Having Problems 9 Months Post Surgery

[TJames2319]

Hey guys, I could really use some input. I got an FUT procedure done in September with Dr. Bloxham at Feller & Bloxham. I got 1000 graphs in the front and temples of my hairline. Everything was going great and up until 6 months, my hair was growing in and the hair I had behind the transplant never looked better. I was extremely happy with my decision and I was looking forward with optimism and excitement But around the end of March I started having some problems. My hair started to do weird things after I got out of the shower. It is kind of hard to describe but the hair is laying in an unnatural way. It is extremely hard to describe (I actually posted a thread about this weeks ago) but the best way I can sum it up is it feels like my hair is almost having some kind of reaction whether that being allergic or from the transplant. It's like the back of hair and the front of my hair are working against eachother. So when I run my fingers through it and push it up the front of my hair sticks up while the back pushes down almost against the front and the result is this cone like shape that IS OBJECTFULLY AWFUL.

My question is...Is there anyway I had too much hair in the front already and after the graphs were put in it is causing the hair to grow and react differently? Could this be a result of nerve damage from the surgery or were the graphs put in wrong to where it is causing a chain reaction of unnatural grow throughout my head?

I though it was a reaction to my shampoo (maybe an allergen or sensitivity) since the problem is happening throughout my entire hairline not the transplanted area per se - but after switching shampoos numerous times the only thing that happened was my hair becoming lifeless and damaged and made matters worse. My blood work is normal and my diet has been relatively the same for the past few years. I have been to countless doctors with no clue about what is happening as well as scoured endlessly all over the internet but with no new knowledge. I feel like I am on an island all by myself. The depression and anxiety is getting worse. I can no longer style my hair and can't cut it off or short enough with all the work done in the front. I can barely function right now because of this...it is affecting every aspect of my life.

It is just so weird, my hair literally never looked better in March and then a week into APRIL BOOM.

I feel like if I can get a clear handle on what is happening...a clear diagnosis, then I can go about what the best way of addressing it is.

I just don't know what is happening to me....please help me guys!

Very truly

T

 

[thetdog666]

Have you spoke to your doctors who done the transplant?

 

[TJames2319]

Yeah. I went up for my 6 month follow up but things were fine with my hair at the time. I have an apt set up with him next week so I will be taking the trek up to NY. I emailed and sent him pictures. He doesn't think it has anything to do with the transplant...and maybe it doesn't. I am not so sure I am going to get full transparency though, even if it was. I thoroughly think Dr. Bloxham is a good guy though, so hopefully if this is something resulting from the surgery he will be 100 percent honest and fair with me

 

[TJames2319]

Still would love to know what is happening to my head. It's very weird.

 

[Murkey Thumb]

You would have to post pictures otherwise we don't really know what the issue is.

 

[TJames2319]

Of course. I did this a few weeks ago. The first two pics are from me 6 months out from surgery. You can see how my hair is falling normal and naturally.

The last few are what's been happening since April. Its hard to tell but my hair now in the back and throughout my head no longer lays normal. It presses down on my scalp. I can still push the front up but the result is an unnatural cone like look. It's better or worse depending on what kinds of shampoos I'm using. And now my hair texture in certain patches is starting to change. Feels like a reaction of some kind. I just dont know from what or why

 

[curiousone]

Your hair looks great. I kind of see what you mean though. Like maybe the front is more dense than the rest of your hair behind. But it looks as though the heair behind your hairline front is shorter. And maybe its a styling issue. It looks as though your back hair is pushed down towards your hairline while the front of your hair is pushed back. This doesnt look strange, just looks like a styling issue to me. Why dont you try growing the back hair longer and try to stick all of it upwards and away from the front of your face.

 

[TJames2319]

Curiousone thank you for the response!

Yes as you can see the hair in the back of my hairline is coming forward...and that is not a styling decision by choice. I recently went to a expensive stylist in philly that I thought might be able to help, (which it obviously didn't) but I know it is 100 percent cut evenly. The reason I posted the first two pics is because I wanted to demonstrate how my hairline use to fall naturally my whole life...I have always kept it around medium to long length with the transplant in the front and slicked it back away from my face...or up in a kinda naturally messy pompadour. The problem is now the hair behind the transplants will only lay flat...IT IS SO FREAKING WIERD. Imagine getting out of the shower every day and once you started to dry your hair, it started to fall in the complete opposite direction. And the thing about it is this...even if I try blow drying it or putting product in it. It still refuses to go in any direction that makes the hair look remotely normal...to put it into words...the last 8 weeks, running my hands through my hair and trying to get it to lay correctly almost feels like I am pushing against a closed door. This is why in April I was convinced it must be a weird shampoo allergy or sensitivity.

