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Haircharity34

Regular Member
  • Posts

    12
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Basic Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Country
    United States
  • State
    MI

Hair Loss Overview

  • Describe Your Hair Loss Pattern
    Thinning Hair Loss All over the Scalp
  • How long have you been losing your hair?
    10 years +
  • Norwood Level if Known
    Norwood VI
  • What Best Describes Your Goals?
    Considering Surgical Hair Restoration

Hair Loss Treatments

  • Have you ever had a hair transplant?
    No
  • Current Non-Surgical Treatment Regime
    None

Haircharity34's Achievements

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  1. Thanks for the encouraging words. I was on Finasteride from 2 months pre-op to 4 months post-op. Then I stopped taking it. I wasn't a fan of the side effects and I wasn't sure how much it was helping with hair quality, regrowth, and so forth. When I stopped taking it at 4 months post-op, I did notice a slight amount of shedding on the top of my scalp, but only very slight. That said, the hair quality you see in the photos is after 5 months of no Finasteride. Top shots attached.
  2. Hi jcs87, I'm glad you prompted me to revisit this thread. I'm long overdue for an update, particularly since it is a positive one. :-) I've seen excellent growth in the recipient area, and the area of shock loss has improved a good bit as well. The right side still appears a *little* thin whenever I get a fresh haircut and cut the hair there under an inch or so, but it's hardly conspicuous. Furthermore, Dr. Hasson is more than happy to fix up the scar free of charge whenever I can make it to Vancouver again -- i.e. transplant some grafts to the shock loss area. Here are a few comparison photos -- pre-op and 9 months post-op. Note: My wife took the post-op photos using her camera and a blue poster, so that's why the lighting and background are slightly different. Again, now that I've seen good improvement on the shock loss side, I can say very confidently that I'm glad I went with Dr. Hasson. It's worth noting as well that I tend to be a worst-case scenario with a lot of stuff, whether it be food sensitivities, seasonal flu, you name it. I have a feeling that I would've had some degree of shock loss regardless of how much my scalp was babied. Dr. Hasson and his team are very professional if you have to walk through any post-up issues, as I did. And Dr. Hasson's hairlines are among the very best. I'd definitely commend him to you.
  3. Thanks for the feedback guys. Good to hear other perspectives. More pics at 2.5 months. Seeing slight growth on the scalp, but the donor scar is still ever-visible despite the fact that the hair on the sides is now over 3 inches long. And having long hair on the sides with little to no hair on top is very unsightly. I'm still a mess. I've stayed in touch with the clinic. I've received several responses to my e-mails, all very short and predictable, along the lines of: "This is normal in cases of shock loss and the hair will grow back in the next few months. Let us know if you have any questions." The clinic's responses suggest that this level of shock loss is normal and unrelated to the way my scalp was handled. It is admittedly a bit frustrating. I might be mistaken, but this level of shock loss does not exactly seem *normal* to me. Moreover, it doesn't seem like this shock loss just appeared out of thin air. My donor area on the sides, particularly the right side, was severely traumatized from a wide FUT strip and an extremely tight closure. I knew something was up when I experienced extreme pain on the sides (especially the right) for a full two weeks after the surgery, not to mention the crazy black scabs and so forth (see my earlier posts). I think this could've been easily avoided if we had been a little less aggressive in cutting the strip. Any thoughts?
  4. I've appreciated the comments thus far. Thank you. Here are a few shots a week shy of 2 months. I'd say 80% of the newly implanted hairs have fallen out, 20% have remained. The numbness is 90% gone on the scalp, and the scalp is no longer uncomfortably tight. The scalp is still quite red in the front. Unfortunately, the donor scar is still a mess. The redness has subsided a bit, but the massive bald spot over the right ear is still painfully obvious and the scar is still tender around the sides. Also, a few smalls scabs have appeared over the hairless skin over the last week. It's been a long couple of months, and I suspect it'll be quite a while before the donor scar is healed.
  5. The receptionist simply encouraged me to be patient and said that there is no way to predict shock loss; it apparently hits 5% of HT patients. I agree that shock loss is not *always* predictable, but I am under the impression that the likelihood of shock loss increases drastically depending on how the scalp is handled -- particularly when the scar is closed tightly. Mine was extremely tight. I remember that the cutting of the strip took nearly 2 hours. At the end, Dr. Hasson breathed an audible sigh and said, "That was a marathon." Strips don't typically take that long. I think mine proved to be a challenge, and I suspect it was because of the aggressive approach in an area -- the sides -- with limited elasticity. Hence the extensive bleeding from the sides the first night, the thick black scabs (see pictures above), and the severe pain for the first two weeks. I'm not a hair expert, but it didn't take me long to get a basic read on the elasticity of my scalp during the month prior to the procedure. I could readily tell that I had good elasticity on the back of my head but relatively poor elasticity on the sides above the ears. The difference between the back and sides was unmistakable. I just wish we could've gone easier on the sides; the hair on the sides was thin anyways, so reaching for an extra 0.5 centimeter didn't yield much anyway.
  6. Here's an updated pic of the donor shock loss at the one month mark. I'm not worried about the top of my scalp, but I'm discouraged by the donor area. I was completely blindsided by it, and it seems it could've been easily avoided if we were a bit less aggressive with the strip on the sides. Had I known the strip would've been so traumatic on the sides -- pain, severe shock loss -- I may have reconsidered.
