William38

Thanks RC! I'm no expert but I think you can't get as many grafts from an FUE operation as with an FUT or Strip method operation. I read somewhere that those are the ones that yield 9 to 10 thousand grafts but they leave a hefty scar on your head so you can't cut the hair close anymore. I'm sure there are some more knowledgeable folk on the forum who can weigh in on this. Dr De Reys was always really careful throughout the whole process not to overpromise with the extracting and the result works for me. I was NW 5 going on 6. I originally asked him if I could do 5500 but he ultimately said the donor area would only yield 5000, so maybe you're right ( and he was being nice about it!) ? 5000 is still a heck of a lot of grafts. Now after the operation I can see that the donor area is not overfarmed (if that's the right word!) so it doesn't look thin or anything but I think but it'll be a few months before I see the full effect.

@KO It's definitely real! But I'll post the 1 month photos next weekend so you can take a good look at those as well.

Dr De Reys used to be the lead surgeon at ProHair. He's the guy who left in 2010. I just had a 5000 graft FUE operation with him at his new clinic and I posted about it on this forum. If that's the guy you were looking for then he's definitely worth it and his prices were very reasonable. http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/165487-5000-fue-dr-de-reys.html

Dr De Reys is still in Belgium. He has his own clinic now. I'm at one month now, I'll put some more photos up soon. @mb30 I'm 100% happy with the result. One nice thing is the reaction from folk you don't know. I went to my local doctor's clinic to get prescription and told the staff my date of birth ('73). They checked to make sure it wasn't '83!

No he's not with Pro Clinic anymore. He used to be the lead surgeon there. He has his own clinic now.

I got back to London from the second procedure with Dr De Reys about a month ago. I'm very happy with the result although I was also very happy with the first operation which I had with him last year. I chose him because I knew he had been the lead surgeon at the Pro Clinic, which is also in Belgium. My overall impression of Dr De Reys? Very professional and very experienced. He seems to be trying to limit the number of clients he has these days. His Rep said I was a Norwood class 5 going on 6. Here are some photos of me before I had anything done: This is straight after the first operation. 3000 grafts put in front and centre. Dr De Reys actually took these photos himself in the clinic. I've been asked a few times about the donor area so I dug up some photos from the day after each operation to see if I had any of the donor area. This is what I had. For Operation 1, I had two reasonable photos of the donor area after the first operation. If you look closely, especially on the one taken from the left side, you can still see small points of blood which formed on top of the tiny holes made during the extraction. I'm afraid I didn't think about snapping the donor area at the time so these are the only two donor area photos that I've got for the first op. Anyway, When I got home, I kept on taking photos and here are some shots after three days. You can still see the crusts (or scabs) on the scalp. At this stage, you're not supposed to touch the hair. This is how it looked after seven days. Now I was allowed to wash my hair using a special Aloe Vera shampoo that Dr De Reys gave me. After 3 months. Here you can see that the transplanted hairs had already started to shed. This is normal and after they had fallen out, they came back again after five or six months. At this stage I'm still using the Aloe Vera shampoo and also applying an Aloe Vera cream in the evening. Before I go on, I have to admit that I cut my hair a few times in the first few months. I'd always had a buzz cut before the first operation to hide my thinning hair. It was an eye-opener growing it in the months before the op because I finally saw how much had gone! Dr De Reys recommended I grow it before the operation but on operating day his nurse cut it back down to grade one. I also have to admit that after three months I let the photos slide a little ...but I also started to let the hair grow out. I still had it cut but now it was at the barber shop! It was great to visit the barber again and get a proper haircut - no need to use the clippers at home anymore. So here are some photos at around eight months, just before I went to see Dr De Reys again for the second op. Now a few days after these photos (at eight months) I went to see Dr De Reys for the second operation. This time I wanted to get the back done and he said I had 2000 grafts still available in the donor area. He also said that the grafts from the first op were not all through yet and he expected the full result to show at twelve months. I'd already decided to add more to my temples, to bring the hairline even more forward. Dr De Reys said it was no problem. He put 350 grafts to fill in the temples a bit more. The rest (1650) he transplanted into the back of my head. Here are the pics he took immediately after the second operation: You can see how he added a little to the temples to move the hairline forward. You can also see that there's absolutely no scarring from the first operation. Here's the result after one week: I've got more photos of the donor area for the second op though. Here you can see the small points of blood much more clearly. These have disappeared completely now and there is no scarring. A week later, the points are already disappearing but still visible. Now I've got some more photos of 1 month post-op (although I'm not on this forum as much so there's always a delay before I post Here are some photos at 2 months after the second operation. From the front, back, left and right first: And now I took some close-ups of the hairline. You can see that the results of the original operation mean I now have to push the hairs back to see the new grafts. At the moment the new grafts are at the shedding phase so they have mostly fallen out. I'll have to wait a few months before they grow back. you can barely see them at the moment. Still, the fact that I now have to push hairs back is a great feeling! Here's another update with the photos at 3 months. You can see the original transplant hairs are really going strong now. It took about 5 months before the hairs from the first transplant showed at all so the hairs from the second operation aren't showing yet. Right, so here's the four month update. As you can see the hairs from the new transplant at the crown are really starting to show. I can't wait for the full results in 12 months! It's five month time (I know it's been longer than that!! Sorry work keeps getting in the way). This time I've pulled the hair back on the right and left so you can see how the extra grafts at the temples are coming through. I'll keep doing this from now on (promise ) OK, it's a bank holiday here so I can finally get round to posting the next update. I'm really, really sorry about not posting sooner but work has been keeping me away from the forum and this time when I look into it I thought WOW! 11,000 views on this thread is awesome!!! I'm definitely going to keep posting up my updates and to kind of make amends for my slackness , I'm going to put up a sneaky preview of how I look right now...but first::: I did the same things again with the photos at the six months mark (after the second operation), with it pulled back so you can see the temple areas that Dr De Reys gave some more attention to in the second operation. He filled them in a bit more with around 250 grafts (in total) and as you can see from the pulled back photos, they have held well and are pretty damn strong!! I also took a photos from the top of the head too.. I've also received a ton of questions since I did this first post so I'm going to try and post some more answers at the end of this thread as they keep coming in. Hope you like this journal and let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see or know! Cheers, Will

Hiya, I just got back from De Reys clinic after doing 5000 grafts in two sessions. I can send you some details but I'm not sure how to get in touch with you. Here's a link to his website but I'm not sure if the forum will allow it to be published. (promotional link removed) I'll be posting some photos of the whole thing soon