Nordster34

Sorry for the delay! Will take and post pictures as soon as I can. I’ve been busy with work and haven’t had a chance to take pics or do a detailed update. Basic update is that things are progressing nicely. Some of the major concerns have been alleviated and I only have a few minor concerns left. The temple points have mostly softened up which is a relief. The hairline I’ve received is still somewhat high relative to the strong temples. The corners of the hairline are still more sharply angular than I’d have liked (and vs what was sketched). I’m still hoping these will soften somewhat. We’ll see. And the left corner is still a tiny bit thin/patchy. But overall I have gained confidence and feel I do look better than before. Perhaps most importantly, the reassurance from h&w that they make things right in the end has been a huge relief. I’m really hoping I won’t have to take them up on it, but it’s comforting to know. I’ll post pictures as soon as I get a chance.

Thanks for checking in! Sorry for the delay. Here’s the 5 month (+10 days late) update. Have been super busy so I’ll just post the pics without a ton of commentary.

Since there's been a lot of activity on the thread, figured I'd jump in and share some responses even though the 5-month update is still a few weeks out. @H & W Doug Thanks so much for the detailed and thoughtful response! I really do appreciate how much you and the clinic care about all of your patients and their individual cases. Even though there are a few minor points where perhaps our perspectives diverge, I think we still see eye to eye on the vast majority of this! Very much appreciated. Wanted to clarify the timeline here. The initial estimate based on photos was 3,000 grafts in a one-day mega session. When I arrived at the clinic the evening before the procedure, Dr. Hasson did an in-person exam and recommended we up it to 4,000 grafts over two days, to which I agreed. It was at the end of day 2 that they let me know the total came to 4,500 (not 4,600) grafts. I had figured the 4,000 estimate would be +/- a few hundred, though 500 was more than I was expecting. I went ahead and paid for the full amount as I want to be a good patient, am focused on the end result, and am not trying to nickel and dime anyone. One of the techs made an offhand comment about the donor area being used up sometime in the afternoon of day 2. I asked her and every other tech I saw that day for clarification about how much donor was left, and they said they were uncomfortable answering that question as it's a matter for the doctor. My plan was to ask the Dr. at the final debrief/inspection that I mistakenly assumed would take place at the end of the procedure. I finally chatted with the Dr. via phone a month or so ago, and he said he didn't think my donor could be tapped out (though he obviously couldn't inspect in person). This is a great example of why I think a final check-of-work / debrief conversation would be a win-win for patient and clinic! It would've given me a definitive answer and clarity (and comfort) on donor usage and would've avoided some of the concerns posted online (better for the H&W brand) too. Makes sense. In my case, I didn't fall asleep at all on either day. I totally get that the Dr. shouldn't be there for 12+ hrs every day (would lead to him being fatigued, which probably wouldn't be a net positive for the patient anyway). That said, in my case, since my day-2 ended around 5pm, I think it wouldn't have been too onerous for him to check on me at that time of day. In other cases where the end is later, perhaps it would be optimal to offer patients an in-person debrief with the Dr. the following day. This is super helpful information and context! I'll repeat that I think if the Dr. had done a debrief and told me all this info at the end of day-2, all of the anxiety and all of the consternation online would've been avoided. Better for patient and better for H&W brand! I really, really appreciate this! Tbh, I'm still quite hopeful and even cautiously optimistic that the result will be excellent when month 12 rolls around and I won't need any follow-up work. But knowing explicitly that you guys would make it right if there is some reasonable issue is extremely comforting! Yes, agreed! I've tried to be as factual/unbiased as possible, though it's true this is a rollercoaster emotional journey for any patient so I'm sure there has been some emotion coming into some of my posts. Overall, I'm committed to waiting until month-12 to make any conclusions and am trying to be as factual as possible! Thanks! Yes, will definitely continue to post. Thank you so much again, @H & W Dougfor the very thoughtful and helpful response!!! Yep, that's correct. I won't be posting full face photos or less-cropped photos for privacy reasons. Agree that it's harder to judge this way, but I think the trade-off is a reasonable one personally. Still, sorry guys for not being willing to share more informative photos. You're totally right that the way I'm cropping doesn't provide as much context. Thanks! I appreciate that. Definitely trying hard to keep it unbiased and level-headed! Thanks so much! This is a really supportive and helpful comment, and exactly the type of perspective that makes this community so great! (and props to @Melvin- Moderator for making this community exist in the first place) @shiba1985 Thanks for all your thoughtful comments as well. I really appreciate it and you definitely seem to get it! Honestly, at this point it's looking like my originally major concerns about the temples, the sharpness/pointiness of the hairline and temple points, and donor area overharvest may all be much ado about nothing! This could have been avoided via an inspection and debrief conversation with the doctor at the end of the procedure. Definitely would've been a better patient experience and would've been better for the clinic as well. Yes, very much agree with you. I'm also ok with plenty of tech involvement, especially as the tech's at H&W are all very specialized and experienced in their particular roles. I think the most junior tech on the team had 6 years of experience in her particular role (and the most experienced had 24). So they were definitely excellent specialists. But yeah, a Dr. check-in and availability at the end would've been really, really appreciated. Really helpful comment for others considering these docs. And yes, @Melvin- Moderator yet another reason why I'm so thankful for your work in standing up this forum/community! Agree! The techs were excellent and I definitely hope the clinic considers all of this as constructive feedback! And @CarlosLaBlon thanks for posting your review! I wasn't upset about you "hijacking" the thread at all, and will be following your new thread! Thanks everyone for all the really great comments and discussion. I'll definitely be back with monthly updates and pictures as the hair grows in!

