In the early 90’s I received two hair transplants to help my rapidly receding frontal hairline. At the time I was probably a Norwood 2A-3A. I was in my early twenties and losing my hair, a debilitating situation at any age. Every morning a wave of nausea came over me when I found hairs on my pillowcase. I wore a hat 60 percent of the time, felt insecure 100 percent of the time and desperately searched for a solution to my hair loss and source of increasing panic.

When I read about a hair transplant system I saw it as my miracle cure. I grabbed what money I had, paid for the expensive surgery and I underwent the procedure. My miracle cure turned out to be a nightmare. Whether the doctor was unskilled, the medical advancements were not there yet or the procedure was just a complete disaster for other reasons I will never know. I didn’t go back to confront them, I just hid. Years later I was told what had been done to me was borderline criminal. It was simply put, a botched job. The obvious plugs in my scalp looked like a cheap doll’s head. I was devastated. Before the surgery I at least had the option of shaving my head, now even that was taken away from me. There was nothing to do but hide the mess that had been made of my hairline.

For 15 years after that original procedure I was forced to wear a hair system. It was essentially a toupee that was glued onto my scalp and changed every few weeks to hide the plug marks and dimpling on my forehead. I hid this from everyone except a few people I trusted and I obsessed over it daily. Could people tell? Was it obvious? Not a day went by that I didn’t examine it from all angles in the mirror. I now wore a hat 95 percent of the time and lived in fear that someone might jokingly pull it off and touch my hair. I became a master of excuses to explain why I didn’t want to go out with friends. The first thing I noticed in everyone from actors to the local homeless guy was how nice their hair was. If I had not even a dollar but a nickel for every time I thought about hair I would, without a doubt, be the richest man in the world.

I’ve done the math and over the years that hair piece alone cost me over 75 thousand dollars to upkeep. Not to mention that I drove over an hour to get it done as I was afraid of doing it locally in case someone found out. As much as it was a financial burden, I would have sold every possession I had to be free of the constant emotional drain.

One of the few times I was without a hat was when I was playing in the ocean. Even then my favorite pastime was tainted by the constant fear that if my hair parted awkwardly someone might notice. In 2012 the hair piece fell off twice in the water. I was horrified. Fortunately I was alone, but I became terrified to go in the water for fear it might happen again.

 

At that point I couldn’t take it anymore. I became obsessed researching new technology and medical procedures online. I visited several surgeons who offered minor suggestions on how to fix my plug marks, but each time I left discouraged and hopeless. I combed the internet for another 2 months and found Hasson and Wong’s website. It was honest, informative and emphatic. I wasn’t holding my breath for miracles anymore, but for the first time thought there might be some hope.

I took a trip to Vancouver as soon as my schedule allowed for a consultation. The key to the visit was that Dr. Hasson and team understood my trepidation on the hair transplant process. After looking at my scalp, Dr Hasson told me he felt terrible about what had been done to me and what I had dealt with for the past 20 years. He explained to me new procedures and spoke honestly about expected outcomes. He didn’t promise miracles but offered an option that would potentially allow me to live hat free, troupe free and fear free.

After two corrective surgeries I have a nearly full head of hair and my hairline looks fantastic. I have the freedom I lacked for nearly 20 years. I can live without a hat, without fear of someone touching my head, I can play in the water in peace and I can live not bound by the constant insecurity of my secret. The transformation from an honest and respectable clinic has forever changed my life.

I cannot express my gratitude to Dr. Hasson and team for giving me the freedom to live my life again. I am an extremely private person and would not normally volunteer to share my story, but I would feel selfish not doing so in this case. I know I’m not the only out there spending hours online looking for hope. If this finds someone in a similar situation please know I’m writing for no other reason than out of understanding and empathy, and because I myself sought out stories like mine to help me. My 20 year saga has a happy ending only because I found the right, talented and compassionate people

This Hasson & Wong hair transplant patient is just beginning his hair transplant journey. Follow his story as he shares his thoughts and hair transplant photos of his recovery progress and ultimately, his final results. As always, we are truly grateful and thankful to individual’s such as this gentleman, who have taken the time to help others that may be considering hair transplant surgery.

Introduction

I’m going to give a fairly detailed account of my whole experience. After spending years researching, reading peoples accounts of their experiences and visiting clinic’s websites, I always found patient’s long detailed forum posts sharing their experiences were the most illuminating and informative.

