Help needed immediately after botched hair transplant

[botched]

Greetings. This is my first post on here. I am 35 years old and have been planning my hairline restoration for half a year and this week was finally the date. I have taken half a year off work. I thought I had done my due diligence and choose a clinic with doctor involvement. 

I did have some apprehension before flying out but my mood while on location was more like resignation. I did get some weird vibes from the staff but I chalked it up to cultural differences (turkey).

The consultation was rushed and the doctor pretty much agreed with my preferred plan without pushback. He did say I had signs of nw5 but since I was stable on finasteride it was deemed a non issue. He drew a hairline where I pointed and when I pushed back on it being too low he said it was conservative.

When I assessed my head after the second day of surgery I started to panic. My scalp was way more minituarised than I had realised and the hairline was grafted with max density. I seem to be nw6.

The hairline is also way too low and moves when I wrinkle my forehead.

The last few days have been filled with existential dread over what I have done. The track of my life has been altered permanently and I have gone from an attractive eligible bachelor who could have rocked a bald head to a freak. At this point I do not know if I can work again or get in a relationship again.

As soon as I saw my head the bubble popped. I definitely have undiagnosed body dysmorphia and have been online for too long researching this topic on transplant-positive channels. Now my imagined appearance issues have become very very real. 

I had stupidly kept this transplant a secret from everyone. Tonight when I get home I will consult a friend.

My goal now is to get my scalp to as natural state of balding as possible. I do not want more transplants. I guess smp on donor and some electrolysis or the like on the recipient is in my future.

These will be very trying times ahead.

Is there anything I can do right now? I know the pervasive answer will be to wait and see but I actually would prefer poor survival without scarring to make future removal easier. Stupidly in a panicked state I straight up removed some grafts from the temples.

[Al - Moderator]

Without seeing it from the front there is no way we can give you an opinion if the hairline is too low or not. 

Why would you go through the trouble of having a hair transplant to then suddenly want to shave your head? 

[Berba11]

So, this picture doesn't tell us anything. You've said the hairline is too low but haven't given us a frontal picture where we can see your whole face. Without that we can't see the proportions between chin & nose and glabella & mid-frontal point. We've also got no pre-ops pic to compare anything to. We can't even see any details of the work really.

19 minutes ago, botched said:

The hairline is also way too low and moves when I wrinkle my forehead.

Of course, that shouldn't be happening. I have a very, very tiny number of grafts myself that move when I do the same (my hairline is also a bit too low). How much of an issue this is really depends on the extent of the movement. Who was the surgeon/clinic?

25 minutes ago, botched said:

Is there anything I can do right now?

No, unfortunately.

25 minutes ago, botched said:

Stupidly in a panicked state I straight up removed some grafts from the temples.

No more of this sort of thing please mate. A bad HT can be fixed, but not by you doing harmful things to yourself in the meantime.

[botched]

14 minutes ago, Al - formerly BeHappy said:

Without seeing it from the front there is no way we can give you an opinion if the hairline is too low or not. 

Why would you go through the trouble of having a hair transplant to then suddenly want to shave your head? 

I was not in a right state of mind to object to the plan or abort it which is what I should have done. Now my life feels like it is over.

[HappyMan2021]

46 minutes ago, botched said:

I have taken half a year off work.

@botched This must be a typo right?!? You took a half a year off for your post op recovery or what do you mean?

Who was the surgeon?

Your original post is pretty wild and a bit eyebrow raising

For someone who apparently spent a lot of time researching HTs, surely you must know that your provided pic doesn't really tell us much? 

Can you please take more detailed pics so the community can better help assess?

If your post is 100% true, then it is also a good example that not every ht candidate has the psychological profile to withstand the rollercoaster that is HT surgery. I mean this respectfully. Even patients with 10/10 homerun results often have moments of fear, anxiety, and despair following surgery. 

The long and volatile nature of recovery + the increasing complexity of further surgeries (if needed) means this type of procedure is not meant for people who are 'OK' one day and then the next want to reverse course and shave it all off.

Edited March 10 by HappyMan2021

[botched]

8 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

@botched This must be a typo right?!? You took a half a year off for your post op recovery or what do you mean?

Who was the surgeon?

