Dr. Mwamba | 3703 grafts (FUE) | April 18-20 | Brussels, BE

[DutchHair]

Hi all,

I've been lurking for a while now and figured it is my time to contribute. I'll try to keep this relatively short.

BACKGROUND

• I am 31 years old living in the Netherlands
• I started receding at around age 24, going from NW1 to NW4 in 6 years time with the majority of loss at my temples and hairline, but also a bit of thinning on the crown.
• I started on topical minoxidil and oral finasteride in March 2022 and saw good efficacy with minimal side-effects over the course of a year, restoring just about all of the crown and stimulating some hair growth in the front.
• Honestly, I never really considered a hair transplant since overall I was mostly fine with my hair and didn't really see it affect my life. However, once I had some family and friends get HTs, I became interested, did my research, and decided to get one myself.

WHY MWAMBA?

• I had personal testimonials from people I know who were very impressed with his work.
• I saw good results posted here on this forum.
• He is close by, so travel was going to be easy.
• I was impressed during the consultation by his honest appraisal of my situation compared to other clinics I talked with.

THE HAIR TRANSPLANT PRE-PROCESS

• I consulted with Dr. Mwamba virtually in March 2022. He recommended up to 4500 grafts at that time.
• We decided on 3500 FUE fully shaven, with the full focus on temples and hair line and a later surgery if needed to address additional weaknesses.
• After some delays due to work, I scheduled my surgery for April 18-20 in Brussels at his clinic.
• The team was very communicative prior to the procedure -- giving me full details well in advance (except for one point, which I'll mention later).

SURGERY - APRIL 18 to APRIL 20

• Three days may seem gratuitous for 3500 grafts, but there was really very little wasted time.vFor example:
  • April 18th (12pm - 7pm): Hairline design, determination of density in donor, information about procedure, initial ~100 grafts for a small "test area"
  • April 19th (7am - 10pm): Long day, but plenty of breaks as requested. Grafted 1800 donors mostly to temples and hairline. Included hair wash and lots of checking and double-checking specific details of the procedure. 
  • April 20th (11am - 12am): Another long day with 1600 donors grafted to finish hairline and fill front scalp. Not all of this was grafting as 
• In summary, 3703 grafts were placed. I don't have a breakdown of 1/2/3/4 hairs per graft, but I was told I had an abundance of 4-hair grafts. I was also told I have 3000+ grafts in my donor still available.

MY THOUGHTS

• I absolutely did not anticipate such long days (perhaps naively) -- it was the only part of the pre-surgery process I felt I wasn't filled in on. In the end, however, it was fine since there were plenty of breaks.
• The team is incredibly friendly and caring. I had a couple unexpected reactions to the anesthesia and to the extractions that are due to my medical history and they fully handled it with grace and compassion. I felt like I was in great hands from start to finish.
• At every part of the process, I had input and could make changes - I never felt pressured to go one way or the other regarding hairline, extra grafts, medication, etc.
• Dr. Mwamba himself is incredible. His dedication is incredible, the precision of his work seems exceptional, and he is just very caring overall. 
• For the breakdown of work done, it was about the following:
  • Punching and extractions: >50% Dr. Mwamba, remainder by Dr. Ali. Dr. Mwamba did 100% of donor harvesting in areas where I had less density.
  • Incisions: 100% Dr. Mwamba.
  • Graft placement: 60% Dr. Mwamba, 20% Dr. Ali, 20% technician. Dr. Mwamba did all placements on hairline and temples and also consistently checked the work of the other two.
• Dr. Mwamba was fully accessible throughout the entire procedure, even when he had another patient in for a consult or post-surgery check-up. 

POST-SURGERY

• Took the train from Brussels back to the Netherlands today, shortly after surgery.
• Both recipient and donor areas feel immaculate - no painkillers needed and they seem to be healing very quickly.
• Only 1 day post-surgery, but here are some relatively low quality before/after pictures - let me know what you think.

PRE-SURGERY PICTURES

POST-SURGERY (1 DAY)

[thetdog666]

Nice write up and hairline design looks great. Hopw all goes well

[Rafael Manelli]

Your right temple especially looks like it contained a high number of sparse but terminal hairs. Unusual for someone who isn’t a repair patient.

