Front hair line @ 7.5 months

Not much change really, but my hairdresser left the top longer this time which is a mixed blessing. Somehow the hair seems much finer when it's left longer. But I'm able to sweep it across so maybe it covers more baldness, I'm not sure. I'm still pretty happy with the front and just now waiting for the top / crown to grow in more. I keep seeing the new top hair (which is very fine) and saying to myself that it'll thicken up. Hopefully it will!

Fine hairs on top (7ish Months)

I'm starting to see more fine hairs on the top of my head - they're getting quite long but still quite thin and wiry. I'm hoping these are going to thicken up and cover the thin patch on top. If that's covered, I'm going to be a happy man. Maybe at 9 months it'll be better...

Top view, 3 month & 6 month comparison

The slowest progress seems to be on top, towards the back. I'm not sure if that's because the multiple-FU grafts take longer to grow or simply because the area was thinner initially. But anyway, encouraging to see some of the hairs are growing and thickening. At 3 months I had some new hairs but they were very fine indeed.

As it is those hairs are still very thin, so I'm hoping for more thickening over the next three months

An intermediary before/after hairline @ 6 months

I know the colouring is all a bit messed up, but you can see how I looked before and how the hairline has been filled in. It should thicken up even more over the next few months with any luck. 

6 Month Update

I said I would reserve judgement until 6 months, so here goes!

My position at the moment is : I'm happy with the hairline, even though a lot of the new hairs are quite wiry. The area further back on my scalp has not yet filled in fully, and I expect it to take a few months to thicken up. But I am seeing growth back there. Again, the new hairs are growing, but they're individual strands (from 2 or 3 follicular units), so I hope they will improve over time and reduce the visible thin patch towards the back of my scalp. 

In terms of how far back Dr Ilker went, I can see now that there's still going to be a thin patch on top once everything's grown in. But hopefully I will be able to hide it with clever styling or just plain old concealer (my crutch of choice). A different surgeon might have put fewer grafts in the front third (behind the hairline) and covered my whole crown, but what he did was probably a better long-term strategy. I can have the crown filled in at a later date once I've established how much more hair I'm going to lose. Hopefully the Finasteride will counter some of that loss, or at least slow it down. 

The main thing is to concentrate on the positives so far and not worry too much about how it's going to grow in later. I've had a few hair complements, which is amazingly gratifying! A friend who I'd told said her boyfriend noticed something different about me, but couldn't figure out what - and another who said they liked my 'new haircut'. 

I'm still self-conscious about the back of my head, but I think having an actual hairline is amazing! By the autumn hopefully it will all have thickened up nicely. 

Hairline closeup (5 months)

Took this a couple of weeks ago before having a haircut. You can see where the new hair is coming through and is still quite fine. Hoping it will thicken up over the next few months

Day 139 : Another haircut (this time with clippers)

Last time I had a hair cut I insisted the barber use scissors, because I was worried the scar would be visible. This time, I asked for a clipper cut on the back and sides - doesn't look too bad!

Hard to see the linear scar. I'm just starting to see a bit of hair grown on the top of my head (still very fine)

Actually, you really can't see the linear scar at all. 

The corners are coming along, but the hair is still thinner than the existing hair

I'm happy with the progress of the hairline :) 

My experience so far is that the hair at the front has grown much more quickly. Those single grafts started growing at around the 3 month mark, whereas the 2 and 3 unit grafts are still starting to come through now, 2 months later. It might just be that because my hair is so much thinner on top, the new hairs will have to thicken up before they make a big difference. But I can still feel tiny 1mm hairs coming through, so hopefully they will give me enough density to cover the thin area on top.