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Hi Taco I am reasonable happy now as the repair procedures have made a huge improvement. I will probably have another three procedures to regard myself as completed but if I stopped now I would be ok with that. I think as we age hair becomes less important, the problem I found was that I was basically disfigured like many others, so the goal then becomes to regain some sort of normal appearance as the option to just cut short has gone. My level of loss probably could of been addressed with a strip and FUE procedure, knowing what I now know, i would of addressed the frontal loss with FUE and as the loss progressed over time retained the option to shave down to a close cut, or utilise beard hair throughout the top and crown. Hope this helps ejj

My traditional scalp donor area is the location of my scars from former strip/FUT procedures. The scarring stretches from ear to ear from several former procedures over the last twenty years. I have had three repair procedures with Doctor Bisanga solely using beard hair grafts to improve my overall appearance. So far this has been very successful for me, I have no visible marks from the extractions, I will post some pictures of my face next time I wet shave. Happy Easter ejj

Hi Hairloss Hero I went to Doctor Bisanga at BHR. I had three procedures over almost a two year time period, of around a thousand grafts each time, placed mainly into my donor area to hide former scarring. I have had a few grafts placed into my forelock and crown to add density. My surgical plan is to address the scarring first, and then crown and top secondary. At the outset I never thought it would be possible to address naturally balding areas due to my scarring, I am fortunate to have above average beard donor to complete the work, not everyone is so lucky. Will post some facial pictures soon Best Regards ejj

A lot depends on the patient, scalp laxity, virgin scalp,or repair as is my situation. For my repair my doctors strategy was to graft at 30 beard grafts per cms sq, obviously this would not be the case for a virgin scalp that would probably need more to make a cosmetic improvement. Graft numbers depend on many factors some patients have a procedure over two or three days, some doctors use automated devices others manual . Depending on the patients characteristics doctors can do large strip procedures in one day and have great results. The results section of this forum has a lot of great cases with graft numbers and density of grafts placed documented, its a good place to get an idea of what can be accomplished with an amount of grafts in one or more procedures. Regards ejj

I have had around three thousand grafts removed from my beard. I have no visible signs of extraction. I think this is due to the doctor using a small .8mm hand held manual punch and following pre, and post op instructions carefully. I am more than happy to wet shave and post pictures, however as I have my fourth procedure booked for May it will be some time after as with all fue surgery there are red marks that slowly dissapear over the following weeks. I style and edge my beard for a couple of months until they are completely gone and then wet shave as normal. The last time I did this was for a meet up a while back, I was happy to wet shave and attend the meeting and probably will do so again if it is beneficial to others. Hope this helps ejj

From what I have seen on the forums (not in person), necrosis appears to be more likely with what some doctors refer to as mega sessions and is more likely to occur in a patient who has had multiple surgeries in the past. I think the reason behind this would be that blood supply is compromised causing tissue failure. Dense packing would also be a concern for me as the grafts are fighting for blood supply so you could see a poor result, yield or necrosis. Lifestyle is a factor also, if the patient is a smoker it could cause issues, any medication that restricts blood flow could cause a problem, this should be addressed at the consultation stage with a medical questionaire.Sometimes a temporary change in lifestyle may be beneficial. My experience as a repair patient was, and is to graft at a lower density to ensure an optimum yield and lessen any associated risks with surgery. Hope this helps ejj

This looks great, and probably more still to come. The extractions look very good. The graft extractions around the ear clearly show where the Dr has cherry picked those single, fine hairs to use in the hair line to create a really refined result. Great work ejj

I thought I would include a couple of pictures of the donor area three days after the procedure and six months later. My beard density is very good, it is because of this good planning and surgery that I am able to complete my repair. Regards ejj

