D
DaveyJ
Member
I have just had my second HT with Ron Shapiro. I had my first HT with Ron Shapiro in July 2013, which consisted of 3632 grafts. This greatly improved my hair s overall look, but frustratingly I still had thin areas at the temples and crown. Ron had implanted most of the grafts in the frontal core of the head, explaining that this would enable me to brush my hair down to cover my temples, which would work with my fringe hair style. I had hoped, perhaps naively, that a single transplant would attend to all areas, but I understood why he gave priority to the frontal core area; the result looked very natural. However, I now wanted more and fortunately had enough donor hair for a second op.
This is what I looked like before my first HT, in July 2013:
And this is what I looked like after my first HT, in June 2015:
Much better hair in the frontal core area
But not much better in the crown and at the temple side area:
I arranged my HT at the very beginning of my long school summer break; I m lucky in being a school teacher as I have 7-8 weeks time for the HT and recovery. I flew out (from Heathrow-London to Minneapolis) for my HT scheduled for Mon. July 13, staying in the same hotel as for my previous op., Country Inn and Suites , which was very comfortable and situated only a 10 min walk away from Shapiro s. However, on the day of the op., I awoke with an awful migraine. As a frequent migraine sufferer, I knew it would stick with me for the whole day, and the thought of having my head operated on during a migraine was daunting, to say the least! Nevertheless, having flown half way across the world, I couldn t allow myself to be put off by mere illness and decided I d just have to tough it out. Fortunately, Ron and his staff were very understanding and when it became clear how ill I was, my HT was shifted to Wednesday, the day before I returned to the UK; luckily, I d arranged a four-day trip and was very grateful that Ron adjusted his timetable to fit me in.
As expected, my migraine lasted only a day, and on the next day (Tuesday) I visited Shapiro s to discuss my HT requirements. The discussion, which continued during a photo session, lasted over an hour. In addition to work on my crown, we discussed my wish to have more hair at the temples to give me less of a receded look. Ron explained how he would bring the temporal hairline forward while also building up the hairline, but emphasized that I didn t need to have it brought forward very much; to illustrate this he showed me pictures of male models (including David Beckham), to show that there is typically a straight line from the front edge of the side-burn to the temporal point (top edge of the temporal hairline). I also pointed out that I d like to have the option of parting my hair on the left side, and remarked that I had some thin areas at the side where I would part my hair. Ron said it was common for men to have thinness in the side allies stretching up to the crown and said he would insert grafts in these areas if he saw any gaps (especially on the left side where I parted my hair). We also discussed ACELL, which he recommended, and I agreed to have. He then drew in his proposed hairline which I was happy with.
I had the HT operation on Wednesday 15 July, and everything went smoothly, with little pain or discomfort. I was quite concerned about my back as I d had recent problems with a herniated disc and thought that lying in one position for so long could aggravate the problem. For this reason the nurses gave a me a few Valium pills, which made me sleep through most of the operation. After the op. I was pleased to see that much of my frontal hair remained (vital to help disguise the op) and that the hairline and crown looked good. I made sure that I applied ice to my forehead as I d swollen up a lot in my previous HT. One of the nurse also placed a plaster band across my forehead, which was supposed to help against swelling; fortunately, I didn t have any swelling on this occasion. I also slept quite well considering, although the staples were quite uncomfortable until I had them removed 12 days later.
I visited the clinic on the following day for a hair wash. Later in the day, I caught the 10pm flight back to London-Heathrow. I had no problems whatsoever, and was able to apply the ATP solution in the plane s toilet and also ice my forehead with a bag of ice provided by the plane staff.
Here are my post HT pics:
This is what I looked like before my first HT, in July 2013:
And this is what I looked like after my first HT, in June 2015:
But not much better in the crown and at the temple side area:
I arranged my HT at the very beginning of my long school summer break; I m lucky in being a school teacher as I have 7-8 weeks time for the HT and recovery. I flew out (from Heathrow-London to Minneapolis) for my HT scheduled for Mon. July 13, staying in the same hotel as for my previous op., Country Inn and Suites , which was very comfortable and situated only a 10 min walk away from Shapiro s. However, on the day of the op., I awoke with an awful migraine. As a frequent migraine sufferer, I knew it would stick with me for the whole day, and the thought of having my head operated on during a migraine was daunting, to say the least! Nevertheless, having flown half way across the world, I couldn t allow myself to be put off by mere illness and decided I d just have to tough it out. Fortunately, Ron and his staff were very understanding and when it became clear how ill I was, my HT was shifted to Wednesday, the day before I returned to the UK; luckily, I d arranged a four-day trip and was very grateful that Ron adjusted his timetable to fit me in.
As expected, my migraine lasted only a day, and on the next day (Tuesday) I visited Shapiro s to discuss my HT requirements. The discussion, which continued during a photo session, lasted over an hour. In addition to work on my crown, we discussed my wish to have more hair at the temples to give me less of a receded look. Ron explained how he would bring the temporal hairline forward while also building up the hairline, but emphasized that I didn t need to have it brought forward very much; to illustrate this he showed me pictures of male models (including David Beckham), to show that there is typically a straight line from the front edge of the side-burn to the temporal point (top edge of the temporal hairline). I also pointed out that I d like to have the option of parting my hair on the left side, and remarked that I had some thin areas at the side where I would part my hair. Ron said it was common for men to have thinness in the side allies stretching up to the crown and said he would insert grafts in these areas if he saw any gaps (especially on the left side where I parted my hair). We also discussed ACELL, which he recommended, and I agreed to have. He then drew in his proposed hairline which I was happy with.
I had the HT operation on Wednesday 15 July, and everything went smoothly, with little pain or discomfort. I was quite concerned about my back as I d had recent problems with a herniated disc and thought that lying in one position for so long could aggravate the problem. For this reason the nurses gave a me a few Valium pills, which made me sleep through most of the operation. After the op. I was pleased to see that much of my frontal hair remained (vital to help disguise the op) and that the hairline and crown looked good. I made sure that I applied ice to my forehead as I d swollen up a lot in my previous HT. One of the nurse also placed a plaster band across my forehead, which was supposed to help against swelling; fortunately, I didn t have any swelling on this occasion. I also slept quite well considering, although the staples were quite uncomfortable until I had them removed 12 days later.
I visited the clinic on the following day for a hair wash. Later in the day, I caught the 10pm flight back to London-Heathrow. I had no problems whatsoever, and was able to apply the ATP solution in the plane s toilet and also ice my forehead with a bag of ice provided by the plane staff.
Here are my post HT pics:
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