evil

The post op pix look good...but...to be honest with you, the pictures are at quite a substantial distance compared to the pre-op pictures, they should have been taken a lot closer, it would make it a better/more accurate comparison (IMO).

Well the last thing you want to do is to compromise your transplant, for at least a couple of weeks you'll need to be extremely careful about lifting anything that's heavy, the main reason is if you're doing an FUT (strip) the area that the grafts were excised from and sutured would have to be protected or you'll end up busting the sutures and tearing your skin. That said, the first 3/4 days are the worst, you'll need pain meds, and also bend at the knees when picking anything heavy up (I know you know that already)...I say work something out with your company, tell them you feel like crap (you might actually feel that way) or have someone help you for a few days. Anyway, that's my opinion, I work in construction and went to work a couple of days later and because I was careful I did just fine. Oh and that's fantastic! that H&W are making it happen for you, go for it dude, it's just a couple of weeks of being careful, before you know it you'll be in the clear .

Well the only way you'll know the answer to that is to determine the number of square centimeters you need covered and according to everything I have read you'll need to have 50+ grafts per square centimeter to get what you're looking for, maybe even more like 60+ grafts PSC if you're adamant you don't want 'any' skin showing. Your best bet is to talk to a couple of great transplant doctors. My laymans opinion is 3000 +.

In my opinion a phone call under these circumstances is much more fruitful, sometimes emails can tend to be impersonal. This is very important and your voice can add a lot of weight that text can't do in the same way. (IMHO)

If I were you I'd get on the phone with them and tell them exactly what you wrote here, there's no shame in stating your case to them, they can only say no, give it a shot, I'm positive they will do their best to accommodate you.

I lined up a reputable limo company for a $100 (45 minute drive to Newark airport) and they also took my flight details and picked me up when I flew back to NJ so another $100 and my transplant surgery picked me up from the airport and dropped me off again

Nice! that looks pretty good for a small amount of FUs' seems to me 3000ish would really make a major difference, it might be all you'll need if you have a lot of 2s & 4s and it kinda depends on your expectations too.

I would say anywhere from 3000 minimum all the way up to 5000 ish.

Hi!, well it hasn't even been 4 weeks yet for me since my transplant at CHI so there really isn't much to update, I 'can' tell you that as I run my fingertips over the transplanted area it feels as though I still have more than half of my transplanted hair still in, in other words they haven't fallen out yet but from reading about graft 'fallout' on these forums, apparently it can continue to fall out for up to 2 months (we shall see how it goes) I'm really excited about my upcoming results (next 4/6 months) because for the first time in decades I will finally have hair on my crown Next year (April'ish) I want to have another HT to address my front/midscalp area so I am already trying to save for that too. I like everyone at CHI, I feel they have the right balance of professionalism and are very personable and for north America their prices are very competitive. You may/may not have noticed that I deleted all my pictures from this thread and from my profile, I did that for personal reasons but I will be adding them back at some future time (when I post my 3 month/6 month update). Good luck with your quest for the right surgeon for you

That looks incredible! it gives me hope for the 3000 grafts I had

You're welcome! and thanx for the good wishes + here's a couple of day 8 photos.

The Colorado Hair Clinic that I just had my HT with offer it as a free service for 6 weeks (twice a week) after having a transplant with them, I would have taken advantage of it but I live in NJ & it just wasn't' something I could swing.

The first picture is my 'before' picture, the second picture is after several incisions had been made, the third picture is after several grafts had been placed. After around 10/12 days when the the stiches will be removed by my wife, (I recieved instructions for this by the surgery) I will post those pictures of the stiches and of the scar after the stiches are removed. I apologize for the pictures being posted 'sideways' but when I uploaded them they 'were' the right way up so I don't know why that happened and hope it isn't too much of an inconvenience viewing them.

