farmcat

10 Months

Immediately after surgery

These are my before pics.

Hi, I have been a long time "lurker" on this site and have followed many Patients through their surgeries and feel I should share my results for future patients. A short background on me: I am 47 years old and started losing my hair at the age of 19. I can't say that I took it well. I immediately looked into transplant surgery (this was on 1990) and went for a strip surgery with a doctor named Dr. Matt Levitt. His results were "ok" for the time (I guess), very pluggy but I did get growth. His rates were $35/ graft! Unable to continue to afford Dr. Levitt's rates I looked for another more affordable doctor. I live in Pittsburgh and found a local, Dr. Sunseri, (he was an associate working for Dr. Dominick Brandy). I went for two strip surgeries there resulting in very little yield and thick strip scars. Disillusioned with transplants and thinking I had no donor left I did nothing else with my hair and became a prisoner to wearing a hat. It was only after coming to this site and seeing patient's results that I became interested in trying to fix my situation. My decision to go to Dr. Lorenzo: After coming to this site and seeing many Fue results (especially PMA's and Pepperoni's) I started looking into Fue surgerons. Dr. Lorenzo's name seemed to consistently be included when people were naming their list of top surgeons. After researching more about Dr. Lorenzo and finding his Youtube Channel I was immediately interested. Being a NW6 it seemed as though Dr. Lorenzo was/is one of the few surgeons who consistently works with high norwoods and gets good results. I also liked that he has hundreds of transplant patients on his channel and shows very genuine results with his comb throughs. I can't say enough about Dr. Lorenzo and his staff. They are all very professional and very friendly. The hardest part for me was the language barrier. Dr. Lorenzo, his sister Pilar, and Grace speak perfect English and some of the other girls seem to be learning English and are getting pretty good at speaking it as well. Surgeries: I have had three surgeries with Dr. Lorenzo: August 2015 (2751) grafts in my crown July 2016 (2802) grafts on top and front July 2017 (2701) grafts on top (to increase density) for a total of 8254 grafts but I am only going to show the results from my first two surgeries so far (5553 grafts) since I am only just past two months post op from my third surgery. I am not going to give a detailed write up of the entire trip since Redcut did an awesome job on his write up and I could not top it. This is the link to Redcut's post: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/184284-4301-fue-dr-lorenzo-2016-06-a.html

At 4 months you are only starting to see growth.....mine started coming in as very fine hair around 4 months.....you will see much more over the next 4 months.....

Sorry, just seeing this now.....I think everybody is different but I usually only start seeing growth around 4 months....it usually starts out as fine/ baby like hair.....by 6 months I usually see significant growth that is blending in well with my native hair.

Looks great! I have had 3 surgeries with Dr. Lorenzo (most recent was on 7/5 & 7/6) and have been thrilled with my first two (the third surgery is only a week old).....my yields I would guess have always been in the high 90%'s and his work is completely natural......you are gonna be thrilled with your results in another 6 or 7 months.

Looks great Pma! You've still got a lot more growing on that last surgery also!

Looks good redcut but I'd like to see a dry and styled pic.

I agree that you seem to have gotten almost no yield but from the pics it does not look unnatural.....you shouldn't feel awkward about your hairline from what I can see.

I have been to Dr. Lorenzo twice for a total of 5553 grafts so far and am scheduled again in July. I would have classified myself as almost a NW6 and after two surgeries I am thrilled with my results. ( I have had several previous transplants in the early 1990's that were both pluggy and had a low yield). I chose Dr. Lorenzo because of his many cases on high NW's and his excellent video documentation of results. You are correct that techs do the extractions, at least in my case, and I was initially worried about that but my yield has been in the high 90's percent (I would bet) both times ( I have had the same girl both times).

I have had Fue from Dr. Lorenzo and might have some decent pics from after my head was shaved, I will have to look.....Dr. Lorenzo talked about using beard hair in my scar....he mentioned around 700 grafts.....I don't know if I will do that or not......I do keep my hair longer (I have to just to cover the thinner hair at my bottom hairline) so it isn't a huge issue for me but I do wish it wasn't there.

I am just guessing but I would say it is close (a little thinner) to the width of an eraser on a regular #2 pencil and goes from ear to ear.....it is also raised up a little bit as I can completely feel it along it's entire length if I run my finger along it.....the hair below my scar is also much thinner than the hair above my scar.....I have had two different doctors (who weren't involved in this strip surgery) tell me they don't think the surgery caused the hair below the scar to become thin, but it's just odd that there is such difference in hair thickness that directly follows above and below the scar. As I said, this surgery was performed in (around) 1991.....the strip scars I have seen on here are night and day compared to the scar I have.

My scar is pretty wide and long.....it took 2 to 2 &1/2 months before my hair grew long enough to cover up my scar again.....I didn't use concealer but I did wear a fitted baseball hat that covered my scar.

Hey Pma.....great to see your post....Congratulations on the recent Fue! Looking forward to seeing it grow in.....your donor still looks good.....Did Dr. Lorenzo give you any estimate on how many grafts you still have if you wanted to do anymore? (which I don't think you will need anymore).

Fortune11......I have never had any grafts put into my scar (yet, don't know if I ever will?).....when I said about my hair covering my scar I mean the hair above it growing long enough to cover it.....my strip scar is pretty bad.....it's fairly wide and from ear to ear.....I had FUT in the early 90's by Dr. Sunseri (an associate of Dr Brandy in Pittsburgh).....I wasn't impressed with either Brandy or Sunseri.....that was before the internet so there wasn't much of a way of researching Dr's like today.....when my hair is long enough you can't see my strip scar......I recently had two fue procedures with Dr Lorenzo in Spain.....the results from the first one were great and the second procedure is still coming in (I just passed 5 months)

Maybe a scarf (skull cap) or a "fishing" type hat? I wore a loose fitting baseball cap but had to take it off for security....no matter what, remember one thing.....you will never see any of those people in the airport again.

Best wishes Lorenzo, I understand the negativity..... my brother was the guy on Hairsite (Willie) years ago who pushed to get doctors to try Acell in hopes that it could lead to donor regeneration....He was attacked by several members calling him stupid and immature, others accusing him of working for Acell, (which he had no affiliation with them or any doctors), etc....it actually got a lot worse than that after one member was bragging that he had harassed my brother so much that he drove my brother from posting on the forum. The truth was we had an immediate family member who was dying so we hadn't been posting on the forum for awhile and when I told this forum member that he replied "I am not interested in your family drama" Anyways, I didn't mean to add any negativity, I support your decision, you don't need to be hassled right now......Stay Strong.

Looks great Redcut! Hard to believe one transplant and 5 months later and you went from looking pretty much bald to pretty much a full heard of hair with a little bit of thinness in the crown.....you have to be thrilled.....and it's got a lot more growing/maturing to go.

Looks Great....I can't really see where you need anymore.

Looks Great Tav! Dense and healthy looking....

You can spray it with cold saline spray.....pretty sure you can also use Benadryl to help with itch.

Impressive results Redcut.....and they are only beginning!

I have heard that having very large sessions can negatively impact the results.....lower yield, more trauma to the scalp so also possibly increased risk of shockloss (I am no expert and haven't had a large session, this is just my opinion).....I have had 5553 grafts from Dr. Lorenzo but did that in two sessions 11 months apart....

I think 5000 grafts is realistic (you might need more) and I wouldn't want to do that all in one shot.....I don't know anything about the doctors you are considering.