FUE 3604 Grafts with Dr. BISANGA BHR Clinic Belgium (September 2020) "Dense Packing"

[guizza111]

Hi everyone!

 

I have decided to get my hair transplant at Dr Bisanga’s clinic in Bruxelles because of this forum so I feel like I should start a thread and share the results and progress with you all.

 

I’m 29 years old and started losing my hair when I was 22-23, in my family literally everybody has a head full of hair (and I did too) except my cousin (24) and I. Used to take minoxidil and propecia then stopped cause I was thinking “I’ll eventually get a HT so I’ll restart when I’m again at point 0”, when I stopped taking it I noticed I started losing even more hair.

 

After long months (years?) of research, being specifically interested in “dense packing” techinques my choices came down to 4 surgeons: Hasson&Wong, Dr Bisanga, Dr Feriduni and Dr Couto (the last one being my favourite).

 

The waiting list for Dr Couto is 2+ years (just for the initial consultation) and they don’t really seem to care too much about you so I’ve decided to go for Dr Bisanga, based also on the many positive posts on this forum, from which I understood that he was a “no bullshit” doctor, real results, no fuss. His team was very quick in getting back to my request with an estimate count of grafts and the first availability for surgery (they had different options for me and this made the choice even easier).

 

I wish he added more cases on his website or his youtube channel because, had I seen the results I’ve seen posted on this forum on his website, my decision to go to him would’ve been even faster. I think some results posted on this blog from his clinic are even better than those he has on his website.

 

I went to the consultation the day before surgery totally unaware of what hairline I wanted and what could fit my face. I did not “study” and I am a high maintenance-perfectionist type of person so I was very disoriented at first. Dr Bisanga designed the hairline on me but I asked to make modifications, not knowin enough to design a correct hairline. We decided to reschedule the design for the day of the surgery so I could go home and try to design more options on my head for the next morning. I tried like 15 styles and watched like 20 vids on proportions of the face etc.

 

The next morning (sept 23rd) I was admitted 40 minutes earlier than usual to the clinic to define the hairline, still very confused I just showed the doctor how I modify my pictures on facetune and that I’ve understood that also the lateral part of my forehead was important to me to “frame” my face better. He then designed the hairline he thought was appropriate based on my requests and I was happy about it, was better than the ones we designed the day before. Threw in the request to “fill in” some beard too and he did that too (I’m still not sure I made the right choice by doing that but only time will tell).

 

Attaching pics of consultation and hairline design before surgery

[guizza111]

The day of the surgery (Sept 23rd 2020) went down like this:

- 7.40 am met at the clinic for final hairline design and agreement and density count (my density on my lateral hair was 70 and on my back 100 if I'm not wrong) 

- 8 am shaved my head, did blood tests + pictures

- 8.45ish am Dr. Bisanga started the anesthesia injections on my head. This is the only VERY painful part of the whole surgery, dr Bisanga if you're reading this please try to be more gentle with your future patients 😂 

I'm not super sure about the exact timings from now on because I didn't have my phone with me all the time so I'm giving an estimate

- 9.15 am - 12.30 pm Dr Bisanga harvested my donor area and extracted:

• 1 Follicular Unit: 947 Grafts
• 2 Follicular Units: 1436 Grafts
• 3 Follicular Units: 749 Grafts
• 4 Follicular Units: 472 Grafts
• + 224 BHT Grafts for my beard

- 12.30  pm - 2.45 pm Dr Bisanga created the "holes" for his colleagues to later insert the grafts, meanwhile Vasilij (I think this is the name of the other dr) separated the harvested grafts and divided them by Follicular Unit count

- 2.45 pm - 3 pm I had a quick lunch before starting the implantation process 

 

- 3 pm - 5.45 pm Natalie (Virgo) and Daria (Taurus) and another really nice lady whom I forgot the name of took turns to implant the grafts. Initally I thought this process would be supervised by dr Bisanga as well and at first, being myself a suspicious perfectionist asshole, I started asking them so many questions to understand how many times they had done this before (respectively 14 and 10 years 😅🤣) and they explained to me in detail how they would implant the grafts following the "path" that dr Bisanga had created for them in the previous part of the surgery. It was really nice to know what was happening on my head cause I didn't know exactly how the whole process would work and what were the specifics of "dr Bisanga" HT style (in the first row he uses only 1 FU grafts, the second row is also for 1 FU grafts, third row is mixed 2 FU and some 3 FU, and the higher they go on the forehead the higher the majority of the FU count - if this is wrong pls somebody from BHR scold me!) 