Here goes with some additional responses and some personal thoughts about my experience with CHI. Someone with the name of PupDaddy sent me a message that that I got as an email and within the email it said that his response was within this thread but it isn't as far as I can tell, (maybe he deleted his email?, I just don't know) I also can't find it within the 'messages' section of my profile, but within his email to my gmail acct he had several questions and I'd like to respond to them all as well as those of some others. 1&2) I chose CHI after talking to several coalition doctors and a few non-coalition doctors mostly because of how Chris the facility director responded to my emails, I felt a 'connection' with him as a person. 3) Yes it is true that I did not meet or consult with the surgeon that was to ultimately perform my strip and suture procedure, I only consulted with 'Chris' this was also the case with other facilities I conversed with, not all the facilities/surgeons were in contact with me, sometimes it was a 'contact' person from the coalition and/or non-coaliton surgery. 4) I'm sure I would have been "permitted" to see N6 'work' done by Dr Searle and or any of the other coalition and/or non coalition doctors had I chosen to speak with but I didn't ask and frankly no one offered at any of the several surgeries that I was in contact with (probably around 8 different drs/surgeries I was conversing with) 5) 'Kathryn' made all the incisions. She also made the whorl and then along with 'Steve' placed around 95% of the grafts, two other techs that have been working at the surgery for 10+ years placed a few grafts and finally Kathryn finished up the last of the remaing grafts. (I don't know if Kathryn is a 'certified' physician but I certainly IMO felt totally at ease with her professionalism) 6 ) Dr Searle's involvement was limited to excising the strip and suturing, he also talked with me several times about my expectations as to when I would see growth and also asked about my experience with my previous transplant from 8 years ago with 'MHR'. I was comfortable with his 'bedside manner' and have no complaints. 7 ) Yes 3000 grafts is apparently as you say "quite aggresive" and 'no' I wasn't advised that relative to HTs that the 'crown' can be a black hole, having said that I have been researching HTs for around a year or so and knew that this could be the case, but chose to go forward with that number of grafts based on the size of my crown and the number of available donor that I have. If I was advised that I had 'low' donor numbers I would have thought that this would have been discussed but because of my 'donor density and available donor grafts, it didn't seem to make sense to pursue that line of questioning. Finally 'PupDaddy, thanx for all the thought provoking questions, they are much appreciated and I hope I answered them as candidly as I possibly could. Following are the 'graft numbers' that Facility director 'Chris' sent me yesterday. 1s) 254 2s) 1043 3s) 1611 4s) 128 I will post some pictures in a follow up post soon, hope this helps with at least some questions relative to 'my' experience with CHI and their staff members and procedures, I for one couldn't be happier

OK so here is what recently I spoke to Kira about from Dr Arocha's surgery (we have been talking within the 'messages section of my profile) and this is pretty much what I had told her even though it wasn't her surgery that did my hair transplant, she was just inquiring about how things were coming along and wondered if I had my surgery yet. So as planned I had my HT at The Colorado Hair Institute in Denver. The staff members made my wife and I feel like good friends and were also very professional and they also had a good sense of humour throughout the whole process. 'Steve' one of the techs picked me up from the airport which is about half an hour from the surgery and took me in for my consult with 'Chris' the facility director, he spent quite a bit of time with me going over what he thought would be a good approach to planning this particular HT and any subsequent HTs I would need in the future. He also made sure to listen to what I wanted and after going over several details with me we decided to do what I wanted most of all which was for my crown to be the area worked on this time and for my hairline and midscalp section the next time. After the consultation Chris took my wife and I to our hotel and made sure to stop somewhere for us to pick up some supplies for food and drink. He returned promptly at 8 the next morning to take me back to the surgery to begin the procedure. The whole transplantation process took about 9 hours, Dr Searle removed the strip and then stiched me up and the techs went straight to work on sectioning off the grafts. After lunch which they offered to purchase (but I had already brought something for myself) Kathryn began making the incisions and once they were made she started placing the grafts along with Steve, they were very particular in keeping me informed as to what was happening and also I could hear them talking about things like graft direction etc. Chris told me that I had approximately 15.000 available grafts and that my scalp laxity was very good, also Chris and Steve used a tool that could evalute how many grafts I had per square centimeter, which was 88 grafts per sq centimeter, and apparently that is pretty good (: Chris told me he would send me an email with a breakdown of my 1s 2s 3s etc of grafts and also the pictures he took prior to my surgery. I was picked up from the hotel the following morning and had a cleanup of the transplanted area and they also provided me with a 'kit' for continued cleanup after I got back to NJ and also a rundown of do's and dont's for the following couple of weeks. I haven't been in any pain and I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to have had this HT especially that it was in my crown which is the part of my scalp that I really felt 'aged' me the most, the total number of grafts were a little over 3000 grafts and I intend to re-schedule another 2000/3000 in April of 2014 to address my hairline and midscalp sections. Let me know if you have any questions and if I can I'll answer them, in the meantime wish me luck! and I'll keep everyone up to date with pictures as soon as I get them from Chris and also any subsequent photos that I will periodically take myself, Happy Growing Ya'll (:

