- Reaction score
- 1,380
well its done.
7K
What started a bit over 1000 grafts quickly multiplied.
Its a funny thing listening to all these surgeons talk about grafts and hair counts. Some say a hair is a graft other say a full follicle is a graft even if it has 3 hairs, but then some will still slice that up into 3 separate hairs. I got all sorts of funny explanations.
To me this is such a weird medical field where the rules are only subject by the surgeons imagination.
As some may have read my write ups on the consults I finally did it.
I went on about half a dozen consults and kept going back to these guys
http://www.nehair.com/
Im glad I did BUT STILL the night before was torture.
Am I making the right decision?
Will I be happy?
Am I spending the money right?
Will this even help?
Will I end up WORSE off?
I mean we were even expecting a blizzard up here the day after my procedure (I dont like calling it surgery, getting a heart changed is surgery, this is a "procedure", no more than getting teeth veneers but on your head). Is that a sign?
I woke up at 4am, not that nerves actually let me sleep, to get ready and drive to MA for this by 7am. My GF opted to stay behind since she is terrified of driving in the snow and getting caught in a blizzard on the way home the next day. I dont blame her she would have just stressed me driving, her words.
I drove all the way there and still had doubts, still sat there holding the pen for signatures like I was signing away my kidney from a lost bet. I sat there for 45 minutes talking with Tan and texting my GF. There was this hesitation but also the knowledge I would always be pissed I didnt TRY to do something (finasteride was awful for me, check out the sides forum for something Im going to post there I think I have recently figured out). I signed, got changed and was off.
It started with Dr Tan and the medical assistant shaving my donor area conservatively so my overgrown hair would flap over the shaved spot hiding it.
He made two thinner lines across the back of my head. One above the other.
sorry image is to big to embed.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b3syIURhg...A-M/s1FzxCKpqH8/s1600/IMG_20140212_102716.jpg
this pic shows one of the two lines while the flap cover the other one.
after the removal they had me roll over and started insertion of the hairs in my temples.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SameG5MLn...A-c/6WfW_a2RK_g/s1600/IMG_20140212_152004.jpg
At this point it was mostly Dr Tan and his tech, who was very good herself. Then Doctor Welter comes walking in to assist (he periodically popped in between previous steps) and says "you know i like the way your flaps cover but if you let me block out the area (meaning shave a big block) I can get a TON more donor hairs for you"
In the moment I said "HELL SURE lets do it......" Granted this is WHILE Tan is injecting the grafts in my forehead, so in for a penny in for a pound i guess. They said my donor area was great for FUE (all of my consults were really). I have uber thick hair.
I now ended up with this lol
Me and my GF (who went with me on the final consult) laugh our asses off because for some reason we found Dr Tan, who did my 2 personal consults, very convincing. I mean he does a GOOD consult, we joked at the thought of him at home during our phone conversations with a smoking pipe and jacket running his hands through his own naturally lush hair (and welter has a head of hair like a 12 year old, just insane thick). Hes super informative, honest, oddly charming and extremely laxed. Well Welter is the same way so OF COURSE getting more donor seemed awesome coming from him. HA HA I dont regret it but I may be calling out of work a day or two next week to let this grow in a bit to have my hair dresser fade it out, make a design in it or SOMETHING.
I mellowed out quite a bit throughout but let me tell you novocain does **** for me. If you are planning to do this and have a resilience to novacaine like myslef PLEASE start dermarolling first, and rolling HARD. This will give you an idea of what this feels like. Now dont get me wrong this is MY FAULT, not theirs. I know novocain does nothing for me and they advised they could only put so much by law in you so I kept my trap shut, grinned and beared it. Honestly Im a bit of a sadist so che sera.
Anyway as they removed the rest of the hairs in the back they kept bringing them in stocked for insertion .They use a micrografting syringe style inserter and TINY coring device for removal for a basically zero scar effect. Time will tell of course but really it leaves marks no wider than rolling and you dont get scars from that right? This isnt the exact one but pretty much. They are one of the few who use them over just cutting you with a itty bitty blade and dropping the graft in with tweezers.
We stopped for lunch, they were nice enough to treat but its pretty hard to enjoy a nice fat roast beef with blood and scabs all over your head lol.
We went back in and they were back to work. I will say it was the two doctors and one tech inserting these guys, THREE at once. They were really getting in there and saying they wanted density. They filled in my temples, the bridging I had from front to back and even into still populated areas so there will be hair there when even the old stuff starts thinning more. They were being proactive and I really liked that.
