2746 FUE with Dr. David Josephitis of Shapiro Medical Group

[Gatsby]

Four months is when growth begins and you’re looking stellar already. Happy growing. 👌

Edited November 9, 2023 by Gatsby

[davidjosepha]

Thanks for the confirmation on donor area. 'Looks completely untouched' is quite the compliment to Dr. Josephitis and his team, and a great reassurance to me. See below for more.

And yes, I'm astounded at how much growth I've seen already this early. I believe I've seen a fair bit even since these last pictures, but I'll wait till ~11/20 to take and share more. My parents were visiting me last weekend and my mom commented on it seeming like my hair was really filling in, and she'd seen me just a month before that, so she had a good source of comparison.

On 11/5/2023 at 1:13 AM, Steeeve said:

Also…I am so envious of that glorious beard.

Thank you, I've been pretty happy with how it's looked as it's grown out. I've never had a beard get this long before without being a complete mess. I unfortunately took off more than I intended a week or so ago trying to even things up, but it'll grow back.

Donor area (11/9/23)

After the comments about my donor from jwolfe and steeeve, I decided to just go for it and trim my sides to 1/2 guard and see how it looked, as very shortly it will be prohibitively cold. Pay no attention to the top of my head, in particular the hack cut I gave myself this morning so I could take these photos.

I see a couple marks that could be scarring from the surgery, but I have to look really close to see them; to me it's not at all obvious that anything was done there even at such a short cut. All in all, I don't think I'll have to think even a little about hiding anything, which is nice, as a 1/2 guard on the sides can be nice in the summer. But let me know what you think.

 

[Rec.M]

I know the pictures are slightly blurred, but this donor work looks unreal. You could never tell! 

[batfan887]

Honestly, if I didn't know what I was looking for, it's pretty much unnoticeable. Very good!

[davidjosepha]

~Five months (11/30/23)

Sorry for the delay, had a busy Thanksgiving. Pictures were taken 11/30. Hair cut to a 2 guard a couple days before they were taken.

[Steeeve]

Your hairline has already taken shape from the transplant. You’ve made incredible progress from where you started.

Was your intention to keep your head shaved or to let it grow out?

[davidjosepha]

Thanks for the side-by-side, that's a more dramatic difference than I'd noticed. Seems to be going very well so far!

I want to be able to judge progress, which is why I've left my hair shorter, but I'm planning to grow it out a bit, just not sure when I should start that process. Maybe buzz once more for the 6 month mark, then let it grow after that point. Thoughts?

[Steeeve]

Some guys keep their head shaved throughout the entire process but you’re still in the growth phase so you could easily keep it down until the 6 month mark and then start letting it grow on once more hair has sprouted. It will be more uniform. Start with a really nice quiff. I think you’re in an awesome place to start growing it out but what could it hurt to let some more hair pop out.

[hybonix]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:49 AM, Steeeve said:

Your hairline has already taken shape from the transplant. You’ve made incredible progress from where you started.

Ditto! I love the hairline design and think it suits you well. Again, SMG is more reserved but I like the approach more and more I see it.

I cannot wait to see the final results in 6 months, but another 3 - 4 months should give us a great idea of where you will be. I am super excited for you!

[davidjosepha]

Thanks Steve and hybonix, I cut for the 6 month update but going to let it grow on top from this point. Let's see how it goes!

~Six months (12/30/23)

[Melvin- Admin]

Massive difference already 

[Ads]

That’s a huge change already and only 6 months in, so much more growth to come.

[davidjosepha]

Thanks, guys. I'm slightly worried the right side is weak in terms of number of follicles that have 'sprouted' near the hairline. I realize that each follicle will strengthen / thicken over time, but supposedly around 80% of the follicles should have broken through the skin by this point, so unless the growth is quite unevenly distributed, seems like even with potentially ~20% of the follicles left to go, it'll probably be a bit weak. But that's the side I combed over when I still had hair, so probably won't be too noticeable. Overall very happy with progress and excited to finally let the top grow out a bit!

[Cooper48]

That's a big difference and you have lots of time for it to fill in.  I think it looks really good for having your hair so short.  This seems to be hard to pull of with most transplants. 

[Balding Bad]

I think the biggest takeaway is that regardless of the hair on top of your head, you're able to grow one sick beard! 😝

[davidjosepha]

Thanks guys, and apologies for the delayed update, but here it is.

~Seven months (1/31/24)

Haven't trimmed my hair (or beard) since last update, meant to clean up the sides a bit before the update pics but since this isn't a beauty contest, I figure you can still see progress on top of my head regardless. Still some weakness on sides, most noticeably the larger indent in back left and the smaller indent on right near the peak which I'm hoping will fill in more, but even if progress stopped entirely today I think I'd be quite happy with the results (although I'm glad that I've still got several months of progress to look forward to!). Apologies for the inconsistency of my head angles in the front-facing shots from update to update.

[Spring15]

Hard to judge there's only one before photo posted. Looks decent so far though

[baddecisions]

Since you see yourself every single day and look from a very short distance at the mirror, you may find some weaknesses. However, you look completely natural and that is the main goal for a hair transplant or for any other plastic surgery. You must be really happy. Congratulations.

[Gatsby]

Looking good @davidjosepha for only seven months. 👊🏻

[A_4_Archan]

Looking natural...but i think you should start growing them longer.

[davidjosepha]

Thanks Gatsby and baddecisions! Agreed that natural-looking is best. Upon looking a bit more, I think the notch in the front right isn't a problem, although I still do hope back left fills in a little more, even if it's not completely uniform density with the rest, particularly because it's the 'focal point' of how I part my hair when it's long. But whatever happens, happens!

On 2/2/2024 at 12:57 PM, A_4_Archan said:

Looking natural...but i think you should start growing them longer.

Yep, I've decided to allow the top to grow longer after the 6 month mark as suggested by Steeeve. Going to continue to cut the sides and possibly trim the top just to even up growth, but planning to allow it to get significantly longer.

On 2/2/2024 at 1:37 AM, Spring15 said:

Hard to judge there's only one before photo posted. Looks decent so far though

Good point. I've been trying to find some pictures of myself pre-transplant with hair length comparable to the updates so far (2 guard and 2 guard + one month of growth), but I'm not sure I have any that show things clearly. For several years, I was mostly trimming to 1/2 guard all around, or 1/2 on sides and 1 on top, then last year after scheduling transplant, I started growing it out just to get an idea of what I'd look like with hair, but I may have missed taking any pictures in the period where hair was at around a 2 guard. I'll keep looking, and I do have a decent number with it a bit longer that I can add to future months' updates for a more direct comparison.

 

[Esq.]

Any updates?

[davidjosepha]

Quite late updating, but I did take pictures monthly, just kept putting off posting because I've been wanting to add comparison pictures of hair at certain lengths prior to the surgery, but it's a whole lot of work finding pictures of me sober (and also show my hair at a given length) for the few years leading up to the FUE and I don't really want to put up pics with that dead look in my eyes. Still might find and post comparison pics at some point but I don't want to wait till I do to continue posting updates.

Eight months (2/26/24)

[davidjosepha]

Nine months (3/31/24)

[ALittelTeal]

Looks incredibly natural and growth has really taken off over the last three months. Congrats!