Congratulations man!!! I know you’ve been following this one for a while and I’ve really appreciated your comments along the way. You’re one of the folks who has made me feel better about the temples in particular and I very much appreciate it. Huge congrats on taking the leap and getting the procedure done!!! All good and I appreciate the honesty here. I have been posting walls of text and some ppl love it, some ppl don’t. I agree the growth is looking good for 4 months and it’s looking better every day, so I am still hoping this will be the A+ type result we all expect from H&W. In the end, that’s what matters the most. Totally agreed, and thanks for checking in on this and for your openness to answering my questions! Highly appreciate it! Yes totally agree here too. Happy to have the clinic chime in. I’ve been super factual and honestly one of my hopes from all this posting is that they can improve a couple parts of the patient experience. The biggest would be to have some time to debrief and discuss with the doctor at the end. That should be a very actionable takeaway. Main thing I ask the clinic is to please respect my privacy here 100%. I am extremely careful about privacy so please, H&W, don’t post any pics or info that could identify me today or in the future (facial recognition software is only getting better, so please crop very aggressively). Thanks for this and for all your posts along the way! Totally possible re: compatibility. I would definitely like to mention that I’ve really liked all of my interactions with Dr. Hasson himself. I think the main issue here is just around their process (no debrief at the end, a bit more discussion around the harvest and usage of any extra grafts, clarity on how much reserves remaining). These are really operational items to change and I don’t think reflect poorly on the Dr or clinic from a culture or values perspective. I liked the Dr and staff a lot in all of my interactions. Thanks everyone for all the comments along the way. This group has been super super helpful and I really appreciate the community here!!

Sorry about that! I accidentally hit post before actually writing the entry and attaching content. It should all be there now!

Month 4 Update: Today is exactly 4 months since the procedure date, so I'm jumping on here to give a month-4 update! This seems to be the time when most people (myself included) start to see some significant growth. First and most importantly, here are pictures of my recipient area (hairline) as of today: My take on progress so far: Overall: My stance on the temples being more aggressive vs. the hairline height being more conservative still stands: I have youthful aggressive looking temples that angle inward vs. a 7+ cm high hairline, which feels a bit unbalanced. It's not terrible, but it's not ideal either. I still feel that the line from the temples to the corners of the hairline appear to slope inwards. it almost feels as if the distance between the left and right hairline corners is a bit too short/narrow given how high the hairline is. Growth: There are a couple of very subtle weak spots, but I'm hoping they'll fill in and it's far too early to tell if there will be any weak spots in the end Temples: It does feel like the temple points have softened a bit and are looking less sharp/pointy than immediately post-op. This has been a relief. My guess is the staff intelligently chose thinner, wispier single grafts for the tips of the temple points to keep them subtle. Hopefully that's still the case by month 12! I'd be very curious to get feedback from the community. I'm really happy things are starting to grow. I still am not convinced the placement of hairline vs temple line was optimal, but I still feel I'll have more confidence in my hairline than pre-procedure. Follow-Up from Dr. Hasson's Staff As mentioned previously, the doctor stated he'd review my chart, send me a copy with all the details, and let me know what he thought about my various questions, primarily around donor depletion After 2 weeks without a reply, I sent a follow-up email to the clinic to request a copy of the chart Three days after my follow-up email, a member of the staff sent over a copy of the chart. Graft count from the chart as follows, and adds up to 4,500: 1's - 500 2's - 3,138 3's - 862 Not sure there was anything on the chart worth mentioning, but if folks have any specific questions, ask and I'll share! Feedback on donor depletion: I did mention in my email to the clinic that I was looking for feedback on donor depletion, but they did not provide any follow-up on the availability of donor hair for future needs. They just sent the chart as an attachment without any commentary in the email or on the chart. I'm planning to arrange another call with the Dr.

FYI quick update. It has been 2 weeks since I chatted with the Dr. and he said he'd answer my questions and send over my chart with details. Still have not heard from the clinic, so I'm guessing this fell though the cracks as well. Going to reach back out.

Figured I'd jump in here. I gave Dr. Hasson some very rough guidance on what I wanted (a subtle, refined hairline upgrade that wouldn't look out of place 20 years from now). I told him pretty explicitly that he's the expert and I'd trust his guidance on how the hairline should look, which is exactly what I did. What was surprising for me is that the hairline I received (and especially the temples) is not only different than what I envisioned, but different than the blue outline that was sketched out prior to the procedure. Feel free to check out all the pics and let me know if you think I'm offbase, but the temple placement and angularity of the hairline itself seem way more aggressive than what was sketched out.

Very much agree with this! I'm trying to share my journey as transparently as possible. And I think given how this discussion is evolving, it's important for me to restate that I'll be withholding judgement and any final recommendation until I have a result to analyze, which won't be until month 12. Sure, there are things along the way the clinic could/should have done better. But if I had to choose between a $35k great result w/ a turbulent journey and a $10k terrible result with lux journey, I'd pick the former every time. So everyone here, plz sit tight and I'll keep trying to provide transparent, unbiased updates! Thanks! I'm excited for the growth to start and excited to begin crawling out of hibernation mode! Photos of donor area post-op are included in one of my prior posts. Here are current donor area photos I took just now. And here is a pre-op donor area photo: Correct. I'm confused by this as well and am awaiting a reply and copy of my chart from Dr. Hasson. He did say that if I was willing to commit to wearing my hear >1cm, that I should definitely be able to harvest more. He also said my donor hair in the back was very strong but that my donor hair on the sides was less strong. TBD what I have left, but I'll update folks once I know more. Yeah I agree. Not having any sort of ability to talk to the Dr. at the end of day 2 was the low-point for me. Wrapping up on Friday afternoon with a swollen & painful head, mentions of my donor area being depleted (but unable to get clear answers from the staff), looking in their bathroom mirror to discover an angular hairline with massive temples that didn't look like the planned sketch, and no doctor available to talk me through it... I felt like I had been taken advantage of. It did not feel like they cared about me as a patient or as an individual. Instead, I felt like I was a revenue line item. If H&W is to take away one thing from this post and all of the discussions that have ensued, it would be to focus more on relating to the patient as an individual person. To the H&W team: I get that these procedures are your daily routine. I also get that, at the end of the day, this is a business. But for each patient, it is a massive decision, a leap of faith, and a time-consuming ordeal. Your patients have put massive chunks of their time, money, trust, hopes, self-image, etc. into this. Yes, the result is what matters the most and the evidence suggests you are nailing the result in most cases. But please remember that each patient deserves to feel cared for, valued, and respected! To be clear, I'm not suggesting you are unkind or uncaring. All of my interactions with Dr. Hasson and with his staff have been positive, kind and friendly. At the core, I think this is a process issue not a values issue. From a process perspective, the fact that I was not able to have any interaction with the Dr. at the end of day 2 (or day 1 for that matter) made me feel devalued as a patient. Additionally, the fact that the overharvest was not discussed transparently with me on day 2 (so that we could game-plan where to best put the extra grafts to use) also made me feel like I was being pushed through an assembly line, rather than being consulted as a integral member of the procedure team (which as the recipient, I definitely am!)

