Dear Forum,
herewith I report about my hair surgery with Dr. Feriduni on 09/08/2020. A total of 3,782 follicles were placed. I hope that the report will help some of you. Of course, I am happy about comments about the pictures, which I will post regularly.
1. Why Feriduni and preliminary talks
2. Approach & Hotel
3. Step 1: Personal talk in the clinic
4. Step 2: The surgery
5. Step 3: Follow-up inspection and treatment
6. Healing process
7. Summary
1. Why Feriduni and preliminary talks
I have had hair loss since I was 20 years old. Now, with 31, it became then sometime too much for me and I have dealt intensively with the topic hair transplantation. Five months passed between the initial decision to have a surgery and the actual surgery appointment - so it went relatively quickly.
I started by reading through many reports in forums. (That is why I am writing this report to say "Thank you! 😊) And somehow I got involved with Feriduni from the beginning. His results convinced me the most. In addition, I simply could not find a single bad result of Feriduni. There are certainly other good clinics, but as I said, I decided relatively early.
As you know it from most clinics, Feriduni offers a contact form on his homepage, where you can provide pictures and ask for a possible surgery scenario. The preliminary offer sent to me was more than satisfying. So I asked for the next step, what a personal conversation with Feriduni was. Due to Corona, however, this was a zoom meeting. But here Feriduni gained my complete trust through his professional, empathic and optimistic manner and I absolutely wanted to have a hair surgery. So I picked a free surgery appointment, took two weeks vacation and booked everything.
Although my anticipation increased, the biggest uncertainty was that Feriduni could never "examine" me personally, but only via a webcam. Well, no risk no fun.
2. Approach & Hotel
The cheapest and fastest way to get there was a flight to Düsseldorf and from there I took a rental car to Hasselt (about 1.5 hours by car). In Hasselt I stayed at the HasHotel, which offers special conditions for Feriduni patients. I can absolutely recommend the HasHotel. But make sure that you stay in the newly built building complex. The rooms are huge, modern and stylish.
Costs for flights, rental car, fuel, hotel: approx. 900€
However, these are the costs for two people, because my girlfriend accompanied me and I covered all the costs. If I would have travelled alone the costs would have been reduced by about 350€.
3. Step 1: Personal talk in the clinic
The day before the operation I went to the clinic for the first time and had a personal conversation with Dr. Feriduni. There we went through all data & facts of the preliminary talk again and my head was measured for the first time (dimensions & donor analysis).
I was attested that I am a very good candidate for hair surgery. However, since my hair loss is not yet complete, I have to be prepared for one, if not two more surgeries in the course of my life. However, I knew this before or after my zoom meeting. But my donor gives away 13,000 follicles, which according to Feriduni is far above average. I was lucky.
The last thing he did was to draw the hair line. Feriduni asked me constantly about my wishes, but finally I gave him a free hand. In principle, he considers everything for the hairline: the number of grafts in the donor for further operations; the general shape of the face as well as personal wishes.
When the hairline was finished and I was more than satisfied, Feriduni asked me if I could just leave the hairline on until the next day. Normally, the line is drawn again on the day of the surgery, but Feriduni said that he could not make it better. And we would save time on the day of the operation itself. So I agreed and I walked around the rest of the day with a line on my head. 😊
For tomorrow's surgery 3,500 grafts are planned. But I was also told that the need for grafts during surgery may change again.
4. Step 2: The surgery
At 7:30 a.m. I was picked up at the HasHotel by a cab at Feriduni's expense. Once I arrived at the clinic, I was assigned a personal room where I could change my clothes. They explained to me briefly what was going to happen today and then it already started.
The first thing they did was to shave my hair. A short look in the mirror afterwards and I thought to myself: "Damn, looks actually quite good with 1mm. " Anyway, I am happy anyway. I then sat down on the operating chair and the anesthetic syringes were given to me. Absolutely painless. It was almost more painful to place the cannula in the crook of my arm for the saline solution. The anesthesia worked after a few seconds and I had to turn around to remove the grafts.
This was by far the most strenuous part for me as a patient. For about 4 hours I lay on the operating table on my stomach and was not allowed to move. In the beginning it is all easy, but after a few hours you tense up and you feel an incredible pressure on your lungs. But you knew what you were getting into. So everything is not that bad. The removal of the grafts was done with two surgical aids and a third surgical aid, which took care of the counting. A total of 3,670 grafts were removed in this step.
