POSTED UNDER Hair Transplant REVIEWS
Hair Transplant at 37 for Receded Hairline and Density
ORIGINAL POST
I started slowly losing hair after 18 and by 28 I...
0007January 20, 2015
WORTH IT$8,000
I started slowly losing hair after 18 and by 28 I could see my scalp showing through my once rockstar hair. I started taking Propecia, which halted most of the hairline recession and my density improved. Still I was unhappy with my hair density, and very unhappy with my "new" hairline, especially when I saw side photographs which I could not have seen in the mirror. I don't mind aging gracefully, but it just wasn't me, it really looked wrong, and really bad.
I researched several top specialists throughout California and decided to go with Dr. Wasserbauer for the following reasons:
-She was within an hour's drive, and wouldn't require multiple trips to SoCal
-Her portfolio of results was very good
-She was very conservative and concerned about today's hair as well as decades from now
-She was not so conservative that she would not alter my hairline, and thus, keep me from achieving my primary goal
-She was well reviewed by patients and peers, and well-qualified
-Her pricing was not low, but comparable to other top doctors
-Although it was hard to reach her initially (more later), when I met her in person, she was warm, genuine, and understanding of how my case was so distressing to me. She was confident, but not arrogant (as other doctors I spoke with), and answered all my questions.
Without going into every single detail, my experience was as follows:
I arrived ready for my procedure, and felt surprisingly calm and excited to finally have it done. She and all of her staff were so wonderful to me, with 80's hair band music playing, and a quirky sense of humor which didn't bother me at all, we had a few laughs to start. The staff and Dr. Wasserbauer made sure I was very comfortable, blanket and all, and with three selected movies, antibiotics and a Valium in hand we began. There were a lot of injections throughout the top, front, and back of the scalp, and it felt as though I were wearing a helmet onto which they were working. They were all skilled and gentle injectors, and it was really painless except for a few pricks. I felt no pain or discomfort during the incision, stitching, or creation of thousands of tiny cuts for the hair transplants, all done by Dr. Wasserbauer. This was about 3 hours. We then took a lunch break, which they provided, and then the technicians got to work placing all of the grafts, which was a tedious process for them, and eventually I too, got a little antsy at the length of the procedure, but they gave me breaks to stretch, restroom, and back to work they went. I was so impressed at their precision and patience, as well as the thoughtfulness of Dr. Wasserbauer's placement of the graft locations. To my surprise, there were enough grafts to alter the hairline, but about 75% of the grafts (my guess) were used to add density to my thinning areas, ensuring a future full of hair. The total day took about 8 hours as expected, and I was bandaged up and sent home to rest.
Recovery:
I was pretty well read on the subject before starting, but the post-op instructions gave great clarity, the first 3 days required the utmost care to secure the survival of the grafts.
-I had a mild headache, and occasionally my donor area or graft areas would be tender and start to get very sore by the end of each day, but the vicodin worked just fine.
-I had to sleep 3 nights at a 45 degree angle, which was a challenge.
-I had to wash the grafts with a sponge 3x daily, and spray water on them every couple of hours, which actually made the healing better.
-I did get swelling, which was strange, first I had swelling and a "dent" in my head, then a huge forehead, then the swelling dropped between my eyes and eyebrows and I looked like an avatar for a day or two (see photo) The swelling was resolved enough for me to go outside publicly with a hat on day 4 post op. No pain, just a very mild headache.
-On Day 4 I started to wash regularly and rub off the crusty skin tissue stuck to each graft, which looked like lots of lice, but was almost completely gone by day 7 post op. At that point I could go out in public without a hat, although the skin in the front was pinkish and some short remaining hairs were growing in.
-It's now day 10 and I still have a tender scalp, and most of the numb sensation from temporary nerve damage is gone, except just above my donor scarline. I've checked the scar a few times, I don't scar badly, so I anticipate the resultant scar will be super fine, if not invisible.
Conclusion
Due to donor density, and Dr. Wasserbauer's kindness, I received more grafts than I was initially recommended, of which I was thrilled! It is too early to recommend based on results, but since all has been as expected, results should be ideal as well. I cannot say enough about the kindness, patience, skill, gentle touch and social skills of all of Dr. Wasserbauer's staff: Ann, Monique, Roxanna, Naomi and Katy, all were so great to work with.
