ablurker

6.5 months in and it's grown in enough for a haircut. There's still a bit of a bald spot in the middle that shows up if I'm not careful how I style things. Hoping the next six months will fill that in.

The donor has fully healed and there's no sign whatsoever of the extraction at all. It's still pretty thick too.

Been a while since my last update.

I'm about 5.5 months in and it's still a bit thin for my liking but it's definitely coming in a week or two at a time. It really depends on the angle and lighting, but I'm also trying to let it grow out again after I trimmed it approximately 3 weeks ago. The trim was pretty much essential because the other areas of my head were just so long compared to the new growth.

The first pic is a "bad angle" and the second pic is a "good angle". I don't wear a hat out in public because I'm feeling pretty good about how it looks compared to my pre-surgical hair.

I'm also struggling a bit with how the new hair is a bit curlier than the old hair, but I think that'll disappear as the hair matures.

Both of these pics are unstaged. I didn't put any effort into carefully stying anything, and it definitely looks better if I take a pic right after a shower.

I'

Things are definitely thickening up. There's a few patches are seeing as much growth as I like, but I'm hoping those are just dormant a little longer.

Considering how much growth there is week-to-week, I'm feeling optimistic about the end results. This is 3 months + 1 week.

I'm dying for a haircut but it's going to be tough to get this current mess looking good until it thickens in a few more places.

Finally at the 3 month mark! I'm watching things so closely it feels like it's been longer.

You can start to see it thickening around the hairline. The redness is mostly faded but occasionally flares up. I can't exactly put a finger on what triggers it.

Lots of ingrowns too. This is one of the least ingrown days I've had the last couple of weeks. I really can't wait to see the hair here grow out more.

Every couple of weeks I'm doing a rough buzz of my whole head to keep things from getting too long everywhere else.

1 hour ago, Vann said:

I feel like it’s stagnant for me. But that’s just because I look at my hair on the daily. I’m hoping it gets to the point where I can’t tell if I’m making progress or not. 

I take daily pictures so I can scroll back a few weeks and see the change. This is a sloooow part.

That's looking good for two months, wow.

What a difference two weeks makes...

Still too many bald-ish patches to really go hatless or get a haircut yet. I'm occasionally trimming the the hair to keep it from getting too crazy long as well. Redness has dropped quite a bit and it's more of a pinkish hue around the hairline that gets red when I shower.

The numbness in the scalp is improving slowly. I expected that the nerves would heal front to back or vice versa, but instead they appear to be healing from the side. The numb patch is basically a strip down the middle of the top of my head now.

I am really temped to have a barber do a buzz at a 3 all over to clean up the length but I'm doing my best to stay patient and just "let it grow".

I sure hope I've reached peak-ugly-duckling about two months in...

I can understand why you just don't see that many pictures from this phase. 24/7 hat time! Redness is fading quite a bit, but sometimes it's pretty evident as seen below. As the hairs grow in you get this bonus redness as well: like teething for your hair.

See everyone in a month!

I thought I read somewhere that hairs can be implanted to specifically soften scar tissue and restore skin function.

This small study from 2014 suggests that 65-95% of FUE grafts can survive in scar tissue:

https://www.pulsus.com/scholarly-articles/follicular-unit-transplantation-for-the-treatment-of-secondary-cicatricial-alopecia.pdf

(it's a small study and some of the patients had beard/eyebrow grafts rather than scalp)

Update from about five weeks in. The shedding started about two weeks ago and all that beautiful transplant hair is popping out with the little telltale J shape. It's officially ugly duckling season for the next few months.

I got the go-ahead to get a hair cut (apparently waiting two weeks is all Dr Hasson wants) and I'm considering buzzing it down while things start to grow out.

Any recommendations for ugly phase haircuts?

The photo below isn't a flattering angle, but it really shows the contrast between day 1 hair (the front), day 2 hair (just behind), and my existing hair on top.

36 minutes ago, Nurses take over said:

My questions is did nurses take over after Dr. Hasson finished performing the incisons ? 

He did the hairline and incisions. The nurses did the remainder, as far as I remember. The staff was excellent: even the nurses doing the hair washes felt extremely qualified.

11 minutes ago, Jon2345 said:

Man o boy, I would have to say this is uncharacteristic of Hassan. So much so that I may almost believe that the review is not quite accurate, but my instinct is that everything your are saying is true. And for that I may have to stop giving Hassan along my very top recommendations, due to that there are also a very solid number of other very solid doctors, and good communication and taking patient concern is something that should be a criteria for a top doc. I wonder what has gotten into Hassan. Maybe he let his artistic drive let him get the better of him. The pain during surgery is also a wtf. But no doubt, you'll come out looking like a rock star. Here's to an awesome year of transformations.

It's entirely possible that I am too passive of a patient and others who have more active interest in the details of the surgery, and that the pain was just because I'm more sensitive and I'd have that painful experience with any doctor. I don't think that it should discourage anyone from looking at Dr Hasson.

In fact I'd still recommend him on my experience. I just wanted a fully transparent review of the good and bad.

The results so far have been amazing and I realize it's a lot of money but a high likelihood of an excellent result was part of the reason why I chose him.

