My story

[mtrangaris]

I thought I would write my story because I think I have some perspective that may be helpful to others. Thirty years ago when I first started to address my hair loss there were no good medical solutions; surgical or otherwise. I knew I was going to lose my hair from the moment I studied genetics in high school biology but finally the reality of it had arrived.
I went to a dermatologist and must admit he gave me good advice. "Get a hair unit and wait until the science and technology improves because right now it is not good" Well, I listened and I am not sorry for my decision. During my thirty years of wearing a hair unit I was not disappointed. I discovered a few things along the way. One, I cared more than others! Two, others don't care much at all!
Well, now I have reached retirement. I want to rid myself of unnecessary hassles and commitments and hair units falls into that category. The technology has improved and my desire for unrealistic results is long gone. I figure I am old enough to live with whatever the outcome. I also educated myself about procedures and what was best for me. I felt the FUT (Folicular Unit Transplant) was best because I have limited donor hair and the success of FUT over other options is currently higher. I would not be surprised if that changes in the near future but we are now!
The drawbacks for me while I was still working was recovery time, the transition of appearance, and my availability. Now, I have lots of time and my appearance doesn't matter so much to me. I still want the best result I can get. So, I identified Dr. Glen Charles for two reasons: one was his expertise and secondly his fees are hard to beat. Most important though, was I thought, after some careful review of the information I had, he was the guy!
According to the pros, I am at the end of my hair loss. What I have left is stable so I am not likely to benefit from the medications much and I have limited donor hair. Dr. Charles was upfront with me on that and his work ethic seems impeccable. I don't think he will accept a patient he thinks he can not help and he was skeptical at first with me. After some better pictures he was able to present me with a plan.
Now, I am not a shaky kind of person so the surgery really didn't scare me. I thought it would be harder to sit through it all (2549 FU graphs) but it wasn't. During the surgery the initial shots to numb me were the most painful part of the procedure and that was very minimal. I was glad to have an experienced staff that seemed to work well as a team. The post surgical experience wasn't all that bad either. With the aid of some prescription medication and over the counter medication I had minimal suffering; perhaps suffering is even the wrong word. That evening I was able to be up and about picking my wife up at the airport.
Now I am into my second week of recovery. Things are going as expected. I am good at following directions so I can reasonably expect to get the best outcome for me: I will not sabotage my recovery with the foolishness of bad habits and failure to follow the doctor's advice. I will upload photos in the future when I figure it out so others may gage their expectations. I am looking at at least one more procedure in the future so the final results are a ways off.