We were in there until 7:30 pm by the time they ran out of grafts, we started removing around 8:30 am, inserting was about 9:15-9:30. This was a long day and by the end of it my head was so raw on top even wind hitting it hurt but I kept telling them to keep going. Novocain was lasting me NO time at all by this point. As soon as they injected it if it lasted 10-15 minutes it was a lot. They were doing a technique called nerve blocking with it that helped a lot but really my body just rejects it way to fast. Even getting my wisdom teeth out in highschool they couldnt keep me under because the IV and gas couldnt keep me out.
I kept a small plastic tropicana bottle in my hand and was crushing it like a stress ball at the end due to the pain. Again I can NOT stress this, NOT THEIR FAULT. I probably had enough sedative in me to drop a horses legs. Dermarolling REALLY built me tolerance to head pain.
On a side note I mentioned the rolling to Dr Welter and he was super intrigued by it. He uses them for PRP procedures and really thought the theory behind doing it is very sound. He said he would reccomend it to people as a test if there werent so many possible chances for infections. He could not say enough be sure you disinfect everything because your head carries a LOT of bacteria even mrsa.
well in the end they went through their work with tiny forceps and checked everything, bandaged me up, gave me a goody bag, some info and sent me to my hotel. I say hotel because I HAD to stay the night. They have you come back the next day to go over all the grafts and see if any need fixing, which a few of mine did. They even gave me a small bottle of solution in case any fell out, to bring back to them the next morning to re insert. The morning of one did actually pop out and I placed it in the bottle and Dr Tan tweezed it right back in.
These two guys take a LOT of pride in their work, I can't stress this. Welter had a personal story behind starting it, not super crazy or tear jerking but he wanted to get into the business to help make it easier, better and more cost effective for the patient/consumer. They worried way more about making this first job perfect than charging me for every little graft. They made sure your expectations were realistic but still tried to go above and beyond. Im not trying to sell their service. But every time I come to a forum people say the same 6 names and are to afraid to step out of that comfort zone. Well I met with a few of those big names and honestly did not like them, I stepped out of the comfort zone and feel better right now for it.
Who knows maybe in 6 months Ill be throwing spaghetti at a wall mother f'ing them up and down, I highly doubt it but as stated in the beginning only time will tell. I say though if you are in the area and looking for this option give them a shot, they have NO shortage on business but I would like to see them get a shot next to names like Cohen in CT.
We even talked about piliofocus. He met that guy at the conference and said he knows him (dont know how well) and could honestly not say ENOUGH GOOD things about him. He said the guy is a genius in the field and would love to see the tech progress. I hope Im not saying to much to get anyone in trouble with anything but I just like to give a lot of details so people can see the genuineness I pretty much felt dealing with this facility and ALL its staff.
They said stay low stress to keep your blood pressure from popping the little guys out but try to drive home in a blizzard (check the snow the northeast got today) and see how your blood pressure holds up.
Wish my healing luck. I shed a tear earlier because I did lose one graft a couple hours ago which they said WILL happen but as long as I take it easy for the next few days I should be fine and if there are any issues call them and they will make it right. I honestly believe them and personally I will say that is a big compliment because I dont really "like" or trust anybody lol.
Heres some after pics. Its hard to see through the areas that actually have some hair left but they went all in.
Im going to post this on my ****ty angry blog to as well in case any information gets removed by mods, which I hope it doesn't. Thats the reason I left bald truth, which NO surgeon I spoke with said anything highly about.... NONE.
I will also update as time goes by but Im sure Im not leaving the forum and will continue to dermaroll my crown as if there are positive results with that they really wanted me to let them know.
Thanks everyone.
Again as I started though
Am I making the right decision?
Will I be happy?
Am I spending the money right?
Will this even help?
Will I end up WORSE off?
as good as my experience was... you just will never know, life is always that way though......
Well from Feb 13th 2014 to today (June 2nd here is some updated progress pics)
You can see some of the new hairs. These things literally sprouted overnight. This is just the temples because you cant see anything in the center due to existing hairs but theyre there.
You can see the super thick pubie looking ones that snuck up on me and even the (hopefully) beginning of the VERY fine ones between ready to bulk up.
Im keeping in touch with the Doctor and fingers crossed that it just keeps coming.
If this works Im already looking at filling in the crown in another year or so when this is paid and my finances are better (technically it is paid but Im cheap as ****e)
update :6/23/14
Okay, just adding to this post so I dont bump my thread.
Noticed my bridging from my front to my crown has been getting smaller, whether this is the FUE coming in, the topical finasteride or both I dont know but I like it!
