A
Aerospace
member
Hi all, I thought its time to share my story and give something back to the forum for all the help its provided.
My journey has been a long hard slog filled with sadness, depression, feeling helpless and dare I say, some suicidal thoughts. I lost my parents at a very young age, ended up in social care, had the usual bullying you hear about, generally just a crappy time growing up. Eventually, I was old enough to go it on my own. I got a small council flat and a job in a manufacturing factory. Everything was good for a while until my hair loss began. By the age of 26, I`d progressed to a Norwood 3 1/2, my so-called friends constantly took the piss. As you can imagine, this got me down to the point where I decided to leave. I found another job quickly and moved on, however my hair loss was on my mind 24/7.
I knew nothing about hair transplants or hair loss medications, I was looking at wigs as a fix. Then I saw an advert in a magazine for hair transplants, I was amazed at how good it looked and the advertised price was reasonable. I arranged a consultation for the following week. Full of hope and excitement I turned up at the clinic, the consultant told me everything I wanted to hear but forgot to mention medications. Anyway, I booked up there and then for a 2500 graft hair transplant.
The day of surgery was ok, I was brimming with enthusiasm, the doctor and 2 technicians worked on me for around 9 hours. My new transplanted hair looked great, I was really excited and pleased I`d done this. A week after surgery my donor area was beginning to feel painful, the clinic told me I'd be fine once the stitches were removed. I had them removed by the clinic and told them it was feeling very tight and sore. They said this is normal and to give it time to heal. The pain just got worse from then on, I contacted the clinic who advised I go to my GP. By the time I got an appointment, my head was killing me, my doctor immediately prescribed antibiotics and painkillers saying I had a nasty infection in the donor closure. After 10 days of medication, it seemed to clear up. Then I noticed my scar was stretching and the surrounding hair had vanished leaving a large bald area. Over several months the scar tissue worsened and the hair continued to die. "This was a nightmare". I had steroid injections, steroid cream, nothing worked. Over time, the pain threshold dropped to a nagging numb like feeling. To top it off, the growth of the transplanted hair was poor, wrong angles, stalky grafts, a few double hairs in there. "My life sucked" but, I soldiered on as they say. My social life was now nonexistent, luckily I worked outdoors which allowed the use of a hat, otherwise, I would have resigned. My life was going to work, go food shopping, go home and repeat the following day. I was in a rut with no foreseeable way out.
One day while reading the newspaper I saw an article on hair transplants, this kickstarted me into thinking I may be able to find a fix. I contacted several clinics online, all of which turned me down due to the damage I`d endured. This was soul destroying but then I thought, there must be somewhere that offers help. I began searching online, found a forum that looked like I`d get help, unfortunately for me, I posted my story (a short version) then a member posted a reply saying how stupid I was for going to this doctor and followed up with a tirade of abuse. I complained about the member, nothing was done. I requested on multiple occasions for my post to be deleted, only to be ignored. Eventually, they finally removed it. This made me feel like I had done something wrong and put me off posting altogether. How could someone be so callous?
I found other forums and decided I would contact the owners privately, not wanting another episode of abuse. Most who replied were kind and helpful, although they could not offer any real help. They suggested doctors who they felt were good at this type of repair work, after that the replies ceased except for Bigmac on here. He kept in touch, we spoke on the phone regularly and eventually met up. What a relief it was to finally meet someone and be able to talk about my hair. This was the beginning of my journey to having repair surgery. Bigmac told me to look through the repair cases on here, showed me quite a few examples and advised that I should email the ones I liked. Thet all responded saying they could probably do something over multiple sessions but would need to see me first. One had a consultation and some surgery dates that worked out well with me. This was 3 years ago, 3 surgeries later I`ve had amazing repair work that has included scar revision, punch outs, beard hair and a small amount of chest hair used.
My life has been turned around. My hair is not perfect by any means which was explained at my initial consultation but its 1000 times better than it was. My hairline looks natural, no more pluggy look with hairs growing in all directions. I`ve reconnected with some old friends and have a decent social life on the go. Hoping I can find a partner soon. All this is thanks to Bigmac who never gave up on me, always there to offer support during my darkest days. And the doctor of course who has worked miracles. I was unsure if I should post my story again after my last forum experience but Bigmac assured me I`d be fine if I decided to share it on HLE, so here I am doing just that.
My message to others in a similar situation to mine is, never give up hope. There are some good guys out there willing to help. I hope my story will give you the courage to seek help and I can`t think of a better place than this forum.
