My Donor Doubling Experience at Dr Nigams\' clinic

Thanks for the photo’s, teamplayer. I’m sorry to say but man that recipient looks horrific. All those pus area’s, not sure what’s going on there but Wesley reported that after 4 months he still had those and once he pressed those bumps, pus would still come out, even after 4 months … It’s quite weird …

My pleasure bro. Not good to hear, but I appreciate the honesty! Yeah, I agree, there certainly were areas of aggregated plasma portrayed in the pic. Shame, Wesley endured an unfortunate ordeal, it appears. Thankfully, I highly doubt myself facing any adversity in terms of battling recurrent infections. Sure, I still do experience having some seldom occurring, random pimples scattered between the grafts, but that’s no reason for concern as they dissipate quickly. Otherwise, healing isn’t too shabby at all. No pus, at least.

For now, the only thing that I’m conscious about (besides my extreme punk haircut lol) is some very noticeable, residual redness in the recipient area. This can be seen from two points of view, both negative and positive - The positive perspective being that it’s a sign of neovascularization/ angiogenesis, which means nothing other than new blood vessel formation. This is good in that it denotes improved nourishment of the newly inserted grafts, but erroneously, it is unsightly and will make people suspicious of myself “having had something done”. I was disappointed when I read that some folk experience up to 5 months or even longer of redness post fue! :frowning: I really hope I won’t be one of them.

From what I’ve gathered it seems as though the only effective approaches to reducing the inflammation and consequent redness are by either using “distilled witch hazel” or “Aloe Vera”. Does anyone perhaps have any knowledge about alternative means? I’ll soon start continually applying Aloe Vera in anticipation that I’ll be looking largely more presentable in January when I’ll start seeing patients.

Dr. Nigam asked me to take some images of both the recipient and donor areas. I took those with my phone today and forwarded them to him. I wouldn’t have had any objection to posting those images on the forum, but one appeared to be slightly out of focus, and accordingly, I decided against posting… Guess I’ll update when consulting dr. Nigam on the 12th of Jan. as better quality ones will be taken then.

Let’s wait and see. Peace.

Best of luck Teamplayer and thanks for the great detailed posts. You certainly have the right username!

Thanks for the updates Team Player.

I’m kind of dismayed to hear the opinion of patients are that the stem cell
treatment is a hit or miss affair. That’s really the only thing I’d be
interested in getting done. I’d never contemplate a hair transplant.

The anti-Nigam monkeys are getting real annoying. Please ignore them and keep
on updating - but do post better quality pictures.

Thanks.

Thanks for the heads up Tembo and Freddie.

I’ve repeatedly heard many patients mention that they’ll exclusively be willing to have stem cell treatment rather than a fully fledged hair transplant, which is more than understandable. In an ideal world it would be more than spectacular if one could simply have a few shots of stem cells and “poof” have your hair loss cured. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, I really think it is a hit an miss situation, at least in present times.

There are a number of characteristics pertaining to stem cells that I’m unsure about and I’m not finding concise, elaborative answers anywhere… Those are: How long will the newly developed hair follicles survive after they have been induced by stem cells? Will the hair be able to counter the detrimental effects of DHT, or would they be sensitised to it and succumb to its effects? Will the angles of the hair strands be analogous with the surrounding ones? And finally, after stem cell administration, is the newly generated hair derived from pre-existing, dormant follicles residing in the scalp (thus after being pushed into anagen phase, or albeit reawaken), or are the stem cells capable of developing into a hair follicles directly?

There still is so much research pending in the field of stem cell application. Once answers have been generated to some of these uncertainties, it will be possible to alter the molecular pathways in such a way that the situation can ultimately be changed from either “hit or miss” to a predictable result. Wouldn’t that be sublime…

Later.

Hey, I’m back with an update, and some recent images at the end. I’m having a really hectic year, so I’ll be less comprehensive with my hair loss issues & updates, but would still like to inform you guys about essential matters.

I had paid a visit to Dr. Nigams’ clinic in January for my scheduled stem cell & DP cell injections. During this time, there were no remarkable changes. I was told by some of the docs that it appeared as though I had experienced minor shock loss, while others were indifferent about it. I unfortunately support the former opinion.

Thus far, I have both positive and negative things to report and will divide my experiences under these headings:

Let’ s start with the negative things first:

  • When I returned to the clinic in January, Dr. Nigam told me that if I was to notice any donor regeneration, it should be regarded as “great”, as it would imply a major advancement in hair loss treatment. On the contrary, I was initially told to expect significant donor regeneration, hence the term “donor doubling”. I noticed him being more cautious about making large claims and think that’s the reason behind this rather discouraging utterance.
  • The recipient area is still slightly inflamed, and even up until now, there are some very small scabs present.
  • Upon close inspection, shallow depressions are noticeable in the recipient area, thus, creating an almost “cobblestone-like” appearance. The grafts were allegedly inserted deeply in order to enhance graft survival, eliciting the uneven appearance after graft retraction. I’m trying to rectify this with the aid of derma-rolling and harsh chemical peels that I’m doing myself, with good results.
  • There is some scarring “white dots” in my periumbilical area where grafts were removed for dermal papilla cell culture. This is the result of follicles being removed with a machine punch in stead of a manual punch. Please, if you are paying good money for a procedure, insist on a manual punch being utilised! I’m confident that I’ll be able to rid these scars with time.
  • I noticed the existence of a potential gap between transplanted hair and my current hairline in the left temporal region. Only miniaturised hair is present in this transition zone. If the stem cells, dp cells, etc are not going to be successful at turning these hair strands terminal, creating a confluence with the existing terminal hairs, the outcome could be devastating.

