3,100 grafts FUT Dr Bloxham June '22

[gxm100]

Hi All,

I am beginning this thread to track my hair restoration procedure with Dr Bloxham which will take place tomorrow June 14th, 2022. I will update the name of the thread after the procedure tomorrow when the exact graft count is known. For now, I will share some backstory, pre-op photos, and goals.

Backstory:

I am 29 years old. My visually noticeable hair loss came into the picture when I was about 20 years old. At this point in time, I was working with a classically receding V shaped hairline, but the density in the forelock was still okay to the point that I could make it work, but styling was very difficult. By the time that I was 22 years old, this was no longer the case. While still not that bad, anyone that looked at me could certainly tell I was losing hair. Even my mother said it - and if mom isn't trying to make you feel better, you know it's true! During this period I was trying minoxidil to no avail. At 23, I began using finasteride. Initially I underwent an intense shedding phase where much of the thinning hair in my forelock fell out and never returned. However since then, my hair loss has slowed to a relatively great pace / possibly even fully stabilized while taking the medicine regularly. A few years back, while working on having a baby I stopped finasteride for ~5 months and, unfortunately, saw quite a bit more hair loss in the frontal 3rd. Previously I had been able to make Toppik work quite well for me, but after this most recent shed, Toppik is hard to pull off underneath of direct sunlight. This is when I became serious about a HT (I've been lingering on this forum since I was 23). 

I decided, after the birth of my child, that I needed to do one of two things. Either shave it off, or get it fixed. I tried to take the less expensive approach and shave it off, but I absolutely hated it so I let it grow back and continued with Toppik. The problem with Toppik is that in certain lights it is great, but it was making me uncomfortable in any social situation where I was outside. There were a handful of times, especially when in and around water, that people commented on a green appearance to my hair.

Last year, I had an in person consultation with Dr Bloxham at his office in NY. I felt comfortable with him and had been impressed by results on his youtube channel, plus I remember him as FutureHT Doc from this forum long back, so I know he genuinely cares about this community. At the time, he suggested he would do somewhere between a 2500-2800 procedure. I know this forum, and the industry, has largely swung in the direction of FUE over FUT in the past few years, and I respect that, but given my age and level of loss, I feel that FUT is the safest decision for me and gives me the best possible chance at an ideal lifelong outcome.

 

Goals

Truthfully my goal is to take a conservative approach to the hairline and frontal third, but to have enough density to no longer feel the need to use any concealer. Currently, I am very happy with the appearance I am able to create with Toppik in terms of hairline placement and natural recession (not in terms of the green color!) so I will be working with Dr Bloxham to work with the existing outline and to simply add back the density. Probably on my right hand side to slightly slightly lower things. But all in all, if I am able to achieve the look that I currently get with toppik without the user of any concealer, I will be beyond happy.

 

Pre-Op Photos

Attaching two pre-op photos with my hair completely dry, combed back, air dryed, no shampoo in last day directly in front of harsh bathroom lighting. This will represent my current state at just about as bad as it can get. The third photo attached will represent the appearance I am currently able to achieve with a styled head of hair using toppik.

 

As for the review of Dr Bloxham, staff, procedure, etc. I will update in the next couple of days! Wish me luck!!!

[Melvin- Admin]

Good luck, I look forward to seeing your journey 🙌🏼

[Mike10]

So are you back on Finansteride now?

[Vann]

Good luck tomorrow, try not to stress yourself out too much prior to the procedure. Once it’s done it’s done. You won’t have to linger in these thoughts for too much longer. Thanks for sharing looking forward to your update.

 

[civic]

Good luck tomorrow! 

[Apon]

Good luck and please let me know how much they charge u?

[gxm100]

2 hours ago, Mike10 said:

So are you back on Finansteride now?

Yes I am back on now and have been for about a year and a half.

[gxm100]

live updates from the docs office. See pre-op lines attached and my super cool pre-op hair cut. Sounds like we got about 2500 grafts. After doc shaved my head he felt we really only need 2300 but my donor was dense so sounds like they got a bit more out.

My biggest worry is that doc said my hair is fine in terms of caliber. He did not give me an exact #. I figured this was the case, as it seems generally those with lighter hair have finer hair (just generally).

