My Surgery with Dr. Feller UK Patient - 2000 grafts

[Spex]

Great update mate - thanks for keeping the community informed

Grow well

Best
Spex

[OperationDontBeLikeKojak]

Day 91 Post Op Photos (Exactly 3 months in...)

Sorry for the delay for anyone who might be interested in following this thread - have been meaning to post these for a while. There will be a lot less of a gap with my next update...

With regards to the photos, these were all taken on the same day. You'll notice that my coverage looks different depending on whether I used the flash or have wet/dry hair, or even how I brush is (to reveal the thinner areas, or to cover them). So I have taken several photos with the different conditions to give a hopefully comprehensive reflection of my hair at 90 days post-op.

So the three month mark is often referred to the minimum wait time before the action starts in earnest (and so as not to give hair transplant patients a bit more patience, this is qualified with 3-6 months before you start to see a major improvement (with up to a year suggested before the complete effect has been realised).

Anyway, I would say that at this point, I had now reached a a position where to the casual observer, there is no evidence of my surgery. If someone were to comb through my hair at the back, they would see my donor scar, but having a shower or going swimming does not reveal it. I would say that there is currently a slight dimpling (if that's the correct word) of my hair line as a result of the donor area, but would qualify this by saying this is really only noticeable when my hair is shorter (has just been cut), and only noticeable to myself (who scrutinises it every day!). To be honest, looking at the photo of the back of my head, I'm struggling to see any evidence at all!

At the donor site, there is a small strip which had no growth at it, but now has a few hairs starting to poke through, which in time should hopefully further lessen any visible dimpling as a result of the donor area. That said, the area is actually where the head naturally tapers in, so to be fair it could just be as a result of this - and certainly to anyone but myself or possibly a transplant surgeon, if anyone ever stared at it for a long period and actually noticed any thing, they would almost certainly put it down to this (I would think!). Perhaps this is why the donor strip is taken from this area? When I hit month four, I shall take some more snaps of the back!

In terms of growth of the new stuff, there has definitely been a little progress (I'd say as a completely uneducated guess, possibly 5-10% of the donor stuff has started to come in). I can definitely feel short 'spikey' hairs over the entire recipient region. I should probably stop playing with them as I'm getting a sore arm from searching my scalp to check for new ones! They're quite difficult to photograph as all the other (native) hairs represent around 8 weeks' growth in terms of length and these ones are probably about a week's worth in length. So in effect, it'll be another 7 weeks til the first lot of new ones achieve the same length as the native ones, by which time I'd imagine there will significant emergence of the new crop!

I'm still taking Finpecia daily, washing my hair once or twice a week with Nizoral, and also using a shampoo called la biosynthetique at all other times showering times. I would say that I notice a small improvement since before the op. (which may or may not be down to my native hair thickening up) and can definitely say that there is a little less patchiness at the front of my hair line, where as before before it looked certain that I was on the way to an Alan Shearer style hair island at the front! I don't know whether any or all of the above can be attributed to this, but as I'm sure you can do your own research and make up your own minds as to how effective these all are with other transplant bloggers. I just figured (as with a lot of others in our position) that a combination of approaches couldn't hurt at all!

Anyway, that's it for now, but I'll post again early in August when I hit the Four month mark!

ODBLK

[chrisis]

Thanks for the update! Looking good!

Curious if there's anything you'd do differently if you had to do it again?

[OperationDontBeLikeKojak]

Chrisis,

I'm not quite sure if I understand the question but I'll try to answer it!

Ultimately I'd have liked to put everyone in suspended animation for a month or two whilst all returned to normal! In reality, it is a waiting game, so patience and spending time on sites like this (without becoming obsessed) is what's called for. First month is the worst, after that you are on your way back to normality. In terms of choice of surgeon and location, New York is obviously a bit more of a journey but the transparency of being able to see patients online at all stages of the process and read their comments made my choice for me. Plus being able to have a good long chat to Spex before hand, and have him as a guide and smooth the process out works very well.

Surgery is not like ordering a burger and comes with a fair amount of trepidation, but as I said in my first post, Dr. Feller has a fantastic way with him which really does calm you as much as is possible, considering what you're there for! I'm sure there are many fine surgeons out there, but I would have no hesitation going back to Dr. Feller if I had to make the decision again.

I started Finasteride at the beginning of the year, so I guess were I able to go back in time, I would give that a go maybe three years before. The problem with that is, that in reality, you don't know how quickly your hair is going to go and therefore are unsure what effect (if any) taking the pills would have on the thinning area, or indeed what would happen if you stop taking it!

Apart from that, I wouldn't change anything really - my journey to this point has been no more difficult than expected!

Hope that answered your question!

[Spex]

Great to see you mate - keep us updated as you go.

[Oyster]

Looking good, thanks for sharing mate

[OperationDontBeLikeKojak]

Day 134 Post Op Photos (4 months 1 week in...)

It's been a loong time since I posted - where does the time go?!

Anyway, Apologies, and here's a bunch of photos I took from just over the four month mark.

All photos are taken on the same day, spanning about an hour.

I thought the best way to do it was to take snaps immediately after having my hair cut (hence the hairs all over my forehead - these aren't misplaced implants! ), still a bit wet and combed.

I next took photos immediately after my shower, without drying my hair, so hair looks at its thinnest. Note by comparison the hair from the unbaldable region (I just invented a word!) i.e. the 'horseshoe bit on Patrick Stewart (Cpt. Picard) to get a reflection of what 100% unthinned hair looks like under lighting conditions/flash.

I then dried my hair a bit, then a bit more and brushed it forward as I have it to offer a bit more covering on thinner areas.

I've taken some WITH and some WITHOUT, as well as from different angles. You'll probably notice that the flash accentuates sparser areas and also different angles can make a big difference in terms of how 'full' areas look.
I'd say that the flash gives a pretty harsh effect of how the coverage looks, but hopefully you'll get a truer idea from a variety of conditions as to how progress was at this stage.

Definitely seeing and feeling a difference at this stage. Existing native hairs have become less curly/frazzled/thinning as well at this stage - possibly from Propecia & shampoo, so this is helping too. The side bits have the worst native covering, so these will (hopefully!) eventually be covered by a far larger % of donor hairs.

Will attach some pics of the donor scar in a mo...

ODBLK

[OperationDontBeLikeKojak]

Day 134 Post Op Photos - Donor Scar (4 months 1 week in...)

Donor Scar a lot less red, and most of it has settled down.

There are a few areas which I can only describe as feeling like spots which you can see in the pics. I'm not sure whether they're just bits that are taking a little longer to heal, trapped hair or what - answers on a post card to er.. here!

Shall try to post soon for Month 5!

ODBLK

[Spex]

Apologies i missed this update Kojak! Looking good - grow well!!!