Spex, great post but, being a resident grump that I am, I can point to something that does not sit well with my experience.

You pointed out that,

"You will turn up to your session shattered as most do - ... - combined with the anxiety and adrenaline is a crazy combo - ...."

which is true, but in my experience, it is the pre-op discussion session that you are going to have to negotiate with the doctor - in that condition - and make some tough calls. It is difficult to remember what your original desires were. In my experience, despite all the mails to the clinic beforehand, you are told that the doc will determine 'x' and 'y' (assess laxity, density etc.) an the day of the surgery and this can drastically change the situation. But in the headspin that you are in, you tend to just acccept it..afterall, are you going to fly in the face of what the doc is telling you? Hence, you do tend to question details of the surgery a few days later, especially if you ended up with something you didn't imagine.

And for the guys wondering about shockloss, I concur with Bill, month 2 is shockloss moth, because although the hair has been shocked out of its bulbs, they sit in the scalp for weeks (months?) before they finally shed. In my experience, after a month, the hair isn't too bad.