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My Hair Transplant journey from UK to 4850 grafts Hasson And Wong before and after pics

garageland

garageland

Valued member
Hello all, here's my story a bit long winded but hopefully of interest to all.



1996

My first hair transplant with the wonderfully charismatic Michael May (now with the Wimpole clinic, UK) aged 23 heading for nw 6/7 but with a lot of my own hair at the time he decides 450 mini micro grafts (4-6 hairs) at ??1500 (nice round number) would be just the job, "a few of these and you will be set up for life" was his words or something similar. He was recommended to me as the hair transplant man, he came across more like a monk on a vow of silence as there was no communication throughout the surgery and he decided in all is wisdom and consulting his crystal ball that my hairline would recede only about 1" higher than it currently was (aged 23) but retain the same nice curved youthful shape i.e. no recession into the temples.

He carried out the surgery like a man who had been doing it for years i.e. as if he was bored sh*tless, but after all he was a doctor and you are supposed to trust them , right?.

Anyway the 450 grafts gave my a bit more density than what I had and I was now on the hair transplant roller coaster, so 2 more sessions and I should be good to go, hmmm.



1997

Young dumb and full of mini and micro grafts (well 450 anyway) I was set for round 2 of my adventure, unsurprisingly I decided against seeing May again, after reading Dr Nortons glossy brochure and seeing the great pics of a male model with full head of hair (never a transplant) on the front I decided "yes this is what I want, sign me up". They were much friendlier than Michael May and they paid for my train fare and even offered to drive me back home from Wakefield after the procedure, Dr Norton was full of smiles when I met him, and then I clocked his Porsche in the car park and realised why he was so happy to see me.

Anyway 500 more mini and micro grafts another ??1500 lighter and I was away, I was driven home by their hair model a guy that turned up when it got dark outside and sat in a darkened room at all times (and still I wasn't put off!).



1998



I decided that this would be my last hair transplant as using all my holiday entitlement and money and not achieving a result anywhere near what I was happy with was getting me down a bit (funny that) I raised the bar and asked for 600+ grafts to max out, sort the crown out and soften the hairline up, had I gone mad? Quite possibly, 2k later and I was in the chair with Norton again, he was still very friendly but this time he placed my donor scar number 3 way too low on my head just above the neck, We supposedly harvested 600 or so grafts but I think I reality we got about 350 like we did the previous time.

A week later and a lump had appeared at the back of my head which was throbbing, Dr Norton said it was were a vein had meet an artery and was really not a problem, A&E would be able to sort it for me.

A&E looked at me as if I had two heads, which by that time I nearly had and said they didn't want to touch it, so another journey to Wakefield to get it sorted.

Two minutes in the chair and the lump had been fixed and after much hassle I managed to get some money back from them! ( a pittance in all honesty) for my troubles as long as I didn't darken their doors again, this I didn't need persuading about.

Anyway this lump left me with a huge mass of scar tissue and a pressure point that just to touch was agonisingly painfull, 8 years on and it is still like that today with nerve damage in other points around one side of my head.



Once HT 3 had grown in and because of the experiences that I had I vowed never again, and closed the book on my hair after reading a feature in FHM that Michael May was infact the man for HT in the UK and that Dr Norton was in the Sun for botched liposuction and stuck off (although still carrying out hair surgery to this day) I came to the conclusion that the whole industry in the UK was a sham.



The ht's delayed the inevitable and did make my feel a bit more happy about my hair loss for a while until the last couple of years year when my hairline receded and became the May/Norton mutation that you will see from my before pics ( I have never taken any medication and propecia wasn't around when I had my transplants). My hair sought of became an non issue for me, in truth I was fed up spending so much time effort and money on it.



Recently



Last year I thought that I would go see Dr Rogers for a 1000 into the hairline just so it wouldn't look so much like a HT.



On doing my research about 6 months I stumbled across Joetronics website and couldn't believe what I was seeing his results were amazing, the wife was promptly called in to check it out. After reading his story I saw he was now working for the company Hasson And Wong, my first thoughts were "These guys must be really pricey" if he is now having to work for them, A few emails back and forth and phone calls after sending my pics over and consulting with Dr Hasson they felt they could harvest 4000 grafts as my donor density looked good and after 8 years with no surgeries my laxity should be pretty good again.



