Hello everyone,

It's been 8 months since my hair transplant and I thought I should put up my pictures to show everyone where I am at. Also just to let you know that I did not shave my hair prior to my transplant as Dr Madhu who performed my transplant was confident that I could undergo the surgery without shaving. However there was an added cost to this.

I haven't uploaded pics of my hair transplant a day after the surgery as the assistant at Dr. Madhu's clinic told me they got lost at their clinic. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of myself during those days thinking that there were pics already taken and they would eventually be sent to me.

Also there are some black marks present in my crown and midscalp area if you look in the "Crown after" and "Top Right Midscalp" pics. I showed them to Dr Madhu through pics but he couldn't detect them very well and suggested I visit a dermatologist which I did in the New Year. I was told it was black heads and was prescribed an ointment but the black marks still seem to be present. Any one experience anything similar? I'm thinking it could be because I didn't shave my hair as I didn't experience anything like it when I had my first transplant with Dr Pathovanich when I had shaved my hair then. I also have Keratosis Pilaris on my arms but the dermatologist ruled out the possibility of experiencing the skin condition on my crown due to the skin condition on my arm.

Anyway please provide your feedback, thoughts/opinions on my surgery.
The total number of grafts that I had done were 2412 at the front, midscalp and a little bit on the crown.

I shall provide a detailed analysis of my hair transplant after your feedback.

Many thanks,

Gat

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Hi Gat,

Looks good. Could you tell me about your experience with Dr Madhu. Are you from Hyderabad? I go to Hyderabad in 4 weeks.
Very nervous!

Hello. Congras on your procedure, any pre-op photos?

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http://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com...asp?WebID=2329

dutch i think the first 3 are pre op. If you go by the captions on each picture.. i think anyway. you can see the density difference on 3rd and next to last

Honestly, based on your pics, it is hard to tell you had a proceedure. Your hair looks better now than at 3 months.

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2110 FUT grafts by DR. Raymond Konior on July 30th, 2012

Best HT advice I have ever heard: "Find a doctor that you need more than they need you." Author Unknown

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I agree, it is hard to tell you had a procedure...a good thing , right?
Do you have graft placement photos / pre op / or during photos?
That would help us gauge how well you transplant went...
and as for the black dots, hard to tell what you are talking about by looking at the pictures. Other than that , your hair looks pretty good man!

@Grwelshy: Thanks for your feedback. While I am from India I am not from Hyderabad.
@Spanker: Thank you, My hair was thicker before my transplant and hopefully I can get to that in the next 6 months or so and also exceed it.
@Justone: As I mentioned in my write up, pictures were taken of my surgery a day after my procedure. Unfortunately they (staff at Dr. Madhu's) lost those pics and I didn't take any thinking they would send them to me eventually.

I'd also like to add that before my transplant I had asked Dr Deepak (assistant to Dr. Madhu and the person who I had my first consultation with) whether I should delay my transplant for a few more years. He told me that it would make no difference whether I have a transplant now or in a few years time as it would come to the same thing. Also the fact that Dr.Madhu had seen me too and had not advised me against having a transplant I felt it was okay to have a hair transplant and hence trusted their judgement.

Gat,

It's really a shame that you don't have any immediately post-op pics. It would really help us to make sense of what we are seeing. I agree that you look as if you've not had work done at this stage and also mean that in a good way.

Your hair does appear to be fuller in your 8 month photos. If you feel that you've actually lost some density I'd say that is perfectly normal at this stage and you should continue to see it filling in over the coming months.

As for the black spots, I've not heard of this before. I did not have my head shaved for my second hair transplant. While I experienced the normal ingrown hairs associated with the procedure, I did not get any similar spotting.

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David (TakingThePlunge)
Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant

I am not a medical professional. All opinions are my own and my advice should not constitute as medical advice.

View my Hair Loss Website

David,

Thank you so much for your feedback. Interesting to know that you too had a transplant without shaving your hair. However 3 months after my transplant I looked up the Hasson and Wong website and there is a question there that reads: " Does my head have to be shaved for surgery?

Yes, the recipient area must be shaved. In order to achieve the most natural results, the angle of the new hair must match that of the native hair perfectly. The incisions into the recipient scalp must be made parallel to the direction of native hair growth. Only when the hair is shaved to roughly 2mm is the true direction and angle of hair growth revealed.

If the native hair in the recipient hair is not shaved, the doctor must move the hair out of the way to make incisions. When this is done, the visible angles of hair growth are distorted and it become virtually impossible to match the angles, resulting in permanent shock loss of the existing hair."

If only had I read this prior to my hair transplant! As you can imagine I was angry that I wasn't told this by Dr. Madhu or Dr Deepak. Therefore I got on the phone and rang them up to enquire why I hadn't been advised about this. I spoke with Dr. Deepak and he intially tells me that he had advised me about the adverse effects of not shaving my hair and hence the reason why they charge an extra fee which is to discourage patients from not shaving their hair. I then had to remind him of the celebrity client story he told me where various of his clients who are celebrities opt to have a transplant without shaving their hair due to their work constraints. I also reminded him that at no point did he mention any adverse effects of not shaving my hair because if he had I would have shaved my hair and not taken a chance. He then acknowledged this and said that he and Dr. Madhu would have told me to shave my hair but they felt I had good strong natural hair and I would not experience shock loss. I then sent them an email showing them the link of Dr. Hasson's view on this. After all 'Hasson and Wong' are one of the leading hair transplant surgeons and there must be a whole lot of truth to what they have mentioned. Dr Madhu's response to this was "Yes we agree that Hasson and Wong are great surgeons. Always we give two options , not only in crown in other areas also we do with shaving and without shaving on regular basis and getting consistently good results, mostly we can detect who is suitable for with shave and without shave depending upon the recipient area and the existing hair, don't think much about the angulation of the hair, the existing hair helps for better angulation while implantation much better than shaved recipient area, so if we performed a procedure on you means you must be ok even without disturbing your existing hair.
Shock loss and permanent hair loss always depends on the quality of your existing hair and other fact you have to accept is that balding is a continuous ongoing process."
Yes while I do accept balding is a continuous and ongoing process but I don't accept an accelerated rate of balding due to Dr Madhu's mistake of not advising me to shave my hair. To give an example if there are two 40 year old's who lead completely different lifestyles where one uses harmful drugs, is into heavy drinking etc he is bound to accelerates his aging process regardless of the fact that aging is an ongoing and continuous process when compared to the 40 year old who chooses to stay away from that kind of lifestyle .
Also in one of my previous emails to them (prior to my transplant) I had enquired about shock loss and their response was " in our technique of hair transplantation for so many patients shock loss is a minimal concern which is very temporary."



Well it's been 8 months and I have less hair now than I had prior to my surgery especially in the mid scalp/crown area. I know there's still another 4 months to make a year but honestly I don't think there's going to be that much of a difference. In hind sight it would have been better had I not had the surgery and I should have waited a couple of years.

At the end of the hair transplant I was also told that I have another 1000-1200 grafts left in my donor area and that I could have another surgery in 5 months time should I want to. It's funny how various doctors work as Dr. Pathovanich would advise you to wait for at least a year before undergoing another hair transplant.

Anyway thanks for the feedback though David. Much appreciated.