4986 Grafts FUT With Dr. Wong | Aug 16th, 2023 | 30M

[JohnnySins]

After over a year of lurking through this site and seeing everyone’s results from various doctors, I finally built up the courage to start my own hair transplant journey.

BACKGROUND

A little background on myself: I turned 30 this year and have been experiencing hair loss since I was about 21 years old (that’s the age I started to take notice of it and document it). I am a diffuse thinner and hated that I could see my scalp, always wishing my hair had better density. As the problem only got worse, I decided to do something about it. In 2019, my family doctor prescribed me Finasteride, and while hesitant (due to the side effects), I decided to jump on it. After a year on Fin, I could certainly see a change. And while it did make a difference, I was still not 100% satisfied with the results. I could still see through to my scalp and my crown was very visible- this was one thing I really wanted to thicken up. Fast forward to 2021 when I began my topical minoxidil journey. I can confidently say that I completely regret starting topical minoxidil, as it hasn’t made any difference to my hair growth. Besides providing no additional results, I also know if I stop it, I will probably lose a lot of hair. There’s also the complete hassle of applying the foam every night, going to bed with it, and rinsing it off in the morning. Such. A. Pain. 

 

Enter my transplant decision! I knew Fin. and Minoxidil could only do so much. So, after extensive research, keeping myself updated with everyone’s posts/results on here, and stalking Reddit, I took matters into my own hands. I ultimately made the decision to jump on a plane and visit Dr. Wong from Hasson and Wong for my own surgery.

 

MY DECISION

In my initial emails, I spoke with James from H&W, and he answered all my questions and any concerns that I had. From the pictures I sent, I explained how I only wanted the crown and front area done, as those were the areas I was most self-conscious about. James suggested that the best approach, from what he could see and what I explained virtually, would be an FUE with 1800-2000 grafts total (1000 in the frontal and 500-800 in the crown). 

These were some of the photos I sent below to H&W where they made that analysis of how many grafts I would have needed. My hair looked like it had great coverage in the middle/front, but because I always had long hair it covered up the scalp when my hair was dry.

 

I decided to book my surgery for June of 2023 and begin my journey to a new luscious head of hair. However, after an unexpected event popped up in June (that I couldn’t miss), I had to change my appointment in April (I was lucky that they could fit me into the only date they had available before the end of the year). My new transplant date was August 16, 2023. I also booked a pre-op consultation with Dr. Wong for August 15^th (and thank goodness I did!). 

 

About 3 weeks before my appointment, I decided that I wanted to shave down my head shorter than I usually do, to take some photos of how it looked short. I was shocked to see how thin my hair was overall. I guess it was worse than I initially thought, as I’ve always kept my hair long. As soon as I saw the true state of my hair, I realized I was going to need way more than I originally presumed. I immediately sent an email to the clinic expressing my concerns regarding what was first discussed. As I knew I would need more grafts to get my desired outcome, I reached out to ask if during my in-person consultation, we decided on upping the graft count, would that be possible. Thankfully H&W assured me that Dr. Wong would take a look and if we did decide to go heftier on the graft count after our discussion, that there was room that day to do any of the extra work that I required. 

Pictures right after my haircut 3 weeks post-op:

   <--- Dry Hair                        <--- Wet hair

 

SURGERY

I arrived on August 15^th in Vancouver for my pre-op appointment with Dr. Wong. After a discussion regarding my goals and expectations (and now concerns after shaving my head) and physically observing my hair, he let me know that in order to achieve the results that I wanted, we would have to do an FUT instead of the original FUE. To be honest, that shocked me as I wasn’t expecting an FUT going into this. He explained that due to how thin my hair is and how he would only be able to acquire about 3000 donor grafts from an FUE, the only option to achieving the results I wanted from the transplant (with the additional areas completed and maximum density) would be with an FUT. As he is the professional and knew what was best, I agreed and booked myself in for the FUT instead. Luckily, they were able to alter my surgery last minute and accommodate me. At this point, I went from being extremely excited to super nervous. After a year of preparing myself for an FUE, I had one day to prep myself for an FUT and the scar that went along with it. I should mention Dr. Wong did state that in the future if I wanted to cover the scar, (if it started to bother me) we could apply grafts to cover it up. I didn’t know this was possible, so I’m glad to hear that it is an option! 

