Category: Photos

As promised, here are some follow-up photos from my recent hair transplant surgery. I, as everyone else, will be waiting out the growth period. I expect that I will see some of the growth in 4-6 months and will share any exciting pictures with you at that time.

These photos were taken 19 days after the procedure. You can see how my donor scar is looking in the photo at the left, and the crown on the right. Click the photos to enlarge:

 

And in case you missed it in the original post, here’s the before photo:

 

First of all, let me thank you and your technicians and please convey my appreciation to the GREAT job they did in placing my grafts and for the fabulous technical job on my hair. I believe my regrowth was close to 100%. Grafts are very firmly rooted with no weak hairs that lie flat that I know of. I saw substantial new growth between the third and fourth months…I’d say from then up to six months when it was pretty much done. The grafts are very natural looking in the sense that texture and thickness is indistinguishable from other hair.

I’m extremely pleased with the appearance of the hairline and how the temples have filled in…it works very well with my features and the shape of my face…really well done on your part. I pull probably twenty-five white hairs from the first inch of the hairline because they look a little unnatural amongst the black hairs…I think it’s just the low density overall that makes it so. I just wish I had a spare three or four thousand hairs to throw at it!

The downsides? I now have more gray hairs around the scar line. The sutures took a long time to dissolve and were quite irritating. The scar line itself healed well but it’s still a scar line.

OK, I’ll stop by at some point so you can take a look in person…until then Best Wishes!

Sometimes we get great results with less hair than we would have liked to use, because of donor supply limitations. His surgical history is that he had 1600 grafts from us in 1996, then 1900 grafts from another well known clinic, and finally another procedure of 1005 grafts with us 2 years ago. The before photos presented below are from just prior to that surgery in 2010, and you can guess to how his hair loss progressed over the years to that point.

The after photos were sent to us by the patient, so the quality, size, and lighting are all different from the before photos. Click to enlarge.

After (1005 grafts):

 

Before:

 

A week ago today, I (Dr. Rassman) had a hair transplant done in my crown by Dr. Pak in our Los Angeles office. The experience was very positive and I wanted to share how things went.

For those curious about pain, well, let me tell you… I was given a sedative at the time of surgery (Versed / midazolam) that produces a twilight sleep, which my surgical patients have told me was the best feeling in the world. I now know first hand just how absolutely wonderful the drug is. Whoo! If I was addictively inclined, I could live on that drug. I felt no pain whatsoever and slept for about 2 heavenly hours of the 3 1/2 hour procedure.

I received 640 grafts. My crown was actually thinning in only one area slightly smaller than a silver dollar. My wife pushed me to deal with it because she said, “What type of hair surgeon lives with a bald spot on the back of their head?” I had dealt with this spot like many men by styling it with a comb-back. No one who came to the office ever noticed it until I mentioned it.

I elected to have a strip procedure because:

1. I had opera tickets for the next night and I did not want any part of my head shaved.
2. I do not foresee ever shaving my head or buzzing my hair in the future where the scar might be an issue.
3. I generally do not scar and heal well, as I realized with my 2 previous hair transplants in 1994 (total 1600 grafts back then).
4. I wanted the most bulk for each graft without any issue of transection from FUE. Of note, Dr. Pak did transplant about 10 to 20 grafts using FUE (FOX test) prior to taking the strip out, but I decided I wanted the strip anyway. He told me that I was strongly FOX positive (which means I would make an excellent FUE case).
5. It was faster and I walked out without any sign of surgery in less time than I thought FUE might have taken.

My before and after pictures from the day of surgery and four days from the surgery are included below. I will go on record to show everyone the full results in 6-8 months when all of the hair should have grown in.

Before surgery (left) // Immediately after surgery (center) // 4 days after surgery (right). Click to enlarge:

 

As for activities following the surgery, I went on a 15 mile bike ride at the beach the next day (Saturday) and had brunch with my daughter. Then I went back to work on Monday (3rd day). Of course, talk to your doctor about their recommended aftercare and activities following surgery.

This well known Los Angeles radio host has an advanced Class 6 balding pattern. The bald area is huge (as well as his hat size), and the 2700 medium weight hair grafts were distributed so that it would take advantage of weighting to cover the large balding area. In other words, more hair was placed in the front and on the left side than elsewhere. Utilizing weighting so that a left to right combing style could be used to maximize the value of the 2700 graft he received in his first session, he remained see-through in the central and right areas of his scalp where the amount of hair was not great.

Had we been able to remove 4000-5000 grafts safely, we could have filled up the central area and addressed what was to be thin coverage. As you can see in the pictures, the coverage was good for that number of grafts, but he needs another session to complete the process, bringing up the number of required grafts to the 5000+ range.

If you look at our photo albums, you will see many patients who had 3500-5500 grafts to cover the Class 6 pattern adequately. We are limited to what can be safely transplanted in each session. Still, when you look at the photos below, the change with strict styling and the use of a comb-over produced a remarkable change in his appearance and he is very happy with stage one of what will certainly be a two stage process.

Click the photos to enlarge.

After (1 procedure of 2700 grafts):

 

Before:

 

Bonus – head shot: