My HT Experience

[thecrossfader]

Hello people,

 

 

My name is Sagar and I am from Bangalore, India. I am originally from Hyderabad, India. I am 25 years old ( b: May 1986). I have been reading about hair transplants and I have been trolling this site and the forum for the last one month and have finally decided to join the site. I have found a lot of helpful information on this site and I have finally decided to undergo a HT surgery sometime within the next 4 months. From what I have seen on the site it looks like Dr. Pathuri Madhu has done a really good job in the past, so I believe he will be my only choice to undergo a hair transplant in India.

 

A bit of information about myself, I am 25 years old and have been suffering from hair loss since the last 3.5 years ever since I finished college. I have been experiencing the typical male pattern baldness( starting with a receding frontal hair line and then at the crown). My father has Norwood Stage 6 hair loss, so do my maternal uncles( mother's brothers). So, I believe that is what I would be heading as well.

 

Hair loss has taken a toll on my self-esteem. From what I have read, it seems like 25 is too young an age for a HT, but I have decided to go for it nevertheless, in my opinion, it is already too late. In November 2009, after reading around the net for a couple of months, I started using Minoxidil 5%. I used this for a period of 5.5 months or so, and I saw good results. I used to love the feeling of waking up in the morning and seeing my crown area in the morning( it always appeared as if I had more hair than the night before). But, I had to stop discontinuing it as I had a side effect because of it where the skin on my face started having dark patches. This might have been because of the Minoxidil rubbing off on my face during the night. But, there was no way to fix that as I could not apply it to my hair during the day time due to work commitments.I never tried Propecia as I heard that it has a side effect of Erectile Dysfunction. So, I never had the heart to try that.

 

During the weekend of 22nd-23rd January, I would be travelling to Hyderabad, so I would be having an appointment with Dr Pathuri Madhu.

 

I would be posting more information on how the meeting went. I want this thread to provide more information to people.

 

photos with filenames photo 1 and photo 2 are how I looked during May 2007. I have also attached the photos of my current hair state ( taken today morning).

 

Any initial opinions on

 

1. How suitable a candidate I am for transplant? I dont want to hear a NO ( I have made up my mind, it may be too less a hair loss, but I can't stop thinking about it, it always runs in the back of my head whenever I meet new people)

2. how many grafts I would need for an hair transplant,

3. How much current donor density I have

4. Is it possible for me to have the hair that I had back in 2007 ( or atleast 80% as dense??).

 

Also, please help me out with questions that I need to be asking Dr. Madhu when I meet him. I already have questions on how many grafts I need, post operation medication to retain existing hair, cost of the entire operation.

 

I want to make the most of the appointment.

 

Every response is highly appreciated.

 

Cheers!!

[thecrossfader]

Oops, the filenames I mentioned in the previous post are of no use, the first and the last photo are from 2007 and remaining ones are from today morning.

[wb280]

Hi there, i can fully understand that u will not take no for an answer If u insist on a HT, perhaps i can start the ball rolling by giving some opinions. Your donor looks quite thick but for a 25 yr old, i am sorry to say your hair loss in the frontal 1/3 all the way to the crown looks bad. If i am not wrong, i reckon 1 surgery is not enough to restore enough. Probably u will need 3k grafts at least to provide decent coverage for the frontal 1/3 and maybe use concealers for the crown which is wat i plan to do.

 

Back in our teenager days, our average graft/cm2 is about 100. HTs can only cover 50% or in some cases higher ( if the doc has the technique to do super dense packing and assuming ur donor is really really thick plus perfect laxity however, in real life, that does not occur a lot ), which is why HTs can only provide an illusion of density, meaning we have to layer our hair and style it properly to make it look dense and thick. Typically, spiking up will expose a lot of spaces between grafts.

 

In other words, i do not think u can get back 80% of what u used to have but with good styling and layering, u would be able to create an illusion of that 80%

 

hope that helps best of luck!

[thecrossfader]

I went to Dr Madhu's clinic in Hyderabad today as I could not go on Sunday. Had a consultation with one of the junior doctors and Dr Madhu himself. Since it being a holiday in India, there was a big queue. I had to wait nearly 1 hour for a meet with the junior doctor and then again a good couple of hours before meeting Dr Madhu himself. Meanwhile, one of the patients who had gotten a hair transplant a couple of days ago was also waiting for an appointment with Dr. Madhu. So, got talking to him about how his experience was. From what he told me, it seemed like he had a really good experience and was really happy that he had got a transplant done at this place. When asked if he would recommend this clinic to someone, his response was that since it would take some time for the result of his hair transplant to be visible, he cannot do that yet, but he seemed pretty optimistic about getting a good outcome.

 

Finally came the time for me to meet Dr Madhu. He did an initial test of the laxity and donor density, then used an instrument to take a closer look. Then he gave his estimates on the number of grafts, the area where the grafts would be inserted. I asked the inevitable question " Can you recreate the hairline that I used to have while in college?" His response was that that is not possible and that since high quality donot grafts would be used from the back of my head, an illusion of that can definitely be created. I was really impressed with Dr Madhu and the coolness with which he dealt with my case. There seemed no urgency from him at all to finish the appointment. It seems the laxity in my scalp is good( i had a peek at what he wrote down) and also that the density in the donor area seems to be good. The number of grafts required was decided to be around 3000 and since the best quality donor grafts are available for the first transplant, he would be focusing on the frontal area of the head and not the crown. I asked him a question if it would not create an odd look where I have hair in the front of my head and and in the back but not in the crown which is in the middle. He mentioned that crown area responds very well to medication like minoxidil, so we would try that first. Ok, Fair enough. I had made up my mind and luckily got an appointment date of 14th February( initial talk with the junior doctor, she told me the earliest available appointment would be around the second week of March)

 

After that I paid the initial non-refundable deposit of Rs 5000 and was given a shampoo of Betadine - AD to be used the day before and the day of the surgery. I was also given a tablet, not sure what it is.

 

 

So, I've got two reasons to wait for February 14th!! cool: 2 1/2 more weeks to go....

[thecrossfader]

Ok, I am finally done with the hair transplantation. The appointment was at 7 AM on Feb 14th, Monday and the entire operation was done by 2 AM. The doctors were able to extract 3654 grafts from the donor area, it seems i got lucky because the density and laxity were quite good it seems.

 

Single 1200

Double 1670

Multiple 784

 

Total of 6892 hairs.

 

The scar looks almost invisible, people were not able to identify the scar at all. Dr Madhu did a pretty good job here, kudos to him. Also, the angle at which the grafts were implanted also was very good.

 

I was asked to return the next day for a complimentary hair wash and was given instructions on what precautions should be taken for the next one month and how to take care of the hair.

The doctor prescribed me propecia and minoxidil to make sure my existing hair is retained.

 

Here are the pictures attached taken on the day of op.

[myeddula51]

hi

I had ht ; with almost similar as yours ; could you provide the strip length

 

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

Details :

1 Hair Fu's : 404 ---> 404

2 Hair Fus : 1592 ---> 3184

3 Hair Fu's: 563 ---> 1698

4 Hair Fu's : 83 ----> 332

------------------------------------------

Total :2642 ----> 5609 Hairs

 

Strip : 1.6 ( width ) X 22.5 ( lengh ) = 36 Cm2