5 and a 1/2 months, 800 grafts, Dr De Reyes

[WantSephirothHair]

I had 800 grafts to my hairline, roughly 16 cm long and longer cm deep. It's supposed to be 50 FU per cm^2. I was about NW2.5 before surgery, my aim was to be restored the an NW2 with decent density.

I'm not sure what to expect at this stage, but the hair density looks very low and see through.

I don't think thickening alone will make this look good, I'm hoping the hair density will double as well as thickening.

Can I expect much new hairs to sprout? Or at this stage are most of them up and just going to thicken?

Pictures taken directly under a light and away from the light for contrast.

[rev333]

Expect both: more growth and maturing

 

Hair standing up under direct light, though, without "some" see through is a tall order with only one HT pass especially if hair is fine to normal caliber at 5.5 months

 

That said, the illusion of density even at 50-60 grafts/cm2 works best when hair is styled in a layering way or flat.

 

This is not to say you will not be able to style other than this way. You will know much more in the summer.

 

5.5 months is just the beginning

Looking good so far

 

Happy growing

[WantSephirothHair]

Thanks for the response Rev!

I'm a bit worried because my hair Calibre is fine though my natural density is pretty high. I also started to remove some of the scabs on the 7th day, sooner than I should have. There wasn't any bleeding or pain but I did see some hairs come out with the scabs. Hopefully no follicles cane with them.

Here's hoping for lots of new hairs to start sprouting in the next few months. Styling advice duly noted also.

[rev333]

Don't think what you have done on day 7 to the few scabs/grafts would have affected the overall outcome. Yes, there will be more new growth and maturing in the coming months. Don't fret though if what does grow does not satisfy your expectations/needs. Most people require 2 or more HT passes to be satisfied. Not a big deal. It looks great for 5.5 months.

[WantSephirothHair]

That's good to hear! I can see a few tiny hairs beginning to sprout, hopefully there will be more if the in the coming months. I've read varying reports but I guess I'm at about 50% of my full result now. I probably will need a second surgery to get satisfying density but I don't think

I'll have time this year.

[rev333]

Yeah, you never know. But you have a long way to go before you decide about HT 2.

 

Even now it looks like you are on track to have many styling options above which you had pre-op.

 

Congrats!

[WantSephirothHair]

Cheers Rev! I would be ecstatic if I didn't have to worry about standing under lights anymore! Maybe it's not to be on my first pass but I'll post my results at 9 months and a year if anyone's is curious about small hair transplants or Dr D Reys hairline work.

[JohnCasper]

Everyone's growth occurs at different rates. 5 1/2 months is not long. I saw a lot of growth after the 5th month. Your hair color is a positive like it was for me providing less contrast with your skin color. Also, you mentioned hair caliber. Your new growth may thicken over time. Be patient and send us some more pictures around 8 months. Good luck to you.

[pkipling]

Echoing what the others have said about it still being relatively early in the game. Great chance it will continue to grow and thicken and mature, so keep being patient. So far, it looks like you're on the right track.

 

And you can put your mind to rest about having caused damage by removing the scabs. By day 7, the grafts are quite secure - and even if you were to have dislodged a graft, there would've been bleeding. General rule: No bleeding = no lost graft.

[WantSephirothHair]

Really appreciate the replies JohnCasper and pkipling! Well it's good to know that I didn't mess up my results.

At this stage the density is far too low for my liking. It doesn't look like the 50 fu per cm 2 and was told yet. I was told there would be dense packing to reinforce my hairline but not seeing that yet. I'd like to see the hair density double. Thickening alone from this point won't be enough. But I can see some tiny new hairs still so hopefully more will sprout soon.

[Beestig22]

Hang in there !

De Reys is know for excellent results.

Be patient, beauty takes time:D:D

[WantSephirothHair]

I hope so Beestig. He does great work on higher Norwood, but he's not well know for his hairlines. I chose him because he's more responsible than the Turkish surgeons, does the extractions himself and is cheaper than most Northern European surgeons.

I am seeing improvement of course, the waiting and uncertainty is tough!

[hairthere]

You really must give a HT at least 12 months before deciding if it was a success or not. Consider those are essentially brand new hairs that will take time to mature. The caliber will thicken and they will get longer which will add to the appearance of density. Plus you will have plenty of new hairs popping through which also must go through the same cycle.

 

Be patient, and good growing to you!

[TrixGlendevon]

Hi! I have just sent you a PM!!!

[WantSephirothHair]

Just passed the 6 month mark, I think I've improved a littl in the past couple of weeks. Still looking a bit odd though. Hope I'll start looking normal sometime soon!

[whyohwhy12345]

Hi,

May I ask what price per graft Dr. Reys charge? because I am deciding between him and other doctors.

tks a lot.

