Resul Yaman - 4550 Grafts, Sep18/2023

[xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx]

I think I might have got excited when I was on vacation. I'm like..constantly desperately checking to see signs of growth but I just don't see it.

I realized when I was on vacation the back hairs were getting longer so I could hide and cover up again...exactly like I was pre-transplant. This got me excited when I stopped to do a double-take.

We're just a few days shy of 6 months now. I'm still following the clinic's directions, i've been on medical therapy for years.

Is there any improvement? I see basically all of the same gaps that I saw pre transplant. I feel that there's still almost nothing happening and we're just shy of 6 months.

My old native hair is back and helping to cover, but I feel like i'm gradually losing my mind. Each passing month is a "is there some improvement?" that I scamper for. 

I mean, hell, it looks worse than pre-transplant still. I think this 6 month update is just about game over. I shouldn't be struggling to see growth at 6 months. This is just sad.

I included a bonus pre-op picture before this.( 2 months before the transplant)

I had always planned on 2 surgeries, but now i'm not sure because I didn't bank on 1 surgery being pretty much a failure.

 

Today

2 months prior in slightly different lighting than op post, and without hair parted in the middle

today. Looks worse than pre-op still.

Edited March 11 by xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx

[Ajamilo]

The only thing you can do is to be patient. Six month is still early and you can be a late grower. You have to wait 1-2 more months to see it out.

i just want to add: Dr.Yaman is a hit and miss doctor. So is a really high probability that this is a failure. 

[Steverino80]

I think it looks loads better than your pre photo. Looks like good progress 

[Jayhair]

What did Dr Yaman say to you. Any special procedure/vitamins they are ask you to be more careful on?

 

 

[xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx]

1 hour ago, Ajamilo said:

The only thing you can do is to be patient. Six month is still early and you can be a late grower. You have to wait 1-2 more months to see it out.

i just want to add: Dr.Yaman is a hit and miss doctor. So is a really high probability that this is a failure. 

Most of the results from yaman looked pretty good initially when I looked at this forum. I did not see Tope and Lirti, who are both failed transplants imo. If I saw them before I went to Yaman I would have bailed as they are both kind of similar to my loss and had garbage results.

My official 6 month will be this weekend. I will check in then and ask for input. There's really no meaningful things I can add to my routine that aren't already there as without a scalp biopsy or something they are just guessing. ( My scalp doesn't play nice with microneedling - so I won't do that. I've already seen a dermatologist that insists it's just normal MPB and all of my bloodwork doesn't insist there's anything obviously wrong.)

This is an image of me shuffling my hair to look versus pre-op. You can see almost no difference.

Either less than 10% of grafts survived or i'm a magical late grower. But people with no growth don't turn around at month 6 and become a succesful transplant. They just get maybe a little bit of growth and become a failed one. There is a difference between slow growth and no growth. Maybe native hair was murdered by the transplant? I really don't know. I'm willing and literally trying 100% of all medical therapies at this point but it's looking pretty grim.

 

Edited March 11 by xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx

[Jayhair]

During the first week and proceeding 1-2 months did you scratch your scalp much. I know it can be itchy and tempted to scratch and scab scalp.

 

All you can do it bring it to Yaman and hope for the best now. Keep us updated, btw did you think about visiting Yaman when you were in Antalya recently , i know its like 2 hour flight but you did travel all the way from the states so another 2 hours shouldn't been an issue

[Napoli]

Well i do think you were a diffuse thiner before the hair transplant, so you were not a simple case. In the pre op photos, you had a lot of thinning hairs  and you were growing hairs from your donor to cover the front!
While now these hairs have been replaced with donor hairs, and you have better coverage than before. So there's definitely improvement from your pre op photos and it will be thicker till the 12 month. So just be patient.Dr yaman is a great doctor and you should be happy with your final result!

One suggestion is that by combing your hairs backwards, you would have better coverage...

Edited March 11 by Napoli

[xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx]

20 minutes ago, Napoli said:

Well i do think you were a diffuse thiner before the hair transplant, so you were not a simple case. In the pre op photos, you had a lot of thinning hairs  and you were growing hairs from your donor to cover the front!
While now these hairs have been replaced with donor hairs, and you have better coverage than before. So there's definitely improvement from your pre op photos and it will be thicker till the 12 month. So just be patient.Dr yaman is a great doctor and you should be happy with your final result!