  7. Hi Delancey, Good question. If I understand correctly, it's quite normal for there to be a difference in the number of grafts and incisions, as many doctors will double (or even triple) up single grafts into incisions. In my case, I had an unfortunately high number of single grafts, so they made sure to double them up, especially in the back near the crown. I was bummed that we were only able to get 9200 hairs with such a high graft count (5599), but that's just the way the cookie crumbles, I suppose.
  8. As mentioned above, there has been a good bit of shockloss around the donor site above the ears, particularly on the right side. Here are a few photos for reference.
  9. I am a Norwood 6. I started to lose my hair in my late teens and have been more or less bald since my mid twenties. I waffled a bit over the years considering hair transplant surgery, but finally decided to give it a go, even if that meant debt. I researched many of the top doctors and decided to go with Hasson & Wong. I'm a big HW fan, especially because of their stellar megasessions. I flew into Vancouver (great airport) and met Dr. Hasson the afternoon prior to the surgery date. I liked him immediately. He's intelligent, articulate, confident, professional, and tells you like it is. I like to say "he speaks as one having authority, not like the Pharisees and Sadducees." During the consultation, we discussed the game plan for the following morning -- to knock it out of the park with a single megasession, i.e. harvest as many grafts as possible and find a happy medium in terms of density and coverage. Dr. Hasson has a wonderful team, including Doug, Mike, Christina, Nico, and the technicians -- experienced, focused, personable. I was in good hands. SURGERY The next morning we worked on the hairline. I was happy with Dr. Hasson's design and we moved forward with the FUT strip. The cutting and stapling weren't terribly painful, but it was (as Dr. Hasson remarked) a "marathon," lasting almost 2 hours. The graft count was 5599. A bit later, Dr. Hasson made around 3400 incisions on the top of my scalp (I was given a counter), and then the technicians began the implantation. A couple of hours later, Dr. Hasson came in and made another 1400 incisions, for a total of 4800 or so (many of my single grafts were doubled up, 5599 grafts > 4800 incisions). I was a little disappointed that there were so many singles and so few multiples in my graft breakdown, but Dr. Hasson managed to cover around two-thirds of my scalp, which I was happy with considering we had a lot of ground to cover. The technicians were very patient with me in spite of my neck pain (disc herniation) and we finished up the surgery around 10pm. I only slept for 3-4 hours that night due to donor site pain and nausea. I also had significant bleeding from the donor area -- particularly the sides -- that night; grateful for those pillow covers. I went in for a cleaning the next afternoon. I spent one more night in Vancouver and flew home early the next morning. RECOVERY: FIRST TWO WEEKS The first 8-9 days of recovery were brutal, and that's coming from someone with an unusually high pain tolerance. I had moderate to severe pain along the sides of the donor area, which were covered in thick black scabs (dried blood) for the first 12 days. I also had moderate pain at the very top of my crown. I slept sitting up for the first week. I babied my scalp 24/7. I was unrecognizable from Day 3 to Day 5 due to facial swelling. I had lots of crusting and cracking on the scalp Day 5 through Day 11. The crusts and scabs came off the recipient area on Day 11 after I soaked my head in warm water for 10 minutes. I expect they would've gone away earlier if I hadn't been so careful in the shower. I managed to get the scabs off the donor area by Day 14 after generous doses of Vitamin E oil and vigorous washing. The staples came off on Day 15. The staple extraction was extremely painful around the sides, but I powered through it as I had received the green light from the clinic. The implanted hairs began to fall out on Day 15. It's Day 25 now and I estimate I've lost maybe 33% of them. DONOR SCAR As mentioned, there was an unusual amount of trauma at the donor site above the ears, particularly on the right side. It makes sense considering that I had considerably less elasticity around the sides than I did at the back. Lots of shockloss. I'm trying to keep an open mind with regard to the scarring, but I have to confess that the size of the hairless patch is a little disheartening. My hair is around 2.5 inches long around the sides but the scar is still painfully obvious, even as we're approaching one month post-op. The hairless area spans over 2 inches (from top to bottom) above the right ear. There's still a lot of tenderness there. I'm hoping that my donor scars will be presentable to the public soon, but at this rate I suspect it will be a couple of months. This is quite deflating, and leaving the hair so long at the sides with a bald scalp is a rather unbecoming sight. We'll see. SUMMARY Dr. Hasson managed to get a very good graft count (5599 grafts). The hair-to-graft ratio is less promising than I'd hoped for (1.64; 9200 hairs) but, as Dr. Hasson pointed out, I have excellent hair -- coarse, especially the hair at the back -- so we're still expecting happy results. I am a firm believer in Dr. Hasson's abilities and eagerly look forward to seeing the fruits of his labor next year. Total grafts: 5599 Total hairs: 9200 Average hairs per graft extracted: 1.64 Hair quality: very good (coarse)
  10. I had a little trouble getting pictures of my donor; here's the best I could do. I think my donor is decent, though I don't have an accurate count.
  11. Thank you all so much for the replies. I should've solicited these opinions a month ago! All of the doctors I've zeroed in on overseas exclusively do FUE. I feel like it's back to the drawing boards. Does anyone here know of highly reputable FUT surgeons that are affordable and/or overseas? But just curious, what kind of a difference are we talking about on average between FUT and FUE in terms of graft survival? Is it really significant? Are we talking more than 20%?
  12. I've done a good bit of research online but I still haven't concluded whether it'd be best to go with FUE or FUT for my initial HT. I'm 32, Norwood 6. I've attached 2 photos. One shows my current baldness and the other shows how I'd wear my hair if I had it back. Incidentally, due to budget constraints, I've got my eyes set on various doctors in Turkey/India (not the US). Any thoughts are most welcome!
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