Hairworthy........I have another question for you since your recent visit to Dr Hasson.

Before the HT when you and the Dr. were discussing the procedure, is the topic brought up of which direction the lateral slits will be made?

I was wondering if hairstyle can determine by the lateral slit direction? If made to the left the hair would grow left (right to the right) or straight ahead so that any style can be worked?

Well we did not discuss that, however I think the general idea behind using lateral slits and shaving the recipient area is to enable the grafts to be placed in the same "direction" as existing adjacent hair. Jotronic is a good example that "any style can be worked" as you say: during the few days I was in Vancouver I saw him with 3 different hairstyles (all front, on one side & all back).

__________________
3045 FUs with Dr Victor Hasson on 8 June 2004
1836 FUs with Dr Jeffrey Epstein on 2 March 2006
Regimen: 1.25mg Proscar every other day

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> during the few days I was in Vancouver I saw him with 3 different hairstyles (all front, on one side & all back). [/quote]

the hair looked great; unfortunately Joe's ugly mug was there each time

Three hair styles! I can understand that, I imagine after not having the hair for so long, then getting it back, a lot of time is spent primping, combing, playing with the new "toys" on top of the head!

Hairworthy,

Why did Dr. Hasson recommend 14 days for the staples versus the usual 10? I ask because I am going to H&W (Hasson) in August and I have been thinking about staying out in Vancouver and having the staples removed there. However, I don't want to do this if I have to wait 14 days. I actually thought you could have the staples removed after 8 days, but obviously it is better to do whatever is necessary to minimize the scar.

Hugh / Hairworthy / Jotronic (if you are reading this),

Do you know why Hasson doesn't also use dissolvable sutures like Wong does? I am surprised they both don't use the same method for harvetsing the donor strip. Could the amount of days before staple removal be brought down with the use of dissolvable sutures?

I asked Dr. Wong the same question.....Dr. Hasson believes that the underlying sutures can cause more scarring. Differences in opinions I guess. I'd say both docs have proven their craft, whichever method they choose.

reading up on this subject on the internet, most comments are that there is very little difference in healing characteristics between suturing and stapling..negligible at best...having had 4 back surgeries in my "youth", 2 closed with staples, 2 with sutures, i can tell you that the staples are MUCH less annoying and painful than suturing..

using underlying dissolving sutures probably makes sense where the donor strip is fairly large, and closing the wound will be a bit tight...using the underlying sutures just allows a stronger bonding of the tissue while its healing...less risk of scar stretching...but im sure between Dr. Wong and Hasson, its just a personal preference,as I have heard no complaints from patients of either one, about their scarring...

Well well, my wife removed my staples yesterday evening (day 14), and we counted them one by one as they were coming out: 83!!!! I did all the suggested things, put some anaesthetic cream 45mn before starting the process, had a stiff gin but believe me some of these staples did not want to give up without a fight and about 10 of them caused some serious pain. Though my wife was very gentle I had to work hard not to scream & wake up the kids. Once they were all out the donor area was a bit sore for maybe 15mn and then that was it. But for me it was by far the most unpleasant part of the whole surgery. Today it feels a bit stretched but that's it, no pain at all.

NYC guy,
I think Dr Hasson suggested 14 days because of the characteristics of my scalp, I don't believe this is the standard figure as the number "10" was manually crossed out on my post-op instructions sheet to be replaced with "14".

Haven't buzzed yet, and very few hairs have fallen with the scabs, I would say 95% are still there. Expecting some major shedding (as announced on the post-op sheet) between now and the 4 week mark.

__________________
3045 FUs with Dr Victor Hasson on 8 June 2004
1836 FUs with Dr Jeffrey Epstein on 2 March 2006
Regimen: 1.25mg Proscar every other day

Hairworthy,

When I was at my consultation visit at the Hasson and Wong satellite office in Portland, one of the questions I asked was about removing the staples. Mike Ferko there told me that I could come up to Portland and they would take them out for me. Since that visit I also had a visit with our family Doctor here in town and I asked him if he could take my staples out when they were ready. The Doc acted a little funny about the question, almost like he didn't want to. Why, I don't know. The reason I would like to have them taken out here is to save me a three-hour round trip up to Portland.

My question is, is there a technique to taking the staples out?

It seems that the staples have a slight fishhook on the point ends that keep them intact so the trick would be to maneuver the hook out with a slight twist inward while removing them. I know my wife wouldn't "go there" but my 17-year-old son would certainly enjoy taking them out for me. I figure after one was taken out the rest would be easy.

You mentioned the anaesthetic cream 45mn. I was also thinking that maybe a hot shower letting the water run on the stapled area for a few minutes followed by the application of the cream, may soften the skin around the staples to make removal even more easier. What do you think?

Q - i would avoid the hassle..and definitely let someone who has actually removed staples before, do yours...Doug from HW did mine, and he definitely knew what he was doing..but i could see where it would be pretty tricky for someone who hadn't done it before...also, if you screw it up, those babies can really bleed on you...i only had one "bleeder", but it opened up pretty good..