MEGA session with Dr Hasson 11/30/05

[Qwert]

I had had a consultation with Dr Hasson & Doug back in October. I was initially set on going to DHI in Florida for 2000 grafts, but decided to see what Hasson & Wong had to offer, since I live in Vancouver. After my consultation, I changed my mind & booked with Dr Hasson. Not only was the consultation, professional & informative, but there was no hard sell. Just the facts. I found, that being able to get it all done in one day, to be very attractive. Before that, I would've had to fly to Florida for 5-7 days to get 2000 grafts, since DHI told me they could only do 500 per day. The time involved, the much higher per graft cost & especially the fact that they would take 4-7 days just to respond to my e-mails didn't sit too well with me either. I really liked that all of my e-mails & enquires were answered promptly by H&W. I mean, if someone is shelling out $10k+ for a service, the least someone can do is answer their e-mails promptly. Anyway, I booked with Dr Hasson for a session, hoping for 3000-4000 grafts. Boy, was I waaaaay off!!! I arrived at 7:30 for my appointment & was greeted by the extremely friendly staff. I met with Dr Hasson & he drew out 2 hairlines. The one that would be picked would depend on the amount of grafts available. I was given the anesthetic & the cutting of the strips began. The initial injections stung for a few seconds, but after that, I felt no pain at all during the cutting or the stapling. I was rather surprised at this, since I was expecting a lot of pain & discomfort. After all, your flesh is being sliced open. When the cutting was taken care of, I was taken to another room where Dr Hasson cut the appropriate amount of slits. After that was done, I watched DVDs as the staff, 2 at a time, inserted the grafts. No pain here either. I was given a lunch break & was hoping to be done by 3-4pm with my 3000-4000 grafts. Well, at 4pm I was told that I would be staying longer. A lot longer, since the amount of grafts harvested was just over 6500. Well, to say I was overjoyed would be the understatement of the century. More slits were cut by Dr Hasson & the staff proceeded with more work. I then took a dinner break where I chatted with Doug & Joe who took more pictures. Both seemed genuinely interested & excited that I was able to get 6500+ grafts. It was really nice talking over dinner with people who were as passionate & hardcore about hairloss as I am. Before the this surgery, I'd done & taken some crazy stuff to prolong my hairloss / grow back hair. Forget Nizoral, Minoxidil, Avodart & Proscar. Have you guys tried Femera, Arimidex, Aromasin, Dostinex, Bromocriptin or Cytadren? Some worked well, some didn't, but I had to try them to see what would happen. Anyway, I ended up finishing at 9:30pm, 14 hours later. I watched 3 movies, had 2 meals & got 6500+ grafts done. All of this performed impeccably by Dr Hasson & his excellent & friendly staff. I couldn't be happier with my procedure, as I feel like I have won the lottery, with the amount of hair that was harvested for my surgery. It far exceeded my expectations & I can't wait for the following months to see what the new hair will look like. Dr Hasson took pics, which I will post when I receive them. I will also take pics of myself every couple of months to post as well. What a day!!!

[kamin]

WOW! Can't wait to see the pictures!

[HairHope]

Yeah, a HT is like a day at the Spa. Please.

[Qwert]

Well, not quite a day at the spa, but pretty damn close. The pain was non-existent during my session. I took Tylenol 3s for post surgery pain & a sleeping pill to fall asleep. So very minimal pain afterwards. I ended up getting a nice 7 hours of sleep in my reclining seat, to make sure my head wasn't touching or rubbing against anything. But apart from that, man, it was BETTER than a day at the spa. I just sat there, ate, watched DVDs as 6500+ grafts were transplanted into my pathetic bald head. I'll take that over a day at the spa anytime. The only sensation I have now, is not that of pain, but a mild pulling where the staples are. I thought I would have to take a day or 2 off work from the pain & discomfort, but, no way. I'm putting on my baseball cap & going back to normal routine right away.

[paris_caine]

wow!!! 6500 grafts huh? never heard of that kind of mega session before. So what is it that H&W know that most other docs don't? or is it possible they are much too aggressive, without any concern for the patients' future hair loss? i would so appreciate if some of the HT veterans could shed some light on this.

"Most" docs here in US are afraid to go to 3500+. What does it say about them? is it just a matter of not willing to put in those kinds of long hours in one procedure.

Are their any side effects/negative connotation to such a mega session?

 

Please share your opinions.