 

Photos from the clinic right before my procedure:

6:00 a.m. I arrived at the clinic for my FUT surgery on August 16^th. I was welcomed by H&W’s friendly staff, took pre-op pictures, asked some last-minute questions, and was given 2 pills to calm me before surgery. The entire procedure took about 12 hours from start to finish. From what I read on some people's posts; they complained that Dr. Wong wasn’t involved in the process as much as they thought he would be. From my experience, it was the complete opposite. Dr. Wong was present and involved in my surgery way more than I expected. He was the one who did the initial anesthetic, he made the FUT strip cut, stapled the scar, and made all the holes for the donor grafts. Dr. Wong also popped in a lot throughout the day to check in and ensure everything looked perfect. He and his team were truly impeccable! One of his technicians has been a part of his team for over 20 years, and she stated that working there felt like a family. It was great to conversate with his team and have a couple of laughs with them. They made the entire experience personable, and you could tell that they enjoyed working there- that it’s not just a job. 

Photos from the clinic right after my procedure:

 

After my surgery, I felt pretty good- but I was still numb… so take that “pretty good” with a grain of salt. I tried to champ it out and not take the prescribed Tylenol 3’s and I quickly regretted it. The first night I slept in hour increments, as sleeping with a giant scar on the back of your head is NOT easy. The next morning, I went back to the clinic for a hair wash and scalp check. Unfortunately, when I left the clinic and got out of my Uber back at the hotel, a strong gust of wind took my hat off, and on instinct, I slapped it down and hit my grafted area. It absolutely burned for the rest of the day, but luckily nothing started to bleed- so no grafts were damaged (this was also confirmed by Dr. Wong the following day). 

 

On days 2,3,4 and 5, I visited the clinic for scalp checks (days 4 and 5 were on the weekend when the clinic was realistically closed, but I was still seen during the off hours). Dr. Wong personally checked my scalp every single time I went in and made sure my grafts and donor area looked top-notch and that I was healing nicely. 

 

All in all, my scar is the only area giving me any discomfort. It’s now 2 weeks post op and I still have a hard time sleeping on it. It took a few nights and several different pillow positions to find comfort, but once I did, I slept like a baby, but I still awake in pain from time to time. 

I look forward to sharing my upcoming journey with you all. I will be posting updated pictures periodically to show the progress I’m experiencing. I’m honestly anxious to see how this turns out as I’m really hoping for the best results possible. Overall, the only downfall of Hasson & Wong is the high cost compared to clinics outside of North America. But fortunately, financially I’m lucky enough that cost wasn’t a deciding factor for me. I’d much rather know I’m going to someone with extensive experience and a great reputation. 

 

If you have any questions regarding my experience, please feel free to ask me 🙂 I want to give back to the community by posting my journey and hopefully inspire someone else who is on the fence about getting a hair transplant, as this forum really helped me take a chance on my own transformation. I'll be posting as much as I can as I go.

 

 

 

 

 

[mrmajified]

I am surprised you needed almost 5k grafts; your photos don't show much balding.

Thanks for sharing your journey. It's always a bit of a wild one!

I am 3 months ahead of you for basically the same surgery with the same doctor.  Best of luck!

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by mrmajified

[JohnnySins]

Hey @mrmajified I was just as surprised also. I think it was because I told Dr. Wong that I wanted as much density as possible and my crown to be filled in. He suggested 4000-4500 would be a perfect number to get my desired density, but they ended up getting 4986 grafts, which I was more than happy with. Hoping to get my desired look with this many grafts 🤞 All the best in your journey as well, it looks great so far. 

[Hairwolf]

14 hours ago, mrmajified said:

I am surprised you needed almost 5k grafts; your photos don't show much balding.

