Ok boys and girls, here are the first pictures of my road to recovery. 3100 total with Dr. Shapiro 10/7/05

Looks really good B Spot. Looks very promising. You should have some nice all around coverage and a good amount of density it seems. It's hard to tel from your before pics, but it appears you didn't have much native hair up there yes? 3100 grafts will give you some decent coverage, but don't expect too much. I really like how Shapiro placed the grafts though. Please...keep posting back with updates.

Falc

Yeah I was pretty much a full 6, but I have awesome scalp laxity and my donor strip yielded 3100 on a 1.25cm 27cm strip. After 6 days I can feel my scalp loosening up already, and I think I can get another 3000 plus again. Since I buzzed my head down to a #1 it is difficult to tell just how much native hair I do have. It is not much, but for a guy like me that makes it easier at this point in my life to have a plan of attack put in place with in my opinion the best HT doc on the planet. In this instance I covered a 120cm part of my scalp with 3100 grafts. My coverage will be between 25 to 40 fu percm2 which is AMAZING considering I had about 5 :-) When I do #2 I expect to have coverage in the front half at 35 to 55 with some coverage into crown at 20 to 30. You know Falc, after I got out of the chair, I immediately couldn't wait for #2. Did you feel the same way? BTW your looking pretty good up top yourself, buddy!

Lookin' good B Spot. It'll be fun watching those suckers grow. That's alot of hair!

B spot,

Congradulations on a truly world class surgery. I think the session you got is actually a text book perfect example of truly cutting edge Ultra Refined Follicular Unit Hair Transplantation.

By taking a long strip and not going wider than 1.25 cm Dr. Shapiro was able produce 3100 true follicular unit grafts for you, while not over taxing your donor area. In my opinion, your first session will produce a dramatic improvement in your cosmetic density over a larger area.

Once your donor area heals up and its elasticity returns you will be in an excellent position to do another large all follicular unit session to refine and expand your first session coverage, while increasing your density.

I think Dr. Shapiro and other Coalition surgeons' philosophy of doing first sessions between 2,500 to 3,500 ultra refined follicular unit grafts (not sub follicular unit grafts) is right on for guys with your degree of baldness. I strongly believe that such sessions will give you the safest and most impressive results in the long run, while doing it most cost effectively.

It was pleasure meeting you in person as well. I enjoyed your sense of humor.

I appreciate your willingness to come back to this forum to share your experience and knowledge with others.

Welcome to the real "Hair Club". I know every one here looks forward to seeing your progress as a "thickening" man.

Pat

i agree with the guys. congratulations on your procedure. you have a lot of area to cover but your 1st procedure should get you on the right path. probably one more big proedure after this and youll get the density you want.

good luck and keep us posted.


cas.

Thanks Pat. I did enjoy meeting you as well. I have more or less kept my opinions about session size to myself, choosing to wait until my first procedure to offer comments. For guys like myself, two 2500 to 3500 sessions seem to be in order, with perhaps a small touch up if necessary (donor permitting, of course). Again, what works for me, may not work for everyone else, but I offer my opinion for those who would like to listen.


3100 w/Shapiro
10/7/05

Thanks Casanova I think we are all waiting for your results as well. Continue to keep up posted and happy growing!

3100 w/Shapiro
10/7/05

B Spot

I'm curious as to graft distribution. Do you know how many grafts went to the vertex, hairline, and top top third?

I'm scheduled for a small procedure and will probably need more. I'm trying to guestimate how much area 1200 will cover with moderate density 30-40 per cm. I'm guessing it would be approximately 1/3 of the area you had done but that assumes that you had even distribution of grafts accross the entire scalp.

Thanks. Judging for the pics, your hair is going to be awesome when it grows out. Hey, how was post-op, shedding, swelling, scabs, redness, etc? How soon before you could return to work?

I had the procedure done on Fri and I could have went back to work Tues. I took until Thursday because I just wanted to make sure I gave myself enough time to recover fully.

As far as how I feel, post-op is going great, no shedding, very little swelling (forehead, eyes), very little redness, and lot's of scabs. The scabs aren't so bad (since they are necessary :-) I have heard others say they needed 3 days, some a week or so. I just think I heal quick, and I can't wait to get these damn staples out, that's for sure! (Tue)
You know, my graft distribution is pretty interesting (to me anyway). If you look at my head imagine starting in the middle and working out. Since my strip yielded lots of 2, 3, 4 hair grafts Dr. Shapiro decided to bring my hairline down a bit and go back right to my crown. I covered a 120 cm section, but not equally. In the middle, imagine packing 40 fu's into a cm/2 but having 2 or 3 hair grafts each fu and expanding outward. Obviously, this will provide more density then if all the fu's were 1's or 2's. As you go toward my hairline it thins a bit to around 25-30 cm/2, using all single fu's to provide a natural hairline. I think this depends on what your strip yields though. I actually yielded 2970 grafts, but an additional 130 grafts were split because they were in 6-7 groupings, and needed to be cut down. Funny thing is, I was shocked at how dense my donor hair was, (so was Dr. Shapiro).
I have to ask though, why such a small procedure for you?

Good god man, simply amazing! Look forward to an awesome early springtime>

Thanks JacobS! I will be posting some one month photos soon as I have shaved down to a #1. When I post, I want everyone to see how my scar looks now, and will look in the future. It is the belief of my personal doctor that my scar will be undetectable in 8 to 12 months, even almost shaved. Anywho---- I cannot wait until the sprouting begins!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by the B spot:
I will be posting some one month photos soon as I have shaved down to a #1. When I post, I want everyone to see how my scar looks now,

Good job (the HT)! I'm looking forward to seeing the scar pics. I hope my redness disappears as quickly as yours did.

PB

Thanks PB~~~~~

Anywho, I posted three new photos showing my scar line. I hope this shows how awesome Dr. Shapiro is with regards to wound closure. I cannot express how happy I am that I finally decided to do this guys. While I am not someone who stressed out about this, I approached the HT with a great deal of research and trepidation. Barring any extenuating circumstances, I will be scheduling another HT in August or September of next year!!!! I will post additional photos each month to show my progress.

B Spot,

Again, great to meet you in person on your day of surgery. As an old timer whose biggest "mega" session was 1,450 grafts I have "follicular envy" when I see guys like you getting 3,000 plus grafts in one session :-)

Your new photos are huge (1 meg plus) and too larger for dial up users. Could you JPEG compress these photos to around 100k and repost them?

Sure Pat, I will try to do this right away.

you havea a lot of courage to walk around with a scar like that exposed!

not to say its bad

but man!

Well Casanova, It is all part of master plan to prove that I am scientifically approaching my baldness. Getting a hairtransplant was not an emotional response to how I look or feel, but simply the choice to have hair based on research. Dr. Shapiro is the finest surgeon I have seen, and I will be a testament to this once my hair comes in which factored into my decision. Please understand, I wear this scar as a badge, almost to prove my reasons for getting a HT are not shallow or illconceived. Either way, I am proud to show people who do not understand exactly how HT's are done, what is entailed.

that is very noble of you. good luck with growth.

quote:

Originally posted by baldcasanova:
you havea a lot of courage to walk around with a scar like that exposed!

Although, seeing a scar like that, how many people would think "HT"? Probably a very small minority. We know because we're in this business but take the average Joe Bloggs and he'll say "yeah this guy must have had surgery for a brain tumor or something". Even my hairdresser asked me what kind of accident my scar came from. Good luck with the growth man, what a change it will be!