8 months

6 Pics and a video I wish was higher resolution.

6 months

It's been a while, and I'm now at the magical halfway point. Without further ado, let's get to the pics...

I have 3 dry and 4 wet pics that hopefully show how the hair is growing in. After that, the last four show how I comb the hair on a daily basis, for max. concealment during the growth phase. The very last has flash, the others w/o flash.

Closer to the hairline the hair definitely grew in quicker and thicker, while higher up is still quite sparse. It is still very obvious where my old hairline stopped, and I hope I can soon be one of the guys who says "I can't tell which hairs are native and which are transplanted!"

3rd month

The first two pics here are no flash, and I think they illustrate the extent of the redness. In my opinion the redness is the same as one month ago. It isn't really abating. I hope that the redness will go away soon because I feel it looks pretty bad. The rest of the pictures are with flash and show the hairs that have been growing in.

This last month the hairs started poking through. I would say by rough estimate there's upwards of 150 hairs through the scalp. The left side has a bunch more hairs through than the right. You can click on the pics to see the closeup of these areas. The pimples have basically stopped which is a plus. But all in all the ugly-duckling phase rolls on. On the bright side the red marking reminds me every day of what the hairline's going to look like in several months.

I forgot to mention this in the last month's update but upon close inspection the donor area is totally clear, like nothing ever happened.

2 months

Here's a couple pics at a higher resolution, I think the other pics made the area look more red than it really is. But that's not to say it isn't red because it certainly is. A bunch of the transplanted hairs are still there... not growing but not falling out either. I don't know if that's normal, and maybe that's what's causing the redness. I sent some pics to Miguel at the Armani Clinic to get his opinion.

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*Update July 29- Noticed today that when I look very close, there are clearly at least 9 or 10 hairs about 1 inch long or longer that have definitely grown where no hair was before. Also there are a bunch of other hairs I suspect are currently growing. This means I'm actually getting new growth which I didn't expect this early. I hope this bodes well for the near future.

2 months

Well it's been 2 months, not much to say except no apparent growth yet, the recipient area is still as red as ever as far as I can tell and I look like garbage, just as everyone basically said I would through this period. It's lucky I have thick skin and, very ironically, don't care what people think in general so I just go out without a cap most of the time, saving that for when it's sunny to protect the sensitive skin from sun damage.

I'm taking all the supplements still: Vitamin B-complex once a day, ginkgo biloba twice a day, vitamin E twice a day and plenty of vitamin C as well. I'm applying the rogaine twice a day as well. There have been plenty of pimples in the recipient area, and it also gets itchy fairly regularly. The area is just so sensitive that if you touch it with hands that aren't 100% clean you're liable to get a zit right away.

You know it will be a tough stretch for the first 5-6 months going in, but it doesn't make this period any easier. I just want the hair to be there ASAP.

3rd day after procedure

Well I'm an idiot, I was washing my head in the sink last night, had my eyes closed as I was pouring water out of a mug onto my scalp and obviously my head drifts into the faucet. Head starts bleeding, there's blood on the faucet, and at least 3 hairs come off. So typical. Anyway I'm just planning to move forward from it and hope everything turns out fine. I left a message at the clinic so hopefully they can get back to me but I assume I'll just have to live with the situation. I'm the type to blow things out of proportion so my best play is just to relax.

Anyways.... swelling is ridic the last couple of days... my face feels like I'm having an allergic reaction to a bee-sting or something. My eyes are like swelled shut almost, I guess the swelling has descended from the forehead to the mid-head. Too bad because weather is sunny and 23 C outside and I'm laid up at home but oh well, that's how the cookie crumbles.

1st day after Alvi Armani FUE Procedure

2500 FUE grafts.

My forehead is swollen like a watermelon today... No pain anymore though. Last night after the freeze wore off my head started to hurt. I took the anti-nausea pills, painkillers and sleeping pills that they gave me but for whatever reason my head started to feel worse and worse... I then became brutally cold, teeth chattering and ended up vomiting 4 or 5 times. Barely slept as my head hurt like hell. Anyways I think those are side effects of surgery rather than the meds. Today I feel fine aside from the swollen forehead.