Month 3 Update: Technically today is day 85, but I just spoke with Dr. Hasson and had a few minutes to type up a quick post, so thought I'd give an update. Photos - starting to see some early regrowth: The photos seem to make the hair look a bit fuller/better than in real life, but the main point is that some regrowth is starting, which is great! Like many others, I have been getting some acne as a result of the procedure (which can be seen in the photos). Sounds like this tends to clear up for everyone eventually, so I'm not worried. Conversation with Dr. Hasson: Dr. Hasson gave me a call today to discuss my follow up questions and concerns. He was generous with his time and I did not feel rushed. I know his time is valuable, so I appreciate that. The phone call was 9 minutes. Donor Depletion - He was not sure how much I have left, but said he does not think I am fully tapped out. He said the amount that I could harvest for a secondary procedure would depend on how long I'd be willing to commit to wearing my hair. He had forgotten that we harvested 4,500 (he was looking at the original 3,000 graft quote and mentioned that #), so I reminded him it was upped to 4,000 and then turned out to be 4,500 when day 2 was done. He admitted he'd forgotten about that and said he'd look at my chart and follow-up with me. He also said he'd send me a copy of the chart (which should have the exact graft breakdown) via email. Once I get it, I'll share the details with you all. He said if I'm willing to wear my hair >1cm long in the back as a minimum, then I should be able to harvest more. Harvest Amount / Overharvest - He is going to look at my chart to get all the details and will send me a copy. We'll follow up once he has the info. Graft Breakdown - Will be on the chart when he sends it and I'll share with you all. Other Advice - I asked Dr. Hasson if he had any other advice for patients at this stage. Here's what he mentioned: Minoxidil - Like many others, I am on finasteride (1/4 of a proscar tab/day). I asked about minoxidil and he said "Minoxidil may even be counterproductive in the long-run. I'd stay away from it." I thought that was interesting. I already knew he didn't like minoxidil, but the fact that he considers it counterproductive was surprising. What do you all think? Washing - He said that a lot of patients are not vigorous enough with washing their recipient area at this stage. He explained that there are tiny scars above the implanted follicles. This scar tissue is not as flexible or elastic as normal scalp tissue, and can cause issues for the grafts, leading to blackheads, etc. He said to wash vigorously with the fingertips (NOT fingernails) and while applying a modest amount of pressure. Sun - This is pretty obvious, but he said a sunburn would be devastating at this stage and to stay out of the sun (those instructions are given on day-1 and feel pretty obvious, but sounds like it's worth re-stating).

Yep. I've already reached out to Dr. Hasson's office to request a conversation. Waiting to hear back. Will keep this thread updated as I learn more from the Dr.

@Melvin- Moderator I agree with you and have stated explicitly a bunch of times that I won’t be jumping to any premature conclusions about the result. I won’t be saying anything definitive about the result until month 12. Even though the temples look like they did not follow the plan, perhaps when they grow in they’ll be more aligned with what was planned and even if not, they might still look great I am curious to get your take on the other aspects—eg charging for the overharvest of ~500 grafts and the doctor not checking in at the end. I recognize @Melvin- Moderator that you have a dual mandate to serve both the patient community as well as the doctor community. My goal in sharing these posts is to be as transparent about my personal experience as possible. And I think ultimately all of these objectives are best served by withholding judgement until month 12 At the end of the day, the thing I personally care about is the result. I do wish the Dr hadn’t charged me for the graft overage and that he had showed a bit more care / attention in making sure I was satisfied at the end. But if the result comes out perfect, none of that really matters.

Would be super interested in an update here as well whenever you’ve got a spare minute! Hope it’s going well for you!

Jumping on to respond to some of the questions / comments that have popped up: @John1991 I wholeheartedly agree with all four of your points! I really wish I had read these four points before my procedure! But that's why I wanted to document this journey for others—I definitely thing others will benefit from this. Point 2 - I agree with you. The frontal view will likely look fine and the aggressive temples are less noticeable. But the side view is an issue. Point 3 - I totally agree with you. The cost (the original quote was $20k but it ended up being $35k after the upsell and overharvest) is one that I am very grateful to be able to bear, but it's still objectively an extremely expensive thing to do in terms of both dollars and time. Point 4 - I really really agree. I think if he had just done a little corner closure I'd be way happier (and it would've cost less and been less risky). @MichaelfromCaliforniaThe original quote from H&W was in the $20-25k range. I visited their main clinic in Vancouver. I picked Dr. Hasson because of his strong and trustworthy reputation. When we did our in-person consult the day before the procedure, I agreed with his strong recommendation to increase from 3,000 to 4,000 grafts to do some temple work. I told him I wanted a subtle, natural, refined hairline that will last for the rest of my life without looking unnatural or age inappropriate. He said he agreed and recommended we go up to 4,000 grafts to balance things out with the temples. I said ok. My whole goal was to find a world-class doctor I could trust implicitly. At the end of day 2, they informed me they had done 4,500-4,600 grafts, which was a total surprise. This resulted in the cost increasing to ~$35k. I definitely think I was upsold from 3,000 to 4,000 grafts intentionally, and then maybe the increase to ~4,500 grafts was unintentional but I still had to pay full price for it... @CleverName Honestly, I think there is a good chance they did use up all of the available donor hair. And what's worse is I think they did so by accident or miscommunication. I don't know for sure if there is any left, but one of the techs did mention it was all used up. After hearing that, I consistently asked various techs and staff members to confirm if it was used up, but they all said they weren't sure and that it was a question for Dr. Hasson. I planned to ask him about it during day 2 but, as I've mentioned here before, I never saw him again on day 2 and he never showed up at the end to discuss. It's something I really wanted to know and I asked every single tech while I was there, but they all seemed very nervous about it when asked and said they weren't supposed to answer those kinds of questions and that the Dr. had to be the one to give me an answer... I get the sense that Dr. Hasson rules with an iron fist.