One suggestion is that by combing your hairs backwards, you would have better coverage...

Yeah, I think one possibility is that my hairs using to cover up were making things look better. I agree I was diffuse thinner beforehand but the complexity of my case is slightly irrelevant - the doctor accepted my case, which means he was confident in his results. I hope that the thickening will make a difference over time, but what is concerning is the same sort of "gap areas" from before i'm still seeing are very gap like. I do not want to comb my hairs back as I have an awkwardly high forehead and want some bangs - which was advised when I did my consultation with Dr. Yaman, and I think part of the reason why I have grafts all over despite Dr. Yaman telling me I would likely need a second procedure for the crown.

 

36 minutes ago, Jayhair said:

During the first week and proceeding 1-2 months did you scratch your scalp much. I know it can be itchy and tempted to scratch and scab scalp.

 

All you can do it bring it to Yaman and hope for the best now. Keep us updated, btw did you think about visiting Yaman when you were in Antalya recently , i know its like 2 hour flight but you did travel all the way from the states so another 2 hours shouldn't been an issue

I did not touch my scalp even once for 21 days aside from the extremely gentle pats that were instructed by the clinic for hairwash procedure. I did some light scratching after 1 month, but not much. I did not suffer any hits or injuries or bumps to my scalp during the initial period.

Visiting again during Antalya was not an option - flight is not possible during first few days after surgery, and I had surgery almost soon upon arriving. But even then, it would likely just be hundreds of dollars for them to tell me the same things they tell me on whatsapp. 

 

[Stewie]

I think like others have said, you was covering up how diffuse you head was with the long hair from the back, for the amount of grafts you had over such a big area it looks like its all growing well, and yes if you want good density then you will need at least another session

To put in context I had a similar sized area filled over four sessions and have now hit around 12k grafts and I am still worried about what the density might be, it'll never be perfect but you can definitely get in a place you want to be

And maybe if growing it forward is your ultimate goal and you don't mind having your hair long then maybe starting toward the back and moving forward with density to allow the thicker layers might be better?

But from this pic just two months ago to the one from today its obvious how well its growing, and me personally on my 3rd one last year, I think it was month 9+ for me when I thought it was starting to really look good

[Al - Moderator]

You didn't have any hairline at all before and now you do. You were growing your hair extremely long and combing it all forward from the back to cover the top. Now it's not as long. Let it thicken up over the next few months and you may feel a bit better.

You can also try some different hair styles. As I said it looks like you ave a hairline now, so you may not need to comb it all forward to cover the front. Try combing it back or maybe a bit to the side. You may be able to get better coverage with different styles.

 

[xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx]

11 hours ago, Al - Moderator said:

You didn't have any hairline at all before and now you do. You were growing your hair extremely long and combing it all forward from the back to cover the top. Now it's not as long. Let it thicken up over the next few months and you may feel a bit better.

You can also try some different hair styles. As I said it looks like you ave a hairline now, so you may not need to comb it all forward to cover the front. Try combing it back or maybe a bit to the side. You may be able to get better coverage with different styles.

 

I had a hairline pre-op. In fact, you can see it in the very first image. I also attached another pre-op There is almost no change in density so it is very hard to comb it back to achieve any result.  This is a not-great image of things when I was very , very sweaty.(attached image) A hairline is one of the only things I actually had(lol) well pre-op ( and now. It wasn't a great hairline, but this image captures it while I was extremely sweaty. When fluffed out, it was a full hairline. Just like it is now. If I fluff it out, it is a full hairline..but it should require less fluffing because there should be like 1k grafts there at least. ). The hairline is visible in Stewie's photos below in the fact that it is native - the length says that it must be native, not transplanted, to be that length at 4mo.

I was lacking density in the midscalp and I see almost no change in density in 6 months from what I can observe. I recognize this is a 12 month process but the fact that there is very little visible change at 6mo where typically most of is concerning, when almost every major publication indicates somewhere between 30-50% of result by 6mo, where I am scratching my head and going "is there actually progress?"