7K
What started a bit over 1000 grafts quickly multiplied.
Its a funny thing listening to all these surgeons talk about grafts and hair counts. Some say a hair is a graft other say a full follicle is a graft even if it has 3 hairs, but then some will still slice that up into 3 separate hairs. I got all sorts of funny explanations.
To me this is such a weird medical field where the rules are only subject by the surgeons imagination.
As some may have read my write ups on the consults I finally did it.
I went on about half a dozen consults and kept going back to these guys
http://www.nehair.com/
Im glad I did BUT STILL the night before was torture.
Am I making the right decision?
Will I be happy?
Am I spending the money right?
Will this even help?
Will I end up WORSE off?
I mean we were even expecting a blizzard up here the day after my procedure (I dont like calling it surgery, getting a heart changed is surgery, this is a "procedure", no more than getting teeth veneers but on your head). Is that a sign?
I woke up at 4am, not that nerves actually let me sleep, to get ready and drive to MA for this by 7am. My GF opted to stay behind since she is terrified of driving in the snow and getting caught in a blizzard on the way home the next day. I dont blame her she would have just stressed me driving, her words.
I drove all the way there and still had doubts, still sat there holding the pen for signatures like I was signing away my kidney from a lost bet. I sat there for 45 minutes talking with Tan and texting my GF. There was this hesitation but also the knowledge I would always be pissed I didnt TRY to do something (finasteride was awful for me, check out the sides forum for something Im going to post there I think I have recently figured out). I signed, got changed and was off.
It started with Dr Tan and the medical assistant shaving my donor area conservatively so my overgrown hair would flap over the shaved spot hiding it.
He made two thinner lines across the back of my head. One above the other.
sorry image is to big to embed.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b3syIURhg...A-M/s1FzxCKpqH8/s1600/IMG_20140212_102716.jpg
this pic shows one of the two lines while the flap cover the other one.
after the removal they had me roll over and started insertion of the hairs in my temples.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SameG5MLn...A-c/6WfW_a2RK_g/s1600/IMG_20140212_152004.jpg
At this point it was mostly Dr Tan and his tech, who was very good herself. Then Doctor Welter comes walking in to assist (he periodically popped in between previous steps) and says "you know i like the way your flaps cover but if you let me block out the area (meaning shave a big block) I can get a TON more donor hairs for you"
In the moment I said "HELL SURE lets do it......" Granted this is WHILE Tan is injecting the grafts in my forehead, so in for a penny in for a pound i guess. They said my donor area was great for FUE (all of my consults were really). I have uber thick hair.
I now ended up with this lol
Me and my GF (who went with me on the final consult) laugh our asses off because for some reason we found Dr Tan, who did my 2 personal consults, very convincing. I mean he does a GOOD consult, we joked at the thought of him at home during our phone conversations with a smoking pipe and jacket running his hands through his own naturally lush hair (and welter has a head of hair like a 12 year old, just insane thick). Hes super informative, honest, oddly charming and extremely laxed. Well Welter is the same way so OF COURSE getting more donor seemed awesome coming from him. HA HA I dont regret it but I may be calling out of work a day or two next week to let this grow in a bit to have my hair dresser fade it out, make a design in it or SOMETHING.
I mellowed out quite a bit throughout but let me tell you novocain does **** for me. If you are planning to do this and have a resilience to novacaine like myslef PLEASE start dermarolling first, and rolling HARD. This will give you an idea of what this feels like. Now dont get me wrong this is MY FAULT, not theirs. I know novocain does nothing for me and they advised they could only put so much by law in you so I kept my trap shut, grinned and beared it. Honestly Im a bit of a sadist so che sera.
Anyway as they removed the rest of the hairs in the back they kept bringing them in stocked for insertion .They use a micrografting syringe style inserter and TINY coring device for removal for a basically zero scar effect. Time will tell of course but really it leaves marks no wider than rolling and you dont get scars from that right? This isnt the exact one but pretty much. They are one of the few who use them over just cutting you with a itty bitty blade and dropping the graft in with tweezers.
We stopped for lunch, they were nice enough to treat but its pretty hard to enjoy a nice fat roast beef with blood and scabs all over your head lol.
We went back in and they were back to work. I will say it was the two doctors and one tech inserting these guys, THREE at once. They were really getting in there and saying they wanted density. They filled in my temples, the bridging I had from front to back and even into still populated areas so there will be hair there when even the old stuff starts thinning more. They were being proactive and I really liked that.
