JakeVig HT with Ron Shapiro 1344 grafts

[JakeVig]

Pre and post op pictures of my HT with Ron Shapiro. I had about 800-900 grafts placed to fill in my receeding hairline and the rest placed behind my front tuff to add density to my 'horse shoe' thinning. Initially opted for 1200 grafts but ended up with 1344.

 

Ok guys I have officially joined the club! as of the 14/06/06 when I had my first HT with Ron Shapiro of SMG. My initial consultation with Matt Zupan was only 1200 grafts to fill in the receeding hairline.

 

First a little bit about my journey.

I have been considering a HT for the past 8 months ever since my receeding hairline was so severe that I was very self conscience about it and hated looking at the mirror every morning and tried to avoid having my picture taken.

 

At this point in time I knew I wanted a HT since I have been on propecia for the last couple of years of which time I had lost most of my hair. During this time I had severe dandruff to the point that I was literally scratching my hair out trying to cope with the itch. I just thought that this was the process of balding. But now I think that If I used Nizoral earlier my hair would've been in a much better condition than it is now.

 

I was initially going to just go to the best HT doctor I thought in the UK since I didnt think that it mattered much since a HT was just a typical procedure that everyone was capable of performing.

Boy was I glad I did some more research and found this site - it is an absolute godsend the information found here I invaluable and I believe helped me assess the best path with the limited donor supply I have left.

 

My hairloss has affected my self confidence greatly. To the point that I would happily trade all my material positions to have a full head of hair and not be susceptible to MPB anymore. This is why I dont understand how some people would not go on the meds because they are too expensive. Proscar and generic minioxidil is the most effective and inexpensive treatment for hairloss. Cost should never be an issue as you can always get more money in the future - this is not the same with your hair. There maybe other reasons why people would opt out of using the meds but cost should definately not be one of them!!!

 

I sent out a few consultations to some of the best doctors recommended on this forum and they quoted me between 1200 - 2500 grafts. I ended up choosing Ron Shapiro because for me cost is not an issue and I appreciated the fact that SMG recommended only 1200 grafts initially since I am young (just turning 27) and they dont know how far along my balding would progress. After a few years if my hairloss has stabalized than we could consider going even lower.

 

Before the consultation I decided to completely shave my head with a razor to see if it was an acceptable look since I know that I would not be able to shave my head after a HT. Unfortunately it is definately not for me so I continued with my HT.

 

I dont think anyone should shave their head with a razor maybe a #4 buzz cut or something to get an idea of how they would look - but never completely bold with a razor. My hair grew back so thin that I never think it will ever grow back as thick as it was before I shaved it (as seen in the previous 2 pics) - Im not sure why this is, but I can only recommend that people dont do it.

 

Initially my 1200 grafts was only to fill in my receeding hairline and to lower my hairline a tad. But after seeing how thin I was after a month of hair growth I decided that I only wanted to fill in the receeded hair lines and add some more density into the thinning 'horse shoe' behind my tuff of hair.

 

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My Procedure with SMG

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My first contact with staff at SMG was with Matt Zupan it was comforting to know that they knew who I was and was already expecting me (a benefit of only having one HT per day). Being that this was my first surgery I felt that Matt's positive attitude helped alleviate my initial nerves about the procedure.

 

Then I met Ron Shapiro who came in to draw on my head until we were both happy with the procedure. He was initially more conservative on my hairline than what I had in mind but because they didnt exactly know of my future progression he said that I may have to laser off some of the hairline in future to bring it back to a natural look.

 

The thought of having to laser hair (i.e. wasting grafts) in future did not sit well with me as I wanted to make the most optimal use of my limited donor supply (unless I am 100% sure of hair multiplication or gene therapy in future). So we ended up 'negotiating' a hairline that we were both confident that we could maintain in the future - so we were both happy.

 

Adding density behind my 'front tuff' was my idea of 'future proofing' the HT as I imagined that I would just get thinner and I didnt think that the meds would help at all in the hairline. Ron did suggest that adding density in the mid scalp area rather than at the hair line would decrease the aesthetic impact of the grafts (So I dont expect my result to be as good as someone else with the same no of grafts). but I was happy to trade a little higher hairline for adding some 'future proofing' to my HT.

 

Adding density is actually a hard thing to do and in order to do this my hair needed to be cut really short and Ron had to use his state of the art 10x magnification to find spaces for the grafts without affecting the native hair - which is the reason for my bad hair do

 

My donor hair is average at around per 90 grafts per sqm. (Normal density is between 80-100 sqm). And my hair is of medium coarseness. With that being said I was a little disappointed that it looks like I only have 6000 grafts in total. So I think I only have at 5k left. I am so jealous with people like Jotronic and Bobman being able to get 7000+ grafts, no wonder they have a fantastic results! Its hard to imagine that Jotronic could've even have more hair had he gone to top surgeons for all his HT's.

 

Anyway Ron took a strip of around 10cm x 1.2cm strip from only the right half of my scalp (expecting around 1200 grafts). I believe his reasons for doing this rather than making the strip symmetrical is that it leaves me with a completely virgin half of my scalp to use later as I wish. As well as being able to use stronger back hairs as well as weaker side hairs to blend in to my hairline to make it appear more natural. I was happy to find out my strip ended up yielding 1344 grafts!

