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  1. #1
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    Thumbs up 27 years old....Just got 2,220 Graft FUE Hair Transplant

    I have been struggling with hair loss for the past 5-7 years. While I have had some success using Rogaine and Propecia, both solutions have never made a big impact on my receding hairline. Here is what my hair my hair looks like now:

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    After spending a great deal of time researching all of the different options, I finally made the decision to go with a hair transplant. I live in southern California, so I knew that LA would be the best place to find the right surgeon. After reading tons of reviews and checking out all of the top hair docs around, I settled on Dr. Rawnsley. His before & after gallery was really impressive and most importantly, the results he gets look really natural. The last thing I wanted to was to get work done that stuck out like a sore thumb.



    I went in for a consultation and was blown away by his beautiful office. All of his staff were incredibly helpful and a lot of fun to chat with. Dr. Rawnsley spent a bunch of time with me answering questions and walking my through the positives and negative of Strip surgrery vs FUE. It basically boils down to cost. FUE is really the best option for most people, but it costs about 2x as much. I took some time to think about it and decided it was worth the investment.

    I had my surgery at the UCLA med center, where he was another great office and I am very happy to say that it all went very smoothly. I spent about an hour getting prepped and getting my new hair line drawn on my head and then took a valume and one antibiotic, and then the nurses started numbing me up. Rawnsley uses a really cool machine for FUE that basically extracts each graft ranging from 1-4 hairs and then the nurses separate them out. The Dr. then made all the insitions for the grafts to go in and then started placing them, making sure to angle them approapriately so that the hairs would flow in the natural direction. I can honestly say, I just slept and chatted with the nurses for about 6 hours and then I was done! There was only a very small amount of pain when I was getting numbed up and after that, it was all downhill.

    Here are a few pics the day after the surgery:

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    I made sure to sleep in my recliner the first few nights as advised and took a couple vicodin so I passed right out each night. Dr. Rawnsley’s office gave me a great little kit to take care of the new grafts and donor area as well as some specialty shampoo and conditioner which helps in the healing process. The Dr. personally called me the next day to check in and his staff called and followed up again day 3. I headed back to their office on day 7 for a post-op evaluation and as I had expected everything had taken quite well.

    I am now about 5 weeks post surgery now and very excited for the future. As I had been advised, most of the hairs that were implanted have fallen out, which is normal I'm told, but about 20%-30% of them have hung in there making my hair look a bit fuller than before. I guess in about 4-6 months the hairs that fell out will start to grown in really fine and then over 8-12 months they will all start thickening up, giving me a new/fuller head of hair.

    All of the new hairs are still dormant, but I cannot wait for them to start growing.

    Here are a few pics of me at week 4 post-op:
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    I am definitely very happy that I got the procedure done! It was much easier than I had thought and wasn't really painful at all. Worst thing was probably the itching from days 4-7 or so, when I really wanted to scratch all the implanted grafts, but new it would be horribly counterintuitive. Dr. Rawnsley and his whole crew were really incredibly. While I still have a long ways to go before the results show up, I can definitely say that I recommend working with him based upon what I have experienced so far.

    I will update every few months with more pictures. Thanks for reading!
    Last edited by Winston; 06-23-2014 at 12:09 AM. Reason: Please refer to our posting policies.

  2. #2
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    Congratulations on taking the plunge! How do you feel about going out in public and all, is the redness really apparent? Do you let people know or only tell a selected few?

  3. #3
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    @Rodfarva - Thanks! The nurses and doctor told me that everyone heals different, so I can't say if others had this experience, but the redness went away for me after the 2nd-3rd day. I did have some swelling that slowly traveled from my forehead on day 2, to the bridge of my nose day 3, to under my eyes day 4, and then it was gone. I was able to go out in public with a loose fitting hat on by the second day and by day 5 or so, it was able to cruise around without a hat and no one could notice, unless they l looked really close.

    Thus far I have only told a small number of people who are close to me, but my plan is to share it with any of my guy friends who are struggling with hair loss and are evaluating solutions. I have had a really great experience so far and it has also motivated me to start taking much better care of myself. Eating great, doing green drinks everyday and crossfit 3x per week. My goal is to look and feel like a new person by this time next year and then stay on a positive healthy track.

    All in all, I'm very happy I got FUE. I never thought that I would be the type of guy who would get cosmetic surgery or anything, but they made the whole process super easy and actually really fun. I probably wouldn't have gone through with it if I hadn't found he and his team.
    Last edited by Winston; 06-25-2014 at 03:58 PM. Reason: Please refer to our posting policies.

