FUE Hairline Restoration with Dr Bisanga - 2,270 grafts

[Hairlinedreamer]

Good afternoon all- second time lucky after totally deleting the first attempt 🤦‍♂️.

 

Firstly I wanted to thank everyone on this site. I have been contemplating a HT for many years and thanks to being a long time admirer of this forum (without even setting up an account), I finally took the leap. Actually, it was two threads I found on this forum in particular which gave me the confidence to take the leap and get it booked in with the Dr I selected. 

I am keen to give back to the community after you have all (hopefully) helped me so much, so I want to give a detailed account of my experience with BHR Clinic and I am open to hearing your thoughts/ opinions.

I am a 31 y/o Male and I have been unhappy with my hair since I can remember. Much like many on the forum, strong winds, heavy rain or diving into a pool while swimming has caused me untold stress over the years and I am praying that this is the start of me no longer having to worry. Although I have been lucky enough to be able to style my hair in a way that my poor hairline is unnoticeable, this is not how I want to live (having done so for many many years)! My whole life I have checked my hair when passing a mirror and although some may have mistaken this as me being vain, it was pure insecurity. As a result, the goal was to restore my hairline whilst keeping it 'age appropriate'.   

 

Before I go into the whole process I just wanted to say a quick thanks to Ian from BHR Clinic who has been brilliant so far. He has answered every question I have had and nothing seems to be too much trouble. Himself and Hilda in particular were credits to the clinic and extremely helpful. 

 

Medication: After my consultation (and much like everyone else who has seen Dr Bisanga) Dr Bisanga recommended I start 5mg Minoxidil. I have only started this a week ago due to a delay from the supplier, but I am now taking this in the hope that no sides rear their ugly heads. I hear people asking why I was never on any medication before this stage and the reason is that I have never (touchwood) ever experienced any noticeable shedding. Now I am not foolish enough to believe that my hairloss won't progress, but as my loss was slow, I only felt it appropriate to start some medication in order to maximise the results of my HT and hopefully thicken up my existing hair. 

UK Consultation: I was lucky enough that my initial enquiry fell within the timescale that Dr Bisanga was visiting London for consultations. Although I would have gone to Belgium for a consultation, this was obviously more convenient. I went up to London and met Dr Bisanga along with a couple of his technicians (Hilda being one who is extremely helpful!!). During the consultation Dr Bisanga took some readings and Hair Characteristics and drew on a very conservative hairline. After some discussion between Dr Bisanga and Hilda, they drew on a second hairline which I felt was exactly what I would be after. Details from consultation below:- 

Hair Characteristic: Straight

Hair Thickness: Fine

Donor: 70/70

Estimated Graft requirement: 2000-2200

 

Pre-op Consultation: Being from London, I flew from Heathrow to Belgium and I was meant to land at circa 3pm Belgium time. This would have given me good time to check into my Hotel and head over to BHR for my consultation at 5pm. However, a combination of long flight delays, baggage issues and passport control meant there were severe delays to my timeline and I ended up getting a cab from the airport direct to the clinic. As a result of the heavy delays, I arrived at the clinic 8 minutes late and as I was walking down towards the entrance, I saw Dr Bisanga drive past me... now I had obviously had an extremely stressful journey in and seeing this didn't help. I finally got up to the clinic and Dr Kostis was there, he advised Dr Bisanga had left and that we could either do the consultation/ hairline and shave head without Dr Bisanga tonight, or we can do it together at 7:15am the next morning pre-op... I opted for the latter. 

I arrived at the clinic at 715 the next morning and had a discussion with Dr Bisanga, he drew on a hairline which I was happy with and although I expected temple points maybe needing more reinforcing, I was happy to go with his advices. He advised that once the hairline was back in place, that this would frame my face sufficiently and that the temple points would not be required to be amended- more than happy to trust him!!

 

Procedure: So after having my pictures taken by Dr Kostis and getting into my medical robe, I was asked by Dr Kostis about shaving my head... Now I was of the opinion this was a 'must' and that unshaven wasn't an option, however Dr Kostis did make it sound like it would have been possible... I very nearly opted for this (as the thought of having a shaved head scared the life out of me), but after brief thought I decided that if I wanted the best possible results, I needed to shave my dome! - one point on this was that having a shaved head was almost incredibly liberating for me... It is something I would NEVER have considered and although I personally look ridiculous with a shaved head, it is something I would encourage others to try... you never know, you might like it! 

Once Head fully shaved Dr Kostis administered the Anaesthetic and this was slightly painful. However, similar to the shaved head, this is just part and parcel of the process and as someone from a different thread wrote 'no pain, no gain'. 

