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Dr Bruno Pinto - 2352 grafts - Feb 3rd 2023

I

Im new here

member
Hello All

Before I get on with this post I wanted to give a public thank you to forum leader Big Mac. He has been great and helped me so much with the wobbles I have had questions leading up to this. Without him, we would be lost with what is best to do so thank you.

I have been a member of this forum for quite a while now. I have read nearly all the threads on here but don't often comment. This was pretty much mainly because up until now I had never had a hair transplant myself and felt that commenting on someone that had without any experience of it didn't seem fair. Now that I have had mine I wanted to post a thread in order to help other people like myself that have spent years daily looking on forums and threads for updates and trying to navigate through this hair loss world the best we can in hope of one day having great hair again.

I am a 32 year old male and I have had temporal hair loss since the age of 18. I receded at the age of 18 into a NW3 where it has stayed for around 14 years. At the age of 20 I went on Propecia and topical minoxidil and took both of these for around 6 years to good effect. It held and also enhanced my NW3 hairline.

At around the age of 26 years old, I had a lot going on. I was engaged and moving house and working my way through promotions at work that for some reason or another I just gave up on the medication. Don't get me wrong after getting married we wanted to have kids and stopping the medication a year before that was always the plan but I didn't need to do it quite as early as I did. Luckily for me in the 6 years that followed my hair loss didn't seem to get any worse. I had perhaps a 5% drop in density but on the whole, without being on medication for that time it has done really well. I have now been back on Propecia and also oral minoxidil 5mg for over a year and plan to use these for as long as possible

I have always been able t style my hair to cover recession and most people would generally not know that I had any hair loss at all. Hiding it did come with some sacrifices though. I remember on a lads holiday at about 20 years old I had to pretend to have food poisoning to get out of going to the water park and had to spend the day by myself when everyone else was out enjoying it purely because I didn't want them to see me with my hair wet and the high corners. People will probably think that pathetic and it is but to me these things were important. I would also not turn up to football or asked to be substituted if it rained and always wanted to avoid photos where possible. I was happy to live like this and basically miss out on this to avoid people seeing my receding hairline.

However, fast forward to the present day and I have two beautiful kids and don't want them missing out on things like swimming and being out in the rain because of me so I finally decided to do something about it.

After years of research, I narrowed my picks down to Dr Bruno Pinto and Dr Bisanga. From all the threads I have read and consultations with both of them, I have only good things to say about both and felt I would trust both of them 100%.

In the end, I decided to go with Dr Bruno Pinto. He is one of the highest rated doctors in Europe and on the Spanish forums is probably recognised with the most thread pretty much all of which are fantastic results.

There are not many things a patient can control in a hair transplant and a lot of things can go wrong. The only thing I could control was picking a surgeon and felt that the doctors on my shortlist were as good as anyone anywhere. The reason I ended up picking Dr Bruno Pinto was he performs the whole procedure himself. He is the only person that touches your head all day. He is really passionate about his work and could talk all day about hair and the satisfaction he gets out of helping his patients. He only operates one person a day so you are the only person in the clinic and he only operates three days a week or at most 100 patients a year so he can dedicate himself to his patients that he has got and use any free days for consultations and monthly check in.

I arrived at the clinic around 8 am and for the first 2 and half hours was just talking and planning. Drawing a hairline that complemented my aesthetics but also didn't go against nature. He showed me that I had high frontalis muscles and that we must not implant lower onto them or my hair would move every time I frowned. On one side the muscle was higher by 1.5mm. you wouldn't know this to look but the curve of it bugged Dr Bruno Pinto as he could tell by eye that one side was out. He checked through all my native hair and said there were no signs of thinning anywhere else which was a relief to hear.

I had booked this with him over a year ago and when I sent through my photos and videos of my donor area he suggested 2000 grafts for the hairline and 300 grafts for the temporal peaks. Which I agreed to and paid for 2300 grafts. On the day of the surgery, we discussed the temporal peaks and I mentioned that I haven't ever had them and he agreed as he could tell by looking with the scopes that there was no hair loss in the area and that they had not receded and were just not very pronounced so he said he wouldn't want to create something that wasn't originally there as it could things off and I agreed but asked if he would use 2300 for the hairline and get it dense around the front. Looking at my donor he estimated I would be able to get around 8000 grafts and still have a short haircut but if I wasn't bothered about the sides being kept longer than a grade 3 I had the potential for a thousand or so more if needed.

