Hello.
January 14th I had a fue surgery done to restore my hairline. The surgeon was Dr Lupanzula Emorane in Brussels.
In this thread, I'll document my progress for at least a year. I plan to do a post at the end of week 1 and 2, then monthly from there on out.
I’m not the kind of person who usually posts in forums, but I’ll make an exception in this case. Reading through forum posts like these has been very helpful to me, so I want to give back to the community.
My bio
Male, 31 years old.
Medications: minoxidil since early twenties, finasteride for a year
Hair loss history
I started noticing my temples thinning in my early twenties and started applying topical minoxidil shortly thereafter.
At age 26, I noticed my scalp hair getting thinner. Back then, I wanted to start with Finasteride, but a doctor scared me off. He argued against it very aggressively.
Pre surgery
Started researching hair transplants at age 29. After I’d been in touch with a few clinics, and after I’d read a lot on forums like these, it became clear to me that I should try Finasteride before I make any sort of HT plans. Therefore, I decided to use Finasteride for at least 6 months and try my best not to fool myself about any potential side effects. I was of the opinion that if I would suffer from side effects, I’d probably have to give it up. I didn’t want to risk doing a hair transplant without any effective way of halting further hair loss.
Not trying to take a stab at others who do HT’s without Finasteride, it’s just my own opinion at this point in time, and I'm definitely not an expert.
Anyway, Finasteride worked wonders on me honestly, and I’ve never noticed any side effects. My crown almost grew back entirely.
Why I chose Lupanzula and the Medikemos clinic
I chose Lupanzula based on reviews on this and other forums, his patient results, testimonies and recommendations from seemingly reliable people. I also knew that Lupanzula does the extractions and incisions himself, which I thought felt important. Most importantly though, I tried to find negative reviews and couldn’t find anything major.
His patient advisor Scott has also been very helpful.
The surgery
I stayed at Hotel Catalonia which is a 10 minute walk from the clinic.
The day before the surgery, I met Lupanzula and he had a look at my hair, asked me some standard questions and figured out how many grafts he could probably extract. His conservative estimate was 8000 grafts. Then he drew my hairline. He took his time and explained his reasoning. I only had some minor comments, and overall I was happy with the plan.
I can also mention that he’d estimated 1800-2000 grafts based on my (quite highly detailed) pictures before we met in person. After his measurements at the clinic, he estimated 1650 grafts were needed. Therefore, the price also got a bit lowered.
On the day of the surgery, I got to the clinic at 07:00 AM and we pretty much went straight into it. Lupanzula did all the extractions and incisions while his assistant sorted out the grafts. Then, the doctor and the assistant did the graft placing together, taking one side each. Lupanzula doesn’t usually do the graft placement, I think, but his other assistant was sick which is why he did one side himself.
The whole procedure took around 8 and a half hours.
Apart from the local anesthesia, which was quite unpleasant, the whole thing was less painful than I had imagined and I actually even fell asleep a few times. The thing I was happiest about though, was that both the doctor and his assistant felt very concentrated on what they were doing. That’s probably not as important as I make it out to be, but it made me feel like I was taken care of and that they took me, and their job, seriously.
Overall, I was very satisfied with the whole experience.
Final thoughts
I don’t know how this will turn out, so I can’t say anything about the final result, which is what matters most. The only thing I can say is that I’m happy with my choice so far, and I seem to be healing faster than I’d anticipated. Maybe it’s too early to say, but I at least think my donor area is already looking quite good.
I’m looking forward to the following year, even the ugly duckling part.
I'll upload a picture of the graft information, as well as the surgery day photos.
Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.Attachment 69680Attachment 69681
 Dr Lupanzula Emorane, 1681 grafts fue, Jan 14th 2021Printable View
|
» IAHRS
|
