Hi All,
Finally took the plunge about 2 weeks ago after lots of research and a 6 month Covid delay. I had a trouble finding similar cases to mine, so I thought it would be helpful for folks in the future if I made a timeline. This way I can also force myself to keep better track as well. I'll follow this post up with a couple of others, giving a rough timeline and my thoughts on the process at each stage.
- Previous Hairline: My family has a history of prominent foreheads with high temporal recessions. I had roughly the same hairline from the age of 18 onwards, with only a minor amount of backwards drift until the age of 23; am currently 32. My hair is quite fine and very straight, more blonde on top, progressing to a sandy brown on the sides and finishing red as it nears facial hair.
- Consultation: I met with Dr. Hasson and Chis at the Hasson & Wong office towards the end of January 2020. We discussed my goals of advancing my hairline and filling in my temporal recessions. Dr. Hasson mentioned I had some thinning in the front and crown. Looking back at photos shows this had started roughly two years prior. He recommended I start taking finasteride to halt and reverse this, which I did roughly 3 weeks after our meeting. Both of them recommended 4000 FUE would be necessary to achieve my goals, and that would be split into two 2000 graft session back to back. I ended up booking for March 2020, however 1 week ahead of my surgery date Covid hit and I had to reschedule. It would have been perfect to ride out the ugly duckling phase in quarantine, but c'est la vie.
- Surgery Day 1: I arrived at 7 AM and was introduced to the surgery team, I can't remember anyone's names but they were all friendly and accommodating. We did the whole photo shoot thing, and then Dr. Hasson came in and we started discussing the new hairline. He mentioned that while my crown had recovered the frontal zone had not and he also noticed some thinning in my temple points. At that time he told me we could stick with the original plan of 4000, but I would most likely be back for a second pass and if I wanted it done in one go I should increase slightly to 5000. I liked the 5000 hairline much better and agreed that I'd like it done in one go, rather than a follow up down the road. Looking back that was a wise choice as I was in for a ride, and am quite glad I am unlikely to need another surgery in my lifetime, or so I've been told. I want to preface by saying this was no fault of the surgical team or clinic, it simply came down to my own biology.
Day 1 was to be spent on the front hairline and day two would be working on the temporal recessions and temple points. They took the first 2500 from my left side, I was given a zopiclone as I would be there for a while, and there was only minor pain from the anaesthetic injections. The extractions were performed by a technician, the doctor returned to make the incisions, and lastly the grafts were installed by a rotating team of technicians, lovely ladies all. In general day 1 was a fairly easy, I was there for about 12 hours, was fed twice and had a pretty chill day.
Surgery day 2 - Day two started largely the same as day one, with a zopiclone and then the right side extractions; I believe I slept through most of this stage. The zopiclone started to wear off roughly halfway through the incision stage, and that was when the road got a little rougher.
I have had problems with general anaesthetic in the past, and usually require extra injections to be completely numb. I also tend to metabolize the anaesthetic quickly and require frequent top ups. Towards the end of the implantation stage I was requiring injections on a steady basis, roughly every 10-15 minutes. For the last 2 hours or so my body was metabolizing the anaesthetic so quickly as to render it nearly ineffective. The team did all they could to accommodate, but at one point we had to take a break because I was shaking so badly that I was making their job difficult, and they were concerned I would pass out.
Over all day 2 was a slog. I've heard no pain, no gain, but it wasn't a lot of fun. Maybe I have a low pain tolerance, who knows...
I returned for 2 consecutive days to have them wash and inspect the sites.
- General Thoughts:
- Dr Hasson's bedside manner is excellent. He noticed immediately how nervous I was on the morning of day 1 and was calming and reassuring. He was obviously quite busy, but took his time and made himself available to answer my questions
- The office has a fairly laid back vibe, everyone is very friendly and were a pleasure to be around
- I was surprised at how little direct involvement Dr. Hasson had with the process, he popped in and out throughout the day. However, the results speak for themselves as you'll see in the follow posts
- The team actually ended up extracting an extra 200 grafts, but as Dr. Hasson only made 5000 incisions these additional grafts were cut into singles and added into existing groups. I was not charged for this, and can assume it was because of a low transection rate?
- The number of grafts sounded high to me, but I trusted the Doctor's recommendation and the density looks as though it directly matches that of my native hair.
- Graft Breakdown:
Day 1 : 2512 FUE extracted . 300 single hair grafts – 1714 2 hair grafts and 498 3 to 4 hair bundle grafts. Total number of hairs 5222.
Day 2 : 2650 FUE extracted . 150 single hair grafts – 1867 2 hair grafts and 624 3 to 4 hair bundle grafts. Total number of hairs 5774.
Combined number of grafts 5162.
Combined number of hairs 10,996.