Your original post is pretty wild and a bit eyebrow raising

For someone who apparently spent a lot of time researching HTs, surely you must know that your provided pic doesn't really tell us much? 

Can you please take more detailed pics so the community can better help assess?

If your post is 100% true, then it is also a good example that not every ht candidate has the psychological profile to withstand the rollercoaster that is HT surgery. I mean this respectfully. Even patients with 10/10 homerun results often have moments of fear, anxiety, and despair following surgery. 

The long and volatile nature of recovery + the increasing complexity of further surgeries (if needed) means this type of procedure is not meant for people who are 'OK' one day and then the next want to reverse course and shave it all off.

It was hlc. I am actually a very stable person normally, the only thing i was in denial about was my nw scale. I had a semi preserved frontal tuft which led me to believe i was less advanced. I suggested this frontal tuft to be the origin of the hairline which the doctor ran with without question. Beyond unethical.

 

I had the means and opportunity to take time off to recover and travel, which will not happen now.

Edited March 10 by botched

[jjalay]

Can you post some more pictures and details about your surgery? If the hairs on the hairline are moving they are placed too low but without pictures its really hard to judge. Also details about number of grafts, pictures before ht and consultations details can help us understand more.

I"m sorry you are feeling this way but right now you dont need to panic.

Edited March 10 by jjalay

[laverita]

If you just had it then you need to let it grow or laser it all out...no clinic can do anything to assist until it all grows and then if you want to remove it then laser is probably the best way for a large area but it is too early to presume. Let it grow in and see how things develop is probably the best option and make sure to be on meds to maintain your hair. You don't want to punch out 3200 grafts...Laser is probably going to be better than electrolysis IF you go that route.

You have only had it so relax and see how things pan out is the honest opinion as many get buyers remorse at this early stage and may be happy once things calm down and then grow.

 

Take care and be positive. 

 

 

 

Edited March 10 by laverita
typo

[HappyMan2021]

1 hour ago, botched said:

It was hlc. I am actually a very stable person normally, the only thing i was in denial about was my nw scale. I had a semi preserved frontal tuft which led me to believe i was less advanced. I suggested this frontal tuft to be the origin of the hairline which the doctor ran with without question. Beyond unethical.

are you able to say the specific surgeon who operated on you? I have seen amazing cases from HLC (although they certainly have their misses as well, so this is all very interesting. 

Would you also want to share more pics? As of now I'm not sure anyone here can objectively assess the surgery with your single pic?

I suppose the 'good' news in all of this is yes you certainly can reverse course and kill all the transplant grafts, shave it all off and I guess aesthetically have it so the HT never happened (hopefully there are no complications such as scarring or anything like that)

It is also much much much MUCH easier to reverse course on your HT journey after only 1 surgery, as opposed to if you were 3 surgeries in already

2 hours ago, botched said:

Stupidly in a panicked state I straight up removed some grafts from the temples.

how soon after surgery did you do this?!? did you laser or electrolysis? I'm surprised the laser/electrolysis lady agreed to do this so soon after surgery!

Even if you utterly hate and can't stand this procedure, you really should wait 6 months to start killing grafts and reversing course

You could be doing pretty bad damage to your scalp doing it while your scalp is still recovering from surgery

Also with all the redness and scabbing, it might be hard for the lady to only identify the bad grafts and she may accidentally be killing off some of your native hair, because it is likely confusing and hard to pinpoint everything with all the activity you've just had done on your scalp

[HappyMan2021]

1 hour ago, botched said:

I had the means and opportunity to take time off to recover and travel

I could be 100% wrong in my assumption, but if you had the means to take 6 months after surgery off to recover and travel, it sounds like you have a lot of money at your disposal and are a pretty well-off dude. 

HLC is "generally" known as a good clinic, but one that is known as being a good clinic on a budget. They may not have the most elite doctors, but its moreso "pound for pound" they are the best bang for your buck. 

If money was no factor for you, I'm not sure why you went with HLC. 

But again I could be completely wrong in this assumption. 

Edited March 10 by HappyMan2021

[HappyMan2021]

24 minutes ago, laverita said:

You don't want to punch out 3200 grafts

yes this would take a really long time and be very costly. Quite seriously 4 or even more surgeries (and that's only if all those surgeries go according to plan 😬)

Doable, yes, but a very long and hard journey. 

