FUE with Dr. Bisanga

[MattyNJ1]

I wouldn't stress it yet, at 4 months my hair looked like a whole lot of nothing. I was well behind where i started off. Looked awful, my native hair was long the new hairs were in all stages of growth, some came out early, some just started to come out and some hadn't come out at all so I was so uneven and wondering what the hell would come from it. Now at almost month 10 my hairline is thick and getting better as the quality of hair gets better. You're making progress, just get used to these emotional peaks and valleys, you're going to have periods where you feel great and then you'll crash again lol... right now it doesn't feel like all the hairs are growing then you'll see a bunch and feel happy...then you're going to start freakin out again because while the hairs show up you still see peak thru and start wondering if it'll be dense enough then it'll slowly start to get denser so you said it, you just have to be patient.

 

..sounds like you went thru the "full process" and had great results? Do you have a pics or link to a thread with your process? thanks

[Tomislav]

Yes Mikey it would be really nice for "worried slow-growers" like me if you could post some pre-op, intermediate and current pictures, if you're satisfied with your current result

[mikeyhwk]

okay here ya go

 

pre, post op evening, 2 months post op, 3.5ish months post op and 7months post op...im at 11 months almost now but no idea what it looks like as I just underwent a 2nd procedure and my heads shaved again lol

[Tomislav]

Thank you Mikey!

 

Those are great results, and even at month 3.5 you can see a very definite improvement. If I could have your results in double the time I would consider myself very satisfied. But you did start from a better position than mine, so it is hard to make the comparison.

 

A second procedure at 11 months?! Why? I've always read that one should wait for the final outcome of the 1st procedure to be complete.

[mikeyhwk]

Thank you Mikey!

 

Those are great results, and even at month 3.5 you can see a very definite improvement. If I could have your results in double the time I would consider myself very satisfied. But you did start from a better position than mine, so it is hard to make the comparison.

 

A second procedure at 11 months?! Why? I've always read that one should wait for the final outcome of the 1st procedure to be complete.

 

welcome, and thank you for the compliment

 

at 3.5 months it was a bit of a mess, my native hairs were growing in strong but the transplanted were all short and awkward. It looked patchy and weird in real life that's why I say at that point it isn't much of anything yet but better is on it's way and soon.

 

As for the 2nd procedure...the general rule of thumb is to not work on the same area for at least a year and I wasn't, I was working on my crown so I didn't feel any reason to wait. When I did my first procedure I had a small donut hole in my crown and it annoyed the crap out of me but I was only on fin 6 months at that point and Dr B said because I had some minaturized hairs in the area and there wasn't big loss the net result wouldn't be very good as I'd lose as many as I'd put in. He thought the best course of action was to strengthen the crown with fin for at least a year and see if it could stabilize those hairs or possibly regrow hair rather than operate at that time. After a year and a half on fin I was a much better candidate to do the crown and it was a virgin area so it was safe to tackle so I decided to go ahead with it.

[MattyNJ1]

wow great transformation for sure...the new hairline make you look 10yrs younger..

[Tomislav]

wow great transformation for sure...the new hairline make you look 10yrs younger..

 

Absolutely. Mikey on your profile it says you are 41. But you look 25 !!!

:eek:

:eek:

[mikeyhwk]

wow great transformation for sure...the new hairline make you look 10yrs younger..

 

Thank you!! it's crazy how much of a dramatic change a proper hairline can make for you

 

Absolutely. Mikey on your profile it says you are 41. But you look 25 !!!

:eek:

:eek:

 

profile is wrong, it's trying to prematurely age me lol I'm only 40 haha, 41 in November but I do pass for a lot younger now. I always had a younger looking face but people used to guess mid 30s pre transplant but now you're dead on, I'm meeting 25-28 year old girls regularly who think I'm the same age, blows my mind. Dating life hasn't been this good since i was a legit 25.

[Tomislav]

As you can see the shock loss is now virtually back to normal.

 

As for the recipient zone, progress is slow...

[Tomislav]

Hi guys, could this below be a dead follicle? Is this normal to happen at 5 months post-op? Has anyone experienced this so late in the process?

 

This is the fourth or fifth time that I find something like this sitting on my scalp in the past couple of months. Once it contained a 2-hair follicular unit :mad: I did not worry too much the other times, but if this keeps happening, this is certainly a cause for concern.

 

I am going to visit Dr B at some point this summer, he'll probably be able to tell me...

[HairThereAndEverywhere]

Hi guys, could this below be a dead follicle? Is this normal to happen at 5 months post-op? Has anyone experienced this so late in the process?

 

This is the fourth or fifth time that I find something like this sitting on my scalp in the past couple of months. Once it contained a 2-hair follicular unit :mad: I did not worry too much the other times, but if this keeps happening, this is certainly a cause for concern.