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by gxm100

[civic]

54 minutes ago, gxm100 said:

live updates from the docs office. See pre-op lines attached and my super cool pre-op hair cut. Sounds like we got about 2500 grafts. After doc shaved my head he felt we really only need 2300 but my donor was dense so sounds like they got a bit more out.

My biggest worry is that doc said my hair is fine in terms of caliber. He did not give me an exact #. I figured this was the case, as it seems generally those with lighter hair have finer hair (just generally).

 

Hairline design looks great!  not sharp V shaped, results should look great with dense-packing that he specializes in.

[Vann]

1 hour ago, gxm100 said:

live updates from the docs office. See pre-op lines attached and my super cool pre-op hair cut. Sounds like we got about 2500 grafts. After doc shaved my head he felt we really only need 2300 but my donor was dense so sounds like they got a bit more out.

My biggest worry is that doc said my hair is fine in terms of caliber. He did not give me an exact #. I figured this was the case, as it seems generally those with lighter hair have finer hair (just generally).

 

Thanks for keeping us updated. Keep us posted once you’re done and best of luck to you. Just remember focus on yourself at the moment don’t feel pressured to post updates immediately. Make this moment about yourself and whatever helps you during your operation. 

[pkipling]

Congrats! The day of a surgery typically comes after a very long time of researching, questioning, trying to find the right surgeon, etc. - and so it's a huge milestone to reach the day of the actual procedure. You're in very good hands with Dr. Bloxham and I look forward to seeing how this turns out for you. Now the waiting game begins...

[gxm100]

Hi All! Thank you for your support in my procedure. Below I will post my review of the day, details of the procedure, and some post op photos (as well as donor area photos which I did not previously include)

Dr Bloxham Review

Obvioisly the ultimate result, to be determined many months from now, will dictate my ultimate satisfaction with Bloxham. But for now I will say that I was very impressed with him and his staff. He made me feel comfortable, answered and discussed all of my questions and ideas as if we were peers, was very clear on his thoughts about my case, and had an excellent bedside manner. We had casual conversation all throughout the procedure and I was happy with how frequently he checked in and had a close look at the job being done during graft placement. The same would be said for the 4 or 5 techs working on me. Each of them were very knowledgeable, had many years of experience, and made the day very enjoyable by having conversation and joking around with me. For the techs particularly, they were exceptionally observant of what they were doing and how I was feeling.

Procedure Details

Everything began around 7:45 am. Doc checked to see if there had been any major changes to my situation since our consult last year - which there was nothing significant. After that we did the hairline design, talked about taking a relatively conservative approach (which as I mentioned above was what I wanted. I DO NOT want a dead straight hairline.) Once that was settled, he took some pre-op photos and we did the trim up. 
 

Next up was the strip extraction which is what I was most nervous for. I’d prefer to not start any debate in my thread about FUE vs FUT, I will only say that I could not believe how painless the strip extraction was. I didn’t even know they were doing it! And I am a major softy about knives and sharp objects. As has been mentioned many other times in many threads, the numbing injections didn’t feel great, but I mean, it was like a firm punch at worst - it was no bee sting.  This process took maybe 20-30 mins total. The staple closure was simple, except at one point during that I, for whatever reason, got light headed so we took like a 5 min break and then everything was good.

 

Right after that, the techs began cutting up the strip while Dr Bloxham created the incisions. Again, he was extremely friendly and comforting during this process. At this point I actually fell asleep for a while so I don’t know exactly how long it took overall. Dr Bloxham seemed very happy with the incisions and said I have “a great skin type” which is more “hard” and “with a great blood supply”. These were things I’ve not heard before on these forums but he seemed stoked about it haha.

From there I ate some lunch and then placement began by a series of 5 techs (some placing and some cleaning). Again they were great to speak with. Toward the beginning I did have a little popping which I was happy to hear the techs bring up immediately and to go get the Dr. They gave me another Valium to try to lower my blood pressure and apparently it worked because from that point the placement went hyper speed. One thing I was excited about was that two separate techs said they hadn’t seen that densely packed of a hairline in a long time. I liked to hear that especially because of my fine blondish hair type.