  4. #4
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    Good luck! as a younger guy myself (will be 25 next year) i've been thinking about getting something done too. Are you worried how your hair loss will progress though? you've had work done far towards the front of your scalp so were you advised about losing additional hair around it in future? Were you told that you could eventually shave down if it looked too unnatural? Thanks.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by 22able View Post
    Are you worried how your hair loss will progress though? you've had work done far towards the front of your scalp so were you advised about losing additional hair around it in future?
    @22able - Thanks! Yep, there is always the risk or should I say certainty that I will lose more hair as I age, unfortunately we all do. My hair doc, was incredibly clear about this and spent a lot of time explaining his approach for combating this issue. Here is the gist: 1) Don't go for a super sharp / high density frontal hairline, like a Brad Pitt, choose a good mature hairline and reinforce it, think Vince Vaughn. 2) When implanting grafts (Grafts are typically anywhere from 1-4 hairs each) use mostly 1's and occasionally some 2's when you are building up the hairline up, it creates a much more natural look. 3) of the 2,200+ grafts that I had implanted, only about 20%-30% went to the hairline/frontal area, the other 70%-80% was distributed evenly across the crown/top of my head. The Dr. and nurses went to great lengths to evenly spread the grafts across my whole head and filled much of the area where the thinning was begining to occur.

    Quote Originally Posted by 22able View Post
    Were you told that you could eventually shave down if it looked too unnatural?
    Yep, with FUE, you are only left with micro scars in the donor area, which for me, healed up so well and quickly that I don't think they will ever be noticeable even if I were to bic my head in the future. They used a machine that removed each graft really quickly and alledgedly this new tool is now the go-to for FUE leaving little to no scar on the majority of patients.

    I am also getting on a Fin regime so coupled with Minox I should be able to get a lot of mileage out of this HRT. Since I am only 27, I may need to get another treatment done in future, but who knows. In the next 5-10 years, maybe that "miracle cure" everyone is always praying for really will be available : )

    Hope this helps!
    Last edited by Winston; 06-25-2014 at 04:03 PM. Reason: Please refer to our posting policies.

  6. #6
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    Thanks for such a detailed response. A few more questions if you wouldn't mind:

    How noticable are the "holes"/"potmarks" if ANY where your transplated hair now lies? i.e if you shaved down would somebody be able to see all of the punctures where the transplated hairs were placed? Hoping for that miracle cure but right now i'd just like to see what's practical for me. If you have any pictures of this from after your procedure of the crown area transplanted hairs then that would be useful. I'm assuming the machine is the ARTAS procedure. Thanks again.

  7. #7
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    Default @22able - 2,200 GRAFT FUE / 27 years old / Los Angeles

    Quote Originally Posted by 22able View Post
    How noticable are the "holes"/"potmarks" if ANY where your transplated hair now lies? i.e if you shaved down would somebody be able to see all of the punctures where the transplated hairs were placed?
    Unfortunately, about 10 days after the procedure I went to a music festival and my iPhone was stolen out of my tent that had all my pictures. The icloud backup hadn't run for months so I lost all recent pics. The few I posted were pretty much all I have. I will email the doc and see if he can send me some that they took. I believe they have some good ones, with a quality camera.


    Regarding visibility of scars: I would guess it probably varies for each patient, but I think that if I ever have to shave my head completely, that it would be very hard to detect. It healed so quickly, hardly scabbed at all and now is undetectable with my hair growing out a bit.

    Here are a few pics of what the back of my head looks like now. Hope they are somewhat helpful.
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    Tried to highlight in red where the donor hair was primarily taken.

    (FYI - I have always had semi-thin hair at the bottom of the back of my head, They didnt take any grafts from that part)

    Quote Originally Posted by 22able View Post
    I'm assuming the machine is the ARTAS procedure. Thanks again.
    Actually upon googling a bit, I see that they used the Neograft machine.
    Last edited by Winston; 06-25-2014 at 07:59 AM. Reason: Please refer to our posting policies.

  8. #8
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    Bak, thanks for sharing. I'm very interested in seeing your progress over time. Congrats on your procedure!

    Does Dr Rawnsley publish his prices? I looked on the site and didn't see a price list. Can you share details about his price structure?
    Last edited by Winston; 07-07-2014 at 01:22 PM. Reason: please refer to our posting policies.

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