poweralley87

sorry havent been on for a little while, thanks for all for the comments! Still no growth yet but not expecting any for about another month and a half. I pretty much just look how I did before the procedure. hairneededht, congrats on the procedure, and yes I am definitely on meds. I think it is a good idea if you are getting a ht. If you take them you can hopefully keep what you have and possibly regrow. I am on rogaine and proscar. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions about the procedure. Staggerlee, I agree it was very clean. Throughout the whole process I never really had any oozing or bleeding which was pretty awesome. Ill post some new pics when I start noticing the growth!

few more close ups day 3

Slim Jim, cant decide, shampoo, agent eye, Thank you all for your comments and I will definitely keep you up to date with the results over the coming months. I am looking forward to seeing how things turn out. Janna, I'm not sure why my skin is like that, but I definitely haven't had any prior surgeries. I posted a few of my pre op pics already so maybe we can wait until we see the six month results to give a comparison..Also, no worries on the flight, they actually upgraded my seat for the next flight anyway, and I'm happy I got to come in and have my first wash done. Thanks!

Thanks FHTD, I was really happy with the hairline also. We talked about possibly adding more hair to the points at the temples with a second transplant but we'll see. Dr. Paul had the proper term for it..angular temporal apex or something???? not sure though. I'm only 25, Im going to stick with the meds and see if I can wait a little while till the next one. I'll keep everything updated though.

Had second thoughts after that title there, since obviously since it isnt finished until the results come through, but you guys know what I mean;)

Hey guys, So I just finished up with my surgery last night with Dr. Paul Shapiro of Shapiro Medical group. I missed my flight this morning because I stopped by SMG in the morning because I had some bleeding in the donor area which turned out to be totally normal and just me being over cautious. So, I'm sitting in the airport now for a few extra hours so I figured I would go ahead and post my experience. I'm going o try to go into detail here, so sorry for the length. Night Before : Plain and simple, I was kind of freaking out. I have only had one surgery in my life and it was very minor. Even though this is also a fairly minimally invasive surgery, I was still a bit nervous. Day of surgery: Showed up at 7:30 AM, Met with Dal who was one of their technicians. He gave me the menu for lunch which SMG provided for me. He then took pictures from all around my head to get the pre-op pics. After taking the pictures, I talked with Dr. Paul about the game plan. He considered all of the normal factors given my case, mainly being my age (25). He then drew the hairline that he was thought would be best on my head. He stressed the importance of keeping things conservative given my family history of hair loss and my age. Even with all of that said, I was very pleased with the hairline that he had drawn. I was taken by Dr. Paul back into the surgical room which had a very nice view of the lake outside. I was changed into a surgical shirt, then placed in the chair. Dr. Paul then cut my hair in the recipient area. During Surgery: I was sat down in a chair that was similar to a dentist chair. I was given 3 pills of medication. One was valium, I think one was prednisone, and Im not really sure about the third. They then took my blood pressure, which was too high along with my heart rate (was being a nervous wimp). They decided to give me one more valium to get my blood pressure down a bit more. I think Dr. Paul gave me one more valium at some point during the surgery, but stuff was starting to get a bit hazy. Ok, now for the worst part of the surgery (which still wasn't that bad), the injections. I had multiple nerve blocking injections about my eyes to start. Next, I had injections in the back of my head which numbed the area under my scalp. after that, I got injections all the way around my head. The only ones that were rough were the ones on the sides close to the temples. Even then, they weren't that bad. Dr. Paul has a background in pain management, so he uses a vibrating device at the area where he makes the injections. This confuses the nerves so the injections don't hurt as much. I think I needed more injections because my body metabolizes the anesthetic quicker than normal (same thing happens at the dentist). They tested to make sure I was numb, then we got going. Donor Removal - This is the part, like most people, that scared me the most. They reclined the chair so it was flat and turned into more of a massage chair. I put my head down in the head rest and Dr. Paul began to remove the strip. I honestly did not feel a thing. Actually, I was talking and cracking jokes during the removal. ( far cry from how nervous I was to start) The only thing that is a little odd is the sound. When they pull out the strip, it sounds similar to velcro. But seriously, for anyone out there that is worried about this, don't be. I didn't even know it was out until they told me. Recipient Sites- Dr. Paul made all of the recipient site incisions before lunch. He asked me not to talk during this as this was when he needed to count the number of incisions. While he was doing this, the techs were right next to us, cutting the grafts. We then had a short lunch break. After lunch, the techs began planting the grafts. I didn't get a chance to meet them all because I had to stay perfectly still while they were doing this and they were mostly behind me. Dr. Paul regularly checked in to make sure everything was going well. after the majority of the grafts were planted, Dr. Paul left a few of the 4's and made new incisions for them further towards the middle of my head. I think I also had a few ones left so that they could tweak the hairline, but Dr. Paul said he liked it how it was so I think they just added them in other places. After that, we were done. I got my post op kit with instructions, and headed back to the hotel. Night of surgery (last night)- Slept like a baby, maybe because of the meds.? But sitting here not 24 hours later, unless I touch my donor area, I feel like nothing happened. I have not taken any pain medicine since I got back to the hotel about 15 hours ago. Graft count : We planned for around 3000. but I think the magic number actually ended up being 2579. Don't quote me on that but it was definitely 25-something. The reason we couldnt get the extra grafts was because of the laxity on my scalp. I had good-average donor, but laxity was below average. Also, he had a little more trouble getting the donor out because he said my skin was very tough almost leathery(said possibly from playing sports) Dr. Paul didn't want to take out a large strip due to the chance of the scar stretching. Not sure on the 1's,2's,3's,4's count, but Janna may be able to hook us up with that down the road. Sorry for the length but didn't want to leave anything out. Really happy with my decision to make the trip up to SMG.