In my above post, I mentioned that because of my dense donor - they were able to extract more (like 2500 as opposed to 2300) but then as it turned out they actually got 3,000! So doctor Bloxham came back in made more cuts and reinforced certain areas that he thought best. I was pumped about that. Even more pumped because he only charged me for the 2300 we initially agreed on. Good man in my opinion. I forgot to get the graft break up but have emailed Bloxham so I’m hoping he will share tomorrow. Please see post op photos below, posted in exact same lighting as pre-op pics from my initial post.

 

That was basically it, so now we wait! Please let me know how you think it looks!!

 

PHOTOS:

 

 

[John1991]

It looks good.  I got 400+ more grafts than expected with Bloxham.  The shaving they do in the front makes the lowering (and the loss) appear far more drastic than it is.    I'm just over 11 weeks out now and redness is improving.  Just give it time.  The donor will be numb for a good while.  Get ready to wear a hat for a while!

[gxm100]

1 minute ago, John1991 said:

It looks good.  I got 400+ more grafts than expected with Bloxham.  The shaving they do in the front makes the lowering (and the loss) appear far more drastic than it is.    I'm just over 11 weeks out now and redness is improving.  Just give it time.  The donor will be numb for a good while.  Get ready to wear a hat for a while!

Thanks @John1991! Yeah the grafts here actually start above where the whispy remanants of my hairline were. 
 

I can’t wait to wear a hat haha. I strategically began wearing a hat basically every time I was in a non formal setting for the last year or so so that it wouldn’t suddenly seem weird to friends and family now.

[HappyMan2021]

is there a reason you didn't do a full shave? The purpose of partial shaves are so that the HT is undetectable and you can be "back-to-work" ready in a very short amount of time. 

If I can be completely honest I think your partial shave will not fulfill this purpose. You will be wearing a hat just as if you had gotten a full shave. 

[gxm100]

4 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

is there a reason you didn't do a full shave? The purpose of partial shaves are so that the HT is undetectable and you can be "back-to-work" ready in a very short amount of time. 

If I can be completely honest I think your partial shave will not fulfill this purpose. You will be wearing a hat just as if you had gotten a full shave. 

@HappyMan2021 - nope no reason. I did not request that. It is just what the clinic chose to do in terms of shaving. I don’t mind as my intent is to shave it all down at around 2 weeks anyway.

[gxm100]

All good on day 2! One question though. If I run my hand through the hair at the back that was not trimmed for the surgery, I get TONS of hair coming out on my hands. This seems odd to me as I understood it this would be too early for shock loss. Anyone else experience this?

[gxm100]

Update from Day 6:

Been having lots of anxiety about post op care which sucks. Feel like everything I’m doing is wrong, but probably that’s all in my head.

 

1) tried to use conditioner on recipient last night to help with scabbing and dry scalp, but then the conditioner was so dense I couldn’t get it to fully wash out

2) rolled in my sleep last night. Somehow managed to wiggle out of my neck pillow and woke up sleeping on my stomach. My recipient area however was not touching anything so hopefully it caused no damage. 
 

bright side is I haven’t seen any further bleeding from recipient area so if that’s the tell tale sign that you damaged something, I guess I’m good?

 

below is one regular pic of my progress and then a higher quality zoomed in photo of the recipient. Would be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts!

 

 

 

[Gatsby]

At day six if you are following all of the surgeon's advice you are fine. Send a pic and your concerns to Dr Bloxham. It looks fine to me for day six.

[Vann]

36 minutes ago, gxm100 said:

Update from Day 6:

Been having lots of anxiety about post op care which sucks. Feel like everything I’m doing is wrong, but probably that’s all in my head.

 

1) tried to use conditioner on recipient last night to help with scabbing and dry scalp, but then the conditioner was so dense I couldn’t get it to fully wash out

2) rolled in my sleep last night. Somehow managed to wiggle out of my neck pillow and woke up sleeping on my stomach. My recipient area however was not touching anything so hopefully it caused no damage. 
 

bright side is I haven’t seen any further bleeding from recipient area so if that’s the tell tale sign that you damaged something, I guess I’m good?

 

below is one regular pic of my progress and then a higher quality zoomed in photo of the recipient. Would be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts!