 

17 hours ago, Stewie said:

I think like others have said, you was covering up how diffuse you head was with the long hair from the back, for the amount of grafts you had over such a big area it looks like its all growing well, and yes if you want good density then you will need at least another session

To put in context I had a similar sized area filled over four sessions and have now hit around 12k grafts and I am still worried about what the density might be, it'll never be perfect but you can definitely get in a place you want to be

And maybe if growing it forward is your ultimate goal and you don't mind having your hair long then maybe starting toward the back and moving forward with density to allow the thicker layers might be better?

But from this pic just two months ago to the one from today its obvious how well its growing, and me personally on my 3rd one last year, I think it was month 9+ for me when I thought it was starting to really look good

The difference between these 2 photos is almost nothing imo. Just the lighting.

Plus, furthermore, the hairline is already there before - this was at 4 months. The length of the hairline that is present tells you that it is native (blue).I gave Dr. Yaman an image of me with my hair down prior to the procedure to ask him what is achievable, and he said it is, but I may need an additional procedure for the crown. I was prepared for that. As for now, I don't feel there is barely even a change in the hairline. It still looks like there is nothing there ( black ). You can see the same identical gaps. It's like nothing is growing.

Edited March 12 by xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx

[Steverino80]

It is a pity that you aren’t happy. Looking at the pics, there is a definite improvement. I think it looks impressive and am hoping to look as good 6 months in. As stated many times on this forum it takes upto 12 months to see, you still have 6 months. Hopefully you will be happy in the end 👍🏼

[Melvin- Admin]

It looks like you’re back to baseline, that’s how it is for some late growers. Definitely give it some time. I see hairs growing that will mature and provide good coverage.

[BogdanNn134]

So this was before the hair transplant? if that's so then I see a lot of improvement

Edited March 21 by BogdanNn134

[xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx]

The "before" photo isn't really a 100% fair comparison as I was very sweaty there. If I fluffed out my hair, I would have full coverage also. Very wet so some of the strands stick together and create larger looking ones.

I asked the Dr. at 6 months, who said "Transplant is growing well, the front will also be full" - I'm assuming this is about the newer hairs that are smaller-ish?(I don't observe that many of them) I certainly hope so, and i'm putting my faith forward but I'm not feeling too great. There are some hairs sprouting, but not enough to make me have confidence this is not a failure yet - there's still way too much of the frontal third that is 0/cm2 past 6 months.

Here's an image of March ( 5 months before transplant , first image) with hair pretty maximally fluffy after a shower. The pre-op photo on the first page was taken with my hair overall much longer and with the consultant parting my hair hard in the middle( marple.jpg)

 

My main concern right now is the ultra-low density in the front. Even if I styled my hair up covering this empty patch would be ridiculous. This is also a high density area of the transplant and there is definitely nowhere close to the 30fu/cm2 promised in the exam here yet. Still, I recognize that there is time to grow and turn things around, but I don't usually  see people with failed hairlines at month 6+ turn it around. Who knows though ?Maybe i'm a miracle?

 

For example, the density looks really good here. ( see graftz.png ) a better vision of pre-op. But in comparison, see the areas highlighted directly in the front middle of the scalp.

There are many areas where there is just 0 grafts /cm2. lol. I'm not saying that they couldn't be sprouting soon, but the hairline is usually first to come in and that there are just huge chunks of zero grafts/cm2 or very close to it makes it ridiculous to try to style my hair upwards because it'd be like putting a bunch of wooden cardboard cutouts in front of an empty lawn ( which is exactly why I got the transplant - to be able to do things with my hair other than just keep it in one direction and pray the wind doesn't blow to expose my scalp. )

Edited March 23 by xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx

[Jayhair]

Did you contact Yaman on where you lost 10% of grafts yet? Cause I know they offer a free HT if 10 or more came out.

[xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx]

19 hours ago, Jayhair said:

Did you contact Yaman on where you lost 10% of grafts yet? Cause I know they offer a free HT if 10 or more came out.

It's still a bit too early to declare if 10% of grafts are lost yet or not. I'm obviously going to wait and see because hair growth continues for some time,but I don't feel hopeful at the moment, as you can see there is much of the hairline where there is 0 grafts still, and I felt that density was good after the operation( see last pic for my "Scabs off" image in more detail) - and the hairline is among the first to grow in usually.