After having 1500 (more like 1000 ish) grafts before and having at least some hair to look at from the front 4000 grafts seemed unbelievable I had visions of my old Morrissey quiff of the late 80's returning!, naturally I was dubious as was my wife who was never really into Morrissey.

I checked out the websites and saw all the great H&W results and thought I would email consult with some other top docs overseas and well as consult with Rogers in the UK and meet up with this Spex guy I kept on reading about.

Armani said that it was unlikely that i would get more than 2000-2500 with my previous scarring and limited donor area (they all had been sent the same pics) Dr Cole really wanted to perform FUE which I wasn't interested in as I wanted the maximum coverage on top and for my money. Dr Rahal was very helpful and a nice guy and felt that he would be able to do 2500-3000 grafts depending on my hair characteristics.

Dr Rogers also was a nice guy but very conservative and quoted about 1500 grafts, by now the Morrissey quiff had fallen flat.



After a few emails and phone calls I meet up with Spex in London, his hair is great and his enthusiasm was really infectious, he took a few photos and arranged that I speak to Dr Feller which I did, again Dr Feller is a really nice and easy guy to talk to, he thought that I could get around 2500 grafts but if there was more he would get it. A few of the problems that I have is that my hairline has been placed a bit too low by Dr May (its 7cm above my eyebrows) so I have a very large area of baldness to cover it was also very symmetrical in that what a young person with a very strong hairline would have but in my case without the very strong (or young anymore).

Spex was really helpful and full of good information and in the end it was a straight choice between Hasson and Wong and Dr Feller, but after speaking again to Joe at H & W the decision was made, all the great results on their website and hairloss forums coupled with the fact that they were still confident that I could get the 4k grafts that they had originally said, and Joe's site being the reason I had really started looking into hair transplants again were the deciding factors.



June 2006



I arrived in Vancouver the day before my operation the flight was 9 hours and 10 mins and was on time I flew with Air Transat ??“best prices I paid ??380 for a return, I got a taxi to The Granville Island hotel which was about 25 canadian dollars (2 dollars to the pound at present) I was staying for 4 nights to take advantage of the cheaper flight, H&W paid for 2 nights stay and booked the accommodation for me, saving me the trouble of doing this, the hotel was very nice and they know what you are there for, so are very accommodating, it also has a great views and is right near some restaurants, pubs etc (although no alcohol was consumed).



I walked to H&W offices (about a 20 min walk) for my consultation and meet Joe, Doug and Dr Hasson and Dr Wong etc, Dr H confirmed that my density was excellent which really pleased me and my laxity was also quite good, we discussed that coverage was an issue for me and that I was not concerned about my previous scars so much (my donor hair being dense has always covered this well with a grade 5) he confirmed that we should get 4k maybe more!



The day of the operation I arrived at 7.30 am, Dr H took my pics, we didn't need to discuss my hairline as Dr May had taken care of that for us 10 years previous, he shaved my top of my head, which didn't take very long and started work on extracting the donor hairs.

The injections are the most painful bit of this process but are over quickly and then the area is numb, the area was removed in sections, testing for laxity in each piece, my sides were very lax and a bigger piece was able to be removed but lower down on my head was much tighter and he was only able to remove about a 1cm piece in places. It took 1hr 45 mins to remove the complete donor area he said the last time it took him that long was on Spassky another UK patient whom I have spoken to, Dr H went quite aggressive in the strip he was removing because this was my last chance at getting strip and I wanted the highest amount of grafts as possible.

The actual removal of the skin is painless because of the anthestic that you have been injected, I made a comment on that crunching noise that I heard and was told that was when he was cutting through the scar tissue.

Once this is done I had 4 injections into my forehead to numb the recipient area and Dr H made the first 2000 incisions with his custom made blade (this again is all pain free), he actually had to use a slightly bigger blade on me than normal because of scalp being tough and scarred up from my big grafts previously.



If you look at the shaved down pictures you will see the poor placement and the big gaps in between each graft and that it is in rows just like as Joe calls it ??stadium row seating', I think Dr Norton got carried away and starting constructing some hot dog stalls in my crown!.You can also see where Dr H had originally intended to fill in.



When I saw my before and shaved down pics I was shocked that most of the grafts had been packed in so tight into my scalp that the hairs faced all different angles and that I still had some redness, what isn't obvious from the pics is the pitting that you can see under bright light, the pics are pretty brutal the lighting the H&W use really shows off your hair for what it is, if I had of seen these pics I would have done something a long time ago!