Edited March 10 by HappyMan2021

[Berba11]

There’s no use anyone talking about punch outs & laser at this stage. For starts, no respectable practitioner of either modality will do that to a patient before the 12 month post op mark has been hit. 
 

Secondly, it’s more than possible the OP will come to like to result or at least feel ok about it when everything starts growing in and looking less wild than the post op period. 
 

And lastly, we’ve seen no pictorial evidence yet of any of the issues the OP describes. 

[botched]

I am realising now after sleeping properly how deluded I have been, both in the importance of my hair before and in my degree of hair loss and whether or not I was even a candidate, let alone a candidate for this ultra agressive hairline. I definitely have body dysmorphia and did not realise it.

This is really bad. 

 

[WhiteyUK]

Well from that angle is doesn’t look like an aggressive hairline to me

[SuperHans]

57 minutes ago, botched said:

I am realising now after sleeping properly how deluded I have been, both in the importance of my hair before and in my degree of hair loss and whether or not I was even a candidate, let alone a candidate for this ultra agressive hairline. I definitely have body dysmorphia and did not realise it.

This is really bad. 

 

Truth be told bud, this looks pretty good hairline wise, not at all aggressive, and the previous post op picture looks clean. My advice would be to leave it be and don't try pulling anything out, you'd be at risk of causing infection. Keep it clean and speak to one of your irl friends, in person, I guarantee you'll feel better about it when you get some real life perspective. 

Let nature take its course and reassess in a few months, your native hair should have started to grow back in at that point and life would have carried on, you'll feel better. Hair transplant is a major surgery, it will take you time to mentally adjust to the change. If you're still feeling down, speak with your GP.

[Berba11]

1 hour ago, botched said:

I am realising now after sleeping properly how deluded I have been, both in the importance of my hair before and in my degree of hair loss and whether or not I was even a candidate, let alone a candidate for this ultra agressive hairline. I definitely have body dysmorphia and did not realise it.

This is really bad. 

 

I don’t know if you’re being deluded, but you’re certainly being difficult if you actually want some help. You need to post some pictures where we can actually see what’s going on. The two you’ve posted don’t really help at all. This second picture doesn’t immediately scream “aggressive” hairline by any means, but we lack context. 
 

Can you please post a proper range of photos: pre-op & pre/shave so we can see your hair grown out, and post op pics including a proper frontal picture so we can see the height of the hairline within the context of the rest of your facial features?

[Al - Moderator]

You took 6 months off from work, so I’m thinking you had a pretty good idea that you’d be a mess for a while. That means you have 6 months to let it grow and see how it turns out before you have to go back to work and let everyone see it. So just relax and don’t panic. Don’t do anything stupid. You had a hair transplant for a reason, so wait a while to get used to it before trying to ruin it. 

[Eli_Avdikian]

Do yourself a favor and stay away from all hair loss forums and channels for a while. It's only adding fuel to your anxiety. If you ask me, your hair line doesn't look aggressive at all from this angle. I believe you've been reading a lot about some patients' hair lines being placed too low, and in all honesty, I think you're reaction is a little bit over the top, with all due respect. I have rarely seen a patient insisting on placing their hair line higher than what the doctor is proposing. Usually it's the other way around.

[jjalay]

13 hours ago, botched said:

I am realising now after sleeping properly how deluded I have been, both in the importance of my hair before and in my degree of hair loss and whether or not I was even a candidate, let alone a candidate for this ultra agressive hairline. I definitely have body dysmorphia and did not realise it.

This is really bad. 

 

Nobody can tell you anything about the results of your hairtransplant from these photos. Can you post some more photos and information about your process?

[mr_peanutbutter]

the hairline seems okay, you should make a video on „how your hairline moves“ because i doubt it

 

and yes, you bald in the norwood 6 pattern and it becomes more apparent if you cut your hair very short but since you are on fin there is a good chance you wont lose much hair anymore and once grown out it wont be noticable 

 

i think you really need to come down a bit.

Edited March 12 by mr_peanutbutter

[diegoyrenny]

I think you are just having some kind of panic attack just calm down and give it a few months

[jjalay]

It would be nice if you could post some more picture or even a video to show how the hairline looks and some more infos about your surgery. You really need to relax now and give it time.