woman, recommending dr beehner, saratoga springs, ny...

sandra · June 27, 2007

Hello!

I'm Sandra, a 30-year old woman with hair loss issues. I recently (on May 29, 2007) travelled to Saratoga Springs, NY where I had a hair transplant procedure performed by Dr. Michael Beehner.

Though it is clearly far too early for me to make any definitive judgement as to the hair growth I will achieve from this procedure, I wanted to post here to commend Dr. Beehner and his staff for their skill, professionalism, and incredibly personable nature, which made the whole process, from consultation to the procedure, to aftercare, as pleasant and complication-free as I could have hoped.

I am quite confident that I will be posting exceedingly favorable reviews of my progress in the coming months, but for now, I would like to share the positive experience I have had thus far.

I had first become interested in choosing Dr Beehner as my surgeon on the basis of his website, which impressed me very much with not only its demonstration of his practice's excellent skill, but also its significant emphasis of womens' hair transplantation as a distinctly different science and art.

Furthermore, his site had a section focusing on transgender hair transplantation. This was of further appeal to me, as a woman who has suffered moderate male-pattern hair recession at the temples, but desired the reconstruction of a typically female hairline. I was born male, and did not begin the process of medically transitioning to living as a woman through hormones, etc, until three years ago.

Dr. Beehner's point was of the utmost importance to me: in my daily life as a professional woman (lawyer to be precise) in DC, absolutely no one would presume that I was born male unless they were told this. However, my hair loss (despite my generally successful efforts to minimize its appearance, and the fact that it had been halted by the gender transition process) has always been a significant source of sadness and anxiety to me.

Dr. Beehner and I began an email correspondence in April, where we had an excellent discussion of goals, logistics, costs, and mutual expectations. He analyzed images I had sent to him and made very detailed assessments, showing an extensive attention to detail. This was followed up by several phone calls, as we came closer to agreeing on a transplantion strategy and surgical date. These remote consultations were very helpful to me, as the demands of my job involve significant international travel and irregular hours, so I was exceedingly grateful for his flexibility.

A month before the surgery, I received a detailed packet of pre-operative information from Betsy, who runs Dr Beehner's office. This set me very much at ease in terms of the details of preparation for surgery and aftercare.

On May 29, having arrived in Saratoga Springs the previous day, I went to Dr Beehner's office at approximately 7am for my procedure. He re-verified the assessment of my hair loss with me, as well as the specific transplantion trategy for this procedure. I was candidly told that in all likelihood, a second procedure would be required to achieve the fullness I desired at my hairline. However, he was confident that our plans for this procedure would result in a very favorable outcome that would get my hairline much closer to that desired fullness.

At approximately 9am, I was seated in a chair in the midst of the surgical suite. The nurses who would assist in the construction of the FUs did an excellent job at reassuring and calming me, as did Dr. Beehner (a confession, I am an utter coward when it comes to needles, let alone having over a thousand punctures made in my head!).

After the novacaine was administered and the IV of sedatives began, I remembered exceedingly little of the next six hours. There was a break where I drank a bit of orange juice, another one where I used the ladies' room, but other than that, it flew by.

Incidentially, my surgery consisted of 1005 FU grafts of 1-3 hairs each, and 106 small mini grafts of 4-6 hairs each, those being placed further back, away from the hairline.

Coming out of the procedure, Dr. Beehner and the staff took great pains to make sure I was ready to make my way out of the office. A compression bandage and bandanna were put on me, I was given all of their contact info (again), and assurances that they were on call at any time for any issues that I might have.

The rest of the afternoon was slightly uncomfortable at times, basically due to the unfamiliar pressure of the bandanna, not really due to any pain. That night, I even managed a very little bit of light walking around pleasant downtown Saratoga Springs, including a nice dinner.

The next morning, I was given a very thorough hair shampooing, followed by a re-iteration of the aftercare instructions, including reassurance and suggestions about concealment of the surgery. I had taken the rest of the week and the beginning of the following week off from work, but considered it extremely important that there be no visible signs of the procedure when I returned to the office.

Fortunately, my healing went very smoothly. Though I had some dull throbbing pain from the donor scar, that was easily controlled with pain medication, and by the simple practice of not lying down on it directly (fortunately, I tend to sleep on my side). The scabbing was rather ugly looking for the first several days-- I wore a bandanna or a scarf whenever I left my apartment. When I was in, I engaged in very frequent (at first, hourly, then less so) use of Tricomin Follicle Therapy Spray, as well as vitamin E cream before bed, both suggested and provided by Dr Beehner and his staff.

I did have some slight swelling on day 3 and day 4 after the surgery, but it dissipated quickly. Dr. Beehner had warned me about the significant possiblity of this, given that the more extensive work on the sides of my forehead (as with many women transplant patients) does increase a risk of post-operative swelling of the forehead. I was given prednisol (an anti-inflammatory) on the day of the surgery as well as a daily dose of it to take for the following 5-6 days. I credit the preemptive anti-inflammatory medication for my very quick recovery from the swelling, which started to fade less than a day after it started.

From day 3 on, I was losing scabs through my own gentle (but thorough) hair shampooing/soaking, with the vast majority gone by day 5. Day 5 was the first day I felt secure enough about the healing to forego the bandannas or scarves-- though I used a little bit of concealer to bring down a bit of the pinkness in the transplantation site, along the hairline. Upon returning to work two days later, I had absolutely no issues in concealing the recipient area.

In the following weeks, I have noted the (as is typical) loss of most of my transplanted hair. However, I have had no shock hair loss (or so little as to escape my notice, which is unlikely). Also, some (no more than 5-10%, but noticable) of my transplanted hair seems to have thrived in place, though the associated scabs have come off. In still other cases, I am noticing some new, very fine hairs just starting to come in parts of the recipient area which were previously completely bare. That is an exciting development!

Anyway, that is my experience with Dr. Beehner's office to date-- a highly skilled team of compassionate, friendly, attentive, and skilled professionals, who have left me exceedingly pleased with my decision to utilize their services. Please feel free to ask me any other questions about my experience with them that you wish. Meanwhile, as I stated earlier, I will try to update this forum with my progress in the coming months, as well as if I do have a followup procedure with Dr Beehner, possibly next year.

-Sandra

sandra · June 27, 2007