Buckaroo

I'm a month post op; here are a few interesting things from the recovery: First off the swelling in the donor area lasted a good twenty days, that wasn't fun. I stopped using rogaine until the swelling went away because I didn't think a med that increased blood flow would be a good idea with the swelling. I also had to take something at night to fall asleep with the pain (Tylenol/Unisom/etc..) All the pain is gone now, and I'm only taking hair meds (Rogaine/Propecia). I feel much better about the whole thing. I think I've got a bit of shock loss already, I noticed I shed a lot of small hairs before getting back on Rogaine. One really weird thing is not all the implanted FUs shed. 10% or so seemed to have stayed in and are starting to grow. I noticed a lot of hair started to miniaturize so it was dark on the ends but thin and white at the root. After I got back on Rogaine the root turned dark again. So now I have a bit of hair that is dark on the ends but white in the middle. It looks weird like cat hair. Of course no one has noticed anything except me. I just think it is interesting to see all these processes taking place on my forehead. Also I had a lot a peeling skin on the scalp. Neutrogena T-gel does wonders for that. This was the only part anyone at work noticed. It's been 2 months since my last hair cut. I really want a haircut but I'm a bit shy of the scar (don't worry I'll get over it). Since I don't live in MN I had to get the sutures removed locally at an urgent care. They were pretty good but I was still a bit embarrassed every time I had to say "hair transplant". However most of the other people in the suture removal area had done far more embarrassing things to get there. The medical staff there was really impressed with Shapiro's sutures, saying it was the best they've ever seen. When they first saw me a few of them thought I had had brain surgery given the length of the scar. I'm really glad I went with Shapiro.

I've been reading this board for a while I thought I'd give something back. I'm 7 days post op a 1900 graft surgery with Dr. Shapiro. So far everything is going well and I just wanted to add my experience to the general pool of information. I'm 28, at class 3 vertex Norwood scale, and have been using Rogaine and Propecia for about 4 years. Since I started using the drugs I've had minimal loss and some regrowth in a few areas. My hair is thin throughout the top without a hair line to speak of. My goals for HT are establishing a hairline and the long term appearance of hair. I first met with Matt Zupan and Dr. Shapiro about 2 months ago and was able to get a surgery relatively soon due to a cancellation. I had 1900 grafts put in the front third of my head. I was scheduled for 2000 but the strip was only 1900, though it had a slightly higher number of 3 FUs than normal so the total amount of hair was the same. Dr. Shapiro promptly refunded the money for the 100 graphs without my asking. There were no complications with the surgery. Dr. Shapiro said my skin is loose and elastic, which made the surgery easy. The worst problem I've had so far is swelling in the donor region. It was really bad a few days ago and I've got some discoloration behind my right ear (like a bruise). I've been aggressively icing the area (I should have done more after surgery) and it has gotten a lot better. If I could have done one thing better it would be to take better care of the donor area, and ice it as much as I did my forehead. The recipient area is doing very well with no pain for the last 5 days and scabs are just starting to fall off. Only one has had any hair in it which is supposed to be normal so I assume that area is just healing really well and the other hair shafts will shed later. I took a week off work which seems to be about right. I would not suggest trying to get back to work within the first 5 days, as you don't know how the healing process will go. The swelling would have made my life miserable if I hadn't been able to nurse it for a few days. Anyway from what I've seen so far I'd recommend Dr. Shapiro. He is very laid back, isn't afraid to give advice, and is very experienced with different types/levels of high loss. I might post pictures if I get around to it. Though I'm extremely happy with the HT I mostly want to forget about it and get back to regular life. If I get future FTs it will be to maintain the level of hair I have after this one, but hopefully Rogaine and Propecia will keep me from having to do that for a few years.

I've been reading this board for a while I thought I'd give something back. I'm 7 days post op a 1900 graft surgery with Dr. Shapiro. So far everything is going well and I just wanted to add my experience to the general pool of information. I'm 28, at class 3 vertex Norwood scale, and have been using Rogaine and Propecia for about 4 years. Since I started using the drugs I've had minimal loss and some regrowth in a few areas. My hair is thin throughout the top without a hair line to speak of. My goals for HT are establishing a hairline and the long term appearance of hair. I first met with Matt Zupan and Dr. Shapiro about 2 months ago and was able to get a surgery relatively soon due to a cancellation. I had 1900 grafts put in the front third of my head. I was scheduled for 2000 but the strip was only 1900, though it had a slightly higher number of 3 FUs than normal so the total amount of hair was the same. Dr. Shapiro promptly refunded the money for the 100 graphs without my asking. There were no complications with the surgery. Dr. Shapiro said my skin is loose and elastic, which made the surgery easy. The worst problem I've had so far is swelling in the donor region. It was really bad a few days ago and I've got some discoloration behind my right ear (like a bruise). I've been aggressively icing the area (I should have done more after surgery) and it has gotten a lot better. If I could have done one thing better it would be to take better care of the donor area, and ice it as much as I did my forehead. The recipient area is doing very well with no pain for the last 5 days and scabs are just starting to fall off. Only one has had any hair in it which is supposed to be normal so I assume that area is just healing really well and the other hair shafts will shed later. I took a week off work which seems to be about right. I would not suggest trying to get back to work within the first 5 days, as you don't know how the healing process will go. The swelling would have made my life miserable if I hadn't been able to nurse it for a few days. Anyway from what I've seen so far I'd recommend Dr. Shapiro. He is very laid back, isn't afraid to give advice, and is very experienced with different types/levels of high loss. I might post pictures if I get around to it. Though I'm extremely happy with the HT I mostly want to forget about it and get back to regular life. If I get future FTs it will be to maintain the level of hair I have after this one, but hopefully Rogaine and Propecia will keep me from having to do that for a few years.