[WantSephirothHair]

It's €3500 for 1000 grafts, I paid €4500 because I thought he would change his mind when he sees me and say I need more grafts but he still said 800 waa enough to restore me to an NW2. So that's less than €4 per graft then. He's one of the cheapest Northern European surgeons. I do know somebody who went to Ailesbury clinic in Dublin though, paid less and got a good result. I thought about going there but I didnt trust them since they do other stuff, not just hair transplants.

[aWidowsPeek]

So it's 3500 for 1000 grafts....yet you got only 800 grafts and he charged you 4500?

 

800 grafts is nothing for a Norwood 2.5 I feel like you will be wanting/needing way more grafts when this is done growing in. Doctors love to get you on the hook for further surgeries.

[WantSephirothHair]

Sorry if I confused anyone. My online quote was 800 grafts for about €3200. I thought I may need more and asked if it was possible to go up to 1200 grafts on the day of surgery, I chose to pay €4500 just in case more were needed but Dr De Reys didn't ask for that much.

 

On the day of surgery he said I don't need 1200, that 800 would be enough for what I wanted. H said he would refund me the extra money. After the surgery I asked if I could have the additional 700 grafts at a later date if required rather than a refund of €1300, he agreed. What I wanted was quite modest, a subtle hair transplant rather than a transformative one. I'm fine with the hairline design, the density remains the biggest question mark for me.

[hsrp10]

I think aWidowsPeek makes a good point, 800 grafts is not really a lot.

Also you went with a doctor who is known for modest conservative results (which is basically a good thing in hair restoration) but not for highly dense results.

 

Now that he has your remaining money you're also stuck with him for the next round.

It's better to go highly dense the first time around with dense packing, than to consecutively try to place more grafts in between hairs in future procedures because there is a limit to what can be done and also the risk of shock loss to the hair already there.

 

anyway, I'm sure you'll get it worked out

good luck

[WantSephirothHair]

I hope not but you may be right. 800 grafts would get me a 16 cm long 1 cm deep hairline lowering at 50 FU per cm 2. I think that's more or less what he did. Less than 1 cm in some spots, nor in others. Whether that's enough with fine calibre hair is a big question. Then there is the question as to reinforcement in thinning areas behind the transplanted hairline, I think he may have neglected to do this but we'll see. There's a spot of low density hair just left of the centre point of my hairline which needed to be addressed but I don't think was.

 

I don't have to stick with him, I'm sure he would refund the €1300 difference since it wouldn't be financially good for him to do another surgery for just €1300. I'd say he would rather refund the money.

[hsrp10]

I've been at this quite a while and have had progressively smaller procedures throughout the years.

 

As someone who also has fine caliber hair you really need to try to shoot for 60 grafts/cm2 especially if not on Finsasteride to support the hair behind the transplants, otherwise it can get somewhat see-through in harsh lighting. The other option is the comb-over or comb-down.

 

There are two problems here, one is that most surgeons don't want to go higher than 50 grafts/cm2 to play it safe and another is that most of the message boards promote the same.

However there are doctors out there who regularly do 70-75 grafts/cm2 so the 60 level should not be a major issue for graft survival.

 

Pass the word, if you have fine light colored hair try to shoot for 60 grafts/cm2 or at least above 55.

If your doc is not into numbers, then ask him to transplant as dense as possible since you have fine hair and want to avoid the see-through look.

 

Anyway, as others have mentioned in your thread it's still early on and you will continue to get a density boost in the coming months.

[WantSephirothHair]

I'll keep that in mind for next time... Who would you recommend for 60 FU per cm2 dense packing? With this surgery I was limited by money to Dr De Reys or the Turkish surgeons. I wanted the best graft yields since it's such a precious and limited resources and trusted Dr De Reys more since he does th extractions himself, to get good yields.

[hsrp10]

I'll keep that in mind for next time... Who would you recommend for 60 FU per cm2 dense packing? With this surgery I was limited by money to Dr De Reys or the Turkish surgeons. I wanted the best graft yields since it's such a precious and limited resources and trusted Dr De Reys more since he does th extractions himself, to get good yields.

 

If it were before your procedure I would have recommended looking into Dr. Erdogan or Dr. Keser (*with the caveat that both of these will use high graft counts), now that it's already transplanted anything done after 18 months would have to be with a surgeon that excels at placing grafts in between hairs.

I know Dr. Lorenzo, Dr. Konior, Dr. Gabel, Dr. Cooley etc excel in that area.

 

Still it's very early on, just give it some more time to mature.

[WantSephirothHair]

Dr Erdogan quoted me 2600 grafts in an online consultation. I didn't want to use over half my available grafts on restoring an NW2.5 to an NW2, may have gon too far in the opposite direction. Thanks for the recommendations, I'll definitely check those guys out in 6 months if I'm not happy with my final results.