I chuckle when you say you didn’t expect it to take so long. That’s typical for dr Mwamba. He often takes several days to do a session that other clinics will do in one day. That’s because he does FUE the right way, slowly, carefully, taking his time to respect such a delicate and demanding procedure, and he takes commendable responsibility, doing more of the work himself than most docs. As a result he tends to get good results.

Everything here looks good. You’ve got great donor and the design looks dense and appropriate. Expect success.

[DutchHair]

1 hour ago, Rafael Manelli said:

Your right temple especially looks like it contained a high number of sparse but terminal hairs. Unusual for someone who isn’t a repair patient.

I chuckle when you say you didn’t expect it to take so long. That’s typical for dr Mwamba. He often takes several days to do a session that other clinics will do in one day. That’s because he does FUE the right way, slowly, carefully, taking his time to respect such a delicate and demanding procedure, and he takes commendable responsibility, doing more of the work himself than most docs. As a result he tends to get good results.

Everything here looks good. You’ve got great donor and the design looks dense and appropriate. Expect success.

I even saw that previous patients have very long days...so I'm not sure what I was thinking 😛 

I definitely agree though that he is very methodical, careful, and precise -- I don't think I would want it done any other way.

Thanks for the hopeful words -- hoping this turns out well!

[duckling]

work looks great and result will be great too as his work is slow but meticulous.

i think maybe they could have gone a bit thinner on those temples and put more on top? 

Or maybe from this angle it makes it look more thicker than it actually is. Temples this good in 1st surgery is little risk to take as hair behind the hairline gets slightly less grafts and once your 

[bigmistake]

Can't even see the scars in the donor area

[Observatory40]

Looks like clean work and will turn in a good result. I'll be following your journey. Best of luck and happy growing!

[Melvin- Admin]

Can’t wait to see this grow, thanks for sharing your face, it will make the impact so much bigger.

[DutchHair]

I'm really shocked by how fast my scalp is healing. I choose Mwamba partially because I had seen how clean his work was and some previous patients who posted here had very quick recovery times, but this has been beyond my expectations.

Donor areas feels 100% back to normal - no pain but no numbness- and they look almost completely back to normal, which the exception of a bit of discoloration from where anesthetic was injected (which I always experience).

Recipient area has also healed really nicely. Some scabs have begun to release naturally already, redness is subsiding, and - most importantly - it feels 90% back to what it felt like pre-transplant with no tenderness and only a couple areas where there is minor numbness.

Facial swelling was completely gone as well 72 hours post-surgery.

I'll post new pictures at Day 7 (this Thursday) and then every 2 weeks onwards...primarily as my personal journal but also to give people a good idea of the process.

[DutchHair]

Here are a couple day 7 photos that I quickly snapped before heading out. 

Both donor and recipient feel great.

Scabs are 99% off -- most came off with no pressure whatsoever. A couple small hairs came out with some of the scabs, but I think that is normal. Redness in recipient is still present of course but it is going down daily. Hoping for it to be gone completely by one month post-op. 

Donor still has a couple small spots of redness or bruising, but as the hair grows out back there it conceals it quite well. At the buzz cut length, I can't tell much difference between my pre-op donor and post-op donor density, but we will see how that progresses.

[Gatsby]

You have a very youthful face. Even so the results of this surgery are going to make you look ten years younger! All the best!

[DutchHair]

On 4/27/2023 at 12:20 PM, Gatsby said:

You have a very youthful face. Even so the results of this surgery are going to make you look ten years younger! All the best!

Thanks Gatsby -- hopefully not too young though or I may start getting carded again...

Question for everyone: I have started shedding some transplanted hair over the past two days -- maybe 30% of the total hair. I know this is normal but it seems a bit too early since I am only about two weeks post-procedure. I assume there is nothing to worry about here, but have you seen this in other cases?

[DutchHair]

Hi all,

Here is a 1 month update.

