Shera

Mikeey, You've been banging on about this 14 month period for nearly a year now, for the record I didn't have any noticeable difference from my 12 month mark. If you are really that concerned with transplants losing their initial impact after 14 months, why don't you just start a new thread and leave this one for Starscreams progress updates.

Hi Starscream, as mentioned in our dialogue, I have had a close look at all your photos to date and the most important thing is that you are progressing month by month. Your latest pics show an improvement on your previous months with many new small hairs sprouting throughout the transplant area. Its safe to say that you'll probably never beat me in a hair growing race but that probably applies to most on here. Its still a waiting game, we are only at 5 months and there is still plenty of hope in achieving your desired result. Try to remain upbeat and as always feel free to PM/email/whatsapp me at any time.

Hi Harbal, After 3 weeks, if you had your head shaved it will now probably be at a length of about 6mm or thereabouts, to get it uniform with your transplanted hair you may need to go down to 4mm. Once your transplanted hair starts to grow you could progress to 6mm, 10mm and then 13mm. The trick to achieve a natural look whilst going through the growing stages is to keep your native hair the same length as your transplanted hair. That's what worked with me. Of course this theory does somewhat fly out the window during the shedding stage.

At three weeks I would advise you use a guard. Your doner and recipient areas will still be tender and sore to the harsh touch, so unless you have sadomasochist tendencies and revel in your own pain, I would probably play it safe with a guard, say a no.3 or 4. After 3-4 months it's probably time to let it grow out as it will hopefully grow uniformly with your native hair.

Hi LKloss, In response to your questions, 1. Is it possible to have a hair transplant even after the use of hairpiece tape? I would say yes it is. 2. Do I have to take minox/fina etc. after the hairtransplant? (I'd rather not since I really don't want to take the risk of the side effects, even if they're small) I would recommend taking the above meds for at least the 6 months following your transplant. However because of you age it is likely your native hair will continue to recede at its natural pace once you are off the meds. 3. Are there more people of my age who had a hairtransplant? There are people of your age having minor transplants to maybe restore the hairline or temples or crown but I would suspect nothing major. If you are receding already at 21 and you wish to live the next few decades with hair then you need to be prepared to save your precious grafts for repeat surgeries. If you go all gung-ho for a super high density hairline then that hairline will probably turn into an unsightly island in the future once the native hair behind it continues to recede. It is important for you at such a young age to plan ahead. It may well be worth considering the option of beard/body hair to act as filler in order to preserve your precious scalp grafts. 4. Is the transferred hair quality similar to the rest of the hair? The hair should be the same quality as from where it was taken once it has matured over an approximate 12 month period. 5. I once read a story about someone who still felt the pain in the back of his head after the transplant for a long time. The pain in the back of the head can linger for a few months in some patients, everybody heals differently. I do recall I had a very occasional lightning sensation pain in the back of my head for some time following my own transplant. Nothing severe, about a 1 or 2 out of 10. You do get used to it and it certainly doesn't affect your day to day life, in fact in a strange kind of way I actually missed it when it went. I hope that clarifies a few things for you. Of course they are my opinions, others may differ in their advice.

Or if you have no checked in luggage you could always post it to yourself. Or you could pour it into 100ml bottles!

Hi Fito99, Please feel free to call me now on whatsapp and we can make the necessary arrangements. I will PM you my details.

Hi Julius, Make sure all necessary arrangements are made prior to the surgery. You can then concentrate on the surgery alone without any hiccups. Also try to make sure you are in a sound mental state, if you are under a lot of stress then you may want to delay the surgery until you are relatively stress free. Make sure you are fully aware of the different phases you will go through, try to realistically limit your expectations and after the first few weeks just try to get back to normality. Just include the aftercare in your daily routine and try to put the surgery at the back of your mind, don't get obsessed with it! Also, having had a few surgeries for various injuries down the years I would recommend that you always stay positive and optimistic. Others may disagree but I feel strongly that many factors play their part in a successful result. The actual procedure, the aftercare, the patients own genetic makeup and the patients mental well being (often overlooked) all need to be spot on. I wish you all the best in your surgery, I hope its a massive success.

Hi Fito88, Thanks for your concerns, I am actually in continuous dialogue with Paddy and he is aware that he is currently going through the 'ugly duckling' stage. He just wanted to share his pics, there is no cause for concern. He is really looking forward to the upcoming changes now that he has those first 3 months out the way.

Hi Paddy, feel free to whatsapp me your progress pics so I can personally offer you feedback or any other advice. Hope everything else is OK with you.

Hi Justlax, I would probably go along with the clinics advice and not use any styling products for the first 6 months. It will probably be about 6 months before your hair is of sufficient length to apply these products anyway. I've been following your story, everything looks good and you look like you're well on the way, I wish you the best of luck.

Hi Techboy, You will have numbness in the transplanted area for several weeks before the feeling will gradually come back. This is all part of the healing process and nothing to worry about.

Hi Techboy, Congratulations on your procedure with Dr Bhatti. Your obvious excitement and elation at having gone through with the surgery certainly reminds of my own experience a couple of years back. Thanks for sharing your pics & vids, I hope you will continue with regular updates. Please feel free to contact me at anytime if need be. I will PM you my personal details. I wish you all the best on your journey, always stay positive and enjoy the ride.

