Donor Area Concerns, Please Help!

[Hair Today Gone Tomorrow]

Hi guys,

 

Your comments are extremely helpful for people deciding to get a HT. I'm a Norwood 5a, 33 years old and have considered the pros and cons of Strip vs. FUE and have decided that at this point, I will go Strip (I'm in need of 3,000+ grafts). I've decided to go to Hasson, a highly recommended Strip doctor. My only concerns are the following and I'm interested in hearing Strip patient's experience regarding the following.

 

1. The donor area becoming tight permanently. I'm comfortable with short-term tightness, but I was wondering how many guys have gone to excellent Strip doctors and have ended up with a tight head.

2. The donor area losing sensation permanently. I understand that it can sometimes take many months to regain sensation, which is fine. I'm more concerned about a permanent difference in the nerves, feelings or sensations in the donor area.

 

If you respond, it would be great if you could let me know who your surgeon was, back when you had a virgin scalp.

 

Regards,

 

HTGT

[Hair Today Gone Tomorrow]

Hi guys,

 

Your comments are extremely helpful for people deciding to get a HT. I'm a Norwood 5a, 33 years old and have considered the pros and cons of Strip vs. FUE and have decided that at this point, I will go Strip (I'm in need of 3,000+ grafts). I've decided to go to Hasson, a highly recommended Strip doctor. My only concerns are the following and I'm interested in hearing Strip patient's experience regarding the following.

 

1. The donor area becoming tight permanently. I'm comfortable with short-term tightness, but I was wondering how many guys have gone to excellent Strip doctors and have ended up with a tight head.

2. The donor area losing sensation permanently. I understand that it can sometimes take many months to regain sensation, which is fine. I'm more concerned about a permanent difference in the nerves, feelings or sensations in the donor area.

 

If you respond, it would be great if you could let me know who your surgeon was, back when you had a virgin scalp.

 

Regards,

 

HTGT

[Mr T]

HTGT,

 

I am not sure of this helps or not. I have had one session of plug/punch grafts and three strip surgeries. The first two with Dr. Giannotto in Pittsburgh and the last with Dr. Wong of Hasson & Wong. I have no nerve damage and full feeling returned within weeks after surgery. It seemed to take longer to get full feeling back in my scalp rather than in the donor area.

 

My guess is if you go to an excellent strip doctor, he would take the appropriate size strip to not cause problems. That's why they check scalp laxity, to determine the size of the strip the can safely take, so as to not produce tight head which can be a contributing factor to producing a wide scar. Other than fine, I don't know how to describe my head. It is not tight by any means.

 

Mr. T

[Joe HT]

Well my surgeon wasn't highly decorated around here but after less than three weeks, I pretty much have full scalp sensation back and hardly any hint of tightening.

My surgeon went long and narrow instead of shorter and wide, when cutting, so maybe that makes a difference.

 

Of course I was uninformed and my decision took some criticism (mini's, slots and only FU's done in the front), but that's my own fault, I did indeed have an option to tailor the job. Even educated, I probably would've went with what I had done for my first of several transplants to come.

 

His name's Dr Karamikian, btw. (I know Kevorkian comes to mind)

[tkotko]

Hey Hair Tomorrow Gone Today (I changed your name a bit)-

 

I had the same concerns about the donor area going into my procedure. In my experience, I didn't have a significant tightening sensation. It felt a bit tight in the early going, first month or so, very minor, but not now. And for me the numbness in the donor area, I would say I have 100% feeling back, and I had about 95% of that back in the first 2 months. I still have a slight numb area in the recipient site, but that has improved over the past few months. Good luck to ya.

[Guest]

HTGT,

 

I'm 3 months post-op with Dr. Hasson (4000 grafts). My scalp is considered very tight. I did experience some tightness especially around the swelling days. Which is to be expected. The tightness substantially subsided about a month after the procedure. My scalp now feels as it did prior to the surgery, and yes I am keeping a close eye on the scar. Hasn't stretched yet.

 

There was some numbness above the donor area. Kind of weird having complete feeling below the scar and numbness above it. All has since healed and the numbness is almost completely gone.

