HT by Dr Ball, Ziering London - Follow my Journey

[hairtoday2013]

Hi all,

I've been reading the forum for a couple of weeks now and it's been a great resource for knowledge and insight in to others experiences with hair loss and hair transplants.

Seeing some of the results of others encouraged me to take the plunge and the day of my hair transplant is finally coming up next week at Ziering London with Dr Ball, and I thought it would be useful and interesting for me and others if I documented my progress.

I'm a little anxious as I've never had surgery of any sort before so the anticipation is building up...can't wait for the procedure to be over and done with and those initial 5 - 6 months to pass!

Fingers crossed things go well and I'll have updates very soon!

 

[Sparky]

what are you having done? pre-op pics?

good luck.

 

[Bigmac]

All the best with your upcoming procedure, I'll look forward to seeing the pictures.

Cheers Bm.

 

[hairtoday2013]

Wow! My procedure is done and what an amazing experience! From the moment I walked in the clinic the care, attention, and service was nothing short of 1st class. Special thanks to everyone at the Ziering clinic - I really can't say enough about how well I was looked after and how the experience of the day of surgery went...

Anyway, the proof is in the pudding as they say, and as we're a (I guess) results driven society, exceptionally high levels of service can only differentiate you if you first deliver exceptional results, but as my FUT surgery was only carried out on Monday there's a long way to go before we actually start seeing those results! However I am quietly confident everything will turn out as expected in time.

I'm not sure on the exact numbers (will find out including graft breakdown) but I believe we were able to harvest just over 2,600 grafts with the goal to work on the front third of the top of the head.

I was at the clinic for approx 12 hours and the whole procedure was surprisingly less painfully than I though it would have been.

I'm currently at post-op day one. There's very occasional pain in the donor area but apart from that, swelling (I think) is minimal and the scabbing in the recipient area is, in my opinion, reasonable, and will hopefully clear away in the anticipated time frame of 7 days. And when I say 'pain' in the donor area, it's more of a nuisance...on a pain scale of 1 - 10, it's about a 1.5. When it creeps up to a 3 I take some pain killers.

The post-op period is the time I feared the most because I've been worried about doing anything wrong that might affect progress of the HT but so far I think I'm doing ok.

I'm regularly using the graftcyte spray on the recipient area, using the graftcyte pads as instructed, taking meds to control swelling and sleeping at 45 degrees.

Tomorrow is the first day I will cup wash my hair. I went in to the clinic today to be shown how to do it and have it done. Seems simple enough but I'm going to take it very cautiously and gentle.

Anyway, many snaps were taken at the clinic so I'll try to get hold of them and post them but for now here are a couple of pre-op shots I took myself on Sunday. I'll add some day 2 post-op shots tomorrow after my morning hair wash so people can have a look at the work and comment.

 

[CMD]

Hi Hairtoday2013, glad everything went okay for you. I had my procedure done 6 weeks ago with Dr Ball and like you mention it was a great experience. Just take things slow and patience is the key. All the best

 

[janna]

Nice job on the pics so far. Looking forward to following your progress.

You can only post one pic at a time unless you load all your pictures into the photo gallery first. Since you have a lot more pics to post, it may be a good idea to use the gallery. Bigmac should be able to help you if you have questions on how to create a gallery.

 

[bullitnut]

Congratulations on your procedure with Dr Ball, as everyone says try to be patient and not think about looking in the mirror as much over the coming months even though it's hard, this is a long drawn out procedure, but come 12 months you will be a new man.

Take it easy and rest up.

 

[Dazzster26]

Hi

Welcome to the forum great pictures , all the very best and hope you get a great result, looking foward to your updates. Its a great forum and support is here if you need it stay cool

Take care I care

Cheers

D

 

[Captain]

Hi hairtoday2013,

Mr Ball has done another great job, I had my HT with Ziering last year and I am very happy with the reults and how I was looked after before, during and after the HT. The photos look great, please keep us updated with the progress.

Cheers

Captain

 

[hairtoday2013]

Thanks guys!

I'm really happy with how the healing process is going - at least for the recipient area. It's hard to tell for the donor area until the stitches come out...but redness is pretty much non-existent now (post-op, day 4), there's no swelling, and no pain.

What is going to be a pain is I'll be out for pretty much the entire day tomorrow which means I'll be needing to keep the hair covered up, which I don't really want to do as I read it is important to let the hair breathe. What have others done in similar situations post-op?

How worried should I be that this is going to upset the healing process, and aside from not going out what's the best thing I can do to keep disruptions to a minimum?

Btw, found out today 2657 grafts were harvested. Here's the breakdown I was given which actually adds up to 2667!

1's: 1063
2's: 1372
3/4's: 232

Interesting breakdown based on others I have seen on the forum, but I'm thrilled with what (fingers-crossed) the grafts I had at my disposal are going to yield down the line. Roll on 12 months! )(_::

Pictures removed as requested by patient..... Bigmac.