 

Thanks

 

Paris

[Qwert]

It's a combination of hair density in the donor area, which is pure genetics, & very lucky for me. The loosness of the scalp, which again, is genetics & also faithfully doing your scalp exercises pre op for a few months, & of course, the skill of the surgeon & his staff. With all due respect, saying that Dr Hasson & his staff are much too aggressive, without any concern for the patient is absolutely ridiculous.

[paris_caine]

Qwert, i wasn't saying they are aggressive, just throwing it all out there, as questions. boggles my mind why most docs here wont go above 3500, that's all.

honestly, i hope that all these so-called top docs start doing mega sessions. truth is, most docs wont even consider such mega sessions, period, no matter how lucky you are in hair genetics, whereas H&W do many sessions of 4500+

i guess, kudos to them.

[HairHope]

You don't have any of your own pre-HT pictures? It would be interesting as to the visual density of the donor area of the hair of such a "genetic" marvel.

 

What is your scar length and width? how many techs did it take to get this done in one sitting. All reasonable questions.

 

Again, best of luck, you are already lucky.

[GuitarPlayer]

I would also be interested to know the length and width of your scar. What was your density in the donor area?

[Qwert]

I have one set of pics I took myself 1 month pre op which I will post now. I had 2 staff members working at once on transplanting grafts. One on each side. This is probably why more grafts can be done in one session, since the workload is split up & the staff rotated when they got tired. So basically you have 2 fresh staff members working on you all the time. I don't know about the lenght & width of my scar, but I'm going in for a hair wash tomorrow & will enquire for you guys. Dr Hasson did say that with their new Tricophytic technique, my scar should be almost invisible. But I'll know better in a few months. So far, so good!!!

[Pat - Community Publisher]

Qwert,

 

Congratulations on your mega mega session. Back when I did my surgeries the 1,450 grafts I did in my biggest sessions was considered a "mega session".

 

Now many leading surgeons are safely performing large sessions of up to 3,000 or even 4,000 follicular unit grafts in one session. Many of these cases have been documented in our patient photo albums forum.

 

The small and minimally invasive incisions that leading surgeons now create, using tiny instruments, enables them to place more grafts in a given area at one time.

 

However, many leading surgeons like Dr. Shapiro, Dr. Bernstein, Dr. Griffin, Dr. Konior, Drs. Brad and Bobby Limmer, Dr. DeYarman and others are very reluctant to do more than 3,500 grafts in one session, even though their large staffs have the capability to create and place over 6,000 grafts.

 

The chief reason these surgeons will typically not exceed 3,500 to 4,000 grafts is that they do not want to increase the risk of scarring in the donor area by removing the large strip of donor tissue required to yield 4,000 plus grafts. As one surgeon put it "We all have only scalpels and no one has a magic wand."

 

All surgeons face the same limiting factor of donor elasticity. The larger the donor strip taken the higher the risk of noticeable scarring.

 

Thus many surgeons, who could do very large 6,000 plus graft sessions, advice a patient who ultimately needs 6,000 grafts to do two session of 3,000 grafts over time. This gives the scalp tissue more time to stretch and regain its elasticity over time so the donor area is closed under less tension during each session.

 

In addition to their concerns about donor scarring, some of the medical concerns physicians have shared with me regarding very large sessions include:

 

Growth Rates - Are large sessions in excess of 4,000 plus grafts potentially masking lower growth rates? Some physicians believe that very large session patient's get impressive looking results, even if a smaller percentage of the grafts grow than in smaller cases.

 

Counting grafts versus the amount of hair relocated - Some physicians question whether the graft counts of these very large sessions are really comparing apples to apples. Some believe that the very big follicular unit sessions actually are made up of "sub follicular unit" grafts (less hairs per graft than standard follicular unit grafts) that therefore give a higher graft count? In their opinions it is the amount of hairs that are relocated and how they are arranged that determines the appearance of density ??“ not the graft count.

 

In my opinion, I do not think their is any real evidence that skillfully performed sessions in excess of 4,000 grafts have growth rates that are any lower than that of smaller sessions.

 

As far as the "apples to oranges" graft count issue, I would prefer that surgeons and patients discussed session sizes in terms of hairs moved rather than grafts. I think this would create a more "apples to apples" reference.

 

Ideally we'd all like to get as many new hairs on top and growing in as few surgical sessions as possible. But in my opinion patients who limit their surgical sessions to under 4,000 grafts may take a few more months to complete their hair restoration but they will minimize their chance of long term donor scarring.

 

Qwert, perhaps you have exceptional density and elasticity in your donor area, which has enabled you to safely do such a huge session. But I think that typical patients should not expect that such a large session is appropriate for them.

