FUE Dr Bisanga 4203 grafts - 2999 Scalp/1204 Beard November 2020

[Bailey99]

Hi All,

 

Having gained a lot of information and knowledge from the forum, i thought i owed it to post my experience and journey. Many thanks to all the folks prior to me who have shared their experience, it really is a wealth of information.  

Background

I'm 39 years old and I started losing my hair about 12 years ago. For the past 8 years i have been clean shaven and whilst accepting of it, i never was fully confident or comfortable with the slick look. It was also a pain in the you know what having to shave every three days and also hated the occasional ribbing I'd get from my mates. Having seen the great results on this forum and growing acceptance of hair transplants i finally picked up the courage to do something about it earlier this year. I had narrowed my choice of Doctor it down to Dr Bisanga, Dr Lupanzula and Dr Feriduni . Off course Covid then struck but thankfully i was still able to have online consultations with Dr Bisanga and Dr Lupanzula (I never got a reply from my enquiry to Dr Feriduni). I don't have any particular reason for choosing Dr Bisanga over Dr Lupanzula other than maybe coming across more similar cases to myself that Dr Bisanga had handled. From the online consultations they both agreed that i would need approx. 3000 graphs to restore the frontal hairline. Going solely on an online consultation is difficult but I reckoned I owed it to myself to try and do something about my hair loss. My goal was to at least reduce the NW number and anything after that is a bonus, If this goes well, I plan on a second procedure to target the crown using my abundant beard donor and possibly chest hair if required. In the main I plan on keeping the hair short until I get the second procedure, if all goes well I may then grow it out.  

 

The Procedure

Not the wisest choice to pick a November date during the pandemic as cases soared all over Europe but with other things going on, it was the earliest I could have got it done and I really didn't want to wait until next year so ahead with it i went. Having thankfully got a negative PCR test three days prior to the procedure I was able to get my flight (I'm in Ireland). I arrived in Brussels the day before the procedure. I had booked an Airbnb close to the clinic, I thought an Airbnb was best as i wanted to keep my contacts as low as possible and I was able to do a shop on the day i arrived meaning the only place i left the apartment for was the clinic before flying home four days later. 

At the BHR clinic Dr Bisanga, examined my donor and drew a hairline which i was happy with. It is conservative but it sort has to be considering the area that has to be covered. Also my donor is not the best as over the years whilst being shaved i had progressed to a NW6 and I am patchy behind my ears. The hair measured 70 microns on the sides and 80 microns at the back. Thankfully I have a good beard donor which will be required. The pre procedure photos show 1 month growth, the longest I had let it grow since i started shaving the head. 

The procedure was carried out over two days, day 1 was the scalp, day 2 was the beard. The injections were a killer in the scalp but the pain is only momentary, i did not find the beard ones as bad except maybe around the front of my chin. Another thing, I have a really low heart rate, so i didn't get a valium to help me relax, the alarm on the pulse reader kept going off all through the 2 days. I am very bad with names so can't remember the lovely ladies who done the extractions and graft placements. Dr Bisanga did the punching and cut the channels for the grafts. Dr Costa was also there but mostly just supervised ( he did punch 50 grafts on my  beard).  

Post op I was a little sore and did take the pain killers going to bed each night but apart from that just had a little tenderness of the donor. I did have swelling around the eyes but again it wasn't too bad and subsided in about 3 days. Travelling back was straight forward, I had my bandanna on and security and passpaort control were happy for me to keep it on. I guess they are used to seeing them at this stage. 

 

My numbers:

Head 

Ones - 558

Twos - 1287

Threes - 917

Fours - 237

 

Beard

Ones - 644

Twos - 452

Threes - 109

 

I am now  at day 11 and everything is going well. Photos to follow. My beard healed really fast and you couldn't tell it was touched after 3 - 4 days. I have decided to also take finasteride to give this the best chance i can. When I started losing my hair I didn't take anything as we were just starting a family and didn't want any chemicals in my system. Since then on occasions I thought about it but was afraid of the sides, I have been encouraged to try it due to the evidence that micro dosing likely reduces the chances of them. I'm also taking Biotin and MSM (thanks to Zoomster). For 6 months prior to the procedure I was taking Saw Palmetto but did not see any benefit. 

 

 

[Britanium]

Thanks for the detailed write up and pics. Looks super refined! Bisanga is in my top 3. 

[Bailey99]

Day 11 photos 

[Bailey99]

From the front

[Britanium]

Looks like you could easily take more beard grafts If needed 

[Bailey99]

1 minute ago, JohnAC71 said:

Looks like you could easily take more beard grafts If needed 

Yes that's the plan, I have only a limited head donor left so will keep that for any touch up that is required to the front. 