 

I am going to visit Dr B at some point this summer, he'll probably be able to tell me...

 

I'm not a doctor but I don't think it is. I'm under the impression that unless it bleeds it's not a lost follicle. The root is deep in your scalp and if it comes out, blood should come with it.

 

I used to see similar hairs like that....before I got an HT. I think maybe it's dandruff buildup with a hair stuck in it. This is just a guess though.

 

One shampoo that really helped with that was MG217 Psoriasis shampoo. I've used it once or twice since my HT with no ill effects.

[someusername82]

Tomislav check out my 5th month update so you can compare, I don't think it's too different to yours, and I had no hair at the front either. Ignore the back part (crown) being shaved as I just had that area done too.

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/186134-my-first-op-next-week-2.html

 

I think we have to keep waiting.

 

Rob

[Tomislav]

I used to see similar hairs like that....before I got an HT. I think maybe it's dandruff buildup with a hair stuck in it. This is just a guess though. One shampoo that really helped with that was MG217 Psoriasis shampoo. I've used it once or twice since my HT with no ill effects.

 

Hi there... I keep thinking they are rejected grafts. This morning I woke up with another one sitting on my head. This one was pretty big, see the picture below. If they were dandruff with hair stuck in it, I would not observe multiple hairs attached to it. Plus, every single time I saw one of these lumps, there was at least one hair in it...

 

Don't know what causes this. Perhaps they were implanted too shallow. Perhaps my body doesn't "like" them...

 

Anyway. Dr Bisanga was kind enough to see me earlier on this week. He noticed my scalp still looked a bit too red... He prescribed to me Clobetasol shampoo to apply twice a week. Let's hope this helps regrowth...

[Tomislav]

Hi everyone, here are some pictures I took in the last couple of days. It is now about 6 months and a half since I underwent the transplant. As you can see the angle, light and way of combing my hair can change a lot the appearance, but I must say that over the last month there has been a definite improvement.

 

The dandruff-with-hairs-attached thing is now happening at a much lower rate than before. Maybe this is thanks to the Clobex shampoo. But I am a bit less worried about it: even if these were indeed dead follicles being expelled by my body, and even if I did not notice all of them, I think we are talking about at most a few dozen follicles, which is a small proportion of the 3000 I was implanted with.

 

Please do comment, and feel free to express your sincere opinion.

 

Cheers!

Edited August 23, 2017 by Tomislav

[Tomislav]

Here are some more pictures...

Edited August 23, 2017 by Tomislav

[mikeyhwk]

Hey, there is definite thickening up of the hairs from month 5.5 to 6.5 you can see that a lot more hairs are filling in the spots that had wider gaps in the previous month...this was about the point where some of those weak ass hairs that didn't photograph well started to take shape and started to fill out the result for me and it looks to be where you're at now as well. I look forward to see what happens over the next month and a half, I think we'll continue to see some big changes.

[mikeyhwk]

 

In my particular case no, maybe a few but overwhelmingly no, but I would say I was on the earlier end of the growth spectrum. As you know we all grow at different rates but what I noticed was that a lot of the hairs that were later growing, the month 4 and 5 hairs, started to hit a length that made them noticeable and a lot of those really faint weak hairs that looked sort of lifeless started to take on the characteristics of my regular hair so the combination made it begin to look full and filled out.

[mikeyhwk]

 

We've been over this before, I didn't have any issues with clobetasol on my first procedure and had Dr Lorenzo also recommend it post my 2nd procedure so it's not just dr Bisanga. I know in my case Dr B ran it thru Dr Meyer who is herself a dermatologist and his partner in their spain transplant clinics and Dr Lorenzos done more fue surgeries than most docs in the world, between the 2 main docs their experience is unmatched.. so I highly doubt these drs would be prescribing anything that would be harmful to the end result and If it was harmful I am sure they'd have seen it by now and ceased it's recommendation. I am not doubting your clobetasol experience but it may just be possible that you're experience isn't the norm and that not using clobetasol for the patients who are prescribed it post op, the result would be worse without clobetasol than the small percentage it works against growth. I will email dr Lorenzo and ask for his take on clobetasol and it's effect on ht's.

