Eugenix (Drs. Das/Somesh/Vinita) | 11,102 grafts | NW 6/7 | 28 yrs old | 2022/2023/2024

[GeneralNorwood]

45 minutes ago, general-etwan said:

Yeah, I understand temple work isn’t the wisest thing to do for many people. In my case though only a few hundred grafts were used there and from the nape of the neck and low on the neck that wouldn’t have been used for top-of-scalp transplantation anyway. And this light gap I have now *was* filled back in March, so either the growth is super slow coming in, and/or it caused shock loss to the native hair that was there. At least all the temple hair is appropriate and angled correctly. I just hope the March hairs grow in stronger soon. Not a huge deal, like you said can keep slightly longer…but the gaps were filled as I insisted and should be growing in. 

 

The thing is that  you shaved your temple points completely 1 month ago. They need to grow at least 3-4 months to look good. Doing temple points limits hairstyle, because they need to grow 3-4 months to look neat. 

Well, you can wear them after cutting to 0, but as you now, they dont look good after that. I experienced same thing. Just wait 2-3 months without cutting temple points and you will see huge improvement. 

 

Just to clarify, This temple point hair are still pretty thick and could be used on the top of the scalp. Zarev checked thickness of my temple points grafts and found one of the thickest hair over there. 

Edited August 24 by GeneralNorwood

[Fox243]

On 8/24/2024 at 7:47 PM, general-etwan said:

Yeah, I understand temple work isn’t the wisest thing to do for many people. In my case though only a few hundred grafts were used there and from the nape of the neck and low on the neck that wouldn’t have been used for top-of-scalp transplantation anyway. And this light gap I have now *was* filled back in March, so either the growth is super slow coming in, and/or it caused shock loss to the native hair that was there. At least all the temple hair is appropriate and angled correctly. I just hope the March hairs grow in stronger soon. Not a huge deal, like you said can keep slightly longer…but the gaps were filled as I insisted and should be growing in. 

Yeah, lateral humps have made a good comeback.

I guess crown really is a black hole. Takes so many grafts, I just feel like the edges of my crown have come in better than the middle and lower area but just how it is. 

If there is to be one thinner place than all others, it’s natural for it to be crown I guess.

I could probably have another few thousand grafts used from my donor to further homogenize the whole head but really not interested in doing any more work at least not in the near future. I want to grow my hair longer and that takes a while.

 

I'm optimistic that your results will turn out good. As you said, give it 1) a few more months for the transplant to mature and 2) a few more months for your hair to grow.

[general-etwan]

6 minutes ago, Fox243 said:

I'm optimistic that your results will turn out good. As you said, give it 1) a few more months for the transplant to mature and 2) a few more months for your hair to grow.

I argue with myself daily whether to let it grow longer or buzz it all down and bleach it blonde. 

[Fox243]

1 minute ago, general-etwan said:

I argue with myself daily whether to let it grow longer or buzz it all down and bleach it blonde. 

I'd let it grow. You can always buzz it but it takes forever to grow.

[general-etwan]

Just now, Fox243 said:

I'd let it grow. You can always buzz it but it takes forever to grow.

I know. Buttt

[Fox243]

9 minutes ago, general-etwan said:

I know. Buttt

patience young padawan

[general-etwan]

Some pics from today. I’m finding it can look different from day to day just depending on my washing/sleeping on it habits. Some days it looks stronger, other days it looks weaker…unfortunately that’s a product of density that isn’t truly high enough to overcome the way it happens to be laying or styled. Us NW 6/7s really need that hair graft cloning or regeneration 😩

 

 

Two things to note in my hairline area: 1) There appear to be some doubles in my hairline zone. Not at the lowest edge of the hairline, but in the “zone” just slightly behind it. Not sure what procedure that occurred in. Really shouldn’t have happened, as it was communicated to me that all graft types were sorted and only singles were to be used there. But, they’re not really noticeable from any distance and you can only really see them with the macro mode camera so they’re not a major problem to me. 2) A lot of the transplanted hair from March seems to just be sprouting now as you can see up close that many shafts haven’t even reached a cm in length yet. So I would expect that means the crown is just now sprouting too.