Can you elaborate on this? Want to make sure I don’t have any blind spots when reaching out.

I agree with this. The case is definitely not closed yet and I don’t want folks to think I’m besmirching H&W’s hard-earned reputation. I’d love advice from the community here as to the best way to reach back out to Dr. Hasson. Has anyone here navigated something like this successfully? I do want to give them a shot to make everything right. I also believe generally it’s tough to know how it’ll look until the 12 month mark is reached, though that applies somewhat less in my case since it seems like it’s an issue of planning/design. So I guess my questions are whether I should be reaching out now to Dr. Hasson, waiting until month 12 to reach out, or even reaching out to some other docs now as a plan b…?

DAY 55: I wanted to jump on here to provide an update. I'll also try to address a number of questions and comments that have arisen. I'll start with some progress pics since I know that's what people want to see most: Frontal View Left to right: 1) what I proposed & showed the doc, 2) what the doc sketched out during our planning session, 3) 12 days post op, 4) 55 days post op (current). People who've been following the thread know that I've been dissatisfied with how much extra work they did on the temples vs. the plan I also think the hairline is more angular and less subtle than we planned for and than I requested. I really don't love the super sharp angular corners... In terms of hair growth, the transplanted hair is mostly shedded at this point. The hair that has grown in pic 4 is native hair. Hopefully the growth of the transplanted hair begins relatively soon Side View Timeline Left to right: pre-op, 12 days post-op, 55 days post-op. Temples - Planned vs. Received Left is pre-op on day 2 and shows the planned temple line. Right is post-op. I happen to have a small mole right below the temple which I'm using here as a reference point. This comparison clearly shows how much they expanded the temples vs. what was planned going in. They went way above what was planned due to the day-2 overharvest. Overharvest & Extra Temples - This remains my biggest gripe about the procedure so far. They remove the blue lines during/right after the procedure, so at the end of day-2 when I looked in the mirror I felt shocked to see how large the temples were, but I didn't have any hard evidence that they were bigger than the plan. I was going through pics for today's update post and I noticed that I have a mole right below the temple point on one side. I was able to use it as a reference point. As seen above, they clearly did a lot more temple work on day 2 than was planned and agreed. This has led to an unbalanced look where the temples are quite large/aggressive/youthful looking while the hairline is still pretty high and mature. I'm feeling dissatisfied with this result and even more dissatisfied with their lack of transparency about the overharvest and temple placement changes on day 2. This does not feel excusable to me, but I'd love opinions from others. Lack of Transparency / Communication - TBH, I wouldn't have been at all upset if the Dr. said to me during the procedure "Look, we've filled in your temples per the plan and it looks like we have ~500-800 extra grafts. Let's discuss where you want them." I was more than happy to pay for all the grafts, after all, and I have. Instead, when Dr. Hasson finished the temple incisions to the plan, he sort of hesitated and stepped away from the chair for a bit and then came back and started going all around the temple edges and enlarging them. It was pretty obvious he was struggling to figure out where to put all the extra hairs. Advice - In retrospect, I should've been more assertive, should've asked questions that were popping into my head as he was enlarging the temples (I could feel what he was doing), and should've initiated a discussion with the Dr... However, when wondering why I wasn't myself in that situation and didn't ask (I'm usually pretty transparent and articulate in these types of situations), I am reminded of the fact that during the procedure, you are on valium. I hadn't ever taken valium before, but I'd say it engenders a very chill, go-with-the-flow kind of attitude and does not really produce a mental state where you want to start asking tough questions. My advice to others is to be assertive during the procedure. Ask questions whenever they pop into your head. Do not let the valium stop you from asking the important questions. Replies / Comments: Thanks everyone for the great comments and discussion. I think of all the posts, @JayLDD pretty much nailed it and summarizes the situation accurately. I'll quote him here since I think he really gets it: @JayLDD you are spot on and I think this captures it to a tee. For a world-class doc charging world-class prices, I don't think the planning & execution here is justifiable. I committed to pay top $ so that I could leave everything in the best pair of hands possible. Unfortunately the Dr. was a lot less involved during the procedure than I'd have liked and has provided zero follow up so far. I was ultimately choosing between Dr. Konior and Dr. Hasson, and made the choice to go with Hasson for purely logistical/timing reasons. I am regretting that decision. @Melvin- Moderator yes, on your comment re the temple patchiness, I totally agree with you that I was comparing one temple that was shedding earlier to one that started shedding later. I am hopeful that everything will grow in nicely by month 12 and am definitely reserving any judgement until then! The graft placement did look roughly equally dense on both. @Aslitarcan sucks, @OliverAtom and @Calihome1, I agree with all of your feedback & comments. And thanks for taking the time to comment. My Overall Sentiments: Temples - Basically, the biggest thing is they overharvested on day 2. That was certainly a screw-up on their part. Then, instead of being transparent with me about the overharvest and discussing how best to allocate the extra hair, they simply beefed up the temples more than we originally agreed. This has resulted in an unbalanced temple vs. hairline. My temples look extremely youthful and aggressive, vs. the hairline which is still quite high. It would have been better if they simply allocated some of the overharvest to the hairline to create a more balanced look. But I think a) they didn't want to admit they overharvested, and b) they wanted to be able to charge me for the overharvest. Lack of Follow-Up - My second biggest concern is the total lack of follow-up from the doctor. To this day, the last time I heard from him or saw him was when he finished making incisions late morning of day 2. He didn't check on me at the end of the procedure, his office hasn't reached out to me to see how things are going. In contrast, they were extremely aggressive in following up in the week after the procedure about my final payment. I submitted the final payment approximately one week after the procedure and they literally called me every single day to ask about when I'd be submitting the payment. Once I submitted it, they have gone totally radio silent. I think that does reveal their priorities to an extent, though I don't want to be overly harsh. Recommendation - While I am not a super satisfied patient at the moment, I want to be clear that I will be withholding any final conclusions and judgment until month 12. I don't think it's fair to the doctor or to the accuracy of the review to draw any premature conclusions. If a close friend or relative called me tomorrow and asked for my recommendation, to be completely honest I would not in good conscience be able to recommend Dr. Hasson at this time. However, it is still absolutely possible that once things fill in, I'll be super happy with the result and would be able to recommend him. To be honest, I am still holding out hope that this will be the case given the amount of time and money I've invested in the procedure. Next Steps: Any Advice? Does anyone here have any thoughts/advice as to what I should do going forward? My plan as of now is simply to wait until month 12 and do nothing. However, in writing all of this I am reminded of the fact that I am in this pickle due to being less assertive than I should have and because of the long lead-time that Dr. Konior quoted. So... maybe I should try to get some appointments calendared? Follow-Up? Do folks think I should reach out to Dr. Hasson and request a follow up appointment (perhaps over zoom)? Does anyone else here have experience with H&W follow-ups? Booking an Apt w/ Konior? Hasson? I'm thinking given the unbalanced nature of the grafts, even assuming 100% of the hairs grow in and the hairline looks thick, that I'll still need to figure out a way to resolve my issue. If eventually it's decided that this needs to get corrected, I do think the right thing for H&W to do would be to cover it, but I am not confident that this is the correct approach. What do folks think? Perhaps a better approach would be to go visit another doctor, like Konior, to try to make some nuanced revisions? Finally, I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone here. This community is an amazing resource and I value the feedback and expertise of the members here so much. And thank you to @Melvin- Moderator for your hard work in founding and maintaining this community!