I won't keep boring you with in and outs of the procedure but wanted to list a few key points for anyone who might be having one soon and find it useful. I thought the injections on the donor and extractions were a 2 out of 10 pain wise. Hardly felt any of them. However, on the recipient site, the injections were a lot more painful I was gripping the chair but it was only a few seconds and then it was done. Dr Bruno Pinto said I had very good vascularisation and elastic skin which meant the grafts should bed in well but I would have a lot of fibrin which is a yellow liquid seeping out and that it would not affect the result.

We did all extractions and got 2352 which was 52 more than paid for but was a gift from Dr Bruno Pinto. I had read he does this with his patients. The graft breakdown is below. We had a quick lunch and then onto implantation and I think we finished around 8 pm so it was a long day.

Grafts:2352
1s:622
2s:586
3s:1007
4s:119
5s:17
6s:1

A total of 5382 hairs at an average of 2.30 which he said was really good considering a quarter of the grafts were singles.

I am day four post op now and have really scabbed up more so on one side. The donor is perfect and I have no pain and am able to massage and wash normally in the shower. I had swelling for two days which deformed my face but that passed soon enough.

From getting in touch with the clinic over a year ago with Emilio who is absolutely great and so helpful all the way through to Dr Bruno Pinto coming in on a Saturday to do my hair wash personally I cannot thank them enough for the respect they have shown me and how much they have helped me. I am now hoping like everyone else for a great result

Below are photos of my hair pre-op and post op as well as a donor photo straight after extractions and how I generally styled my hair.

Please feel free to comment good or bad. I shall try and update very regularly because during my research it was my biggest annoyance with people starting threads and not updating. I understand why and that they just get on with their lives but shall try my best to give you a full thread to 12 months.

Any questions please ask I shall try and reply to any you have.


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djkillab

Valued member
Thanks for your write up and I wish u all the best with your progress.
It was sad to read about the things you avoided because of your hairline. It's a feeling that a lot of guys go through and it's a real shame that our insecurities can be so dehabilitating.
I'm currently working on a shortlist of clinics/surgeons for a 2nd transplant after receiving a poor first one and haven't come across Dr Pinto yet. He sounds good from what youve written above. How much does he charge? You can DM me if you'd prefer.
Good luck
 
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firetrapuk

member
Thanks for sharing your story. Looks like he did a great job. Good luck with your journey, looking forward to seeing the results!
 
E

Edsarn

Member
This looks incredibly neat and tidy @Im new here - I think you should get a very good result from this!! Looking forward to seeing your progress over the coming months. Now is the hard part - waiting! The work looks great and you picked a good doctor, so try not to worry at all. I know it is easier said than done.
 
I

Im new here

member
Thanks all once the scabs are off and everything looks ok I shall try and relax for a bit and not think about it for a while.

The area covered was 37cm2 with 2352 grafts so somewhere around 63 or 64 grafts per cm2 I would guess. Probably more at the hairline and less further back
 
Speoj

Speoj

member
I've replied to your DM, but it's looking great mate! Hope the recovery continues to go smoothly. Keep us updated.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks for the great documentation of your HT journey. It`s been a long wait for you but it finally happened. As you know, I`m always happy to help if I can and I`m pleased our conversations were helpful to you.
Receding at a young age is stressful but luckily your hair loss either stopped or slowed down dramatically. Erroring on the side of caution with the meds is the option I would have taken for myself. Although your break from the meds was pretty successful. Having your kids and building a family life, congrats.

Everything sounds like you had a very good experience with your initial contact with the clinic and then the whole surgery procedure. The donor extractions look great, nice spaced-out extraction pattern. The placement looks densely packed, with nice clean and refined work. Those 2352 should produce a great new hairline for you. Being back on the meds should complement the HT and slow down or prevent future loss.

