Hi guys, my name is Shawn. I’m a first time poster on this site, but long time reader. I’m 30 years old with diffuse thinning which began around the age of 20 or so. I have been lurking on these message boards for almost 2 years now researching my options and trying to decide if a HT was right for me. Well, on February 11th of this year I took the plunge and went through with a 4,181 graft FUE procedure with Dr Armani in LA. I must say that I questioned myself every step of the way up to the day of the procedure, and even while the procedure was going on, but I must say that I am very happy with my decision to date. I am just 3 months out from my procedure at this point, and now I’m anxiously waiting for the growth to kick in.
The procedure wasn’t nearly as bad as what I had been expecting, I guess I had really built myself up for the worst. My procedure lasted about 12 hours and I was completely exhausted by the end of the day; we finished up around 10pm and I was sent on my way to get some sleep with my meds in hand. BTW, Armani’s staff was awesome and had a great sense of humor, which made the long day a bit easier. I was pretty lucky in the fact that I had a friend who just happened to live 5 miles away from Armani’s clinic. Believe me, staying with a friend for a week was a life saver, I have to give props to all of you who stayed in a hotel room for your recovery.
I really didn’t have any pain during or after the procedure, only some minor discomfort and I had no problems sleeping at all from the first night on. I had some swelling in my face, but it was completely gone 4 days after the procedure which was the day I flew home. I fixed a very light bandage around my head for the flight home and slid a very very loose fitting cap over it so that I didn’t look like a freak on the flight. Man, was I praying that they didn’t ask me to remove my hat to go through the metal detectors; they didn’t…
My donor area healed surprisingly fast. The holes were nearly undetectable at 2 weeks and were completely gone by 3 weeks when I went back to work. I used a little bit of concealer on the recipient area redness so that that the new hairline wasn’t so obvious. Basically, it just looked like a sunburn and that’s what I told my co-workers it was. I mean, I HAD just gotten back from an LA vacation.
I’ve decided to document my journey so that others could see what to expect from the procedure. I know that most of the information that really helped me make my decision was gathered from patient blogs, so I thought it was only right to return the favor; that, and it helps pass the time waiting for your hair to grow. Thanks to all of you who posted your photos and experiences on line, that really did make all the difference to me.
Here is a link to my blog for anyone that is interested and I will bring this post to an end as it is getting entirely too long…
SDS1977