 

Maybe I'm being too conservative. But I'd rather error on the conservative side when it comes to hair transplant surgery.

 

Pat

[Qwert]

Pat, thank you very much for your informative post. Although I am not 100% certain, I'm quite sure that the strip dimesions, especially width, that was removed by Dr Hasson was no larger than what he would normally remove from another patient. I just think I am very lucky to have had a very dense donor area as well as a larger than average head size. Although this may seem funny, it probably had something to do with it. But I'm ceratinly no expert. I'm just so thrilled at having 6500+ grafts in one session.

[the B spot]

OK Folks, time out!!!! Listen, I think those of us that had HT's can say it wasn't as bad as we thought, and it certainly was no walk in the park. I understand the euphoria you are experienncing Qwert, but you are trying way too hard buddy!!!! A 6500 FU HT is no easy task, and the amount of trauma to your scalp is no joke. I am 2 months from my surgery of 3100+ so I can relate to you right now. I would very much like for you to answer a couple of things, that will go a long way on the forum here 1st- out of the 6500 how many 1's 2's 3's, etc... and I must know how big your scar is length and width. I have to believe that your strip is at least 28 cm long and 2.2 cm wide. I have very dense donor hair and my strip was 28 cm long and 1.25 wide and I generated 3100 grafts. We all know that Hasson & Wong do great work. I am just concerned about philosophy, and I think that is what everyone else feels as well. I must tell you that I cannot understand how you do not know the exact dimensions of your strip. Anyway, I look forward to your pictures and congrats on the new hair buddy!

[Qwert]

Honestly, I'm not trying too hard. I have no reason to. Altough I am extremely happy about how things turned out. I think my procedure went incredibly smoothly. I really don't know why, but it did. I know several people who've had the procedure done & all of them told me about the discomfort, the horrible 1st night, the constant pain, being out of commission for days after the surgery etc, that I was expecting the worst. But to my surprise, although it was no walk in the park, or a day at the spa, it wasn't any where as bad as those stories. I had a decent nights sleep. Today I put on my cap & went about my day & I haven't even taken any Tylenol 3s since this morning, since the pain, is more of a pulling sensation in the staple area than a bad head ache pain. The grafted area doesn't really hurt that much. Maybe I'm lucky. Maybe the pain will get worse in a few days. I don't know. But so far, it's more than tolerable & I'm already back to my normal routine. As for how many 1s, 2s or 3s & the exact dimensions of my strip. I don't know. After a 14hr day, we all just wanted to call it a day & go home. I can ask Dr Hasson or if one of his consultants is reading this, maybe he can post the info.

[Robert_]

Originally posted by the B spot:

I must tell you that I cannot understand how you do not know the exact dimensions of your strip.

 

Just playing devil's advocate, B Spot, but I never knew the dimensions of my strip, nor did I ever ask how many 1s, 2s, or 3s were placed. I knew the region that they were placed in and I left the details to the physician. Of course, I was not moderator for the forum at the time and if I had been or if I were to go back into the chair today I would certainly ask, but at the time I trusted Dr. Cooley. I can imagine that it is perfectly viable for a patient to not ask about every detail of the procedure. Most guys just want to make sure that they are getting the best results that they can.

 

Qwert,

 

Thanks for posting your experiences and I appreciate your answering members' questions with grace. I am looking forward to seeing your photos.

 

I am posting below some instructions on how to upload photos to the photo album feature of the forums:

 

1) Go to the "New" button, click it, and select "Photo Album."

 

2) If you are on the main page when you do this, it will ask which forum it belongs under. The Hair Transplant Patient Photo Albums forums were made for photo albums. If you are already in the forum you want it in, it will pop up with a little screen that will direct you throughout the process.

 

3) Select an album name.

 

4) Give a brief (or not-so-brief) intro. This is just like a regular post.

 

5) Select "Personal Album" if you want to be the only one that can manipulate/add/delete photos.

 

"Community Album" allows any member to add photos.

 

6) Hit "Next."

 

7) Now you upload the photos from your hard drive. You can upload 9 at a time, but you have the option to upload more after the first 9 are uploaded.

 

8) Hit "Next"

 

9) The next screen allows you to organize your photos in whatever order you like and to add text to them.

 

10) Hit "Next" again and it will show you roughly what your album will look like. It doesnt show paragraphs but they will come out like you typed it.

 

11) Select "Post" if you are happy with the arrangement.

 

12) You can always go back and edit your photo album.