I started switching shampoos but to no avail...which made me think it might be an issue with the transplant. I got 1000 graphs in the front of my hairline and I thought maybe there was a problem where the hair in the front was growing in at an angle that was causing the rest of the hair behind it to shift or cause it to grow out of place or in unnatural ways. I don't know if I had too much hair already in the front before he put the graphs in and it could be causing some complications in the later months. Listen, I don't even know if that is even possible. But the front of my hair is working against the back of my hair....so with the back coming forward like it does now and the transplanted front just kind of flops over top of them, and it looks so bad. So the transplant might not even be the cause but it def makes my hair look a lot worse right now with the rest of my hair working against it.

Oh and now over the past two weeks things have even gotten aggressively worse. Not only is the hair doing weird and unnaturally things...it is also starting to change. The hair now behind my transplants has become wiry and awful. There is a strip of hair now running through my hairline from the front to the back that is almost of completely different texture then the rest of my hair...the result looks like the last pic I posted where you can see the wiry strip of hair kind of just plopping up behind my head...so if i try to do anything to it...it really looks like a cone like structure, which is now making me think it might be a hormone issue. But I just got my bloodwork done a few weeks ago...and thyroid checked out good, or so my primary physician said...

It is just so messed up because in just March I was living my best hair life. It looked GREAT and I was so happy and so grateful. I remember sitting in my room and I was scrolling through some old pics of my hair prior to surgery and I literally looked up at the ceiling and said "Thank you". And like something out of a twisted movie...I started having problems a few weeks later...

So to recap. I went from hair growing in and looking great to hair beginning to do weird and unnatural things but still felt and looked healthy to now hair doing unnatural things but also changing in texture and looking weak, lifeless and wiry and unmanageable.

So I am thinking it is either a shampoo allergy or sensitivity to a certain ingredient, a problem with the transplant or a hormone change...or maybe all three. I honesty do not know. I have already been to one dermatologist and a trichologist and spoken to countless hair salon professionals, even a holistic doctor and nobody can really come up with any definitive answers.

I see an allergist on Monday and getting to a dermatologist on Thursday. I am going up to NY to see my hair transplant surgeon Dr. Bloxham the following week.

This is sooo frustrating....not only to have all these problems which is causing me stress, panic attacks (which I know isn't helping) but to not know the cause or how or what I might be able to do to try and resolve it is almost crippling. It's destroyed my social life, my professional life and I fear for the worst...In this state and in this condition I can't do anything with it besides put a hat on. And being boxed in with a hair transplant now...I feel like I have ruined my life. And I guess it's what you reap you sow...but I still can't believe it has got to this...I don't want to give up hope...but I am losing strength

 

[DoctorHouse]

Curiousone thank you for the response!

Yes as you can see the hair in the back of my hairline is coming forward...and that is not a styling decision by choice. I recently went to a expensive stylist in philly that I thought might be able to help, (which it obviously didn't) but I know it is 100 percent cut evenly. The reason I posted the first two pics is because I wanted to demonstrate how my hairline use to fall naturally my whole life...I have always kept it around medium to long length with the transplant in the front and slicked it back away from my face...or up in a kinda naturally messy pompadour. The problem is now the hair behind the transplants will only lay flat...IT IS SO FREAKING WIERD. Imagine getting out of the shower every day and once you started to dry your hair, it started to fall in the complete opposite direction. And the thing about it is this...even if I try blow drying it or putting product in it. It still refuses to go in any direction that makes the hair look remotely normal...to put it into words...the last 8 weeks, running my hands through my hair and trying to get it to lay correctly almost feels like I am pushing against a closed door. This is why in April I was convinced it must be a weird shampoo allergy or sensitivity.

