ItsAllAboutTheT

Post Op pic Day 3

R and L sided close up on Day 5

Close Up on the Right and Left side - Day 3

This is the view from the top. I had no hair before where the new grafts are located.

For as long as I can remember and looking back at photos I had a naturally high forehead. I will post pictures, I am currently day 13 post op from hair tranplant. The reason I want to share my story and photos is so that others may know there is hope for something that never seemed quite right. ABout four years ago I began to reasearch hair transplant. It was around this time that I had realized that my maternal side all had the same hair line- I alway assumed i got this from my paternal side as my hair line resembled a male patter baldness in the temple areas. In the last four years I went back and forth about whether I wanted to go as far as lowering my hair line in the front or simple filling in the sides of the temple area. I live in the NW and Dr. Gabel came highly recommended by this site. I met with him for the first time about 4 years ago and he said he completley understood my desire for a more feminine hairline, I was relieved that he saw where i was coming from. Fast forward to about a year ago when I went in more seriously considering my hair transplant. I had a lot of time to think about it and wanted to put a lot grafts in to really close in my forehead. Dr. Gabel is such an honest and straigtforward surgeon and gentleman he told me he was unsure if lower my hair line in the front would be a good idea. He compromised with me and said he would take my desires to lower the hairline to his annual confrence and discuss this with leading surgeons. His main concern is he didnt want me to change the way i looked because this was not the desired result- rather enhance my face shape. Almost a year later this past month I went in for my final pre surgery meeting which by the way he was always so obliging and patient with my decision making process. He never made me feel rushed and always gave me straightforward information. I told him I had wanted to only do the temples but wanted a curvate conecting my temples with the front secion thus not lowering the front section but completely filling in the sides. They were able to get me in about 3 weeks later and I was off on my hair transplant journey. Dr. Gabel supplied me with an amazing post op booklet which had everything I needed to know on how to best care for my new transplanted hair. I have to admit, while I myself work in the medical field, I was intimidated by the amount of care that needed to be done after the surgery. However, i was willing to do WHATEVER I had to in order to ensure no lost grafts. The day of surgery came and I arrived at the office early. His staff is awesome and so sweet, I cannot say enough about them. I had pre op pictures, ordered lunch, signed consent, and took a valium. He explained to me they would be very focused but we would have music with out words for the first part of the morning then in the afternoon we could watch movies. The first part of the morning he took out the graft. I felt 10 okay maybe more like 15 bee sting like pokes at the back of my head. Then my head felt like it blew up like a ballon, well maybe not that much, but it felt very puffy in the back. Now it was numb. Dr. Gabel kept telling me he was making sure my elasticity was great. Then im not sure about how much later but he said its time to move to another room- I sat up and he said okay the graft is out and sutures are in. It was awesome because that was a huge load off my mind. Next I laid on my back and they started to numb the area where my grafts would go. Again, it felt like bee stings and it was about 20 in all- i believe or at least what i could feel. It made me just clench my fist and eyes water a little but it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Then, he started making holes. Now these holes were very specific in the direction which he had worked out before hand. I could hear the holes going in which I could only describe as a pin going into celery. After over 2300 holes were made he started placing hairs. There was a lot of counting and the hairs started going in quickly - I was so impressed with their speed and accuracy. However, not including lunch I laid there for about 4 - 5 hours. At times it was difficult but I could have asked to get up as they were always asking me if i needed a break but honestly I just wanted to push through; plus they were the ones doing all the work. Towards the end the donor site was getting tender and they gave me 2 ibuprofen. The night of surgery and for about 3- 5 nights after that i slept with the bed elevated to 45 degrees and with a blanket shaped in a u to support my neck. I did use the pain pills but mostly at night and supplemented with ibuprofen during the days. The pain was mostly from laying on my donor area and to this day I have not had any noticable pain in my graft area. I went back to work on day 6 and even though it was busier than i would have liked it by day 10 when I went in for my post op Dr. Gabel said things looked great. Currently, I am at day 14. Supposedly, the hairs are now fairly solidified or I should say the root. Some hairs have begun to fall out which I am told is normal starting from week one through three. I would say probably about a 1/3 of the hairs have fallen out. I prepared myself for this because I loved the look immediatly after the surgery. Two things I have to say about this- what I have now is better than what i had before which is nothing and from the time of surgery i reserved my excitment because I knew I had a good six months before I would notice a difference.

I had a naturally high hairline in the pattern of recession in the temple areas. Basically, that of a male pattern baldness.

thanks for that! I loved the lines he did and the density is awesome. now, im told some, if not all, will fall off. So, I will be preparing for 'take off". Any advise from anyone on what i can do in the next few months to ensure the most growth?

Yes, pictures are for sure on their way...right now I am 10 days out. I will be posting some post op pictures since that is what I have available right now.

I just had a hair transplant performed on June 20, 2012 by Dr.Gabel in Portland! It's been a dream come true for me, and a great experience so far overall. It took a few visits to Dr. Gabel for me to decide on a plan for where I wanted the hairline. He was accommodating the whole way. When I finally decided to proceed they were able to get me in within a reasonable amount of time. The day of surgery I felt so comfortable, I joked with his assistants I felt like I was at a spa. He provided me with a post-op booklet that was so detailed and helpful in being able to guide my care of the hair- to ensure proper healing. This was great because I was never left wondering if all the work he had just done would be interrupted. I am currently 10 days post op and feel great. The sutures came out yesterday and virtually all the scabs from the grafted area are gone. I have lost a few hair, which is normal starting the first week, but other than that it looks like i have a clean buzz cut. Hair now where 3 weeks ago there was not. As a woman this is a great deal to me and I am so amazed at the whole process.