 

Cam

[Joecifus]

htgt

 

I had two each of 2,200 FU with Epstein. While the second seemed tighter at first, I'm 3 months from that one, it's totally lax now and no loss of feeling anywhere. The only odd thing is if I scratch the crown of my head, I can feel in in the donor area (kind of).

 

My Pix and Hair Mentor page with advice on Choosing a Doc, anti-swelling and healing advice

[Hair Today Gone Tomorrow]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for your responses... I'm feeling a lot more confident hearing your experiences!

 

Regards,

 

HTGT

[Guest]

Hi there, I guess I can give you some insight, I am also 33 also the same norwodd scale & had 3331 grats by Dr Hasson 37 days ago, most of the numb sensation has disappeared I still have a little tightness, but that & the numbness has reduced significantly, I do have a bit onf an odd sensation on the top of my head , you know what it feels like wen you have slept on your hair & it has been pressed in the wrong direction it feels a little sensitive to touch , well I have a little of that.My recipient area fells a littler numb but I beleive that is also fading.

One thing to watch is when the staples are removed , I had flown back to the UK soo it was done by my brother , although it wasnt to bad , he ended up pulling a lot of hair out along with the staples , which has not yet grown back, but have been assured will.

hope that helps

Bytes

[TCK]

I had a 2500 FU session with Dr. Hasson in mid September, approx 10 weeks ago.

 

For the first 2 weeks I was a little FREAKED OUT with the feeling of moving my eyebrows and feeling a little tension on my scalp. Also I found the feeling of Watermelon Head Sensation also a little disconcerting for the first 3 weeks. How I define Watermellon Head is the sensation I would get when laying down at night. The dullness in the back of my head made it feel bigger than it was. Initially I noticed "Walking Around Watermellon Head Syndrome" for about the first week at the longest. By the second week when I walked around my head was feeling normal. But weeks 2-3 or 4 still caused me to feel big headed when I laid down at night. For me this awkward sensation cleared up gradually each week. Each week I felt better and better. At approx 10 weeks, I would say I have about 93-95% feeling back in both the donor and recipient areas. It just keeps getting better so much so that it almost feels normal!

 

Also regarding my scar, Dr. Hasson took a long strip from ear to ear that he termed as a narrow 1 cm strip. I figure my strip was approx 24 cm. which averages out to approx 104 FU's cm2. Before my HT, I was pretty nervous about the scar and verbalized my concerns to the good doctor. No sweat, he kept the strip on the conservative side which was fine by me. One comment about strips that I have learned. Longer Narrower More Conservative Strips Are Definately The Way To Go. I would rather go with 1 good sized session and a followup small touch up session both using narrower strips, than get too agressive on one session and risk stretchback. But hey that's me. That is one of the many reasons I decided to use Dr. Hasson becuase he is a conservative and realistic. Other important reasons that came into play is that he has done 5500 - 6000 transplants approx, as well as his artistic ability. This by the way is not an advertisement for Hasson & Wong just the facts relating to my own experience. Incidently I would have been as comfortable going with Dr. Wong, but in my case Dr. Hasson did a great result on a buddy of mine so I figured to go with him.

 

As far as my scar goes I actually forgot to even look at it for the last week or so. When I did look at it, including redness the scar is in the 1mm area, but alot of that is redness. Today I definately noticed that the redness has faded since I last checked. As the scar gets near my ears in some places I can barely see it!! I would expect the final size of my scar without any redness to be reduced to .5-.7 of 1 mmm.

 

Other GOOD NEWS from the scar front is that I have almost normal laxity in the back of my scalp! I can easily move my scalp on my skull and can GENTLY pinch approx 1/2 an inch of excess on the back of my scalp where the scalp is. I am really surprised how quickly it has and is healing up.

 

In conclusion one needs to first determine conservative strip size and # of FU's that can be harvested and then decide on what objectives you will try to meet on that surgery. As a rookie I focused too much attention on my hairline objectives and not enough on what would be the utilization strategy for these FU's. Again Dr. Hasson's vast experience of doing thousands of HT's, allowed him to give me the most HONEST, REALISTIC, advice I could ever have wanted. When he first told me where he thought my hairline should be I was a little deflated, but thinking back I would rather have that feeling prior to making my decision than going with a doctor who tells you what you want to hear, puts your hairline too low with unsatisfactory density and sets you up for many a return trip. With Dr. Hasson I have the choice of getting a touch up to flatten the V's or just go with one procedure because the intitial procedure resulted in excellent density! My V is pretty broad already and I will probably give it a year or so before I decide if I want to do a little V hairline flattenning with say 700 FU's. That question though is for the future.