Ok guys I'm back at my hotel room after having 3000 grafts into my crown and maybe 20% into the top half of my scalp I'm really not up to posting any details right now because Its only been an hour or so since they finished up the HT but I can tell you that they treated myself and my wife like they would treat their own family. I'll post a more detailed account in a couple of days and try to add as many pictures as I can but for now I need to sleep and I have a flight back to NJ in the morning, there's supposed to be a snow storm that I think is supposed to hit a couple hours after we take off, anyway I'll post more in a couple of days

I really don't have a lot of experience with them yet but I have corresponded with a few surgeons and their offices over the last couple of months by email and CHI have handled themselves equally as well as any other surgery I have dealt with so far. I'll do my best to take photos and once I'm able to, I'll post a review. I'm nervous because I'm being "cut" but I'm also very excited at the same time.

I'm scheduled for 3000 grafts with them on Tuesday 19th with Dr Searle, watch this space!

Well I am a youthfull {in spirit and physically} 58 1/2 year old, I had an HT 8 years ago (1600, at least that is what I'm told I got by MHR) and now I'm scheduled for 3000 more grafts with a non-coalition surgeon in a week from now. It was worth it to me when I was 50 and I already know that it will be worth it to me now and it will be worth it to me when I'm 60 because I plan on another 3000 grafts again. Like you, I also think it's what "ages" me the most and in addition it's what depresses me the most too, generally 95% of the time I'm a very outgoing person. I'm on a mission to change "me" so that I can be the best version of me that I possibly can be. I have been working out, eating super healthy, I'm going to start riding my Trek bike as soon as I buy it starting this spring, I'm also going to buy an electric guitar (I already have an acoustic that I have been practicing with for a year) and having a transplant is just another layer of improvements that I'm "enjoying" doing at this stage in my life. So, yeah, I can unequivocally say that it's been worth it to me and will be as I move forward with my next HT (: wish me luck!

Thanx for posting this, I'm scheduled for a 3000 graft procedure on Feb19 and I'm going to have 2000 in my crown. I have way less hair than your patient but my thinking is that my situation can only improve. My surgery will be with a non coalition surgeon.

This result gives me hope!...I'm also interested in how his crown improved. Also at 9 thru 12 months he'll improve some more, I hope Dr Arocha's office continues to update his progress.

My opinion is wait around ten years or so when you're in your 40s. I mean what happens if you keep adding hair every time you feel that it needs a little more fullness? I think you'll run out of donor hair and won't have enough if you lose hair in an unnatural way.

Hi BS!...I'm looking forward to your before and after photo's because I'm a Norwood VI myself and I'm positive that you'll have a great experience with Dr Wong. I still have a way to go before I get an HT but I have selected my surgeon (Dr Glenn Charles) and hope to have enough money by April to get my HT....Good Luck