Steeeve

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 All the fingers crossed I can get man! LOL I can definitely see some small improvement in my hair from the PRP. It’s ever so slight but hair in my crown has perked up a bit from it where it didn’t respond to fin or minox. Since the beginning of my medical journey 7 years ago I was told that a strict regiment of fin/minox/biotin would help those hairs bulk back up. The regiment seemed to help everywhere but my crown. Tiny wispy white hairs piped out but never grew beyond that. A camera could not detect them. You can 100% see them in my pictures now. I can also see some hair in my hairline that didn’t want to perk up before but are now. It’s exciting just to see that.

@vinzaf19 thanks for your response! I’m not familiar with the Eclipse system. I couldn’t tell you whether the PRP treatment was painful or not as I slept through that part. I mean, your whole head is numb from the transplant. Lol I don’t know if a doctor numbs you for PRP only. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt during the transplant but it might if you’re not numb... I see some improvement, yes. Thank you. The camera doesn’t pick up everything I see but the shedding, especially in the corners, has crept up on me a little. And I do mean “a little”. I fully expect that to come back but it seems to me when I put the pre-op photos side by side with the one month photo that my corners have moved a little higher up. No one in my day to day life is looking at me that closely so no one would ever notice. I could be totally off, however, and there’s no difference whatsoever... It could just be that my hair is longer now and that it’s laying different so my corner recession is really visible to me.I don’t know but I do appreciate your response!

Thanks @Melvin-Moderator! I was full on expecting to just ride it out for the first few months/however long it took. I plan to create a patient website. I keep putting it off but I will do so soon. Thanks for posting the link!

1 Month Dry

1 month down! I'm starting to see some shedding but most of those hairs are still holding on. I’ve had a few pimples which you might be able to see in the pictures. Does anybody have any suggestions about what to do about pimples? Should I pop them? Leave them alone? They’re actually kind of uncomfortable. I wouldn’t say they hurt but I feel it when I run my hands through my hair. I’ve seen a little shedding in my recipient but I still look like I did prior to the procedure. I’m also still seeing hair shed at my scar. My hair is long enough to cover everything though. I have my 1 month check up with Dr. Arocha on Tuesday and I’m going to ask if I could get a haircut-my concern is should I after dealing with the infection. On one hand I’d like to clean my hair up a little bit...on the other my scar is still really pink, especially on the right side where I believe the majority of the infection was, and there was a bit of shedding back there. I really can’t tell how bad it is though because my hair does a very good job covering it. Could I cut it to a 4 or 5 without risk of exposing the scar or jut wait it out a few more months? I sent the Blake a text, keeping him informed about my scar, also making an observation about how terrible it currently looked and he responded quite promptly, with quite a few texts, letting me know that everything was normal and that it’s still healing. 🙂 I guess I should’ve clarified that I was just making a general observation about the current state of the scar. While I’m aware that it’s going to take months to mature it looked pretty terrible for a hot minute, what with a flap of skin being ripped from my scalp and subsequent infection. While it’s still pink it really doesn’t look that bad anymore, with exception of where the infection was. I have to say, there’s still 11 to 17 months left to go but, I’m very happy in regards to how the clinic has treated me so far. I know it will slow down in the coming months but not a week has gone by where the clinic hasn’t reached out to me to ask how things were going with the scar or the hair transplant in general. This can be quite a stressful time for anyone who isn’t emotionally prepared to deal with it and their constant contact has be extremely reassuring. So far my experience with Dr Arocha’s clinic has been a good one. I’m attaching pics of my hair wet and dry. unless there any questions or anything randomly pops up I’ll be back at 2 months. Cheers and be good people. 1 Month Wet

He must mean a 3-Vertex. III-V...? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Hey @memzinla! How’s that hair coming along?

Thanks @Melvin-Moderator! I appreciate you stopping by and giving it a look. Hey, I have a question for anybody who can potentially answer. Dr Arocha and Blake said that if these grafts don’t shed by the one month mark you’re typically in a good place for them not to. Statistically they may not at that point and will continue to grow. I’ve been trying to emotionally prepare my self to see them go for a bit. Lol Next week is my one month mark and they’re still hanging on. I’ve seen very few shed and I’m keeping my eyes wide open! My question is: has anyone seen their grafts first shed after the one month mark? Is that a thing? Most forum members experience it within the first month on here so I’m just wondering what’s the deal?