Dr. Feriduni then placed the slices. From now on I sat comfortably in the operating chair. I was offered to watch Netflix, which I did for a few minutes. But then I switched the television off again. Somehow I didn't feel like it at all and I think the sedative I was given kicked in slowly and I started relaxing and dozing. The grafts are placed all over the front area, so even where I still had hair. Dr. Feriduni said that these hairs will support the look at first, but if they fall out over time, I will still have a natural look.
Next, the surgical aids put the grafts that were initially removed back into the slices that were placed right before. All unspectacular. You just sit there and do nothing but wait. You can't see what is happening up there. When all the grafts were placed, Dr. Feriduni decided after the checkup that he needed another 120 grafts. So I went through all the steps mentioned above again in a quick run until the desired final result was achieved.
The whole operation took about eight hours. Dr. Feriduni said that 3,782 grafts for one day is a lot and that this does not happen too often in the clinic. This is also due to the fact that we worked through without any complications and without a break. (A break was offered to me, but I declined with thanks).
The surgical nurses and Dr. Feriduni himself were very enthusiastic about my results. Of course, one cannot say whether they say this to every patient or whether it was really true. In any case, I did not have the impression that anything was being played to me. According to my unprofessional opinion, I am quite satisfied after the operation.
Then post-op pictures were taken and I was finally allowed to take a cab back to the hotel, exhausted but happy at Feriduni's expense.
5. Step 3: Follow-up inspection and treatment
The next day I went back to the clinic for a follow-up check and for washing. This was all done by a surgical aid. Unfortunately, I scratched my head the first night, so I lost exactly one follicle. Well, one follicle is bearable I think. But with that I was sensitized that I have to be very careful. That's why from now on I "tied myself up" with a bathrobe belt at night to avoid touching my transplanted grafts again unintentionally.
Apart from that I was confirmed that everything looks very good. Then it was explained to me again in detail how I should use the care products that I received. This included a spray to be applied regularly, a lotion to soften the crusts and an oil against itching in the donor area. Also included was a shampoo for the first time and a cooling pad for the swellings. Medications were also included, which were used up after about two weeks.
I also got an app for my cell phone, which shows me how to take care of my hair every day. Very helpful. In addition, the app uses a traffic light system to show what is prohibited and what is allowed (sleeping horizontally, sports, sex, headgear, etc.).
Afterwards I started my return journey. By the way, completely without headgear. It was more important to me not to cause any damage than to be looked at in a strange way. But the latter actually did not happen.
6. Healing process
- Day 0: No pain. Just a great feeling of pressure around the head. I took a painkiller pro forma to get a good night's sleep.
- Day 1: Apart from the not painful but strange feeling of pressure on my head, I don't notice anything at all.
- Day 13: I remove the complete crust after soaking my head in cling film with lotion half an hour before. The redness at the transplanted area is really limited. That was my biggest worry.
- Day 14: It feels like everything has healed. From now on I only feel numbness in the transplanted area, but this is gradually diminishing. But even today (day 35) I still feel numbness.
- Day 15: Tomorrow I will go to work again. After consultation with Dr. Feriduni, I may carefully trim my hair in the donor and reception area to 1mm with a hair clipper. This is what I have done. I actually like the look on 1mm quite well.
Until today I wear my hair on 1mm. So far no one has noticed that I had a hair transplant. In principle, this would not have been bad, but of course it's quite pleasant if you don't notice it at work at all. Everyone just thought that I shaved my hair off.
My plan now is to wear my hair on 1mm six months postoperatively and let it grow from then on.
7. Summary
I am completely satisfied with how everything went. Of course I can't make any comparisons, but I don't know what should have gone differently or better. And since I'm only 1 month post-op, I can't say anything about how satisfied I am with the final result. But I am carefully optimistic. Many thanks to Dr. Feriduni and his whole team! If the result should be good, I will have my further operations performed by Dr. Feriduni without much consideration.
Dr. Feriduni and his team act very professionally. It should be said that Dr. Feriduni is of course the boss in his clinic, but he acts at eye level with his assistants. Some of them have been doing the job for over 20 years and I have always felt that I was in good hands. For me it didn't matter at all that Feriduni didn't do everything himself. (Which wouldn't have been possible anyway with this number of grafts).
Attached you'll find picture pre op, post op, 7 days post op, 10 days post op and 14 days post op. I will keep you updated.
