Jotronic, pics of HT #4

[Jotronic]

Ok all, I have some photos to share going from surgery through to today, day 11 post-op.

For those of you that aren't aware of my case I started out as a repair patient in 2002. I was a NW6/NW7. I had about 300 mini grafts growing in my hairline and that was it. Nothing else so for several years I had a hairline that was unmistakably artificial. Dr. Wong performed three procedures on me of roughly 2400 to 2500 grafts each.

These first photos show what I looked like before Dr. Wong repaired my bad work.

Before...


Here you can see the pit scarring and the thick grafts.



Here you can see how far receded down the sides of my scalp my hair was.



Dr. Wong shaved my head right before surgery...



My crown was pretty big...




Here you can see the area where the grafts were placed. This is the photo that I coined the term "stadium row seating".



These photos show what I looked like after those three sessions and right before my fourth session.

[Jotronic]

Here are the surgical photos during #4...


The strip removal process has begun.




My first break during the strip removal...






It's tough laying on your face...



Angie is on the left and Sylvia is on the right. They have both worked on my since my first procedure way back in March, 2002.



Here I am posting in my other thread during the procedure on my Ipad.



Camille is trying to warn me away from more surgery in the future.




Here I am right after surgery. Note that my face is a bit puffy. This is from Dr. Wong tumescing my temple points so he could add some more grafts for additional definition.












Here's a better shot of my crown. I had Dr. Wong place most of the grafts below where he had never placed grafts before.

[Jotronic]

Here I am on day 3 after surgery. My colleague Doug gave me a killer hair cut!




Day 5








Day 6




And today, Saturday October 11th, in sun.

[Winston]

Those are amazing pictures. You've really come a long way since 2002. You're like the poster boy for what can be achieved today with a good hair transplant!
Keep us posted on your growth and good luck!

[Jotronic]

Thanks Winston.

Time for an update at 2.5 months. Not much to report but I am seeing activity. In fact, I had my first ingrown pimple thingy at 4 weeks and 2 days post-op. That is a personal record. I took a pic...



Here are some outdoor shots while I'm in Northern California for the holidays. I have been keeping my hair quite short and this latest round of photos show me 1.5 weeks after a #3 cut. Of course the top is longer, I'm talking about the back and the sides.









Here is a close up of the crown and each temple point. In the temples points you can see the outline of placement because it is ever so slightly discolored. You can also see new sprouts in the temple points and in the bottom half of the crown where the bulk of the work was done.








Sunshine on my spot[IMG]http://www.**********************.com/eve/images/smilies/smile.gif[/IMG]




I've got more material to upload, not only photos but also video that has to be edited. Expect that in the next week.

[Jotronic]

Ok, time for some donor scar photos. All of these were taken on December 27th, 2010. This is the donor scar after 2.5 months. Remember, I have had 9360 FU grafts over four surgeries with Dr. Wong and 800 (300 grew) mini-grafts over two surgeries with Dr. Norris back in 1993. All I can say at this point is, not bad. It appears that I have a lot of hair growing in my scar. Back in 2006 Dr. Wong used me as a guinea pig for tricho but he only did the very back of my donor scar. It worked out ok but he never did the sides. In this surgery he only took the strip from either side and used tricho on both sides when he closed me up. It looks like it is working out quite well.








Close up of left side.





Close up of right side.

[Jotronic]

Just wanted to post another update but with videos this time. Check it.

Interview before surgery...
YouTube - ht4 pre-op.wmv

Pre-op Plan and beginning of surgery with Dr. Wong...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RAt7f4Jlgo

Next...
YouTube - ht4 surgery part 2.wmv

Final...
YouTube - ht4 surgery part 3.wmv

[Jotronic]

With my crown hair so short I thought I'd play around with Toppik to see how it would work with my current "style". I took these pics with my cell phone so forgive the lack of clarity. Check it...

[HonestApe]

Hi Joe,

What can i say, another amazing procedure. The results look great, congratulation man.

I showed you pics to some friends and they couldn't believe your transformation. It took my a good hour to try to convince them that its not a hoax.

There should be no doubts about Dr. Wong's abilities and the quality of the work at Hasson&Wong. The hair direction is perfect, coverage is even and the scar is ridiculously precise.

Dude your are the benjamin button of hair loss

[standbyme]

WOW you've gone through so much and you seem to have done it with a smile on your face, I'm worried about having one HT with a top doc you had repairs done and 4 HT's....that puts my worries into perspective, you deserve great hair!!!!

[uselessgomez]

Hey Joe, I have a question for you. I notice some redness in the transplanted area is one of your pics. You've been through this process now for the 4th time. How long do you think that redness in the transplanted area is going to persist?

The thing I worry about when potentially having a procedure is the redness in the recipient area being there for a long time.

[Jotronic]

HonestApe,

I appreciate the story. Just keep in mind those last pics I posted were with Toppik in my hair as a test so the coverage is not necessarily even at this point. I'm just over three months from my procedure so the new work hasn't had time to come in. It is just now starting.

Standbyme,

Yeah, I've had a smile on my face most of the time. Before I was repaired there were certainly moments of regret basically every morning but I would always tell myself that I should accept it and move on with my day because nothing could be done (at the time) to change things for the better. As I've gotten older I've taken on the position that I shouldn't worry about things that I can't change. Once one realizes this then life becomes a bit easier to deal with.

Uselessgomez,

Which photo are you referring to? I don't see any redness at all when I'm getting ready in the morning. Usually the redness lasts several months for me but that is because I'm a pasty white guy. For those with any decent color to their skin the redness can be gone in a few weeks. In my recent procedure thos 98% of all redness was gone in the first few weeks but I think that is because of relatively few grafts and low density placement. Higher densities make the recipient area redder for a longer period of time.

[Jotronic]

So it's time to show the progress on my latest procedure. 5.5 months ago I had my 4th procedure with Dr. Wong. The goal was not as ambitious as the previous procedures. I wanted to add more consistency to the density of my whorl pattern in my crown. Dr. Wong never touched the bottom half of my crown whorl, only the top, so with shorter hair cuts I felt that the bottom half looked weaker compared to the top half. With longer hair this was not an issue.

I also asked Dr. Wong during the procedure to hit a few small spots in my temple points and he did so beautifully. My temple points appear to have filled in and the outline is now seamless.

If the improvements stopped here I'd be happy but the bottom half of my crown will continue to get thicker as I feel a lot of stubble under the longer hairs that have yet to reach a cosmetically significant length.

Photos below show my hair four days after a hair cut. #2 guard was used on the bottom fringe and tapered out to a #3. I was also outside, mid-day (just an hour ago) with no flash.

[Red20]

Looks fantastic Joe!

Congratulations!

[uselessgomez]

Nice. You're looking a lot like Ralph Fiennes these days...