Thank you @Mycroft, I appreciate the compliments. One place my hair has struggled to hold on is in the scar. My hair is long enough to cover it but whenever I wash it there are a lot of hairs breaking off back there. Having said that it still doesn’t look that bad tbh. I watched a video by Dr. Bloxham on YouTube where he said that the scar matured over the course of the year so at 6 months it would have matured by 50%. I think everybody might react to it differently. I think, after having done some research on the forums, that it comes back down to one’s own physiology. Some guys do really well and some guys don’t. Thanks again.

I think the work looks amazing. I think it looks truly natural. I see a wall of hair, especially in those temples, where there was none before. Well done.

So these are pics of the scar but keep in mind I took these pics last Tuesday night. The area is much cleaner now. I showed these to Blake, Dr. Arocha’s representative I’ve been in contact with, and he showed them to the doctor. They called me back within minutes to reassure me the incision is just healing and to stay on the regimen that I posted earlier. As you’ll see the pics from Tuesday show that the area is a little pink and there are a few bumps on the right side that I believe are just pimples. Other than the area being much cleaner now it still looks basically the same. You get a better idea of the shockloss surrounding the incision which seems to be following gravity and moving downward rather than above it.It’s impossible to tell what the scar will turn out like at this point. Especially with the infection. I believe I’ve heard in a consultation somewhere that the scar takes 6 months to mature but I may be 100% off about that. I’ll be post again at the 1 month mark unless there are any questions. I’ll be here if there are. Cheers and be good people.

Man, that is SOLID for 1700 grafts!! And you have half a year of growth and maturation left. Congratulations!!

Hey everybody, I just wanted to pop in with an update about my situation and share some thoughts now that I’m through my initial cleaning phase. At almost 3 weeks I look almost completely like I’ve never had anything done. In fact I went to work yesterday for the first time since the procedure and I didn’t wear a cap. I confided in a friend who knew that I had been wanting to do it and he was blown away. He didn’t quite know what to expect but he expected more, I guess. He said, “I don’t know what I expected you to look like but I expected you to look like you had done...something!” I feel very fortunate for this. When I go out I typically don’t wear a cap. I don’t spend too much time in the sun, however, if there’s that chance then I definitely bring a cap along. I’ve experience a little bit of shedding in the recipient so far. I can’t tell if there has been any shockloss in my recipient but I’m definitely experiencing some in my donor but only on the sides and even then mostly on my right side. It’s only noticeable when my hair is wet, though. I do see some thinning on the left side but it is so minimal that I don’t think the camera can pick it up. It’s still early days and I know I could and should expect more shockloss to occur. I’m curious to see how far it goes. I explained to my friend what shockloss was and even pointed it out to him and he couldn’t see it. I know that it is due to my physiology but I also experienced a little infection in my donor on the right side due to improper cleaning. When I went to get my sutures taken out the tech noticed a little puss on my right side. The doctor gave me a weeks worth of antibiotics and said take these and keep it clean. We’ll reassess if it doesn’t go away. To me this little infection was avoidable on my part. I took it too easy on my strip when cleaning. I, maybe, even could’ve gotten my wife to help me clean it. I’ll probably do that next time. While it didn’t really hurt it was very tender and I shied away from it when it came that time. Tbh, though, my biggest problem was that I couldn’t feel any crusts back there. I just didn’t know what I was feeling for. I do believe that the infection helped out the shockloss to some degree. Again, we’ll see how far it goes. I didn’t really want to post about it until I got a little more information on it from the clinic. They’ve reassured me that everything is good as long as I keep it clean, keep bacitracin on it, and keep on the antibiotics until they’re gone. The pics I’m including will show the shockloss that is there. As you’ll see so far it is very minimal. The hair in the back will be wet in most of the pictures but I’m going to include one where it is dry so that you can compare. This is how I wear my hair day to day right now.Now, again, I left the back of my hair wet here so as to highlight the shockloss so far.My hair is a little drier here and you can see that it is much more undetectable; completely to the untrained eye.Same side but this is meant to showcase more of my hairline-to-be 🤞🏻🤞🏻 than the shockloss.I’m going to post some pics of my scar in a bit but for now I’ve got to go feed my babies. Cheers.🙂✌🏻

Looking forward to these results, as well!👌🏻

Really nice case. Has the patient expressed any desire to come back for more work further back in the mid scalp and crown? Apologies if I missed it earlier up in the thread.