 

 

 

You should be fine after 72 hours I believe. Your grafts are still vulnerable… but a few doctors say they take place enough where some people who roll in their sleep wouldn’t have a significant issue. Some doctors say wait a full 0-10 days. It varies a lot between each person.

at this point don’t look back too much on it. What’s done is done. Just make sure you’re following the instructions as best as you can. This process goes up to 12 months (some up to 18) so just imagine the amount of overthinking you’ll be doing if oh start this early. 
 

you are your pens biggest critic so just make sure you ask your doctor about your concerns or the forum if you feel like venting or sharing anything. The resources are at your disposal. 

[gxm100]

6 minutes ago, Vann said:

You should be fine after 72 hours I believe. Your grafts are still vulnerable… but a few doctors say they take place enough where some people who roll in their sleep wouldn’t have a significant issue. Some doctors say wait a full 0-10 days. It varies a lot between each person.

at this point don’t look back too much on it. What’s done is done. Just make sure you’re following the instructions as best as you can. This process goes up to 12 months (some up to 18) so just imagine the amount of overthinking you’ll be doing if oh start this early. 
 

you are your pens biggest critic so just make sure you ask your doctor about your concerns or the forum if you feel like venting or sharing anything. The resources are at your disposal. 

Thanks @Vann! I agree it’s early for overthinking, but at the same time since this is the most vulnerable stage, I feel it’s where I’ll do the most.

Ive been googling other docs post op instructions and I just find it wild how differentiated each doc is from the next. Some say grafts are anchored after 3 days some say 7 some say 10 some say 14. Some say no drinking for a month, 2 weeks, a week, 3 days. No touching the grafts for 3,7,10,14 days. Dr Bloxham is on the short end of all of those, which I guess is good. But it just sends my brain haywire as to why there is no consensus 

[Vann]

12 hours ago, gxm100 said:

Thanks @Vann! I agree it’s early for overthinking, but at the same time since this is the most vulnerable stage, I feel it’s where I’ll do the most.

Ive been googling other docs post op instructions and I just find it wild how differentiated each doc is from the next. Some say grafts are anchored after 3 days some say 7 some say 10 some say 14. Some say no drinking for a month, 2 weeks, a week, 3 days. No touching the grafts for 3,7,10,14 days. Dr Bloxham is on the short end of all of those, which I guess is good. But it just sends my brain haywire as to why there is no consensus 

Yea it varies a lot. There are a lot of people who have really good scabbing and some who are bleeders, it really depends case by case. But the general thing I hear most is between 3-7 days. It really is annoying that there really isnt much info to back it up. I mean many people wouldnt want their grafts destroyed just for a test so its kinda understandable. 

[gxm100]

Ok what do we all think…is this a lost graft or just a hair coming out with scab (which you can clearly see)…can’t tell what’s with the bulby end of the hair in the pic below. Looks like a little hook more so than a bulb to me. Let me know your thoughts

 

[Vann]

32 minutes ago, gxm100 said:

Ok what do we all think…is this a lost graft or just a hair coming out with scab (which you can clearly see)…can’t tell what’s with the bulby end of the hair in the pic below. Looks like a little hook more so than a bulb to me. Let me know your thoughts

 

That looks completely normal. i shed hair with the bulb sometimes and its not the root of your hair just skin. if it was bad it would probably have been bleeding. one hair will not be super significant in the long term result.

[pkipling]

20 hours ago, Vann said:

Yea it varies a lot. There are a lot of people who have really good scabbing and some who are bleeders, it really depends case by case. But the general thing I hear most is between 3-7 days. It really is annoying that there really isnt much info to back it up. I mean many people wouldnt want their grafts destroyed just for a test so its kinda understandable. 

There's one study that was done by Dr. Bernstein that is used to provide insight on when grafts become secure and are no longer at risk of being dislodged. Here's the link to the full study if you want to read it, but the final outcome was this:

"The study showed that for the first two days, pulling on a hair always resulted in a lost graft, but the chance of the graft being removed started to decrease by the third day. By the sixth day pulling on a hair would no longer dislodge the graft. Pulling on an adherent scab always resulted in a lost graft through day five, with the incidence decreasing through day eight. However, by nine days post-op, grafts were no longer at risk of being dislodged."

I wish there were more studies done like this one on other concerns people have post-op so that there wouldn't be so much discrepancy between so many surgeons about what is and isn't considered optimal post-op care, because Lord knows the various answers cause soooo much confusion - and rightly so.