I told friends, family, and co-workers before hand what I had decided to do. I can't imagine trying to hide it. I was a Norwood 5 prior to surgery. By sharing the fact that I was going to have a hair transplant with everyone, I'm sure that I have encouraged other guys to consider a hair transplant for themselves. Also, my openness led to others in the office, male and female, who came over to me and started telling me about their particular plastic surgery experiences. I've learned a lot about nose jobs, lipo, and face lifts, believe it or not. And I didn't know any of these people had these procedures until they told me. I told off 10 days total from work including one weekend. Your decision but I say open up and tell everyone.


Allen

[This message was edited by augustart on August 24, 2003 at 09:26 AM.]

Hi For the people who were able to hide your HT from co workers, was work done in the front and how much? I think having like 1000 or more grafts would be pretty difficult to hide in just 2 weeks. I'm and engineer and work in a place where it would be impossible to wear a hat. Are you serious, people were able to hide their HT and just after 2 weeks? I was thinking much longer.

Max

Heh, ya, I had a girl I was speaking to stare at my hairline. I tilted my head down so she could get a better look while I stared at her breasts figuring, we'll both be happy.

She got upset. Go figure.

Nothing wrong with that. Sounds fair to me.


NN

I was lucky enough that I was in between jobs and was able to take off work for about 2 months. When I started working again, it was in a really casual environment, where I could wear a hat, shorts and flip flops if I wanted to. I wore a hat for about a month straight to the 3 months post op mark, and slowly started showing up w/o the hat. I've had a few people stared at my head when I went hatless, but the thing is most average joe just don't know enough about the HT process to notice anything. I've had a male co-worker stared at my head at a really close distance, and I'm 100% sure that he can't tell the difference between newly transplanted hair vs. native thinning hair. Even I can't tell the difference between them sometimes. I had pretty much the same mindset as most members here, if I had to I'd tell them, but if not, no one has to know. To this day, only my immediate family(mother and sisters) and my regular barbar knows I've had a HT. After the 3 months post op mark, you're pretty much done worrying and just waiting for the final results.

quote:

Heh, ya, I had a girl I was speaking to stare at my hairline. I tilted my head down so she could get a better look while I stared at her breasts figuring, we'll both be happy.

She got upset. Go figure.

Now that's funny!

Hi guys, the ones who mentioned that they were able to hide their HT in two weeks, do you mean with strip scar? I'm thinking of getting FUE and taking two weeks off work but I'm afraid that it won't be enough time..seeing that most doctors require you to shave your donor area. And I already have a strip scar back there.. so it's even harder to conceal. Would some docotrs be able to do FUE with long hair or is that a risk?

I kept all 3 procedure undercover. Just follow these tips

1- Use dermatch. it worked very well
2- I did not shave my head for the procedure and have some native hair to help cover the area
3- Leave your donor area a bit longer to cover the stitches
4- Give yourself at least 10- 14 days before you go back to work

That is it

Ditto to what Mrjb said. With Fue there is the chance that you could go back to work earlier but some of the shaved areas will be a concern.

quote:

I'm and engineer and work in a place where it would be impossible to wear a hat. Are you serious, people were able to hide their HT and just after 2 weeks? I was thinking much longer.
Max

You'll get varying opinions on this.........

IMO........most people really can go back to work in two weeks and pull it off but strategically clipping the sides and back to match the top, when shaved down. I did, and I work in a bank, very professional environment................took some ribbing initially but blew it off so everyone quickly forgot about it and the hair grew back. Dermmatch to help scar coverage would probably help.

If a person is NW 6 or so, maybe it's harder because there could be a remaining pinkish tint after 2 weeks but maybe not?? As for 1000 grafts, most skilled surgeons would not require you to shave down for that number so I think you'll be fine.

Don't get me wrong, I did not relish shaving down and really would have chosen not to. However, in order to get the best results possible I thought it would worth it and would do it again.

It really depends as Hairbank has suggested.

Though this is only to be used as a guide, I cover some of these principles here: When will I look "normal" after a hair transplant?

Falc

HT have changed alot in the past 10 or more years, as many of you know. I was amazed at how quickly a small session of transplanted hair resulted in no scabbing, no swelling, and nothing visible other than the donor hairs (which were purposely left longer so that I'd notice the results)

We are only talking 500 grafts of FUT, but if you are going in for a "touch up" on a Friday like I did you could be back to work no later than the following Tuesday with no visible change in your appearance. But if its a mega session, take at least one full working week and two weekends, at a minimum. A two week "vacation" is optimal.

Rblakec

Just wait. You will have the last laugh , I promise you .. Then, all the crap will make no difference.

If its that much of a concern, how about sprinkling some Toppik?