A small update from approx four weeks later: no major shedding yet, the redness and skin damage have pretty much entirely disappeared.

I think I have about 80-90% of the hairs that were transplanted in place. Not a lot of info out there on why shedding wouldn't be happening yet.

On 7/6/2022 at 4:13 AM, Jon2345 said:

My 2 cents

" One thing that surprised me: I was expecting them to extract from the back of my head, but they used both sides as donor instead."

I feel this should have been communicated.

 

" I'm not entirely sure why, but the anaesthetic was not nearly as effective and the pain was pretty bad. I kept asking to stop over and over.

We got to about 1800 grafts and I was dying (it hurt so much I broke down), and was given some oral pain medication that helped sedate me and reduce the pain to a manageable level. It hurt, but I did the final 500 in one session and focused on the end result. It was long and sucked, but when it was done it was done."
"
This sucked to read. They ever figure out what went wrong?

I'm more of a person that finds a doctor that is highly recommended and goes in trusting they'll do an excellent job. I think the clinic could do more with discussing the procedure beforehand (and as others pointed out, would be nice to have a follow-up).

We never really figured out the issue with the pain. While it was unpleasant, now that it's almost a month in the past I can look back and say it was worth it. I may have just been an extra sensitive person on the pain scale. I cannot say for sure because this is my only real surgery in my life (aside from wisdom teeth that I was knocked out for).

I can say that I'm very happy with the results so far. Looking forward to seeing it further down the line

My updates will probably slow down here as the shedding and regrowth phase starts, but things are looking good two weeks in. The area in front that was transplanted on the first day appears to be growing, but part of me wonders if that's just the graft settling in and and inflammation going down (revealing more of the hair shaft). If it has grown, it's not nearly as fast as the hair on the side has grown in the same amount of time.

There's a bit of redness in front, but I've been taking my hat off indoors and enjoying the look of a full hairline and nobody bats an eye. If I had my hair buzzed again I don't think anyone would see anything.

Any ideas when I should expect the shedding to start? I keep thinking I'll take a shower one day and it'll just be a hair massacre. Does it happen slowly or all at once?

12 days post recovery and the crusts and dry skin are virtually all gone. Some shedding has begun, but it's pretty minimal overall so far. I'm loving where things are right now and I'm going to be a bit sad to wait the 6-8 months for this to fully grow back.

I don't ever plan on having a buzz cut like this, but I'm probably going to rock this for a bit, at least until I get some regrowth in front to style.

The post-care has been pretty light touch. I send email updates with pictures of my scalp and get updated care instructions with more and more aggressive care (adding gentle finger pressure, soaking, towel drying).

Just now, Scream said:

went to the same Doctor I will be seeing. I will be sure to take the full dosage of pain medication. I wonder why your first day was so much less painful than your second. Nevertheless, I am so glad you made it through. The pain makes me incredibly nervous, but hopefully I can manage. Is there any kind of blood test beforehand?

If I may ask some follow ups.. how much say did you have in the hairline design and graft count? Obviously he is the expert, and I'll likely listen to his opinion, but if we don't see eye to eye, I am hopeful I am able to play the graft count more conservatively if I select to do so! 

And as for your travel day.. since I will also be flying to and from Vancouver, how likely is it that I can wear a loose hat a couple days after the procedure to fly home? I just feel like I will be so self conscious flying home that I will want something to cover

I put 100% of my trust into Dr Hasson, so I didn't question the graft count or shape or anything. I really don't know what the experience is like if you have really strong opinions, but other threads suggest the patients end up a bit less happy. I really just wanted to enjoy an age-appropriate hairline (it's actually the most hair I've had in my life) so my experience is going to be different than others.

They'll give you a plain black to fly home in. You'll be paranoid about bumping your head and it'll itch, lol, but the hat will cover up all the mess. If you can extend your stay to 3 beyond the end of the procedure, you'll have a much better time. I still had puffed up eyes on day 2 after! The after-care from the nurses there is top notch and having them wash the grafts for most of the implant healing time was very reassuring to me.

4 hours ago, Scream said:

What would you rate the pain on a 1-10 scale for both days? I am also a bit of a wuss with a low tolerance for pain. It is reassuring to hear from someone who just went through it though, so thank you for including those details.

On another note, did you find Dr. Hasson to be open to YOUR opinion on the graft count? I read a lot that he tends to go on the higher end, and I might want to stick with the lower end, just incase I need another one in the future.

The first day was 1-2 on the pain scale and I honestly fell asleep during most of it. The second day of extraction had a bit around 5-6, but the additional anaesthetic and pain meds really helped. If I can do it (as a pain wuss myself), you can definitely do it too! I made the mistake of only taking half of a dosage of pain medication that was offered to me.

Remember the end result. It's 100% worth it.

On 6/22/2022 at 2:19 PM, Scream said:

I have a FUE with Dr. Hasson coming up in a couple of months, and the anesthetic injections are what scare me most. Your day 1 write up had me feeling super good, but then when I got to day 2... all my fears were reestablished haha. That sounds like intense pain!!! 