Edited August 29 by general-etwan

[Al - Moderator]

23 minutes ago, general-etwan said:

A lot of the transplanted hair from March seems to just be sprouting now as you can see up close that many shafts haven’t even reached a cm in length yet. So I would expect that means the crown is just now sprouting too.

 

That sounds like good news as it should mean you have a lot of improvement still coming.

 

[general-etwan]

Just posting an update that I've decided not to continue oral minoxidil. After doing more (and better) research into it's possible dangerous side effects (and the documented cases thereof) that are not dose dependent, I personally don't subscribe to the idea that I want to take that risk myself. I will stick to topical, which is proven to be generally just as effective in most cases. Will update my signature to state current medication regimen.

Edited August 31 by general-etwan

[Rawkerboi]

5 hours ago, general-etwan said:

Just posting an update that I've decided not to continue oral minoxidil. After doing more (and better) research into it's possible dangerous side effects (and the documented cases thereof) that are not dose dependent, I personally don't subscribe to the idea that I want to take that risk myself. I will stick to topical, which is proven to be generally just as effective in most cases. Will update my signature to state current medication regimen.

I am currently taking Finasteride and topical Minoxidil. I was thinking about switching to oral Minoxidil, but I was quite reluctant.

Can you please share what research you did about the side effects? You can DM if you want

[general-etwan]

On 8/31/2024 at 5:18 AM, Rawkerboi said:

I am currently taking Finasteride and topical Minoxidil. I was thinking about switching to oral Minoxidil, but I was quite reluctant.

Can you please share what research you did about the side effects? You can DM if you want

Haircafe YouTube channel has a playlist on minoxidil and goes into some documented cases and studies. And links all the sources in the video descriptions. In closing, just the risk of pericardial effusion and potential life threatening cardiovascular effects, that do not seem to be dependent on dosage (1 mg vs 2.5 vs 5 is no different), even however unlikely, is scary to me and so I’ll stick to topical finasteride for now. 

[Technoir]

@general-etwanlooking good general.

I think your result is crying out for smp to give a uniform look of density all over. I think it will really boost that illusion of density.

I know you were considering it, have you made any concrete decision?

 

 

[general-etwan]

25 minutes ago, Technoir said:

@general-etwanlooking good general.

I think your result is crying out for smp to give a uniform look of density all over. I think it will really boost that illusion of density.

I know you were considering it, have you made any concrete decision?

 

 

I have not made any decision to do it at this time. I find the cost for it to be outrageous for what it is; will casually keep an eye out for discounts or deals for a lower cost and will talk to some tattoo artists about it. But it also means shaving the head (or pay a higher price) and I’m not really interested in doing that right now. I want to grow it longer. 

[hair_forever]

On 9/4/2024 at 10:44 PM, general-etwan said:

Il canale YouTube Haircafe ha una playlist sul minoxidil e affronta alcuni casi e studi documentati. E linka tutte le fonti nelle descrizioni dei video. In chiusura, solo il rischio di versamento pericardico e potenziali effetti cardiovascolari pericolosi per la vita, che non sembrano dipendere dal dosaggio (1 mg contro 2,5 contro 5 non fa differenza), anche se improbabile, mi spaventa e quindi per ora mi atterrò alla finasteride topica. 

Could you send me the links to these researches? Even in private if you prefer..

[general-etwan]

10 hours ago, hair_forever said:

Could you send me the links to these researches? Even in private if you prefer..

Here is a good playlist covering everything oral minoxidil related and in each video, studies are linked. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXoKcD0kKb9anb12uoMnp-o8S2rSMZA0_

 

[general-etwan]

Some 5.5 months pics. Grafts from HT #3 in March reaaalllly coming in so slowly for whatever reason.

 

 

The following pics are after I buzzed the sides and back down to about 9 mm myself. I didn't want to go to the barber because I didn't want him cutting up into my lower crown again like last time. I set up a mirror system in the bathroom and made sure to only trim to the topmost edge of the donor area and leave the entire crown untouched. Some observations: the extraction pattern is once again visible at even this length, so in the future I will just not trim it this short even. I was trying to decrease the contrast between the donor area and crown, but it just doesn't turn out as well as I expect. 