My one and only concern in the whole process was that Dr. Wasserbauer is very unresponsive to email and phone. I almost didn't pursue her office because after my initial consult with her "Advisor" I waited 3 weeks without email response, I called her staff, then followed up with her, and instead of answering my questions I had bulleted, she replied that her staff would contact me to make an appointment, which then would not be for 2-3 months. This, I had to call for as well, and the doctor would not see or speak to me for 2-3 months unless I scheduled surgery in January and made a $1000 deposit. There were other emails she did not reply to, and when she gave her personal number to call if there were problems or questions (I called regarding swelling), she did not answer or call back at all. I understand I'm not the first person to experience this, but to me it is unacceptable. If a doctor cannot or will not reply to patients, he or she must designate a staff to reply or be "on call." This never happened unless I called up the staff myself for help. My takeaway is that she is a great surgeon, excellent when you have her in person, but otherwise unavailable; her staff do the rest. If there was an emergency, I'd dial 911 or your general practitioner. My GP responds to all my emails within 24 hours. My surgery experience was otherwise excellent and I hope it's the only one I'll ever need.
Will post photos at 6 months or 1 year when actual results can be seen.
I researched several top specialists throughout California and decided to go with Dr. Wasserbauer for the following reasons:
-She was within an hour's drive, and wouldn't require multiple trips to SoCal
-Her portfolio of results was very good
-She was very conservative and concerned about today's hair as well as decades from now
-She was not so conservative that she would not alter my hairline, and thus, keep me from achieving my primary goal
-She was well reviewed by patients and peers, and well-qualified
-Her pricing was not low, but comparable to other top doctors
-Although it was hard to reach her initially (more later), when I met her in person, she was warm, genuine, and understanding of how my case was so distressing to me. She was confident, but not arrogant (as other doctors I spoke with), and answered all my questions.
Without going into every single detail, my experience was as follows:
I arrived ready for my procedure, and felt surprisingly calm and excited to finally have it done. She and all of her staff were so wonderful to me, with 80's hair band music playing, and a quirky sense of humor which didn't bother me at all, we had a few laughs to start. The staff and Dr. Wasserbauer made sure I was very comfortable, blanket and all, and with three selected movies, antibiotics and a Valium in hand we began. There were a lot of injections throughout the top, front, and back of the scalp, and it felt as though I were wearing a helmet onto which they were working. They were all skilled and gentle injectors, and it was really painless except for a few pricks. I felt no pain or discomfort during the incision, stitching, or creation of thousands of tiny cuts for the hair transplants, all done by Dr. Wasserbauer. This was about 3 hours. We then took a lunch break, which they provided, and then the technicians got to work placing all of the grafts, which was a tedious process for them, and eventually I too, got a little antsy at the length of the procedure, but they gave me breaks to stretch, restroom, and back to work they went. I was so impressed at their precision and patience, as well as the thoughtfulness of Dr. Wasserbauer's placement of the graft locations. To my surprise, there were enough grafts to alter the hairline, but about 75% of the grafts (my guess) were used to add density to my thinning areas, ensuring a future full of hair. The total day took about 8 hours as expected, and I was bandaged up and sent home to rest.
Recovery:
I was pretty well read on the subject before starting, but the post-op instructions gave great clarity, the first 3 days required the utmost care to secure the survival of the grafts.
-I had a mild headache, and occasionally my donor area or graft areas would be tender and start to get very sore by the end of each day, but the vicodin worked just fine.
-I had to sleep 3 nights at a 45 degree angle, which was a challenge.
-I had to wash the grafts with a sponge 3x daily, and spray water on them every couple of hours, which actually made the healing better.
-I did get swelling, which was strange, first I had swelling and a "dent" in my head, then a huge forehead, then the swelling dropped between my eyes and eyebrows and I looked like an avatar for a day or two (see photo) The swelling was resolved enough for me to go outside publicly with a hat on day 4 post op. No pain, just a very mild headache.
-On Day 4 I started to wash regularly and rub off the crusty skin tissue stuck to each graft, which looked like lots of lice, but was almost completely gone by day 7 post op. At that point I could go out in public without a hat, although the skin in the front was pinkish and some short remaining hairs were growing in.
-It's now day 10 and I still have a tender scalp, and most of the numb sensation from temporary nerve damage is gone, except just above my donor scarline. I've checked the scar a few times, I don't scar badly, so I anticipate the resultant scar will be super fine, if not invisible.
Conclusion
Due to donor density, and Dr. Wasserbauer's kindness, I received more grafts than I was initially recommended, of which I was thrilled! It is too early to recommend based on results, but since all has been as expected, results should be ideal as well. I cannot say enough about the kindness, patience, skill, gentle touch and social skills of all of Dr. Wasserbauer's staff: Ann, Monique, Roxanna, Naomi and Katy, all were so great to work with.
