Hairlinedreamer

Thanks, although I’m fully expecting them all to be gone by this time next week Haha

Hi all, Have just passed the 30 day mark (32 to be exact), so wanted to provide a brief update. Continuing to shed and trying not to worry about it too much. Redness is still prominent and using Aloe Vera Oil sporadically; hoping the redness starts to die down, soon. Please note that the pictures were taken after a day of me wearing a cap (which is the reason for the indentation line!), although it certainly looks possible that I have had a small amount of shock-loss. Here's hoping everything grows back! As anticipated, I am currently living in a cap when outside the house and this will likely be the case until my hair is of a similar length to before the HT (so I can style it accordingly). Still have numbness on the top of the head and a few pimples/spots in the donor are as well as mild itchiness all over, other than that, no discomfort. Really can't wait to get to the 3/4 month mark where it will be easier to forget about the procedure and go back to how I was living pre HT. Once I hit that point I will hopefully just be able to enjoy letting the growth take place. Having hair this short makes it very difficult to not obsess, although I am doing my very best not too! Pictures below, let me know your thoughts! Many thanks.

Ah great, I did see your thread in the lead up to my procedure. I will be sure to follow your journey! Yeah, it's one of those things I guess. I really wish I didn't care, but somehow I can't see myself being outside much without a hat for the next couple of months! Glad to hear the redness is starting to settle, did you use anything to try and calm it? If I didn't have the redness I wouldn't have a problem going out with a shaved head at this stage to be honest... I am sure it will be a different story during the ugly duckling phase though! Amazing that your stress and worry was all for nothing, really pleased for you. If I can start to feel like that over the next few weeks, that would be great!

Thanks! Yes, 3 weeks tomorrow and I am definitely starting to shed 😭. Dreading the next couple of months, but all part of the process I guess!!

Apologies! Unfortunately, it was not something I was ever told and not something I asked. Sorry.

Thanks. Fingers crossed it turns out as I am hoping/ praying! - No, only minoxidil at this time. My hair is fine and straight, no wave to it at all... the pictures somehow make it look wavier than it is. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

Total of 2270 grafts 👍

It has healed really well- heres hoping for world class results 🤞

Thanks, I really hope so!

Hi all, Very quick update from me as I have a bit of time and 14 day mark is in a few hours- Managed to get all scabs off by day 9 and have continued with the post op care. Sleeping has been much better over the last few days and now I am hopeful I can sleep as normal without any issues. I still have a fair amount of redness which is to be expected. If there was no redness I would have no problem going out with just a shaved head! Trying to combat it with the application of Aloe Vera gel, any other tips for reducing redness are greatly appreciated! Out of interest, does anyone know if there is any correlation to the post op hair prior to the shed and the final results? Or is this totally circumstantial based on the growth process? Below are a few pictures from day 10, followed by pictures from Day 14. Slightly different lighting (and quality, sorry) but it does appear that the hair is less course and is now 'fluffier'- the dreaded shed is fast approaching. Thanks all Day 10 Day 14 (sorry for the slightly poorer quality)

Evening all, I am at 7 days now and thought I would provide a small update just to show you my current status and also provide the photos from BHR pre/post op which I received yesterday. The swelling was the first hurdle and seeing the different shapes my head/ face took as the swelling dropped was crazy. My other half calling me 'Megamind' (if you haven't seen who this animated character is... google it), was an accurate description of how I looked up to 2/ 3 days post op. I still have pain in my donor area and numbness by the recipient, but this is to be expected and I just hope the donor pain does start to ease soon as I am really struggling with sleeping. Out of interest, would people recommend Aloe Vera gel as being acceptable to be used on the donor at this stage? (I saw it iwas recommended in Melvin's helpful YouTube video, but was unsure if it was okay to use this early). I have followed the post-op care religiously and was using the saline solution every two hours for the first three days as requested. Since having stopped this, I have obviously developed more scabbing and a slight bit of channelling, which again, I know is normal. I have my first recipient wash tomorrow with the prescribed shampoo and I am looking forward to trying to ease some of the scabs off. It certainly feels like the first milestone of the 12 month journey. Will now bombard you with photos and as always, would love to hear peoples thoughts. Will do another small update at day 10 (when all scabs have hopefully been removed) and will go monthly from there (provided nothing terrible happens between months- *touchwood*). Thanks all.

Great post and sorry to hear of the difficult start, I can imagine how frustrating that must have been! Donor is looking great. Fingers crossed the turbulent start is behind you, the knee gets better and you can try to enjoy some serious growth!