Jotronic, I sincerely apologize as it was not my intention to be misleading to anyone. I recognize H&W as a world class clinic with AWESOME results. This is why they were high on my short list of 3 clinics that I would be willing to see for my surgery in North America. When I said kicked in the gut I in no way meant to be misleading about H&W. After reading your email I personally started to get the idea in my head that I did not have sufficient donor density since I had been on propecia in the past for an adequate amount of time with minimal results. This is what made me feel "kicked in the gut", which was probably a poor choice of words on my part. After mentally preparing myself to have the surgery, I was simply disappointed at the thought that I may not have the donor density required to have a quality ht. Thank you very much for your response and explanation. Again, I am very sorry if what I said came across as misleading, and for my poor choice of words. From my research, I would highly recommend anyone interested in ht surgery to put H&W on their short list as I did.

Thanks for your input. I'm all set to have my surgery with SMG on December 5th. Anxious/excited/nervous all wrapped into one.

Here are the pics I sent.

Thanks for the reply. What is interesting is that I sent the exact same pictures to SMG and HnW. Dr. Arocha took a comb to the donor area and said it looked pretty good and had no issues recommending a little over 3000 graft procedure. SMG had a similar recommendation from only seeing the pictures.

Hello all! I have decided to see a doctor to address my hair loss and had an interesting situation that I wanted to share with everyone and possibly get some feedback. I wanted to ensure quality work, so I contacted Hasson and Wong, Shapiro Medical Group, and Arocha Hair Restoration. I submitted pictures online for H&W and SMG, and had a face to face with Dr. Arocha since he has an office in Houston where I currently live. The first group I dealt with was H&W. They responded with a single paragraph email telling me that my donor density was "questionable" and that even though I was on propecia in the past, I would need to get back on it for at least a year before they would consider my case. Obviously this was a kick to the gut. I felt like my last and most effective option was off the table and started mentally preparing to just shave my head. Not a good feeling at all.:mad: I decided to still submit my photo's to SMG to get a second opinion. The process was much different. I received a call the day after submitting the photo's on their website. This call was to set up my phone consult with Matt, their patient educator who has worked with Drs. Shapiro for over 20 years. I was on the phone with Matt for over an hour. He told me that he did not see any issues with my donor hair density, and explained that he would never try to assess whether someone has above average density from pictures, but would be able to tell if there was an issue. SMG is willing to schedule me for surgery in November or December. As I said earlier, I also had a face to face with Dr. Arocha. I spoke directly with him and he took pictures and drew lines on my head to show how he would reconstruct my hairline. I was very impressed with Dr Arocha and his facilities. So this brings up two questions. 1. Why would one very respected clinic show concern over donor density when two other very respected clinics do not? 2. Should I make the trip up to MN to see Drs Shapiro, or stay local with Dr. Arocha? Thanks eveyone and sorry for the length!