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Dr. Hasson | 3,000 graft | 31M Caucasian | Documenting the Journey


Nordster34

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I think your hair looks great!!! Can I ask you about the anesthetic pain? How would you rate it on a scale of 1-10? I myself have a Hasson FUE this year and this part makes me super nervous

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Donor looks good,  hairline is conservative but that is what you wanted, and tbh, it looks good.  And the procedure looks like a homerun,  looks like they did a great job,   and with the temples too.   

You did a great write up too.  It's good you put the truth out there that Dr Hassan does do more then 1 patient a day,  he didn't do the harvesting or implanting,  and he didn't even check on you at the end of each day.....    Especially for paying top dollar.   But thats how it is sometimes.    I went to Dr Dorin in NYC years ago and it was a similar experience, except he did check on me end of the procedure.   

 Good luck bud.   🤙

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I’m not sure it matters if it’s the doc or experienced techs who do the punches or implants. It’s experience that matters. The incisions are planned and made by the physician which is what I think you’re paying for. And the proof is in the pudding - Hasson consistently hits (conservative) home run's. It’s the results that you want so who does what becomes academic - it’s a team effort and the doc is the lead. Check out Hasson’s before and afters - wow! I agree the graft fees are high but you’re chances for a good result are very good. A bad result would be heartbreaking. 

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Day 17:

Jumped on here to answer some questions (sorry for the delay) and figured I'd give a day 17 update. 

  • Pain - Pain in donor region is virtually gone at this point. Still some tightness, but not bothersome and does not interfere with sleep
  • Sleep - Just wanted to note that I'm still sleeping on my back using the neck pillow H&W provided as I'm paranoid about sleeping on sides and accidentally damaging the grafts
  • Uneven Shedding - Not sure if it's too early for ugly duckling phase to begin, but I've been noticing a good amount of shedding, especially on my left temple (which looks much patchier than everywhere else). Posting pics below as I'd love to get some insight from the community. Is this type of uneven shedding normal? Could this signal a bad result for that area that might require a touch-up?
    • I've seen another case on HRN where this exact same thing happened to another H&W patient. They ultimately had one temple that was very weak compared to the other. They ended up needing to have that temple fixed. I'm not sure if H&W did the fix for free, but it seemed like they did from how that thread ended and I would hope the answer is yes.
    • On that note, are any H&W reps active here and able to answer whether H&W fixes these issues free of charge like some other top docs do? This will likely be a valuable question to have answered here for prospective clients...

1740386385_pic1.thumb.jpg.988bc91fe37ea2de08cd01bff7e73fd7.jpg

^^ this is the temple that's looking normal. 

2133423210_pic2.thumb.jpg.72b4f13530cf7bd9836b70928e4b095d.jpg

^^ this is the temple that's looking patchy.

Q&A:

On 3/30/2022 at 2:41 PM, Kent said:

It looks really good! So happy for you. Can I respectfully disagree with your observations about your temples? I think they frame your face nicely and I can’t wait to see it grow out for you. Glad to hear you’re healing well. 
 

Question? Did you ever get your graft breakdown from Dr Hasson? Singles, doubles, multiples?

Excited to follow your progress!!

todd 

 

Thanks Kent! Appreciate it. I didn't get the exact breakdown of graft #s but they did say that the vast majority were doubles and triples. The tech said there were "several hundred singles" and that "all of them were used for the front of the hairline." They kept saying that the breakdown % of doubles and triples was really really good and that I had lots of great donor hair. 

 

On 3/30/2022 at 9:05 PM, Scream said:

I think your hair looks great!!! Can I ask you about the anesthetic pain? How would you rate it on a scale of 1-10? I myself have a Hasson FUE this year and this part makes me super nervous

Anesthetic pain was definitely the most painful part. On a scale of 1-10 I'd say it was probably a 6.5—it's a sharp pain, but it's over with pretty fast. I generally have a pretty low pain tolerance / high pain sense, fwiw. Your total suffering from the anxiety in advance it is probably greater than from the pain itself. It's going to be a crappy 10 minutes. Just acknowledge that and let it go. No reason to psych yourself out for days/weeks/months in advance. 

Was thinking about this a bit more, and wanted to update my answer with an idea that might help. When they give you the valium, try to take it immediately. Give it as much time as possible to kick in. For me, they brought it into the room about 30 minutes before the injections started, but told me to wait to take it until they brought me some juice. As a result of the delay, I ended up taking it only ~10 minutes before they started the injections. This wasn't enough time for it to have much/any effect. A quick google search says valium takes at least 15 min to kick in and reaches peak concentration in 1 hr. So, ideally, you'd take it 30 min before the injections start to calm the nerves etc.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I wanted to ask you about antibiotics used for your HT. Were you ordered to take oral antibiotics or just topical?