Thanks very much. Fingers crossed we both get the results we are after, I will be sure to follow your progress! I can't pretend that it didn't make an already nervy and stressful time even more nervy and stressful!! But if it was an emergency, then not a lot can be done. If I get the results I have seen from similar cases to myself, it is certainly something I can overlook as an unfortunate 'one off'. Thanks for this @Raphael84 , emergencies happen and fingers crossed everything is okay and it was nothing too serious. As NARMARK has said, it plays a small part in the grand scheme of things and it is already now in the past, so I am just hopeful it will be a positive journey from here. Important to note that the communication from BHR has been excellent thus far and this is another example! I am at 7 Days today, so will provide a small update shortly!

Looking great, you must be delighted so far! Crazy to think there is still more to come!

Thanks mate, I’ll be sure to check that out once posted!

Thanks very much. Fingers crossed for plenty of growth 🤞🏼

If I get results similar to @LeBerryi will be delighted. Funnily enough, he was one of the cases which encouraged me to go ahead with it!

Thanks! Fingers crossed the recovery goes as planned and the growth is good. They didn't I am afraid, no. All I know as per the notes from my consultation is that the density was '70/70 (average of 70 /FU/cm2)'- I didn't consider this to be great reading a lot of other threads, so fingers crossed I get good results.

Thanks very much! Really hoping the growth is good but only time will tell! I am not sure if scabbing fast or not is good haha! Fingers crossed by sticking to the post op instructions it will all work out as planned. 🤞

I don't at the moment. I have requested the clinics photos and will send them through when received. I know it is a pattern that Dr Bisanga has used commonly before, fingers crossed it all works out as planned.

Hi mate, fingers crossed come next summer we are both pleased with our results! To be honest, it is not something I would be overly concerned about and was maybe me being overly picky. However, considering post-op we need plenty of pillows to prop ourselves up in the correct way to sleep, the high, hard backboard and two small, soft pillows provided were not optimal. Personally, if I was to go again I would probably stay elsewhere. Especially as I was later advised that Uber/ Bolt is available in Brussels (useful to know when getting cabs from the airport.. fyi my cab with an airport firm to BHR was 90eu whereas an uber back to the airport was 27!!). Using Uber/ Bolt would mean that travelling from another hotel would not be too expensive I wouldn't have thought. Alternatively, if you can take a couple of pillows with you then you should be fine! (my travel pillow was useless!) Looking forward to hearing about your experience in a couple of months!

Good afternoon all- second time lucky after totally deleting the first attempt 🤦‍♂️. Firstly I wanted to thank everyone on this site. I have been contemplating a HT for many years and thanks to being a long time admirer of this forum (without even setting up an account), I finally took the leap. Actually, it was two threads I found on this forum in particular which gave me the confidence to take the leap and get it booked in with the Dr I selected. I am keen to give back to the community after you have all (hopefully) helped me so much, so I want to give a detailed account of my experience with BHR Clinic and I am open to hearing your thoughts/ opinions. I am a 31 y/o Male and I have been unhappy with my hair since I can remember. Much like many on the forum, strong winds, heavy rain or diving into a pool while swimming has caused me untold stress over the years and I am praying that this is the start of me no longer having to worry. Although I have been lucky enough to be able to style my hair in a way that my poor hairline is unnoticeable, this is not how I want to live (having done so for many many years)! My whole life I have checked my hair when passing a mirror and although some may have mistaken this as me being vain, it was pure insecurity. As a result, the goal was to restore my hairline whilst keeping it 'age appropriate'. Before I go into the whole process I just wanted to say a quick thanks to Ian from BHR Clinic who has been brilliant so far. He has answered every question I have had and nothing seems to be too much trouble. Himself and Hilda in particular were credits to the clinic and extremely helpful. Medication: After my consultation (and much like everyone else who has seen Dr Bisanga) Dr Bisanga recommended I start 5mg Minoxidil. I have only started this a week ago due to a delay from the supplier, but I am now taking this in the hope that no sides rear their ugly heads. I hear people asking why I was never on any medication before this stage and the reason is that I have never (touchwood) ever experienced any noticeable shedding. Now I am not foolish enough to believe that my hairloss won't progress, but as my loss was slow, I only felt it appropriate to start some medication in order to maximise the results of my HT and hopefully thicken up my existing hair. UK Consultation: I was lucky enough that my initial enquiry fell within the timescale that Dr Bisanga was visiting London for consultations. Although I would have gone to Belgium for a consultation, this was obviously more convenient. I went up to London and met Dr Bisanga along with a couple of his technicians (Hilda being one who is extremely helpful!!). During the consultation Dr Bisanga took some readings and Hair Characteristics and drew on a very conservative hairline. After some discussion between Dr Bisanga and Hilda, they drew on a second hairline which I felt was exactly what I would be after. Details from consultation below:- Hair Characteristic: Straight Hair Thickness: Fine Donor: 70/70 Estimated Graft requirement: 2000-2200 Pre-op Consultation: Being from London, I flew from Heathrow to Belgium and I was meant to land at circa 3pm Belgium time. This would have given me good time to check into my Hotel and head over to BHR for my consultation at 5pm. However, a combination of long flight delays, baggage issues and passport control meant there were severe delays to my timeline and I ended up getting a cab from the airport direct to the clinic. As a result of the heavy delays, I arrived at the clinic 8 minutes late and as I was walking down towards the entrance, I saw Dr Bisanga drive past me... now I had obviously had an extremely stressful journey in and seeing this didn't help. I finally got up to the clinic and Dr Kostis was there, he advised Dr Bisanga had left and that we could either do the consultation/ hairline and shave head without Dr Bisanga tonight, or we can do it together at 7:15am the next morning pre-op... I opted for the latter. I arrived at the clinic at 715 the next morning and had a discussion with Dr Bisanga, he drew on a hairline which I was happy with and although I expected temple points maybe needing more reinforcing, I was happy to go with his advices. He advised that once the hairline was back in place, that this would frame my face sufficiently and that the temple points would not be required to be amended- more than happy to trust him!! Procedure: So after having my pictures taken by Dr Kostis and getting into my medical robe, I was asked by Dr Kostis about shaving my head... Now I was of the opinion this was a 'must' and that unshaven wasn't an option, however Dr Kostis did make it sound like it would have been possible... I very nearly opted for this (as the thought of having a shaved head scared the life out of me), but after brief thought I decided that if I wanted the best possible results, I needed to shave my dome! - one point on this was that having a shaved head was almost incredibly liberating for me... It is something I would NEVER have considered and although I personally look ridiculous with a shaved head, it is something I would encourage others to try... you never know, you might like it! Once Head fully shaved Dr Kostis administered the Anaesthetic and this was slightly painful. However, similar to the shaved head, this is just part and parcel of the process and as someone from a different thread wrote 'no pain, no gain'. Once fully numbed, Dr Bisanga made all of my recipient sites and then went on to punch 1100 (50%) of my extraction sites. After this, Dr Kostis took over and punched the remaining sites. Once the grafts from my donor were punched, these were then extracted and placed into the recipient sites by two technicians. Graft Breakdown and count:- 2270 grafts 1 Follicular Unit: 444 grafts 2 Follicular Unit: 953 grafts 3 Follicular Unit: 837 grafts 4 Follicular Unit : 36 grafts Post-op: Once the operation was finished I must say that I did feel extremely dizzy and faint. The technicians were brilliant and catered to me until I was fit enough to go and get the donor bandaged up and make my way back to the hotel. Once back at the Hotel however, I started to feel very unwell and did vomit twice. Now although I am sure this will have just been off the back of the anaesthetic / a change to my routinely diet, it obviously panicked me that I may have put some unnecessary pressure on the grafts which were only a few hours old!! I sent an email to Ian that night and received a reply shortly after, where he put me at ease to advise that this should not be a problem and provided there is no blood (which there wasn't), that there wouldn't be any damage. Other observations/ Opinions: - After flying out, I actually decided to get the train home... My flight was booked for 7pm (only flight available) and I didn't fancy waiting around in the airport for 5/6 hours, so I booked a train ticket last night and I am extremely glad I did. For anyone travelling from London, I would definitely recommend the Train. It is far easier/ more convenient than flying! - In respect of accommodation, I opted to stay in the Value stay (purely as this was so close to the clinic- 200m maximum), one thing I would advise is to stay further afield in a Hotel which would provide more comfort. Although great for what it was, it did not provide me with the comfort required to be able to relax pre and post op. Just something to consider! I will include some pictures of my hair pre procedure, immediately post procedure and also at Day 1 (taken a short while ago!). Moving forward, I will then do my best to update this thread routinely (Day 1, 7, 10 and then month to month). Of course, once I receive the pictures form the clinic, I will post these too. I hope someone finds my thread useful and I welcome all thoughts/. opinions and questions. If anyone would like to ask a question in private, please feel free to DM me. Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Pre Procedure Donor Hairline design- Front Hairline Design- Side Immediately Post Op Day 1 Donor Day 1 Donor - Rear Day 1 - recipient zone

Hi @Gasman, hope you are well! I am currently in the process of organising a consultation with Dr Ball and your write-up was really useful. I was just wondering if it would be possible to See the final results now we are 4 years on. Of course, absolutely no pressure, but thought I’d ask Thanks!