There were four girls cutting and grouping my grafts and were happy to let me take a look through the microscope, they commented that my hair was coarse and because it was wavy it needed to be trimmed more to fit the incisions that were made on my head. Anyway I was well provided for with lots of drinks, lunch and dinner, and had a lot of stops to stretch my legs, there are about 250 dvds to watch to pass the time. Once the 2k are planted Dr H comes back to make more incisions, you get a clicker to count every hundred he is making so you know you are getting what you pay for unlike my previous experience where no counting is done. That was pretty much how the rest of day panned out with Dr H coming back to make more incisions and then the girls planting.



Things were looking good and I was told that there should be enough grafts to together with my hair characteristics to cover the entire top of my head!! After 14 hours in the chair I had a grand total of 4850 grafts being a mixture of singles into my hairline and around the previous grafts in my crown , mainly doubles and also some 3's aswell.



I was totally blown away by my graft count as I never in a million years believed it would be this high, I had been hoping for 3k with a outside chance of getting nearer four at the most, I wanted to soften my hair line and cover up my pluggy appearance and fill in the totally bald areas in my bridge were no previous work was done, but to be able to cover my head totally is just awesome. I don't know the exact cm2 density, its not dense packed, but it is around 50 into the hairline and 20-30 working back into my crown but with my coarse hair and slight wave plus the previous work we are all really confident of a great look when it grows in. When you leave you are given painkillers, antibiotics, baseball cap, pillow covers, shampoo, staple remover etc in a goodie bag. The next day I returned to have my hair washed.



I am now day 6 post op and home, the redness is fading and I am applying aloe vera gel as of today (thanks guys) and starting to take msm again, I have noticed that the donor area although tight and still numb in places is not as painful as I remember it being, before I couldn't sleep on the scar for at least 2 weeks, this time I have had only slight discomfort in sleeping on the scar ( a few painkillers soon soughts that out, which is good as the scar is ear to ear, and I would have to sleep standing up top avoid putting any pressure on it).Whilst out there I picked up 10 months supply of Proscar, I will start taking this shortly which hopefully will add to my overall result.



Thanks for reading guys the above is a light hearted take on my experiences, lifes too short to be bitter and twisted about what I have been through, its not healthy to be angry for ever. I have been really been through the bad times HT wise in the UK and now have put that right. The truth will be in the result and I am now very optimistic about the future and wish I could fast forward to 4 months to start seeing the results come in.



Thank you to all who post their experiences and pics on these sites, without you this decision would have been much, much harder to make, it is because of you that I am posting in the hope that I can help other people not make the wrong decisions.



To recap

1996 450 grafts Dr May

1997 500 grafts Dr Norton

1998 600 grafts Dr Norton

2006 4850 grafts Hasson and Wong



ps, I have updated my blog with some normal everyday pics of my hair and how i looked before in 2005 before the procedure with Hasson And Wong and some taken in 2009 on holiday,i have posted some below which i feel represent good comparsions of my hair in normal conditions. Let me know if you have any questions

LindosRhodes2005152-1-1.jpg




IMG_4173-1.jpg




LindosRhodes2005087.jpg




IMG_3626crop-1.jpg




These pics are normal photos that have been taken close up pics of my procedure and before pics can be found in my hair blog
 
Nervousnelly

Nervousnelly

The Coolest Member
There is no question that you have come a long ways. Things look great. A very nice change.

NN
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Looking great Garageland especially after visiting our mutual friend Norton.

Are you taking any meds as i can`t remember, also how is the crown area doing?

Thanks bm.
 
garageland

garageland

Valued member
Thanks guys, yes very pleased with the hair, i have been on propecia for the last few years though have been a little slack with taking it as of late I don't think it has made an improvement to my hair but i think it has kept what i had.As for the crown i had only very little density transplanted back there so it is a little thin, i use a little nanogen just to fill it in and i am very happy with that.

It's a shame i don't have enough grafts after my 3 previous UK ops to add some more density but that is the way it is.

Bigmac, how is your crown looking these days?
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
My crown is doing good,will probably get some more grafts in there though as my surrounding hair makes it look thinner than it really is.

Got to get saving.

Good to hear you’re on the meds and it`s keeping your native hair.
 
NotBadHairUK

NotBadHairUK

Valued member
Looks awesome!! :) Just a shame you went through hell before finding Dr Hasson.
 
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