not a repair patient posts their journey to forums or how actively a given clinic promotes their work on social channels. 
 

Why wouldn’t Shapiro excel in repairs? What technical requirements greatly differ in this type of repair work to other HT work?

[Buck Naked]

Excellent write up and thank you for sharing. 

[HairRun]

On 10/30/2022 at 7:11 PM, HappyMan2021 said:

Can you clarify why you think Shapiro specifically is a good repair doctor? 

Im a repair patient myself and Shapiro is almost never mentioned in threads specifically as a repair surgeon. 

The gold standard in repairs always seems to point to Bisanga, Cooley, Mwamba, and Feriduni. 

I completely agree with you Shapiro is a world class and world renowned doctor, im just unaware he specifically excels in repairs. 

Maybe it just depends specifically on what your repair entails. 

I feel like a lot of repair patients go to H&W too even though they arent specifically promoted as being repair docs. 

Great question. One factor I was looking for is who has the most knowledge regarding hair transplants, so they could use that knowledge to prescribe the best course possible for repair. I came to the conclusion that it's Dr Shapiro. Two thinks that were very green flags was his curiosity, and sharing. Curiosity means that he lives/eats/breathes hair transplants and always looking to learn new information. Sharing means that he has learned new things and would like to share his findings and passions for others. I think the other people you mention all have those characteristics, but from what I could find online, Dr Shapiro has the most examples of these. 

On 10/31/2022 at 12:08 AM, mrmane85 said:

Really enjoyed that write up. 

Do you have any pre-op pictures you can share?

Yup, coming up in the 2.25 month update. 

[HairRun]

Month 4 day 25 update. 

Thinks are going great. I didn't update as much as I planned to, but the ugly ducking phase was pretty short. I don't think I experienced shock loss in the front and my native hairs grew back pretty fast. I shed most of the implanted grafts on schedule around 10-14 days. Most were a few cms in length with a 90 degree fold at the end. And a few weeks later I think the new crop grew in. At 3 months my front was already above baseline, and all I had to do was use toppick in the central. I think my front is generally pretty fast, as you can see in my initial pics, even like 2 days post op the grafts were already a little longer. I think I have a really robust frontal area.

Right now the front is looking really good to me. If right now it would be the final result for the front, I would be completely satisfied

Pics of the front, looking really good and natural, though there's hairs left over from my very first procedure with  Dr Diep, ignore those, I'll explain those further below. This is high lighting so not super flattering but wanted to show as much detail as possible 

The Mid section didn't come out as ultra fast as the front, but chugging along

As you can see on the pics, it seems that not all of the weird grafts from my first procedure were able to get removed. For sure that's impossible to do in a single step since some grafts are always in the telegen phase, but a bunch grew out really quickly. I learned that for implanted grafts, sometimes they grow in really unpredictable patterns , so using the FUE method, it might miss the core of the graft. I saw a video from Dr Bisanga where he would kind of fish around to get the whole graft. I don't think I would like to do that to get the rest out, because of the risk of scarring. But very luckily, most of them are more towards the back, and I wanted to lower my corners to below that area anyway, so they would actually help out with the corner filling. There's maybe 2-3 hairs below my final desired hairline area, which I don't mind having to pluck every once on a while. 

#Building Upon
 

I would like to fill up the corners a bit more. I think you might be thinking why didn't I just do that with the first procedure. The initial thinking was that it would initially be two procedures, one for the reinforcement, and then whatever was in front of the hairline would be relocated in the future. So I figured if I am going to have 2 procedures, I rather split up as much as possible. I wanted to focus my healing on a smaller number of grafts. I actually wanted to go lower than the 2000-2500 grafts quoted. 2000-2500 was what most of the clinics quoted me, HassanAndWang was higher at I think 4000, and Dr Nadimi was lower at 1500, so I just went with 1500, but Matt Zupan talked me back to 2000 and I am glad he did. He said that 2000 would be a minimal end of coverage. He also mentioned that it's better to focus on getting the front/mid right than the crown. I wasn't quite on board with that at the time, but looking into it more I am absolutely on board with that, as described blow. 

