4000 grafts taken from the donor area pushes the donor area’s ability to support such a large procedure when the donor density is lower than average. I am afraid that too many men who push their doctors or go to clinics where very large FUE sessions are done regardless of their donor density, will find themselves bald in the back and side of the head, like this man with new balding in the back of the head.
I saw many side effects in fin and minoxidil. I just want to use dermaroller for my hairline. Does this work?
There is good evidence that just microneedling and the wound healing that happens after that will produce hair growth without finasteride and minoxidil. The addition of those two drugs increase the effectiveness but are probably not critical to it.
This young man took photos over a 6 month period. This is unusually good growth within 6 months.
Your donor supply looks pushed. If you harvest more grafts in this areas where it was harvested before, you may deplete the donor area and become bald there. There is a limit to how many hairs can be supplied by the donor area. The safe area for harvesting I defined by the lines I drew (the safe area is between the lines) on the photo but as you can see, some of the grafts were taken from the non-permanent zone. I would not rush to get another hair transplant as the donor area will become more of a problem than the area where you are moving the grafts to fix. You might want to find a doctor who can do a strip surgery for more grafts as the depletion will be less in the areas shown.
I had 4500 grafts and can’t seem to get these scabs off . It is now 30 days since my surgery and although there are less scabs, they seem to remain. What do you think of the FUE area?
These crusts should never have formed. You should have been instructed in a washing protocol after the surgery that would give you no crusting. I’l bet you also had crust in the recipient area as well and had to wear a hat for cover. The donor area where the FUE was performed is too large, too high and too low which means that some of the grafts that were removed are not permanent hairs. The doctor seemed to want to push the numbers high so he/she extended the donor area outside the safe area. Is that what you asked the doctor to do?
Probably not. What I see is that you appear in the front to be transitioning into a male mature hairline as the widow’s peak is a remnant to where your hairline receded as it is moving to a mature hairline. Some men retain this widow’s peak unless they undergo genetic balding in which case they may lose the widow’s peak and the entire hairline as well. It appears that your left side is maturing faster than your right side.
I was thinking about shaving my head but I heard that if I do, it will prevent my hair from growing back. Is this really true?
If your hair has significant miniaturization with hairs that are not growing at this time, then these hairs may not grow back if they are now growing now. Advanced miniaturization of the hairs is often the end stage of hair loss. Other parts of your scalp where there is not end stage miniaturization, will grow back normally. Hairs in the early phase of miniaturization, grow slower than those hairs that are not miniaturized.
I developed an infection and met with my doctor who put me on antibiotics. It seemed to get better. I am worried about it harming the grafts in the recipient area. Is that a problem?
It is hard to tell from the pictures if the infection is under control but your doctor will tell you that and you should see no significant pimples or redness. If the infection was promptly treated, it will not harm the grafts. The good news is I see early growth already.
This curve shows the value of different doses of finasteride on hair growth. Note that a reduction of dose to half has a small effect on value
The scalp will shed these hairs if you are patient. The spicules of hair that you see will fall out very shortly. I know this because the direction of these hair are very irregular and appear to be ready to fall out. The shedding process is normal.
This is a 17 year old with a family history of advanced balding. He is seeing some hair in the shower and is frightened abut what his future holds for him. The question is reasonable and is best answered with a HAIRCHECK TEST with an instrument that some doctors have in their offices. This is an accurate way to answer this young man’s question as seen in this previous patient: https://baldingblog.com/2017/01/10/value-haircheck-bulk-measurements-two-patients-seen-today/
Here is a picture of the 17 year old who asked the question. His picture is similar to the example I showed above in the link I supplied.
I found this link on Reddit which is an excellent review of the entire microneedling process which I have been asked about often:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tressless/wiki/microneedling
Yeah I’m not dealing with this. Life already sucks to go through right now. I’m not sure which treatment I want to do. Surgery is too expensive. The libido sides from finasteride and minoxidil aren’t really an issue for me but it’s still a bit iffy. What do you suggest is the best course of action? I’m already not a looker
I doubt that your hairline is receding. Sometimes the mature hairline appears at your age and that maybe all it is. Send me photos and I will give you an opinion but be sure that your photo has your full face with your eyebrows lifted so that the forehead creases. A mature hairline is one finger breadth above the highest crease of the furrowed brow., see here: https://baldingblog.com/mature-hairline-photo/
Diffuse thinning may or may not be uniform thinning. See the distinction in a recent commentary I published in the HT Forum: https://newhair.com/pdf/Kumaresan-Muthuvel-Bernstein-Rassman-Commentary.pdf You need to see magnified views of your hair in different parts of your scalp. By going to Amazon, look for hand microscopes and for under $50 you can get good digital photos of your scalp at the hair roots. Then get a map of the head from Google, label each area you photo (a, b, c, etc) and then send them to me and I will look at them and give you a diagnosis. Be sure to include your donor area from the back of your head.
I saw this photo on an internet site where the patient asked how his recipient area looked and why the cracks where there. Clearly the doctor never told the patient how to take care of the recipient area. This poor man will have to walk around for almost a month with this ‘cake’ on his head and he will not be able to go out in public without a hat on his head. Compare the patient with the caked crusts to one of our patients who had proper washing (on the right). Below is our washing process for readers who do not want to get cake on their head.
Post Operative Recipient Site Care: An FUE is treated just like a regular hair transplant with regard to the recipient area, but the donor area has open wounds which require daily washing with soap and water. There should be no crusts present even on day one if the washing routine below is followed. Within 3 days of surgery, you can resume full activities, heavy exercises if you wish. The recipient area requires daily washes as well to keep the recipient area free of crusts. I generally recommend the use of a sponge and supply my patient with a surgical sponge to fill with soapy water and press on the recipient area daily. By repeating this daily, all crusts can be washed off without any fear of losing grafts. IF any crust are present, use a Q tip and dip it into soapy water, and roll it on the crusts and that will lift them off without dislodging them, but never rub them, just roll the Q tip on the recipient crust. I like to see no evidence of any crusting in the recipient area and the crusts from the donor area gone in 7-10 days with daily washing
