SMG Dr. Paul Shapiro - 1615 Grafts - Hairline, Corners, Temples

[HopelessHarry]

All I want for Christmas is Hair, and Dr. Paul Shapiro gave it to me. My procedure was on 12/12/13. I can't say enough nice things about the SMG.

I got in Minneapolis for my surgery on 12/11/13. It was Zero degrees when I got in, and a frigid -4 degrees ( felt like -16) by the time I went to bed. I got the free hotel shuttle to the La Quinta Inn from the airport. The morning of my surgery 12/12/13 I managed to miss the Hotel Shuttle that was supposed to take me to the Clinic on its way to the airport. That was my fault for being a few minutes late. It was alright tho as the Desk Clerk kindly called a Taxi and it was only about 5 bucks.

I was greeted at the front desk by a friendly gentlemen named Dal. He had me sign a few things and then went to take a few pictures. At this point I got to meet Dr. Paul. After my pictures we went into an office for a pre-op consult. I discussed my goals and my 2 previous procedures with Dr. Arocha. I drew in a suggested hairline with a black pencil/marker. Dr Paul looked it over and talked with me about how many grafts we would need. Getting enough to do the temple points was an area of concern.Initially we talked about 1000-1200 grafts to add density to the hairline and fill in the corners and temples. Eventually we drew in a slightly more rounded hairline with less of a widow's peak. As it turned out we needed 1615 grafts to get our goals accomplished.

We also discussed my scar from my previous 2 FUTs ( that was a bit wide for my liking). Dr. Paul explained to me that he would take out the scar and hopefully be able to get enough hair from that for this procedure as well.

I made it back to the procedure room and was given my meds and most importantly a lunch menu. Crucially I went for the Italian Sub. My initial two assistants were the easy to remember Vicki and Nikki.

The next part was for me the most impressive and comforting part of the procedure and that was the relatively pain free administering of the local anesthesia. Dr. Paul explained to me his history in Pain management and boy did it help. They used a vibrating device to help numb the nerve before I got sticks above both eyes. It feels pretty weird, but it doesn't really hurt. They used a similar method for the numbing of the Donor Area. I don't even remember much about the donor extraction. I remember a little bit about the sticks close to the hairline but because of the excellent pain management I just remember feeling a little pressure and maybe hearing a small crackling sound but little to no pain.

And now a very important part, there is an Apple TV I believe it was in the Procedure room with virtually unlimited radio, movie, and TV programming. I selected Argo to try to watch. This was a mistake to try to watch something so serious while in and out on pain meds. I remember Ben Affleck in a beard looking very pensive. I'll have to try and watch that one again.

Being the cold season, I had a bit of a cough and the staff was very helpful with cough drops and syrup to help me out. This is good as I was worried I might end up with some hairy eyeballs if I coughed at the wrong time. So relaxed was I that I actually fell asleep with a cough drop in my mouth (which is slightly frightening but I survived). Anyways, we started the procedure about 9:30 am, paused for lunch a little after noon, and finished a little after 4 pm I believe it was. Dr. Paul came in and looked things over and even put in the 115 or so leftover grafts in the temples and behind the hairline I believe. I paid and and the nice ladies at the front desk called the hotel shuttle and I was on my way.

I slept reasonably well. I did ooze a bit of blood from the donor area but I used the pillow cover provided by SMG so as to not bleed all over the hotel's pillow. I got the shuttle to the airport in the morning and I was on my way.

I've followed post-op instructions pretty religiously with the Post-Op Spray, gel on the donor area, Prednisone, Pain medication, and careful shampooing using a cup of water. The only slight pain I've had is from the donor area where Doc took out the scar. He told me this might be the case and it's not too bad, very manageable. Overall a great experience at SMG. I went up to Minnesota by myself and it was no problem at all. Smooth as a machine. I would recommend it to any and everyone. If anyone has any questions don't be afraid to ask. Thanks

 

HH

 

Photos from 1 Day post-op

Edited December 15, 2013 by HopelessHarry

[Nick153452]

Glad you had a good experience. I just went in for my 6.5 month follow-up photos at SMG and I am about to post the results on the forum.

 

Keep us updated.

[Spanker]

Nice. Was the hairline dropped or just thickened?

[greatjob]

All I want for Christmas is Hair, and Dr Paul Shapiro gave it to me. My procedure was 2 days ago 12/12/13. I can't say enough nice things about the SMG and I'll do a full write up but i just wanted to share. - HH

All I want for Christmas is the hair you already had before the transplant, lol! Anyways it looks good, congrats! Also I would be careful touching the recipient area this early.

[home1212]

congrats, looks like extremely refined work from SMG, hope you heal well and i'm sure you'll have an awesome result!

[HopelessHarry]

Nice. Was the hairline dropped or just thickened?

 

The primary goal was to densify the existing hairline first, but we did then drop it down and round it off a little so as to not have as much of a widow's peak. Originally we planned 1000-1200 grafts. The reason we got up to 1615 was in order to make the Temporal Peaks look right we had to add the additional Grafts. Dr. Paul did cut my hair back, including some of the previous 2500 grafts in the hairline in order to add density and make it all work.

[HopelessHarry]

The First 3 pictures are 1 mth post op. You can see there's quite a bit of hair still in there

The 2nd set of Pictures is 3 mths Post Op (I never got around to 2 mth Post-Op Pictures, sorry). At this stage most of the hair has fallen out and it looks somewhat odd, but I know that's part of the process.