I’m writing this exactly one month post-op. I didn’t want the initial excitement to affect my write-up, I will give a completely honest review of my experience, start to finish.

My hair loss history

Strange as it may sound, the early signs of hair loss were apparent from the age of 11! My first day at secondary school, I still have a picture where you can see major thinning at the front. By 13/14, it got to the point where kids at school would say ‘haha are you going bald at this age?!?!’ My parents took me to see my GP who referred me to the hospital for blood tests etc. I was told, aged 14, that there was nothing abnormal going on with me in terms of my health, and I was suffering from male pattern baldness. It was genetic. I was losing my hair the same way my father had (early 30’s) and my grandfather had. It just started at a ridiculously young age. By the time I was 17 there was no hiding it, I was losing hair quickly and I started using Nanogen fibres (I think this is called toppix in America??).

Aged 21, I looked so ridiculous with the fibres, they were basically sitting on my head, there was hardly any hair left on top, and everywhere I went, people’s eyes would constantly go back and forth from my eyes, to my hair. How embarrassing. I shaved it off. I didn’t look bad with the bald look. The shaved head (people told me) suited me, my head shape is such that I can pull off the look. But it just isn’t me, that look does not reflect my personality. In the world we live in, people make quick judgements on you based on your appearance. It just wasn’t me, and I already had my heart set on a hair transplant. I wore a baseball cap pretty much all of the time and the thought of having to go somewhere where I couldn’t wear my cap was stressful and made me feel uncomfortable.

I remember being 18, reading up on hair transplants. I didn’t understand them at all! I just knew I wanted one. ‘Oh look, there’s a clinic in Pakistan, I’ll go there, it’ll only cost a couple of thousand’. I was naïve, I wasn’t aware of any of the institutes for hair restoration, I took all pictures as genuine and unedited. Fortunately, I didn’t go down that route, I had heard about someone who had been there and had a bad experience. In 2011, age 22, I travelled to Manchester to have a consultation with one of the best-known clinics in the world. I was told to go on Propecia, which I flat out refused to do because I had heard of the side effects. There was NO WAY I was going to take it! They told me they wouldn’t consider taking me on until I was 25.

Early 2012

A new friend asked me why I always wear a cap. I told him it was because I’m losing my hair. He suggested a hair transplant. I told him that was the plan. He told me about his friend who had one recently and I said I’d be interested in meeting him. This guy, a complete stranger to me, came to see me. He told me about Hasson & Wong. ‘The best in the world’ he said. ‘Yeah right, that’s what they all say’ I thought to myself. He was only a few months post-op. There was a bit of hair coming through but not a great deal, it was too early to judge his results. I struggled to find his hair transplant scar, and his hair was very short so I was impressed by that. Later that day, I looked at their website. It wasn’t great! It’s been updated now, but it was pretty basic, didn’t look good at all. Then I looked at their before and after photos. They were absolutely superb. Totally natural looking. I read on the forums. I couldn’t find a bad thing about these guys! I realised these guys didn’t need a fancy website, or online advertising. Their results were fantastic, but also they were very consistent and it was the results that gave them such a fantastic reputation. I searched all the forums, checked so many clinic’s sites, and at that point, after countless hours or reading, late nights looking at before and after pictures, I thought ‘yep, that guy was right, they are the best in the world’.

I met Joetronic (this is his handle on the chat forums), David Anderson (H&W’s UK Consultant) and Dr Wong in London in November 2012. Joe convinced me to get on Propecia in about 5 minutes. I’ve been on it for nearly 3 years now and I’ve never had a side effect. I then met David and Dr Wong. Dr Wong is softly spoken and small in stature, but he is an absolute giant in the world of hair restoration and when he speaks, people listen. He told me that I would probably require 2 procedures. One to build me a new hairline about 1.5-2cm higher than my original one, and for the frontal third. There would probably be enough grafts to get some coverage mid scalp but not the crown and then in a second smaller procedure, we could address the crown and add some more grafts mid scalp. He told me that I should take Finasteride for a year and we could re-evaluate a year later, he wanted to see my hair loss stabilise first. These guys had me totally at ease and answered all of my questions. I left feeling a lot better about it all.

