These pictures were taken at my last visit to the clinic in May 2010 four years after 4856 grafts to repair my previous work in the UK.
I had spent many months before my surgery on June 1st 2006 on various hair forums after discovering that hair transplants had really improved from my last surgery in 1998.I soon found out that if I wanted the best results I needed to travel.Below is my post on forums shortly after returning to the UK in 2006

On doing my research about 6 months I stumbled across Jotronics website www.hairtransplantmentor.com and couldn’t believe what I was seeing his results were amazing, A few emails back and forth and phone calls after sending my pics over and consulting with Dr Hasson they felt they could harvest 4000 grafts as my donor density looked good and after 8 years with no surgeries my laxity should be pretty good again.

I checked out the websites and saw all the great H&W results and thought I would email consult with some other top docs overseas and well as consult with a doctor in the UK I spoke on a couple of occasions with Joe at H & W and went with my gut and the decision was made, all the great results on their website and hairloss forums coupled with the fact that they were still confident that I could get the 4k grafts that they had originally said, and Joe’s site being the reason I had really started looking into hair transplants again were the deciding factors.

I arrived in Vancouver the day before my operation the flight was 9 hours and 10 mins and was on time I flew with Air Transat –best prices I paid £380 for a return, I got a taxi to The Granville Island hotel which was about 25 canadian dollars (2 dollars to the pound at present) I was staying for 4 nights to take advantage of the cheaper flight, H&W paid for 2 nights stay and booked the accommodation for me, saving me the trouble of doing this, the hotel was very nice and they know what you are there for so are very accommodating, it also has a great views and is right near some restaurants, pubs etc (although no alcohol was consumed).I walked to H&W offices (about a 20 min walk) for my consultation and meet Joe, Doug and Dr Hasson and Dr Wong etc, Dr H confirmed that my density was excellent which really pleased me and my laxity was also quite good, we discussed that coverage was an issue for me and that I was not concerned about my previous scars so much (my donor hair being dense has always covered this well with a grade 5) he confirmed that we should get 4k maybe more!

The day of the operation I arrived at 7.30 am, Dr H took my pics, and discussed the procedure for the day ahead, he shaved my top of my head, which didn’t take very long and started work on extracting the donor hairs.
The injections are the most painful bit of this process but are over quickly and then the area is numb, the area was removed in sections, testing for laxity in each piece, my sides were very lax and a bigger piece was able to be removed but lower down on my head was much tighter and he was only able to remove about a 1cm piece in places. It took 1hr 45 mins to remove the complete donor area he said the last time it took him that long was on Spassky another UK patient whom I have spoken to, Dr H went quite aggressive in the strip he was removing because this was my last chance at getting strip and I wanted the highest amount of grafts as possible.
The actual removal of the skin is painless because of the anthestic that you have been injected, I made a comment on that crunching noise that I heard and was told that was when he was cutting through the scar tissue from the old surgeries.
Once this is done I had 4 injections into my forehead to numb the recipient area and Dr H made the first 2000 incisions with his custom made blade (this again is all pain free), he actually had to use a slightly bigger blade on me than normal because of scalp being tough and scarred up from my big grafts previously.If you look at the shaved down pictures you will see the poor placement and the big gaps in between each graft and that it is in rows just like as Joe calls it ‘stadium row seating’, You can also see where Dr H had originally intended to fill in.

When I saw my before and shaved down pics I was shocked that most of the grafts had been packed in so tight into my scalp that the hairs faced all different angles and that I still had some redness, what isn’t obvious from the pics is the pitting that you can see under bright light, the pics are pretty brutal the lighting the H&W use really shows off your hair for what it is, if I had of seen these pics I would have done something a long time ago!There were four girls cutting and grouping my grafts and were happy to let me take a look through the microscope, they commented that my hair was coarse and because it was wavy it needed to be trimmed more to fit the incisions that were made on my head. Anyway I was well provided for with lots of drinks, lunch and dinner, and had a lot of stops to stretch my legs, there are about 250 dvds to watch to pass the time. Once the 2k are planted Dr H comes back to make more incisions, you get a clicker to count every hundred he is making so you know you are getting what you pay for unlike my previous experience where no counting is done. That was pretty much how the rest of day panned out with Dr H coming back to make more incisions and then the girls planting.

Things were looking good and I was told that there should be enough grafts to together with my hair characteristics to cover the entire top of my head!! After 14 hours in the chair I had a grand total of 4850 grafts being a mixture of singles into my hairline and around the previous grafts in my crown , mainly doubles and also some 3’s aswell.I was totally blown away by my graft count as I never in a million years believed it would be this high, I had been hoping for 3k with a outside chance of getting nearer four at the most, I wanted to soften my hair line and cover up my pluggy appearance and fill in the totally bald areas in my bridge were no previous work was done, but to be able to cover my head totally is just awesome. I don’t know the exact cm2 density, its not dense packed, but it is around 40 into the hairline and 20-30 working back into my crown but with my coarse hair and slight wave plus the previous work we are all really confident of a great look when it grows in. When you leave you are given painkillers, antibiotics, baseball cap, pillow covers, shampoo, staple remover etc in a goodie bag. The next day I returned to have my hair washed.

I am now day 6 post op and home, the redness is fading and I am applying aloe vera gel as of today and starting to take msm again, I have noticed that the donor area although tight and still numb in places is not as painful as I remember it being, before I couldn’t sleep on the scar for at least 2 weeks, this time I have had only slight discomfort in sleeping on the scar ( a few painkillers soon soughts that out, .Whilst out there I picked up 10 months supply of Proscar which was £75, I will start taking this shortly which should also add to my overall result.

I posted my monthly updates on various forums and was delighted after about the 6 month mark when the real growth started to improve my hair on a monthly basis, it was so nice to see your hair getting better month by month after 12 plus years of seeing it go the other way.By the time I was a year out I was ecstatic with my new look and lets say my life turned around again for the better, my confidence came back and I felt like my old self was back after a long hiatus.