My journey has been a long hard slog filled with sadness, depression, feeling helpless and dare I say, some suicidal thoughts. I lost my parents at a very young age, ended up in social care, had the usual bullying you hear about, generally just a crappy time growing up. Eventually, I was old enough to go it on my own. I got a small council flat and a job in a manufacturing factory. Everything was good for a while until my hair loss began. By the age of 26, I`d progressed to a Norwood 3 1/2, my so-called friends constantly took the piss. As you can imagine, this got me down to the point where I decided to leave. I found another job quickly and moved on, however my hair loss was on my mind 24/7.
I knew nothing about hair transplants or hair loss medications, I was looking at wigs as a fix. Then I saw an advert in a magazine for hair transplants, I was amazed at how good it looked and the advertised price was reasonable. I arranged a consultation for the following week. Full of hope and excitement I turned up at the clinic, the consultant told me everything I wanted to hear but forgot to mention medications. Anyway, I booked up there and then for a 2500 graft hair transplant.
The day of surgery was ok, I was brimming with enthusiasm, the doctor and 2 technicians worked on me for around 9 hours. My new transplanted hair looked great, I was really excited and pleased I`d done this. A week after surgery my donor area was beginning to feel painful, the clinic told me I'd be fine once the stitches were removed. I had them removed by the clinic and told them it was feeling very tight and sore. They said this is normal and to give it time to heal. The pain just got worse from then on, I contacted the clinic who advised I go to my GP. By the time I got an appointment, my head was killing me, my doctor immediately prescribed antibiotics and painkillers saying I had a nasty infection in the donor closure. After 10 days of medication, it seemed to clear up. Then I noticed my scar was stretching and the surrounding hair had vanished leaving a large bald area. Over several months the scar tissue worsened and the hair continued to die. "This was a nightmare". I had steroid injections, steroid cream, nothing worked. Over time, the pain threshold dropped to a nagging numb like feeling. To top it off, the growth of the transplanted hair was poor, wrong angles, stalky grafts, a few double hairs in there. "My life sucked" but, I soldiered on as they say. My social life was now nonexistent, luckily I worked outdoors which allowed the use of a hat, otherwise, I would have resigned. My life was going to work, go food shopping, go home and repeat the following day. I was in a rut with no foreseeable way out.
One day while reading the newspaper I saw an article on hair transplants, this kickstarted me into thinking I may be able to find a fix. I contacted several clinics online, all of which turned me down due to the damage I`d endured. This was soul destroying but then I thought, there must be somewhere that offers help. I began searching online, found a forum that looked like I`d get help, unfortunately for me, I posted my story (a short version) then a member posted a reply saying how stupid I was for going to this doctor and followed up with a tirade of abuse. I complained about the member, nothing was done. I requested on multiple occasions for my post to be deleted, only to be ignored. Eventually, they finally removed it. This made me feel like I had done something wrong and put me off posting altogether. How could someone be so callous?
I found other forums and decided I would contact the owners privately, not wanting another episode of abuse. Most who replied were kind and helpful, although they could not offer any real help. They suggested doctors who they felt were good at this type of repair work, after that the replies ceased except for Bigmac on here. He kept in touch, we spoke on the phone regularly and eventually met up. What a relief it was to finally meet someone and be able to talk about my hair. This was the beginning of my journey to having repair surgery. Bigmac told me to look through the repair cases on here, showed me quite a few examples and advised that I should email the ones I liked. Thet all responded saying they could probably do something over multiple sessions but would need to see me first. One had a consultation and some surgery dates that worked out well with me. This was 3 years ago, 3 surgeries later I`ve had amazing repair work that has included scar revision, punch outs, beard hair and a small amount of chest hair used.
My life has been turned around. My hair is not perfect by any means which was explained at my initial consultation but its 1000 times better than it was. My hairline looks natural, no more pluggy look with hairs growing in all directions. I`ve reconnected with some old friends and have a decent social life on the go. Hoping I can find a partner soon. All this is thanks to Bigmac who never gave up on me, always there to offer support during my darkest days. And the doctor of course who has worked miracles. I was unsure if I should post my story again after my last forum experience but Bigmac assured me I`d be fine if I decided to share it on HLE, so here I am doing just that.
My message to others in a similar situation to mine is, never give up hope. There are some good guys out there willing to help. I hope my story will give you the courage to seek help and I can`t think of a better place than this forum.