Hope you’re healing well. Looking forward to another update soon!

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On 4/15/2022 at 6:01 PM, Kent said:

I wanted to ask you about antibiotics used for your HT. Were you ordered to take oral antibiotics or just topical?

Hope you’re healing well. Looking forward to another update soon!

There were both oral and topical antibiotics. The topical is just an ointment. For the oral, if you have a medical reason not to take it (e.g., digestive issues) you can skip it and they'll just tell you to monitor closely for infection. If you skip the oral, be assiduous about applying the topical antibiotic. 

Also, I haven't posted an update in a bit as there hasn't been much to report. The patchy temple is still looking patchy, although I'm not really going to worry about it until at least the 6-8 month mark. 

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I think it frames your face well and am very curious to see how this comes out.

 Haven’t seen too many Hasson temples, I know he’s good at dense packing but am really curious to see the temple points and corners take shape.

A little disconcerting to hear of an over harvest and doc not checking on you once more before leaving.  
 

Please give us an update when you have time.

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On 4/30/2022 at 2:12 AM, Aslitarcan sucks said:

Honestly, without seeming to be negative, I really don't understand why they shaped the temples like that. Seems very unnatural to me.

 

I agree with you here. The same, do not want to be negative but that does not seem the right way to design the temples. They look a bit unnatural in design but we might be wrong and the outcome could be great. 

Did you agree with that design @Nordster34

Thanks for sharing your story 😉

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44 minutes ago, OliverAtom said:

 

I agree with you here. The same, do not want to be negative but that does not seem the right way to design the temples. They look a bit unnatural in design but we might be wrong and the outcome could be great. 

Did you agree with that design @Nordster34

Thanks for sharing your story 😉

From what he said, I think OP wasn't too thrilled with the design of them.

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In my personal opinion the temples assuming good growth should look natural, however I think almost certainly a large portion of grafts in those areas are wasted and a less is more approach here would have been better.

I also think the temple point placement reflects a lower frontal hairline than you’ve received. Ultimately this could be fixed by lowering the hairline with a secondary procedure.

I don’t think in any universe that the planning here is perfect or even justifiable, but I also think it’s likely you look better after this procedure than prior and would expect it can still look natural. 

Those with weak donors and existent but non prominent temples such as OP in my opinion should opt to avoid temple work altogether, too high risk and costly in terms of grafts for a good result and too low reward. A simple frontal hairline lowering here and more aggressively would almost certainly look better here, I’d bet my life on it. 

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On 4/4/2022 at 10:48 PM, Nordster34 said:

Day 17:

Jumped on here to answer some questions (sorry for the delay) and figured I'd give a day 17 update. 

  • Pain - Pain in donor region is virtually gone at this point. Still some tightness, but not bothersome and does not interfere with sleep
  • Sleep - Just wanted to note that I'm still sleeping on my back using the neck pillow H&W provided as I'm paranoid about sleeping on sides and accidentally damaging the grafts
  • Uneven Shedding - Not sure if it's too early for ugly duckling phase to begin, but I've been noticing a good amount of shedding, especially on my left temple (which looks much patchier than everywhere else). Posting pics below as I'd love to get some insight from the community. Is this type of uneven shedding normal? Could this signal a bad result for that area that might require a touch-up?
    • I've seen another case on HRN where this exact same thing happened to another H&W patient. They ultimately had one temple that was very weak compared to the other. They ended up needing to have that temple fixed. I'm not sure if H&W did the fix for free, but it seemed like they did from how that thread ended and I would hope the answer is yes.
    • On that note, are any H&W reps active here and able to answer whether H&W fixes these issues free of charge like some other top docs do? This will likely be a valuable question to have answered here for prospective clients...

1740386385_pic1.thumb.jpg.988bc91fe37ea2de08cd01bff7e73fd7.jpg

^^ this is the temple that's looking normal. 

2133423210_pic2.thumb.jpg.72b4f13530cf7bd9836b70928e4b095d.jpg

^^ this is the temple that's looking patchy.

Q&A:

Thanks Kent! Appreciate it. I didn't get the exact breakdown of graft #s but they did say that the vast majority were doubles and triples. The tech said there were "several hundred singles" and that "all of them were used for the front of the hairline." They kept saying that the breakdown % of doubles and triples was really really good and that I had lots of great donor hair. 