Thanks Mycroft. I appreciate the support. I went in to his office today to have my sutures removed and the doctor said everything looked good with maybe the exception of my donor incision. I could’ve done a better job cleaning but the doctor and techs said it was no big deal and to make sure I just scrubbed a little more now that the sutures were out. Once I get it scrubbed out I’ll snap a pic and throw it on here. I’ve noticed a little bit of the transplanted hair have started to come off in my hands in the shower this evening with the normal amount of native hair that I see every time I take a shower. Cheers. 😃🤞🏻🤞🏻

I took, what I consider, to be a somewhat smaller session for my first. I have a quite a bit I want to try and save. I also took the FUT route for my first as I’m hoping to maximize my donor that way. If I’m being quite honest I’d have preferred to go down the FUE route completely. I’m not crazy about the idea of having a linear scar but I also want to get the most out of it as I can. There are also ways to conceal it down the road. I typically keep my hair pretty close and tight but I can leave my donor area a little longer for the time being. I’ll never be able to cut it down to a one again but I’m willing to give that for what I’ll hopefully get.

@Bad Hair, is that your natural hair color? If so then good on ya cause I’m not quite 40 yet and this hair is going down the silver brick road but fast, man! You picked a great surgeon! Im looking forward to following your progress!

Thanks @gillenator, asking for a fr - me...I’m asking for me. 🙂👍🏻

I’m sure everyone is different is some regard but when might one with diffused thinning expect shock loss to occur after the transplant? Is there a typical timeline when it might begin? I know it could take up to half of the year to grow back in, if is doesn’t become completely shocked out, but when would it start?

Excellent gains so far after 5 months! Any immediate post op pics of the donor?

Day 9 With the exception of these sutures I pretty much feel back to normal. My head is still numb in the recipient but it really doesn’t bother me. I do still have some pings and pangs from the sutures but it’s really not that bad. With my wash this morning I think I got what was left of the scabs out. I look in the mirror and I don’t believe anyone would look at me and think I had a hair transplant. So now the waiting game begins. I get my sutures taken out next Monday or Tuesday at Dr Arocha’s office in Houston. I’ll update again at that time unless anybody has any questions or anything pops up. I’ll be here. Cheers.✌🏻 For the next 2 pictures I turned up the brightness on my ring light in order to try and show through the hair to the scalp. I don’t know how well it turned out.

These are from yesterday; 8 days out from surgery. The scabs had mostly loosened up and fallen out. I still put bacitracin on my incision and recipient as there were a few scabs still lingering. Ive said it before and I’ll say it again. Dealing with a hair transplant with twin newborns is no easy task. Lol The challenges presented are headache inducing...or maybe that’s just my sutures...

I also wanted to add that Blake, one of Arocha’s representatives, has been amazing. If I send him a message he gets back to me within minutes. I finally got to meet him today and it was great to put a face to a name. He’s seriously very helpful. ✌🏻

It went great, man! Thanks for asking. 👍🏻 I got a new phone over the weekend and I hadn’t really played with the camera enough to get good pictures of the scar today so I was trying to wait to write about my experience until the wife could help me get some pictures this evening. Dr Arocha examined me and we took our week 1 pics. He said that the hairs on my scalp already looked thicker and it does. Then he told me not to freak out when that awesome stubble falls out. I was aware that there’s a large chance of this even with the PRP. It hasn’t yet since we are only in week one but man, I know everybody deals with these feelings when they see those beautiful hairs that are now in a place where they haven’t been in so long, I’ll be sad to see them go. LOL Logically I know they’ll be back so...*deep breaths* 😊 He said the scar looks like it’s healing really well but I have to give credit to my wife on that. She’s been amazing at helping me when she can. She works during the day but helps to apply the bacitracin to my scalp at night. I do it during the day when she’s at work but it’s like the difference of a little boy peeing all over the toilet seat and an adult peeing directly into the toilet...I get it all over the back of my scalp. He said to keep applying the bacitracin to both my incision and my scalp especially where those big scabs are. My routine is two head washes a day. I take a spray bottle and I pour about a quarter of baby shampoo in it and then I pour about 3/4’s of the 0.9% Sodium Chloride Irrigation that they sent home with me. I spray my recipient/incision pretty religiously with it and let it sit for 15 minutes then spray again and let it rest for another 15 minutes. For the first five days I would just rinse it out by pouring a cup of water over my head then lather by patting my head with some more baby shampoo and rinse again by pouring water over my head. On day five I let the shower head trickle over my scalp, as I said in a previous post above, and saw a lot of smaller scabs wash away. Today I put the shower on a higher blast. Not full but higher. Same routine but I massaged a little more, not necessarily any more firmly-just for longer, and the bulk of those larger scabs released. I felt stubble all over my head and man...it was exciting. Lol I still have a few bigger scabs so my wife helped me put the bacitracin on my scalp/incision. We got some pics of the incision but I’ll, hopefully, get some good pics in the morning after my first wash. I’ll see him again next Tuesday to get the sutures removed. That’s pretty much it for now. Cheers and Be Good People 🙂