MY JOURNEY

8 Months

2008-10-18T21:07:00.000-05:00

Wow, how quickly time flies by, it's hard to believe that it has been 8 months; things are continuing to gradually thicken up. Every month is always the same, at first I don't think much has changed, and then I compare my new pics to my old ones and once again things are looking even thicker.

The new hairline is well established and you can see from my new pics that it is thickening up all over compared to my 6 month pics. It is amazing how much of a difference this has made to my self-confidence, I don't think about my hair nearly as much anymore because it doesn't bother me anymore. The great thing is, I still have quite a bit of growth to go before I see my final result.

My next update will probably be around 10 months.. Wish me luck!!!

6 Months

2008-08-18T13:39:00.005-05:00

So I've made it to the 6 month mark, although it seem like it has been a lot longer than that, it's been a long road. I have finally broke myself of looking at my hair in the mirror every day, as that keeps me from thinking about it every second of the day and time seems to pass a bit faster.

I'm very happy with my progress so far and things are coming along very well. As you can see, my new hairline is starting to thicken up now and there are still lots of little sprouts popping up. I was a bit worried that the transplanted hair wouldn't blend with my existing hair, but it blends very well and looks very natural. My friends are all impressed with how natural things look even though I'm 6 to 8 months out from my final result. I'm also very impressed with the angles that the new hair is growing in, it perfectly matches my real hair pattern and blends in perfectly.

The picture quality might be a little different this month, I had to use my old digital camera as mine accidentally took a dip at the beach on vacation last month. :-(

5 Months

2008-07-18T16:32:00.005-05:00

So here is my "slightly late" 5 month update. I've been on vacation for the past week and just got back into town. I took the photos at the 5 month mark, July 11th, and had planned on posting them while I was on vacation but I ended up having very limited internet access and was having too much fun to worry about it.

So there has been steady progress from looking at my pics. It seems day to day that nothing changes, then I look at my updates and it is clear that things are coming along. The framing of my face is taking shape very well, hopefully things will continue to thicken up now.

I know I am still very early in the process, but I can say at this point that I am starting to feel a bit differently about my appearance. I am feeling a little more confident than I did prior to my sugery, and as long as things go as planned, it is only going to get better. Below are my 5 month photos.

4 Months

2008-06-12T18:05:00.004-05:00

I'm at the 4 month mark now and I'm slowly starting to see more growth. Compared to 3 months, there is definitely a lot more little hairs poking through now. My scalp is slowly getting back to normal and there is just a tiny bit of pinkness left at this point. I took a better photo of my donor area this time so that you could see that it is completely healed and there are no signs of any "work" being done back there. My hair in the donor area is cut to a number 2 clipper which is 2/8's of an inch and is still thick as it ever was.

I must say that I'm quickly realizing that the most difficult part of a HT is not the actual procedure or even the recovery... it is the waiting game you play waiting for the hair to grow.

3 Months

2008-05-15T00:35:00.005-05:00

I've reached the 3 month mark, and it looks like the growth might be starting now. I see about 30 or 40 hairs growing up in my hairline now. The redness is almost completely gone now and the ingrown hairs are subsiding a little bit.

I was actually expecting to see a little more growth by now, but I think that's me just being impatient. I was happy when the grafts originally shed, because I was afraid of people noticing I had something done; now I'm just ready for all the growth to kick in.

Here are my 3 month photos....

2 Months

2008-04-14T23:47:00.006-05:00

Ok, so I forgot to take pictures at the one month mark, trust me, you didn't miss much. All of the new hairs had pretty much shed by the one month mark and I had some shockloss. Amazingly, the donor area was completely undetectable after 3 weeks or so. I had 3 weeks off from work, so going back wasn't really a big deal. I used a little bit of makeup to blend the redness where the new hairline had been placed, so it wasn't nearly as obvious. No one at work seemed to notice.

I'm starting to get a few ingrown hairs at the 2 month mark, which I guess is a good sign of some early growth, however, it is still annoying. The redness has really faded and isn't too bad now, but it will be nice when it is completely gone. There are a few hairs that have sprouted and are growing up in the hairline, but nothing major yet. I'm hoping to see the growth kick in over the next month.

Ok, so here are a few photos of where I'm at now...

Week 1

2008-02-22T20:06:00.006-06:00

I travelled to Los Angeles for my FUE procedure with Dr Armani and stayed with my good friend Amanda (Amanda, if you are reading this, THANK YOU!!!!) who just lived a few miles away from the clinic. Being able to stay with a friend instead of a boring hotel room was a life saver, and her dog Chocolate Chuck kept me company all week long as I was recovering. I arrived a few days early so that we could enjoy the nice LA weather and do a little bit of site seeing.

My procedure was scheduled on Monday morning, February 11th for 4000 grafts and I arrived early at 7am. They took my pre-op photos for their records, had me fill out the final paperwork and then they had me select what I wanted for lunch later in the day. I then met with Dr Armani; he examined my hair and my pre-op photos and we went over what I wanted to accompish with the procedure. I showed him a photo from my 23rd birthday to give him an idea of what my hairline used to look like. Based on my input, he drew out my new hairline on my pre-op photos, and I agreed.

Pretty soon I was changed, in the chair and they were shaving my head. They got started right away with the extractions and before I knew it, it was lunch time. I had about an hour break for lunch and got to watch a little bit of tv. After lunch, Dr Armani came in and did the incisions in the recipient area. I was really surprised at how fast he was able to work; it took him about 45 minutes or so to lay down all of the incisions. His team then continued finishing up the last of the extractions and then they began implanting. Implanting was by far my favorite part, because I was able to sit up and watch TV. I wish I could remember everyones name, but they were all great. All in all, I think I was in the chair for about 12 hours as we finished up around 10pm. I was happy to learn that my final count was 4,181 grafts.

I got sent home with my meds, my head covered in vitamin E oil and a bandage around my head. I was actually able to sleep quite well as it had been a long day and I had hardly any pain at all. The only annoying part was that the back of my head was still quite numb which felt really wierd. I came back in the next morning to get my hair washed and get my bandages off; I had almost no bleeding at all. The rest of the week was a breeze and was kind of like a mini vacation. I had some swelling, but it passed quickly; by the time I flew out on Friday, I was pretty much back to normal. I put a light bandage around my head and slid a very loose fitting hat over my head so that I didn't look like a freak.

Anyways, here are some pics from my first week. I apologize for the low quality, I forgot to take my camera so I had to use my phone's camera to take all of these.

Day 0 and Day 1

Day 2 and Day 4

Day 5 and Day 6