Thanks for sharing your journey. It's always a bit of a wild one!

I am 3 months ahead of you for basically the same surgery with the same doctor.  Best of luck!

 

Was thinking the same myself. I am also surprised at the grafts Dr Wong can get from a strip. I thought it was like 2500 max? Donor didn’t look that bad either from the pics, so hard to judge why OP is not a good candidate for FUE, but he is the Dr.

 

14 hours ago, mrmajified said:

I am surprised you needed almost 5k grafts; your photos don't show much balding.

Thanks for sharing your journey. It's always a bit of a wild one!

I am 3 months ahead of you for basically the same surgery with the same doctor.  Best of luck!

 

 

[Amiele]

@JohnnySins With that many grafts I’m sure you’ll have an excellent outcome in 12 months. I’m curious if you contemplated first using, or maybe if Dr. Wong even suggested that you first use, topical or oral minoxidil to get some regrowth in your crown before proceeding to a transplant. It’s possible that oral minoxidil would have thickened your hair and provided you with enough regrowth in your crown to an extent where you would no longer have felt that a transplant was warranted. 

[A_4_Archan]

@JohnnySins

You could have tried medication and other non-surgical therapies before you went for surgery, which may have delayed the surgery by a few years. Nevertheless, you have chosen the surgical route, and you should have your own reasons for doing so. You have a lot of grafts packed in and if everything goes well, you will end up with some serious dense results. My best wishes go out to you, happy growing, and keep sharing, brother.

 

[stephcurry30]

How on earth was 5000 grafts a viable solution here? There's a big possibility that the grafts transected the existing hairs. Considering that the grafts seem to be placed in rows, how does the doctor NOT transect existing hair? I thought Wong only placed grafts in rows/columns when NOT implanting to scalps with 0 existing hairs? 

This very much seems overkill and considering that medication would of been a viable option to avoid surgery why doesn't that discussed and offered to this patient before the surgery?

 

 

[JohnnySins]

15 hours ago, Amiele said:

@JohnnySins With that many grafts I’m sure you’ll have an excellent outcome in 12 months. I’m curious if you contemplated first using, or maybe if Dr. Wong even suggested that you first use, topical or oral minoxidil to get some regrowth in your crown before proceeding to a transplant. It’s possible that oral minoxidil would have thickened your hair and provided you with enough regrowth in your crown to an extent where you would no longer have felt that a transplant was warranted. 

I really hope so! I did use topical minoxidil since 2021 and it made no difference to my hair. Oral minoxidil is hard to come by in my country, as there has been a shortage since 2022 and no pharmacy carries it. I even attempted derma rolling with topical min for 8 months to see if that would have made a difference with the topical min and it never did. Finasteride was the only thing that provided a difference.

 

4 hours ago, A_4_Archan said:

@JohnnySins

You could have tried medication and other non-surgical therapies before you went for surgery, which may have delayed the surgery by a few years. Nevertheless, you have chosen the surgical route, and you should have your own reasons for doing so. You have a lot of grafts packed in and if everything goes well, you will end up with some serious dense results. My best wishes go out to you, happy growing, and keep sharing, brother.

 

Very true, I've been taking fin for many years and topical min. I thought about going on DUT, but decided against it. I tried the dermarolling approach with min as well, but got no results from that. I just didn't want to waste more time trying different things and if they didn't work out, I would have regretted not getting a transplant sooner. Appreciate the wishes 🙏

[JohnnySins]

9 minutes ago, stephcurry30 said:

How on earth was 5000 grafts a viable solution here? There's a big possibility that the grafts transected the existing hairs. Considering that the grafts seem to be placed in rows, how does the doctor NOT transect existing hair? I thought Wong only placed grafts in rows/columns when NOT implanting to scalps with 0 existing hairs? 

This very much seems overkill and considering that medication would of been a viable option to avoid surgery why doesn't that discussed and offered to this patient before the surgery?

 

 

I guess time will tell if the grafts transected with the existing hairs. I trusted his approach, especially with how many years of experience he has been doing this. I don't think any medication other than what I was taking already (Finasteride and Topical Min) would have brought my hair to my desired density.