Finally took the plunge about 2 weeks ago after lots of research and a 6 month Covid delay. I had a trouble finding similar cases to mine, so I thought it would be helpful for folks in the future if I made a timeline. This way I can also force myself to keep better track as well. I'll follow this post up with a couple of others, giving a rough timeline and my thoughts on the process at each stage.
- Previous Hairline: My family has a history of prominent foreheads with high temporal recessions. I had roughly the same hairline from the age of 18 onwards, with only a minor amount of backwards drift until the age of 23; am currently 32. My hair is quite fine and very straight, more blonde on top, progressing to a sandy brown on the sides and finishing red as it nears facial hair.
- Consultation: I met with Dr. Hasson and Chis at the Hasson & Wong office towards the end of January 2020. We discussed my goals of advancing my hairline and filling in my temporal recessions. Dr. Hasson mentioned I had some thinning in the front and crown. Looking back at photos shows this had started roughly two years prior. He recommended I start taking finasteride to halt and reverse this, which I did roughly 3 weeks after our meeting. Both of them recommended 4000 FUE would be necessary to achieve my goals, and that would be split into two 2000 graft session back to back. I ended up booking for March 2020, however 1 week ahead of my surgery date Covid hit and I had to reschedule. It would have been perfect to ride out the ugly duckling phase in quarantine, but c'est la vie.
- Surgery Day 1: I arrived at 7 AM and was introduced to the surgery team, I can't remember anyone's names but they were all friendly and accommodating. We did the whole photo shoot thing, and then Dr. Hasson came in and we started discussing the new hairline. He mentioned that while my crown had recovered the frontal zone had not and he also noticed some thinning in my temple points. At that time he told me we could stick with the original plan of 4000, but I would most likely be back for a second pass and if I wanted it done in one go I should increase slightly to 5000. I liked the 5000 hairline much better and agreed that I'd like it done in one go, rather than a follow up down the road. Looking back that was a wise choice as I was in for a ride, and am quite glad I am unlikely to need another surgery in my lifetime, or so I've been told. I want to preface by saying this was no fault of the surgical team or clinic, it simply came down to my own biology.
Day 1 was to be spent on the front hairline and day two would be working on the temporal recessions and temple points. They took the first 2500 from my left side, I was given a zopiclone as I would be there for a while, and there was only minor pain from the anaesthetic injections. The extractions were performed by a technician, the doctor returned to make the incisions, and lastly the grafts were installed by a rotating team of technicians, lovely ladies all. In general day 1 was a fairly easy, I was there for about 12 hours, was fed twice and had a pretty chill day.
Surgery day 2 - Day two started largely the same as day one, with a zopiclone and then the right side extractions; I believe I slept through most of this stage. The zopiclone started to wear off roughly halfway through the incision stage, and that was when the road got a little rougher.
I have had problems with general anaesthetic in the past, and usually require extra injections to be completely numb. I also tend to metabolize the anaesthetic quickly and require frequent top ups. Towards the end of the implantation stage I was requiring injections on a steady basis, roughly every 10-15 minutes. For the last 2 hours or so my body was metabolizing the anaesthetic so quickly as to render it nearly ineffective. The team did all they could to accommodate, but at one point we had to take a break because I was shaking so badly that I was making their job difficult, and they were concerned I would pass out.
Over all day 2 was a slog. I've heard no pain, no gain, but it wasn't a lot of fun. Maybe I have a low pain tolerance, who knows...
I returned for 2 consecutive days to have them wash and inspect the sites.
- General Thoughts:
- Dr Hasson's bedside manner is excellent. He noticed immediately how nervous I was on the morning of day 1 and was calming and reassuring. He was obviously quite busy, but took his time and made himself available to answer my questions
- The office has a fairly laid back vibe, everyone is very friendly and were a pleasure to be around
- I was surprised at how little direct involvement Dr. Hasson had with the process, he popped in and out throughout the day. However, the results speak for themselves as you'll see in the follow posts
- The team actually ended up extracting an extra 200 grafts, but as Dr. Hasson only made 5000 incisions these additional grafts were cut into singles and added into existing groups. I was not charged for this, and can assume it was because of a low transection rate?
- The number of grafts sounded high to me, but I trusted the Doctor's recommendation and the density looks as though it directly matches that of my native hair.
- Graft Breakdown:
Day 1 : 2512 FUE extracted . 300 single hair grafts – 1714 2 hair grafts and 498 3 to 4 hair bundle grafts. Total number of hairs 5222.
Day 2 : 2650 FUE extracted . 150 single hair grafts – 1867 2 hair grafts and 624 3 to 4 hair bundle grafts. Total number of hairs 5774.
Combined number of grafts 5162.
Combined number of hairs 10,996.
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