Feriduni - two surgeries, around 6850 grafts (6000 from the scalp, 850 from beard and chest)

[MatthewDM111]

I am 39 years old.  I had a FUT surgery back in 2007 when I was 24.  I think it was like 1000 grafts just in the hairline.  I lost a ton more hair since then.  I am one of those unfortunate dudes that has extensive hair loss, a weak donor area, and low caliber hair follicles.  I sent in online applications to 6 different clinics.  I got outright denied by 2, ignored by 3, one wanted an in-person consultation prior to making a decision.  Fortunately, my #1 pick, Dr. Feriduni, asked for a lot more pictures and agreed to take me as a patient.  He did give a caveat that he reserved the right to refuse to perform the surgery if upon seeing my donor area in person he did not think I was a good candidate.  

Here are some pre surgery pics where you can see my extensive hair loss:

Toppik actually did a good job of concealing my very balding head but for the past several years, my head consisted of more toppik than actual hair.

Here is a pic with toppik:

I live in Los Angeles so it was somewhat stressful traveling to Belgium without the assurance of surgery, but I respected his decision, and it made sense.  When I arrived for my first surgery in August, I met with Dr. Feriduni the day before for a consultation and I was very happy to hear that my donor area actually looked better in person and under a microscope.  I should add here, that while I heard lots of good things about his office and staff, I was extremely impressed. Everyone was very nice and went out of their way to make me feel comfortable. They were also very professional and courteous. Dr. Feriduni himself is very passionate about his work and it shows. When I was with him during the consultation, I had his undivided attention and he made sure that we were on the same page for the game plan. He also is just a super nice and compassionate guy. 

The next day I got there at 7:30 am and surgery was all day to around 4pm. My first surgery was the front and mid scalp. Originally the game plan was to not touch the hairline and just rely on the grafts from my 2007 surgery for my hairline. This was not ideal but with my limited donor, we had to be economical with the graft placement. I was happy to learn in the middle of the surgery that they were able to extract more grafts than originally anticipated and there were a few hundred additional grafts. Dr. Feriduni asked me if I wanted these grafts to be placed in the hairline and I said absolutely. He focused on the center of the hairline. He also took around 50 grafts from my chest and placed them in a designated area to test to see if they survive. The entire process was very relaxed. Whatever they put in the IV is absolutely amazing. I actually slept for a good portion of the surgery. They ordered me a really tasty sandwich for lunch. The entire time they were making sure I was always comfortable. I really cannot speak more highly of Dr. Feriduni and his amazing team.

Here are pics from immediately after surgery:

Here are some pics from the day after surgery:

Here are pics 3 days after surgery:

I started to notice growth around month 5. By month 7 I was very satisfied. It was life changing not having to have to use fibers and it was very fun getting to try new hair styles. I think the best part was not giving a damn if it was windy outside. 

Here are some progress pics after first surgery:

1 month:

1.5 months:

2 months:

3 Months (this stage sucked):

4 months (shaved it)

5 months:

7 months:

Here are links to some videos that show the hairline better:

https://i.imgur.com/uSvF9X7.mp4
https://i.imgur.com/A4RTGQH.mp4
https://i.imgur.com/9X36Opm.mp4

Here are some pics taken by Dr. Feriduni right before my second surgery:

 

My second surgery was 8 months later May 3-4. During the consultation Dr. Feriduni noted that all of the chest grafts survived so day one was more scalp grafts and day 2 was chest and bears grafts. The original plan was to only do the crown, but I asked Dr. Feriduni if there are any extra single follicle grafts to spare, if he could put them in the temples and he agreed. After the second surgery I was very happy to finally be done and I am looking forward to my final form.

Pre second surgery (I think 4 days post op):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by MatthewDM111
Two misplaced pictures

[mr_peanutbutter]

wow, i will monitor this. happy growing and keep us updated

[Britanium]

What a fantastic write up ! And excellent work from Dr Feriduni ! 👌🏻

[MatthewDM111]

I am at three months post second surgery. I feel the crown is definitely taking longer to show results compared to my three month results after my first surgery but I am starting to see growth which is exciting. 
 

here is a video: https://imgur.com/a/7F9REzT

Edited August 7, 2023 by MatthewDM111

[MatthewDM111]

I realized the Imgur link wasn’t working. 
 

hopefully this link works: video

 

[OliverAtom]

Hello @MatthewDM111 and thanks for sharing great photos 😀

The evolution of your first hair transplant has been awesome. I love that new look.
And now eager to see this second HT result 🤗

 

[Berba11]

Missed this one initially. Great case and the results from the first pass look stellar!

Will be following!

[MatthewDM111]

I am a little past 4 months post second surgery. The crown is finally growing in. I am also very happy with the hairline.

[Turkhair]

Curious to see how this turns out. Happy growing 

[MatthewDM111]

5 months post second surgery update: The crown is still requiring patience but I am very happy to finally see done decent growth. The hairline is also looking better with the added grafts from the second surgery. 

