baldeagle88

I asked my wife to find the scar from the donor area so I can take a picture of it. She can't find it! I guess Dr. Path did a pretty good job on that area. I do recall reading another post about a guy who went to see a doctor to remove the stitches, and the doctor was so impressed with the work he asked someone else to come in to take a look at it.

6 Months. Just washed my hair. I have thick hair. So it is all all over the place without the use of gel. I'm pretty happy with the results. I was actually already content right after the surgery because my bald spots were darker with the hair implants. From what I understand, I can expect even more density with months to come.

Thanks for you interest in this thread. I might be experiencing slight shock loss as I see a couple strands of hair on my bed. Otherwise, I have not seen much change yet. But considering it has been only been about 7 weeks since the surgery, I think this is normal. Dr. Path asked me to send him pictures of my progress after 6, 9 and 12 months. I will post them here as well. I will also post pictures if I see any progress sooner than 6 months.

Although shock loss is quite common, I seem to have very little noticeable shock loss in the recipient as well as the donor area. My theory is that because I am a "bleeder", I still have lots of blood going to my scalp and thus, the new grafts have a better chance of surviving, and the donor area is also not affected? Btw. I still see a visible scar in the donor area though. Fortunately, my hair hides the scar very well. I am currently not using any ointments. It is a lifestyle choice as I try to avoid chemicals as much as possible. However, I am taking an herb called He Shou Wu for liver and hair health. Another thing I forgot to mention is the deposit required for the appointment. I used my Charles Schwab account to transfer the money for $25 USD. Having a Charles Schwab card as an ATM card is also beneficial because they will refund your ATM fees. Attached are pictures of my scalp prior to surgery with my hair wet, right after surgery and one month after surgery.