If it does fail, I will only return to the same Dr. if there is a clear and plain explanation of why it failed. (was graft handling bad by technicians?). I am on every medical therapy that I can basically be on(and have been for some time) and dermatologist has confirmed that this is male pattern baldness and nothing more. So the reason for failure would either be bad graft handling by technicians or something unknown. I will not accept "your hair is thin which is why the result seems bad" as a reason for a failed transplant, like @Lirti received. (This is a warning sign regarding this Dr.) The doctor measures the thickness of hair before the operation. If my hair is thin, density should be different / potentially the implantation of grafts should be shifted to compensate. Truly, a doctor cannot possibly estimate all outcomes, but the mark of a good doctor is being able to plan for the most of them. ( Especially because FUE is generally 90%+ success rate).

I followed post-op instructions to a T and I was so nervous about leaving my hotel room after surgery and possibly damaging grafts that it is 100% not possible that I did anything to compromise the transplant in the first 96 hours. I then followed all post-op instructions after that, taking recommended vitamins, using required shampoo like I was shown, ultra-gently, avoiding physical activity, etc, etc, and so on.

What I expect and what was communicated to me is full coverage in the front. So i'll wait and cross my fingers...i'm riding on hopium because the Dr. says growth looks good and he can see and understand something I don't, just need time for hairs to thicken up due to blood flow. Things can still change and turn around...(please..)

 

 

Edited March 25 by xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx

[xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10Z370zCmNTaQTZypfz5mS-vgmFuM6SCH/view?usp=drive_link

OK, so I uploaded a video of things kind of running my fingers through the front as close as I can get without my camera refocusing.

I think I see lots of little things here. This makes me feel hopeful - the hairs are just very small and thin still. I think I can see lots of new stuff popping through the scalp around 0:20- 0:23? This is the very "open" patch in the middle of the front of my hairline right now.

There is still a chance that i'm the world's slowest grower. If you feel like taking a peek and have time to give me thoughts, feel free.

I have also attached a much higher resolution image. IT seems like there is stuff going on..but stuff is verrrryryryry tiny. Perhaps...my story is not over yet?

 

6.5 months, here.o

Edited March 30 by xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx

[Gatsby]

@xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx you are just over six months. It can be a real roller coast ride right up to 10-12 months. Slow and steady wins the race. 👌

[Ajamilo]

8 hours ago, xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx said:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10Z370zCmNTaQTZypfz5mS-vgmFuM6SCH/view?usp=drive_link

OK, so I uploaded a video of things kind of running my fingers through the front as close as I can get without my camera refocusing.

I think I see lots of little things here. This makes me feel hopeful - the hairs are just very small and thin still. I think I can see lots of new stuff popping through the scalp around 0:20- 0:23? This is the very "open" patch in the middle of the front of my hairline right now.

There is still a chance that i'm the world's slowest grower. If you feel like taking a peek and have time to give me thoughts, feel free.

I have also attached a much higher resolution image. IT seems like there is stuff going on..but stuff is verrrryryryry tiny. Perhaps...my story is not over yet?

 

6.5 months, here.o

Honestly I am not going to sugar coat it. It will most likely be as now. Low density area and patchy. I don’t know what you can do. I had a patchy hairline two years and is not funny at all tbh. Had to use caps a lot

[Jupiter_]

You are only half way of your journey! This is going to be improved a lot in the upcoming months by both thickening of existing hairs and growth of the little hairs which are not shown now..so just be patient 🤞

Edited March 30 by Jupiter_

[BogdanNn134]

As a previous comment said, I don't think the density behind your hairline will change. I think you need a second surgery. 

[xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx]

Thanks for your encouragement / thoughts. I think there is still some growth to come as I can see little dots there in the gappy spot (Also visible at 0:20 ish on the video ) but i'm not sure about density. Also the hairs that are there now really are microscopic. ( the image I uploaded is 108mp and if you zoom in REALLY close you can see stuff. ) I think if those continue growing and thickening there will definitely be more improvement on the horizon.

