2 year post operation update. What happened?

[whowouldhavethought]

Hello,

I had an operation in Jan 2020 and wanted to post my results to date. I will also post my before photo. I've started to rapidly lose hair since July and am heavily debating on returning for a second visit. I am not on any meds and am 28 years old. I was 25 when I had the procedure. What happened? Should I return to the same clinic or try a new clinic? Is this normal for 2 full years after a HT?

 

Any input is appreciated

[Pbaird98]

Well we need some more details, like how many grafts, pre and post op pics, who the clinic/Dr was? Have you been in contact with them since? Nearly 3 years on would mean further loss in the areas that were not implanted. You mentioned you’re not on Fin, and at only 25 when you had the ht you was already showing a lot of loss and what seems like a future Norwood 6 pattern. This of course will mean that you will be chasing the loss, spend time here researching on who is doing good work with higher levels of losses. How do you feel about meds? Some careful planning is needed here. 

[Xanadu]

"I am not on any meds"..... I guess we know what happened then

[Hair4Days]

What pre op and what’s post op out of these pics 

[whowouldhavethought]

The last 4 photos were pre operation photos

[arthurSam]

Hello unfortunately you are losing your native hair. You must go to medication imo

[GoliGoliGoli]

Post photos prior to when you started noticing loss in July

[HappyMan2021]

who was your doctor?

The most likely cause is because you aren't on meds. 

The 2nd most likely cause is a significant percentage of your transplant hair was taken from a "unsafe" donor area. 

 

[StillAlive]

Essentially, when you get an HT, this does not stop your natural hair loss from progressing. So if you were a NW2-3 with fairly strong hair in front and reinforced it to look a 'perfect' NW1, without medication and being this young, you could have continued to lose your native hair, resulting in you looking more or less the same post-op. 

That is why it is critical to consult with a serious surgeon that will plan for the future progression of your baldness and to have it stable and under control BEFORE you go under the knife. Otherwise you are just inviting an endless cycle of transplant-on-transplant. It's also possible that the doctor took hair from your unsafe zone and it was weakened by DHT over time. 

[WhereIsMyMind]

18 hours ago, whowouldhavethought said:

I am not on any meds and am 28 years old

This happened

[WhereIsMyMind]

Also the photos are not very understandable, would be nice to know:

- Crown/scalp before any transplant
- Crown/scalp 8+ months after transplant (peak results)
- Info about transplant (what areas were implanted and how many graft)

The only clear info we have right now is how it looks now but have no good references.

Edited November 21, 2022 by WhereIsMyMind

[whowouldhavethought]

Here are more photos pre-op followed by 1 photo in aug 2020 and the final 3 photos are in aug 2021. 3400 grafts

[GoliGoliGoli]

Post pictures of where you were before hair started falling in July. 

[whowouldhavethought]

I dont really have good quality ones where you can see hair loss/balding. They are all taken from farther away where it is hard to tell. I will keep looking but I end up finding one I will post it

[whowouldhavethought]

Just now, whowouldhavethought said:

I dont really have good quality ones where you can see hair loss/balding. They are all taken from farther away where it is hard to tell. I will keep looking but I end up finding one I will post it

I also use Aveda thickening tonic everytime I go out with my hair exposed. Seemed to work well before but there is only so much it can do with this much hair loss

[WhereIsMyMind]

Honestly surprisingly your surgeon did a very good job placing the grafts. To me, it seems like a good proccedure. Only that it was low density and not many graft for such a huge area.

If you had good growth after 8-10month and were happy with your results, and 2 year later it started to become worse, you are basically losing your native hair. Not because of your HT, but because it was going to happen regardless.

One of the risks of no-medication HTs is that its much harder to notice if you were going to be full bad as the transplanted hair is covering the other thinning hair.

TLDR: your hairloss is very agressive, you have reach that point where you must use medication. Putting transplants on top is a dead end im afraid. Sorry.

Edited November 22, 2022 by WhereIsMyMind

[WhereIsMyMind]

for reference, a full NW7 head needs around 12-15k follicles for max density coverage, and typical donor zone yields around 8k before it starts looking really bad. If you do the simple math, you will quickly realize that more transplants wont work if you dont manage to preserve some native hair.

Edited November 22, 2022 by WhereIsMyMind