[Britanium]

Bisanga does really good BHT. Yours is no exception. 👌

[deitel130]

Congrats , thanks for sharing. Enjoy the growth.

[hairlossPA]

will be following. Dr B’s results are always solid 

[Melvin- Admin]

This is gonna be an exciting thread to follow. You will be a happy man in 2021 🙌🏼

[sl]

Thank you for posting and as said here, nice clean work and healing very well.

[Curious25]

2 hours ago, sl said:

Thank you for posting and as said here, nice clean work and healing very well.

Sl , what’s dr bisanga’s take on using BHT to replenish donor, and maximise more scalp grafts for the recipient . . Rather than transplant BHT to recipient. ? 

[sl]

I don't want to hijack this topic away from this patient but best to not over harvest the donor in the first place. We have placed body hair to scars etc but it is a very costly exercise to deplete a donor and then to replenish with body hair and for us not a primary approach. Use the donor wisely and within its limits and then tap into body hair as and when needed is the short answer. 

[Bailey99]

Day 21

Nothing really much to report, shedding has started, the donor has settled down, no more tenderness and no shock loss so far. The recipient doesnt appear to be too red either.

[Britanium]

More shedding since last pics. All totally on track! 👏

[selem banza]

On 11/24/2020 at 1:26 AM, JohnAC71 said:

Thanks for the detailed write up and pics. Looks super refined! Bisanga is in my top 3. 

Can you please share who are your top 5?

thnaks

[selem banza]

On 11/24/2020 at 3:08 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

This is gonna be an exciting thread to follow. You will be a happy man in 2021 🙌🏼

can you share with us your top 5 surgeon?

[Bailey99]

Week 4 - The shedding continues. I am going to clean shave my beard for the first time and buzz the head. I'll post photos later when i have it done. 

[Britanium]

Donor area had recovered well. Look forward to seeing the beard area shaved 😀

[Bailey99]

Hair buzzed down to a number 1 and clean shaved (I went with the grain under the chin as I didn't want to risk aggravating the skin), have to say it looks much tidier.

[Britanium]

Thanks for posting. 🙏

[sl]

Here is an  immediate post-op photo of the surgery and yes the patient will be having a second one to proceed as soon as possible to then continue on backwards.  

My own case is very similar and my photo  (lower down) was from 10 years ago of how I looked prior to then more to the crown, and it came in very well and natural and was a long time ago. I am talking from personal experience also.

 

Hope helps.

First two photos are this patient, lower is mine from 10 years ago.

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by sl

[Bailey99]

18 hours ago, JohnBob said:

Congrats Bailey, overall the HT looks pretty good and on track to deliver great results. 

With the risk of sounding like a jerk, I would like to make a humble (after all I'm just a random forum member) suggestion to the Bisanga clinic on something I think could be improved. 

The implanted hairs are ending on top of Bailey' scalp abruptly and in a straight line. This somewhat made that part of his scalp look a little bit unnatural as we never lose hair in that way. 

 

 

We usually go bald in round patterns, not straight lines. And there should be a fade out effect with less density in hair before the implanted area stops.

The picture bellow is an example of how in my opinion the doctor dealt with a similar problem in a slightly more natural way. Notice the curved line and the fade out effect with density getting smaller and smaller. 

 

 

I know every case is different (and that Bailey is probably getting a second procedure to fill that area anyways) but I think there is room for improvement in the points I mentioned. 

Hi Johnbob,

 

Thanks for the comments.. I agree it does look a little unnatural at the moment but as Sl says, his was similar and it ended up blending in quite well. One of the main reasons i went to Dr Bissanga was because of Sl's starting point being similar to mine and the results he achieved. I can confirm that i will be going for a second procedure and hoping to get it done as soon as possible. In between i will be keeping the hair really short so it may not be too noticable. Another thing is this pandemic has one upshot in seriously reducing my contacts, outside of my family only 3 - 4 people i know have seen me since i had it done.

[JohnBob]

Thank you for the answer guys. I should have posted my comments as questions instead of claims really as I don't want to sound pretentious as of course I'm no expert in the topic, just a curious guy doing some internet research that has seen A LOT of cases lately, lol. 

[Melvin- Admin]

@JohnBob 

We’re here to share and encourage one another, you seem to be picking up bad habits from Jim, I won’t be tolerating this any longer. It’s one thing being inquisitive and another thing coming on a new thread and making claims about naturalness, especially knowing hair transplants are extremely taxing on your mental state in the beginning. I do not appreciate it, and neither does the community.