My ht 3000 fut 14/12/12
Hello everyone
I am newbie on here and have decided to share my experience with you in the hope that some of what I’ve been through helps.
So nothing special about me, just an average chap from England who had gone from having far too much hair in my 20’s, to now praying for it to miraculously come back! I was suffering from the classic male baldness pattern and had noticed it getting thinner on top for the last 4 years but not to the extent that I needed to shave the lot off. It was more of a thinning out top and centre and slowly receding. I’d tried Regaine and I’d tried Nourkrin and neither of them did anything. Well at least I didn’t think they did. I was expecting them to slow down the loss and grow hair but I couldn’t see either. Then I looked in the mirror one morning and said to myself that I could either do something about it, or I could let it go naturally. Well having a choice made a difference. I could do something about it and that’s exactly what I set out to do.
I researched online at hair loss forums but didn’t just dive in to researching doctors, I researched options. What options were available that were the least painful, and least expensive? Ultimately I wanted a shampoo that would magic the hair back – not going to happen. Then a magic night cream – nope, not there either. Thirdly a magic medicine or tablet although I don’t like putting chemicals into my body, but again there was nothing that was shouting out to me “try me I work” and I knew time was ticking on. So the next option was surgery. But what does surgery actually entail? What do they do, how do they do it, who does it, where do they do it, how much does it cost, and finally what are the results like?
I scoured the web and decided that FUE was the one I wanted. Why? Because people wouldn’t be able to tell I’d had surgery and I’d get my hair back, simples. I didn’t want FUT because I would have a big scar and my head would have to be shaved and people would notice. So I searched some more and looked for a reputable doctor and a clinic where I could go for a consultation. I found the Selston Clinic in Nottingham and they had a doctor there, Dr Reddy whose name was banded about on a number of forums. Apparently he wasn’t a bad doctor and so I thought why not? Jump in the car and drive for just over an hour and let an expert give me some advice.
So that’s what I did. Made the appointment, drove up, and saw a different doctor because Doctor Reddy wasn’t there? Strange I thought but hey ho. This doctor took a look at me and recommended 7000 fue over 2 days (weekend). Cost ?14000.
I’m very analytical so in my mind I went over everything and this is what I analysed from my consultation. I wasn’t impressed with the un-sterilised look and feel of the clinic. I wasn’t impressed that I was kept waiting for over 30 minutes despite me arriving early for my appointment. I wasn’t impressed with the office that I went into that was as unfamiliar to me as it was to the stand in doctor. The stand in wasn’t interested in me and couldn’t find a pen or piece of paper to write anything on. My consultation lasted 3 seconds before the doctor gave me the price; he just took one look and said 7000 FUE. He didn’t examine my head, ask me anything pertinent, he was just interested in giving me the price. Then the secretary who made my appointment walked in to tell him the next patient had arrived and he proceeded to tell her what he had quoted me, I thought because she would follow it up in writing but it would appear it was more so that he didn’t forget because he couldn’t find a pen or paper. He said he could do it whenever I was ready and that was that.
I came away feeling totally dejected and disappointed. I was no further forward and this doctor had not helped at all. For the next hour I gave up and just thought leave it let it fall out and go baldish gracefully.
I got back home and did some more research and heard about other horror stories and other success stories. I zeroed in on the success stories but didn’t ignore the horror because I wanted to avoid the doctors who had made a mess of fellow sufferers. I noticed that a guy called Spex continued to hop into discussions and offer advice. I thought at first “oh here’s someone with a full head of hair who wants to offer opinion on everything!” So I researched him! Then I emailed him. Then I called him. And what a great bloke he is. We chatted about hair loss and seeing where he’d been with his loss, I felt that my loss was very similar to his. He said unequivocally that FUT not FUE was what I needed. That was my last resort but I knew nothing in reality about the subject and here was a surgery veteran of 10 ops giving me an insight into what I really needed if I wanted to achieve the best results.
He recommended Dr Feller in New York as he had “been saved” himself by Dr Feller and so I researched Dr Feller too. There were no bad results here, no horror stories and no one with a bad word to say about him. So I took the plunge. I emailed Dr Feller and sent him some photos. He advised I needed 3000 grafts and his prices are transparent on his website. I agreed a date with Spex and he organised it with Dr Feller’s clinic. All I had to do now was book a flight, book a hotel, and wait for the day!
So I get to New York, on the Friday before the op on the Monday (flights cost less when you include a weekend). Morning of the op I jump in a taxi and make my way to the clinic. I’m there early as usual, and after about 5 minutes Joanne arrives to greet me and open up the clinic. Then Dr Feller arrives and he takes me through to his office where he takes some photographs of my pre op head and goes over the procedure in detail with me. I wasn’t nervous one bit before I arrived or whilst I was there but Dr Feller said something to me that gave me even more of an assurance about the op. He said that this operation is easy for him and his team. They do it daily and there is nothing complicated about it at all so I should have no worries about the op whatsoever. That made me realise that if he thinks this is easy, then it must be. He himself was a veteran of 3 FUT ops and he’d been doing it for so long now, he was more than an expert. He had my complete trust.
