POSTED UNDER Hair Transplant Reviews
The process was smooth and efficient, the staff friendly and competent, and the results were as good or better than I expected.
ORIGINAL POST
Excellent Care and Outcomes with Dr. Anderson
WORTH IT
As background, I am a medical doctor and this is my second hair replacement surgery (the first was done by another physician nearly 10 years ago). I had a follicular unit transplant procedure (“strip”) done by Dr. Anderson in October 2022. Since I had previously had FUT, he explained there was no advantage to doing FUE (I already had a linear scar) and that he could cut out the old scar as part of the FUT and likely produce an even less-noticeable scar than before (although, to be clear, the old scar was completely invisible through my hair).
From the time I contacted the office until the procedure, the staff were very good at communicating with me about the process, steps needed for completion (such as getting meds to bring to the procedure), and the expected post-operative process. I spoke with Dr. Anderson via Zoom initially (since I live in the Rockies) and met him in person prior to the procedure to talk through the day. The staff were friendly and helpful and instructions expectations were very clear.
Regarding the procedure itself, it was entirely painless. Between the medicines you take for sedation and the anesthetic, I was pain-free through the day. While I was aware that something was being done to my scalp (feeling of pressure at times), it did not hurt. The incision from the FUT was uncomfortable for a few days, but the pain was very manageable and easily addressed with medication. I had the transplanted hair primarily in the vertex region, but had thinning in the middle towards the front up to the hairline so Dr. Anderson put some hairs up to the hairline in the middle to preserve my thickness uniformly.
My hair looked great within a few days of the procedure. As I had been told beforehand, many/most of the hairs fall out from the shock of the procedure and need to grow back from the transplanted follicles so that look only lasted for a few weeks. However, it did give me a clear picture of what the area will look like once the hairs grow back and I think it looks dramatically better than before. As for my appearance post-operatively, my girlfriend couldn’t tell where the incision was until she felt the suture line in my scalp and she thought the area where the hairs had been transplanted looked great. I am now ~3 months out from the procedure and I have seen pictures of me from behind from late December (2 1/2 months post-procedure) vs. September (right before the procedure). I clearly have the appearance of more hair and don’t have as obvious a bald spot as before. Considering the hair should continue growing back more in the next few months, I am quite optimistic about how it will look. Even how it looks now is a substantial improvement over my pre-operative appearance, so I am incredibly happy with the results.
The sense of tightness and pain for the incision were modest and lasted about 6 weeks, gradually improving over that period of time. The feeling was not distressing at all and I generally forgot about the incision unless I put my rested my head against a hard chair back or something similar, in which case it was a minor feeling of pain/discomfort. Now that I am 3 months out, I can barely feel the incision with my fingers even though I know where it is and I don’t have any pain or discomfort. Healing went well and getting the sutures removed was very simple. As a funny anecdote, when I went to get my sutures out near my home, the nurse removing them said he wasn’t surprised that Dr. Anderson had been a facial plastics surgeon because this was the best suture line he’d ever seen.
Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of my procedure and expect that I will be even happier with it as time goes by and the other follicles grow out more hair. The process was smooth and efficient, the staff friendly and competent, and the results were as good or better than I expected. Dr. Anderson did an excellent job and runs a great hair restoration clinic. The cost is high to get this done, but that is true regardless of who does the procedure for you. I looked into numerous clinics that do the procedure and nearly all of them had comparable prices (+/- 10% relative to Dr. Anderson). While I can’t speak to the quality of their care and outcomes, I can unequivocally say I do not believe I could get a better outcome than what I had with Dr. Anderson and I have no regrets about getting the procedure done by him. The one thing I learned from my first hair transplant (and subsequent need for the FUT by Dr. Anderson) is that I need to stay on a regimen to preserve my hair (to prevent further loss of the non-transplanted follicles) so that I am less likely to need to get another procedure in the future.
From the time I contacted the office until the procedure, the staff were very good at communicating with me about the process, steps needed for completion (such as getting meds to bring to the procedure), and the expected post-operative process. I spoke with Dr. Anderson via Zoom initially (since I live in the Rockies) and met him in person prior to the procedure to talk through the day. The staff were friendly and helpful and instructions expectations were very clear.
Regarding the procedure itself, it was entirely painless. Between the medicines you take for sedation and the anesthetic, I was pain-free through the day. While I was aware that something was being done to my scalp (feeling of pressure at times), it did not hurt. The incision from the FUT was uncomfortable for a few days, but the pain was very manageable and easily addressed with medication. I had the transplanted hair primarily in the vertex region, but had thinning in the middle towards the front up to the hairline so Dr. Anderson put some hairs up to the hairline in the middle to preserve my thickness uniformly.
My hair looked great within a few days of the procedure. As I had been told beforehand, many/most of the hairs fall out from the shock of the procedure and need to grow back from the transplanted follicles so that look only lasted for a few weeks. However, it did give me a clear picture of what the area will look like once the hairs grow back and I think it looks dramatically better than before. As for my appearance post-operatively, my girlfriend couldn’t tell where the incision was until she felt the suture line in my scalp and she thought the area where the hairs had been transplanted looked great. I am now ~3 months out from the procedure and I have seen pictures of me from behind from late December (2 1/2 months post-procedure) vs. September (right before the procedure). I clearly have the appearance of more hair and don’t have as obvious a bald spot as before. Considering the hair should continue growing back more in the next few months, I am quite optimistic about how it will look. Even how it looks now is a substantial improvement over my pre-operative appearance, so I am incredibly happy with the results.
The sense of tightness and pain for the incision were modest and lasted about 6 weeks, gradually improving over that period of time. The feeling was not distressing at all and I generally forgot about the incision unless I put my rested my head against a hard chair back or something similar, in which case it was a minor feeling of pain/discomfort. Now that I am 3 months out, I can barely feel the incision with my fingers even though I know where it is and I don’t have any pain or discomfort. Healing went well and getting the sutures removed was very simple. As a funny anecdote, when I went to get my sutures out near my home, the nurse removing them said he wasn’t surprised that Dr. Anderson had been a facial plastics surgeon because this was the best suture line he’d ever seen.
Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of my procedure and expect that I will be even happier with it as time goes by and the other follicles grow out more hair. The process was smooth and efficient, the staff friendly and competent, and the results were as good or better than I expected. Dr. Anderson did an excellent job and runs a great hair restoration clinic. The cost is high to get this done, but that is true regardless of who does the procedure for you. I looked into numerous clinics that do the procedure and nearly all of them had comparable prices (+/- 10% relative to Dr. Anderson). While I can’t speak to the quality of their care and outcomes, I can unequivocally say I do not believe I could get a better outcome than what I had with Dr. Anderson and I have no regrets about getting the procedure done by him. The one thing I learned from my first hair transplant (and subsequent need for the FUT by Dr. Anderson) is that I need to stay on a regimen to preserve my hair (to prevent further loss of the non-transplanted follicles) so that I am less likely to need to get another procedure in the future.
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