There were both oral and topical antibiotics. The topical is just an ointment. For the oral, if you have a medical reason not to take it (e.g., digestive issues) you can skip it and they'll just tell you to monitor closely for infection. If you skip the oral, be assiduous about applying the topical antibiotic. Also, I haven't posted an update in a bit as there hasn't been much to report. The patchy temple is still looking patchy, although I'm not really going to worry about it until at least the 6-8 month mark.

Day 17: Jumped on here to answer some questions (sorry for the delay) and figured I'd give a day 17 update. Pain - Pain in donor region is virtually gone at this point. Still some tightness, but not bothersome and does not interfere with sleep Sleep - Just wanted to note that I'm still sleeping on my back using the neck pillow H&W provided as I'm paranoid about sleeping on sides and accidentally damaging the grafts Uneven Shedding - Not sure if it's too early for ugly duckling phase to begin, but I've been noticing a good amount of shedding, especially on my left temple (which looks much patchier than everywhere else). Posting pics below as I'd love to get some insight from the community. Is this type of uneven shedding normal? Could this signal a bad result for that area that might require a touch-up? I've seen another case on HRN where this exact same thing happened to another H&W patient. They ultimately had one temple that was very weak compared to the other. They ended up needing to have that temple fixed. I'm not sure if H&W did the fix for free, but it seemed like they did from how that thread ended and I would hope the answer is yes. On that note, are any H&W reps active here and able to answer whether H&W fixes these issues free of charge like some other top docs do? This will likely be a valuable question to have answered here for prospective clients... ^^ this is the temple that's looking normal. ^^ this is the temple that's looking patchy. Q&A: Thanks Kent! Appreciate it. I didn't get the exact breakdown of graft #s but they did say that the vast majority were doubles and triples. The tech said there were "several hundred singles" and that "all of them were used for the front of the hairline." They kept saying that the breakdown % of doubles and triples was really really good and that I had lots of great donor hair. Anesthetic pain was definitely the most painful part. On a scale of 1-10 I'd say it was probably a 6.5—it's a sharp pain, but it's over with pretty fast. I generally have a pretty low pain tolerance / high pain sense, fwiw. Your total suffering from the anxiety in advance it is probably greater than from the pain itself. It's going to be a crappy 10 minutes. Just acknowledge that and let it go. No reason to psych yourself out for days/weeks/months in advance. Was thinking about this a bit more, and wanted to update my answer with an idea that might help. When they give you the valium, try to take it immediately. Give it as much time as possible to kick in. For me, they brought it into the room about 30 minutes before the injections started, but told me to wait to take it until they brought me some juice. As a result of the delay, I ended up taking it only ~10 minutes before they started the injections. This wasn't enough time for it to have much/any effect. A quick google search says valium takes at least 15 min to kick in and reaches peak concentration in 1 hr. So, ideally, you'd take it 30 min before the injections start to calm the nerves etc.

Sure thing, here you go! This is representative of the full donor area, just cropped bc it's hard to get a good selfie of the donor area and for anonymity.

Just wanted to give a day 12 update! Day 12: Swelling: Swelling is totally gone and probably disappeared completely by day 8 (although after about day 6 I doubt anyone other than me could've noticed the residual swelling). Recipient Area Healing: Recipient area seems to be healing nicely. I've posted some updated recipient area pics below. Donor Area Healing: Donor area also looks like it's healing nicely, but there has been some residual pain and tightness in the donor area. Tylenol mostly takes care of it and hopefully it'll be gone soon. It does seem to be getting a tad less painful each day, but it was painful enough to impact sleep on days 6-11. Hairline Design: I still feel they did more temple work than needed on day 2 because of the overharvest. This resulted in a more aggressive temple line than was desirable—they pulled the temples a bit further forward than I'd have liked & what was originally designed. This aggressive temple line is unbalanced relative to the hairline which was kept pretty high/conservative. I keep wishing I'd just suggested to them on day 2 to add a tad more to the hairline instead of allocating all of the overharvest to increasing the temples. Basically, the temples are located and sloped inwards more than was necessary and give the top section of my face a narrow look (hard to see in the anonymized pics since I've cut off everything below the eyebrows). Bottom line, the result is a pear-shaped face with the bottom half of my face seeming wider than the top half. Overall, though, I'm still trying to stay hopeful that this will grow out nicely and look great by month 12. Hair Style & Back to Work: My wife keeps suggesting I just buzz everything and I'll likely do that soon as the current style doesn't seem like it's going to look any better anytime soon... Pics: Other: Bill/Invoice: I've decided I'm just going to pay the full invoice rather than ask them about the ~500 extra grafts and if they can discount those. It's only about a $3k difference and I don't think it's worth pursuing.