[JohnnySins]

DAY 7 PHOTOS

[stephcurry30]

Prayers going your way but I just don't understand how a surgeon can blindly implant hairs in rows into areas with existing hair follicles. It seems like like it would effectively impact the existing hair. I remember listening to surgeons talking about this on podcasts with Melvin and needing to strategically placed between existing hair follicles. 

[Melvin- Admin]

39 minutes ago, stephcurry30 said:

Prayers going your way but I just don't understand how a surgeon can blindly implant hairs in rows into areas with existing hair follicles. It seems like like it would effectively impact the existing hair. I remember listening to surgeons talking about this on podcasts with Melvin and needing to strategically placed between existing hair follicles. 

Steph,

You have been quite vocal lately, but Dr. Wong has already provided his input and reasoning here. While you’re free to discuss your opinions about a surgeon’s techniques, posting something like this on someone’s new journey is not helpful or welcomed. You’re only adding to a new patient’s anxiety.

I don’t know whether you’ve had a hair transplant or not, or if you’ve ever shared your pictures here. But it takes a lot of courage to share. I’m sure you wouldn’t appreciate someone trying to create anxiety before the results have even grown. If you want to discuss something like this, please do it on the appropriate thread. A patient’s journey, especially when growth hasn’t occurred isn’t the appropriate place. 
 

Onwards,

[Rawkerboi]

How come a hair loss as minimum as yours needed 5,000 grafts?? 

I just don't understand where Dr. Wong implanted those Grafts? 

What about existing hairs? Won't it get damage? 

[Melvin- Admin]

2 minutes ago, Rawkerboi said:

How come a hair loss as minimum as yours needed 5,000 grafts?? 

I just don't understand where Dr. Wong implanted those Grafts? 

What about existing hairs? Won't it get damage? 

He has severe diffuse thinning all over his scalp. He’s lost at least 50% of his original density. 5,000 grafts is probably only 25% of what he’s lost.

[JohnnySins]

5 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

He has severe diffuse thinning all over his scalp. He’s lost at least 50% of his original density. 5,000 grafts is probably only 25% of what he’s lost.

Appreciate your responses Melvin. This is why I posted a picture of my hair wet, to show how thin my hair actually was. Once my hair was dry, it had volume and appeared to cover my scalp well, but it didn't. I assume it's because I have "coarse hair" as per Dr. Wong, which probably made the appearance that I had great coverage when I really didn't.

[Melvin- Admin]

15 minutes ago, JohnnySins said:

Appreciate your responses Melvin. This is why I posted a picture of my hair wet, to show how thin my hair actually was. Once my hair was dry, it had volume and appeared to cover my scalp well, but it didn't. I assume it's because I have "coarse hair" as per Dr. Wong, which probably made the appearance that I had great coverage when I really didn't.

Yea, it’s pretty obvious you need a lot of grafts to cover your diffuse loss. I think 5k grafts will help give you density when your hair is wet. I’m sure you don’t like swimming for this reason, after this surgery hopefully your hair will look a lot fuller when wet. 

 

[hairman22]

Dr Wong is a top class surgeon.

Its a quite alot of grafts but the donor looks excellent

This will be a superb result i think

[stephcurry30]

4 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Steph,

You have been quite vocal lately, but Dr. Wong has already provided his input and reasoning here. While you’re free to discuss your opinions about a surgeon’s techniques, posting something like this on someone’s new journey is not helpful or welcomed. You’re only adding to a new patient’s anxiety.

I don’t know whether you’ve had a hair transplant or not, or if you’ve ever shared your pictures here. But it takes a lot of courage to share. I’m sure you wouldn’t appreciate someone trying to create anxiety before the results have even grown. If you want to discuss something like this, please do it on the appropriate thread. A patient’s journey, especially when growth hasn’t occurred isn’t the appropriate place. 
 