My intentions with this procedure was getting a big-bang done because verteporforin is (maybe) on the horizon and I wouldn't want to do a second procedure until verteporforin maybe succeeds since I like having a little bit of fluff on the sides of my head to frame my face and a second procedure would probably not allow that. ( I could maybe swing it with beard grafts but it feels very high risk to me). I was told I needed a second procedure for my crown by Dr. Yaman, so the mark of a successful procedure for me would be having a frontal 2/3rds looking "kind of" okay. I was a diffuse thinner and could technically cover my scalp with my hair before. I would think a realistic result is having the front 2/3rds covered since i'm okay with growing longer-ish to cover up. I liked Yaman because he erred a bit higher on side of graft count, and every one I surveyed indicated that I should only need ~5000 grafts to achieve what I want (as again, evidenced from hairmill consultation photo in op).

I know the crown is the last to fill in and my grafts are equally distributed along my entire scalp, which means it will take some time to see the full result I think, since it is definitely confirmed to some extent that I am a slow grower. ( Don't let the photos that had a hairline fool you - I had a hairline before. The growth of the hairline visible even a decent length at month 3 shows you that the hairline was native, because transplanted hairs are generally in telogen until ~90 days. The pcoredure did add some density to it, but the hairline was there(if not a bit pathetic) before. )

Every single HT doctor I consulted said what I desire should be achievable with 5000-5500 grafts. So this should technically put me very close to it unless this is a failure.

Edited March 30 by xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx

[xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx]

Month 7 checkin

There is some improvement, yet it's fairly slow. I am moving to a harsher lighting as the lighting in the pics i've used is now only going to show the same thing repeatedly, I think. ( which also is coincidentally what my hair kind of looked like before my transplant - using the longer back hairs to scam coverage of the front) In cloudy lighting, if the hair doesn't blow, and I don't move, ever - it actually appears OK. I can actually almost scam almost a full head of hair here.

 

I have returned to coverage scamming somewhat.  In fairly harsh lighting we are not there yet.

things are kind of okay from the top down but are still relatively not okay from any front-looking angle if I get hit with the tiniest amount of wind or say, something touches my hair.

The visual appearance is not quite there in less than perfect lighting.  Trying to style it "up" also looks pathetic due to current visual appearance.( see side of head here) It looks like there is actually a decent bit of hair here that needs thickening time?

The visual appearance  is why I don't style my hair "up" - this can be observed from how bad this looks from even trying to move the hair up in this image. ( I admit, I didn't put much effort into moving it up, but a slight more perfect up angle would not change too much)

Image2 is maybe a more fair comparison against my early sweaty hair pic. I wet my hair for this one and just kind of moved things around. There definitely does seem to be more hair here than in the image above - it's just still kind of sparse.

 

My overall thoughts from month 6 to month 7 are:

There is some visual improvement and change. I think perhaps I might still be waiting on the thickening of all of the transplanted hair? It seems like I have a fair bit of hair in places.

I have heard that blonde hair needs the longest amount of time to thicken up. Also, I am slightly older (37), so that plays a factor in the slowness. I think it's pretty confirmed i'm a slow grower now, but I'm still kind of waiting on results. I continue to take topical minoxidil per the doctor's recommendations ( I was on oral minox before the doctor asked me to switch ), and have been on finasteride 1mg for many, many years now

My current thoughts are not SUPER positive, but I do feel a positive change in appearance. What do you guys think? Some more time for thickening and i'll be happy? Too low density to make a difference? to me, it does feel like there's a good bit more hair there - it's just the visual appearance is not quite what I want yet, and i'm not sure that is a proportion of the density, or thickening that needs to take place. Has anyone also heard the "blonde hair takes more time to thicken" thing and maybe has a source on that?

"trust the process"  is my least favorite phrase in the universe but I keep repeating it to myself..

Edited April 19 by xXFOLICILEDOMINIONXx

[Stewie]

This is actually looking really good and all seems to be growing, I think you are taking this all the wrong way, I have over twice as many grafts as you and suffer from all the same things you are talking about, its see thru and unless longer and heavily layered then the illusion is not there properly. I think even the best of the best HT on here if messed up I the way you have done your hair would look exactly the same. But in doing that you can actually see all of the new hairs all over, 4.5k across your whole scalp is not a lot in the grand scheme to have great density, but in what you have had IMO is looking good and growing well