Goldilocks

Hey there Hairlicious. Just wanted to say welcome to the forums and congratulations on choosing a fantastic surgeon. I had a transplant with Dr. Rahal in 2007 so if you have any questions in particular, don't hesitate to let me know. (By the way, I am female, so our goals for hair restoration are obviously quite different, but I'd be happy to share my experience with you.)

Thank you for checking up on my album. I actually just haven't gotten around to adding photos yet. Hopefully I will put some in there soon.

Hi Kitty,

I'm glad you decided not to go with the reduction surgery. It really does sound invasive.

Since I have had two hair transplants, I'd be very happy to share my online albums with you if you wish. Just send me your email address and I will give you the links.

Good luck! And I look forward to how things go for you!

Thanks for the comments in my online album. I think it's safe to say I am photo obsessed although yesterday was the first day I didn't take any pictures. I'm thinking once a week would be sufficient.

I wish you all the best with your journey! I'm interested in hearing about it when you decide to move ahead. From what I can tell, it doesn't look like you need any surgery, but of course we need to do what makes us happy.

Hi again Tony,

I sent you an email with the links to both of my online albums.

You really couldn't go wrong with either doctor in my opinion. Both are fantastic although I have to admit, I got more of a warm fuzzy feeling with Dr. Simmons. I think I just had a better rapport with him, but both are extremely good at what they do. Their methods are both very different as well, so hopefully you take that into consideration too.

I can cover the recipient area pretty well with a "strategic" hairstyle, certainly moreso than my first procedure, however I have had a fair amount of shock loss so it is quite thin. Interestingly, I have shock loss in both the recipient AND donor area, which you will most likely notice in my online albums. For simplicity and the sake of saving time, I am wearing a hat everyday to work since it takes too long to style my hair. On weekends, I don't wear a hat to give my head a break from being covered.

The donor site is healing pretty well. My donor scar from my first surgery ranged from 1 to 3 mm in width so Dr. Simmons did a scar revision for my second procedure. In other words, he excised my first scar when taking the new donor strip with the idea that I wouldn't have a second donor scar, and that my scar would hopefully be narrower this time around. I guess time will tell. Hopefully the deep layer sutures that he used to close up the site will have helped. As far as doing fue in the scar, I have heard of people having success with that, but of course there is always the risk that when you transplant into the scar tissue, the blood supply isn't sufficient to get a really good growth yield. That is definitely worth asking about at any consultations you go to.

I know that many doctors recommend that you keep your hair a bit longer prior to a strip surgery, so you will likely want to do the same, especially since you are concerned about the smiley face problem. Alternatively, maybe you could just put some of those crafty googly eyes to complete the smile into a whole face.

It's great that you have family in Ottawa and can take advantage of the convenience of seeing Dr. Rahal while you are there. I live in Ottawa so it was awesome to have a world renowned surgeon in my own local area. It made the followup very easy.

There I go again writing a novel! I hope that my online album is helpful to you. As always, let me know if you have any other questions.

Sincerely,

Kim     

Hi there agdc,

Thanks for your comment on my profile and your interest in my situation. I'll do my best to respond to your post.

I have to say that I look at many women's foreheads and see that they come in all shapes and sizes as well as always comparing mine to theirs, much like men probably look at other men's hair. It really is amazing how similar men and women are in terms of their views of themselves.

In answer to your questions, my second transplant was done by Dr. Cam Simmons in Toronto, Ontario. I chose a different doctor for the second procedure as I liked the idea of not having to shave any of my hair except for the donor area, and I also liked the technique Dr. Simmons uses (stick-and-place as well as using "chubby" grafts to preserve hairs that are in the telogen phase.)

After my first experience, I really didn't want to go through it again, not because the doctor wasn't great, or that my experience at the clinic was bad. It was moreso because of the recovery and having had both the recipient and donor areas shaved. It made it tremendously difficult to camouflage the surgery so I wore a hat for a while until I could style my hair decently. I also had a significant amount of pain and discomfort during recovery and difficulty sleeping for the first two weeks while the sutures were still in. It also took months for the numbness to go away. Looking back, I realize now that I was too stubborn to take the pain medication I was given. In retrospect, I should have like I did with my second procedure. It made a tremendous difference I have to say! I obviously "forgot" about the discomfort of the first surgery so I went ahead and had another in April of this year (approx 2 and a half years following the first).

I decided to have a second procedure because I wanted to change the shape of my forehead to make it more feminine and also add density to the existing transplant. I have very fine hair so it's more difficult to get good coverage with just one surgery. Having said that, Dr. Simmons designed me a hairline that has peaks and valleys, and a small widow's peak so that it is more irregular which is characteristic of a women's hairlines. My first one was quite straight.

Gosh, I seem to have written a novel! Anyway, I would be happy to share my online album with you privately if you send me your email address. Bill keeps trying to get me to post my albums publicly, but I am just not that comfortable doing that...at least not yet.

Hey Megatron! Just wanted to say I have been following your hair transplant with great interest as I too had one done by Dr. Simmons (about a month ago actually). I'm glad to hear that the infection you had is under control and that you are going to see better days ahead as the new hairs sprout! I noticed in your blog you had made a comment about the lack of pictures of donor areas; I had noticed this too and as such, I've been photographing mine every day for the last month so I can see how it evolves and fades. Hang in there!