TwoTone

Just over two weeks ago I went to NY to have a hair transplant with Dr Alan Feller. If I remember correctly it was around 3500 grafts. I have to say my experience was extremely positive. The moment I stepped through the door, I was made to feel very welcome. Dr Feller is a really nice guy with a great sense of humour. First of all he drew in where he felt my new hair line should be and checked with me to see what I thought of it. I felt it was a little too high so he was able to lower it slightly. Once we were satisfied with that I went into another room and he injected anaesthetic in two lines around the back of my head to numb the area where the hair was to be removed from. It was a bit painful but certainly nothing unbearable. After that the rest of my time was spent sat in a chair while Dr Feller and the rest of his team went to work. He had 10 staff working for him and all of them were very professional and friendly. Having the strip removed from the back of my head really didn’t hurt at all. I just sat there listening to the radio while they worked. After that Dr Feller prepared the top of my scalp to receive the hair and then his team went to work with replanting all of those hair follicles. Having a large team of 10 staff allowed them to work in rotations. On a few occasions the anaesthetic would begin to wear off and I would feel a slight bit of pain so I just informed them when this happened and they injected me with some more. The operation in its entirety took about 7 hours. That might sound like a long time but really it just flies by. Throughout that time they took good care of me and checked that I wasn’t too thirsty. The pain was kept to an absolute minimum. In fact the worst bit was probably when he gave me the injections at the beginning, although it wasn’t really that bad. Also a side effect of the anaesthetic was that it would give me a brief adrenaline boost which felt a bit unpleasant but again wasn’t too bad. Afterwards they treated me to an extremely nice grilled chicken sandwich and a cup of tea as I was feeling quite drained afterwards due to not being able to eat anything all day. To top it all off Dr Feller even gave me a lift back to my hotel which was nearby. Can you get better treatment than that? Once I was back at the hotel I actually felt full of energy and later became really sleepy. I didn’t encounter any negative side effects at all. One note of warning to anyone planning on having this done......and this may vary depending on what exactly you are having done. For the first 3 days after the operation, nothing can be allowed to touch the new transplanted area of hair as there is a risk of those grafts becoming dislodged. This means that you should select your hat carefully. The one I bought with me was a bit too floppy to wear. Dr Feller gave me a baseball cap to wear but I couldn’t pull it down on my head properly due to the scar on the back of my head so it looked really silly. Therefore I simply went without it and just dealt with the odd looks people gave me. To be honest I really didn’t care after a while. The following day I got on a train and went wandering around New York for the day. I felt totally fine. My head felt pretty tight and a bit sore but there wasn’t any serious pain. Two days later on the morning before getting my flight back to the UK, my forehead started to swell up which is quite normal. By the time I got home the bridge of my nose had swollen a bit too. A friend of mine said that I looked a bit like one of the aliens from Avatar! All I needed was some blue face paint Anyway I have included some photos of what my hair looks like now 16 days after the operation. You can’t really see the scar on the back very well now as hair has grown to cover it but it has healed very well and the staples have been removed, although the skin above the scar has bulged out a bit. Hopefully that will go down over time. The crown and the area over the scar is still a little sore and strangely numb and uncomfortable to sleep on, although it is getting better with time. The actual top of my head with all the new hair isn’t sore at all now although it does feel quite numb. I have been told that very soon all of the transplanted hair will fall out again and then in 3 months I should begin to see it starting to regrow. In 8 months my baldy days should be at an end. Woohoo! I can’t bloody wait......although obviously I will have to (sigh). At the moment I am just looking forward to being able to shave my hair back down so it is all the same length, as at the moment I have an odd looking two-tone head. All in all I am VERY happy with the work that Dr Feller has done and I can’t recommend him enough, although of course time will tell. I am totally confident that in 8 months everything will be fine though. Ps. Dr Feller still has the photos he took before, during and after the operation. It would be fantastic if he could upload them on here. I particularly loved the picture of the scar on the back. I guess I’m a complete weirdo but I thought it looked awesome!