My one and only concern in the whole process was that Dr. Wasserbauer is very unresponsive to email and phone. I almost didn't pursue her office because after my initial consult with her "Advisor" I waited 3 weeks without email response, I called her staff, then followed up with her, and instead of answering my questions I had bulleted, she replied that her staff would contact me to make an appointment, which then would not be for 2-3 months. This, I had to call for as well, and the doctor would not see or speak to me for 2-3 months unless I scheduled surgery in January and made a $1000 deposit. There were other emails she did not reply to, and when she gave her personal number to call if there were problems or questions (I called regarding swelling), she did not answer or call back at all. I understand I'm not the first person to experience this, but to me it is unacceptable. If a doctor cannot or will not reply to patients, he or she must designate a staff to reply or be "on call." This never happened unless I called up the staff myself for help. My takeaway is that she is a great surgeon, excellent when you have her in person, but otherwise unavailable; her staff do the rest. If there was an emergency, I'd dial 911 or your general practitioner. My GP responds to all my emails within 24 hours. My surgery experience was otherwise excellent and I hope it's the only one I'll ever need.
Will post photos at 6 months or 1 year when actual results can be seen.
0007's provider
Replies (8)
January 31, 2015
Hi, thanks for the great review. It was interesting reading your description of yourself and then looking at your photos, because your description gave me more sense of hair loss than your photos showed (to me). I can see the receding hairline, but just my opinion, from the photos it seems like you have pretty good density behind your hairline- I guess maybe the photos don't show that? From what I can see, I am pretty much similar to you (except I'm 54); I've always had a high hairline, in college a hair stylist commented on my "receding hairline" and I started worrying about my hairline from that day forward. When I was in my 20's I was talking to hair transplant surgeons (thank goodness I never went for it back then!), to their credit most of them were not overly encouraging however if I had been pushy they probably would have "worked" on me. I am amazed that my hairline has receded so slowly given how much I worried about it in my 20's; it has always been higher on the sides, I've never had that solid "straight across" hairline that makes it so easy to style your hair or cut it close, I've always kept it longer and parted somewhat in the middle to "hang over" the higher hairline on the side. I also consume a lot of hair spray to keep it in place that way!
How far back from your hairline did they fill in for density? Just curious as I can also tell my density is decreasing but I'm more interested in having a better hairline than the density issue. Also, are you still on Propecia and do you plan to continue for life? I am not taking it, personally I don't like taking any more drugs than are absolutely necessary, and even though my hair is really, really important to me, I am not ready to become dependent on Propecia for that solution. This is *not* a judgement on anyone like yourself, I may change my mind someday and start taking it, which is why I am curious how you feel about it, and also I am curious if the Dr. discussed that with you? It seems from other experiences I have read about that Propecia is more and more a part of the "maintenance" of a hair transplant. That is the one thing that has stopped me from getting a transplant by now- the worry that once I get one, I am going to continually have to keep going back to fill in behind as my hairline continually recedes (which, if you're not on Propecia is a normal part of aging unless you are Ronald Reagan). Did the Dr. discuss that with you and give you any expectation of the long term (and by that I mean life long) experience?
Thanks again for taking the time to write up such a thorough review of your experience. Obviously this is a major decision for anyone to make, and it is so helpful to get "all the details" from someone who has already experienced it. Best luck with your healing and your results!
Mark
February 19, 2015
Hi Mark,
Thank you for your comments. I'm glad to hear that you have held on to your hair with minimal loss, be grateful!
My hairline has always been a little high, but not disproportionate to my long face, however the recession at the temples and sides has far exceeded my desires, and I could no longer cover it up with cuts and styling. When I was younger, I had no widow's peak at all. Perhaps it wouldn't bother others, but it really bothered me. My transplant is to correct the hairline, but also to bolster the thinning areas, rather than waiting for my recession to become drastic before acting, so the change is subtle.
The top has gone from dense to thinning, but not balding by any means. I credit 10 years of propecia for hanging onto my hair, before that, my shedding was excessive, esp during stressful times, and I could see my scalp right through my hair, even when dry, and that has improved too. I haven't experienced any side effects (ahem) from Propecia/finasteride, except some melasma (brown spots on forehead) when I am in the sun a lot, so I'm religious with the sunscreen and use some tazorac. It's a very small price to pay.
There are a few different methods available now with different price points. And the results look much better than methods decades ago. If it's something you want to do, I'm sure there's a way to do it right. I can only make a true recommendation on results when the hair grows in. As far as lifelong results, the new hair is permanent, and as long as I take propecia and good care, with my genetics, I should have good hair into old age, fingers crossed. If not, they'll probably clone hair soon and offer it as a lunchtime procedure. :)
March 26, 2017
Sorry to say the results does not look dramatic or maybe the pictures that are not sharp
thanks for sharing your experience
thanks for sharing your experience
Great review so far, thank you for taking the time to share your experience in such detail. I am glad that you didn't feel much pain and felt comfortable throughout the procedure, I am sure it's not a walk in the park! I hope I didn't miss this, but what method of transplant did you have and how many grafts? Oh the 80's...that music sure brings back memories for me! I am thrilled you are going to post photos of your results, are your comfortable posting before, and current photos so we can see the entire progression? We of course would love to see your progress in motion, so feel free to share video as well. I look forward to your updates, keep us posted.
That's wonderful! Can you share some photos with us?