 

- 5.45 pm - 8.15 pm Natalie and Daria, literally two angels on earth, finished inserting all the grafts and did my beard too (which I was not happy about but then Daria convinced me it might look strange now but it will look good in the future) I went for a final check in dr Bisanga's office and Vasilij explained the procedure for the first night after surgery.

 

- 9.30 pm I was in my hotel, I cried a lot on my way to the hotel I think bc of the stress of the surgery (even if it was not painful at all, EXCEPT the super painful anesthesia, especially in the beard), ate dinner, took antibiotic and the next day I went again to the clinic to have the whole post-surgery process explained.

 

The day of the surgery lasted 12 hours and these are the pics during the surgery

[guizza111]

This is my new hairline after the surgery - What do you guys think? Honestly

I'm now at day 2 after surgery, a bit swollen on the face but not too much and following all the post-op procedures carefully. I will keep you updated on my progress!

this forum helped me a lot in the choice and I wanna give back as much as possible! 

[Melvin- Admin]

Looks great, first time I see a hair to beard hair transplant journey, so this is gonna be interesting to see. The work looks impeccable, as is to be expected for Bisanga.

[Curious25]

Looks really good - at first site of your pre op pictures, I admit I wasn't so sure about the hairline design because the temples looked to be almost excessively curved, however with the grafts implanted it looks great. It's not always easy to vision how a hairline will look from the drawn on design alone. 

Dr Bisanga seems to be creating himself a bit of a niche with frontal restoration work of late, so I am sure you will be thrilled 8-12 months down the line. 

If you do have donor densities of 100 FU/cm then you will be able to stretch a good few more FUE procedures out down the line should you need to, 

Wish you good growth! 

[Britanium]

Super clean and refined work. I have no doubt this will turn in to another excellent Bisanga result.

[guizza111]

12 hours ago, transplantedphil said:

Love Bisanga's work. Looking forward to seeing the temple point restoration.

What's your estimated donor capacity?

In the back of my head my density was 100, in the lateral part only 70 - if that was your question. Now i started minoxidil and propecia so those I still have can grow thicker 

[guizza111]

11 hours ago, Curious25 said:

Looks really good - at first site of your pre op pictures, I admit I wasn't so sure about the hairline design because the temples looked to be almost excessively curved, however with the grafts implanted it looks great. It's not always easy to vision how a hairline will look from the drawn on design alone. 

Dr Bisanga seems to be creating himself a bit of a niche with frontal restoration work of late, so I am sure you will be thrilled 8-12 months down the line. 

If you do have donor densities of 100 FU/cm then you will be able to stretch a good few more FUE procedures out down the line should you need to, 

Wish you good growth! 

Thank you! thanks also for the dr suggestions on my other thread! 

[giegnosiganoe]

How many grafts were put into the sides vs the top?

[Gatsby]

You chose a great surgeon and that's an excellent write up to follow. I look forward to seeing your journey unfold. All the best!

[Huncholini]

Hey, thanks for this write up, I have a few questions. What was your estimated donor density (usually between 70-90 hairs/cm2 I think) and number of donor grafts available?

Also did you consider Dr.Lupanzula at all?

[guizza111]

On 9/29/2020 at 3:51 PM, Huncholini said:

Hey, thanks for this write up, I have a few questions. What was your estimated donor density (usually between 70-90 hairs/cm2 I think) and number of donor grafts available?

Also did you consider Dr.Lupanzula at all?

I have not considered Lupanzula, I wasn't vibing with their results. 

 

my estimated donor density was 70 on the sides and 100 in the back

[asterix0]

Thanks for sharing your experience in such great detail.

I have two questions, when you were talking about "choosing" a hairline design, I was a bit confused. Wouldn't you have been satisfied to simply have the temple points/hairline you had before you started losing hair? Why did you choose to decide on some "design" that would be a bit of a roll of the dice as to how it would look with your face?

It may turn out to look great I'm not making any statements as it is way to early for that, I was just curious about this.

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by asterix0

[Huncholini]

21 hours ago, guizza111 said:

I have not considered Lupanzula, I wasn't vibing with their results. 

 

my estimated donor density was 70 on the sides and 100 in the back

Thanks, what about Donor capacity? And how is after care at Bisanga's clinic? Do they offer to wash your head the day after the transplant?