 

Anesthetic pain was definitely the most painful part. On a scale of 1-10 I'd say it was probably a 6.5—it's a sharp pain, but it's over with pretty fast. I generally have a pretty low pain tolerance / high pain sense, fwiw. Your total suffering from the anxiety in advance it is probably greater than from the pain itself. It's going to be a crappy 10 minutes. Just acknowledge that and let it go. No reason to psych yourself out for days/weeks/months in advance. 

Was thinking about this a bit more, and wanted to update my answer with an idea that might help. When they give you the valium, try to take it immediately. Give it as much time as possible to kick in. For me, they brought it into the room about 30 minutes before the injections started, but told me to wait to take it until they brought me some juice. As a result of the delay, I ended up taking it only ~10 minutes before they started the injections. This wasn't enough time for it to have much/any effect. A quick google search says valium takes at least 15 min to kick in and reaches peak concentration in 1 hr. So, ideally, you'd take it 30 min before the injections start to calm the nerves etc.

You’re comparing a temple that has already started to shed. It should look patchy once you start shedding, best to compare graft placement photos, which show good density.

image.png


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DAY 55:

I wanted to jump on here to provide an update. I'll also try to address a number of questions and comments that have arisen. I'll start with some progress pics since I know that's what people want to see most:

Frontal View 

image.thumb.jpeg.b5acbf5b9714185028042cdffcf21913.jpeg

Left to right: 1) what I proposed & showed the doc, 2) what the doc sketched out during our planning session, 3) 12 days post op, 4) 55 days post op (current).

  • People who've been following the thread know that I've been dissatisfied with how much extra work they did on the temples vs. the plan
  • I also think the hairline is more angular and less subtle than we planned for and than I requested. I really don't love the super sharp angular corners... 
  • In terms of hair growth, the transplanted hair is mostly shedded at this point. The hair that has grown in pic 4 is native hair. Hopefully the growth of the transplanted hair begins relatively soon

Side View Timeline

image.thumb.jpeg.60db5349213b1165803e0bd3622d9f8e.jpeg

Left to right: pre-op, 12 days post-op, 55 days post-op. 

Temples - Planned vs. Received

image.jpeg.33a3995b37aa9c7ce56ce9a9561d3be9.jpeg

Left is pre-op on day 2 and shows the planned temple line. Right is post-op. I happen to have a small mole right below the temple which I'm using here as a reference point. This comparison clearly shows how much they expanded the temples vs. what was planned going in. They went way above what was planned due to the day-2 overharvest. 

  • Overharvest & Extra Temples - This remains my biggest gripe about the procedure so far. They remove the blue lines during/right after the procedure, so at the end of day-2 when I looked in the mirror I felt shocked to see how large the temples were, but I didn't have any hard evidence that they were bigger than the plan. I was going through pics for today's update post and I noticed that I have a mole right below the temple point on one side. I was able to use it as a reference point. As seen above, they clearly did a lot more temple work on day 2 than was planned and agreed. This has led to an unbalanced look where the temples are quite large/aggressive/youthful looking while the hairline is still pretty high and mature. I'm feeling dissatisfied with this result and even more dissatisfied with their lack of transparency about the overharvest and temple placement changes on day 2. This does not feel excusable to me, but I'd love opinions from others.
  • Lack of Transparency / Communication  - TBH, I wouldn't have been at all upset if the Dr. said to me during the procedure "Look, we've filled in your temples per the plan and it looks like we have ~500-800 extra grafts. Let's discuss where you want them." I was more than happy to pay for all the grafts, after all, and I have. Instead, when Dr. Hasson finished the temple incisions to the plan, he sort of hesitated and stepped away from the chair for a bit and then came back and started going all around the temple edges and enlarging them. It was pretty obvious he was struggling to figure out where to put all the extra hairs.
  • Advice - In retrospect, I should've been more assertive, should've asked questions that were popping into my head as he was enlarging the temples (I could feel what he was doing), and should've initiated a discussion with the Dr... However, when wondering why I wasn't myself in that situation and didn't ask (I'm usually pretty transparent and articulate in these types of situations), I am reminded of the fact that during the procedure, you are on valium. I hadn't ever taken valium before, but I'd say it engenders a very chill, go-with-the-flow kind of attitude and does not really produce a mental state where you want to start asking tough questions. My advice to others is to be assertive during the procedure. Ask questions whenever they pop into your head. Do not let the valium stop you from asking the important questions.

Replies / Comments:

Thanks everyone for the great comments and discussion. I think of all the posts, @JayLDD pretty much nailed it and summarizes the situation accurately. I'll quote him here since I think he really gets it:

On 5/3/2022 at 10:47 AM, JayLDD said:

I also think the temple point placement reflects a lower frontal hairline than you’ve received. Ultimately this could be fixed by lowering the hairline with a secondary procedure.

