2,550 Grafts from Dr. Cooley on 18 January 2006

[Hair Apparent]

Originally posted by HairHope:

Congratulations on your second pass, I have had only one pass, but clearly need a second one in the next year or so to improve density. I will certainly be asking questions about your 2nd HT experience, thanks for sharing.

HairHope,

 

Thanks for the good word. I think you will find it easier, with the second pass, to undergo the waiting.

 

Living through the first HT is demystifying. The first time, you wonder what the final result will look like. You wonder, at the various stages, if your hair growth is progressing as it should. You wonder why some grafts seem to be growing just fine, but other grafts right next to them don't show any growth at all.

 

Now, after living through it, most of those questions are non-issues; you know the answers. I was fortunate, during my first HT to have Doctor Cooley's head nurse, Ailene Watts, available to answer all of my questions. She had the patience of a saint. I must have asked everything under the sun, and every time I thought I had asked my last question, I'd think of one or two more the next day. And she answered each one patiently and accurately.

 

This time around, except for one time, with regard to my concern over the irritation in my scar (due to the sebaceous cyst), I haven't had a single question I need answered.

 

So, barring something completely unexpected, you will experience a lot less anxiety over the course of the second HT's growth.

[Doc Patient]

Hair Apparent,

Thank-you very much for your reply.

[Jotronic]

Hair Apparent,

 

've never read here of any HT patient retaining all of his transplanted hairs in the first few weeks post-op, but I would imagine it's certainly possible.

 

Actually, we're seeing this more and more lately and we're not sure exactly why this is. Continued refinement to techniques may be one reason but it's a guess right now.

 

Congrats on round two. I know how good it can feel

[Maximus]

Hi Everybody,

 

Can't believe 4 months have flown by so quickly. Everything is going well and it is fun to watch the hair fill in. I am happy with my hairline and everything looks good.

 

My understanding is that at about 5 months density is around 50% with more to come between months 7-10 and the full results apparent at 12 months.

 

What do you think?

 

Things are looking good now and if more density is to come, I am really going to be happy.

 

Keep me updated with all that is going on with you.

 

Take care...

[Hair Apparent]

Update 4 HT2 + I year, 49 days

 

I let so much time elapse since my last update in order to provide the most accurate information possible. During my reporting of my first HT, occasionally I jumped the gun in outlaying the results, not having waited enough time to let things develop. For this one, I made sure I gave it enough time for a truly accurate account.

 

Let me start with excerpts from an e-mail I sent my surgeon, Doctor Jerry Cooley, and his staff:

________________________________________________

 

As far as the dedication, skill, and efforts of all of you, I never stop singing your praises.

 

In terms of technical surgical skill, obviously, Dr. Cooley, I am in no position, in education or experience, to grade you against the other surgeons listed in the Hair Restoration Co?¤lition--for my money, whatever differences there are in the skills of the Co?¤lition members are so thin as to be negligible.

 

But from personal observation, I am convinced that no-one could find a better hair transplant surgeon than you. Speaking to your skill as a surgeon, I know this: my hair transplants have been undetectable. Now, I have not made a secret of the fact that I have had hair transplants and most of those in my circle are aware of that. But one thing that tickles me is that those who were not plugged into the grapevine immediately assume my new crop of hair is the result of Propecia or some other hair-restoration pharmacon. They are surprised to learn that it is the result of transplants, so natural does it look.

 

Speaking to your sense of the ???¦sthetic, this is one area that I would unhestitatingly rate you the best of the best. The hairline you designed for me was perfect. Not only was it age-appropriate, it was precisely in keeping with what I had envisioned for myself. That is the aspect that tickles me the most about my HT's when I look in the mirror. Were I to have unlimited donor hair (and an unlimited wallet), I would not alter the hairline you designed for me one whit, only, naturally, thicken what you have already provided . . . .