[mikeyhwk]

I didn't say Dr Bisanga was an authority on steroids nor did I say Dr Lorenzo was but you did say that Dr B does prescribe clobetasol too often, I'm saying it doesn't take an authority to observe something that is obvious. If the majority of patients using clobetasol were under performing with regards to their transplants I feel like that variable would've been noted and eliminated by now, not just by these docs but every transplant doc by now.. how is it not common knowledge among transplant docs already? Neither dr had me running it for extended periods and I don't know how long the poster here has been scripted it so I ask again what do you consider a long time frame. From what I've been told 50ml per week for 4 weeks or less on the scalp is not going to cause any long term damage and I was nowhere near that amount per week and went just over 4 weeks and this time Im about done with it at about 4 weeks so maybe it is something the doctors are accounting for and have run it in a way that is not having a negative effect? The shampoo is .05 you are correct. This isn't personal as I said im just trying to get some answers but you're making some claims about knowing better than the docs, so I think its fair to ask how you know more, what experience you have diagnosing and the patients you've seen having negative effects from its use and on what basis that Dr B's and Lorenzos experience with patients using these products isn't as relevant to what you know. I think it's fairly common knowledge that corticosteroids shouldn't be used multiple months at high dosages but on the window that these docs prescribed, that's all I want to get to the bottom of.

[dan26]

I used betamethasone a couple times a week for over a year, all over my scalp, and overall it had a positive effect on my hair (mostly by reducing dry/flakes etc brought on by stating other topical treatments).

 

However I recall reading a study where topical steroids can quickly phase your hairs out of the anagen stage and it freaked me out so I stopped. Also the main benefits were just from scalp health and making minox pentrate better, outside of that I think they are actually harmful to hair growth. I wouldn't mess with them post HT. Hydro at the most if scalp is in bad shape but I'd be super paranoid using strong steroids like clobestosal on the recipient area post HT

 

Also guys on the private forums experimented with steroids, calcipitriol (psoriases med) and tretinoin for hair growth and they were virtually all useless. All of the hair growth benefits from studies that included them were in adjunct to minox use or on patients with alopecia areata or some other inflammatory condition. I say let the skin heal by itself post HT, the follicle is more at risk by some strong roid penetrating the skin then just letting the outer layer of the skin flake and be red.

[mikeyhwk]

I used betamethasone a couple times a week for over a year, all over my scalp, and overall it had a positive effect on my hair (mostly by reducing dry/flakes etc brought on by stating other topical treatments).

 

However I recall reading a study where topical steroids can quickly phase your hairs out of the anagen stage and it freaked me out so I stopped. Also the main benefits were just from scalp health and making minox pentrate better, outside of that I think they are actually harmful to hair growth. I wouldn't mess with them post HT. Hydro at the most if scalp is in bad shape but I'd be super paranoid using strong steroids like clobestosal on the recipient area post HT

 

Also guys on the private forums experimented with steroids, calcipitriol (psoriases med) and tretinoin for hair growth and they were virtually all useless. All of the hair growth benefits from studies that included them were in adjunct to minox use or on patients with alopecia areata or some other inflammatory condition. I say let the skin heal by itself post HT, the follicle is more at risk by some strong roid penetrating the skin then just letting the outer layer of the skin flake and be red.

 

I know you read a lot of studies but if you come across that study about topical steroids phasing hairs out of the anagen stage again i'd be interested in reading it. I tried a quick google search but just keep coming up on alopecia studies.

Edited August 28, 2017 by mikeyhwk

[Tomislav]

The plan was to use Clobex for a short period of time, just the time for the redness to subside... After that I was planning to use Nizoral.

 

I am aware of the risks associated with strong corticosteroids, but is Nizoral really dangerous months after a transplant? Do you have any link you can post about this? I have searched a bit online, but found nothing, for now.

[Tomislav]

Thank you. By the way, for those interested, here is a link about the risks of topical corticosteroid withdrawal: https://www.dermnetnz.org/topics/topical-corticosteroid-withdrawal/

 

And for those interested in Nizoral, I found the posts he was talking about:

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/135193-nizoral-shedding.html

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/173206-dont-overuse-nizoral-after-hair-transplant.html

 

I might still have a go at Nizoral after I stop Clobex (soon!), but I'll keep an eye on my skin's reaction to it.

[Tomislav]

Hey, there is definite thickening up of the hairs from month 5.5 to 6.5 you can see that a lot more hairs are filling in the spots that had wider gaps in the previous month... [...] I look forward to see what happens over the next month and a half, I think we'll continue to see some big changes.

 

Hey Mikey thank you as always for the kind words. Now I have learned to recognise new hairs from the transplant. They are not a stubble like the one you get after shaving your beard (that's what I was looking for at month 3-4...), but very thin blond hairs.

 

The only way to see them is to comb your hair very slowly backwards with a dark comb. The short hairs are the first to come up on the front of the comb. At the moment I have still quite a few that are about 1 cm long, so it seems that I still have had new growth until about month ago. Unless these are my old miniaturised hairs... hard to say.

 

Anyway, I will post my next update at month 8.

[Tomislav]

Month 8 update is coming soon. Stay tuned!