Once fully numbed, Dr Bisanga made all of my recipient sites and then went on to punch 1100 (50%) of my extraction sites. After this, Dr Kostis took over and punched the remaining sites. Once the grafts from my donor were punched, these were then extracted and placed into the recipient sites by two technicians. 

Graft Breakdown and count:- 2270 grafts

1 Follicular Unit: 444 grafts 

2 Follicular Unit: 953 grafts

3 Follicular Unit: 837 grafts

4 Follicular Unit : 36 grafts

 

Post-op: Once the operation was finished I must say that I did feel extremely dizzy and faint. The technicians were brilliant and catered to me until I was fit enough to go and get the donor bandaged up and make my way back to the hotel. Once back at the Hotel however, I started to feel very unwell and did vomit twice. Now although I am sure this will have just been off the back of the anaesthetic / a change to my routinely diet, it obviously panicked me that I may have put some unnecessary pressure on the grafts which were only a few hours old!! I sent an email to Ian that night and received a reply shortly after, where he put me at ease to advise that this should not be a problem and provided there is no blood (which there wasn't), that there wouldn't be any damage. 

 

Other observations/ Opinions:

- After flying out, I actually decided to get the train home... My flight was booked for 7pm (only flight available) and I didn't fancy waiting around in the airport for 5/6 hours, so I booked a train ticket last night and I am extremely glad I did. For anyone travelling from London, I would definitely recommend the Train. It is far easier/ more convenient than flying!

 

- In respect of accommodation, I opted to stay in the Value stay (purely as this was so close to the clinic- 200m maximum), one thing I would advise is to stay further afield in a Hotel which would provide more comfort. Although great for what it was, it did not provide me with the comfort required to be able to relax pre and post op. Just something to consider!

 

I will include some pictures of my hair pre procedure, immediately post procedure and also at Day 1 (taken a short while ago!). Moving forward, I will then do my best to update this thread routinely (Day 1, 7, 10 and then month to month). Of course, once I receive the pictures form the clinic, I will post these too.  

 

I hope someone finds my thread useful and I welcome all thoughts/. opinions and questions. If anyone would like to ask a question in private, please feel free to DM me. 

 

Look forward to hearing your thoughts. 

 

Pre Procedure Donor

Hairline design- Front

 

Hairline Design- Side

Immediately Post Op 

Day 1 Donor

Day 1 Donor - Rear

Day 1 - recipient zone

 

[uk005801]

Hi mate great write up and looking forward to see your progress. I have a transplant booked with Bhr at the end of July and have booked to stay in that value hotel. Just wondered what the issue was with it? I booked the large suite room as I thought it may be a little uncomfortable just wondered if it’s something to be concerned about? As it seems so convenient to be able to walk there! Wishing you the best for your recovery and future hair growth! 

[RTC]

Great write up

How long between consultation and procedure?

[John1991]

The design and density both look very appropriate and if growth is good this should look very good.  Good hair quality too, it's fine and soft, but with fullness to it.  You scab pretty fast, I think mine turned to scabs on day 3/4.

[follically challenged]

Donor looks superb!

Great write up and I'm very interested to follow your progress.

Very similar hair characteristic and thickness to mine. Did they tell you what micron size your hair is?

[HappyMan2021]

do you have more pics from the side/lateral humps? looks like he took grafts fairly high up, outside the safe zone. 

Bisanga is a sharp doctor so I'm sure he knows what he's doing, but still...

[Hairlinedreamer]

1 hour ago, uk005801 said:

Hi mate great write up and looking forward to see your progress. I have a transplant booked with Bhr at the end of July and have booked to stay in that value hotel. Just wondered what the issue was with it? I booked the large suite room as I thought it may be a little uncomfortable just wondered if it’s something to be concerned about? As it seems so convenient to be able to walk there! Wishing you the best for your recovery and future hair growth! 

Hi mate, fingers crossed come next summer we are both pleased with our results! To be honest, it is not something I would be overly concerned about and was maybe me being overly picky. However, considering post-op we need plenty of pillows to prop ourselves up in the correct way to sleep, the high, hard backboard and two small, soft pillows provided were not optimal. Personally, if I was to go again I would probably stay elsewhere. Especially as I was later advised that Uber/ Bolt is available in Brussels (useful to know when getting cabs from the airport.. fyi my cab with an airport firm to BHR was 90eu whereas an uber back to the airport was 27!!). Using Uber/ Bolt would mean that travelling from another hotel would not be too expensive I wouldn't have thought.

Alternatively, if you can take a couple of pillows with you then you should be fine! (my travel pillow was useless!)

Looking forward to hearing about your experience in a couple of months! 