Just wanted to give a day 6 update and answer a couple questions that came up. Day 6: Flight: The flight (yesterday) wasn't terrible. My tip for others would be that one more day at the hotel would've been a nice to have. Flying involves a lot of potential things bumping into your head or at least touching it. You definitely want to put on a hat or bandana, which shouldn't impact things too much but will definitely still rub on the transplant area a bit. You're also going to be getting into / out of cars, putting things into / out of overhead bins, etc. etc. and I think one additional day to let the swelling and tenderness decrease, and more importantly to let the grafts settle a bit more, would've been ideal. Travel ended up being fine and I didn't have any issues, but I would've booked one more night at the hotel had I known my procedure would stretch into 2-days. Swelling: Swelling has decreased a ton and I'm almost totally back to normal. The pattern of swelling was quite interesting in that it has basically followed gravity. At first the swelling was mostly in the graft areas and forehead, then it moved towards eyes and cheeks, then towards jaw, and now almost gone. Healing: Recipient area and donor area both seem to be healing nicely. Not posting pics today as there isn't rly much of an update on how it looks other than it generally just looks pretty normal. I don't seem to have any of the scabbing or flaking that I've seen in other posts, which is nice. At this point it just looks like I have an extremely weird buzzcut (long hair remains on top but sides, back, and front all buzzed...) Donor Hair Available: Since the Dr. didn't stop by at the end of the procedure (I think this is something they should change as it just doesn't feel ideal that the Dr. doesn't check on it at the end), I didn't get any definitive answer to how much donor hair I still have in reserve. One of the techs simply mentioned offhand that there wasn't much left. At the same time, the Dr. said at the beginning that I have wonderful and dense donor hair (his words), so hopefully there still is more (which hopefully I don't end up needing) Hairline: I'm overall feeling better about the hairline design. I think the pattern of swelling on that first day really exacerbated the pointiness of the temples and made me think the hairline different than what we drafted. They still did more temple work than I expected and harvested more hair than I think they intended to (seems they simply decided to put that extra hair to use doing a bit more temple work). I do wish they'd done a few hundred fewer grafts and maybe been a tad more conservative with the temple design. Right now, hairline design is conservative and temple design is a bit more young/aggressive. I think this is a result of the overharvest on day 2 (temple day). Overall, though, I'm feeling good about the look and am hopeful that this will be a great result once it starts to grow out! Hair Style & Back to Work: While the Dr. had seemed optimistic that I'd be able to keep long hair on top and would be able to get back to work via zoom with a "high and tight" type cut (they advised going to a barber about 2 weeks post op and getting it faded to a high & tight style), I think this was a bit overly optimistic. I think my hair will look strange for quite a while, and just going with a buzzcut might've been a better call. Unfortunately the "queue" hairstyle I'm currently rocking is a few centuries out of date: ^^ my current hairstyle Tips: I'll continue to add tips as I think of them, but the whole goal of this is to share back with y'all so here are a few tips: Have a Netflix show (that's available to stream in Canada) that you're ready to binge. They allow you to which Netflix for a lot of the procedure (but didn't seem to have HBO, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, etc... just Netflix). A super captivating binge-worthy watch will make the time go by much faster and will honestly make things a lot more comfortable Give yourself 72hrs before you fly out. I flew out at about hour 60 post op. This was doable but I really do wish I had a bit more time. My rec would be to give yourself 72hrs minimum in the hotel before air travel. Book a nice room. The hotel they reserved for me is the Sheraton Wall Center. I upgraded my room to a corner unit (the rooms that end in 54 and 61 in the north tower). While I don't know what the other rooms look like, I'm pretty sure this was super worth it. You're going to be spending a lot of time in that room if you follow my advice above, so you might as well make it a nice one! Have something to do in the hotel. You will likely want something to do in the hotel in addition to just watching netflix etc. You're not allowed to do any exercise post op, so I recommend bringing something else to occupy the time. I ended up doing a decent amount of work and catching up on a lot of emails, but given you'll very likely have a headache and be somewhat out of it, work probably isn't going to be the best thing to occupy all of your time. I decided at the last minute to bring a PS5 in my checked bag, and PS5+work+book+netflix ended up being a great way to pass the time. Set up follow-up visits in the immediate post-op days: coming in the day after the procedure to have the staff member wash my hair was a great call. It wasn't just a normal wash, she was extremely careful and thorough and used some tiny foreceps to remove some scabs (so I have had basically zero scabs since that first morning post-op). I think going in the first day post op is a must. Ideally, I would've been able to go in again the following two days, but I had to fly out. Give yourself plenty of time to heal: I made sure my team at work knew I'd be out of office for a while and that I'd be audio-only on most zoom meetings for a bit after that. I'm really glad I don't have to jump on video anytime soon.

Quick update: Day 3: Overall - Overall, I'm feeling a lot better about the hairline and temple design, thanks largely to some of the comments and DMs from folks here. I'm also thinking that once the swelling goes down, the temple point lines won't look so extreme and pointy. Donor Hair - Unfortunately, I learned that they essentially saved zero donor hair. I think the harvester on Day 2 thought her job was just to take the rest of what was left, rather than to shoot for 1,000 grafts and leave some in reserve. This would explain why there was much more graft hair than needed for the temple points when Dr. Hasson was doing the incisions. He was essentially done with the temple point incisions when the counter was at 10 (aka 1000). He then had to search and search to figure out how to put remaining/extra 500-600 grafts to best use. Hopefully I don't end up needing any more donor hair for future touch-ups, but I do think we could've done the temples with 1000 grafts not 1600 and left the rest in reserve. Do ya'll think I should ask for some amount of refund or discount on these extraneous grafts or is that just nickel and diming? Hair Wash - I went in this morning and the staff member doing the hair washing was extremely polite, professional, gentle, and thorough with the hair wash. In addition to washing both the donor and recipient area (and the untouched area on top), she also took photos for their records. She provided me with some antibiotic ointment and instructions on how to wash on my own and how to apply the ointment afterwards Able to Move Eyebrow Again - As noted in day 2, I lost the ability to move my right eyebrow completely. Thankfully, this was temporary! I've regained the ability to move my right eyebrow, so that's nice! Swelling - Head was definitely swollen yesterday (which is visible in the pics), and face has become wayyyy more swollen today. Large puffy bags under eyes, large swollen temples, puffed out cheeks, etc. My face is now indistinguishable from an orangutan. I'm sure this will go away in a few days. ^^ Me right now. Pain - Pain is more of a minor annoyance than a real issue. Spots on my head are sore and tender, but not terrible. Itchiness - Itching is worse than the pain. You definitely don't want to scratch anywhere on your head (you risk damaging the grafts). The funny thing is, most of the itchiness is on the top of my head (where I had no work done and which was not used as donor), and that area is totally numb! So even if I touch it lightly, I feel absolutely nothing (aka there is no way to get rid of the itch lol). Will just try to distract myself from it and hopefully it'll go away! Other Tips: Travel - The clinic only books you I think 2 days at the local hotel. This is not enough. I proactively extended my reservation and flight such that I would fly out on day 5. This was before I knew the surgery was going to be extended to a 2-day session (so I have one fewer day of recovery time than I thought). I'm still extremely glad I extended things, as under their plan I'd be flying out today. I can't imagine trying to travel today or even tomorrow. Even traveling the day after tomorrow when I'm scheduled seems like it'll be uncomfortably early, but I'm so glad I have another day and a half to recover before I get on a plane.

