In a dark spot

[coinflipdrifter]

Hi all, 

About to book my third HT with Nadimi. The wait will be nine months - and then the twelve month wait after that. I'm not sure if I can wait that long. 

My parents are sick of hearing it. They claim it's all in my head. It's not. 

I (31) had an FUE gone wrong one year ago with Dr. Ben Paul in NYC. We agreed on 1800-2000 grafts. Three months after surgery, he let me know he'd only implanted 1250. I went from a semi-normal look to full blown diffuse thin strictly in only my hairline. To make matters worse, the left side/corner point of my hairline is a full half inch higher than my right; I'm convinced he transplanted more hair on my right than left. It looks awful. 

Here was what I looked like one month before my previous surgery. Granted, there's a lot of 'push forward' here but it still looked semi-normal. 

And below is today. No matter what I do, it looks like there is way more hair on the right side of my head than my left. In pictures, my hair looks like it's sliding off the right side of my head. No matter what I do - styling, different haircut, etc. - it just looks extremely awkward and sickly. 

I was blessed growing up handsome - but was never vain about it. I never struggled getting dates, building relationships, etc. Now, I feel like I'm walking around botched, disfigured, and my esteem is shot. I'm isolating. Worse, the hair loss feels more out of my control than it ever has been. I feel like my magic power had been robbed. 

I'm convinced that it's not fixable, that my donor is too depleted, etc. I genuinely don't know how to handle this. I'd buzz, but I'm night-light white, can't tan (I inherited ginger skin from my mother - just not the hair color), and have a giant FUT scar on the back of my head. 

I've had a few consults that say I've got about 4-5k grafts left - but my gut tells me that's generous. Dr. Hasson thinks I'm headed for NW5 - NW6. 

I'm not sure what I'm looking for here other than a place to vent. My friends don't get it and my parents don't want to hear it. It's tough to want to do anything else until I find a livable resolution. 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. 

- CFD

 

[TorontoMan]

1 hour ago, coinflipdrifter said:

Hi all, 

About to book my third HT with Nadimi. The wait will be nine months - and then the twelve month wait after that. I'm not sure if I can wait that long. 

My parents are sick of hearing it. They claim it's all in my head. It's not. 

I (31) had an FUE gone wrong one year ago with Dr. Ben Paul in NYC. We agreed on 1800-2000 grafts. Three months after surgery, he let me know he'd only implanted 1250. I went from a semi-normal look to full blown diffuse thin strictly in only my hairline. To make matters worse, the left side/corner point of my hairline is a full half inch higher than my right; I'm convinced he transplanted more hair on my right than left. It looks awful. 

Here was what I looked like one month before my previous surgery. Granted, there's a lot of 'push forward' here but it still looked semi-normal. 

And below is today. No matter what I do, it looks like there is way more hair on the right side of my head than my left. In pictures, my hair looks like it's sliding off the right side of my head. No matter what I do - styling, different haircut, etc. - it just looks extremely awkward and sickly. 

I was blessed growing up handsome - but was never vain about it. I never struggled getting dates, building relationships, etc. Now, I feel like I'm walking around botched, disfigured, and my esteem is shot. I'm isolating. Worse, the hair loss feels more out of my control than it ever has been. I feel like my magic power had been robbed. 

I'm convinced that it's not fixable, that my donor is too depleted, etc. I genuinely don't know how to handle this. I'd buzz, but I'm night-light white, can't tan (I inherited ginger skin from my mother - just not the hair color), and have a giant FUT scar on the back of my head. 

I've had a few consults that say I've got about 4-5k grafts left - but my gut tells me that's generous. Dr. Hasson thinks I'm headed for NW5 - NW6. 

I'm not sure what I'm looking for here other than a place to vent. My friends don't get it and my parents don't want to hear it. It's tough to want to do anything else until I find a livable resolution. 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. 

- CFD

 

Hey brother, I get the anxiety, but I do honestly think you're dooming a lot more in your head than you need to. Yes there will be a wait till you get it fixed, but you just have to know that in a few years, you'll look back and wonder why you stressed so much over it. I waited about a year to finally get to my ht, and then another 6 months or so to start getting results and then that anxiety began to disappear and I started to wonder why I was so in the dumps in the first place. You do look like you have great facial features, and its important to remember that time will catch up to us all and we will have some fall from grace and thats okay. You're a young man and still have a lot to be ambitious about and look forward to, but your problem is very fixable, trust that it is and that you'll get there. 

[TheGreatPretender]

I understand your feelings and a lot of them is something that I have experienced, especially when you are talking about isolation only in a much, much larger scale.
Howeaver based on your pics you can take solace on the fact that many of us (me included) wouldnt mind being in your position right now. 

You seem to have good hair and judging by them alone it seems sooner or later you will get fixed so try to focus on that.

It sucks to be were you are now but there have been people that have been on it for 8 years, speaking from experience...

In the meantime remember to take the meds. You got this.😉

[HappyMan2021]

5 hours ago, coinflipdrifter said:

The wait will be nine months

can you confirm Nadimi's wait time is 9 months? I thought it would be shorter. 

So you had the 1st bad HT, and you have had 2 subsequent procedures with Nadimi? What specifically has she done so far? Has she been extracting the bad grafts from your 1st procedure or what exactly has she been doing to repair you?