[Hairlinedreamer]

27 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

do you have more pics from the side/lateral humps? looks like he took grafts fairly high up, outside the safe zone. 

Bisanga is a sharp doctor so I'm sure he knows what he's doing, but still...

I don't at the moment. I have requested the clinics photos and will send them through when received. I know it is a pattern that Dr Bisanga has used commonly before, fingers crossed it all works out as planned.

[Hairlinedreamer]

32 minutes ago, John1991 said:

The design and density both look very appropriate and if growth is good this should look very good.  Good hair quality too, it's fine and soft, but with fullness to it.  You scab pretty fast, I think mine turned to scabs on day 3/4.

Thanks very much! Really hoping the growth is good but only time will tell! I am not sure if scabbing fast or not is good haha! Fingers crossed by sticking to the post op instructions it will all work out as planned. 🤞 

[Hairlinedreamer]

36 minutes ago, follically challenged said:

Donor looks superb!

Great write up and I'm very interested to follow your progress.

Very similar hair characteristic and thickness to mine. Did they tell you what micron size your hair is?

Thanks! Fingers crossed the recovery goes as planned and the growth is good.

They didn't I am afraid, no.  All I know as per the notes from my consultation is that the density was '70/70 (average of 70 /FU/cm2)'- I didn't consider this to be great reading a lot of other threads, so fingers crossed I get good results. 

[Britanium]

Fantastic write up, and very nicely refined work by one of my fave Drs ! 👍🏽 Thanks for posting 🙏

[Melvin- Admin]

I’ve seen so many home runs with Bisanga on cases like yours @LeBerry comes to recent mind. 

[didu911]

1 hour ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I’ve seen so many home runs with Bisanga on cases like yours @LeBerry comes to recent mind. 

I think Bisanga is a really good doc if it comes down to nw2 - nw3. 
What I am missing about Bisanga is a track record with higher Norwood classes like 4,5,6 with reasonable results. 
The only result I am aware of and personally like, is that from the recent BHR Video. 
 

Do you have some more explamples Melvin?

[Hairlinedreamer]

2 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I’ve seen so many home runs with Bisanga on cases like yours @LeBerry comes to recent mind. 

If I get results similar to @LeBerryi will be delighted. Funnily enough, he was one of the cases which encouraged me to go ahead with it! 

[Hairlinedreamer]

8 hours ago, J-C said:

Fantastic write up, and very nicely refined work by one of my fave Drs ! 👍🏽 Thanks for posting 🙏

Thanks very much. Fingers crossed for plenty of growth 🤞🏼 

[LeBerry]

Work looks really solid mate, super that you took the step! Happy growing.

 

I will post my 8 month update later today 👍

[Britanium]

49 minutes ago, LeBerry said:

Work looks really solid mate, super that you took the step! Happy growing.

 

I will post my 8 month update later today 👍

Be looking out for that 👍🏽

[Hairlinedreamer]

57 minutes ago, LeBerry said:

Work looks really solid mate, super that you took the step! Happy growing.

 

I will post my 8 month update later today 👍

Thanks mate, I’ll be sure to check that out once posted! 

[Whipaway]

13 hours ago, uk005801 said:

Hi mate great write up and looking forward to see your progress. I have a transplant booked with Bhr at the end of July and have booked to stay in that value hotel. Just wondered what the issue was with it? I booked the large suite room as I thought it may be a little uncomfortable just wondered if it’s something to be concerned about? As it seems so convenient to be able to walk there! Wishing you the best for your recovery and future hair growth! 

Hi mate,

I have recently had a procedure with Dr Bisanga and I stayed at the value stay. Which room have you reserved? 

[uk005801]

9 hours ago, Whipaway said:

Hi mate,

I have recently had a procedure with Dr Bisanga and I stayed at the value stay. Which room have you reserved? 

It’s called a luxury studio think it has a little kitchen and stuff but not sure what I can do for food round there so any tips would be good as obviously not fancying going anywhere with a bloody head 😉 

[Raphael84]

@Hairlinedreamer

Congratulations on completing your surgery and thank you for sharing your case with such a thorough and well documented write up. No doubt, just as you took inspiration from patients on this forum, your thread will be of great value to other potential patients.

Thank you from myself and Hilde for your kind words. We play a small part in the process and whilst we have no direct influence on the result, I as a patient myself know that the interaction and communication with the team and your advisor is an important relationship and so that element of satisfaction is essential for me personally.

Your photos look great and your appropriate hairline design and quality of work is evident.

Relationship with the clinic has only just begun and I very much look forward to the next months and following and supporting your journey.

