Dear fellow members,
Most of you know me here as a regular poster in minoxidil and treatment forums. I got 4147 strip grafts and 20 Body hair grafts with Dr. A on June 23 and June 24.
My pictures before hair transplant are posted in
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/makingslo ... /my_photos.
This contains pictures from July 2005 and Jan 2006.
I started prox-N and spintrap (very small amount) from late Jan 2006. I replaced finasteride with dutasteride from Feb 27 (started with a loading dose of 1.5 g per day for the first 10 days
and currently on 0.5 g/day). Though I haven't grown significant amount of hairs in the last 5 months I believe that I see some slight improvement (correct me if I am wrong).
My pre-op pictures taken on June 23 2006 are posted in http://www.hairlosshelp.com/websites/techprof/. My only regret has been not using finasteride or dutasteride and prox-N with minoxidil at the first sign of balding.
I seriously believe that if one were to start this regimen at NW2 or NW3 they won't need a hair transplant.
Now more about the hair transplant.
My wife, our one year baby and I flew to Delhi on June 22 for a strip surgery on June 24 (the appointment date).
Since I was going for a large number of grafts, Dr. A suggested we do it in two days
(June 23 and June 24).
Dr. A's receptionist/secretary Ms. Sunita was very friendly. She answered our questions. She checked my scalp and suggested we may not need more than 1500
grafts or so depending the areas we want to do.
Dr. A came later and we talked about my situation. Though I have some hairs on the top, they are far away from each other and don't help at all.
My worst part is my vertex and crown. Eventhough it was tempting to fix the hairline and the first third of the scalp, Dr. A and I decided to work mainly on the vertex
(after the hairline to the vertex) and I insisted on some grafts for the crown.
We implanted 3017+ grafts after the hairline to the vertex in the first day and on the second day we took the remaining 6 cm of the strip and implanted 1128 grafts on the crown.
Dr. A also implanted 20 body hairs from my chest to my left temples. Unfortunately our digital camera broke during the flight journey during baggage transactions and I did not take any pictures.
I have to rely on picutres from Dr. A. I will be buying a digital camera soon and updating pictures frequently.
The area to be implanted was marked and shown in the website http://www.hairlosshelp.com/websites/techprof/. There are some post-op pictures also.
The reasons for why I chose this area were the following
1. The hairline hairs are formed from the medication. We were afraid that if implanted more hairs there we might lose the medication grown hairs.
2. The vertex and crown has not improved compared to the hairline from the medication (I responded better in my hairline, can you believe it?)
3. The crown is very big and my head is very big. So we decided to fix the area after the hairline to vertex and with reasonable dense packing. With this I hope
that I don't need to touch this area in the future.
4. 1128 grafts were placed in the crown. This will give a diffuse crown look. I am hoping to grow my hairs longer and get away with this.
I liked the following things about Dr. A's clinic
1. Dr. A did not push for any kind of surgery. He said we can do only a small amount now to see how I respond and do more latter. I wanted to get it done in one day.
2. Dr. A's staff were very friendly and helped with accomodation and other things as needed.
3. Dr. Sangay and Dr. A answered all of our questions (including many silly questions my wife and I asked.
For example, will shampooing everyday make you lose hair, Dr. A said no).
4. Dr. A's work ethics-he was there most of the time instructing or supervising his support staff.
5. Dr. A's communication skills (he was very affirmative, at the same time being nice to every one and every questions). I tend to lose temper when I argue.
6. When my wife was concerned about me using prox-N, nano and others he said he is not knowledagable about those topicals and I might know more from the forums than him.
Now comes the criticism part. These are mainly suggestions and not criticisms. I suggest the following improvements if possible
1. Dr. A should measure the recipient area beforehand and give an approximate number of grafts and density. I didn't ask this. If I had asked he might have done it.
2. Pictures and measurements of strip taken (Dr. A might still be able to post this).
3. I know this is difficult but perhaps Dr. A can give a tutorial to Ms. Sunita and other staff members about the use of topicals against male pattern baldness and baldness. For example,
my wife asked Ms. Sunita if Nizoral can be used twice or thrice a week. Sunita replied saying that it is only for anti dandruff and should be used only once a week. There
are studies showing use of nizoral growing hairs. This lead to a fight (argument) between my wife and I after the first day (affecting my sleep before my second day hair transplant).
Fortunately Dr. A answered the next day saying that use of shampoo will not make us bald and I might know more from the forums than him.
Otherwise my wife and I would be fighting about prox-N, NANO nizoral shampoo etc.
4. To avoid this Dr. A can make Dr. Sangay or some else to spend time on forums to learn more about proven, FDA approved and other studied products for hairloss.I know that this is a lot of work, but it is very beneficial to the hairloss sufferers. If the products can save 1000 grafts, the patients can get better looking results.
Other thoughts on my hair transplant
1. I am still not able to sleep well because of sutures and irritation.
2. I flew for 24 hours or so to reach the US immediately after surgery. Avoid this if you can.
3. I had to get back to work with a cap. This is the most painful part. Take off from work for a month if you can.
4. My back area (from crown to the strip) feels like a wood (no blood flow at all). I hope it improves.
Most of you know me here as a regular poster in minoxidil and treatment forums. I got 4147 strip grafts and 20 Body hair grafts with Dr. A on June 23 and June 24.