Summer 2013

I got an email from David asking if I wanted another consultation with him in London. I jumped at the chance. He answered all of my questions (many, many questions) and took some more photos. He let me inspect his hair too, and his scar, it was all very impressive. He emailed me after saying he had shown Dr Wong the photos and he thought I was now a good candidate for a hair transplant as my hair loss was stable because of the Finasteride. At that point, the only thing stopping me from going was the money side of things. I was self employed and things were going backwards….

I stayed in touch with David after that. I made him aware of my financial situation and he was very understanding. I asked him how I could bring the cost down – he said if I was able to travel at short notice and take a slot someone else had dropped out of I could get a discount. Every time I had a question for him, he always answered me promptly, always showed patience and always clearly explained things to me. From the first time I met him 3 years ago, to this day, he has always been available to help, always supportive, always honest, it’s been a real pleasure to have known him.

June 2015

David asked me if I wanted another consultation with Dr Wong but I declined as I was happy with our plan and didn’t want to take a slot when someone new might be able to meet them. I told David I was ready for my procedure and he told me he would let me know as soon as a slot became available. In mid-July, I received a telephone call from him saying there was a date for me – 29th of July and it was mine if I wanted it. I jumped at the chance. It was finally going to happen! After another phone call, making sure I wasn’t on any medication that would affect the procedure and a few other basic things, I booked my flight. Exciting times!

As the date got nearer, I got more and more nervous. I had built this up so much in my head. I landed in Vancouver the afternoon before the procedure. I flew Air Transat, nice fight, no problems, it was a 9.5 hour flight from Gatwick, London. I got the train from the Airport to the clinic. It was only a 5 minute walk from the station. If I have one regret about the whole thing, it was that I didn’t get there a few days earlier. What a beautiful place! I didn’t realise it was so nice. Such a clean city, natural beauty, great architecture, perfect weather and the nicest people on earth! Must be such a great place to live.

When I got to the hair transplant clinic, I was greeted by Daria. It was a hot day, I was offered a drink right away, and was given some forms to fill in. David was there too, he was out there for a couple of months, ideal timing for me, it was nice to have a familiar face there so that was a nice bonus. After filling out the forms and enjoying the wonderful view of the city from the waiting area, I was greeted by Dr Wong. David, Dr Wong and I had a chat about the procedure, Dr Wong showed me what hairline he thought was best – I was happy with it. We were aiming for around 4,000 grafts. I had good laxity but my density in the sides wasn’t great. Honestly, I was getting more nervous and I think David picked up on it, but he soon calmed me down. I headed to my hotel, had some dinner and got to sleep nice and early as surgery was starting at 6.15am. I had a decent nights sleep. In the morning I got ready and left the hotel to grab some breakfast and headed to the clinic.

I was greeted by Carmen who had a few questions for me to answer and some forms to sign. She was wonderful throughout, you could really see that she genuinely enjoyed what she does and putting smiles back on people’s faces. Dr Wong arrived and drew my new hairline again and asked me if I was happy with it, which I was. I lay down on the couch face down, and after my head being completely numbed, Dr Wong took the strip and stapled the wound closed. I felt no pain or discomfort whatsoever. Dr Wong’s team started separating the follicles and as I sat there, looking at a beautiful view of the city, the nerves were gone as I realised, that if I was a multi-millionaire wanting a hair transplant, I would be sat in this very chair, with this very Doctor.

The Surgery Begins

Dr Wong started to make the slits. He told me that if I felt any pain to let him know so he could numb my head some more. I was very relaxed, watching TV shows on Netflix. I even fell asleep for a while as the girls were placing the follicles! Dr Wong and his team showed such patience and professionalism throughout, I cannot find a single fault. After a lot of single hair grafts were placed around the hairline, there were 4 ladies placing grafts. I was totally numb, no pain whatsoever. Then David walked in, asking me if I had heard the final graft count. I said no, and he informed me we had hit over 5,000! The final count was 5,140. Dr Wong placed the final slits mid scalp and around the crown. I don’t know how he managed to place them so well. I don’t know how he got coverage on the crown with that amount of grafts covering such a huge area. I know the density won’t be great at the back but at least there will be some coverage hopefully.

