TheAnimator 4 Months PostOp (1yr Update)

[theanimator]

Hi Everybody,

I'm intending on putting up a blog that tells about my experience and has a lot more pictures (I've been taking them every week).
But until then I thought I'd put up some progress pictures at 4 months. I'm very happy with the results so far!

I got my HT from Sharon Keene, Jan 15. 1500 grafts into the temples and 600 into the crown.
Also...the "drawn-in" hairline isn't from the doctor, it was one I did a few months before surgery to get estimates from other doctors by email.
There isn't much noticable difference in the crown so far, so I didn't see any need to post pics of it.
Any questions, just ask.

[Hans Gruber]

hey man

looks so far so good,how would you rate dr keenes surgery and practice?

[theanimator]

I can't really imagine having things much better the day of surgery. Everyone was nice, courteous and accomidating. Dr. Keene even had mistaken and thought I was only going to have 1500 grafts in the temples and none in the crown. I think everyone was expecting that too, but they corrected it and did the crown too. I'm sure that added an hour or two to the surgery...but nobody complained.

When I need to get my next HT in the future I'm definitely going back to her. If she's out of the business, then I'll go to her mentor Shapiro.

On another note, I started noticing growth at 2 3/4 months. It's all been uphill since then.

[nilla]

Looks good bro.
Very similiar to my own hairline, the "before" pics .

[metalheaddude]

Hey man! Looks pretty good so far. I appreciate the effort involved in keeping a blog and progress pics and reports. I wish there was more stuff out there like this, it would really help people considering a HT exactly what they are in for.

Few questions


I notice many hair transplant patients have grafts placed in front of the forelock hairline area as well when it often looks like this area is not balding or receading, then the grafts sweep around to the temples. But why do they do place grafts in front of the forelock hairline when it doesnt appear to be receading??


Also any pics of the crown?

How long did it take for the redness to die down? This seems to vary from person to person.

Thanks.

[theanimator]

Hey,

A few more days and I'll have a website up.

As far as forelock graft placement, I discussed this a little bit with Dr. Keene. She said that you get the most "natural" look by having hairs transplanted completely accross the front of the hairline. I agree and think that at the very least this strengthens your hairline for future hairloss.

For me, the redness is kinda still there, just barely going away. I wore a hat constantly for the first 3 months...mostly BECAUSE of the redness. I didn't use any makeup to hide it because I could wear the hat to work. But if you can't wear a hat to work...you should look at buying some makeup because the redness does make your head look odd.

Here's a few pics from my crown. I had 600 grafts placed. The first was taken a few days after the surgery, the second at about 5 weeks, and the last was taken today.

[nilla]

And, how much did you pay?

Regrowth in the crown takes longer for most patients.

[theanimator]

Well, it's been a year since I had my HT from Dr. Keene. And let me tell you that I couldn't be happier! I look like I did when I was 18. I've heard nothing but compliments (from the people who know).

At around 9 months, it looked like I had started losing a buch of hair again. I would count 20-30 hairs in the sink at night. I started taking a multivitamin and Fish oil every day. But what I think was the problem is that the Fincar I was ordering off the internet wasn't very effective. Maybe I just got a bad batch, or maybe it wasn't even Fincar. In anycase I got a real prescription and bought the 5 mg Finasteride from Costco. So, I want to say this to everyone who's ordering their fincar off the internet. Go see a Dermatologist and get a Prescription! An 8 months supply at Costco was only $40! And you don't have to be a member to use their pharmacy. So, all in all, Costco is just as cheap if not cheaper than the internet.

Now, I'm only noticing a couple hairs each night. Nowhere near what it was in September.

Here are a few pictures of what I look like now:

[monitoradiation]

An 8 month supply of Fin... Costs 40 dollars at costco?! O_O How can this be? A 4 month supply in Proscar would run me about 70-80 dollars... Maybe I ought to take a trip to costco and go to their pharmacy, since I'm not going to need the card, as you say. Thanks for the advice.

By the way, do you have any pictures of your crown? The front looks really really good; I can't even tell that there was an HT done...