Hair Transplant Surgery

I noticed a bump under my skin where the doctor put some of the grafts.  It was obviously swollen and infected.  I went in today to have the doctor look at it and he told me it is quite common for this to happen. They gave me a shot in the area where the the bump was and then the nurse stuck some metal thing through the skin to punction the swolloen area.  She squeezed it real hard to get the infection out. I couldn’t see as it was on my head. It bleed for a little bit then stoped. It’s still sore but hopefully it will heal again.  This is comman as the hairs are starting to grow out you get some pimples and infections.  I found putting some tea tree oil on the area’s helped a lot.

The doctor told me I will start noticing hair growth where he put the grafts about 3 months from the surgery. I already have a decent amount of hair growth just after a month and a half.  I can see my new hair line growing in and the line on the back of my head is unnoticeable.  I am still taking Propecia every day. 

The first few nights were really bad and I was unable to sleep due to the pain from the back of my head where the doctor took the strip of hair out.  I was given Darvacets for the pain which didn’t do anything for me.  My face was swollen for the first week after the surgery which is expected and harmless.  You are supposed to sleep up right to allow the swelling to go down your face quicker. I happen to have a wireless controlled bed that moves in all kinds of directions, kind of like a hospital bed, which is a plus. The first two weeks were uncomfortable but manageable and I did not take any pain killers after the first 3 days.  My head felt tingly and itchy due to the nerve endings growing back after the trauma. The scalp area that received the hair follicles was doted red with scabs. Luckily I wear my hair over the area that was done so you were unable to tell I had anything done.  I waited an entire week before I went back to work and I am glad I did.  After two weeks I got my stitches out which is painless. You can tell there is a line across the back of my head. The line is supposed to go away when the wound fully heals. I was told to take Propecia for months after the surgery. Propecia cost about $2 dollars a day. I had no side effects with propecia. It’s supposed to help the hair grow back quicker.  All in all It wasn’t real bad.

I took today “Friday” and all of next week off from work. This morning I started chickening out. I thought to myself maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. This is going to be a big commitment because if I start loosing more hair later on down the road I will have to keep getting more surgeries so I don’t look like I have patches of hair and then bald spots.  I called the doctors office and told them that I wanted to cancel my appointment and they can keep the $200 dollars I had to put up for a deposit. The doctor told me that if I wanted to I can come in and meet and look at the other patients he was working on and maybe it would make me feel more comfortable. He told me that after I came in and I still didn’t want to go through with the surgery I can always walk out and cancel. So I went in and saw some more patients he was working on and eventually decided that I wanted to get this done. 

The girls that work for him were really nice.  I had to sign some papers and set up my interest free loan to pay for the surgery. They gave me a drug cocktail that consisted of valium, anti-biotic and xanax. They also gave me a shot which I’m not sure what it was for but was no big deal. Then they sat me in a chair in one of the offices. At this point I remember bits and parts of what happened due to the drugs I was given. I remember that I was very relaxed. The doctor gave me some numbing shots in the back of my head and cut out the strip of hair. When he was removing the strip of hair it sounded like he was tearing carpet off the floor. I did not feel any pain and before I knew it he had it sewed up and I was sitting again in the chair. It literally took only about 5 min.  At this point they turned on a TV and let me watch a movie while the girls in the back were dissecting the hair follicles. I do not know how much time has past but then the doctor came back in and made small incisions in my scalp area where he was planning on transplanting the hair follicles. This process took a little while and sounded like he was cutting carrots.

 After the procedure was done they bought me a sandwhich to help bring me off the drug induced high I was on.  I went in around 3:30pm and left about 8:30pm. I had no idea I was there that long until I looked at the time when we were done. The whole expierence was not bad at all. The nurses that worked here were really nice.  I was able to drive myself home after the whole procedure.

This is my personal experience with my hair transplant. I am 29 years old and I started noticing my hair line was no longer straight, it started receding.  Everyone told me it was no big deal and it wasn’t bad but it bothered me.  So I made an appointment with a well known Hair Transplant surgeon here in Fort Lauderdale, FL area.  I went in today for a consultation.  The doctor looked at my hair line and showed me how and where he would fix my hair line. 

He currently had three patients in his office at that time. He walked me through the different offices and I got to see first hand as he showed me people that he was currently working on.  The one patient had his strip taken out of the back of his head and was waiting for the implants to but dissected and put into other area’s of his scalp. The second patient was about to have the strip removed from his head. He was also 29 years old and wanted to have the crown of his head done. The third patient was actually there after his initial 12 months since his surgery. The doctor showed me before pictures and I was amazed. The whole top of his head was bald but now the guy has a full head of hair. He had multiple surgeries. His hair looked like it was thinning a little bit but he defiantly wasn’t bald like in his before pictures. After seeing this I decided I would give it a try. So I made an appointment for July 20th 2007.  I decided to go with 1300 grafts. They took a deposit of $200 dollars which was refundable up until the last 48 hours before the surgery.