Onwards,

You are correct but just trying to uphold the standard of this community. I don't want patients to have any bad results! There have been quite too many bad results coming from multiple surgeons and it's alarming. 

I actually am having an upcoming surgery with a recommended surgeon on this forum and wouldn't want discouraging results on my thread as well. I apologize OP. 

[HHH]

16 minutes ago, stephcurry30 said:

You are correct but just trying to uphold the standard of this community. I don't want patients to have any bad results! There have been quite too many bad results coming from multiple surgeons and it's alarming. 

I actually am having an upcoming surgery with a recommended surgeon on this forum and wouldn't want discouraging results on my thread as well. I apologize OP. 

I agree with you both, and yes we do need to be strict with recommended surgeons. That said, the last thing this guy needs to hear right now is any negative comments, and hopefully in 6 months these grafts will give him the appearance of a full head of hair, as opposed to the diffuse thinning he has. If minox/ fin hasnt regrown it by now, HT does make sense.👍

[Vann]

All in all time will tell. You have a similar diffuse pattern to me but I think because my hairs curlier it’s more obvious. But I think you have a good level of hair as it stands. Pictures can never fully show the extent.

I didn’t think they still did FUT but that might be the best approach to keeping those grafts healthy. Almost 5k grafts should make a significant difference, hopefully it’s more than you expected and beyond.

Hopefully you don’t slap your head again…lol but happy growing

Edited August 31, 2023 by Vann

[JohnnySins]

DAY 13 PHOTOS

 

[asterix0]

Just being completely objective, it is rather shocking you were recommended 5000 grafts for, from what I can tell, if you grew your hair out a little longer no one would suspect you even have any hairloss. Particularly as it is in the crown area.

Even my full head brother, with hair wet and a shorter haircut, will look like he is thinning. Wet short hair photos in bright lighting are we all know are the harshest of visual environments. 

Nevertheless, happy growing and I hope it is a good result.

How many other doctors did you consult out of curiosity, and what were their recommendations? 

Edited September 2, 2023 by asterix0

[JohnnySins]

36 minutes ago, asterix0 said:

Just being completely objective, it is rather shocking you were recommended 5000 grafts for, from what I can tell, if you grew your hair out a little longer no one would suspect you even have any hairloss. Particularly as it is in the crown area.

Even my full head brother, with hair wet and a shorter haircut, will look like he is thinning. Wet short hair photos in bright lighting are we all know are the harshest of visual environments. 

Nevertheless, happy growing and I hope it is a good result.

How many other doctors did you consult out of curiosity, and what were their recommendations? 

When I grew out my hair longer, the crown was awfully visible because of how thin my hair was in that area. I told Dr.Wong I wanted as much density as possible and wanted this to be a one-and-done surgery. I assume that's why he took that approach.

 

I consulted with 3 other clinics with the same photos: Dr.Bicer who suggested 1800-2200 grafts, Vera Clinic suggested 1850-2250 grafts, and Dr.Rahal suggested 1500-2500.  All the clinics suggested more or less the same amount of grafts when seeing the photos provided. I will never know if they would have suggested more if they saw me in person.

[jjalay]

Yes 5000 grafts is alot but as long as the surgeon knows what he is doing and the native hairs wont get damaged by the procedure i think it should be fine.

Dr. Wong is the GOAT fur FUT in my opinion and i would completely trust him.

[asterix0]

1 hour ago, JohnnySins said:

When I grew out my hair longer, the crown was awfully visible because of how thin my hair was in that area. I told Dr.Wong I wanted as much density as possible and wanted this to be a one-and-done surgery. I assume that's why he took that approach.

 

I consulted with 3 other clinics with the same photos: Dr.Bicer who suggested 1800-2200 grafts, Vera Clinic suggested 1850-2250 grafts, and Dr.Rahal suggested 1500-2500.  All the clinics suggested more or less the same amount of grafts when seeing the photos provided. I will never know if they would have suggested more if they saw me in person.

I would have told you around 1800 grafts as well, and I'm not a hair transplant doctor just a patient who has studied hundreds and hundreds of different cases.