 

  

 

Additional points: Really struggling with styling at this length. My hair is so straight and therefore very hard to style to visually cover the whole scalp at all times. I would really like to add some waves to my hair naturally, but nothing works...sea salt spray, etc, it stays laying straight. I think the only thing that will put some waves and texture in my hair is a perm, which I will wait several more months yet before getting....

My hair also tends to be dry, and I'm only shampooing and conditioning every other day. Dry texture powder seems to be the most volumizing product for thin hair, but my hair is already so dry to begin with that adding the texture powder makes it extremely rough and dry. This week I started putting in an argan oil moisturizer first, and then adding just a tiny bit of texture powder after if necessary for some volume and light hold and that seems to look and feel better and softer.

I've also struggled to just relax and not be so focused on making it look perfect at all times throughout the day. Not having hair on the top of my head in my late teens and most of my 20s...I truly didn't know what it was like to have hair, and so my natural inclination is to ensure it's all laying perfectly how I want it at all times, but the reality is that non-hair-loss sufferers who have medium to longer hair do not obsess over it looking perfect at all times, and nobody else hyper analyzes that either. So it's a learning curve learning how to be more laid-back and not worry about perfect presentation all the time.

Edited Tuesday at 06:37 AM by general-etwan

[hairman22]

looks really good.

you should try a low fade imo

 

your donor does not look bad at all

Edited Tuesday at 07:13 AM by hairman22

[hair_forever]

You are doing well, the next 3 months are critical for growth and thickening, plus your donor in the back looks very good still!

[Technoir]

7 hours ago, general-etwan said:

My hair also tends to be dry, and I'm only shampooing and conditioning every other day.

That is still very often. I almost never wash my hair, only running water through it every so often.

If I do wash it, I find it far more difficult to style as all the natural oils etc have been stripped.

Maybe try only rinsing with water every few days?

 

[Stewie]

Same as @Technoir I hardly ever wash mine as well as I find it goes really fluffy and hard to do anything with and really dry, I use mainly styling powders to hold it down and push back and now I have stopped washing it I would say it generally looks and feels better, and the styling powder adds enough tackiness to thicken it up a bit and let me do something with it, mine is not much longer than this now, ill post some pics next week when I get chance  

[Melvin- Admin]

The lateral humps were by far the most important for looking natural in your case, and I would rate that a solid 9/10. The crown, while not ideal, still looks natural. I think everything is more or less blended in. Shows the importance of subsequent procedures for Norwood 6/7s.

[Berba11]

On 9/17/2024 at 7:31 AM, general-etwan said:

I've also struggled to just relax and not be so focused on making it look perfect at all times throughout the day. Not having hair on the top of my head in my late teens and most of my 20s...I truly didn't know what it was like to have hair, and so my natural inclination is to ensure it's all laying perfectly how I want it at all times, but the reality is that non-hair-loss sufferers who have medium to longer hair do not obsess over it looking perfect at all times, and nobody else hyper analyzes that either. So it's a learning curve learning how to be more laid-back and not worry about perfect presentation all the time.

I think this is key. You’ve gone from NW7 to having a pretty full looking head of hair. Getting to that stage will always require some compromises along the way, be it density in certain places of the scalp or patterns & depletion in the donor area. 
 

But in the grand scheme of thing these are minor details that no one but you are paying any attention to. 
 

In terms of tackling dryness with your hair… A few ideas might be; use hair products that introduce moisture such as pomades & hair creams for a more slick or wetter look. Other ideas might be leave-in conditioners or occasional hair masks. I’ve tried all of these and found they each do a decent job (my own hair is naturally coarse & wiry) but my appetite for maintaining any kind of meaningful hair-care regimen is basically zero. The hair masks definitely work though on the rare occasions I’ve pinched a sachet from Mrs Berba11!!

Edited 2 hours ago by Berba11

[Dragonsphere]

You kind of look like a young Hayden Christensen now. 

 

[Al - Moderator]

Your crown is still thin, but it's nowhere near as bad as it once was. It's at a much more acceptable appearance now.