I started switching shampoos but to no avail...which made me think it might be an issue with the transplant. I got 1000 graphs in the front of my hairline and I thought maybe there was a problem where the hair in the front was growing in at an angle that was causing the rest of the hair behind it to shift or cause it to grow out of place or in unnatural ways. I don't know if I had too much hair already in the front before he put the graphs in and it could be causing some complications in the later months. Listen, I don't even know if that is even possible. But the front of my hair is working against the back of my hair....so with the back coming forward like it does now and the transplanted front just kind of flops over top of them, and it looks so bad. So the transplant might not even be the cause but it def makes my hair look a lot worse right now with the rest of my hair working against it.

Oh and now over the past two weeks things have even gotten aggressively worse. Not only is the hair doing weird and unnaturally things...it is also starting to change. The hair now behind my transplants has become wiry and awful. There is a strip of hair now running through my hairline from the front to the back that is almost of completely different texture then the rest of my hair...the result looks like the last pic I posted where you can see the wiry strip of hair kind of just plopping up behind my head...so if i try to do anything to it...it really looks like a cone like structure, which is now making me think it might be a hormone issue. But I just got my bloodwork done a few weeks ago...and thyroid checked out good, or so my primary physician said...

It is just so messed up because in just March I was living my best hair life. It looked GREAT and I was so happy and so grateful. I remember sitting in my room and I was scrolling through some old pics of my hair prior to surgery and I literally looked up at the ceiling and said "Thank you". And like something out of a twisted movie...I started having problems a few weeks later...

So to recap. I went from hair growing in and looking great to hair beginning to do weird and unnatural things but still felt and looked healthy to now hair doing unnatural things but also changing in texture and looking weak, lifeless and wiry and unmanageable.

So I am thinking it is either a shampoo allergy or sensitivity to a certain ingredient, a problem with the transplant or a hormone change...or maybe all three. I honesty do not know. I have already been to one dermatologist and a trichologist and spoken to countless hair salon professionals, even a holistic doctor and nobody can really come up with any definitive answers.

I see an allergist on Monday and getting to a dermatologist on Thursday. I am going up to NY to see my hair transplant surgeon Dr. Bloxham the following week.

This is sooo frustrating....not only to have all these problems which is causing me stress, panic attacks (which I know isn't helping) but to not know the cause or how or what I might be able to do to try and resolve it is almost crippling. It's destroyed my social life, my professional life and I fear for the worst...In this state and in this condition I can't do anything with it besides put a hat on. And being boxed in with a hair transplant now...I feel like I have ruined my life. And I guess it's what you reap you sow...but I still can't believe it has got to this...I don't want to give up hope...but I am losing strength

From what I have read in the past, it is possible the transplanted hair will take on a kinky texture initially but after a few hair cycles supposedly it will correct itself and be more like the native hairs. If you do your research there should be some old threads about this on the hair transplant forum in which your doctor began his threads before he was ever a hair transplant doctor.

 

[curiousone]

From your pics I do think you are overreacting. Try not to focus on it so much. Your hair looks great. Much better than mine and probably most people on here. You will sort it out eventually. I think its something only you are aware of. I only noticed something marginally unusual about your hair because you specifically pointed it out and took a close up photo of your head.

 

[TJames2319]

Thank you for the response House.

I appreciate the heads up. I wish my only problem right now was the kinky texture of my transplanted hair, which other than right temple which feels kinky and pluggy, isn't all that bad. It's really what has been happening behind the transplant. My natural hair has become unruly and setting or laying in unnatural ways, which seems to be worse or somewhat better depending on the shampoo that I am using. The bottom has really dropped out the last 2 weeks where my natural non transplanted hair is changing texture and now looking, feeling to go along with laying awfully. Because of all of this, my hair transplanted in the front and my natural hair behind it feel as if they are working against eachother. The back is pushing against the front in so many words, so the result isn't pretty...obviously

 

[TJames2319]

Curiousone I think if you were able to see me in real life, you'd understand. My hair did look great...but that was weeks ago. The change to it now is not only drastic but scary because it has been so rapid. Something is happening in my scalp. I am trying to shampoo less...I have made matters worse by switching shampoos around not knowing exactly what the sensitivity is, if there is one.

It would be one thing if it was just acting unruly. Whatever I can live with that. But with the extreme change to my hair's texture this past week or so. It feels like the next step will be thinning or falling out or so I fear. And put it together with the back of the hair almost pushing against the front of my hair, on top of it looking wiry and damaged...The result is unbearable.

I will post more close up pics in higher lighting if needed. I was just hoping to gauge what kind of direction the problems I am having are originating from