 

My little guys are really starting to come in. My digital camera is broken, but I will be buying one shortly to take some picks to post on this thread for you folks.

 

Just my opinion, sorry for rambling.

I am NOT a paid advocate for Hasson & Wong.

I am an extremely satisfies client of H & W.

 

TCK

[Hair Today Gone Tomorrow]

No apologies needed for rambling or anything like that!

 

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and the details are welcomed. It has made me feel more confident and comfortable moving forward with this decision.

 

Regards,

 

HTGT

[Guest]

TCK,

 

My sentiments exactly. I'm not that far ahead of you. I can't wait to see some pics buddy.

 

Cam

[vocor1]

for me, tension was there for about a week, which limited the mobility of my head and neck. No biggy. A bit freaky, but it resolved and no tighteness for me at all in the donor area.

 

Individual results WILL vary.

 

vocor1

Knowledge is Power

-- If the worst question is the one never asked, then the worst answer is the one never shared.

-- The truth only matters if you know about it.

[hawk]

I have just had a mega-session with Dr. Hason (5710 grafts) and feel a lot of tighness in the scalp. Especially during the night time, the tightness increases as I struggle to sleep. Also, most of my scalp is dead an I cannot feel anything at all. I am very concerned and wondering when would the tighness subside. I can live with the numbness but the tightness gets very uncomfortable. Since the surgery, I haven't been able to sleep on my back as the donor area hurts. Wondering if this is a normal occurence.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

In my experience numbness occurs in almost everyone and patients recall we discussed that preop. I would guess that about 25% say that it is resolving at 1 week(hard for me to believe given nerve physiology); another 70% say its "mostly normal" at 6 months; and about 1 person per year has a very difficult time with the numbness that seems to persist indefinitely.

 

Nerves ARE finicky, and it is difficult to predict anything about nerve damage and return of function. For example, I have taken out large tumors in the cheek saliva glands, surrounding the nerve which works the face, and have seen people with completely weak faces, recover in a week; and I have seen folks have permanent weakness in similar cases, where the nerve was not even exposed in the surgery. NERVES ARE UNPREDICTABLE.

 

But, for the vast majority of people, numbness is shortlasting and is easily tolerated.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[hawk]

Thanks for your valuable feedback. It has been almost 4 weeks post surgery and my scalp still feels very tight. I am fine with the numbness as it is not too much of a botheration but the tightness sometimes gets nasty and especially during the night time.

 

I noticed that the tightness increases if I sleep on a single pillow for 1-2 nights and decreases if 3-4 pillows are concerned. I still feel quite uncomfortable at night.

 

I was wondering if this has anything to do with the number of grafts i.e. a big session. I had 5700 grafts. I am not complaining about the doctor as I have a lot of faith in his abilities but it's just that the tightness in the donor area does not reduce and so I am concerned.

 

I just want the tightness to reduce so that I can start having a sound sleep.

[sonnyboy11]

Although I am no expert, my guess is your discomfort in your donor area, as well as the tightness, does indeed have something to do with the size of your session.

 

But don't worry about it too much. From most of what I have read it appears that much of the sensation of tightness fades after a while. I still have some tightness after 6 weeks and I only had around 1000 grafts done (touch up work). It took me till around 4 weeks before I felt totally comfortable sleeping on my donor area.

 

One thing I did that might help you- I used quite a bit of Aloe on my donor area. I also made sure to use a good conditioner on my hair in general once I was able to shampoo normally again. I have always had dry skin, so, although it may just have been psychological, using mosturizer and aloe really seemed to help me.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Things are ALWAYS worse at night. That's because you are laying/lying there with nothing on your mind trying to go to sleep and you feel that tightness. The more you try not to think about it the worse it is.

 

I had exactly the same problem with an ache being worse at night. You know the cure? EXERCISE. Get yourself tired at some point during the day, avoid caffeine after 3pm, and put on something that doesn't distract you while you go to sleep--like Leno for me. Your symptoms will significantly decrease.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA