For the patient page please visit web page

Photo of the patient before the procedure.
1)photo 1

2) second photo before the session
photo 2

AFTER THE PROCEDURE--- MINUTES

1)PHOTO 1

2)photo 2

3) photo 3

4) photo 4

5)photo 5


For more information please visit his page

A person has two brains. Right and left. Your left brain has nothing right, and your right brain has nothing left.

Please keep us updated on a weekly basis.
I believe that many of us considering HT are waiting to see some great results from FUE as strip is a bit outdated by now.

I myself will have a HT but only FUE/FIT.
How much was this procedure?

EL Guapo

Donor area: photo 1

Donor area in microscope: photo 2

Front view: photo 3

Full face view: photo 4

Always at your disposal. Any photos I receive I will post them in regular basis. El guapo what do you mean how much this procedure? 2200 grafts were transplanted in two consecutive sessions. Any other question, i would be glad to answer.

A person has two brains. Right and left. Your left brain has nothing right, and your right brain has nothing left.

Akonsta, thanks for the great documentation of your procedure. As I was looking at your pictures I started to wonder something. What are the chances that FUE'd grafts will continue growing and not fall out? Maybe this is just wishful thinking. I know that the follicles have to go through the same traumatic journey from donor to recip but wouldn't it be great if they could just keep growing?

what i meant was how much did it cost?
please keep us updated.
I am following this with great interest.
You see, there is no way in hell i would ever get a strip -that is an ancient technique that is by now outdated - as I want to be able to wear my hair very short.

How does your donor area look now?

thanks man
El Guapo

El Guapo,

Stop already. If you think strip is outdated, that's fine. But your continual posting of that comment is narrow-minded and annoying.

Strip is not outdated. It is the mainstream hair transplant technique of today, a viable alternative to FUE/FIT, and a better value exchange if one requires a large number of grafts.

My opinion of FUE/FIT is it is nothing more than punch grafting in the new millenium. A more refined approach to technology from 20 years ago... just using a smaller punch. Does it bring value and contribute to the results a doctor can produce? Absolutely. Is it the be all and end all, no way!

Mr. T

Mr. T's 8 month post-op photos

do agree.... but...
if someone is getting an HT, it's not for the purpose of shaving their head. Strip is so far the common approach, and hpefully FUE will be the common soon. Most everyone wants the best bang for the buck. And strip will get you there. Hopefully soon, most Docs, will goto FUE and price accordingly to the fact the less nurses involved means less overhead, driving the price competitely. Hope for the best soon, or strip will be the standard for many years to come.

El Guapo,

I disagree with your comments about strip for a couple of reasons...

Being a NW 5, I like having the option of having 2 strip megasessions to get 5-7k grafts at a reasonable price, with solid, proven, timetested results and without mortgaging the house.

Given a good doc, clinic, technique, the risk of bad scarring, nerve damage, complications are MUCH less.

In addition, after having 2 megasessions and exhausting my strip "supply" (calculate avg 5-7k grafts obtained for 2 strip megasessions) you still have the FUE option in the future (perhaps an additional 4-5k grafts which you can use for refinements, adding density, touchups, etc That gives me a total option of 9-12k grafts.

Now if you are planning on shaving down, then obviously strip is not for you, but why get HT in the first place if you want to shave it all off? Seems counterproductive to me.

My main point that for the person with advanced balding, it is nice to have both as options, initial megasession(s) of strip with a great doc, then refinements/adding density with FUE if necessary.

If a NW 6 wants complete coverage and good density, can it be achieved with just FUE? Likely not (unless bodyhair is involved, and this is a separate beast). Can he achieve it with strip + FUE....yes!

For a person lower on the NW scale, I would continue my meds and consider FUE more strongly as a first option.

Norwood 5 sucks...but 7 swallows

HT Dr. Hassan 1/5/04
www.dtrojanz.com

Does anyone know what the eventual nerve damage (numbness) is like for FUE compared to strip? With strip, it would seem that lasting numbness would be confined to the donar scar. With FUE, it would seem possible that numbness could result over the entire back of the head since slits are made every place. Is my reasoning correct?

Active:
- I believe that there will not be any nervdamage as a result from an FUE transplant
as you are not removing a part of you scalp. It is much less invasive.
I could be wrong but i do not think so.

dtrojanz:
-Why would I want to shave my head after a strip?

I'll give you a few reasons.
1) Lets say my hairloss progeresses even faster after a HT and I just dont want to spend the money or go into surgery again. With strip surgery I am stuck. Strip is a lifelong commitment. Many patients, young ones especially, get scuked into a lifelong dependance on more surgery as their hairloss progresses.

2) I think that a almost shaved head or a "buzzcut" looks really good on some people with the right head shape. I dont think I have ever seen anyone look good in a buzzcut if he has no hairline. (unless he is black) The shadow of the hairline frames the face. Even more so when the hair is really really short. At this lenght a strip would not be very atractive.

FUE is the future boys.
The outragous prices must first go down however and it will as more and more surgeons are learning this technique.
Doctors will keep on doing strip as long as there are patients that will have it beacause this is what the doctor is used to and feels comfortable with. This will change as FUE becomes more available and patients demand it.

Besides the price there is no reason whatsoever for someone to do strip unless he is a NW6 or more.

The argument that strip is timetested etc is outragous I think. What difference would it make how the grafts are harvested as long as they are placed into the scalp within the same timeframe and are not damaged?
And FU strips are not that timetested to be honest. They have not even been available for that many years.


My 2 cents
El Guapo

Why would anyone spen thousands of dollars for a HT only to shave their head totally bald??? Makes no sense, even with a buzzed head you can see that a guy is balding. In fact, I would say it looks even worse.

El Guapo,

If you really think strip is on it's way out, my only suggestion is don't hold your breath waiting.

You asked...

quote:

---

Why on earth would you want to get a strip surgery that leaves a scar with the possiblity of stretching, permanent nerve damage, numbness and tightness, if it can be avoided?

---

Cost and convenience. That's why. I could not achieve the same results in the same timeframe with FUE that I did with strip... and I'd do it again... and I may.

There are ways to manage the risks you cited. The first and most important is to choose an excellent doctor with an excellent track record. I did that. Yes, there are always exceptions, but there are also exceptions and risks with FUE.

I have had three strip surgeries, plus the earlier punch grafts. The possibility for problems existed with all and has not occurred. Every proponent of FUE quotes these same risks, yet never acknowledges any risks with FUE.

Plus, the scar doesn't bother me as my body has plenty from many foolish or unavoidable events in my 43 years... and it is undetectable beneath my hair.

In the end, I received a HT to have hair, not so I could shave my head or wear a buzz cut. If I wanted to shave my head, I would have done that instead of starting down the HT path. I didn't, don't, and never will want to shave my head.

I am not saying FUE dooesn't have a place in today's HT space. It provides an alternative techique to permanently addressing hair loss... but it's not going to replace strip now or anytime soon as the most practiced technique. I'd be willing to bet large on that.

I agree the price of FUE needs to go down, but that isn't going to happen as more people learn the technicue. It will only happen when doctors can achieve comparable revenenue for their time as they do with strip. Otherwise. many like myself will choose the savings and coverage of strip over the cost and less coverage of FUE.

Mr. T

Mr. T's 8 month post-op photos

I dont think we should be talking about strip VS. FUE, but strip + FUE for the advanced NW patient.

A NW 5-6 may get decent results with just 1 method, but superior results with the marriage of the 2 methods.

If we are talking about a low NW scale patient, or someone hell bent on buzzing, then yes, FUE, if it continues to show positive results, would be the way to go.

I'm seeing more and more people "joining" camps (FUE vs. strip) and encouraging people to get one procedure over another essentially "convincing" a person to eliminate a potentially important option from the arsenal...and this is just a shame.

We should, instead be concentrating our energies in "convincing" people to avoid the hair mills, hacks and quacks, whether they do strip or FUE

Norwood 5 sucks...but 7 swallows

HT Dr. Hassan 1/5/04
www.dtrojanz.com

quote:

---

What are the chances that FUE'd grafts will continue growing and not fall out? Maybe this is just wishful thinking. I know that the follicles have to go through the same traumatic journey from donor to recip but wouldn't it be great if they could just keep growing?

---

Yes, it would be great and that is our common goal. Every surgeon in the hair transplant world should have a goal of 100% growth in 100% of patients with no post transplant effluvium. Many in the industry are working hard to accomplish this mission. In the near future we will likely have better storage solutions that will eliminate post transplant effluvium. For small sessions we are also moving the grafts directly from the donor area to the recipient area. In theory this would minimize the time out of the body and thus increase the likelihood they continue growing. Sometimes they still shed however just from the trauma of being extracted. We will continue to experiment and work daily to find the best methods to eliminate post transplant effluvium. Shedding has many factors including time left in Lactated Ringer's solution or chilled saline, each patient's own healing characteristics, and trauma to graft during extraction and placement.

So, to give even a rough estimate for any give patient is challenging. All we can do is quote statistical averages. We brought this patient in the pictures with us to the DHI London FUE seminar and everyone attending was able to see him close up. His grafts have yet to shed. They'll probably begin the first shed within a couple of weeks. We'll keep a close eye on him to see how many grafts he keeps.

I had around 50 body hair FUE grafts placed into my crown to show the seminar attendees how the grafts look 24-48 hours immediately post op. I am now 1 week post op. Since my session was so small I'm not sure how many of my grafts will shed. I suspect I'll keep a higher percentage of them than someone would on a mega session since the session was so small.

El Guapo, you are welcome to e-mail me at any time if you have any additional questions.

PeterMac@dhi.gr
www.dhimedical.com

Peter, thanks for the good info.
John

how would guys who are a norwood 6 or 7 afford two megasessions and fue later?

that's like 30-50K! for hair that is not full density--and many times not even quite the 50% needed to look like there is no balding.

wow! what if a woman had 50k of plastic surgery, i think we would be calling her vain, shallow and obsessed.

just a thought...

photo 1

photo 2

photo 3


Photos taken in 06/02/04

photo 1

photo 2

photo 3

photo 4

photo 5

A person has two brains. Right and left. Your left brain has nothing right, and your right brain has nothing left.

Photos taken today, 12 March 2004

http://www.dhi.gr/images/p_after_dk22b.jpg

http://www.dhi.gr/images/p_after_dk23b.jpg

http://www.dhi.gr/images/p_after_dk24b.jpg

http://www.dhi.gr/images/p_after_dk25b.jpg

http://www.dhi.gr/images/p_after_dk26b.jpg

http://www.dhi.gr/images/p_after_dk27b.jpg


The fourth photo is before shaving him and the fifth after shaving him.

akonsta@dhi.gr

http://www.dhimedical.com

UKGEEZER,
This is the difference between FUE & strip. There is no scar!

Many small scars exist on his head. I'm not completely sold on the idea that as you age, these do not show. It does seem that the donor sites are fairly high on the sides and back of your head, and over time may become more difficult to hide. A properly placed strip however should not be visible with the appropriate hair length. As with any new procedures it has good AND bad. At least we know up front with strip what we are in for(with a good doctor, of course.


Just my opinion
SPOT