Hi all! I wanted to post an update. Procedure is finished. I'm feeling quite confused. A mix of uncertainty, anxiety, fear, and simply feeling I lack the expertise to know how this is all going to turn out and if the quality of service I received was as world-class as H&W's reputation... I could really use some perspective from the community!!! My questions for you guys are at the bottom... Details as follows. Trigger warning, there are some yucky post-op photos below, so skip this if you are squeamish about post-transplant pics: Pre-Consult (day 0): I was originally quoted 3,000 grafts at $22k. Price was not my primary deciding factor. I had my in-person consult with Dr. Hasson the day before the procedure and it went well. I felt confident coming out of the convo and felt like he understood my goals. I wrote down a script of what I would ask him for on my phone before the meeting, which I'll paste here: "My goal with regard to the donor region and the hairline design is to be conservative, subtle, soft, refined, futureproof and age appropriate for decades to come. I am not looking for a 'McMansion' of a hairline. I am looking for something subtle, tasteful, mature, timeless and dignified." Additionally, as I shared in my original post, I drafted an extremely rough design for what I thought that might look like, which he saw. I also stated very respectfully, "I understand you are a world-class professional in this field with decades of experience, so my plan is to respect that expertise and I will defer to your judgement as to what a conservative, refined, futureproof hairline should look like." I also said "I'm hoping we can leave as much long hair as possible on the top and maybe even a little bit on the front of the sides so that I can get back on zoom as quickly as possible." To that he said "absolutely no problem, we can leave quite a bit of hair and after 10 days or so, you can go to your barber and get it cut and faded so that it looks like a fairly normal short on the sides and long on top style" I know all of this is what was said verbatim as I read my dialogue off my phone during our meeting Concluding the in-person consult, he let me know that he likes my approach, understands my goals, and is confident I'll be thrilled with the results. He said some light temple work would be appropriate (which I agreed with and was expected going in). He stated that he did not think 3,000 grafts would be enough to accomplish my goals, and that I should expand the session to cover 2 days (3k grafts is the max they can do in one day) and guessed it would be somewhere around 4,000 grafts While I of course wished it could be a one-day thing, I agreed that he is the expert and that I would defer to his experience, so we expanded it to a two-day procedure with a TBD number of grafts (he said the guess was 4,000 but the exact number would be determined by the end of day 1) I did ask if the contemplated amount of grafts would leave some donor area available for future touch ups, and he said yes absolutely and said that I have wonderful donor hair. The overall consult lasted ~20 minutes Procedure Day 1: Dr. Hasson spent time looking at my hairline and sketching out some options. This morning sketching session lasted 30 minutes. We sketched out the following hairline, which I thought aligned with my goals, so we agreed to proceed! After this session, I was given a valium and a sleeping pill to begin the harvesting procedure. You lie on a massage like table with face down. The anesthetic injections are indeed the most painful part. I recommend finding something you can squeeze (I think I squeezed the chair's armrest, which really helped). Harvesting was done by one of Dr. Hasson's very experienced techs and took probably a couple of hours to harvest 2900 grafts. After harvesting was done, the next act was Dr. Hasson's placement of incisions. He was able to place approximately 100 incisions per minute, and asks the patient to click a counter each time he hits 100 (so we got to 29 clicks on the counter). As such, he was in the room for about 30 minutes. After lunch, the next act was the most time-consuming one: implantation. Two experienced tech simultaneously were implanting follicles into the incisions until around 7pm (with stretching breaks every ~1hour). They said this was relatively rapid for 2900 grafts and that it can be slower depending on scalp conditions (apparently my scalp was very easy/quick) Day 1 was long overall, but I know these are generally long procedures and given the amount of grafts (2900), mine was actually quite efficient. We started the day at 7am and I was out by about 7:30pm The day 1 procedure focused on and completed the hairline part (hairline alone took 2900 grafts), and left the temples for day 2. Procedure Day 2: We again began at 7am, but this time Dr. Hasson didn't swing by early on. We went straight into harvest mode. Same drill as last time: flat on the table, painful anesthetic, highly experienced tech begins punching out follicles. Head starts out quite tender on day 2, so the day is more painful generally. But otherwise it's pretty much the same. When the extraction was done, I was surprised to hear that we harvested 1600 grafts on day 2 (vs the 1000 I was expecting from the pre-consult), but again, my instinct is to trust this world-class Dr and I really wasn't worried about it. They are world-class for a reason! After harvest, Dr. Hasson came in to begin incisions. I asked him to hold off on starting right away so that we could take 5 minutes to discuss the temples. The temples they drew on day 2 looked much bigger and pointier than what we had agreed to on day 1. I tried explaining that they angled inward, were pointier, and were larger than we had drawn before, but the Dr. basically said nope, these are totally appropriate temples and it'll be great. Again, my inclination is to trust the expert. This is his domain of expertise, not mine, and he has a better eye for what will look good due to his decades of experience and success. Dr. Hasson did about 16 minutes of incisions (16 clicks on the counter), and headed out to look after another patient. From that point onwards, the tech completed the implantation, which lasted until almost 5pm. Upon looking at the result before leaving, I was quite shocked to see the hairline as it was much more aggressive than I was expecting! The angles are all extremely sharp (I was looking for something way more subtle). The temples seem quite pointy and extend inwards towards the face a massive amount. Pictures below. Note: the white stuff on the transplant area is antibiotic ointment that they applied at the end of the procedure, the white tape/cloth behind is bandages. I'm really hoping you guys can talk me off the ledge here and tell me that this is going to be a great, conservative, mature hairline (like I asked for). I'm honestly really confused. I trust Dr. Hasson and I trust H&W's reputation a ton, I've just been feeling a bit freaked out since I saw myself in the mirror after leaving the clinic a few hours ago. I really would love people's advice and perspective on whether they think the transplant and hairline look good, look like what I asked for (subtle, refined, mature, conservative), and whether I should change my flights and try to set up an appointment to go back in on Monday in case any adjustments are possible/needed. Also, random question. I can't seem to move my right eyebrow at all. Just the right one. Is this normal? Also, as can be seen in the pics, my head is quite swollen. Looks like a beluga whale. I plan continue to keep this updated regularly as the hair grows in, etc. so that you all can see the final results. Thanks everyone! Finally, I figured I'd answer a few FAQs to help out the community: I know many people wonder how involved the Dr. is vs. how much is done by his staff, so I will try to answer all of those questions here: Patients per day: How many patients does Dr. Hasson see per day? I called the office three weeks prior to the surgery to ask questions, and I took notes on the answers. I specifically asked "will he have multiple patients per day?" The quoted answer from his team member was "he only does one patient per day." As it turns out, each of Dr. Hasson and Dr. Wong typically have two patients per day (four patients in the office total). Dr. Hasson and Dr. Wong have two separate teams of staff, who mostly don't overlap and are specially trained to work with their respective Dr. During the procedure, I asked if the Dr. typically has one primary session each day and perhaps one smaller session that day (totaling two sessions, sort of like how my day 2 was much smaller & fewer grafts), and the team informed me that this is not the case and it simply depends on the day. Some days both doctors have two 3,000+ graft sessions going simultaneously (4 total). This makes business sense to me and, as long as the result is great, I really don't mind this type of efficiency. I just wish they had been more upfront about it. Parts of Procedure done by the Dr.: I also asked on my 3-week prior call whether Dr. Hasson will be personally doing the angulation & hairline part & incisions. I was told that he personally does all the incisions, which did end up being true. The harvest and the implanting of the follicles into the incisions are done by his staff and the Dr. is not present in the room for any of that part. Debrief/Follow-Up: This was something I was very surprised to discover and didn't think to ask in advance. After both day 1 (I left around 7:30pm) and day 2 (I left around 5pm, work was done around 4:30pm), Dr. Hasson did not come by to check on the implantations and confirm everything was done correctly. In fact, he was not present in the office when I departed on either day and did not plan to have any sort of in-person follow-up visit or debrief. His staff essentially gave me some instructions on how to care for the hair, told me what time to come back tmr when a single staff member would be in the office to do a wash of the hair/scalp, and essentially said have a nice life call us if there's any emergencies. This felt like a very unceremonious conclusion, especially at the end of day 2 when we were done with implantation by like 4:30. I had thought the Dr. would at least want to inspect the final work product and make sure it was done to his standard (esp. since the last time I had seen him was around 10:00am when he did incisions and he didn't stop by at all during the implantation). One rec I'd have for the clinic to improve the patient experience would be to at least provide some sort of conclusion to the procedure where the Dr. confirms that everything looks good and is up to standard. Quality of Staff: I will give a huge shoutout to the quality of the staff. They were all fantastic, comforting, kind, and very professional and experienced. They all had between 6 at the lowest and 24 at the highest years of experience in this field. I knew they were providing fantastic care, and I'm sure Dr. Hasson knows this as well which is why he feels comfortable letting them run things pretty autonomously. Overall: Overall, I think the only thing that really matters here is how this turns out 12 months from now. None of the above is meant to be a negative review of H&W. It is intended to be a totally honest, unbiased, unvarnished perspective. What I am 100% focused on is what this result looks like once it grows out. I think it's frankly too early to tell. That said, I really would love people's advice and perspective on whether they think the transplant and hairline look good / look like what I asked for, and whether I should set up an appointment to go back just in case any adjustments are possible/needed.

