Dr. Bisanga BHR 2297 Grafts FUE

[Jonulous]

This is me, popping my (retrofitted) head in on Day 2 post HT. All goes nicely with getting over the treatment. A few bulges as all the local anesthetic migrates down past the eyes and cheekbones, but at least not much to report by way of discomfort.

I'm rather a long way from home and don't seem to have packed my main camera's cable for downloading images. So the thread will probably get more populated with my progress images some time in June. Phone pics are also an option and I'll include a couple in the mean time.

For now I can at least set out the decision chain I followed towards this, and anything else I can think of to be informative.

 

2017

Then 47, I visited a hair surgeon in my home city of Sydney Australia, to sate my curiosity about both medication and surgical options. I got to watch the magnified probe image as it passed areas of higher density, moderate thinning and post-recession thinning. The main outcome of that consult was to get on a low dose of Finasteride, and have an understanding that I would have adequate donor characteristics if I wanted to explore surgery in the future.

Late 2019

I'd been a pretty reasonable responder to medication, with the zone of robust hair seeming to re-colonise into some previously weaker areas up top. Quite a good place to be at 49, and I hope that none of this thread makes out like I don't appreciate having held to a relatively low NW stage all this way into adulthood. It's more a case of taking a look around sites like this one, and seeing how far the artistic and technical aspects of surgery had advanced these days. I got a bit inspired to see if those of my issues that were beyond medication's reach could be seamlessly treated. You'll see in the attached hairline shots with those crude attempts at brow-to-hairline measures that in certain light I could still pull off a fairly dense aesthetic. But I didn't love the shape of my post-recession hairline especially in the corners. And in the other shots with headphones on flattening down the hair, the weakness around the front becomes more apparent. I'd probably lost the ability to pull off a forward combed fringe some time during my 40s.

I did the first consult in relation to the then new BHR Athens clinic. Then right as I looked at some dates for early 2020, my island home went into full island mode as part of the pandemic response.

Then to now

Kept in periodic contact with Ian from the BHR team, updating photos as we went to ensure that the graft estimates would be still in the ballpark. And at last made it over to BHR Brussels to have the treatment with the team there. I should add I don't think there was ever a question I had that Ian was unable to address, which is a helpful thing when you're trying to plan for doing something like this very remote from home.

Final pic attachment from today to give an idea of how the grafts were allocated. Basically a bit of reconstruction to address the shape of the corners, and the rest to rebuild the weaker zones along the front, while tracking somewhat more closely to the existing hairline shape.

The particulars:

2297, comprising

• 444 x singles
• 996 x 2 follicular unit
• 825 x 3 follicular unit
• 32 x 4 follicular unit

Edited May 20, 2022 by Jonulous
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[Melvin- Admin]

Great write-up Bisanga hits these out of the park all day. Happy growing 🙌🏼

[Jonulous]

Morning of Day 5 post HT. I'm just using the phone's selfie lens for these, which I honestly don't place huge trust in to capture realism. But it's nice to have even a half decent record. I'll use the SLR camera on Day 7 (still no USB cable!), and hopefully the clinic series before surgery with the marked-up scalp to will arrive to share some time also.

If today's photos are to be trusted, then I'd rate the donor area condition as actually pretty pleasing so far. It hasn't itched, though there's the occasional throb or series of tender areas.

Scabs are downsizing a little in the transplant area.

My only side effects that were really far into self-consciousness territory would be the slow journey of swelling as it moved from forehead, via eyes and cheekbones under gravity over days 2-4. I looked pretty repellent! Today I would walk around without sunglasses again, thankfully. And the mask guidance on public transport was also my friend.

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Jonulous
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[Raphael84]

@Jonulous

Congratulations on completing your surgery.
Thank you for your great documentation and images.
It has been a real pleasure to be in contact and assist over the last 2/3 years and delighted for you that dates etc were able to align with your availability for you to proceed with surgery.

You have been extremely thorough throughout and very efficient with all of the information and requests of the clinic which really helps for a smoother process and communication in general.