 

Speaking to the intangibles of you as a physician--character, ethics, personality, your "bedside manner"--this is another area where I would rate you as top of the line. I have never enjoyed a better experience with you or Ailene or the rest of your staff than with any other physician, military or civilian--and if you knew how favourably I compared military medicine to civilian, you'd know even more how highly I regard you.

 

I have no doubt that, given the number of grafts and my degree of balding, no other surgeon could have given me better results than you, nor made the entire experience as enjoyable. You maximised my gain in all of the tangible and intangible aspects.

 

If it sounds like I am laying it on thick, I am not. This is a candid appraisal of your work . . . .

 

One of the things that first and most impressed me about you and Ailene is that you did not give me, either deliberately or inadvertently, any false expectations or overly optimistic prognoses. Your estimations of my probable results were dead-on. You gave me the straight scoop, and I appreciated that from the get-go. And don't think I am unaware of how uncomfortable it is for a medical person to offer a patient any predictions--there is the looming risk that an unreasonable patient will build those predictions into an overly optimistic expectation of results, and then, when the results fall short of that ideal, the patient blames the doctor and his staff. So I am aware of the courage that it took for you and Ailene to even advance a prediction in my case. I am thankful that you trusted me enough to do that, for that was the only way I could make an informed decision to go with hair transplantation . . . .

 

In short, what you have done--and this is no small accomplishment, given what disadvantages you had to work with--was turn me from a "bald man" to a "balding man". Whatever is left to be accomplished, at least I can no longer be described as "the bald guy over there". You probably know what a tremendous boost in self-confidence even such a relative improvement is. (Self-confidence I feel 90% of the time, until I see some 80-year-old man with a head of hair so thick you couldn't get a comb through it. #%@%$#@#! gene pool.)

 

Bottom line: I made the right decision to go ahead with hair transplants; and I made an even better decision in selecting you and your staff as the professionals to perform it. In fact, I couldn't have made a better one, there. There aren't enough ways for me to thank you for what you have achieved in my case. In report-card terms, you get "A's" in all subjects.

 

Thank you, thank you all, for your hard work and dedication on my behalf.

________________________________________________

 

What I exorcised from the above were my comments about how difficult a patient I was, given my degree of baldness--I was a Norwood VI--and basically average in all of the characteristics that a HT patient has (density of donor hair, thickness of individuals hair, laxity of scalp).

 

That meant I fell short of my original goal--and a modest one it was--even after two HT's. However, the culprit there is Nature. What Dr. Cooley achieved in the face of me being so short-changed is nothing short of remarkable.

 

Viewed from the front, my goal was reached. The hairline Dr. Cooley designed for me was perfect for my age and desires, and that alone is a big moral booster. It is when viewed from the sides and the back that I fall short.

 

Dermatch, lightly applied--just enough to reduce the contrast between hair and scalp--does an excellent job. I even have enough hair in the crown--thanks to my decision for my first HT to have the grafts distributed all over my balding area--for Dermatch to make a difference. No, it doesn't come close to concealing that big honkin' balding spot, but it helps blend my hair and the spot doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

 

The information I want to disseminate here goes mostly to you Norwood VI and VII fellows: unless you are lucky enough to be of those guys with absolute ideal characteristics in terms of available donor hair, no, you aren't going to regain everything. But what you do get back makes a tremendous difference. Especially when you consider the fact that no-one else really looks as hard at your hair, or lack of it, as you do--unless you are completely bald. Then, everyone notices.

 

So, my experience has been, even a modest, incomplete gain has a big pay-off. (Of course, I'm 50, and the remaining balding areas are easier for me, and others, to accept. If you are 30 and a Norwood VI or VII, yeah, that's a tough row to hoe.)

 

If, when you read my e-mail to him, you thought I was laying it on a bit too thick, believe me, I was not. Within five years, I will be able to go back for a third HT. In the meantime, I am determined to find some more tangible way to express my gratitude to him for his efforts and generosity on my behalf.

 

And that's the way it is. Good luck to all of you, both my fellow HT veterans and those of you considering it. And for those of you considering it, I hope something I've said in my posts has been informative to you.