Drybone's 1860 Graft Dr Searle Colorado Hair Institute

[drybone]

Hi everyone. Most of you know me by now but in case you do not I will re tell my story in short form.

I started losing my hair at age 20. I lost some temple hair on the sides and noticed that it was slowly falling out. My hair was so thick that it did not matter much throughout my 20s....

[IMG][/IMG]

By time my thirties hit, my hair was noticeably thinner, so I simply grew it longer on top and used various products and techniques to make it seem thicker . My hair was always at least 3 inches long on top and it hid my hair loss. This photo was taken at age 38



By time I was in my early 40s , I could no longer hide my thinning. I had kept my eye on transplants since 1990 and even got Bosley to send me some info in a discrete white envelope but again my hair loss was so gradual I honestly thought it was going to just stop at some point.

At age 46 I decided to take the plunge. With a 1000 doctors tugging at you for your transplant dollar, I decide to go with a referral from a business client. The lady was Dr Pizarro from Orlando and she had no complaints with the BBB.

My experience with her can be found here

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=14166

So here I am at age 47 with a somewhat rebuilt hairline but its like a picket fence. I needed to have a ton of grafts done. I had been in contact with Chris from the Colorado Hair Institute ever since I found Bald truth talk.

I needed a second procedure to finish the density and shrink the size of my forehead. So here is what happened.

[drybone]

After some initial negotiations, Chris agreed to fly me to Denver and put me up in a hotel for the night. I asked him for 2500 to 3500 grafts so that we can just be done with it.

I was then contacted by Dr Searle who procured my medical charts and history. He prescribed some medications for me. My surgery was set for Sept 17 2013 and they wanted me to prepare for 10 hours of surgery.



Here is the Pizarro hair after 10 months.

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I then got a haircut to cut it down to an inch to show my true thinning just before my flight .

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Sept 16 6pm EDT Boarded flight from Tampa to Chicago

Sept 16 9pm CDT Boarded flight from Chicago to Denver

Sept 16 11pm MDT Arrived at Denver airport and rented car.

Drove to Lonetree which is about 30 min outside of Denver. Went straight to hotel and to bed. Hotel was less than 1/2 a mile from the Surgical Center.

[drybone]

Day of Surgery.

My wife called me at 5:50 am mountain time and told me to high tail to the center for the 6 am start. Why does anyone wanna start at 6am I was grouchy.

Sept 17 2013 6;13 am Was met at the center by Chris and his assistant. Both were very professional.The doctor would not be in until 7 am so I was given valium and we chatted about my desired hairline.

Chris and I plotted out a new hairline for me

Here is Chris from the Colorado Surgical and Hair Institute.
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Here is the hairline Chris and I came up with



We waited until 7am for Dr Searle to arrive, inspect my hairline wishes and then make the incision. Two more techs arrived, got into scrubs and introduced themselves as the ones to harvest the hair groupings of 1,2 3 and 4.

[drybone]

The surgery

Sept 17 2013 7am

Dr Searle arrives, consults with myself and Chris and gives his go ahead for the hairline and prepares.

Here is Dr Searle caught off-guard preparing for surgery
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Sept 17 2013 8;00am

Dr Searle has finished harvesting the strip and dilligently sewing the donor site back up. He took quite a while with it as to make the line as small as possible after 1 year. It doesnt look that way at the beginning though
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Sept 17 9am All of the grafts had been separated and Chris came to tell me how many hair groupings. It is too bad I have forgotten the numbers but in the end they got a very good harvest but it only added up to 1800 grafts.

I want to point out that there is no way as a patient I can count the hairs or grafts. He could have easily told me it was 3000 grafts or at least the 2500 grafts I wanted. But he told me I didnt need them and the 1860 would suffice.

Sept 17 9;20 am Dr Searle had a head technician whom took her job VERY seriously. She had no problem taking a photo and putting it up but I decided against it to protect her anonymity. She was no-nonsense and told me that she didnt like a lot of chit chat and would actually prefer I went to sleep. The head tech and her assistant started to implant the grafts while Dr Searle supervised the entire procedure.

[drybone]

End of Surgery

Sept 17 2013 4;pm

After 7 hours of implanting grafts, the exhausted techs took pics of my refurbished cranium.


[IMG][/IMG]

Everyone was satisfied with the result. With that, I was given a cap to protect my head and off I went back to the airport and direct flight to Tampa where my wife was waiting for me.

Sept 17 2013 11:45pm Touchdown in Tampa and went home.

Big thumbs up to Dr Searle and his team for all their effort. Lets see how the product turns out .

[J_B_Davis]

Nice write up! Good luck, you're looking good.

[mpb47]

After some initial negotiations, Chris agreed to fly me to Denver and put me up in a hotel for the night. I asked him for 2500 to 3500 grafts so that we can just be done with it.

I was then contacted by Dr Searle who procured my medical charts and history. He prescribed some medications for me. My surgery was set for Sept 27 2013 and they wanted me to prepare for 10 hours of surgery.



Here is the Pizarro hair after 10 months.

[IMG][/IMG]

I then got a haircut to cut it down to an inch to show my true thinning just before my flight .

[IMG][/IMG]

Sept 26 6pm EDT Boarded flight from Tampa to Chicago

Sept 26 9pm CDT Boarded flight from Chicago to Denver

Sept 26 11pm MDT Arrived at Denver airport and rented car.

Drove to Lonetree which is about 30 min outside of Denver. Went straight to hotel and to bed. Hotel was less than 1/2 a mile from the Surgical Center.

We are the same age and FWIW - in this second pic- you honestly look better than any of the guys I grew up that are now balding. If all your grafts take, you wife will think she married a teenager

Good luck!

[drybone]

Thanks guys. I will be updating every month so you can see my progress

[JJacobs152]

Amazing. I'm happy for you DB. If you don't mind sharing, what made you choose CHI for your procedure, compared to some of the other physicians who are known on this message board?

[Ohionin]

hey drybone.

Cool you got another transplant. How many can you get?

[drybone]

Amazing. I'm happy for you DB. If you don't mind sharing, what made you choose CHI for your procedure, compared to some of the other physicians who are known on this message board?

Price was huge in my decision. However, that is just the starting point. Chris from Colorado Hair Institute and I spoke for almost a year straight before I made my decision. I will let you guys decide the quality of the work.

[drybone]

One Month Post Op

Well here we are. One month in. Lets see how its starting out. I will let you guys be the judge

Here is the donor site. Still see the line quite well but its early days. They took my original scar and did a “Trichophytic Donor Closure” procedure to have hair grow right through the scar. I have my fingers crossed on this one.


Here is my crown. I have been on Fin since Jan 30th . It could be my imagination but I swear my hair looks thicker and fuller.


Here is a photo of the recipient site. Most of the second transplant has fallen out and there is still redness in the temple (sides) and some on top still. Note the difference in density from the frontal scalp and my natural density where I have not had MPS


Here is the biggest thing for me. My hairline. This is a one month photo after I took 16 shots of whisky


I now have to wait 3 months for the dormant hair starts to grow. Lets hope I can get rid of the redness by then

[DPAMike]

Looks good, DB! You definitely got me interested; please keep the updates coming!!!

[drybone]

Looks good, DB! You definitely got me interested; please keep the updates coming!!!

Welcome Mike !!! Thanks for the encouragement. I will be making another entry on Nov 17th.

[drybone]

Well its been over two months and still no growth to report. An interesting note is that my first transplants seems a lot thicker now. I think it also has to do with the fact I have been on fin for almost a year.

I will update at 3 months.