After 8 days, everything is looking reasonably close to normal, except that the area behind the ears seems very sparse after surgery. (See attached photo.) Almost the same on the other side.

Is this typical? How long does it take to fill this area in?

Right.jpg (166 Kb, 155 downloads) Right Donor Area

A lot of people have a naturally occurring thin area just above the ears. It's usually not noticed because the hair above the ears covers it easily and also you probably never spent much time checking the hair just above and behind your ears to ever notice it. Now that you have a HT scar the area is more noticeable because there's not as much hair just above the ear to cover the section. Instead you have thick hair above the scar line and thin below the scar line rather than a gradual thicknes to thinness you probably had naturally.

The good news is once the hair around the scar grows back in you'll be back to at least near normalcy in that area. It may take a few months for the hair to grow back in around the scar.

Is it that the scar is way too forward upto the temple area? or is it just the angle of the picture?

The position of the scar looks fine and is still in the safe zone. In order to get more grafts, many clinics will take the scar up higher closer to the temples.

It appears that you have already started to experience a little bit of shockloss in the donor area. This can happen and is relatively common. Any shocked hair in the donor area should come back between 3-6 months. Keep in mind that things may end up looking worse before they look better.

Falc

Hi TomA,

I too experienced shock loss in the exact same area with almost as much loss as you (just a little less). I am just shy of 9 months and to date I have seen little return in that area. Doesn't mean that your experience will be the same and I've read that it can even take up to 9-10 months for it to return to it's original state but keep in mind that the hair may not, at least completely, return. I think I may be heading that route myself.

I was wondering if it was just from the skin being stretched up from that area.

Take a look at the 3 month preop picture below in which my hair is REALLY short. If you pulled the skin UP by 2.2cm, maybe the area we are now seeing is just an area that had very little hair?

DSCF0200_2.jpg (280 Kb, 54 downloads) Preop Picture

quote:

Originally posted by Here I Grow Again:
I too experienced shock loss in the exact same area with almost as much loss as you (just a little less). I am just shy of 9 months and to date I have seen little return in that area. Doesn't mean that your experience will be the same and I've read that it can even take up to 9-10 months for it to return to it's original state but keep in mind that the hair may not, at least completely, return. I think I may be heading that route myself.

So what are you doing with that area? Are you able to hide the scar?

quote:

Originally posted by jagdish:
Is it that the scar is way too forward upto the temple area? or is it just the angle of the picture?

It's quite far up, but I think that area will actually be hidden well in a short time. It's that area BEHIND and just above the ear that concerns me most.

How long before the redness of the scar fades? Anything I can do to help that along?

Hey Tom,
I had some loss above the ear as well, not as much but it did grow back and I was somewhat able to cover it using dermamatch which I am still using to hide the scar,as I keep my hair pretty short...just this past week I am noticing a real significant fading in my scar, I guess I'm a slow healer. good luck!

mine is futher back, almost ear to ear about
1 1/2 above and 1/2 inch behind the ears.I am 20 days post and have no shock loss yet,hopefully it will stay this way. Also my grafts are still 90 percent there and are growing.

Are these things (Dermamatch, etc.) REALLY undetectable?

Can people see them if they are close enough?

quote:

Originally posted by TomA:

So what are you doing with that area? Are you able to hide the scar?

Right now actually not much. I'm of the impression that no one else besides myself really notices the shock loss and I keep my hair short. I have not had anyone make a comment about my scar (and trust me those around me are quick to put in their 2 cents) so I'm assuming know one notices. SO if this is the case, I'm not going to worry too much about it.

Here I Grow Again,

Most shockloss grows back between 3-6 months, however, any HT in it's entirety (including donor area) shouldn't be fully evaluated until 1 year. Some doctors state that shocked hairs typically grow back between 6 months to 1 year - though I believe this is an exaggerated period of time, hitting the rare cases rather than the norm. But it's possible.

Falc

Thanks Falc,

I do hope that I am a one of those rare cases where it takes 6-12 for it to grow back. Better late than never works for me in this case.