I was given lunch of my choosing (there really is a huge choice). The surgery took longer than expected, we hit more grafts than we thought and you could see the care that was being put into the placement of each graft. We stopped around 8pm for some dinner. It was nice to stretch my legs. Dr Wong’s team were perfect – I cannot fault them at all, they were always asking if I was in pain, if I wanted anything to drink, if I wanted to stretch my legs or move my neck around, and their work was spot on, couldn’t have asked any more of them. Finally, at around 2230, it was over. I headed for the mirror, and for the first time in years, I had a proper full hairline! It was at that point, I got a second mirror and inspected the back and couldn’t believe that Dr Wong had actually managed to get some coverage all the way back. I was given a goodie bag. There was an inflatable neck pillow so I wouldn’t have to sleep on my staples if it was too uncomfortable, also a pillow cover so I didn’t get any blood on my pillow in my hotel room. Special shampoo, cream for the scar, painkillers, sleeping tablets, staple remover, and a leaflet with basic info. Oh and a large baseball cap, loose enough not to pull out any grafts – they really had thought of everything. I headed back to my hotel, had a bit of dinner and slept like a baby.

The Next Day

After a long sleep, I had some breakfast and headed back to the clinic to get my hair washed. I was showed how to wash it carefully, for how many days, talked through the whole thing. I saw Dr Wong and he said everything was looking good to him. I spent the rest of the day exploring the city – what a great place. If any of you reading this are planning on going, make sure you take a few days extra before the procedure to enjoy it – I wish I had.

Two days post-op, time to go home

I stopped off at the clinic again on the way to the airport. I had my hair washed again and said goodbye to everyone. I had a chat with David, lost track of time and was running late for my flight. I know I’ll be back out there again at some point, hopefully towards the end of 2016.

I slept really well on the flight back. When I woke up, I noticed my forehead was slightly swollen. The swelling worked its way down my face over the next 3 days and was gone 5 days post op. Not painful at all, it was expected and it was funny looking at myself in the mirror, I thought it was hilarious, my mom thought I’d gone mad haha. I know some people have issues sleeping … I have never slept so well in all my life. Maybe that was just my body’s way of recovering from it all, but I slept long and I slept well. The staples just didn’t hurt me. My dad removed them for me 14 days post op. Took about 10 minutes. Minimal pain. Had a nice hot shower first. The area above the scar on the back of my head is still pretty numb but not totally, I know the feeling will come back but will take months, it’s really not an issue. Washing my hair was easy enough, just got to be careful, follow the instructions and there are no problems. The scar is looking ok, again it will take months to fully heal but I can see hair actually growing out of it because of the way Dr Wong closed it, so not worried about that at all.

One Month Post-op

So, here I am, one-month post-op.  The pre-op pics are from a few months back, they’re the best pics to show the extent of my hair loss because normally my head is shaved.

I’ll wrap this up with a few words on Dr Wong. I really found him to be a wonderful guy. There is a reason why he is so highly regarded. He is an honest man, a man of his word, and surely up there as one of the very best hair transplant surgeons in the world. You don’t win a golden follicle award for nothing. I can’t fault anything, it couldn’t have gone any better in my eyes, even the number of grafts we hit and Dr Wong was very generous in that respect. I cannot thank him enough for his work, I could not be happier with how it all went.

I know this is one of the longer write-ups, so if you’ve actually read all of it…..well done! I will post new pictures at the end of each month. Any comments are welcome, any questions anyone has about my experience with H&W, just comment or drop me a message.

Thanks for reading.

Two Months Post-op

2 month update. Progressing well, clearly some early growth which is pleasing to see. Scar is looking better by the week. Feeling above the scar is also improving by the day, still a little bit numb but definitely getting better. Nothing to complain about, feeling pretty good about it all, no irritation in the recipient area or anything like that. Looking forward to some more growth over the coming months!

Four Months Post-op

Clearly the biggest improvement so far. I am really pleased with progress, when I look in the mirror now I see a younger man looking back which is a wonderful feeling after so many years. Really looking forward to seeing how it looks next month.

Six Months Post-op

6 months down and it’s looking great, steady progress and hopefully some more still to come. I feel great when I look in the mirror, confidence is on the rise!

Eight Months Post-op

Nine Months Post-op

Hair really maturing, people are complimenting me on a daily basis. Hair on the crown area is coming through now, took longer than the rest but definitely progressing well. It will take a while to mature as it’s just coming through. I actually think I will see improvements overall well past 12 months.