If I were you don't even care about what your parents or friends think. You know your hair better than anyone. They are not looking at you up-close-and personal and seeing the unnaturalness. There are plenty of totally botched HT patients who look totally fine in a casual observation, and unnoticeable until you look up close. 

But yea, its you hair, your life, you know your body and natural 'look' better than anyone else. The only person who needs to have a say in this matter is you and your doctor. 

[coinflipdrifter]

@HappyMan2021 - not quite. Apologies for not being clear. 

 

First procedure was with Dr. Wasserbauer in the Bay Area. I was 23. Candidly, she had no business operating on me at that time and in hindsight, I feel strongly that she should have turned me away. I had a full head of hear and was worried about future loss; she implanted in places I already had hair. Second was with Dr. Paul.

Nadimi's wait time is at least nine months out, yes. 

 

Appreciate the kind words. To me, it's completely changed my face - especially with how high Dr. Paul made the left side comparative to the right. It's impossible to style, etc. 

[coinflipdrifter]

@TheGreatPretender I appreciate the kind words. It means the world. Truly. 

 

Unfortunately, I can't take oral fin but am using topical. I got hit with full blown sides around six months ago from oral and still haven't fully recovered. Fingers crossed on the topical. 

[TheGreatPretender]

2 minutes ago, coinflipdrifter said:

@TheGreatPretender I appreciate the kind words. It means the world. Truly. 

 

Unfortunately, I can't take oral fin but am using topical. I got hit with full blown sides around six months ago from oral and still haven't fully recovered. Fingers crossed on the topical. 

I am sorry you got side effects. Hopefully oral will do better, you can also use Minoxidil to help it a bit more. I wish you all the best man and know you are not alone and there are people like me that share your pain everyday. 

[HappyMan2021]

13 minutes ago, coinflipdrifter said:

First procedure was with Dr. Wasserbauer in the Bay Area. I was 23. Candidly, she had no business operating on me at that time and in hindsight, I feel strongly that she should have turned me away. I had a full head of hear and was worried about future loss; she implanted in places I already had hair. Second was with Dr. Paul.

Nadimi's wait time is at least nine months out, yes. 

 

Appreciate the kind words. To me, it's completely changed my face - especially with how high Dr. Paul made the left side comparative to the right. It's impossible to style, etc. 

gotcha thanks, I re-read a bit of your post history and see you mentioned these previous doctors. 

Hopefully Nadimi can fix you in 1 surgery but I am not sure. Repairs are notorious for needing multiple surgeries, but at the same time it depends on what needs to be repaired. ex. if its a straightforward density fill in, chances of only needing 1 surgery are much better than fixing badly angled grafts, scarring, etc. 

Sorry the wait time is so long for Nadimi, I can totally relate to how horrible the waittime is. The number of good HT doctors is appalingly low, and its the reason for these ridiculous wait times. 

It's sad to me how in my local city I can easily have an appointment in a few weeks with my choice of one of 50+ great dentists, but in order to have a good hair transplant I may have to wait up to 1 yr, travel halfway across the world, etc. The world really needs more good HT doctors. 

All I can say in the meantime is experiment with different hair styles. You may not be able to do your top choice hairstyle, but I feel confident there is at least 1 hairstyle that works for you. 

It also may be a pain at first to use gel, other product, etc. to conceal your look, but once you get in the habit of using hair product it gets much easier. 

I know it still sucks, but one way to look at it is you have 9 months to experiment and playfully mess around with different hairstyles you may have not done otherwise. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by HappyMan2021

[Al - Moderator]

I certainly understand frustrations with hair transplants, but compared to others I've seen, your hair looks normal to me based on the limited pics.

 

[baldfighter]

can you post a photo in which your hair looks bad?

[Berba11]

From these pictures alone I'm seeing no visible issues at all, so it's hard to really know what you're talking about. Can you get some good quality pics from a range of angles that best showcase the issues?

[Cory]

Sometimes bad placed grafts can be replaced. Not ideal for sure, but possible if you got the funds for a good doc.

[Gatsby]

@coinflipdrifter I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I had surgery at 18 (twice!!) and I really should have been knocked back. Not just because of my age but because my hair loss didn't warrant it. My concern reading your post is that you may have a similar psychology to what I had when I was younger. Can you post pics of your hair (with your eyes blacked out, etc) with you hair combed back and from the top, the sides, etc? The reason I ask is because I don't see anything from the photos you have provided as looking 'semi normal' at all. No hairline is perfectly symmetrical. Even a difference of what 1.25cm's on one side would look normal unless it looks ridiculous. If you are having multiple surgeries at such a young age you run the very real risk of exhausting your donor for something that may not be warranted. I would just hate for you to not be able to take meds, etc and find yourself holding a tiger by the tail for nothing. All the best!

[Al - Moderator]

If you're in NY (you said this one was done in NY) then you should check out Dr Bloxham at Feller and Bloxham. They used to offer small sessions of 200 to 300 or so grafts for minor fixes or touch ups. I don't know if they still do that, but worth an ask. There is also Dr Dorin in NY who doesn't require shaving of the recipient area and if you only need a few hundred grafts to even out the hairline, you may be able to grow the back a bit long and shave a few small spots or maybe a thin line across the back to get some FUE out of and comb the hair over it, so you won't notice the donor area. If you can do something like that then you won't really have any down time except for a week or two.

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2023 by BeHappy

[GoliGoliGoli]

Please post clear pics of your hairline exposed (AKA hair pulled back with your hand or with a headband)