Garageland

No at 5 weeks you are perfectly fine to wear a beanie hat it will not be causing friction to your hair so please don't worry, keep your head warm.

Here we are at month 3. Feeling lots of stubble over the entire recipient area which is a good sign of early growth.

I will be again holding my regular free consultations in Central London at the Thistle Hotel in Euston on Saturday February 1st. The consults will be one on one with myself a hair transplant veteran who has had 5 transplants spanning over 17 years. I will be able to explain our procedure in detail, answer any questions you have regarding surgery, show you what a transplant can look like on a Norwood 6 and take clear photos for a recommendation from either Dr Hasson or Dr Wong. If you would like to meet with me in person or for more information please email me on ukconsultant@hassonandwong.com or call 0757 8164162. David

Cforce1, Thanks for the detailed write up on your surgery with Dr Hasson as someone who had surgery at such a young age like you I feel your pain. You had a really large session and thankfully you had such good donor hair that Dr Hasson was able to extract so many grafts in one session. Very, very few patients can get 7000 grafts in one session especially after a previous procedure. This will make a very decent change in your appearance once it has fully grown in and I look forward to following your progress. I expect you will have enough to go for a second much smaller session in the future to add density to the crown and mid scalp should you wish to or you could have smp, but let's see how you are 1 year from now, you can check out my website to see how SMP can thicken a crown with grown out hair.

Here I present the first of a few results and videos of UK patients that have had transplants at Hasson & Wong. This first patient lives in my home town and is known to me personally so I was able to visit his home to provide a 1 year update on his 4467 graft surgery with Dr Wong. The patient who is in his forties wished to get the hairstyle back that he used to wear through his twenties and thirties, whilst he realised that it was never going to be possible to return him to his twenties in terms of density he now feels that he has the hair that he had over 10 years ago and is able to style it into the quiff that he always wore before it got too thin to do so. He also never realised just how little hair he had on his crown until he took photos for a consultation. The patient is very happy with his result and is very pleased he went through with his surgery as he was able to get the full coverage in one session with Dr Wong. I have also included a video of myself combing through his donor area to show the minimal scar. You can see there is no noticeable change in direction of the hair because of the scar and the patient his wearing his hair around a grade 3 and there are no signs of a visible linear scar at this length.

Bk123, You can use minox 14 days after the transplant in the recipient area but you should check what your clinics post op instructions say, did they not give you anything in writing/email to refer to?

BK123 I honesty don't think you have you lost any transplanted hairs for good. You have lost a large number of the transplanted hair shafts with the crusting that has been removed and they do look a little scary as they have clumped together but provided no blood came out you should be fine. The cell that produces the hair will be firmly in place in the scalp. Remember everyone he has zoomed in on the crusts so they look worse. The recipient area looks clean and not damaged after 14 days so I think all looks fine. Good growth to you.

Hi Jojo, The transplanted hairs will react the same as your native hairs so will grow back the same. I hope you recover your hairs.

Joey, There is the Farjo clinic in Manchester who are recommended here and I hold consultations for Hasson & Wong in London. You can email me your photos to ukconsultant@hassonandwong.com if you like.

It is unlikely that you are experiencing shock loss as a result of the surgery over 3 months on, shock loss on most cases triggers around the 2-6 week mark. I think you may be going through a shed caused by rogaine or just a general higher loss of hair than you usually have. Do remember you are hyper sensitive to loosing hairs at the moment and are probably over analysing just how many you have lost, try to relax as worrying will only make the situation worse. I am sure the clinic will respond to you after the weekend.

Hi Joey, I take it that you are 26/27? How long have you been taking propecia for? Dr Bisanga measured your donor and it is below average density and are headed for a high Norwood. It sounds like propecia has improved both the recipient area and the donor which is good news and might be the reason why the difference of opinions between the 2 clinics. I would suggest you seek some more opinions before booking any surgery, it seems that you are going to need to commit to propecia or you may not have enough grafts to get the coverage and density, photos would of course help the posters on here give an opinion.