Firstly I have tried to reach out to Vik a couple of times now but have not received a response. Vik is scheduled in for a free repeat procedure in December. Dr Bhatti does encourage all patients to write about their experiences. There is no threat of lawsuits etc, therefore patients of Dr Bhatti do feel free to express themselves. I wrote about my own experience as a patient and felt the need to follow it through to give something back to the forum. Obviously, I was not aware at the time of my first posts what my final outcome would be and I had no affiliation to Dr Bhatti then apart from a being a patient. In my own experience, a massive percentage of Dr Bhatti's patients are happy with their results but do not have the time or patience to post their results and stories on the internet. Most of the patients I speak to do not even know that this site exists. A large proportion of patients come through via word of mouth, recommendations from previous happy patients This year alone Dr Bhatti would have completed approximately between 350 and 400 hair transplants. Last year he would have completed approximately 450 hair transplants. Of these procedures, you will see a couple or more transplants that have not had the desired outcome for each of the years. There may well be a handful more that do not make it to the forums. But are we really looking at the big picture here? The fact is that there are about 5-6 procedures on this site completed over the last few years where results have not been as desired out of a possible 1350 hair transplant surgeries completed over that same 3 year period. Is this really a reason to panic and tarnish the reputation of a distinguished surgeon and a good man? A success rate of over 99% if the figures on this forum are held as the be all and end all as some posters proclaim. To all of those like myself and David who have experienced surgery with Dr Bhatti, we can only speak highly of the experience and the care. Dr Bhatti is passionate about achieving a result for every patient that enters the clinic. To say that he rushes cases so he can offer free revisits for failures is foolhardy to say the least. The fact is that Dr Bhatti affords the same care and precision with every patient as I'm sure most of the other respected Doctors on this forum do. In any other field, a few bad results do not take precedence over hundreds of successes, so why should they here. Hopefully Vik will take up the offer of the free surgery and this time it will prove as successful as the vast majority of Dr Bhatti patients. We will wait and see.

Hi, in my fibre days I always used Nanogen Hair Fibre Locking Spray, the 100 ml bottle only needed a couple of sprays and lasted a good while. Never had a problem with it, the fibres were always held in place in wind and mild rain.

Vik is already in direct contact with Dr Bhatti who has taken responsibility and promised to take necessary action to try and resolve the problem free of charge, I suspect if he could do more then he probably would. Vik seems to have the same hair quality as myself so I would have expected a similar result. There is no reason to think otherwise, we would have had near identical procedures Vik - I'm sorry if you feel that I have personally neglected you, if you wish to have a personal chat with me then please email me and we can arrange a mutual time bearing in mind the time difference. I will also PM you my personal contact details. I do try to make myself as approachable as possible and answer emails and phone calls promptly. I suppose I incorrectly presumed that because you was already in direct dialogue with Dr Bhatti, you would probably not require the services of a rep, especially one based in the UK. Also Vik is based in Australia, if he was based in the UK, I would have been open to meet up and discuss in person any failings and remedial actions. For the record this goes for all UK patients of Dr Bhatti regardless of whether they go through me. Also for the record not one of the patients I have sent over to India has needed such assistance to date, but I am fully aware that there will be a time. Finally Vik, I hope all goes well in December, I'm sure Dr Bhatti will do whatever he can to give you the hair you so desire.

Hi Ganjabacha, You are looking good at 6 months but you still have some way to go. Exciting times ahead as you will make significant noticeable progress now from month to month. I hope you keep the forum updated.

Hi Wibbles, Dr Bhatti recommends using the 5% Minoxidil for 6 months once the crusts have all fallen off the recipient area post surgery. It is the patients choice to buzz down the hair post surgery. I stuck to a number 2/3 until my new hairs sprouted and then I just let it grow out. I stuck with the Fin 1mg for a year post surgery and then switched to 1mg every other day.

Hi Momo99, Great write up, everything's looking rosy on top just as planned. Thanks for the mention, absolutely thrilled that my posts helped inspire you and your friend to make the trip to see Dr Bhatti. Personally, I loved helping you guys out, your attitude towards your transplants was spot on, you did your research, you had realistic expectations and you went for it just as I had done previous. There was no fuss, no getting worked up about micron measurements, you made your decision, stuck by it and both walked away with fantastic results and a lifetime experience that will live with you forever. I applaud you both, enjoy your new hair.

Hi Hairhoho, Great detailed write-up. It certainly looks like you learnt from your first procedure and left no stone unturned this time around. Again, congratulations on your hair transplant with Dr Bhatti, I am personally looking forward to seeing you progress. I'm glad you feel great about the overall experience, I know the feeling only too well.

All fully booked up for this trip. Thanks for all the interest and it certainly looks like there's enough interest for another trip in the spring. If any Mumbai folk want to hook up in Mumbai and meet up with me and patients going for their HT surgeries then that can probably be arranged. We are staying in the Bandra area on the Saturday 8th October. Just email/PM me. India, here we come....................

I chose to wear a cotton bandana lightly tied to protect my grafts and a loose fitting bucket hat that just flopped on top of my head. It was perfect if you wanted to remain discrete and I recommend the same to all patients.

How about giving the guy some hope before trashing his surgery a day after he's had it done. Don't you think you might just be insulting his intelligence a wee bit, I'm sure he's done his research and made his decision after careful thought. Why is that the likes of you have some kind of bitter twisted vendetta against Dr Bhatti on this site, its kind of getting a bit embarrassing now, especially with one of your ilk just being exposed as a fraud just a few days ago with the sole purpose of creating multiple accounts to trash Dr Bhatti's work. Yesterdaysdaydream, I would probably ignore that last poster, if you want I can send you a few pics of patients with similar graft placement to yours who walked away with very pleasing results, just PM me. Also check out my results and David's, the site moderator, you have a long way to go, don't get worked up by some posters on this forum.

You could always try hypnosis to rid yourself of your fear of needles Bring it on!!

Hi CSB, You might want to read the post by Spex at the link below, you are at 4 months, there really is no need for the defeatest attitude, have faith. http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/158665-growth-times-patience.html