Post OP day 0 - FUT 5700 grafts with Dr. Wong

[mr_peanutbutter]

in for results

 

do you know if wong knows about verteporfin? if that stuff really helps with scaring id definitely consider the fut route

[Spring15]

Day 10 looks so nice. Grow grow grow! 

[MaximusEastwood]

One month update - starting the shedding phase.  Not much pain in the donor area, but scar is still visible, and may hair doesn't seem want to cover it on the right side.  Hoping the donor area will thicken back up and fully cover the scar in a few more months...

In terms of exercise, have started to do light cardio, but will probably add back some weightlifting after another month.  Dr. Wong recommends waiting 6 months before "heavy" weightlifting, but not sure I can wait that long to do any resistance training...

[HairEnthusiast101]

20 minutes ago, MaximusEastwood said:

One month update - starting the shedding phase.  Not much pain in the donor area, but scar is still visible, and may hair doesn't seem want to cover it on the right side.  Hoping the donor area will thicken back up and fully cover the scar in a few more months...

In terms of exercise, have started to do light cardio, but will probably add back some weightlifting after another month.  Dr. Wong recommends waiting 6 months before "heavy" weightlifting, but not sure I can wait that long to do any resistance training...

Might be some shock loss around scar! In 3 months it will be hidden well. Is the scar at least paper thin or not raised/colored? If so that is a good sign 

[Spring15]

1 hour ago, MaximusEastwood said:

In terms of exercise, have started to do light cardio, but will probably add back some weightlifting after another month.  Dr. Wong recommends waiting 6 months before "heavy" weightlifting, but not sure I can wait that long to do any resistance training...

6 months!!! I've never heard of that long - 1 month seems to be the norm. You would have lost all of your muscle by then lol. How old are you btw?

[MaximusEastwood]

13 hours ago, Spring15 said:

6 months!!! I've never heard of that long - 1 month seems to be the norm. You would have lost all of your muscle by then lol. How old are you btw?

I'm in my mid-30's

[Rafael Manelli]

Your natural hair seems to grow in a super pronounced whirl pattern at the back, much more than average. I would guess that explains the unusual implantation design, with the lines and the waves. Wong is a crown lord. You should get great outcome. 

[andy_+_+]

Excited too see how this turns out! Did you consider any other docs? or FUE?

[MaximusEastwood]

1 hour ago, andy_+_+ said:

Excited too see how this turns out! Did you consider any other docs? or FUE?

Thanks! And yea I did consider a bunch of other docs and FUE (attached screenshot with all the other clinics I looked at).  Ultimately I picked Dr. Wong and FUT because: 

1. I wanted to maximize lifetime donor supply and chance of graft survival.  Afaik, FUT does a better job of preserving donor hair for future surgeries (i'm relatively young and already a Norwood 6), and has less chance of transection as they can extract the grafts under a microscope. I was/am slightly worried about the scar, but ultimately it was worth the trade-off for me. If i were to get another surgery it would be FUE 
2. Dr. Wong is well known for FUT mega-sessions. So while he is more expensive than other clinics I talked to (especially the ones overseas), ultimately I optimized for surgeon skills/reputation vs. cost per graft.  This is a lifetime cosmetic procedure so i didn't want to cost to be the main factor

The other clinic I strongly considered was Dr. Nakatsui, since he trained with Dr. Wong and was less expensive, but ultimately he didn't have a ton of patient reviews so it felt like more of a risk. Can see some of the discussion on that here: 

 

[andy_+_+]

Are you in Western Canada, or did you, just by chance, happen to have an Edmonton and Vancouver doctor. I think that Dr.Nakatusi does great and underrated work. My only hesitation is that he does a lot of other cosmetic procedures and runs a busy dermatology clinic in Edmonton. I also have seen very few examples of FUE. Did you look at him for FUE at all. Thats a decent list missing a few names but ultimately you ended up with one the greatest hair transplant docs in the world. Any reason for docs making this list? Can't wait to see this result in a years time.

[MaximusEastwood]

1 hour ago, andy_+_+ said:

Are you in Western Canada, or did you, just by chance, happen to have an Edmonton and Vancouver doctor. I think that Dr.Nakatusi does great and underrated work. My only hesitation is that he does a lot of other cosmetic procedures and runs a busy dermatology clinic in Edmonton. I also have seen very few examples of FUE. Did you look at him for FUE at all. Thats a decent list missing a few names but ultimately you ended up with one the greatest hair transplant docs in the world. Any reason for docs making this list? Can't wait to see this result in a years time.

I'm actually on the west coast of the US. The reason I was picking between those two is that US surgeons tend to be more conservative in the grafts they'll do in one session (most said around 2k)

[Henry]

5700 grafts in one strip is freakin amazing.

[HappyMan2021]

@MaximusEastwood All my HTs have been FUE, so I am not an expert - but the scar looks somewhat dramatic.....are you confident it will heal fine?

[HairEnthusiast101]

Did you have insanely good scalp laxity? 5700 grafts in one strip is insane. How long was the incision?

[Steeeve]

1 hour ago, HappyMan2021 said:

@MaximusEastwood All my HTs have been FUE, so I am not an expert - but the scar looks somewhat dramatic.....are you confident it will heal fine?

That scar looks pretty on point for one month. The shock loss will start to resolve itself around 3-6 months. I’ve never seen anybody on the forum have it beyond that and most usually resolve around the 3 month mark.