Hi Slightly concerned, Congrats on your latest procedure. At 3 weeks your grafts are firmly secure so no damage can be done by wearing a hat. You should however try to not have the hat rubbing against the recipient area. You cannot be wearing a hat so tight that you could be cutting off the blood supply to the grafts they are just doing their thing and shedding. 3-4 weeks is normal to be seeing the vast majority fall out and this should be encouraged, really wash your hair as normal at this stage to remove the transplanted hairs. Within the next week the vast majority will fall totally normal so please don't worry.

In single guys I think it is certainly a factor, if I can remember as far back as my first transplant is was because I was convinced that I would look less attractive without hair and would affect my chances of meeting a good looking girl. I was 23 then and I think most guys in their 20's feel the same. I see many patients and some have very supportive partners, for guys in happy relationships it is more about feeling good for themselves, in nearly every case the wife or girlfriend does not want them to get a transplant they say they love them for who they are and I am sure that is true. I think Suarez is true what he says in some cases that they may be concerned that the new hair and confidence will lead to a new woman. I think money plays a big part that they could imagine what else they could do with the money, nice holiday, new kitchen, wardrobe etc. I have not meet anyone who has come to me and said my wife/girlfriend wants me to get a transplant and are doing it to just to please someone else, I wonder how many woman have had a boob job to please a man though?

Hi Fullness, Thank you for your write up and experience with Dr Hasson. It was a pleasure to deal with you from our first meeting in London. I wish you all the best with the growth and I look forward to following your progress.

Hi Fueonly, Yes it hurts a little but nothing too much. The pain when it was done into my low strip scar was painful and I understand at the sides of your head where the skin is softer will hurt more. My SMP lasted 6 hours. Yes it fades from day 1 after washing but is very gradual, mine has faded but is still making a huge difference in effect. How quickly it fades depends on the individual and something that as a clinic we are watching. The needle is placed just under the surface of the skin so is not that long and not placed very deep, there will be some bleeding in places. You sound like you have a fear of needles?

Thank you so much to Greatjob, Number 47 and Nick72 for your really kind comments. I have had good comments in person about the new look so it will be staying. So here are the 2 month updates. I had a haircut a couple of weeks ago by the other half at the sides and back to even things out and have kept growing the top.

I will be again holding my regular free consultations in Central London at the Thistle Hotel in Marble Arch on Saturday January 11th. The consults will be one on one with myself a ht veteran who has had 5 transplants spanning over 17 years. I will be able to explain our procedure in detail, answer any questions you have regarding surgery, show you what a transplant can look like on a Norwood 6 and take clear photos for a recommendation from either Dr Hasson or Dr Wong. If you would like to meet with me in person or for more information please email me on ukconsultant@hassonandwong.com or call 0757 8164162. David

Thanks guys for the comments. I will be uploading some 2 month photos soon. Yes I had SMP with H&W, Joe would be the guy to speak with regarding pricing as I am not sure if we have set a price yet. Rev- Thanks very much. At nearly 2 months I like my new shorter look and like anyone am excited to see what it is going to look like at month 12. Glad you like the photos Joe has taught me well!

Thanks Steve, hope you are well? Spanker and abcd I have just uploaded some photos of the SMP into my crown and scars. I have certainly considered FUE into the scars before I will see how long the SMP lasts first though. Thanks David and hsrp, swelling on both my procedures has been in my forehead and bridge of my nose never dropped down to my eyes before. I have been taking quarter tab of branded Proscar for 7 years now. I had a spell when I got lazy in 2009 and stopped taking it as I was traveling and I think I lost ground. For me I don't think I have gained much from it but I certainly haven't lost anymore hair.