 

13) To reply to photo albums, you just click on "comments" at the bottom of the album and then click on the little arrow that appears in the bottom left corner. To reply to regular posts you just click "Reply"

 

To see comments to the photo album, just click "comments."

 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

-Robert

[paris_caine]

Qwert, looking at your pic, even though it's a little blurred, i cant help but wonder, did you even need 6500 grafts? Well, i mean, of course you will take it, but dude, if everything grows out as planned, you would have an awesome head of hair, relatively speaking. As far as the strip scar goes, i think you just got lucky. They took the same strip of flesh as they would have if they were trying to extract, say 4000, just so happens, your strip yileded more, MUCH more. so i dont think the scar would be a problem. Not that you look like you would need it, but have you talked about future sessions, and how much more you might be able to yield.

 

Paris.

[Qwert]

PC, I agree with you 100%. I was extremely lucky to get 6500 graft. I went in thinking if I could get 4500, I'd be more than pleased. At 6500, I almost fell out of my chair. Do I need 6500? Well, I don't know. However, if 6500 was harvested, I'll take the extra grafts. Can't exactly turn them down. I do have quite course curly hair, so it was easy to cover up the bald spots. But as soon as it was combed forward or wet, forget about it. Bald city!!! I have no idea how many grafts a 2nd session would yield. I won't even think about that for at least a year. I'd like to move the sides of my hairline down a little bit to get away from the Dracula look, but that is a long way away.

[GuitarPlayer]

I think B Spot raised some very relevant questions. Firstly, I think it is very important to know the length and width of the scar for us to be able to have an understanding of how this many grafts could be extracted. Secondly, I think it is also very important to know how many one's, two's, three's, etc. were planted in order to know how much HAIR was transplanted.

[Robert_]

Originally posted by GuitarPlayer:

I think B Spot raised some very relevant questions. Firstly, I think it is very important to know the length and width of the scar for us to be able to have an understanding of how this many grafts could be extracted. Secondly, I think it is also very important to know how many one's, two's, three's, etc. were planted in order to know how much HAIR was transplanted.

 

Oh, it is definitely important to know the numbers in this case to perform, as Pat said, an "apples to apples" comparison. My comment was only to reinforce the notion that I can understand why Qwert didn't have that information right off hand. It's a fact that most patients just don't think to ask. I am sure that he could email the offices of H&W and get that information, though.

 

-Robert

[Qwert]

I went in for a wash & got the numbers you gentlemen were asking about. My strip is 35cm x 1.8cm to 2.4cm. I had 1920 single grafts & 4624 multiple grafts done. These are all actual whole grafts, & not a single graft split to make 2 seperate grafts. All together, I had 6544 grafts done in 14hrs. I also got some jpgs that were taken by Dr Hasson & Joe & will post them as soon as I can.

[Qwert]

My photo album is up. It can be viewed at: http://hair-restoration-info.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f...6060861/m/4181000781

[troy]

Wow that is amazing and looks like you were very tightly dense packed. Maybe this will be the way of the future,somebody has to push the envelope so things keep progressing, I think its great, I will be very interested to see how everything turns out over the next year.

[Qwert]

I'm VERY excited at how things will go over the next year. Since I live in Vancouver, I will go in once a month to get Joe to take proper pics against the same background. I will even make sure I wear the same shirt to keep things uniform.

[samyoung]

Originally posted by GuitarPlayer:

I would also be interested to know the length and width of your scar. What was your density in the donor area?

 

Me too.

At 100 grafts per sq cm- and from what I tested on myself- thats a very high number of grafts.

So, at 100 grafts per sq cm a 2 cm wide strip and a 25 cm long strip can no way give intact 6000 grafts.

Your head does not look too large to me.

 

I hope there was no sub follicular grafting involved. That would be a shame, though it will explain the numbers.

[samyoung]

Originally posted by Qwert:

I went in for a wash & got the numbers you gentlemen were asking about. My strip is 35cm x 1.8cm to 2.4cm. I had 1920 single grafts & 4624 multiple grafts done. These are all actual whole grafts, & not a single graft split to make 2 seperate grafts. All together, I had 6544 grafts done in 14hrs. I also got some jpgs that were taken by Dr Hasson & Joe & will post them as soon as I can.

 

Sorry to be rude, but no way can you have that big a head.

Try meeting the hat maker. He will explain it to you. Your head does not look that big and given the coarse nature of your hair, you likely can not have 100 grafts per sq cm.

 

Did they go out side the safe zone?