Hi all! I've been lurking on this forum for a while, and now that I went ahead and completed my HT I figured it's only right to contribute.
Some background on me: I'm 35 years old and have been losing my hair pretty slowly starting when I was around 28. At that point, I began using topical minoxidil. For the most part, things were going well except for slight balding in the crown area (which didn't really bother me too much). But about a year ago, that changed. My hair started falling out very rapidly and I immediately went on finasteride to try to stop it. Unfortunately, the shedding that comes along with finasteride may have made things worse for a bit, and I lost quite a lot of my hairline.
Here are some pics from then:
After about a year and half, I got really tired of having to wear a baseball hat every time I left the house. I started doing research (including lurking on forums like this) and it led me to BHR and Dr. Bisanga. I was fortunate enough to meet Dr. Bisanga in-person for a consultation when he was visiting the US. The consultation was pretty seamless, and I was surprised to find out how personable and friendly the Dr. is! He classified me as a Norwood 4V and let me know that I'd have to do the crown separately if I wanted to coverage in both areas. For now, I primarily wanted to rebuild my hairline and he assured me that I was a good candidate for a FUE procedure.
The clinic was super helpful in planning the trip, beginning with recommending hotels, giving me a list of things I should bring, and what I should expect. My patient advisor Ian was also really fantastic at helping manage my anxiety as the procedure neared by answering all the questions I had and offering lots of reassurance.
Dr. Bisanga oversaw my surgery, designed my hairline, and then split the punching and extractions with Dr. Kostis (who was also super friendly). I wanted a conservative hairline that would continue to look natural in my 40s, so we went with a rounder design. My hairline also always had a cowlick in it which I wanted to keep, and Dr. Bisanga assured me that he'd be able to recreate it by punching the holes at specific angles.
My procedure went well from what they told me, and it wasn't too bad in terms of pain. The valium really helped, and the hardest part was a bit of stiff neck from lying in a chair for 10-12 hours.
Graft Count: 2698
1 FU: 467
2 FU: 1153
3 FU: 1036
4 FU: 42
Some pics from that day:
I really like that I still have some hair growing in front of this hairline (around the temples) which I'm hoping will make this look more natural as it grows out.
Right now, I'm 6 days post-op, and besides for some pain at the donor area, the recovery is going really well. I'll try to continue posting updates but feel free to ask any questions! Here's where we are now on Day 6: