Nashville Kat pre & post HT Pics

[Nashville Kat]

These are my pre and post HT pictures including a 6 week scar shot. For those with inquiring minds!! By the way, I've never made good photo's.

 

 

 

[Nashville Kat]

These are my pre and post HT pictures including a 6 week scar shot. For those with inquiring minds!! By the way, I've never made good photo's.

 

 

 

[Nashville Kat]

The before photo's with the blue background were taken at Dr. Cooley's office the morning before my HT. The after shots with the blue background were taken the morning following my HT at Dr. Cooley's office after clean up. The rest of the pics were taken at home before and right after I got back at my barbers. As you can see, I was never really that red or swollen,this was about as bad as it got. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but Dr. Cooley used a needle in the recipent site instead of a scapel which he said does less trama. Also as you can see the scar shot is at 6 weeks and is really flat and hard to find just by feeling. Maybe these shots will help clarify my written description of my experience. These are the things I found most helpful on this forum that kept me from making a huge mistake by picking the wrong clinic to go to. I almost made a decision on a advertised chain locally before I found this site and got some very good education. Thank God I found it in time. I hope this helps someone else keep from making a bad decision.

[Robert_]

Great pics, Nashville Kat. I especially like the hairline that Dr. Cooley has laid out for you. It looks completely natural with a hint of naturalistic recession that is more than appropriate and distinguished-looking.

 

It looks like you have healed very well also. Your story echoes that of Brando, Hair Apparent, NC30, and my own. Keep the updates coming and happy growing!

 

-Robert

[MDM]

Hey Kat,

I agree with Robert, Dr Cooley did a very good job of fitting the over all HT to give you a look with which you'll be very happy. Nice job!

[Nashville Kat]

Thanks for the kind comments guy's. Dr. Cooley actually wanted to bring the hairline down just a little further. After some discussion about my expectations and my history we decided that with the number of grafts we were doing, I would rather have the coverage further back.

 

I have always had a high hairline even when I had a head full of hair so this made more since to me. I'm 45 so I really did not want a hairline too low anyway. I plan on letting this HT grow in plus see what results I get from propecia in the crown then maybe go back and fill in the crown some and then if I want the hairline lowered a little and the sides filled in I will do that then.

 

This may not be the best plan for everyone but it seemed to fit me best. I know some guy's may think that the hairline is still high but it's not very far off from where it was when I was sixteen.

Nashville Kat

[MDM]

Kat,

In my opinion that is the best way to go. You'll have a much better idea of what, if anything, is needed later. Wait at least a year in order to get the full results form your HT. You'll love how you look in a year. BTW, do you play "clean as country water"?:-) I was born in Columbia, TN just south of Nashville.

[Nashville Kat]

MDM,

 

That's kinda my plan as we say here in Nashville. I'm very familiar with Columbia,TN. and spent lots of time there but have no clue what the hell your talking about playing "clean as country water" although it sounds nice. I have drinken lots of it but some how don't think that's what your talking about. Spent lots of time around Birminham too. Nice!!! You gotta love those southern women!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Nashville

[MDM]

Hi Kat,

There is a song entitled "Nashville Cats" and one line in it says "they play clean as country water, been playin since they's babies"....! So, I natuarally assumed that you got your handle from the song, but it doesn't sound as if that's the case. All my family, on both sides, came from the Columbia area. Yeah, you just can't hardly beat those southern women, known a bunch, and married one. And, I feel very lucky!

[Nashville Kat]

MDM

 

I'll try to look up that song and check it out. Great choice on the southern wife. Had one from Georgia try to catch me a few years back, and looking back from here I think I made a big mistake.

Nashville

[Pat - Community Publisher]

Nashville,

 

Congratulations. I agree that you got a really realistic hair line that will balance well with your overall hair growth and age.

 

Very clean immediately after surgery as well. Keep us posted.

 

Pat

[Hair Apparent]

Let me add my congratulations to the others, Kat. You received an excellent hairline for your age and you should be quite pleased.

 

In fact, it's the same hairline Doctor Cooley reconstructed for me. We're close to the same age; I'm 48. And we received the same number of grafts. You have an advantage over me, though, as you have more hair on the sides and back than I did, so you're going to have a much better result on the first pass, and that's great!

 

Your scar, at six weeks, looks exactly like mine did at that stage. If it stays that true to form, in a couple of months, it will be virtually invisible. The only way you will be able to find it is because you know where it was. I keep my hair much shorter than yours and my scar doesn't show at all.

 

You're off to a great start and I'm glad for you. (Also, a little envious of all of you other Cooley patients, since you all started off with more hair than I did. I drew the low card in that hand of the gene pool.)

 

Best.

[Nashville Kat]

Hair Apparent,Pat,

Thanks for the positive comments. When are you going to post some photo's of your work Hair Apparent? I would like to see how your coming along. I have been following your posts and would like to see and hear how it's going. I'm just sitting and waiting for growth and it's at least encouraging to see others doing well that came before me.

Nashville

[Hair Apparent]

I really should post some pics, Kat. I'm not the most technically proficient when it gets to that sort of thing, and I keep putting it off. I do have the pre-op photo that Doctor Cooley took--all one is going to see from that is a vast expanse of bald scalp and several scars from an old, old suture attachment of a hairpiece I wore many years ago. A youthful folly, but at the time, it made sense.

 

I dropped by Dr. Cooley's offices to-day, as a matter of fact. Ailene examined my scalp and everything seems progressing right in schedule. Since I opted to have my HT distributed all over my balding area, rather than concentrate on the front and hairline, I was a little concerned that maybe I had overestimated how dense the coverage would be. (Not that I expected a tremendous amount--I was hoping for something along the lines of Telephone Man's results.) And what fostered that belief was that, while I could see lots of growth burgeoning when I looked in the mirror when I was shaving, it all seemed to disappear when I took a few steps back, or if I'd catch my reflexion in the kitchen window or other kinds of indistinct relexions.

 

In the past couple of weeks, though, I've started to see the growth at a greater range, and, close up, I see more hair growing in than ever before. So my worries are, no doubt, premature. Ailene was able to do a better examination of my scalp than I can, of course, and she spotted all kinds of growth just breaking the surface. (Also, making it tough for me to see is that many of the hairs are grey or white, and they're virtually invisible until they lengthen.)

 

As for what hair is there now, it looks completely natural. Ailene was very pleased at that. It's undetectable as an HT.

 

Ailene and Robert and some of the others here--as well as my own research--advise me that, in most cases, the growth of the new hair really doesn't take off until months 6 through 9, and I hit the six-month mark the day after to-morrow. Since I'm starting to see substantial growth now, that's probably going to be the case with me.

 

As I said, I was a Norwood VI, with a lot of territory to cover. Dr. Cooley designed a hairline that still has much temple recession--imagine an advanced widow's-peak--in order to still provide me with descent coverage in front but free up more grafts for the back. (In fact, Kat, it is virtually the same as the hairline Dr. Cooley designed for you.) The front and top is starting to come in significantly--that's what I am now just starting to see at long distance in the mirror.

 

Customarily, the crown and back lags behind in speed of growth, but it has been coming in steadily, if slower, too. In my case, the pace of growth for the crown and back seems to be approximately two months behind the top and front.

 

As I've often commented, many would recommend a better course to be filling in the front and crown with a higher density and letting the rest wait for a follow-on HT. And that is sound advice for many reasons. But I knew myself--it would have driven me crazy to have hair in the front and a big bald spot in the back. It settled better with me to have less density but overall distribution. And I have have enough viable grafts left in my donor hair to double up on a second HT and increase my density that way.

 

And I have to confess, it's a thrill to run my hand over my head and feel hair where there wasn't hair for twenty-five years. And on a windy day, like we had a couple of days ago, I can feel the wind blow through the small hairs that are too small to detect by touch.

 

The other matter I discussed with Ailene to-day is removing the four scars from the old suture process that are just in front of my new hairline. That can be accomplished with little trouble and I'm looking to do that next month.

 

So, thus far, my gains are modest, but rapidly improving. The next three months will really tell the tale.

 

I know the waiting is the toughest part of it--especially because it takes almost a year to effectively gauge how good a job was done--but what I didn't realise is that the waiting is tougher after one begins to see results than it is in that early stage when there's nothing at all.

 

Thanks for your good words, Kat, and again, thanks to all of you who offered words of encouragement.

[Nashville Kat]

Hair Apparent,

 

Great to hear your begining to see some progress. You have gotta be thrilled. I hear what your saying about not being able to see the new growth when you back away from the mirror a little. My transplanted hair that did not shed can be seen pretty good in the mirror but when you back up a little it kind of goes away. Mine seems to be a little lighter in color and definately finer. The color change seems to be in the area where I have been using the Rogain. I wondering if that is whats causing it.

 

Anyway, It's great to hear your getting a burst of new growth but depressing to think I might have another 4 months to go to start seeing that kind of growth. I did go into this knowing that was a possibility, just sucks having to wait. I'm not that good at waiting but have heard that good things come to those who wait.

 

Good luck on your scar revision next month and when you think you have enough growth to share pic's with the rest of us, I know we would all like to share the moment with you.

 

Good luck and happy growing!!

Nashville Kat

[Hair Apparent]

Thanks for the good words, Kat. I'll take all of them I can get.

 

There are some pluses and minuses for me.

 

From the beginning, I wondered if I had overestimated how much density I would get by opting to go for covering the whole bald area with the first HT. I had modest goals--at my age, I could get away with a thinner density, especially with all my grey hair, and I certainly don't mind the temple recession.

 

At our in-person consultation, Doctor Cooley and Ailene were very frank in the limitations of my Norwood VI noggin, and I understood that. The factor that tilted my decision to go with an HT was a photo that Dr. Cooley showed me of one of his previous patients. It was very much in the target area for which I was hoping. And I've already spoken of how spot-on Dr. Cooley's designed hairline was in sync with my own expectations.

 

I have more reasons to be positive than negative. On my first follow-up, Dr. Cooley made the comment that I was going to be very happy with the results a year from now, and he is not a man to blow smoke. And in my recent visit, Ailene examined me and said I was right on track.

 

For my own part, I am now seeing a "shadow" of hair on the top and in front when I look in the mirror, even at long distance, in natural light. Most of it still disappears under a harsh light, but I do see progress.

 

And when I look at my scalp closely in the mirror when I shave, I can see the new growth coming in (actually, it's like watching encroaching baldness in reverse!). The conventional wisdom says that it is in months six through nine when things really take off, so you can bet I will really be watching now.

 

The damnedest part of it is sometimes I will look in one mirror under one kind of illumination and I'll think, "Wow! Look at all that hair!" and sometimes, in other reflexions, under other lights, I'll think, "Hey! Where'd it all go?"

 

So I spend a lot of time trying to envision how my hair is going to look when all of the new wispy hairs have reached maturation and are thick and strong. Depending on the light and my mood, that's where my morale flip-flops.

 

One of the things that birthed my concern is following the photos of others, and many of those fellows seem much further along in their growth and at an earlier stage than I am. On the other hand, most of them had more grafts on the first pass, or if they got approximately the same as I did, they were less bald than I was. And I don't think anyone else has gone the same route (of total coverage) than I did. So there's no one-to-one correlation. But it is a bit disappointing.

 

I have to say that this whole experience has been an interesting ride, and there are a couple of things which I now bear in mind.

 

First, even if I did overestimate the amount of density, I am still content with my decision to go for total coverage (rather than just "frame the face" by concentrating on the top and front). I love the feeling of having hair growing in all over my scalp and I just could not stand the idea of having a big bald spot in back. I know it sounds peculiar, but that would prey on my mind more than just having very thin hair all over.

 

Also, I have at least 3,000 viable grafts left in my donor hair, so if I don't get enough density now, I can more than double up with a second HT and that should be more than sufficient. The only drawback there is I am not prepared to outlay the cash for a second HT for the next couple of years or so. I could, but I have a "Depression-era" mentality; I dislike running a credit-card debt that high. My wife and I have sufficient income to meet our debts and enjoy small luxuries without having to resort to plastic and I just about go into vapour lock the few times I do have to make small purchases on the card. So, a follow-on HT is at least a couple of years down the road. That will be a war between my impatience and my practicality.

 

The other thing which has come out of this thing is rather ironic. It turns out that I am lucky enough to have a well-shaped head. After my wife got used to seeing me without my hairpiece and the first new hair started sprouting, she looked at me one night and said, "You know, I almost prefer you bald. You've got that Bruce Willis thing going for you."

 

The thing is, I kind of see what she's talking about. The hair that has grown so far masks most of the scars from the old suture process, and next month, Dr. Cooley will remove the few that aren't covered by hair. I'd still rather have hair, but once the scars are gone, I really won't mind the baldness as much as I did twenty years ago.

 

So, to sum it up, it's been an emotional roller coaster ride that I didn't expect. But through all that, I am even more confident that I have made the best decisions, for me, throughout the whole experience.

 

"?? I selected a damn good surgeon. Dr. Cooley is top drawer by any unit of measurement, and no-one could have done more to maximise my gain, given the approach I wanted. Moreover, I am enjoying the benefits of his skill in areas that I never even thought of before, such as the donor scar, which is virtually non-existant, thanks to his skill.

 

"?? I made the right choice for myself and my personality, by going for overall coverage, rather than concentrating on the front and top. (One caveat, as I've said before, the front-and-top route is the approach virtually every HT surgeon recommends for those high on the Norwood scale, and there are excellent reasons for that. Just because I didn't want to go that route doesn't mean it's a bad recommendation. As with everything else about an HT, one has to go with what is right for him.)

 

"?? I was right in doing away with the hairpiece. First, I never experienced any negative reaction from my associates or friends or family after doing so. In fact, some even maintained that I looked better without it.

 

And, while I had grown accustomed to the fuss and bother of donning it and maintaining it (as I told Dr. Cooley once, it can be equated to the bother experienced by those who wear contact lenses or a prosthetic limb--one gets used to it), it is liberating to be free of the bother. My daily grooming regimen takes less time now, and--while I never experienced any embarrassing accidental "unveilings" in all the years I wore a hairpiece, even under arduous conditions--that thought was never far from my mind. For a habitual worrier like me, it's always welcome to have one less thing to fret about.

 

Nope. Even if nature precludes me from having the final result I'd hoped for from this HT, I don't have a single regret about any decision each step of the way. If I could go back and do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

 

I guess if there is any lesson to take from all of my blathering here, it's that the decision to have an HT will affect you in more ways than just physically.

 

You started off in better shape than I was, hairwise, Kat, so I expect that in four months or so, I am going to be envious of you. Good luck, buddy, and here's to all the best for you!

[Robert_]

It's great to hear that both of you are progressing along. I agree with Hair Apparent, Nashville: pretty soon your scar will be a thin line that you will be thrilled with.

 

Hair Apparent, if you need help posting photos, let me know. There are a couple of options available for you, but the easiest is just to use the forum software's "Photo Album" feature. It is located under the "New" button at the top left-hand side of your screen. Click on that, enter in an intro (basically the same as a regular post) and upload the pictures from your hard drive. Like I said, just private message me if you need any other assistance.

 

-Robert

[Nashville Kat]

Hair Apparent,

 

Your exactly right. Having a HT done does affect you more than just the cosmetics of it. I'm with you 100% in the fact that you did the right thing for you and I'm also 100% sure you will be happier with whatever result you end up with as opposed to doning a hair piece everyday. Actually I think thats what you and your wife are both already saying. Bruce Willis Huh!! Some guy's just have all the luck. Mines more like a egg!!.

 

Whatever happens it sounds like your already happier. You have definately got the right attitude about the whole thing. Do your research,decide if it's right for you,pick the right Doctor for you then live with the results without any regrets. I think we probably just need to remove all the mirrors in the house for awhile and forget we even had the surgery until it grows in.

Waiting and watching everyday is by far the hardest part. It's like sitting out in the yard watching the grass trying to see if you can catch it growing!!!

 

Patience is a virtue and I'm positive Dr. Cooley did a most excellent job on your noggin that you will be proud of when you get through the sprouting and doubting stage.

 

Best of luck my friend and stay in touch!!!!

Nashville