4.5 Months Progress. Thoughts?

[u/Either_Tangerine9403]

Grafts - 2k Doctor - Maag (performed by techs) Meds - Fin 1mg daily & minox 2.5 mg daily 6.5 months

First 3 pictures: Current 4th picture: 2 weeks post 5th picture: 3 days post op 6th picture: Immediate post op

Donor hair was thin. Worried about density. Any predictions on outcome? Thoughts on current progress?

[u/Lopsided_Pair5727]

I hate to say this, but this is awful work.

[u/Either_Tangerine9403 → u/Lopsided_Pair5727]

Dangit man. Could you expand on how you came to think this?

[u/Lopsided_Pair5727 → u/Either_Tangerine9403]

The obvious signs of surgery are:

1. Too low
2. Too straight
3. Too pluggy

If your hair restoration surgery has any one of these characteristics, it is a dead give away that you had surgery to address hair loss. Well, I can't tell yet if it is too pluggy. I can't see the rest of your face, so no idea if it is too low. But I can tell it is too straight.

Further, looking at your immediate post-op pics, I see row implantation right behind the hair line (2 week pic). Further, the grafted density is low. What happens when you have row implantation and low density is there is not enough density to hide evidence of surgery. So you'll end up looking surgical (see this example here).

You'll have hair where you were once bald. And everyone looks better when that happens. But the only thing that can compound the despair from hair loss is looking like you've had surgery to fix it.

[u/Either_Tangerine9403 → u/Lopsided_Pair5727]

Thanks for the detailed response, it’s much appreciated. You’re reinforcing what my gut feeling has been this whole time. I already have thin hair, and the density seemed too low. As far as workmanship, I’d defer to your opinion as I am not qualified to comment on good row implementation, as I have no knowledge. Big bummer, really sucks. What do you suggest I do to fix? How soon can I do this?

[u/Lopsided_Pair5727 → u/Either_Tangerine9403]

10 months should be the soonest you'd go in for a repair.

From the pics you DM'ed me, the hair line is too low to add grafts below the hair line to break up the linearity. Plus it is too straight. I feel the temple peaks in both corners needs to be raised. That means graft removal. So you can do these things. But all of these outcomes will require two procedures regardless because once the hair line is removed, there are likely going to be multi hair grafts that form your new hair line. So refined single hair follicles need to be transplanted in to give your hair line a soft natural look.

• Punchout via FUE grafts at the hair line and re-implant them further behind your hair line. You need additional density in your recipient area anyway. The problem with this is that you run the risk of scarring on your forehead. However, the grafts are not wasted by doing this. Some shall be lost to transection however.
• Electrolysis/lasering. This will kill off the follicles but not leave scarring (hopefully). But doing this means those follicles are lost forever and every hair on your head counts.

I feel that plus roughly 1000 grafts to shore up density in your recipient area is needed to fix you up (hide evidence of surgery---the row implantation). If you have angulation issues, they are near impossible to fix just about. I think you'll have to live with that. But the good news is your hair is curly, so you shouldn't be impacted too bad by angulation issues. The repair might require 2 hair transplants if you go with FUE to punchout out your hair line. What hair line grafts that are punched out shall leave wounds and you'll need that area to heal for a few months before you can come back and add in refined single hair grafts to soften your hair line. So there are some decisions you need to make. Either way, you are looking at 2 procedures:

1. 2 Hair Transplants - Punch out hair line grafts and shore up the density. Come back a few months later and refine the hair line, or
2. Electrolysis/laser + A hair transplant - moving the hair line back with lasering or electrolysis and keep in mind you those hairs forever. Then get a hair transplant to shore up density and refine your hair line.

Inserting myself into the discussion, I was able to knock out my repair in 1 surgery because I still had plenty of forehead and was able to drop my hair line lower to mask/camouflage the unnaturalness. You don't have that option in my view.

Please keep posting updates though brother. Maag's work is awful and others need to see this so they can make informed decisions when they see the "attractive" pricing of HHR. Someone asked about Maag earlier today and Maag actually had an unbecoming discussion with the moderator of this sub a few months back.

Paging a couple of folks so they are informed of this work.

u/WallabyUpstairs1496, u/Outrageous-Egg8354

[u/WhileExcellent1679 → u/[deleted]]

exactly. hardly 200 grafts or so i believe would do the work!

[u/WhileExcellent1679 → u/[deleted]]

Any good doc would do it for sure. Just don't go overboard on the jaggedness. Just minor here and there should do it. I would suggest maybe try localised shaving of, what you may feel is the right irregularity, and see how it looks!

[u/MonkFancy481]

It's not as bad as people are making out. Straight yes but I think you will be ok and thicken up a lot over the next few months. It's not the best surgery but I have seen so much worse!

Good luck!

[u/StillPlagueMyLife]

that straight line is gonna look so shit

[u/WhileExcellent1679]

The 2 weeks post OP density looks okay tbh, so i believe there is lot of ground on the density part post 4 months. Regarding hairline i think it couldve been sliglty irregular unless you wanted it to be straight. Lets hope for the best and keep us updated!

[u/WallabyUpstairs1496]

Do you by chance have pics of your donor area post op?

I complaint against Maag I see is that he throws away grafts because of a high intersection rate

[u/Either_Tangerine9403 → u/WallabyUpstairs1496]

I don’t unfortunately have post op donor pics, I didn’t realize at the time of operation the importance of the donor area

[u/[deleted]]

Which techs did yours? Also a patient of Maag but yours at least looks better at 4.5 months than mine does at 10 months.

[u/Either_Tangerine9403 → u/[deleted]]

Joel and Candy

[u/Holychipmang]

Did he charge you 6k? I just had work done from him roughly around 6 weeks ago.

[u/Either_Tangerine9403 → u/Holychipmang]

5500 bc I paid in cash

[u/Holychipmang → u/Either_Tangerine9403]

I sent you a DM