TrainingDay

Hey ya'll two months in. Still ugly, still a duckling. All random pains or discomforts are completely gone by now and all feeling is back in the recipient area. Nothing much else to report other than still living in my hat haha. 

im in the middle of the ugly duckling stage after my procedure with bisanga in january. i come back to this thread for hope and encouragement 😂

damn your donor really does look untouched!

23 hours ago, Gasper20 said:

Looking good so far.

Were you able to get a consultation and surgery on the same visit? It seems like a separate in person consultation is required now which can be difficult for those living in the US.

Yeah same visit. I think it was a combo of things that made that possible for me. I have been on fin for a decade, and my pattern/hair are on the easier side of procedures. @Raphael84 may be able to jump in and give some info there though.

On 2/18/2023 at 4:32 AM, Spring15 said:

Hairline has a nice shape, not too straight. Also now you mention can slightly notice the right side cutting off them temple points but that that's really nitpicking. Should turn out great

definitely hard not to nitpick, ha! i just want it to be able to age nicely as well, and if its too rounded that might be tough.

One month update. Safely into ugly duckling phase. Have shed most of the hairs, especially on the right side. Feeling is starting to come back into the recipient area which is nice.

The gap on the right side is still noticeable, but not too worried about it. If you can tell once the hair is long, I can always go somewhere more local and have them drop in 50 grafts or something.

Any thoughts on hairline design? I love how it turned out on the left side. On the right, I feel that it is a bit too rounded and closes off the temple too much. Thoughts? 

Looking forward to the months ahead! 

6 hours ago, Ryan Daniel said:

The hairline is perfect.  I wish the temple points weren't taken from the back. The hair are still soft singles.. but are growing darker than than the finer hairs behind it which have a lighter pigmentation. All the techs had to do was take hairs from around the ears. However this is just me trying to be perfect, I'm positive those grafts will turn white in the next few years due to your maturity.  For now.. you should be pleased and I hope you enjoy 

Its funny i actually kinda like how the darker hairs come down the temple. And as you said, they will all fade together over time. 

56 minutes ago, Archan said:

Oh ths shedding phase s***s...

Bt keep ur cool..u will goona be out of it soon and will enjoy ur new hair..so its worth the wait..😊

haha thanks Archan. Definitely living in a hat for the next few months.

Three weeks in. Shredding has begun 😟. Donor seems pretty good to me, just a bit itchy. Starting to get feeling back in the recipient area which is nice. Still a bit bummed about the gap on the right side. Will update again at one month, and then each month as we go! 

3 hours ago, Archan said:

Yeh they will flow well with your hair..did you ask the doctor abt the gap ? And if yes thn wht was his answer?

Yeah I brought it up with the doctor and they said they have no concerns and not to worry. I know I am probably being paranoid like everyone else in these early stages but I just haven't seen this on other patients, and it is definitely noticeable in real life, and my wife agrees.

3 hours ago, Gatsby said:

Very nice work @TrainingDay 👌

Thanks boss. Appreciate the stamp of approval from an OG. Following your latest journey as well!. 

1 hour ago, Belve said:

Happy growing. I wish you all the best. The density looks good 👍 

I can understand your concern about the right temple side which has a gap between the native and the transplanted hair. I think it would be better if dr bisanga had implanted some grafts there to make this connection less visible and blend better your native with the transplanted here like your left side. 

Ya hoping this is resolved as it grows! Only time will tell. 

13 hours ago, Archan said:

Ur donor seems to be recovered vry well...i cn understand ur consern but i guess u will not feel tht gap once you will get a good growth and the implanted hair gets thicker...it may be a case whr the doctor have to be cautious tht they dont damage the existing graft by pacing the new one ..so thr may be a need to keep a fraction of gap..still you can consult ur surgeon and take his advice abt this...

Am sure you are goin to get a vry good result seeing hw densely packed ur hairline is and it would match ur existing hair...wish u the best..and plz do keep posting the updates..😊

Yep really happy with the density at this point. And also, while hard to tell, the graft angles seem like they will flow well with my hair. Definitely hoping that gap fills in over time. It is still a bit prominent, but only on the one side. 

Day 14

damn. this one is gonna be the real money maker. looking great so far dude. 

Day 10, third day of shampoo and removing scabs. Everything seems to be going well. The redness is pretty heavy under there, so I'm sure it'll be bad once I shed. I am to the point where I am sleeping normally without worrying about messing things up. However, the nerve pain in the donor area was horrendous from days 4-8. Straight burning needles in the scalp that get way worse at night for whatever reason. That has started to calm down the last two days thankfully. 

My one area of concern is on my right side temple. It is hard to see in the pictures, but I feel as if the grafts didn't quite go back far enough to blend into my existing hair, and its really noticeable in the mirror. Like a white line gap. I wouldn't be worried, but everywhere else blends great. Any cause for concern?

2 hours ago, follically challenged said:

nice work! following.

great write up, but i don't think you mentioned the micron size of your hair...?

unfortunately i didnt catch that info sorry

17 minutes ago, Jackdaniels said:

Aha cool. So it was your choice so select both doctors cause it’s was a more budget option. Dr kostis is still a decent doctor though.
So what was the price/graft in the package you got with the 2 doctors ?

yep, $4

3 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

@TrainingDay can you clarify how it worked having both doctors operate on you? Was Dr. Bisagna the one in charge and calling the shots, and Dr. Kostis acting in more of a tech-role?

