gregor100

Thanks! Really chuffed with it. Wasn't expecting it to look so good at this stage. I always just remembered reading 'wait 6 months before things start really happening' so i was fully prepared to have nothing for that length of time. Pleasantly surprised. Cannot wait to just go to a proper barbers/stylist and ask for a hair cut that I actually want, instead of the gigantic combover/hairspray combination that i used to rock haha

Thought i'd post another update over here as it's been a while, just excited to show off my progress. I've been quite a good responder so far and hoping it thickens up loads more of the next few months. Here's a couple of pictures from today, under natural lighting. 5 months and 2 weeks post op!

11 weeks - time for another update! So, over the last couple of weeks there's definitely been changes, take a look at these pictures and compare them to my last update, so much hair has started to spring through and it's only week 11! The most annoying thing as of late has been pimples, I had an absolute beast last week haha, fortunately that has gone away but it was absolutely throbbing. The reward for that seems to be a new couple of patches of hair Wasn't expecting anything for at least another couple of months. Obviously it's still in it's early stages but i'm pleased to see anything come through at all not even 3 months into the process. Also, take a look at the last picture, good news is that my shock loss in the donor area has completely recovered! I'm surprised at how quickly that came back, I was actually expecting it go get even worse but it's only gotten better!

So it's been 8 weeks, time to provide another update In the interest of consistency these pictures are always taken under my light and with my flash on, so obviously bringing out all the imperfections possible. As you can see, not much to report, just going as expected. Pain totally gone for a good few weeks now however still not feeling 100% normal in the recipient area, just very slightly numb to the touch still. You can also clearly see the thinner patch from the donor area in these pics, again, i sincerely hope this is just shock loss, but I have also attached a picture with no flash for this one, just so you can see the difference the flash makes, it really does show all imperfections and I obviously understand that. Heres a direct link to the imgur album for anyone who want's to see these in full resolution to get a closer look - Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet First image from straight on the front - You can see Around the front of my existing hair a little bit of shock loss, was never that thin before, riding the wave and waiting for this to come back, hopefully sooner rather than later! Now from either side - Looks a bit silly the way i'm growing my hair in haha, but i've decided im growing it back to what it used to be as it's gonna be at least 8-10 months before the transplanted hair is looking good and I dont want a shaved head for that length of time. Another couple of weeks and hopefully i'll be able to bust out the famous blow dry and hairspray forward look haha Here's a picture of how I used to have my hair, i actually looked OK but as i'm sure many of you know there was the constant paranoia if you got it even slightly out of place, it rained, there was wind, you went swimming etc etc. http://i.imgur.com/rISvg3X.png Here's the back with the flash on, as you can see there's a noticeably thinner patch, as previously mentioned I am hopeful this is just shock loss as opposed to the clinic taking too much hair from a particular area, time will tell but I doubt the clinic ave made any errors like this And here it is without the flash on, just to show how much the flash does show any imperfections, i'm not too bothered about it because it's clearly not visible in daily life, just under hard light with a camera flash it becomes apparent.

How many grafts have you had extracted over the 2 HTs? Hopefully you have enough hair left for another FUE without looking too thin at the back! Probably that's why you were thinking of strip? Healing is going well thanks. Basically looks the same now as it did at about 3 weeks. A few less hairs hanging on and a little less redness but that's all. Still completely visible redness in the recipient area, donor area looks normal. I've had mild shock loss around my hair line, and a little around the centre of the donor area, however it's not visible on the donor area anymore now that the hairs grown in a bit. There was a circular area that was slightly thinner than the rest but I think it's just shock loss. Obviously this will all become apparent in the next few months. Halfway through week 7 now. Roll on the 1 year mark haha

Yeah, it cost me 4900, would have cost slightly less if I'd gone to Malaga. I had it booked in Malaga initially but decided to change just to be closer to home, it's all the same Doctors, think they just travel between clinics at various times. I was initially going in for 1500 grafts, this was recommended by the consultants in Glasgow. the Surgeon on the day upon discussing my specific goals, said that if he felt they needed more grafts they wouldn't just 'stop' at 1500. Basically they saw I had a strong donor area so they continued and took the extra 500 to achieve a high quality result. And yeah I'm surprised that there aren't more threads from people using Vinci, there are a few on another forum that I'm a member of though, hopefully if people have procedures booked they'll come across my thread for some reassurance.

Thanks for the reply, it's really re-assuring everyone who has seen my pictures so far has said the work looks good, can someone just fast forward me 12 months from now please? Haha The itching has improved today, it's still quite itchy but it definitely peaked the other day. Swelling has gone down completely but I still have a red bag under my right eye. No pain but it looks like the remnants of a black eye, hopefully that's gone by tomorrow. Sleep still isn't great but better than I thought. I've took a 'Nytol' 2 ' nights so far and they seem to help to keep me asleep. The nights I've not taken one of them I've woken up but the times I have I've slept right though, so would recommend picking some of them up for sure if you're going for this Going for my second wash today, all the scabs are still present at this stage but hoping for them to start going over the next couple of days.

Day 4 now, the itching on the donor area is INTENSE. Also the pain is coming through now on the donor area, must just be all the anaesthetic wearing off. I had really bad facial swelling yesterday but fortunately that has subsided today, my eyes were so puffy haha, but yeah thats going down. Woke up this morning and there was a streak of blood on one side of the temple, I dont think i lost a graft though, think it was just a scab (hopefully)

Here are some further photos, just over 48 hours post operation. The dreaded swelling has started, forehead is pretty swolen, causing absolutely zero pain or discomfort just not very easy on the eye lol. From now on I will answer any and all questions users have, and will try and post a photographic update once per month!

I'm getting this also, day 3 after my surgery. I'm finding that the itching is actually mostly in my untouched hair, probably because it's the part i have the most feeling in? what's helping me just now is spraying my head with the saline spray in a kind of mist, before i was spraying it quite close but spraying a mist over the full head is keeping it a bit more at bay.

Could potentially be some hairs becoming trapped under the surface of the skin? This is exactly what an ingrown hair looks like, maybe just some grafts trying to push through?

I am a member of another forum but thought i'd copy this over here also, just incase people think this is an advertising plug as my first post or something! haha, just wanted to get this out there as i'm so excited to share with everyone. So today I finally had my FUE carried out at Vinci Hair Clinic on Harley street in London. So I'll go through my day step by step then a couple of opinions at the end! The Procedure I arrived in the morning at 8.30 as requested and was taken upstairs at about ten to 9 by their receptionist who was friendly and knew what she was talking about. I filled in some paper work and she chatted away before then calling the surgeon in. The Surgeon was Doctor Lucianni Carneiro. He came in and had a chat, explaining how the day would go ahead and also a little about himself. At this stage he then got out the hairline tool/laser/ruler type thing and began to design the hairline! He came up with a design which he said was natural and suited my face and I was pretty happy with it. However I did want a slight alteration to the temples to which he immediately obliged and completely re-drew and measured everything to my personal liking. I then had my blood pressure taken which was slightly high. I was given some diazepam and let to chill out for a while before checking again. This time it was ok so into surgery I went. It was at this stage that I kinda just thought.... F*** it, and told them to completely shave my whole head to a number 2 haha, I just thought it'd look even sillier keeping it long on top and tbh i've always wondered how i'd look with a shaved head, incidentally it wasn't actually that bad, but yeah you don't HAVE to shave your head, I was just one of the weirdos who actually wanted to! haha The role of the surgeon at this stage was to issue all the anaesthetic to the donor area and mark out where the hair was to be extracted from. Once he'd checked I was completely numb 2 technicians stepped in and began extracting the hairs. While this was going on there was another 2 technicians dissecting the grafts and laying them out into 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair grafts. During this the Surgeon was in the room I’d say at least 50+% of the time, basically over-seeing this part of the process. He was never away for very long and I think at points he was actually taking over on one side to allow the technician to have a little break, to be honest I was just lying with my eyes shut and occasionally looking at their shoes.... This took a couple of hours but went faster than I realised as when I got out for lunch I was shocked to see the time! Thought it was about 2 hours earlier than it actually was. The diazepam musta done its job so don't quote me on any times! Haha Next up was the incisions. The Surgeon led me back into theatre where he administered the anaesthetic along the hairline and temples. Once I was completely numb the Surgeon, Doctor Lucianni Carneiro, made all the incisions himself along the temples and hairline for where the hair was going to go. Just being honest but this part kinda freaked me out the most. There wasn't any pain but you can hear like a little crunching kinda noise with every incision made. I'm quite a squeamish person so I just sort of tuned into the noise and couldn't stop hearing it. I got through it ok but beware the noise! I mentioned it to him and he did say some people do mention this. I'm sure others here have experienced what I'm talking about, unless I'm just going mad? Lol The final stage was the implantation of the hairs. The grafts had been divided up by this stage and two technicians then came in. The Doctor instructed to them where he wanted the different density grafts placed and work got under way. Everything went well but it was at this stage I began to feel occasional, mild, sharp pains. I immediately let them know and the Doctor issued more local anaesthetic. I didn't feel any further pains from then on. I metabolise drugs quite quickly so this probably explains that. By the tail end of the hairs being implanted I was getting quite restless in the seat, I'm extremely fidgety as a person but the technicians let me adjust myself multiple times (Sorry guys if you're reading this haha) and have some water etc. Once all was complete I had a look in the mirror and just can't believe this is gonna be my hairline! The technicians and surgeon re-iterated on more than one occasion that they were 'very' happy with the number and the density of grafts they managed to extract. They're due to phone me at some point in the next couple of days so I will get the exact breakdown from them at that point but overall they reported just over 2000 grafts. I’ll also get them to send their professional images over but i’ll add some of my own anyway for ths time being. If these images appear to look a little red/bloody to anyone it's because my blood pressure became slightly elevated. This caused a bit more bleeding than was normal and I had to take real extra care not to except myself over the past 24 hours. The surgeon was clear about this and mentioned it to me, but I think it looks pretty good really other than slight redness?! It's now been 48 hours since the surgery and all the excess blood has gone over time just with me spraying the saline solution, looks much better. Some Wider Points About the Industry In General Now onto a couple of little things I'd like to mention. These are more general points than about Vinci specifically but I feel they're important as I've noticed it's mostly the same everywhere. First up, I did feel a little uneasy going into the procedure. I'd have 4 previous consultations with other UK clinics and just got sleazy salesman/dodgy vibes. Vinci were by far the most professional looking clinic (had a consultation in Glasgow) and the staff (think it was 2 guys called Scott) were decent guys, not pushy and they weren't telling blatant lies like some other clinics were. Vinci are great and professional but once they'd told me who the surgeon was gonna be I couldn't find much, if anything, about him online. Now, when I was speaking to him throughout the day stories of past surgeries and experience were rolling off the tongue, what I mean here is that he definitely wasn't making up stories, so why couldn't I find anything much about him?When you google Lucianni, my surgeon, Vinci is the first result that comes up on google, they’ve written a decent piece on him and there is also a good picture which I think is very important, out of the 4 clinics in the UK before Vinci that I spoke to, two of them wouldn’t even tell me who the surgeon was, never mind actually see it’s a real human being! Perhaps adding a small portfolio with a couple of satisfied patients and maybe a little video interview with the surgeon or even a patient? I dunno, i’m happy now that i’ve been but I did initially feel a liiiittle bit concerned. Well if anyone googles him now and comes across this hopefully they'll feel a bit better about it! Yes he is legit! Haha My final point. I believe there should be more emphasis on the great team of technicians. They're just as important as the surgeon and do skilful work, they should be named right next to the surgeon in my personal opinion, I had no idea how much work they actually did until I saw them on the day! Again. Vinci actually do have a page on their website that specifically mentions the technicians and their training, some clinics in the UK especially, in my opinion, mislead you into thinking it’s JUST the surgeon that’s gonna be carrying out all this work. I just feel like the technicians don’t get enough credit sometimes, does anyone agree? Just being completely honest and I hope this thread helps at least one person. The above comments are in NO WAY bashing the clinic. I had a great day, just think in general the industry is still not quite perfect in the U.K. - just summing up my observations having dealt with multiple clinics in the country. To conclude, I am very happy. I liked Vinci and felt at ease in their clinic. Everyone knew what was going on and it was a smooth process, at no point did I feel uneasy or in doubt about the clinics abilities once I'd walked through their front door!