@MaximusEastwoodYou really hadn’t shed all that much at your one month. Have you seen more shed since? It still looks👌🏻👌🏻!

[MaximusEastwood]

On 3/2/2023 at 3:08 PM, HappyMan2021 said:

@MaximusEastwood All my HTs have been FUE, so I am not an expert - but the scar looks somewhat dramatic.....are you confident it will heal fine?

I am a little concerned about the scar. Do people think the hair will grow back in the circled area?  I messaged Dr. Wong but he said the hair just needs to be longer to cover it, but my hair is already longer than normal...

and yes i know my hair has a lot of dandruff right now 😭, just started using nizoral so hopefully that helps

 

[Steeeve]

It should fill in a little more. The hair around the scar shocks out due to the trauma at the scar but typically comes back. Considering you’re a little over a month in the process you still have a little time for this process to resolve.

I had a strip performed in 2019 and if I had cut my hair to your length at a little over a month this is exactly what it would have looked like. I purposefully kept my hair longer during the process to conceal it while that hair around the scar grew back.

I cut my hair pretty short at months 3, 5, and 7 documenting the way the hair back their concealed the scar.

Note the slight scar visibility at 3 months:It was enough to make me uncomfortable but if anyone noticed, they didn’t ask about it.

At month 5 it had mostly resolved with a slight indentation in the hair where the scar is:By month 7 that indentation was even less, if noticeable at all. It had resolved by month 6 but I didn’t take pictures of it. This is what it looked like at month 7:I cut my hair down to an inch in these photos to document the process, however, I’ve cut my hair down to a 5 with my clippers in the years since and it wasn’t noticeable.

So, in my opinion, having experienced it firsthand and having read other poster’s experiences on the forum, unless you do something to cause the strip scar to widen in the first 6 months, this will resolve itself. I guess it really depends on how long you liked to wear your hair (in regard to how much you’ll worry about it later on) but I have always worn my hair longer anyway. I’m not a guy that has ever really worn a fade. Even still, I plan on having a small FUE later down the line to put in the scar to conceal it even more.

It sucks now with it being so visible but it’s still so early and there are some guys on here that can get away with with it being clipped down to a 3 or 4.

For me, with my hair cut down to a 5, it’s a total non-issue.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Steeeve
Bad grammar

[MaximusEastwood]

Thanks @Steeeve, that's helpful. I feel like my hair in the whole donor area (not just right next to the strip), is coarser/thinner than normal, if you compare to my pre-op photos. Is that common? Trying to be patient but also want to know if it's not healing as expected

[HairEnthusiast101]

2 hours ago, MaximusEastwood said:

Thanks @Steeeve, that's helpful. I feel like my hair in the whole donor area (not just right next to the strip), is coarser/thinner than normal, if you compare to my pre-op photos. Is that common? Trying to be patient but also want to know if it's not healing as expected

Well nothing can be done now you just have to be patient but I’m certain it will improve In a couple months. 

[Steeeve]

5 hours ago, MaximusEastwood said:

Thanks @Steeeve, that's helpful. I feel like my hair in the whole donor area (not just right next to the strip), is coarser/thinner than normal, if you compare to my pre-op photos. Is that common? Trying to be patient but also want to know if it's not healing as expected

I’ve heard the same from others. I’ve never seen it with my own eyes other than in pictures that posters on the forum have shared.

My only thought on it is that the back of your head has experienced a pretty large trauma and that maybe there’s some hair that was potentially going to shed soon but the trauma caused it to shed early-I could be wrong, though, it could be something else completely. Maybe the hair in your donor experienced the same kind of shock that the hair around where the strip was taken experienced?

I don’t wanna say that yours would be worse with having so many grafts pulled at once because I think it’s more dependent on how the individual heals and deals with the trauma.

I can say that those posters all said that they felt it got better within about the same time that their shocked our hair came back in.

Someone once said to another poster that maybe it was always like that and that they just really hadn’t noticed before because they weren’t paying as close attention as they were before the strip was taken out-I don’t know if I buy that, however, because I was really looking at my donor before that strip was taken out.

I don’t know what your medication situation is like but I’ve heard a number of doctors say that Fin will help to speed up the process of those hairs coming back.

[Steeeve]

3 hours ago, JoDimaggio22 said:

Well nothing can be done now you just have to be patient but I’m certain it will improve In a couple months. 

👆🏻I agree with this. I believe the situation will improve. I think it’s just an unfortunate part of the ugly duckling stage.

[zach07]

On 2/6/2023 at 10:43 PM, MaximusEastwood said:

@Steeeve here are a few photos of my "hair" pre-op

I am very similar to your pre-op hair. Have surgery scheduled for early 2023 with Dr. Wong. Your results give me hope

[zach07]

On 2/6/2023 at 10:43 PM, MaximusEastwood said:

@Steeeve here are a few photos of my "hair" pre-op

I am very similar to your pre-op hair. Have surgery scheduled for early 2023 with Dr. Wong. Your results give me hope

[HairEnthusiast101]

How scar coming along?

[Rafael Manelli]

On 2/17/2023 at 3:57 PM, mr_peanutbutter said:

in for results

 

do you know if wong knows about verteporfin? if that stuff really helps with scaring id definitely consider the fut route

That Verteporfin may bring new life to FUT is an underrated point.