You had a pretty good head of hair at 47 years of age pre surgery and no doubt these near 2300 grafts will make a significant difference to your hairline and framing your face.

Your photos look great and healing is on point.

I look forward to the next 12 months for you and as you know, anything you need, you have our full support.

Best

Ian

[Britanium]

Fantastic write up ! Work looks excellent and very refined 👍🏽 Thanks for posting 🙏

[Jonulous]

Here's a sample of the ones taken from all the key angles by the clinic team on my pre-surgery consultation and then right after HT. Hopefully I can match these positions when I try and continue taking After pics.

Since I neglected to mention it in the last posts, worth saying that I was struck by the whole team at the clinic having a seamless flow to their work. That's the case whether it was bouncing around the one query I had about my hairline design among both Doctor Bisanga and the technicians to see if there was consensus on my suggested tweak, or the handover between recipient-site incisions and punching work by Dr Bisanga (and Dr Kostas for a time), then the pair of technicians who transferred the grafts between their old and new dwellings, and helped tally the graft count. Or even my break for lunch.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Jonulous

[Min12]

Looks great! Expect some early growth with Bisanga.

Edited May 24, 2022 by Min12

[Jonulous]

A few images from Day 10, or near enough to 1.5 weeks out.

Most crusts are gone, with just a few little specs left towards the back of the recipient.

All seems to be going fine, and can't think of a lot else to post just at the moment. I guess the redness factor rates a mention. In natural light it doesn't look all that stark. A bit more so in warmer indoor lighting.

Meanwhile I've been enjoying the scenic treats of Madeira, Portugal.

 

 

[Jonulous]

Hey from my one-month-out perch 😃

Things of interest since the last post:

• Exactly two weeks after surgery a friendly man on reception during a hotel check in quizzed me about what I'd had done. He was thinking about getting HT also, and seemed to like the fact that I could just about get by without a head covering that soon after surgery. Well, obviously I wasn't so healed that he was oblivious to the signs of treatment, but he'd assumed it had been performed further in the past.
• I was back home and returning to work this past week. It was more the shortness of my hair that gained commentary at work than the stray patches of red. Granted I had been in sunny places, so the made up excuse of mild sunburn was available to me.
• Going purely by square centimeters, rather than by graft numbers, it's probably the case that 75% of my treatment was done behind what had been the natural hairline.  So I guess that helps with having some decent amount of native hair to smother the reddened scalp. (note if you go by numbers of grafts then the area in front of the old hairline maybe overtakes, since all the 1s and 2s were probably concentrated there).
• The only thing I've actually frowned about in recent times is the somewhat tepid regrowth in my mid scalp, behind the zone that actually received the grafts. I sort of knew it was less strong than the surrounding hair, but the difference is really stark when you can see it so clearly in the weeks after being buzzed right down for the HT. More investment in that area in the future, I suspect.

Edited June 18, 2022 by Jonulous

[Jonulous]

On 5/25/2022 at 8:00 AM, Min12 said:

Looks great! Expect some early growth with Bisanga.

A cold and wet day here prompted me to go searching. The yellow lasso loops are denoting any recently sprouting hairs.

Now, are they a) early growth of transplanted follicles, or b) native hairs that have just woken up in the past week or so?

Hard to tell, but I welcome them into Project: Jonulous's New Hairline either way.

[Jonulous]

Taking advantage of the weekend to do my 2 month progress - just a day early.

I'd mentioned in my opening spiel that I count myself as fortunate to have gotten to the age I had with hair loss being more at irritation levels, than at 'Oh no, where's it all GONE!' type levels. And similarly with navigating month two - as the regular peak time for ugly duckling - I'm glad to have the luxury of some native hair both in and near the transplant zone to add a fair bit of camouflage as we await better things to come.

Hopefully the pics I've chosen for this update are informative. Redness is brought out by the camera flash in some of these pics. But has otherwise gotten to a level and a sparseness where I don't usually notice it. I did get two rounds under the Heallite LED lamp. Where I live they've been rolled out to chain type laser/cosmetic clinics, meaning during the frequent promo sales you can get a treatment for the price of a couple of movie tickets. I seemed to see a bit faster dissipation of the deepest pinks and reds in the days following the Heallite.

 

Pics in order of display:

1 Wet hair in indirect but bright light

2 What remains the really unflattering angle - viewing the recipient from above (week 2 paired with at 2 months)

3. A front shot with dry hair

4-6. Pre treatment versus 2 months from three angles

7. Close up left corner

8. Close up right corner

9. Donor (hair was clipped to #2 back and sides about 3 weeks ago)

 

I think the close up shots of the corners seem to be showing that good stuff is on the way, maybe the first murmurings of appreciable growth by this time next month.

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Jonulous

[BaldingEye]

Thanks for sharing! Looking great and it's time to be patient now.

 

[Jonulous]

I'm back for the three month check in.

Hair is doing what hair likes to do. And I'll now put a more firm tick against the 'new growth' option. Seems pretty clear that there's a bit of that at this point, at least along the hairline where it's easier to compare.

Hope that my attempt to emulate last month's set of pics is useful to the casual person browsing this.

Haven't mentioned so far in the thread that I'd located a compounding pharmacy in my country who partner with tele-health doctors for prescriptions of hair and skin related medicines. The consultation process was almost ridiculously easy. I'd first tried out a blended Finasteride & Minoxidil capsule with 1 mg of each. For my renewal I reverted back to taking separately while upping the Minoxidil dose to 2.5 per day. This is only since 20 July (I went off Minoxidil a week or two before surgery), so unlikely to be influencing much in my growth only these few weeks in.

Pics in order of display:

1 Wet hair in indirect but bright light

2 Viewing the recipient from above at week 2,  2 months and 3 months

3. A front shot with dry hair

4-6. Day -1 before treatment, 2 months, and 3 months from three angles

7. Close up right corner

8. Close up left corner - I know the hair's colour seems way more gray-peppered than much of the photo set. It's just due to taking that one outside and more close-up with no flash I suppose.

9. Donor

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Jonulous

[Gatsby]

@Jonulous you have gone to one of the elite best and it shows! Thanks for sharing! 👌

[Jonulous]

Oh thanks Gatsby.

Your own restoration thread is among the most epic I think.

[TheEye]

I'm sure it will be better

[Hairlinedreamer]

Looking great!! 

[IMM1979]

these photos are fantastic - must learn those from you!

[Jonulous]

Thanks TheEye, Hairlinedreamer and IMM1979.

I feel like someone should really invent a neck brace, that like forces us into holding the same pose for each round of the before and after photos. Consistency in that is really hard for me to pull off, 😆.

[SctWls]

nice job 🤘

[Jonulous]

Four month greetings.

Arraying the progress shots in a similar order to last times, because....yeah-SCIENCE!

All medications and other stuff unchanged from last month. Shape of new hairline is forming up. I anticipate some more of the 2s and 3s implanted among the existing forelock hair will further sprout in the next few months.

 

[Jonulous]

Actually one final pic - the donor taken a couple of days after a 1-2 blend by the barber. Seems not excessively dotty at this stage of the recovery.

 

[Gatsby]

Donor looks excellent and your growth is too. Expect an even bigger boost next month! Thanks for sharing! 👌

[Ryan Daniel]

On 5/24/2022 at 10:32 PM, Jonulous said:

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect donor management as usual by Dr Bisanga.  A balanced extraction strategy will make your donor area look as if nothing was taken from it when it grows out a little. If this was clinic that lacks skilled experience they would of took 2297 grafts only from the middle part(safest zone) and leaving you with patchy area and making you wonder if you've been overharvested or not..  Well done on your research

Enjoy your new hairline! and best of luck for the rest of your months!

[Z--]

Absolutely glorious hairline man. Bisanga’s results speak for themselves.