Positive aspects:

  • The were a large number of hair strand that never shed in the recipient area, and since implantation, these have grown remarkably well.
  • I noticed a stubble-like sensation in my entire donor area about two weeks ago when I run my fingers through my hair. This is very exciting news indeed! This is most probably indicative of regeneration of extracted hair, but the extent of regeneration is obviously unknown.
  • I also noticed the same sensation over the rest of my scalp, but the hair stubble feels less coarse compared to the donor area. I’m unsure whether this is new manifestation or not. I’m compelled to believe it is as I’ve been palpating my scalp frequently after the procedure and can’t remember feeling it before. I still wouldn’t put money on it though.
  • There are no scars in my chest area where follicles were removed for dermal papilla cell culture. I attribute this primarily to the usage of a manual punch extraction of follicles.

General points of discussion:

  • After 3 months, the changes have been minimal, but present, even though no significant/ cosmetic results are overtly visible.
  • I’m not only derma-rolling my recipient area, but also the rest of my scalp. This is hypothesised to induce wnt protein expression and could possibly accelerate follicular neogenesis after activation of dermal papilla cells.
  • I’m still using Mira oil and occasional Aloe Vera.
  • At this stage, I’m not taking any pharmaceutical drugs for my hair, neither topically nor orally.

Some Less Exciting News:

Innovations and changes are always taking place at Dr. Nigams clinic, and it takes time to discover and implement new measures that provide improved outcomes. I don’t want to deter anybody or destroy any hopes, but I think it could be preferable to hold off with a donor doubling procedure for some time. Dr. Nigam is extremely devoted to what he he is doing and has so many plans for improving his techniques. I think he will soon have way more advanced and refined interventional strategies. He is working on perfecting his current procedures.

I’ve been very excited about 3D dermal papilla cells for some time already, and I’d even say it could be considered the holy grail for hair regeneration, but some work is yet to be done at Dr. Nigams clinic to offer this treatment modality in a sound fashion. In order for 3D dermal papilla cells to be viable and highly trichogenic, it is necessary for them to remain in a “spheroid shape” when injected. This is not currently fully achievable at the clinic on a large enough scale to render it as a curative or stand-alone treatment option. He is still attending to this problem.

Images taken on en of Feb & beginning March 2014: The quality is pretty bad, but I could only take it with my iPhone 5, sorry about that. I’m certainly not a good photographer.


My hair is generally in quite bad shape. Thin hair is substantially less capable at dealing with environmental insults, like sun damage. The picture will look vastly different when my hair is thicker.

Finally,

I still don’t have any major concerns pertaining to my treatment as these are early days. Dr. Nigam is very approachable and I’m never hesitant to raise any concerns about my treatment.

I’m expecting and anticipating dramatic results by the end of 2014. Cheers folks.

Teamplayer, I appreciate the post but I can’t really tell from the pic whether you really have donor regeneration in the back of your head.

Teamplayer,
Thank you v. much.I have a feeling that the measures like dermarolling that you are doing are maybe aiding in the success of (partial?) donor doubling procedure.
Hope you provide us with a buzz cut/shaved photo of the donor region by end of this year.
It also seems nice to read posts from a real Doctor here.

I fully agree ipod. As for now, the newly growing hair in the donor area is completely concealed by the existing hair. It will take a few more weeks/months for the new hair to significantly contribute to a perceivable increase in density.

As suggested, it certainly is possible for the dermarolling to either solely elicit results or accelerate the results induced by other means.

Hi TP,

I owe you an apology. In light of the recent pictures, it seems as though you legitimately underwent this procedure.

However, also in light of the images, I urge you to see a dermatologist as soon as possible to invite his/her opinion on minimizing scarring in your recipient. While I feel little may still be done, I believe taking proactive steps could save you from additional hardship later on.

Please consider it, though I am not a surgeon and can not offer any expert opinion on the status of your progress.

Good luck.

Thanks a lot for the great unbiased update Teamplayer. You are a pioneer!!

It’s an absolute pleasure Tembo. :slight_smile:

so all the “rumors” about Nigam being wanted by the police are bogus?

???:frowning:

It could very well be true hair101, but I’m really don’t know. First time I’m actually hearing about it to be honest. I prefer focussing on the science whilst looking at the politics on the side. I can only hope that it’s a “rumor”…