bitethebullet

Great documentation and a fantastic outcome for this patient

Looks great, hope he can maintain his native hair in the years ahead and get the long-term benefit of this transformation. Well done Dr Wesley.

Very refined work for an excellent outcome, patient must be very happy indeed.

Hard to believe it's the same fella - a life-changing transformation. He must be thrilled. Well done to the team.

Superb result for this patient, he must be thrilled. Great coverage for the grafts used. Well done to all concerned

Hi gregor, congrats on your surgery. The work looks clean and you already had a lot of good-quality native hair so it should add up to a great result in 12 months time. Try spraying cold saline (store it in the fridge) on the recipient to deal with the itch. I had really bad itching too and this helped a lot of cool the scalp and prevent me from scratching. Good luck with the recovery

Looks great, you're in excellent hands with a real hairline master. Now you just need to sit back and enjoy the ride. Happy growing to you

Looks wonderful Tj, you must be so happy. Enjoy every minute of it and thanks for the updates.

The situation your describing where I would continue to lose native hair, end up doing a series of surgeries, depleting my donor, end up with something that looks off, could also happen if I wait and get a transplant 5 - 10 years later could it not? I apologize and don't mean to seem stubborn but if we're saying wait so we can plan for when I'm 40, which I'm not saying is bad advice, later we could say lets wait some more so we can plan for when I'm 50, 60, and so on, and that's the same advice for the same reasons for the same risk. Seems like your saying I'm more likely to experience failure at this point than in the future, which I know for many young patients is certainly true, particularly as it pertains to classic Norwood style balding and receding hairline, the 22 year old who wants to be a Norwood 1, etc. But I was trying to understand how could this be true for some whose pattern is already well defined, diffuse, non receding, and Ludwig style rather than the Norwood style.

 

And I will continue the meds for a while before I do anything.

Hi Oliver, no need at all to apologise my friend - we're all in the same boat fighting this curse the best way we know how. I take your point that there's a certain moment in time where you have to pull the trigger and that you can't wait eternally to try to improve the situation. I'm simply saying wait a bit and continue with the meds. 22 is too young to pull that trigger. Keep a photo log for yourself with baseline pictures. If in a couple of years you see that things have not got worse and you still want to proceed I figure you'll be in a much better position. You'll have had more time to research, to step back and consider it from all angles, to find a surgeon who has consistently good results with diffused patients and you'll have the comfort of knowing that you didn't rush headlong into it. Moreover, if the meds work well, you may not even need surgery and save yourself a lot of $$ and donor hair in the process. And don't forget there are other exciting treatments coming down the pipeline so we may have other options in two to five years with CB, Replicel, Follica, JAK inhibitors, Histogen, Brotzu's lotion and, of course, the holy grail in Dr Tsuji's stem cell regeneration technique which may offer the closest thing we've seen to a full-blown "cure" for this generation of Norwoods.

My hairline is still there so I'm not looking to lower it or anything, I just wanted some more coverage throughout the top. Why would I regret it?

 

You might regret it Oliver because you'll continue to lose native hair and end up chasing your hairloss in a never-ending series of expensive and psychologically draining surgeries. Your donor could become depleted as a result and you may end up with something that looks off and unnatural. I'm not saying "don't ever get a transplant" but I am saying to take a step back, consider the fact that you're only 22, to plan this long-term and think about 10 or 20 years down the road and how you want to look. You might think you won't give a toss how you look at 40 but the reality is that you'll care then about how you look just as much as you do now. You can listen to the advice of those in the forum who know the pitfalls and limitations of surgery and want to spare you the hassle and heartache of ending up scarred, out of pocket and emotionally battered...or you can hop on a plane to Turkey and have a technician poke 5000 grafts out of your head and hope for a result that will buy you a couple of years (if you're lucky). Honestly, the best advice is take the meds, stabilize your hairloss, consult with some reputable docs and think again if you'd still like to proceed in a few years. It's too important a decision to rush into, no matter how tempted you might be by the allure of a quick fix transplant. Best of luck to you anyway whatever you decide

Don't jump into surgery or you may regret it for the rest of your life. Stay on the meds, take your time, research, develop other aspects of your life and revisit the question in a few years. It's probably not what you want to hear but 22 is far too young for a transplant

Superb - looks very natural. Patient must be thrilled at 8 months with more to come

Very nice compilation, but it's also nice to be able to browse individual cases in detail, especially ones that correspond more closely to one's own hairloss situation

Looks wonderful, great work - the patient's wavy hair obviously helped the final outcome

Very best of luck with your procedure. You seem to have a pretty good head of hair still so hopefully the procedure will set you up for a good few years

I'm scheduled for a FUE in the near future with Dr Bisanga and this was also a critical question for me. I have been reassured by the doctor's rep that all the grafts are punched by Dr Bisanga personally, so that's what I'll be holding them to. The clinic's own documentation which I've reproduced below is also very explicit about who's responsible for what:

"Dr. Christian Bisanga has been performing hair transplantation for over ten years and personally trained his team to his demanding standards. The doctor cannot physically perform every aspect of your procedure and therefore has set protocols in place to ensure the highest standards.

Dr. Bisanga performs certain aspects of all hair transplant procedures, such as with a Strip procedure he will remove the strip from the donor area and suture the strip internally and out with a “Trichophytic Closure”. His technicians will then divide the strip into the individual follicular units, 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair units.

With FUE Dr. Bisanga will punch all the grafts from the donor, his nurse or technicians will then remove the grafts from the donor and then they are checked by other technicians and cleaned and put into relevant groupings.

With either technique Dr. Bisanga will make the placement slits in the recipient area that gives density, direction and angle and then technicians will place the grafts into the created sites. On occasion the doctor may place some grafts but this is not standard and should not be expected. Throughout the doctor monitors all aspects of your procedure, from checking the grafts before placement, to instructing where the grafts are placed in the recipient sites.

The above is normal practice for all our procedures and has been throughout BHR Clinic procedures, you can be assured of the highest care and attention is given on your big day, we understand the importance it holds for you and want to ensure your experience on the day and in the long term is only a positive one."