You`re already passed the difficult first few days after surgery. The healing process will be complete in the next few days. Then it`ll be the wait for the new growth to happen.

I`m looking forward to following your progress.

All the best.

Bm.
 
I

Im new here

member
Thanks for your write up and I wish u all the best with your progress.
It was sad to read about the things you avoided because of your hairline. It's a feeling that a lot of guys go through and it's a real shame that our insecurities can be so dehabilitating.
I'm currently working on a shortlist of clinics/surgeons for a 2nd transplant after receiving a poor first one and haven't come across Dr Pinto yet. He sounds good from what youve written above. How much does he charge? You can DM me if you'd prefer.
Good luck
Thanks I have sent you a message and prove I paid. Good luck with yours, be sure you get a doctor you have full faith in as you don’t want to waste any grafts
 
I

Im new here

member
Thanks for the great documentation of your HT journey. It`s been a long wait for you but it finally happened. As you know, I`m always happy to help if I can and I`m pleased our conversations were helpful to you.
Receding at a young age is stressful but luckily your hair loss either stopped or slowed down dramatically. Erroring on the side of caution with the meds is the option I would have taken for myself. Although your break from the meds was pretty successful. Having your kids and building a family life, congrats.

Everything sounds like you had a very good experience with your initial contact with the clinic and then the whole surgery procedure. The donor extractions look great, nice spaced-out extraction pattern. The placement looks densely packed, with nice clean and refined work. Those 2352 should produce a great new hairline for you. Being back on the meds should complement the HT and slow down or prevent future loss.

You`re already passed the difficult first few days after surgery. The healing process will be complete in the next few days. Then it`ll be the wait for the new growth to happen.

I`m looking forward to following your progress.

All the best.

Bm.
Thanks for the nice words and again for all your help. Some of the scabs are falling now but only parts of the edges and the skin underneath looks very pink. I shall keep the thread updated. I am going to upload a photo of the donor which is a week after a hair transplant and I think looks great just to show people what it might like look for them after a week
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks for the nice words and again for all your help. Some of the scabs are falling now but only parts of the edges and the skin underneath looks very pink. I shall keep the thread updated. I am going to upload a photo of the donor which is a week after a hair transplant and I think looks great just to show people what it might like look for them after a week


Sometimes scabs do linger. Some people just heal slower. It’s important not to force them off.

Your donor looks in great shape. It looks as though you e only had a buzz cut, not Fue surgery.
 
I

Im new here

member
Hi All

2 weeks in the books now so just updating. Nearly all the scabs came off around day 11 but I do have a couple that are now tony but still there. Dr Bruno Pinto said they are because I had a lot of fibrin and they are just going to take a few days more to go. When washing they are hanging off but one point is still hanging on and he said just to leave them until they fall themselves.

The donor area looks really good. I have had the back and sides cut today to blend it a little better. There’s still a big difference between the lengths and it’s noticeable but doesn’t look that bad and in another two weeks it should be able to all blend well I think.

Glad to get these two weeks out of the way. These were harder than having the surgery with spraying and washes and sleeping on my back.

I know all the grafts are going to shed soon but hopefully it won’t be so bad and the growth of the transplanted hair starts ealru

I shall update again at one month.

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loui

loui

Valued member
Hi All

2 weeks in the books now so just updating. Nearly all the scabs came off around day 11 but I do have a couple that are now tony but still there. Dr Bruno Pinto said they are because I had a lot of fibrin and they are just going to take a few days more to go. When washing they are hanging off but one point is still hanging on and he said just to leave them until they fall themselves.

The donor area looks really good. I have had the back and sides cut today to blend it a little better. There’s still a big difference between the lengths and it’s noticeable but doesn’t look that bad and in another two weeks it should be able to all blend well I think.

Glad to get these two weeks out of the way. These were harder than having the surgery with spraying and washes and sleeping on my back.

I know all the grafts are going to shed soon but hopefully it won’t be so bad and the growth of the transplanted hair starts ealru

I shall update again at one month
Looks really good (y)
 
Techno1

Techno1

member
Dr. Bruno Pintos is an impressive doctor that produces natural results. Your transplanted area will create an awesome hairline.
 
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