I think my pain was unusual. The second day is definitely harder but I'm a big wuss when it comes to pain and even I survived it. I was very tempted to skip the last 500 grafts but some strong tablet pain meds helped and I made it through.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the pain is mostly in the morning during extraction. Once you're numbed, additional anaesthetic tends to be pretty painless and they can give that to you any time you say it's starting to hurt.

Also, you get zopiclone to zone you out a bit which is really helpful to disassociate from the fear and pain, lol.

5 minutes ago, SilentUser said:

I don't think it is that exaggerated. It sure is a lot of grafts but considering his age, no crown loss, I think it is ok. I also don't see a NW3 here. Basically his whole frontal third was gone

I agree. NW3 was what they officially stated in the quote but I believed it was more. I didn't get an official final NW rating from before but the hair in front was extremely thin. My pre-existing high hairline also seems to have drastically exaggerated whatever NW rating I was, so we were repairing that as well.

45 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

did Dr. Hasson at least meet for you for a bit when the surgery was over? One of the most surprising and to me justified upsetting things is that Nordster paid $35k for surgery and on Day 2 he only saw Hasson briefly in the morning when the doctor was guiding the techs. When Day 2 wrapped up for Nordster, he was just kind of unceremoniously booted from the clinic. No post op conversation with Hasson or anything. When you are paying tens of thousands of dollars I really would expect some type of post-op review with the doc. 

I'm sure this had zero impact on his results, but I really would have expected at minimum Hasson to swing by and at least have a "cookie cutter boilerplate celebration its over" convo. 

This was missing for sure. I think it might have been nice to have a sit-down with him, even if it's just a cheers to "we made it". I spoke to him briefly afterward, but it was mainly a passing conversation in the waiting room.

I will say that the staff were excellent, however, so it's not great that you don't sit down with him but you still get lots of useful info.

I'd probably recommend to their team that they schedule a debrief the next day right after the hair washing. That way you're not sedated and usually feeling pretty good having slept hard off the zopiclone.

10 minutes ago, Savemyhairline said:

This one. It was more of Dr. Hasson not corresponding with the patient ideally and his goals/expectations not properly being addressed during the procedure. Though again, it’s just a concern and not an elimination. It’s still very early on for him and the result may still look great.

Interesting. I understand some of the complaints, but I think I probably trusted Dr Hasson with my hairline more (I told him very rough goals and gave him the thumbs up at the end to his hairline). It took a long time to draw the hairline. I think we were there for about 30 minutes sketching on my forehead.

3 minutes ago, Savemyhairline said:

I would like to establish a solid frontal third. I am a diffuse thinner, though fin/min have helped my mid scalp crown significantly. No surgeon I have consulted with so far has recommended Grafts for my mid scalp crown and I can live with it for now, so really that frontal third is what I am looking to solidify. I am more than okay with doing 3k grafts to get a good frontal third, there are just a couple other concerns I have with H&W right now. There is another patient review on here that is making me second guess their follow up procedures as well as them over harvesting. For the amount of money they charge, I am really expecting among the best. There are a handful of others I am considering/waiting to hear back before I make the final decision on which clinic.

Which is the other review? I thought that the after care was good (though I feel like more formal education would have been nice). I spent three extra days in Vancouver basically grilling the nurses doing my hairwash and got lots of information there.

It might have also been nice to have a prophylactic steroid dose to avoid the swelling, or some better education around that. In my case I did some research, avoided sodium and drank as much water as I could force my body to drink and it went down in 1/3 the time the nurses suggested it would.

13 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

nice. maybe since you are in your earley 40s and only a NW3, that seems like super stable and a minimal case of MPB. So he felt comfortable with the really high graft count. 

I think so. I had "really good" donor hair, but I don't have the exact count. I've always had the high hairline and I really just wanted to have a strong hairline for the next 20-30 years to look in the mirror at. I know that I'll thin a bit more on top genetically, but TBH I don't feel as self-conscious about the thinning top.

17 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

I agree. looks like OP does not have crown loss and no work was done on the temple points. 

OP has thick hair and getting 4800 grafts as a NW3 just to restore the hairline and temples really does seem like a ton....

@ablurker did Hasson tell you what the density is?

I don't recall if I ever got the number directly, but it was described as being very suitable

17 hours ago, 12345 said:

can you share the cost also?this has to be the price of a new car 

2 hours ago, Savemyhairline said:

“Our FUE fee schedule is $8.00 USD ($6.00 for FUT) per graft for the first 2000 grafts and $6.00 USD ($4.00 for FUT) for each graft above 2,000 plus a 5% tax. For our out of town patients that receive 2,000 grafts or more we will credit the procedure $400.00”

 

im in the US, willing to travel almost anywhere

It was pricey, but they were very transparent about the cost (including starting with the calculator on the website).

When I was considering practitioners, my main factors were risk/reliability/quality and North American location and Hasson was the top choice for me. It's been a while so I don't recall the other ones I considered.

The calculator link: https://hassonandwong.com/hair-transplant-surgery/hair-transplant-cost/

 @HappyMan2021I'm in my early 40s. It was pretty good and I'm happy with the results!

I don't mind lurking and searching. I found that I could answer most of my questions in previous discussions.