I think it would be really confusing and detrimental to be operated on by 2 doctors if they acted as equals during surgery and needed to agree/debate on every step of the process. 

It didn't seem confusing at all imo. Most of the shots are called beforehand and everything during surgery is just executing the work. I think that might be more of a concern for a repair case where decisions and strategy could be altered on the fly, but my case was pretty straightforward. I was comfortable with it and they are a pretty well oiled machine in there. 

1 hour ago, Jackdaniels said:

Happy growing. I think you will get a good result.
So dr bisanga did the incisions and dr kostis the extractions. Could you tel us why dr bisanga did not do the extractions as well ? It wasn’t possible to select him do to the extractions except of incisions ? 

I chose the package with both doctors rather than just Bisanga. I think it was 2$ less/graft.

1 hour ago, SecondHT said:

Good luck with the hair growing! By the way I confirm that with the hotel. I had a big dead wasp above the mirror in the bathroom and the worst part - above the room I felt that there are living a family of 5 people at least in a single room with a dog and were so loud that I felt there are in my room 😅

Man it was terrible. I hope people see our advice here and steer clear 😆

Hey all. Wanted to share my journey with Dr. B + K at BHR. I am 36 years old, started receding at 17, and jumped on 1mg fin every day at 24 and have been taking it ever since. No other meds or effort other than that. My hairloss progressed maybe 5% at most since then. Looking back at pictures it looks the same at 25 as it did at 35, so I finally felt ready to make the leap.

I used to frequent these forums years ago and took a liking to Bisanga’s work back then, and after coming back and reading every thread I could read last year I came to the same conclusion. I really like the results I’ve seen on people with similar loss/pattern/texture. I considered H&W to stay closer to home (US), Nader or HMR to stay cheaper, but ultimately wanted to do what felt right.

I hit up Dr. B’s office back in October, and after some back and forth with Ian I was on the books for mid January. This also appealed to me because I kept seeing Konior, de Freitas, Cuoto and the like scheduling at least year + out. Next I threw down my deposit and booked a flight, and here I am 5 days post op.

First off, the long flight and time change is brutal. Make sure you factor that, along with your altered eating schedule into your preparation. It is no joke. I got there two days early and checked in at the Value Stay right down the block from the clinic. Absolutely do not stay there. I thought the close proximity convenience would offset any bad reviews. I was wrong. The place is an absolute dump. I’ve stayed in nicer campsites and hostels. The lights in my bathroom didn’t work, cigarette burns in every blanket and sheet, rusty metal sticking out of random places on the wall, towels so old they had holes in them, and walls so thin you could hear all the loud ass people that basically live there yelling from rooms away. 

I had my consultation on day 2, and Dr. B + K assessed my donor at 70 hair/cm on both the back and sides, with very little miniaturization. We hashed out a hairline with 2 minor tweaks, and Dr. B upped his graft count estimate after only seeing my pictures from 1800 to 2000-2200. I told them where I was staying and how awful it was, and they said get the heck out of there, here are some recs. So I packed up and headed to Martin’s Grand Hotel, which was their second recommendation, (the first place was booked) and couldn’t have been happier. Truly nice place with an awesome breakfast included and it was like 20 bucks more a night than the Value Stay, and a ten minute uber ride away. Huge win.

On the morning of the surgery I was super nervous. I filled out some more paperwork, they hit me with a valium, and it was head shaving time. No turning back now, and the unfortunate next step was anesthesia shots. God damn do I feel like most people under sell how much these suck. Or maybe I didn’t heed the warnings properly. But holy crap they are by far the worst part. Maybe bring a stick to bite down onto because I was definitely gritting my teeth.

Dr. K did my extractions, which was a bit weird/uncomfortable but you get used to it. I made the mistake of trying to keep count as he went, but that went about as well as watching the clock on the 11 hour flight over and counting down the hours. Next the techs removed the grafts, after which they gave me a nice lunch. Back into the room where Dr. B made the incisions. This was also a bit creepy because you can hear yourself getting stabbed thousands of times. No pain or anything, just weird. Then comes the long haul of implanting, where the techs again took over. At this point I was fading in and out because I hadn’t slept at all the night before, so thankfully it seemed to go by quickly.

Total graft breakdown ended up being 2167 with 434 singles, 1399 doubles, and 334 triples.

Want to give a huge shout out to everyone involved. They were all super professional and knew their stuff. Big thanks to Lina, Natassia, and all the other techs whose names I didn’t get. Also Ian for logistics, and both Doctors for not taking themselves too seriously. I appreciate some sense of humor and them both being human.

Surprisingly, I got really good sleep the first night. I used a neck pillow and built a nice little pillow fort to prop myself up. I went back the next day and Lina cleaned me up, sending me on my way. The next couple nights I got poor sleep as the pain and discomfort really started to settle in. I flew home excited to get into my own bed. Little did I know I was about to look like I got my ass beat with a sack of rocks. The swelling sucks but it is finally going away after two days. However, with the swelling minimizing, the tightening and itching in the donor area is at full annoyance. All in all, the pain in the ass that the whole experience is doesn't get talked about enough. Make sure you’re ready for some meditation.

As I said I am on day 5 now, and will pop in here to update monthly. Let me know if you have any questions and what you think of the work, would love to help out where I can.

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Day 2