As expected, vast majority of transplanted hair has shed. Most shedding occurred between 2 and 3 weeks. I think I'm in the heart of the ugly duckling phase now. Pretty much all transplanted hair "grew" before shedding. If I run my hand over the areas now I feel some light stubble, but I'm not sure if that is some residual transplanted hair that did not grow or shed OR is the very first signs of new life.

Outside of the transplanted areas, rest of the hair looks normal. Donor looks almost indistinguishable from pre-surgery, and areas of existing hair where transplanted hair was added also look identical. 

I do have some redness in the transplant area still persisting, but it is slowly fading away.

The left side of the hairline had a little bit of a raised edge, which made me worried there may be some scarring there -- but that has completely resolved in the last two weeks and there is no evidence of any ridges/bumps/pits in the transplanted areas. Looks like just about all of the inflammation from the procedure has subsided at this point.

Overall, progress seems as expected. Very happy with the donor, very happy I haven't seen much (if any) shock loss of native hair, and very happy I haven't seen much folliculitis and/or acne in the transplanted areas.

 

The waiting continues....

[DutchHair]

Still in the heart of the ugly duckling phase with not much to update as of 2 months post-surgery. Shedding has stopped completely now and there are signs of life as small hairs start to poke through the transplanted areas. Every day I'm noticing a couple more hairs peeking through, so it is a nice early encouraging sign.

 

Ive attached some pictures of the front from a couple angles, plus my donor area. I shaved down my whole head to a #2 a couple weeks ago and there was pretty much no indication of any difference in the donor compared to pre-surgery.

 

I think everything looks on track, but happy to hear your thoughts at this point.

 

 

[RTC]

Looks good, and donor looks amazing

[DutchHair]

Hi all,

Three month update-- this is shortly after a shower and applying minoxidil foam, so excuse some residual whiteness in the hair 😬

Different angles included, all with natural lighting. 

I've seen a lot of hairs pop through in the past two weeks, and more coming each day. I'm hoping (and expecting) this to continue over the next month or two. Overall I think its good progress so far, and expecting a bigger visual change in month 4. However, already looking at month 2 to month 3 shows pretty nice progress, in my opinion.

I got a cut a couple weeks ago down to a 1 on the sides and back, and you couldn't really see any difference in the donor compared to pre-surgery, which is really encouraging. 

The redness is just about gone, although it looks worse in the pictures than it does in real life. The recipient area is itching quite a bit -- especially around the forelock. I'm thinking of adding in Nizoral shampoo once a week just in case.

 

Let me know what you think!

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by DutchHair

[A_4_Archan]

@DutchHair Your donor healed up pretty well...can see the transplanted area getting darker as new hairs are poking out from the scalp and the game starts now...happy growing and keep updating ..will follow your journey closely ...

[hairywannabe]

Looks clean, you have to be patient, more significant growth should occur around 5th (or 6th) month.

[DutchHair]

2 hours ago, hairywannabe said:

Looks clean, you have to be patient, more significant growth should occur around 5th (or 6th) month.

It's so difficult being patient haha. But I'm very happy with the amount of hairs poking through. I am seeing more and more every day, and it looks like they are all growing pretty well too.

[DutchHair]

Almost 3.5 months now - seeing good growth and gaps are getting darker and shrinking. There are still small hairs popping up everywhere -- most stubble is growing consistently, some has just started growing after being paused, and some is now has now popped through and then paused. 

I think at this stage is everything grows that has already poked through and thickens up, I'll be very happy with the result. 

 

[hairywannabe]

It looks really good for 3.5 months, however we still need wait until 5-6 months to speculate about the result, fingers crossed!

[DutchHair]

Hi all,

Here's the 4 month update. This is a couple days after a haircut. Ignore the stupid expressions 😛 

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by DutchHair

[DutchHair]

Also, got some photos from Dr. Mwamba pre-surgery and immediately post-surgery.

Order is as follows:

- Wet pre-surgery

- Dry pre-surgery

- Hairline design

- Immediate post-surgery

[hairywannabe]

I don't want to generate too much hype because it's still early but it looks amazing for only 4 months!

[RTC]

Excellent so far