 

Another great thing about having a leading surgeon like Ron Shapiro operating on you is that you get to pick his brain. I asked him about a million questions I felt I should've also been charged a consultant fee for his feedback

 

As has been documented many times the most painful part of the procedure was the application of anestecia. The good thing about knowing the HT process before having one is that we know that the anestecia is the worst part and that it is basically the rest is smooth sailing from there.

 

One thing that I liked about Ron is that he approaches the surgery like an artist, he will ask for some strong 1's put them in the hairline and then get ask for some weaker 1's. Then takes a look back and makes his next request. Im sure this is standard practice in most top surgeons he uses different size incisions depending on whether he is putting in 1's 2's 3's and 4's - so the slits fit perfectly.

 

I ended up getting around 50 grafts per cm for my receeeded hairline and a similar count (including native hair) to the area behind my tuff, so it should blend in well with my existing tuff.

 

Basically Ron does all the incisions and places the hairlines himself. The area behind the hairline is placed labourishly by his friendly experienced technicians.

 

Even though I had a relatively small number of grafts my HT ended up taking a long time, finishing around 6:30pm. I believe this is because of the time and dillegence Ron spent in adding density making sure not to affect the native hair.

 

I believe the after care was excellent as well I was able to go back to SMG a couple of times to get the nurses to shampoo my hair. Each time Ron came in to check on the progress to make sure everything was going well.

 

Although he didnt recommend it Ron was happy to prescribe me Avodart and prescription strength Nizoral shampoo upon my request.

 

At the moment Im just a few days post op and believe am progressing well, using the Graftcyte spray and other meds dillegently as instructed.

 

I believe I have learnt a lot from Ron and Matt at my time at SMG. I believe some of their thoughts are contradictory to what is being said here I will try to add everything I've remember in a different thread.

 

Anyways I will try to keep my pics posted as I progress.

 

 

 

[M&M]

Looking good. Now comes the difficult waiting game. I'm about 6 weeks ahead of you, as I had my procedure with Dr. Ron Shapiro on 5/2. I ended up with 1662 all in the hairline, so I hope to get some very good density plus masking of prior Bosley Mini & Micro's. Can I ask why you didn't opt for more grafts?

[ogph]

Congratulations Jake. Looking real good. Please keep us posted on the shock loss and other developments.

 

How was your overall expererience.

 

Cheers.

[JakeVig]

Originally posted by M&M:

Looking good. Now comes the difficult waiting game. I'm about 6 weeks ahead of you, as I had my procedure with Dr. Ron Shapiro on 5/2. I ended up with 1662 all in the hairline, so I hope to get some very good density plus masking of prior Bosley Mini & Micro's. Can I ask why you didn't opt for more grafts?

 

Well I actually did want more grafts but they were concerned about my future hairloss and didnt want to add any at the crown at this time. At this point in time I guess I wanted to err on the side of caution and not have my hairline too low which cannot be maintained with the donor supply I have left. So having said that there is not too much else to put it.

 

I am going to start Avodart soon so if my hair stabalizes in the next couple of years I will consider more grafts and a lower hairline.

 

I am also under the personal opinion that multiple HT's would probably be the most optimal use of my donor supply. I believe smaller HT's will cause less trauma and result in less shock loss. But maybe the time spent waiting for these results will change my mind in future.

 

But yeah it gets down to managing my limited donor supply in the most optimal way. It looks like I have a max supply of only 5k left so Im not as lucky as some, so I have to excercise caution with what I have left.

[JakeVig]

Originally posted by ogph:

Congratulations Jake. Looking real good. Please keep us posted on the shock loss and other developments.

 

How was your overall expererience.

 

Cheers.

 

Thanks guys, I will definately be keeping my progress including shockloss posted!

[hairbank]

Jake-

 

Congrats on your HT with Doc Shapiro. When that comes in I think you'll be pleased with the results. Though the "record-busting" numbers in grafts are fun to see..................it's refreshing to see a skillfully done session appropriate for the patient's age and type of loss. Looking at your crown, you're ripe for results from a DHT inhibitor. Many wait 'til there's not much left but it appears you may be starting just in time.

 

Keep us posted with your updates on HT growth and crown growth from the Avodart.

[JakeVig]

Originally posted by hairbank:

Jake-

 

Congrats on your HT with Doc Shapiro. When that comes in I think you'll be pleased with the results. Though the "record-busting" numbers in grafts are fun to see..................it's refreshing to see a skillfully done session appropriate for the patient's age and type of loss. Looking at your crown, you're ripe for results from a DHT inhibitor. Many wait 'til there's not much left but it appears you may be starting just in time.

 

Keep us posted with your updates on HT growth and crown growth from the Avodart.

 

Thanks hairbank,

 

First of all thanks for your encouraging words in the days leading up to my HT it helped alleviate some nerves I had about it.

 

The only thing Im worried about now is the haircut I have to have before work as to whether or not it will be obvious. I had to shave down in order to add density so it is extremely obvious right now. I've only got about 2 weeks left before I start work again so Im hoping for some decent growth of my native hair so my haircut is not too ridiculous.

 

Yeah I've been on propecia for the last 2 years but unfortunately have not responded that well as I have had a lot of hair loss within that time. Which is the reason Im switching to Avodart. Im hoping that in combination of adding Nizoral, Nioxin and Minioxidil to the mix I can achieve some regrowth. Only time will tell.

 

But apart from that Im looking forward to the future! I know that its going to be a long wait but at least the count down has already started!