We were in there until 7:30 pm by the time they ran out of grafts, we started removing around 8:30 am, inserting was about 9:15-9:30. This was a long day and by the end of it my head was so raw on top even wind hitting it hurt but I kept telling them to keep going. Novocain was lasting me NO time at all by this point. As soon as they injected it if it lasted 10-15 minutes it was a lot. They were doing a technique called nerve blocking with it that helped a lot but really my body just rejects it way to fast. Even getting my wisdom teeth out in highschool they couldnt keep me under because the IV and gas couldnt keep me out.
I kept a small plastic tropicana bottle in my hand and was crushing it like a stress ball at the end due to the pain. Again I can NOT stress this, NOT THEIR FAULT. I probably had enough sedative in me to drop a horses legs. Dermarolling REALLY built me tolerance to head pain.
On a side note I mentioned the rolling to Dr Welter and he was super intrigued by it. He uses them for PRP procedures and really thought the theory behind doing it is very sound. He said he would reccomend it to people as a test if there werent so many possible chances for infections. He could not say enough be sure you disinfect everything because your head carries a LOT of bacteria even mrsa.
well in the end they went through their work with tiny forceps and checked everything, bandaged me up, gave me a goody bag, some info and sent me to my hotel. I say hotel because I HAD to stay the night. They have you come back the next day to go over all the grafts and see if any need fixing, which a few of mine did. They even gave me a small bottle of solution in case any fell out, to bring back to them the next morning to re insert. The morning of one did actually pop out and I placed it in the bottle and Dr Tan tweezed it right back in.
These two guys take a LOT of pride in their work, I can't stress this. Welter had a personal story behind starting it, not super crazy or tear jerking but he wanted to get into the business to help make it easier, better and more cost effective for the patient/consumer. They worried way more about making this first job perfect than charging me for every little graft. They made sure your expectations were realistic but still tried to go above and beyond. Im not trying to sell their service. But every time I come to a forum people say the same 6 names and are to afraid to step out of that comfort zone. Well I met with a few of those big names and honestly did not like them, I stepped out of the comfort zone and feel better right now for it.
Who knows maybe in 6 months Ill be throwing spaghetti at a wall mother f'ing them up and down, I highly doubt it but as stated in the beginning only time will tell. I say though if you are in the area and looking for this option give them a shot, they have NO shortage on business but I would like to see them get a shot next to names like Cohen in CT.
We even talked about piliofocus. He met that guy at the conference and said he knows him (dont know how well) and could honestly not say ENOUGH GOOD things about him. He said the guy is a genius in the field and would love to see the tech progress. I hope Im not saying to much to get anyone in trouble with anything but I just like to give a lot of details so people can see the genuineness I pretty much felt dealing with this facility and ALL its staff.
They said stay low stress to keep your blood pressure from popping the little guys out but try to drive home in a blizzard (check the snow the northeast got today) and see how your blood pressure holds up.
Wish my healing luck. I shed a tear earlier because I did lose one graft a couple hours ago which they said WILL happen but as long as I take it easy for the next few days I should be fine and if there are any issues call them and they will make it right. I honestly believe them and personally I will say that is a big compliment because I dont really "like" or trust anybody lol.
Heres some after pics. Its hard to see through the areas that actually have some hair left but they went all in.
Im going to post this on my ****ty angry blog to as well in case any information gets removed by mods, which I hope it doesn't. Thats the reason I left bald truth, which NO surgeon I spoke with said anything highly about.... NONE.
I will also update as time goes by but Im sure Im not leaving the forum and will continue to dermaroll my crown as if there are positive results with that they really wanted me to let them know.
Thanks everyone.
Again as I started though
Am I making the right decision?
Will I be happy?
Am I spending the money right?
Will this even help?
Will I end up WORSE off?
as good as my experience was... you just will never know, life is always that way though......
Well from Feb 13th 2014 to today (June 2nd here is some updated progress pics)
You can see some of the new hairs. These things literally sprouted overnight. This is just the temples because you cant see anything in the center due to existing hairs but theyre there.
You can see the super thick pubie looking ones that snuck up on me and even the (hopefully) beginning of the VERY fine ones between ready to bulk up.
Im keeping in touch with the Doctor and fingers crossed that it just keeps coming.
If this works Im already looking at filling in the crown in another year or so when this is paid and my finances are better (technically it is paid but Im cheap as ****e)
update :6/23/14
Okay, just adding to this post so I dont bump my thread.
Noticed my bridging from my front to my crown has been getting smaller, whether this is the FUE coming in, the topical finasteride or both I dont know but I like it!
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