But anyway, they were actually able to do both the punchouts and reinforcement in the first procedure. If I knew that was going to happen, I still would have gone to the more conservative side and build up on a future procedure because I wasn't ready to think about my final hairline, I was more worried about if there was too much scar tissue in my first procedure to prevent grafts from being implanted [Dr Shapiro said it wasn't a problem]. Also, I think Dr Shapiro knew where I was coming from because at consultation he also said we can always build upon it.

I think even if I did try to finalize my hairline, it would have still be more on the conservative side of preference because at the time I wanted to save as much grafts as possible for in case my crown goes, because I didn't want to end up with a Joe Biden style hair style. Though I'm realizing now that since I'll probably have enough grafts for the mid, it wouldn't look like Joe Biden, it'll look like Jon Stewart [he has crown loss], who looks pretty good and I would be a-ok with that style as I go into my older years.

Also, I'm realizing that if my crown is going, it's going at a really slow rate. I recently did a comparison with my 2017 pics [when I started tracking my crown] and today, and it seems to be the same, maybe a little bit better though that's hard to tell because the lighting, camera, and hair style is different. But it certainly feels that I have to work a bit harder to part my hair to see the crown loss in recent weeks. I started oral minoxidil about 4-5 months ago, and microdosing topical dutasteride about 2 months ago. For sure I am a responder to oral minoxidil at least for body and donor area hair, a bit harder to tell for the top. The microdosing of  topical dut will take longer to tell but  I am optimistic that I was able to find at least some sort of -asteride regimin that works for me. At my consultation with Dr Shapiro, he mentioned that I could try topical dut when he heard that topical fin isn't working, because dut is a higher molecular weight so it doesn't penetrate as fast, as I think it's working. It's not apples to apples because I am only using it on my crown, but so far I haven't felt any side effects. 

During my last phone call with Matt Zupan before the procedure, he mentioned about focusing on the front more than the crown. I didn't know he meant at the time, but doing some background research since my procedure, the crown isn't really an effective place to put grafts. It's less vascular, so grafts my not take effectively as the rest. Also, the curve makes it really hard to get coverage. I've seen it described as a black hole for grafts. Finally, in terms of aesthetic impact, I learned about 'framing the face' and how the front changes the perception of the face, I didn't realize that at first, I thought it was more of a pure older/younger looking thing, but I now realize that the hairline contributes to how the face is perceived, and I want to go all in on that. 

Since the front grow out really fast, it gave me a lot of time to study and think about hairline design. In the pics below I drew a rough idea of how I would like the buildup to look like, I'll definitely have them redraw the the hairline according to their years of experience, right now I'm just going for roughly what would be the optimal mature framing of the face. 

I came across the rule of 3rds and lifting up the eyebrows and + 1 finger distance up for the bottom of the hairline, which is around where it should be, so I won't be thinking about lowering the very front for now. Right now I want to get my corners.  

I drew green dots for a rough idea of the hairline. This one is still maybe a millimeter or two away from what I think might be final one, just in case I end up liking it as is.

More of a nitpick reason, but there's a slight discoloration in the punchout area. This is not from my last procedure, but from my first one. Dr Diep didn't seem to have the surgical precision as Dr Shapiro, and the cuts were bigger. I don't have pictures but to give you an idea, the grafts were looser in the slits. I remember when I went to pick something up, Dr Diep and his two techs freaked out because they didn't want the graft to fall out. Compare that with with Dr Shapiro's implantation, where he told me that if I rub on it, the grafts could fall out. Post procedure with Dr Diep, I could tell the skin quality underneath was different, though it's subtle. Hard to capture on camera since you have light right on it, but there are some moments where you can see it, especially out of the shower. I tried my best o capture it

But yeah the blotchy ness is tricky to capture. Not a big deal, but looking forward to obscuring it when I fill in the corners a bit more. 