[guizza111]

On 9/30/2020 at 11:19 PM, asterix0 said:

Thanks for sharing your experience in such great detail.

I have two questions, when you were talking about "choosing" a hairline design, I was a bit confused. Wouldn't you have been satisfied to simply have the temple points/hairline you had before you started losing hair? Why did you choose to decide on some "design" that would be a bit of a roll of the dice as to how it would look with your face?

It may turn out to look great I'm not making any statements as it is way to early for that, I was just curious about this.

 

oh no I didnt mean to  sound "fancy" with the hairline design procedure. it's just how it's called, I suppose the doctor designed what I previously had cause I think it fits my face nicely . I honestly forgot what I had lol and wanted my temples a bit fuller

[guizza111]

6 hours ago, Huncholini said:

Thanks, what about Donor capacity? And how is after care at Bisanga's clinic? Do they offer to wash your head the day after the transplant?

donor capacity was good but I don't know the exact specs. 

the day after surgery I went back to the clinic and they showed me how to do everything post-op.

Also the person who "booked" my HT ETC. is always reachable via whatsapp and ready to answer all your concerns. 

[guizza111]

Updates from day 9 after surgery:

- Expect the swelling from the surgery to go down your face and to look like you were taken out of Night King Army in game of thrones 

- Buy comfortable pillows (meaning VERY SOFT and mellow) because when you sleep your donor area will hurt. (unfortunately I only sleep with hard rock pillows so it really hurt) 

- Today is my second day after I started washing my new hair with the recommende shampoo and the crusts are already all gone! I saw some hair in it but it's normal and it's nothing to worry about cause the important thing is the follicle 

- redness still there but in real life not that noticeable 

 

ciao!

[Melvin- Admin]

53 minutes ago, guizza111 said:

Updates from day 9 after surgery:

- Expect the swelling from the surgery to go down your face and to look like you were taken out of Night King Army in game of thrones 

- Buy comfortable pillows (meaning VERY SOFT and mellow) because when you sleep your donor area will hurt. (unfortunately I only sleep with hard rock pillows so it really hurt) 

- Today is my second day after I started washing my new hair with the recommende shampoo and the crusts are already all gone! I saw some hair in it but it's normal and it's nothing to worry about cause the important thing is the follicle 

- redness still there but in real life not that noticeable 

 

ciao!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the temple points, they frame your face perfectly! 

[Richie888]

I've only just joined this forum to start my own journey but I had to comment buddy because that is 10/10. The shape of the sides and temples is going to look perfect once it grows out. Well done you've made a good choice. From what I've seen he's in the upper bracket of expense but I can see why you picked him. Good luck 

[Curious25]

I agree with Melvin, your temple points and new hairline look fantastic . . When it grows in you’re going to look like a rockstar. Just goes to show how talented the top docs are, because despite after the thousands of cases I’ve studied and watched over the years, from your initial pre op pics, I just couldn’t picture the outcome being as brilliant as it looks, the temple points looked really rounded in the design (maybe it was the angle of your head in the pic Aswell) . . Anyway, looking great, will check back in as you update. 

[guizza111]

3 hours ago, Richie888 said:

I've only just joined this forum to start my own journey but I had to comment buddy because that is 10/10. The shape of the sides and temples is going to look perfect once it grows out. Well done you've made a good choice. From what I've seen he's in the upper bracket of expense but I can see why you picked him. Good luck 

hey! thanks! It wasn't cheap but I think it will be worth it. I'll keep updating this! 

[guizza111]

4 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the temple points, they frame your face perfectly! 

thanks i cant wait to be in June 2021 🤣🤣

[guizza111]

3 hours ago, Curious25 said:

I agree with Melvin, your temple points and new hairline look fantastic . . When it grows in you’re going to look like a rockstar. Just goes to show how talented the top docs are, because despite after the thousands of cases I’ve studied and watched over the years, from your initial pre op pics, I just couldn’t picture the outcome being as brilliant as it looks, the temple points looked really rounded in the design (maybe it was the angle of your head in the pic Aswell) . . Anyway, looking great, will check back in as you update. 

🙏🏻 

[Britanium]

Super clean and you can clearly see how refined the work is 🤩

[Marco Van Basten]

That is going to me a sick result mate!!!!

Do you mind if I ask the costs?

Thanks