Kidsdontread

Also -- I know a lot of people are into flying around the country for hair transplants. That's not really for me so I got my procedure done locally in Bloomington.

Dr Petrus is the medical director at the Hair Restoration Institute of Minnesota, which is one 3-4 Hair Clinics in the Twin Cities and the one with the most reviews. If you ever listen to KFAN, they did hair transplants on a few of the hosts like Mark Rosen, who is super well known and had a great result.

Longtime lurker, first time poster. Just wanted to say thank you to everyone on here for providing so much knowledge Thank you also, for lowering the stigma around hair loss. I had been covering mine for years and finally at 55 did something about it. My journey: I went to the Hair Restoration Institute of Minnesota for my hair transplant back in February and could not be happier with the result. I live in Minnesota and the clinic is the closest one to me. I did do a few other consultations with the places nearby and landed with HRIMN because they specialize in hair but do a lot more than transplants, they were taking COVID more seriously than the other places (back when it was really scary), and they seemed the most focused explaining hair loss to me as opposed to “selling” me a treatment or prescription. Pro-tip: HRI has a discount for veterans but if you are a public school teacher and you ask about it they will give it to you as well. Another thing that was helpful: my students are relentless, so I needed to time my procedure for a school break when no one would see me or notice. The clinic is typically booked solid a few months out and Nate (the scheduler) was able to work me in as a standby during one of my breaks. Quick FUE Tangent: There is a lot of info on this forum and others about how FUE is the latest and greatest for hair transplants. I instead opted for the FUT and want to speak about why. First (as you’ll see in my before pictures), I’m able to hide the bald spot my combing my hair together. I did not want to have to get a haircut that would remove that option just in case everything went south. I also never wear my hair short and so getting a buzz cut would arouse too much suspicion. Second, the FUT procedures are faster and cost less. I’m on a public school teacher’s salary. Third, according to a lot of what I read online (not so much here) FUT seems to have a better yield rate cases above 2000 grafts. HRI says that they clinically guarantee their procedures and will replace any grafts that don’t grow, but my thinking was I didn’t want to take a chance on that policy or have to live through this experience more than once. The process: The consultation was super helpful. Communication was great leading up to the surgery. They send you a link and you fill everything out online. They can take payments over the phone and call-in prescriptions electronically. When I arrived for the procedure, the one word I would use to describe HRI was “calm.” The day starts early, and I was worried my cortisol levels would be high. However, everyone on staff did their best to put me at ease and calm me down. I met Dr Gary Petrus in one of the consultation rooms and we planned out the procedure. The big question was where to put the hairline as the plan was just to fill in the “middle lane” I have going to the back of my head. I had seen their surgery rooms, which look standard and white, but today they had spa music playing on a TV and dimmed lights, which made it feel a bit more like a spa and every so slightly more calming. My biggest worry was about the pain. Dr Petrus was phenomenal in this regard. He used a vibration device on my neck when he injected the numbing solution so it wasn’t too bad. Throughout the procedure, Dr Gary would poke me here and there to see if I could feel anything he was working on (I could not). Some forums like to discuss how much of the procedure is performed by the doctor versus the nurses. I’m happy to say that Dr Petrus did all of the extractions and made all the sites where the hair would go, and closely supervised the nurses who processed the grafts. He also planted many of the grafts, though most were done by the nurses under his supervision (Tatyana, Nicole, and Theresa). Before I was discharged he examined all the placements once again to make sure none were poking out and explained what to expect over the coming weeks and months. I came back in for my free laser treatments the first week post-op and then again about a week after that for another nurse to remove my sutures. I really didn’t have a lot of questions as the medical team was very thorough in the post-operative instructions – plus there is all the information on websites like this. The not great part: I do however have a history of being sensitive to pain medicine and threw up a bunch of times during the procedure, which was not fun. Dr Petrus was very attentive, although he did mention that if we didn’t get my nausea under control, we’d have to either run a IV or cancel the procedure, but it never came to that. It’s also embarrassing to throw up in front of a bunch of people, but the nurses were incredibly gracious and professional. The results: 10 months later I came in for my check-up. At that time, I was debating doing a small second procedure to add even more hair, but apparently a quarter of a procedure doesn’t cost a quarter of the price, so I decided to forgo it for now, given that my result is 90% of the way there. All-in-all a great experience that I should have done a lot sooner!