Hi All, I just wanted to share my experiences with my recent hair transplant as a way of giving back to the community. I first noticed my hair thinning about a year ago. And I decided to do something about it before it was clearly obvious. My hair was thinning around the front of my head. Fortunately, I have thick hair so it is not as noticeable. In fact, my kids said they never noticed it. But if you view my head from top, you can see the contrast between the rear and front of my head. The front was clearly showing a lot more skin. I decided to go with Dr. Path because he has a solid reputation and I enjoy eating the food in Bangkok. The relatively low cost of accommodations in Bangkok helped my decision too. I stayed at the Abloom Serviced Apartments, which is just a minute or two walk from the nearest BTS, and one stop away from Dr. Path's office. In retrospect, I should have stayed near the Asok BTS station as I had most of my meals at the Terminal 21 shopping center. I watched a movie there too. Before my initial meeting with Dr. Path, I had already decided to go with fue as it seemed less painful. But after consulting with the doctor, I went with fut instead. My main reason was that I would not have to shave the back of my head to harvest hair. With the fut method, my existing hair would cover the donor area very easily. Thus, I could be in public much sooner. Besides, I look terrible with short hair. After the consultation, Dr. Path showed me a chart with the density numbers and grafts required to achieve the density and the costs. For me, he recommended somewhere between 40% and 45% density. I can't remember the specific costs for the corresponding densities. But asked if I could get 2000 grafts, which would put me somewhere in between the 40% and 45%. I chose 2000 because that was the range I felt comfortable paying. On the consultation day, they also tested me for HIV and Hepatitis. The next day, I had the surgery and it lasted a little less than 6 hours. The entire operation was pretty much pain free. I read in other posts, the shots would be painful. But even that was not very painful. In comparison, a shot from a dentist would feel much more painful. I was given a Valium just prior to the operation. When I woke up, they were still working on me for maybe an hour or two? During the entire operation, a piece of cloth covered my eyes. But I could hear the two females working on me and Dr. Path in the background as well. I suppose he was supervising at the time. Which is fine with me. I can't imagine any one person doing 1800 grafts by himself. Dr. Path also was kind enough to not shave the recipient area. I also liked that the hairline he gave me followed the contour of my existing hairline. That is, it is not a smooth line. I thought this made my hairline look more natural. Turns out only 1800 grafts were needed and the office gave me a refund accordingly. After the operation, Dr. Path said I was a bleeder and had to inject something to prevent me from bleeding as much. He also said some of my grafts were very slippery and thus it took a bit longer than anticipated. He wanted me to check my cholesterol level to see if there is a correlation. When my wife took a look at me immediately after the operation, she said my face looked slightly swollen despite the headband Dr. Path already put on me to minimize the swelling. From what I understand, saline is injected into the scalp to raise the skin and make it easier or safer to work on the recipient area. Thus, the swelling. The staff then gave me strong and mild pain killers for pain, Valium to help me sleep that night, about a weeks worth of antibiotics to prevent infection, and a solution called ATP to help the grafts survive in the new area. I took a pain killer the first night. But after that, I did not require any more. I did not take the Valium either. The ATP solution had to be sprayed on the recipient area every 2 hours for the first day and then every 4 hours the second day. Thank god my wife was around to help remind me. Yes. I had to wake up every two hours to spray the recipient area. I thought I would be recuperating in my apartment for at least the next few days. But I was out and about the day after the surgery wearing a hat to cover the headband Dr. Path said I had to wear for one week to prevent the swelling from traveling down my face. He even showed me pictures of other patients with swollen faces. On the fifth day, I was tired of wearing the headband to sleep. The discomfort was like pressing on a bruise. So I went to sleep without the headband and when I woke up my eyes were so swollen it looked like I was a loser in a boxing match. Fortunately, I put cold compresses in the affected area, and the swelling was barely noticeable. As a joke, I told my wife "you should look at the other guys I beat up" as a response to my swelling. So apparently, the saline solution injected into the recipient area will naturally travel down from gravity unless I wear a headband. If I recall correctly, I stopped wearing the headband on day six with very minor swelling on the cheeks. I guess that is how long it took my lymphatic system to absorb the saline injected into my scalp. As suggested by Dr. Path, I washed my hair very gently twice a day with baby shampoo. On the fifth day, almost all the scabs washed off the recipient area. It has been about 3.5 weeks now since my HT with Dr. Path, and I am really happy thus far. Surprisingly, I have not experienced any noticeable shock loss yet. In addition, because Dr. Path did not shave the recipient area and my scalp is thinning versus bald, nobody can tell I had a HT. In fact, it already looks better than before because the previously thinned area now has fuzzy black hair. With instructions from the Dr. Paths staff, my wife was able to cut the sutures from the donor area at our home, which saves me time and money for a doctor's visit. The donor area felt slightly uncomfortable for a couple of weeks. It felt like a bruise would feel. But now, I can barely feel any discomfort back there at all. I also did not get any pimples at all in the recipient area. So overall, this has been very easy operation for me with essentially no complications. While I have no experience with other doctors. I must say I am quite happy with Dr. Path and his staff. As a side note, they all speak very good English. I even told one nurse her English was so good she sounds like she was born in the States. Btw. I would recommend taking probiotics after you finish taking the antibiotics because the antibiotics kill the good as well as the bad bacteria in your gut. And your gut is a large part of your immune system.

I'm not sure the following information will help as it is intended for this kind of stuff happening a few weeks after surgery. But for what it is worth, this is what my doctor sent me: ============= The folliculitis is normal. Wet warm compress for 15 minutes three times a day and apply antibiotic ointment will improve the condition. If any large pustule you can use a clean forceps or tweezers to pop up the pimples. Then apply an antibiotic cream like Fusidic acid ( fucidin or bactroban ointment). . This should be available in most pharmacies. You can expect more pimples to appear in the next 4-6 weeks. So do not panic. They will subside with measures I suggested. In case you have too many pimples you may also need to take oral antibiotic. Most of the redness will fade 2-3 weeks after surgery though in some Caucasian it may take longer to fade, the scab will fall off 1-2 weeks after surgery, most patient take 2 weeks off to avoid seeing the scab.