#Ungrown stubble

An interesting phenomenon is that I have a bunch of stubble that doesn't seem to be growing. I can't tell if they shed and then grew and stopped growing, or if these were the original hairs that are implanted. I did a search on the forums and this and there was some threads, but with no updates either way. It usually ends up with @Melvin- Moderator asking for pictures but nobody ever doing it. Well, here they are. 

The number of these stubbles aren't a ton. I counted around 40-45 the best I could with feeling around with my finger and capturing on camera. If these don't grow out, not a big deal since it's only 40-45 out of 2066. 

I'm really glad that I went with Dr Shapiro in this instance, knowing that whatever best practices there are in the industry, was used on my procedure. It may have been more with a less experienced surgeon. Or if it was the same but if I didn't go to someone whose considered the best of the best, I would have been forever questioning if they did everything right. If there's anyone who figure out what's up with these grafts, it's Dr Shapiro, since he seems to have the most experienced out of top surgeons. 

I have armchair theory, I wonder if these are from the relocated grafts. The grafts implanted by Dr Diep never completely felt like normal hair. They always hare a rougher and wire-y feel to them. The grafts planted by Dr Shapiro feel exactly like normal hair. But I don't feel any of the wire-y hairs on my scalp. Maybe they haven't grown in yet, but maybe they were damaged in the first procedure and are not as healthy as the rest. I'll get their take next time I visit them. 

Not a big deal either way, since it's just 40-45, though sometimes they itch. I'm tempted to plug them and just wait until they're finally going to be in their growing phase lol. 

#Next Steps

I'll look into when I can start building upon since I know what I would like for the next steps. I didn't get their take on when is the best time to start rebuilding, but before my procedure I also did consultations with a few other places like HassanAndWong and Dr Mwamba and they mentioned like 3 months. 

One thing I am looking forward to is enjoying the procedure more next time. The procedure itself was great and fascinating, but overall was kinda nervous since it was a repair job. Next one I'll allow myself to enjoy the process more. 

I'll do another update soon as soon as I get my surgical record with the graft breakdown 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by HairRun

[HappyMan2021]

all the image links are broken

[HairRun]

4 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

all the image links are broken

They work for me. Perhaps you are using a VPN ip that imgur is blocking? Try clicking on the link. If that works, then it may be an issue with how your browser is reacting to the forum's markdown system. 

[Pubichair]

I like your story. I also had repair work done. It learned me a valuable lesson: I should have picked the best surgeon the first time. 
 

The second time, the repair job, I went for FEUGENIX in the Netherlands. To me he seemed the best doctor around. 
 

man’s I’m so happy now. Just over 2 months in and I’ve not had shock-loss (thank god), and I’ve got all feeling back in my scalp, (first HT I lost feeling for about 6-7 months), almost no redness (I was red over a year with the first procedure), and very natural hairline with great density. Also the structure of the grafts is much softer. 
 

So, if you are looking for another HT, try and see if you can get a consult at his clinic. 
 

Good luck with the rest of your recovery. The worst part is over. I bet you already forgot about the HT, at least I did. It looks so natural right now, after just 14 days people couldn’t see I had a HT. 
 

Looking forward to the rest of your updates. 

[HairRun]

update, it looks like a final result a while back, especially in the front, the mid has caught up

Regular light

high light where you would see the scalp of no hairloss people

 

 

 

 

It's denser in the front than mid to create the illusion of density, interesting to see how it works, he's the mid with my front hair down

 

Pretty good result, I think. Not yet a year though so bonus if it keeps going. No update on the stubble though. There's stubble that was always there or grew in pretty early, but haven't grown out, I think it's a small percent of the total grafts though. 

Skin quality in the punchout area I think also improved. I think it might look 100% the same as my regular skin. A few months ago there were subtle differences but it's really hard to find them now. Pretty impressive because I think I scar easily. 

Some of the punched out hairs grew back but that's normal since sometimes they grow in tricky ways and it can be hard to figure out where the root is. But I'm planning on building upon the base which would cover them. 

Edited March 7, 2023 by HairRun

[taza]

Did the stubbles in your crown start growing?

[ALittelTeal]

Would love an update on this!