Hi Hariri Many thanks for your kind comments. Sorry for any confusion, third procedure was basically to join up the donor area at the rear of my head to create a uniform density. Once this was achieved we placed the remaining 420 grafts into the crown, this was my third procedure. In total I have had approximately 3000 grafts extracted so far, my beard looks untouched I think I could tap in to another 5-6 thousand easily if required, I am extremely fortunate to have a strong beard, other repair patients are not so lucky. Hope the pictures explain. Thanks for the comments sl, looking forward to May 21st and another step in the right direction. Best Wishes ejj

Here are some pictures of my crown pre op (last pic) and at six months post procedure. I had 420 beard grafts placed into the crown. I am returning to BHR in May for a fourth procedure, the plan is to address more of my former strip scars. The original surgical plan was for six procedures, however growth and healing has been excellent and enabled me to graft into other areas of naturally thinning hair, this was something I never expected or thought possible. If I stopped my repair now I would be happy. I have no visible marks after three thousand extractions, and can safely extract more as the donor has been well managed, and no surrounding hairs have been damaged during the extraction process. Regards ejj

Thumbs up from me re recommendation, BHR really turned my life around. I was pretty disfigured before Dr Bisanga helped me. http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/160800-scar-repair-1032-beard-hairs-dr-bisanga.html Regards ejj

I found Stephen to be incredibly quick to respond to any concern that I had, be it at the initial consultation stage, or later pre and post op. My emails were answered within minutes. I think Dr Bisanga is often in the US so hopefully you can arrange a consult in the future. Regards ejj

Hi Trinder Thank you for your post I am glad my own case has encouraged you and I hope others, and the reason why I decided to post my case in the first place. It would have been easy to not give back from all that I have been through but I decided to help others as photos of previous cases helped me also. For my own situation I sent photos and also saw the doctor in the flesh, photos only show so much but are a good start for getting an idea but the doctor may also ask to see you in person. For me seeing the doctor was needed as I had very little donor (scalp) left so needed to see what could be done and I saw a few doctors also to get varied views. As for costings I can only say that I knew from the offset I would need at least 6 surgeries to get where I wanted/repaired, and the list price would have been a lot but all I can say is the clinic have helped me and acknowledged the fact that I would need to spend on travel, hotel and time let alone surgery money and they did their best for me as a repeat patient and I still have more work to be done, but happily will go beyond the initial remit of repair and already have started working in new areas. Stephen the rep wrote on the thread below concerning prices on this forum also, and I can say that has been my experience also:- http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/169459-dr-bisanga-bhr-clinic-4-297-fut-2270-hybrid-strip-fue-2.html "As for the costings, I cannot be specific on individual patient cases as such but just say we have a lot of patients that come back for repeat work, I myself was a prime example of this before working for BHR I had multiple surgeries with them and as so expected that the cost depending on multiple visits and graft numbers would then decrement accordingly and not be list price, and this was my experience and very much appreciated at the time. It is important to do this and especially so on larger cases where there is significant investment from the patient be it time, money, planning etc, and some patients have been in the chair more times than I have. Our list prices are on our site to give a general guide but for individual surgeries over multiple visits we are happy to be more specific on any individual case." Hope this helps and all the best in your research and potential surgery, let me know if I can help at all. ej

Hi it looks to me like a natural double crown whorl, so basically nothing to worry about. The main thing is it looks perfectly natural, so no worries. Hope this helps ejj

I think the length of hair shown at nine months post op, is the same as the pictures at pre op, so the patient may prefer to wear his hair at this length. Given that the tissue is now much improved due to vascularity being improved, I think another session would finish this scar repair off, and this length of hair would not be an issue. I found that over a six - nine month period my scar tissue started to feel warmer, and the tissue took on a more normal pinker appearance, this I believe is a huge benefit to the overall result. Regards ejj

Hi Mickey Strip has evolved greatly since I started out, and the closure technique is now much improved upon. FUE is great for scars and especially when the donor has been compromised as the Dr can cherry pick, or in cases such as mine use beard hair. FUE has many advantages and may be the best option for some. It won`t be a one size fits all though, as factors such as the individual level of loss, donor density etc have all to be considered by both patient and Dr, so for some a strip/FUE combo may be the best option. Taking into consideration some of the good strip work I have seen and my own level of loss, I believe a strip FUE combo would have been the route for me with a good Dr, and I`m confident I would have got a great result with both, and would not have had the scarring I was subjected to. Regards ejj

