Dr. Bloxham - 2,912 Grafts - FUT - August 2023

[shiro13]

Hi all - I just had a hair transplant with Dr. Bloxham. I really appreciate the research I was able to do from this community's posts and reviews, so I plan on sharing my own results. I was going to wait until I have near-final results before I posted, because I want to do my best to not obsess over it as the hair grows in. I am curious to get people's initial reactions, though. I love the idea of where my new hairline will be, but I'm a little concerned about density behind the hairline. My goal was always one and done, with realistic expectations. I didn't want to commit to more than one hair transplant. I also didn't want to commit to having to use product, like topic. But I also think that seeing some scalp through the hairline is fine. I got comfortable with the idea of doing FUT, and I liked going to a doctor who really believed in that method. I've been growing my hair out, so not having to start all over with a shaved head was a huge plus for me as well. The initial hairline that I drew out was actually less aggressive than what we ended up with. Dr. Bloxham appreciated that I wasn't being overly aggressive, but ultimately seemed comfortable pushing it a little more. He quoted me 3,000 grafts, and we got just under that. The FUT scar goes all the way up above my ears, so we basically got the maximum amount that we could have in one transplant. My hair is fine, so that was always a worry for density, although it's a plus for a natural looking hairline.

Immediately before. You can see where they shaved my forelock.

And immediately after. The middle part with very little density is of course just bolstering my existing forelock, but most of the area is bare scalp.

A few other notes...Dr. Bloxham has been wonderful to work with. He's very knowledgeable, attentive, and puts the patient at ease. There were 2 or 3 times during the surgery when he exclaimed how good everything was looking, which I think tells me two things: (1) he takes pride in his work, and (2) he knows how to make the patient comfortable when they're sitting in that operating chair. Generally good vibes about him and his staff. The entire operation took nearly 8 hours.

So back to my question...any thoughts about the density? I know that the goal is illusion of density rather than natural density, and the hairline itself looks quite good to me. I also know that too much density can lead to less graft survivability. Now that I'm looking at it, I feel like I would have preferred to be less aggressive on the hairline itself but more aggressive on density, but I also don't know if that's a realistic tradeoff. Ultimately, as long as it looks reasonably natural, I'll like it far better than pre-transplant. And if I ultimately decide I need a second smaller transplant to fill in the density, I suppose that's not the end of the world either. I just hate the idea of having to re-shave the recipient area in a couple of years to do that, because then it will be another couple of years after that before it finally reaches the length that I want.

Also, a side question. A lot of pictures I've seen look like they have far larger graft sizes. Here's an example below. They look like they're bursting out of the scalp. I'm amazed how slim the grafts look for mine (and others I've seen from Dr. Bloxham). Is this a difference between FUT & FUE? I think that also contributes to why I'm seeing a lot of scalp, and it makes it difficult to compare to other transplants.

[Chrisno]

Great write up, thanks for sharing! The grafts in the last photo you posted looks like untrimmed FUE grafts. Doctors have different ways of doing transplants, some doctors trim down FUE grafts to be able to pack denser and have a smaller recipient size, which reduces trauma.

For FUT you have to trim the grafts because they need to be taken out from the strip.

Best of luck with the journey!

[JoeD]

7 hours ago, shiro13 said:

Hi all - I just had a hair transplant with Dr. Bloxham. I really appreciate the research I was able to do from this community's posts and reviews, so I plan on sharing my own results. I was going to wait until I have near-final results before I posted, because I want to do my best to not obsess over it as the hair grows in. I am curious to get people's initial reactions, though. I love the idea of where my new hairline will be, but I'm a little concerned about density behind the hairline. My goal was always one and done, with realistic expectations. I didn't want to commit to more than one hair transplant. I also didn't want to commit to having to use product, like topic. But I also think that seeing some scalp through the hairline is fine. I got comfortable with the idea of doing FUT, and I liked going to a doctor who really believed in that method. I've been growing my hair out, so not having to start all over with a shaved head was a huge plus for me as well. The initial hairline that I drew out was actually less aggressive than what we ended up with. Dr. Bloxham appreciated that I wasn't being overly aggressive, but ultimately seemed comfortable pushing it a little more. He quoted me 3,000 grafts, and we got just under that. The FUT scar goes all the way up above my ears, so we basically got the maximum amount that we could have in one transplant. My hair is fine, so that was always a worry for density, although it's a plus for a natural looking hairline.

Immediately before. You can see where they shaved my forelock.

And immediately after. The middle part with very little density is of course just bolstering my existing forelock, but most of the area is bare scalp.

A few other notes...Dr. Bloxham has been wonderful to work with. He's very knowledgeable, attentive, and puts the patient at ease. There were 2 or 3 times during the surgery when he exclaimed how good everything was looking, which I think tells me two things: (1) he takes pride in his work, and (2) he knows how to make the patient comfortable when they're sitting in that operating chair. Generally good vibes about him and his staff. The entire operation took nearly 8 hours.

So back to my question...any thoughts about the density? I know that the goal is illusion of density rather than natural density, and the hairline itself looks quite good to me. I also know that too much density can lead to less graft survivability. Now that I'm looking at it, I feel like I would have preferred to be less aggressive on the hairline itself but more aggressive on density, but I also don't know if that's a realistic tradeoff. Ultimately, as long as it looks reasonably natural, I'll like it far better than pre-transplant. And if I ultimately decide I need a second smaller transplant to fill in the density, I suppose that's not the end of the world either. I just hate the idea of having to re-shave the recipient area in a couple of years to do that, because then it will be another couple of years after that before it finally reaches the length that I want.

Also, a side question. A lot of pictures I've seen look like they have far larger graft sizes. Here's an example below. They look like they're bursting out of the scalp. I'm amazed how slim the grafts look for mine (and others I've seen from Dr. Bloxham). Is this a difference between FUT & FUE? I think that also contributes to why I'm seeing a lot of scalp, and it makes it difficult to compare to other transplants.

What is the blue stuff in the bottom picture?

[shiro13]

2 hours ago, JoeD said:

What is the blue stuff in the bottom picture?

Bottom pic's not mine, I just had a question about it that was answered. It looks to me like the residue from a surgery marker, but I'm not sure why there should be so much of it, so I could be wrong.

[A_4_Archan]

@shiro13

Everything is looking good...the hairline implantation pattern is good and you will have a natural looking hairline...as you yourself mentioned that you could have gone a bit more conservative ,this depends on whether your hairloss progression is stabilised or not and if you will need multiple surgeries in future or not..if your hairloss progression isn't extremely stabilised or if you are in your early thirties than you could have saved more grafts by being more conservative....though it also depends on personal preference and you could have taken more time to look into that...but what done is done and it is looking good so be positive about it..

@JoeD

The blue thing which you are seeing is probably methylene blue 

[shiro13]

Thanks, just having post-surgery jitters, I think. I'm optimistic. Hair loss is very stabilized, I'm not worried about that. Incidentally, I just found this video of a Bloxham patient who looks uncannily like me (with his face blocked anyway). Same hair type, fine dark hair against pale skin, really similar balding pattern and need to rebuild his temples. We designed our hairlines a little differently (I wanted to avoid hard angles). He had to cover at least as much area as me but with fewer grafts (2500 vs. 2900), and I think his results look quite good. Will be interesting to refer back to this in a year to see how we compare.

Anyway, like I said, will try to come back to this in several months to give a full review.