I don’t think in any universe that the planning here is perfect or even justifiable, but I also think it’s likely you look better after this procedure than prior and would expect it can still look natural. 

Those with weak donors and existent but non prominent temples such as OP in my opinion should opt to avoid temple work altogether, too high risk and costly in terms of grafts for a good result and too low reward. A simple frontal hairline lowering here and more aggressively would almost certainly look better here, I’d bet my life on it. 

@JayLDD you are spot on and I think this captures it to a tee. For a world-class doc charging world-class prices, I don't think the planning & execution here is justifiable. I committed to pay top $ so that I could leave everything in the best pair of hands possible. Unfortunately the Dr. was a lot less involved during the procedure than I'd have liked and has provided zero follow up so far. I was ultimately choosing between Dr. Konior and Dr. Hasson, and made the choice to go with Hasson for purely logistical/timing reasons. I am regretting that decision. 

@Melvin- Moderator yes, on your comment re the temple patchiness, I totally agree with you that I was comparing one temple that was shedding earlier to one that started shedding later. I am hopeful that everything will grow in nicely by month 12 and am definitely reserving any judgement until then! The graft placement did look roughly equally dense on both. 

@Aslitarcan sucks, @OliverAtom and @Calihome1, I agree with all of your feedback & comments. And thanks for taking the time to comment. 

 

My Overall Sentiments: 

  • Temples - Basically, the biggest thing is they overharvested on day 2. That was certainly a screw-up on their part. Then, instead of being transparent with me about the overharvest and discussing how best to allocate the extra hair, they simply beefed up the temples more than we originally agreed. This has resulted in an unbalanced temple vs. hairline. My temples look extremely youthful and aggressive, vs. the hairline which is still quite high. It would have been better if they simply allocated some of the overharvest to the hairline to create a more balanced look. But I think a) they didn't want to admit they overharvested, and b) they wanted to be able to charge me for the overharvest.
  • Lack of Follow-Up - My second biggest concern is the total lack of follow-up from the doctor. To this day, the last time I heard from him or saw him was when he finished making incisions late morning of day 2. He didn't check on me at the end of the procedure, his office hasn't reached out to me to see how things are going. In contrast, they were extremely aggressive in following up in the week after the procedure about my final payment. I submitted the final payment approximately one week after the procedure and they literally called me every single day to ask about when I'd be submitting the payment. Once I submitted it, they have gone totally radio silent. I think that does reveal their priorities to an extent, though I don't want to be overly harsh. 
  • Recommendation - While I am not a super satisfied patient at the moment, I want to be clear that I will be withholding any final conclusions and judgment until month 12. I don't think it's fair to the doctor or to the accuracy of the review to draw any premature conclusions. If a close friend or relative called me tomorrow and asked for my recommendation, to be completely honest I would not in good conscience be able to recommend Dr. Hasson at this time. However, it is still absolutely possible that once things fill in, I'll be super happy with the result and would be able to recommend him. To be honest, I am still holding out hope that this will be the case given the amount of time and money I've invested in the procedure. 

 

Next Steps: 

  • Any Advice? Does anyone here have any thoughts/advice as to what I should do going forward? My plan as of now is simply to wait until month 12 and do nothing. However, in writing all of this I am reminded of the fact that I am in this pickle due to being less assertive than I should have and because of the long lead-time that Dr. Konior quoted. So... maybe I should try to get some appointments calendared?
  • Follow-Up? Do folks think I should reach out to Dr. Hasson and request a follow up appointment (perhaps over zoom)? Does anyone else here have experience with H&W follow-ups? 
  • Booking an Apt w/ Konior? Hasson? I'm thinking given the unbalanced nature of the grafts, even assuming 100% of the hairs grow in and the hairline looks thick, that I'll still need to figure out a way to resolve my issue. If eventually it's decided that this needs to get corrected, I do think the right thing for H&W to do would be to cover it, but I am not confident that this is the correct approach. What do folks think? Perhaps a better approach would be to go visit another doctor, like Konior, to try to make some nuanced revisions?


Finally, I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone here. This community is an amazing resource and I value the feedback and expertise of the members here so much. And thank you to  @Melvin- Moderator for your hard work in founding and maintaining this community!

 

 

 

Edited by Nordster34
Fixed typos and formatting
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I really hope it grows out nicely for you. You deserve the highest ethical standard. Why don’t you contact Dr Hasson and share your concerns. If a planning mistake was made to your temple area then Dr Hasson should help you correct it. This is disappointing to hear as I’m scheduled for a HT with Dr Hasson in a couple of months. Your advice about being assertive and ask questions is helpful. 