We go through to the operating room and I take off my shirt and have my head prepared. This entails having my hair cut down to the scalp where the op is taking place, and a shortening of where the strip is being taken from. Then it’s lots of anaesthetic. This is like sweet and sour. The sweet is that it numbs the area very well. The sour is that each prick seems like it touches your skull because the scalp is thin. Dr Feller tells me before he puts the needle in for every single jab. Then you feel a little pressure as the anaesthetic is injected but in the grand scheme of things it’s not really painful. Weirdly, and all patients will say the same, it is more painful/noticeable on the left side than it is on the right side! So this happens all around the donor area and all around the receiving area. Finally nurses place bandages around my head like a headband.
Dr Feller constantly asks if I’m ok and I reassure him I’m perfectly fine. Then Dr Feller begins to cut the donor area. I didn’t feel a thing. Then he cauterizes the skin and tells me I may feel a little tugging. I’m thinking that this tugging is him getting the skin off my scalp and he continues to do the rest. How wrong and surprised I was. The tugging was pulling the skin together so that it could be stapled. I didn’t even feel the staples going in and he’d done half of it before I’d realised he’d done a single staple! So for me, result. That’s one more procedure that has been completed and I didn’t feel a thing.
Dr Feller completed removing the donor strip and this was passed to nurses who took it away for preparation for insertion. Whilst they were doing that Dr Feller then prepared the recipient area. This involved him making lots and lots of holes in my scalp ready to receive the grafts that were being prepared by the nurses. He was very patient and very reassuring whilst doing this. I could sense what was happening to me but couldn’t feel it. It was all going really smoothly.
Then he handed over the next part to 3 nurses, 1 on each should and 1 behind me and they delicately inserted all of the grafts into my scalp. Twice whilst I was sat in the chair I fell asleep! Yes actually fell asleep I was so relaxed. My single snore woke me though both times and I said to myself that I should be more respectful of what these lovely people are doing for me and stay awake. And so I did.
When all the grafts were inserted, the nurses sprayed my head with water and changed the bandages around my head. I moved to another room and ate lunch, and then a nurse gave me a sealed staple remover and written instructions of what I needed to do when I left as well as explaining to me. I went back to Dr Feller’s office and he took some more photographs and gave me some painkillers. We had a chat for a short time about how the op went, what I should expect and then he put my baseball cap on, Cathy called me a taxi and I made my way downstairs to go back to my hotel.
At the hotel I just rested completely. I put pillows around me on the bed and sat upright to sleep that night. The next day I was supposed to remove the bandage and wash my head with water and nothing else but I decided not to and took a bath without washing it. I was flying back home to the UK that evening and had the bandage on and my cap. I was flying business class with American Airlines so I had plenty of room in my seat and less chance of anyone knocking my head. I was more concerned with something hitting my head now than anything else. Dr Feller had said that grafts don’t just fall out despite people thinking they do. If a graft came out it would bleed like a nose bleed. He told me that over the next few weeks the hairs on show of the grafts would fall out but the root is in place and this would regenerate.
I get home a day later, cut off the bandage and shower. In the shower I hold my hands over the grafts and wet the back and sides of my head. I shampoo there making sure I go over the staples to keep them clean and gently let a little shampoo run on to the grafts to remove any grease build up. I do this for 2 weeks. During this period I could feel my head healing as it was itching constantly and it felt so good to scratch above and below the staples even though I know I shouldn’t have. On top of my head the skin was flaking constantly. Occasionally I would gently rub my hands over my head to get rid of the flakes. At times a top of a graft would come out. This looked like a small scab with a hair in it. The hair was only on one side though it wasn’t all the way through. At first I was disappointed thinking it was a graft but then I realised it was just the top. About a dozen of these came out over the 2 weeks. The staples began to become a little uncomfortable. I wanted them out. I couldn’t lie on them, couldn’t put my head back on seats, couldn’t brush my hair properly for fear of catching them, and they ached a little. My body started to reject them and 1 of them was wobbling and I wanted to pull it out! Also my skin that had been stretched wanted to stretch and move and now the staples were restricting that movement. It was fun though because I knew that this little experience was going to give me a wonderful ending.
Yesterday I had my staples removed. There was a little twinge with some of them and about 6 of them were harder to get out. However when they were out it felt amazing. Itching stopped, aching stopped and I could lie on my pillow in bed and watch TV!! My hair on top looks and feels good. It’s growing and I’m excited. I’ve had no real pain at all throughout the operation and 2 weeks subsequent. I’ll still continue to shower with my hands over my head for a week to avoid the full force of the shower on me. My head feels fine. I can’t believe that I’ve been and had the operation as until I look in the mirror at my current short hair, nothing feels different.
I’ll update my photographs throughout the year and if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. Would I recommend talking to Spex? Yes 100%. Would I recommend using Dr Feller? Yes 100%. Dr Feller and his team have been doing this for many years and if ever there was an expert in this field, it’s him.
Thanks for reading.
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