Hi everyone! I've been a long time lurker and beneficiary of all the great content and advice on this community. Documenting my journey every step of the way feels like the right way to give back! My FUE is scheduled for a couple weeks from now (March 2022) with Dr. Hasson of H&W. They've quoted ~3,000 grafts at ~$22-25k all-in. Money was not the primary factor for me, and I was choosing between Dr. Konior, Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Hasson. Based on all the great reviews here and patient results, it was extremely difficult to differentiate between these top docs. The final decision mainly came down to timing logistics. Btw, if anyone thinks I'm making a mistake here (i.e., thinks based on my situation I'd be a fool to pick Hasson over Konior or Shapiro given budget isn't an issue), please let me know! I've scheduled the procedure for mid-March, have paid the deposit, and have booked my flights, hotels, etc.! I'm definitely excited, and also pretty nervous. I'm less nervous about the surgery itself (I don't think it'll be very painful), but more about whether I've picked the right doc, how long it'll take for me to be able to get back to work (i.e., join zoom calls with video on and without a hat), whether people will be able to tell I've had an HT, and whether FUE over FUT was the right choice (Konior, for example, recommended FUT to preserve donor region for later). Since the goal here is to document the journey, I'm attaching a detailed set of before pics! These pics show my current hairline (dry), my super super rough approximate sketch of a potential new hairline (I'm going to rely very heavily on the Dr for the design as I am not good at this kind of thing), current hairline (wet), and side view. Let me know if there are other things I can share that'd be helpful to the community! *PS - I do have one question that I'd really like some input on! I know some docs don't require shaving the recipient region. H&W wants to shave the whole head, but I've seen patients of theirs keep the adjacent hairline hair longish. I understand that I'll have to shave the donor area and am cool with that. Does anyone have experience not shaving the recipient area? Since I work mainly over zoom and need to show my face, it'd be awesome if I could preserve as much of the existing hairline hair as possible. Tbh: I look horrendous with buzzed hair. and it would be awesome if I could preserve as much of the existing top/front hair as possible... Anyone not shave their recipient area?