Hi Modenese, yes I believe I have achieved a normal appearance. I am very grateful to Dr Bisanga, I now have the luxury of grafting into balding areas something that I never thought or expected, that I would be able to do. I am looking forward to my fourth procedure in May and will update again post op. Mickey thanks for the well wishes. Regards ejj

I have taken some pictures this morning of the left side of my head. The photographs show the scarring before BHR from former procedure, post op, and ten months later. So far i have had 3000 grafts extracted from my face without any visible marks. Regards ejj

looking great with plenty more to come, look forward to the updates All the best ej

Hi Trinder, Feel free to check out my repair, I had some pretty bad scarring, most important thing is to take your time and not make your situation worse Hope this helps ej http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/160800-scar-repair-1032-beard-hairs-dr-bisanga.html

Hi James I also consulted with WHTC Dr Mwamba, its a short walk from metro station. I narrowed it down to two clinics before i went . I think if you plan correctly you could get to Hasselt and Dr Feriduni, and possibly consult with three Drs in the same day if traffic is on your side, i pretty much had it narrowed down to the two Drs so it was good really as i was not stressed out about time keeping or overloaded with info, turned out to be a really good useful day. I would be tempted to stay a night in a hotel if you consult with three or more Drs, you can chill out overnight and reflect upon what each Dr advises cheers ejj

I did this a couple of years ago, flew in with budget airline early morning and returned late that same evening . Transport system is pretty good, you can walk downstairs at the airport ( BRU) and get the train to central . It was well worth it for me, i spent about an hour in each consult, I felt Dr Bisanga was the Dr for me and booked a procedure a couple of weeks later . I liked the time Dr Bisanga, and the two consultants spent with me, carefully planning a repair strategy. Dr Bisangas rep even walked with me back to the train station Before you go, get a map, or app on your phone, get as familiar as possible with the train stations and if your running late get a taxi hope this helps ejj

I took this picture yesterday outdoors ,in bright light , the tissue is a lot pinker now and looks healthier possibly due to the blood supply being re established , feels a lot warmer to in this cold weather ! The second picture is taken before i embarked on this repair journey and shows the scars i had been left with . cheers ejj

Hi Magnum I will try to be brief as its a long long story ! Around 1994 i met with a Dr who said he was perfoming state of the art work and did not do punch grafts , long story short i ended up with 120 plugs in my hair line and frontal third . A couple of years later i had two procedures ( strip ) and had about 800 mini grafts to hide the earlier work this turned out well . A year or so later i had 1k single hair grafts in and around the hairline , this was great as when grown out it hid the plugs . Unfortunatly i then got suckered into a procedure in Greece, strip, the Dr took two strips either side resulting in nothing growing and huge stretching on one side . After this i waited approx 8 years before looking at repair in 2009 I had a further strip procedure that also didnt really go my way , so after many hours of research and talking with fellow repair patients i knew i had to get a Dr experienced in repair and beard hair . Over the last 20 months i have had three procedures of beard fue with Dr Bisanga , Im scheduled for my fourth in May . I think strip done well is ok , I have seen good strip scars and bad strip scars, I have seen fue done well , and some awful scars from fue, i think there are many factors involved in limiting scar stretching ,one of which would be if you have stretched before, its pretty obvious and highly likely that you will stretch again , likewise with fue , if the punch size is too big you will get fue scarring Im often asked ` would i do it again ` and its easy to say no now, as im older , however when i was 22 years old hairloss was the most important and worrying thing to me , as we age it becomes less so , and as a repair patient its all about looking normal again , if at all possible , for me BHR are making that a reality Thanks for the comments all the best ej

all the best for the procedure , look forward to the updates , its great to get pictures up post procedure you can look back in a good few months and see how your journey has progressed , keep us posted best wishes ej