[NARMAK]

Congratulations OP and happy growing. Dr Bisanga most certainly is a talented doctor and titan in the field of hair transplants. I was a touch surprised that despite your only being 8 or so minutes late, Dr Bisanga had already got into a car and was mid drive leaving, meaning he had really only waited perhaps till the time you would have arrived and then gone to his car. 

I think that was certainly something that as a patient would create a bit more stress on top of what had happened thus far BUT imo, and i said this to other people after my procedure just a few days ago. The clinic experience, flying etc. is all only about 20% of the total for your HT journey. The 80% is actually the end final result and BHR look to have really dense packed it out and you should be golden. 

[Raphael84]

Having the opportunity to have a thorough consultation prior to making any decision for surgery is always the best case scenario and really allows the patient time to consider all details and the suggested hairline design so if they do decide to proceed, then they are better prepared and can suggest any changes that they may have in mind and I think that this was a factor that helped you with your decision if Im not wrong.

Having followed up with the clinic, Dr. Bisanga and Dr. Kostis, they have confirmed that there was a particular external incident the day prior to surgery and that Dr. Bisanga had to leave the clinic due to an emergency. This was not at all related to any lateness as Dr. Bisanga has waited hours for patients on many occasions as this can happen with delays and international travel, but due to the circumstances and with the knowledge that surgery and patients of that day had already been completed and knowing that Dr. Bisanga could discuss all details and design hairline etc in the morning pre surgery, then his emergency was attended to.

Looking forward to updates over the next months 

[Hairlinedreamer]

10 hours ago, NARMAK said:

Congratulations OP and happy growing. Dr Bisanga most certainly is a talented doctor and titan in the field of hair transplants. I was a touch surprised that despite your only being 8 or so minutes late, Dr Bisanga had already got into a car and was mid drive leaving, meaning he had really only waited perhaps till the time you would have arrived and then gone to his car. 

I think that was certainly something that as a patient would create a bit more stress on top of what had happened thus far BUT imo, and i said this to other people after my procedure just a few days ago. The clinic experience, flying etc. is all only about 20% of the total for your HT journey. The 80% is actually the end final result and BHR look to have really dense packed it out and you should be golden. 

Thanks very much. Fingers crossed we both get the results we are after, I will be sure to follow your progress! 

I can't pretend that it didn't make an already nervy and stressful time even more nervy and stressful!! But if it was an emergency, then not a lot can be done. If I get the results I have seen from similar cases to myself, it is certainly something I can overlook as an unfortunate  'one off'. 

 

4 hours ago, Raphael84 said:

Having the opportunity to have a thorough consultation prior to making any decision for surgery is always the best case scenario and really allows the patient time to consider all details and the suggested hairline design so if they do decide to proceed, then they are better prepared and can suggest any changes that they may have in mind and I think that this was a factor that helped you with your decision if Im not wrong.

Having followed up with the clinic, Dr. Bisanga and Dr. Kostis, they have confirmed that there was a particular external incident the day prior to surgery and that Dr. Bisanga had to leave the clinic due to an emergency. This was not at all related to any lateness as Dr. Bisanga has waited hours for patients on many occasions as this can happen with delays and international travel, but due to the circumstances and with the knowledge that surgery and patients of that day had already been completed and knowing that Dr. Bisanga could discuss all details and design hairline etc in the morning pre surgery, then his emergency was attended to.

Looking forward to updates over the next months 

Thanks for this @Raphael84 , emergencies happen and fingers crossed everything is okay and it was nothing too serious. As NARMARK has said, it plays a small part in the grand scheme of things and it is already now in the past, so I am just hopeful it will be a positive journey from here. 

Important to note that the communication from BHR has been excellent thus far and this is another example! 

 

I am at 7 Days today, so will provide a small update shortly! 

[NARMAK]

2 minutes ago, Hairlinedreamer said:

Thanks very much. Fingers crossed we both get the results we are after, I will be sure to follow your progress! 

I can't pretend that it didn't make an already nervy and stressful time even more nervy and stressful!! But if it was an emergency, then not a lot can be done. If I get the results I have seen from similar cases to myself, it is certainly something I can overlook as an unfortunate  'one off'. 

 

Thanks for this @Raphael84 , emergencies happen and fingers crossed everything is okay and it was nothing too serious. As NARMARK has said, it plays a small part in the grand scheme of things and it is already now in the past, so I am just hopeful it will be a positive journey from here. 

Important to note that the communication from BHR has been excellent thus far and this is another example! 

 

I am at 7 Days today, so will provide a small update shortly! 

I think it's understandable that having it be due to an emergency it is more framed in a way we can overlook but of course, had it been anything else it would have looked back. 

You're in good hands. BHR have a generally stellar and excellent reputation. I'm 3 days behind you but will be nice to see your monthly updates