I hope it all works out for you. FWIW I actually like your temple points and think they’ll nicely frame your face. But it’s not what I like and you shouldn’t have to deal with this alone. I think speaking to the clinic will make you feel better.

best wishes and keep us updated 

todd 

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Excellent write-up, very detailed, honest, and transparent.  I agree; the temples look too angled and aggressive, it will not look natural unfortunately.  

Very disappointing to hear the lack of service as well as lack of accountability by H&W here.  They should stand by their name and bear any cost of repair, assuming you would trust them again.

Keep us updated.

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3 hours ago, Kent said:

Dr Hasson deserves a chance to make good here before questioning his accountability? Nordster34 hasn’t yet reached out to Dr Hasson.

I agree with this. The case is definitely not closed yet and I don’t want folks to think I’m besmirching H&W’s hard-earned reputation. I’d love advice from the community here as to the best way to reach back out to Dr. Hasson. Has anyone here navigated something like this successfully? I do want to give them a shot to make everything right. I also believe generally it’s tough to know how it’ll look until the 12 month mark is reached, though that applies somewhat less in my case since it seems like it’s an issue of planning/design.   

So I guess my questions are whether I should be reaching out now to Dr. Hasson, waiting until month 12 to reach out, or even reaching out to some other docs now as a plan b…?

Edited by Nordster34
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Nice work with the illuminating write up! Your frustration with the clinic is understandable, but try not to scrutinize everything before the result is complete. If you overthink it and are looking for an unsatisfying result before it's complete, you'll be primed for dissatisfaction even if the result is really great.

Temples are tricky to gauge early in the process - there's a very good chance they'll end up looking amazing. Asymmetrical shedding isn't an issue btw, everyone sheds differently and at different rates. Everyone hopes they will be the rare patient who doesn't shed at all, only to be disappointed 😂

I think there's a very good chance that the temple choices will make sense in the context of your final "after" photos. Hang in there and soon you'll get to experience what we all yearn for through hair transplantation - looking slightly more attractive for the rest of your life.

 

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8 hours ago, Nordster34 said:

I agree with this. The case is definitely not closed yet and I don’t want folks to think I’m besmirching H&W’s hard-earned reputation. I’d love advice from the community here as to the best way to reach back out to Dr. Hasson. Has anyone here navigated something like this successfully? I do want to give them a shot to make everything right. I also believe generally it’s tough to know how it’ll look until the 12 month mark is reached, though that applies somewhat less in my case since it seems like it’s an issue of planning/design.   

So I guess my questions are whether I should be reaching out now to Dr. Hasson, waiting until month 12 to reach out, or even reaching out to some other docs now as a plan b…?

I think it's too soon to reach out to other doctors; I assume most will tell you to wait until 12 months, as they [ethical surgeons, that is] certainly wouldn't dare suggest a touch-up at this point. I think the best course of action is to wait out the 12 months to see the final result before judgement is passed -- it can be difficult to tell how temples grow in. That said, I think the situation is (rightfully) bothering you, and if it'll bring you clarity/peace of mind, I do think H&W ought to provide that level of aftercare and give time to soothe a worried patient who, as you said, spent his hard earned $$'s for the best result. In your case, ask for the Zoom call.

Good luck.

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11 hours ago, Nordster34 said:

 So I guess my questions are whether I should be reaching out now to Dr. Hasson, waiting until month 12 to reach out, or even reaching out to some other docs now as a plan b…?

If you reach out now to H&W they will say to give it time (8-12months). I guess it depends what your goal of reaching out to them is:

  • Refund? Not going to happen until a full year at the very least.
  • Explanation? You may be lucky enough to get one from Dr. Hasson, but what will that do for you specifically? Peace of mind? Validation?

Your best bet is to reach out to some other doctors or even H&W, and get on their books 12 months from now (putting you at about 14months post op), and if the results from H&W are good/acceptable, and you over-reacted, then you can cancel with them, depending on the deposit situation. Although I will say you will have to really bring the proof and have an extended conversation with the other doctors. This isn't as straight forward as you may think.

 

Good luck

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50 minutes ago, Nordster34 said:

Can you elaborate on this? Want to make sure I don’t have any blind spots when reaching out. 

I just mean, you can’t just submit for an online consultation, type some words and attach pictures. it needs to be a dialogue and make sure the surgeons understand fully your concerns. and sometimes consultations are done by reps, not the actual surgeons.

 

i realize my choice of words may have been a bit over the top. i didn’t mean anything crazy 

Edited by hairlossPA
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