Day 15 Post op Day 16 Close up SMP SMP into old scar Day 18 Day 23 Compare SMP before and after 1 Month

Well I did it again over 7 years on from my repair with Dr Hasson and 3 years on from my scar repair and hairline refinement I decided my scalp was loose enough to go for one last session! I had been working on my scalp exercises for several months before the surgery but on and off for a year or more now. My original idea had been to give a little extra density to the crown but with the number of grafts that were going to be available the logical decision to add density to the frontal area would have had the biggest impact. Due to the extend of my loss and despite having a decent number of grafts in the past I am still limited to how I style my hair as all Norwood 6 patients are. I have a very large area to cover and my crown is huge. Once the decision to SMP the crown and mid scalp was made it seemed to make sense to place the grafts into the frontal area to give me greater density here with a view to wearing my hair a little shorter. For those who don't know my case if that is possible lol! I had 3 old style transplants in 1996/7 and 1998 for around 450 grafts each time, the first one at the age of 23, the result was 3 wide scars and a pluggy unnatural hairline which was initially covered by my native hair. I had very aggressive hair loss and progression to a Norwood 6 pattern, I was not taking any medication or using Rogaine partly because in the early stages neither were available in the UK and I was put off using Propecia by a hair Trichologist. After loosing nearly all of my native hair by 2002 aged 29 I had pretty much given up on ever looking normal and covering this unnatural hairline that people would double take. By accident in 2005 a pop up for hair transplants started my obsession again into researching what could be done. On the 1st of June 2006 I had a 4856 graft procedure with Dr Hasson, this procedure was going to be my last throw of the dice to get as much coverage as possible and hide that old pluggy hairline. The hairline was lowered a fraction and many grafts were placed into the frontal area to cover the old mini and micro grafts, the density was then reduced as we went into the mid scalp and the crown was given a light coverage. To maximize the number of grafts available it was agreed that a new scar should be taken. After one year there was quite a transformation both in my hair and personality and I enjoyed this new look for 4 years. In 2010 I had a scar revision with Dr Hasson to remove part of an old scar that had stretched, at the same time I guess around 300 grafts were gained and these were split into 623 singles to refine the hairline. Nearly everything you see on the top of my head is the result of hair transplants. I won't go into the full detail on here but have done that on my blog if you would like more detail. My latest surgery was on October 10th 2013. My graft breakdown of the 1755 grafts of which 584 were single, 1048 were doubles and 123 were 3’s or 4 hair grafts. On day 10 post op I had SMP into my mid scalp directly behind where the new grafts were placed and through the mid scalp to the lower part of my crown. I also had SMP into my old donor scars. Here's how I looked before my latest surgery after I would imagine 6500 to 6700 grafts or thereabouts. Post Op Day 3 - This photo diary is to hopefully help new patients with their research on the post op healing process. Swelling in my forehead. Day 4 Swelling has moved from my forehead to the bridge of my nose. The Density was higher on my left side which is why it looks a little more red. Day 5 and time for a haircut to even things up. Swelling has more or less gone now. Day 6 Looking tired!!! Day 7 Day 10 Before SMP Into Crown Old donor scar from 1997 that is too low to revise before SMP Day 12 After SMP

Delancey, It is difficult to see or predict if you are going to progress to a 7 at this stage but you are doing the right thing by getting onto propecia as this will be the best thing you can do to help prevent that from not happening. Jag- Progressing to a 7 does make a great deal of difference and most 7's aren't really viable candidates unless they wish to go down the body hair route which is why Delancey is keen to make sure he is not going in that direction and I think he is very right to do so. The sides of his hair could drop a great deal and this is the most worrying factor as these would need to be built up to make it look natural. The crown would open up much further and the permanent zone reduces. I think Delancey would rather shave it off and be done with it rather than spend the next 5-10 years restoring a nw7 pattern.

Delancey, Hello we exchanged a few emails and I know that you are very concerned as you should be regarding future loss. I just looked through all your photos which were different than the ones I had seen previously. I certainly feel that your are to progress to a Norwood 6 but I can't see any clear sign from the photos that you will progress to a 7, that said I also can't give you reassurance that you won't. What worried me is that your hair seems to change texture from the nape of your neck upwards and can be seen in a couple of your photos. This may just be a trick of the light I am not sure. I am glad you are going to see Dr Bisanga in December he will give you some honest advice of your situation.