1800 grafts FUE with Dr. Kyriakos Maras - HDC

[UnbaldEagle]

Henlo friends,

 

I had an FUE procedure of 1800 grafts on Monday 07.12.20 at HDC with Dr. Maras. Should have been a week earlier, however I could not leave the UK at that time.

 

Background

So I have already shared some details in my initial post where I was considering several surgeons, but I'll collect and summarize everything here. I'll tell you guys "what happened", it's literally how Dr. Maras asked me to describe my hair loss situation.

Started losing my hair at the age of 19. I had really long hair and a friend of mine pointed out that it's getting thinner and it's probably because I was lacking the vitamins to support a long hair. I went to my barber for confirmation, of course he said the same, so I cut my hair really short and realized that my hair was indeed a lot less dense and the hairline started creeping back too. Obviously I went through the denial stage, partly because I did the mistake of asking my family's oppinion. They all said I'm not balding, I always had thin hair, etc. I have no idea how on earth I was not considering the fact that apart from my brother (lucky NW1 bastard ), pretty much every single male on both side of my family is suffering from MPB like NW5-6 stages. So yeah, my biggest regret is not taking action when I could have reversed things. I did take some natural supplements like saw palmetto, biotin but that was it.

Fast forward 4-5 years and again somebody kindly pointed out that I'm going bald. Again, I grew my hair out so it kinda disguised things, but a new short haircut revealed the actual damage. First of all, my temples were receded to NW3, but the worst thing is I had low density all over and a small bald spot in the crown area I have never even seen before! At that point it was pretty clear to me that give another 5 years and I'll be slick bald just like my cousins. But I also realized that I simply CAN'T be bald, first of all I don't have the right head shape and style and body (I'm fairly short and very thin) to shave it all off, and second, I believe it's something Melvin said once that having no hair just felt like.. it was not him. I had that same feeling all my life, hair is a part of my identity, and losing that would be like losing myself forever. I don't want to be so melodramatic, hair loss affects us all emotionally, but for some people it's a deep trauma, one that can not be erased as you look into the mirror every day, right? I've been depressed due to my hair loss, I spent a lot of time, money and energy in treatments, furthering my education in the subject and in between I had a life too, for sure, been in relationships, had friends, a job that I really like, but overall it was more like a half-life, one somewhat constantly crippled by the emotional trauma, loss of confidence and whatnot. If you're afflicted in the same way and just wanna talk, I'm here anytime.

Treatment

I started doing some research in desperation, came across a treatment-based forum called hairlosshelp (which is sadly defunct by now) and posted my story, got some honest advice and a few weeks later I started taking finasteride. Guys, this was like 11 years ago and I remember fin side effects were just.. I'm not gonna say non-existent, but I honestly don't recall ever reading anyone complaining of them. It was pretty straightforward back in the days: guys shared their story, got fin and minox "prescribed" and then posted some results 6-12 months later, mostly positive ones. In the last few years however, and especially most recently there's this new generation of hair loss sufferers who either wouldn't even dare touch fin or would complain of sides after taking a pill or two. "I can't take fin because it's causing constipation" was the "funniest" I've read. Anyway, I'm straying away from the subject and while I'm not saying fin side effects are not real, it's just weird these days "everyone" seems to be experiencing them. I can honestly say finasteride saved my hair, I've been maintaining my native hair since and even regrew some hair in the crown thanks to going down the anti-androgen - almost HRT - route. I don't wanna enlist all the things I've been using because it would require a new thread. Currently my regimen consists of fin every day, 0.5 mg dut every week or so, 100 mg spironolactone (decreased it from 200 mg after obvious sides) and topical minox (as well as low-dose oral) every day. Lately I've been considering the addition of a mixture of bimatoprost and minoxidil w/ dermarolling and topical dutasteride from Dr. Lupanzula.

Last year I had an FUE of 1200 grafts at a clinic I'd rather not name (not a hair mill, more like in the mid-range but I should have went to a top clinic in the first place), they filled in my temples (I had some patchy vellus hair there, but was essentially a NW3) and the final result was a still patchy NW2-2.5. I estimate about 60% of the transplanted hair grew back.

Pictures before the surgery with Dr. Maras

These pictures were taken quite recently. Picture no. 1 reveals my main hair loss issues. As you can see, I've got diffuse thinning (most prominently in the frontal areas) and a very thinned out left temple region. The right side is actually okay. However if I styled my hair the right way (2^nd pic) it could camouflage the thin regions in a way that somebody just recently said I've got a "full head of hair". Which is very, very far from the truth. For those wondering, it's not a combover, lol, you can see the top on the 3^rd pic and the way it's parted. Next pictures reveal the crown and mid-scalp region, the latter is alright, however the crown is still a bit thin (although no longer have a bald spot thanks to meds).

Last picture shows my donor area, well, it's hard to judge anything from that because I had long hair. RIP dear ponytail, see you in a year or so.

Pictures after the surgery

I'm not a big fan of pictures taken immediately after surgery where patients look like they were mauled by a lion, but hey, nothing gory means no glory, right? So I'll just share one. Now I analyzed my hairline in great detail, but even on this pic you can clearly see just how many singles HDC used, if you zoom in you can see the difference in the first 3-4 "rows" and the chunkier, bigger looking grafts behind it. Although I've read somewhere you can not always accurately judge this right after the procedure as some singles could appear thicker at their base. Anyway, my preliminary judgement is that the work is really, really good.

The next 3 pics were taken yesterday, just ignore the face, pls, it's swollen, bloated, I look horrible.

 

 

And lastly, 2 pictures of my donor area under different lighting conditions. Dr. Maras said that my donor area looks like it was never touched by surgery and I could get a few more surgeries. Sadly, I think he was very generous, I don't believe that's the case. Looking at my donor it seems to be mostly depleted, just too sparse, I could get maybe one smaller procedure in the future but that's it, I must maintain with treatment from now on. Also, for those saying that FUE is a scarless procedure, check out those FUE scars on the last pic. My heart sunk when I saw it, but hey, it's a trade off, I'm not complaining, but just be wary of this. Some people simply scar better than others, and while it's still not as bad as a FUT scar, but hey, that's the reality of HTs.

I asked for a full report of the singles, doubles, etc. And will post it if anyone's interested. I asked Dr. Maras and he said the quality of my donor is really good (they could not detect any minituarization – I'm really glad HDC is checking this!) and was consisting of mostly triples and quads, which is great for density. I had only about 120 singles after extraction, so they microscopically discected 500 more just for the hairline. I think that's great and goes to show why HDC's results appear so natural.

 

Any questions or comments are very much welcomed.

Edited November 9, 2021 by Melvin- Moderator
Removed pictures that showed face

[Britanium]

That was a very interesting read. I could identify a lot with what you wrote. The work you have done looks super refined. Really nice hairline design!

 

[UnbaldEagle]

14 minutes ago, JohnAC71 said:

That was a very interesting read. I could identify a lot with what you wrote. The work you have done looks super refined. Really nice hairline design!

 

Thank you John, appreciate the kind words. 🙏

[UnbaldEagle]

I forgot to add, I owe a big thanks to @Doron Harati who is not just a patient coordinator, but a very patient one at that too, if you permit the wordplay. I'm rather hard to deal with, we had many, many rounds of "negotiations" and different ideas on what can and can not be done. Overall, he's been very supportive and made this happen even after I couldn't make it to the first appointment. 

[Britanium]

8 minutes ago, UnbaldEagle said:

I forgot to add, I owe a big thanks to @Doron Harati who is not just a patient coordinator, but a very patient one at that too, if you permit the wordplay. I'm rather hard to deal with, we had many, many rounds of "negotiations" and different ideas on what can and can not be done. Overall, he's been very supportive and made this happen even after I couldn't make it to the first appointment. 

Nice to hear! @Doron Haratiis a good rep. 

[Doron Harati]

@UnbaldEaglethanks for your kind words

I can rest assure your donor is way great above average!

Glad I could help and always here for any support, can't wait to see your 6-9 months result

[UnbaldEagle]

17 minutes ago, Doron Harati said:

@UnbaldEaglethanks for your kind words

I can rest assure your donor is way great above average!

Glad I could help and always here for any support, can't wait to see your 6-9 months result

Thank you so much, buddy. 👏

[Melvin- Admin]

It looks clean, eager to see your results. I will be following your thread closely happy growing 😎

[UnbaldEagle]

So I'm trying to conceal my HT for my flight back home and this is the best I can come up with. 

While I think I've solved how Donald Trump does his combovers (trust me, it's not that easy - first you have to brush it forward, then bend it in 45 degrees at the ends then take some hair from the sides (not all as that would clearly look like a combover, just some carefully selected fringes), and kinda making some final adjustments here and there to mitigate the comboveriness of it all. 

I look ridiculous. I actually laughed out loud looking at it, so I don't mind if you guys ridicule me.  My hair is also frizzy from all that spraying and no conditioner in like 6 days and my face is still bloated,  discolored, etc. so I'm really in the super ugly duckling phase way before the actual ugly duckling phase. But it covers the transplanted more or less.

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by UnbaldEagle

[Britanium]

Don’t think anyone will notice you have just had a hair transplant. Got to be better than the “just had a ht style hat” which I have always used.

 

[UnbaldEagle]

1 hour ago, JohnAC71 said:

Don’t think anyone will notice you have just had a hair transplant. Got to be better than the “just had a ht style hat” which I have always used.

 

Oh, you wore a hat? How does the “just had a HT” hat look like? What do you think, how long before it’s safe to wear one? Some surgeons say 4-5 days, others at least 10. 

[Britanium]

Just now, UnbaldEagle said:

Oh, you wore a hat? How does the “just had a HT” hat look like? What do you think, how long before it’s safe to wear one? Some surgeons say 4-5 days, others at least 10. 

Trilby style hat. I was one of many walking around Istanbul... and spotted a few more at the airport. Just ideal as the scalp area isn’t touched at all. Just a strange look 😂

[UnbaldEagle]

Guys, I need your input on this. So I have checked my hair today, like I do every day, okay, more like every hour, and saw a big gap on the right side and I'm just so-so worried. I'm pretty sure this was not there yesterday. Also seeing some similar smaller ones in the center, however that bigger one really concerns me. 😰

What is this, I wonder? One of those so-called cracks? Early shedding? Or the worst, lost grafts? I haven't bumped my head anywhere, and was super careful and following post-op instructions like my life depends on it.