[A_4_Archan]

Looking excellent at 5 months brother ..you still have many more months in the bank for more growth and density ...dr Feriduni's hairline work is always amazing ..

[consequence]

What a ride.

Regarding rejections, I got denied by some surgeons that had accepted me when I sent them pics a few years prior (and my hairloss hadn't changed between the two time points). Surgeons can be really touchy, sometimes I think it just depends on their mood the day they look at your pics, or if you remind them of a case they struggled with -- ie. you could have just been beyond their skill level. I wouldn't take that to heart.

And look at the results you got. Amazeballs.

Keep us updated. Your final result is going to be something special I suspect.

[MatthewDM111]

I am near the 8 month mark for surgery #2. Very happy with the results. Keeping my fingers crossed for a little bit more density in the crown. 

[Harebrained]

This is absolutely amazing.  Please keep updating.  I'm genuinely happy to see this kind of result from such a challenging case.  You definitely chose the right Dr. for your situation...maybe I missed it but do you have any post op pics of your doner?

[MatthewDM111]

Thanks! I was very happy Dr. Feriduni took me as a patient despite my tough case. I haven’t really posted my donor. I think it looks alright despite the amount of grafts extracted. However I am thinking of maybe doing SMP.  I will post some pictures tomorrow and ask you for your thoughts. 

[Harebrained]

Thanks, again congratulations.  Especially considering you still have a ways to go for the full effect.  Your documentation and shared experience along with the results are impressive to say the least.  Would be interesting to see your donor both pre-op and what it looks like now.  Anyway again thanks for sharing!

[DH97]

update?

 

[MatthewDM111]

I am very pleased. I got a haircut a couple weeks ago, it was fun having options. I decided to continue styling my hair to the side. I also decided that I am going to get SMP later this year to add some density in my donor area. You can see from the pics that after nearly 7000 grafts, it is looking depleted. I am hoping SMP will add an illusion of density. I am happy with the density of my hairline but I am considering going back to Feriduni and adding more chest/beard hairs the the crown and mid. The attached pictures were taken today after work, there is a little bit of product in my hair (Northern Lights Shear Revival which I really like!). 

[rja]

@MatthewDM111 your result looks amazing!

I'm particularly curious about it as it reminds me of my situation and (hopefully) future results - so I'm looking at it as a baseline

The first thing that caught my attention here was the fact you did front and mid in the first HT and left the mid/crown for the second. I might have missed it in your thread, but would you be able to share how many grafts were put in each one of the 2 HTs (I know a total of 6850 + 1000 from your past HT)?

The reason I'm asking is that I had about 4.5k done in my first HT and probably another 2.5k to be done in the second, so I want to know if I can expect a similar result in terms of overall density.

Thanks!

[MatthewDM111]

10 minutes ago, rja said:

I might have missed it in your thread, but would you be able to share how many grafts were put in each one of the 2 HTs (I know a total of 6850 + 1000 from your past HT)

I don’t remember the exact breakdown but I think first surgery was around 3700 in the front and mid (all taken from my scalp donor area) and second surgery was around 2850 in the crown (800 coming from my chest and beard) and 300 in my temples. 

[jjalay]

1 minute ago, MatthewDM111 said:

I don’t remember the exact breakdown but I think first surgery was around 3700 in the front and mid (all taken from my scalp donor area) and second surgery was around 2850 in the crown (800 coming from my chest and beard) and 300 in my temples. 

 

[jjalay]

Your donor area looks overharvested. Why havent you considered getting another fut and then fue combined with beard hair for the crown? Have you talked with feriduni about the look on the donor area?

[Al - Moderator]

You had a tremendous improvement from the starting point, but I can see what you mean about the thinness of both the donor and the crown. If you are going to go back to try using beard and chest grafts to add density then I suggest holding off on SMP to the donor and think about adding a bit of beard/chest grafts there as well. It would be much better to have all real hair rather than SMP especially if you are going to be going for a session of beard/chest grafts anyway.

[MatthewDM111]

5 minutes ago, jjalay said:

Your donor area looks overharvested. Why havent you considered getting another fut and then fue combined with beard hair for the crown? Have you talked with feriduni about the look on the donor area?

Not yet, I wanted to wait for an entire year post second surgery and see how SMP looks regarding the donor. I will not do another fut, that was not a pleasant experience. 

[MatthewDM111]

2 minutes ago, Al - formerly BeHappy said:

You had a tremendous improvement from the starting point, but I can see what you mean about the thinness of both the donor and the crown. If you are going to go back to try using beard and chest grafts to add density then I suggest holding off on SMP to the donor and think about adding a bit of beard/chest grafts there as well. It would be much better to have all real hair rather than SMP especially if you are going to be going for a session of beard/chest grafts anyway.

This makes sense. I will definitely hold off on the SMP and talk to Dr. Feriduni first.