My pictures before hair transplant are posted in
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/makingslo ... /my_photos.
This contains pictures from July 2005 and Jan 2006.
I started prox-N and spintrap (very small amount) from late Jan 2006. I replaced finasteride with dutasteride from Feb 27 (started with a loading dose of 1.5 g per day for the first 10 days
and currently on 0.5 g/day). Though I haven't grown significant amount of hairs in the last 5 months I believe that I see some slight improvement (correct me if I am wrong).
My pre-op pictures taken on June 23 2006 are posted in http://www.hairlosshelp.com/websites/techprof/. My only regret has been not using finasteride or dutasteride and prox-N with minoxidil at the first sign of balding.
I seriously believe that if one were to start this regimen at NW2 or NW3 they won't need a hair transplant.
Now more about the hair transplant.
My wife, our one year baby and I flew to Delhi on June 22 for a strip surgery on June 24 (the appointment date).
Since I was going for a large number of grafts, Dr. A suggested we do it in two days
(June 23 and June 24).
Dr. A's receptionist/secretary Ms. Sunita was very friendly. She answered our questions. She checked my scalp and suggested we may not need more than 1500
grafts or so depending the areas we want to do.
Dr. A came later and we talked about my situation. Though I have some hairs on the top, they are far away from each other and don't help at all.
My worst part is my vertex and crown. Eventhough it was tempting to fix the hairline and the first third of the scalp, Dr. A and I decided to work mainly on the vertex
(after the hairline to the vertex) and I insisted on some grafts for the crown.
We implanted 3017+ grafts after the hairline to the vertex in the first day and on the second day we took the remaining 6 cm of the strip and implanted 1128 grafts on the crown.
Dr. A also implanted 20 body hairs from my chest to my left temples. Unfortunately our digital camera broke during the flight journey during baggage transactions and I did not take any pictures.
I have to rely on picutres from Dr. A. I will be buying a digital camera soon and updating pictures frequently.
The area to be implanted was marked and shown in the website http://www.hairlosshelp.com/websites/techprof/. There are some post-op pictures also.
The reasons for why I chose this area were the following
1. The hairline hairs are formed from the medication. We were afraid that if implanted more hairs there we might lose the medication grown hairs.
2. The vertex and crown has not improved compared to the hairline from the medication (I responded better in my hairline, can you believe it?)
3. The crown is very big and my head is very big. So we decided to fix the area after the hairline to vertex and with reasonable dense packing. With this I hope
that I don't need to touch this area in the future.
4. 1128 grafts were placed in the crown. This will give a diffuse crown look. I am hoping to grow my hairs longer and get away with this.
I liked the following things about Dr. A's clinic
1. Dr. A did not push for any kind of surgery. He said we can do only a small amount now to see how I respond and do more latter. I wanted to get it done in one day.
2. Dr. A's staff were very friendly and helped with accomodation and other things as needed.
3. Dr. Sangay and Dr. A answered all of our questions (including many silly questions my wife and I asked.
For example, will shampooing everyday make you lose hair, Dr. A said no).
4. Dr. A's work ethics-he was there most of the time instructing or supervising his support staff.
5. Dr. A's communication skills (he was very affirmative, at the same time being nice to every one and every questions). I tend to lose temper when I argue.
6. When my wife was concerned about me using prox-N, nano and others he said he is not knowledagable about those topicals and I might know more from the forums than him.
Now comes the criticism part. These are mainly suggestions and not criticisms. I suggest the following improvements if possible
1. Dr. A should measure the recipient area beforehand and give an approximate number of grafts and density. I didn't ask this. If I had asked he might have done it.
2. Pictures and measurements of strip taken (Dr. A might still be able to post this).
3. I know this is difficult but perhaps Dr. A can give a tutorial to Ms. Sunita and other staff members about the use of topicals against male pattern baldness and baldness. For example,
my wife asked Ms. Sunita if Nizoral can be used twice or thrice a week. Sunita replied saying that it is only for anti dandruff and should be used only once a week. There
are studies showing use of nizoral growing hairs. This lead to a fight (argument) between my wife and I after the first day (affecting my sleep before my second day hair transplant).
Fortunately Dr. A answered the next day saying that use of shampoo will not make us bald and I might know more from the forums than him.
Otherwise my wife and I would be fighting about prox-N, NANO nizoral shampoo etc.
4. To avoid this Dr. A can make Dr. Sangay or some else to spend time on forums to learn more about proven, FDA approved and other studied products for hairloss.I know that this is a lot of work, but it is very beneficial to the hairloss sufferers. If the products can save 1000 grafts, the patients can get better looking results.
Other thoughts on my hair transplant
1. I am still not able to sleep well because of sutures and irritation.
2. I flew for 24 hours or so to reach the US immediately after surgery. Avoid this if you can.
3. I had to get back to work with a cap. This is the most painful part. Take off from work for a month if you can.
4. My back area (from crown to the strip) feels like a wood (no blood flow at all). I hope it improves.