 

[Britanium]

Nothing to worry about. Just part of the normal healing process. 

[UnbaldEagle]

Day 10 post op

Not much to show I guess, donor is healing, however I must say I'm scared shitless again. I've noticed a black spot yesterday that seems to be increasing. Could it be.. the dreaded skin necrosis? Please no.. 

 

[Doron Harati]

No, if you had necrosis, you would have infection with ugly abscess right after the procedure.

[UnbaldEagle]

16 minutes ago, Doron Harati said:

No, if you had necrosis, you would have infection with ugly abscess right after the procedure.

Thank you, that's good to know.  No, there was nothing like that after procedure. 

[Rossybop]

Ah now I remember you telling me about your HT. I think it looks good so far. It looks like you've got some good tidy dense packing and everything looks clean and healthy. I like your attitude to everything too, its upbeat and funny I hope your HT blossoms into a totally awesome result man. We are both looking fairly odd right now 😂

[UnbaldEagle]

1 hour ago, Rossybop said:

Ah now I remember you telling me about your HT. I think it looks good so far. It looks like you've got some good tidy dense packing and everything looks clean and healthy. I like your attitude to everything too, its upbeat and funny I hope your HT blossoms into a totally awesome result man. We are both looking fairly odd right now 😂

Thank you so much for your kind words and appraisal of the work that's been done, Rossybop.  

Yes, I think it's quite densely packed, it's not quite obvious on every picture, especially since the cracks/gaps started forming, but I remember analyzing the temples after surgery and was like "holy shit, that's so densely packed hope it won't lead to skin necrosis or permanent shock loss of the natives". There's just too many things to be worrying about. 😁 In the end I'm glad I've chosen HDC, all the other clinics I've been in touch with quoted me a smaller figure, for instance The Maitland Clinic's was 700-800 grafts, HLC Ankara around 1500, Pekiner's quote came closest to HDC but then he promised a density of 55 grafts (!) per cm2, and I found that might not be a good thing as I've got diffuse thinning. 

And just like you, I'm not very excited about the prospect of going back for a touch-up in a year, so despite my initial reservations, I'm really happy I trusted Dr. Maras on this.

[UnbaldEagle]

1 hour ago, Rossybop said:

We are both looking fairly odd right now 😂

Oh, man, that's an understatement, at least in my case. 😂 I think you look great now that you've grown a bit of a beard, but I just can't really do much with my looks right now. But at least in 2-3 months, if my natives in the transplant area don't get shocked too much (hope to G-d not 😰 and hopefully not permanently..), it would slowly start blending in with the rest of my hair and will be back to "almost" baseline before the transplanted hairs start growing out. Right now my only option is a pathetic comb-forward.

The bravest thing I have is hope.  

[Rossybop]

48 minutes ago, UnbaldEagle said:

Thank you so much for your kind words and appraisal of the work that's been done, Rossybop.  

Yes, I think it's quite densely packed, it's not quite obvious on every picture, especially since the cracks/gaps started forming, but I remember analyzing the temples after surgery and was like "holy shit, that's so densely packed hope it won't lead to skin necrosis or permanent shock loss of the natives". There's just too many things to be worrying about. 😁 In the end I'm glad I've chosen HDC, all the other clinics I've been in touch with quoted me a smaller figure, for instance The Maitland Clinic's was 700-800 grafts, HLC Ankara around 1500, Pekiner's quote came closest to HDC but then he promised a density of 55 grafts (!) per cm2, and I found that might not be a good thing as I've got diffuse thinning. 

And just like you, I'm not very excited about the prospect of going back for a touch-up in a year, so despite my initial reservations, I'm really happy I trusted Dr. Maras on this.

You're very welcome! I'll pray for your result to turn out really really good. I actually explored and considered HDC myself when shopping around. They seem like a really good choice. Everything will be hunky dory with a bit of growth in 8 weeks or so.

[Rossybop]

43 minutes ago, UnbaldEagle said:

Oh, man, that's an understatement, at least in my case. 😂 I think you look great now that you've grown a bit of a beard, but I just can't really do much with my looks right now. But at least in 2-3 months, if my natives in the transplant area don't get shocked too much (hope to G-d not 😰 and hopefully not permanently..), it would slowly start blending in with the rest of my hair and will be back to "almost" baseline before the transplanted hairs start growing out. Right now my only option is a pathetic comb-forward.

The bravest thing I have is hope.  

Try not to worry. You're rockin' the comb-forward. Embrace it bro 🤣

[TorontoMan]

Congrats, looks great! 

[UnbaldEagle]

36 minutes ago, Rossybop said:

Try not to worry. You're rockin' the comb-forward. Embrace it bro 🤣

Thank you very much. 😂

[UnbaldEagle]

28 minutes ago, TorontoMan said:

Congrats, looks great! 

Thank you, appreciate it very much, @TorontoMan.