How a hair transplant surgery changed my life

Let me take a minute to share some of my story with you. As I write these lines I am 39 years old and live in Los Angeles. My hair loss started at the age of 22 and progressed slowly. All the younger guys reading this, believe me, I know how you feel and believe me when I tell you that there is hope for great hair in most of you. I was always conscious of my receding hairline anyway, and in the early ’90s, I began interviewing doctors in the general Los Angeles area. You name them, I can tell you I interviewed them, I’ve been to Bosley, Dr. Wolf, Dr. Meshkin, Dr. Rassman, Medical Restoration Center and many others I can’t remember. Looking back, I was very lucky I didn’t have surgery at the time because if I had, I would most likely have plugs of doll hair sticking out of my head.

So at the age of 35 I got married and settled down with my beautiful wife. I started to really realize that she was losing her hair at the age of 36. Someone at my work pointed it out to me as he was my upstairs neighbor looking at my crown area.

I decided at that moment to stop my hair loss and change my appearance forever, for the better. So, again I started my online research for months. I read articles, visited websites, and talked to patients. In my research, one name came up over and over again, “Hasson and Wong”, based in Vancouver, Canada. . On almost every forum, they have received positive reviews time and time again from patients who have undergone transplant procedures performed by Dr. Wong or Dr. Hasson. After 4 months of research I decided Hasson and Wong was the one for me. Why did I choose Surgeons outside of the United States? Simple, they were one of the best if not the best in the whole world and a hair transplant is a life changing surgery. You can’t hide a hair transplant, once you do that, you’re stuck with it for life. So traveling 3.5 hours from where I lived to his office to have the best ones do the transplant work was a no-brainer for me. I would travel to China if the best doctors were there.

But which doctor, Dr. Wong or Dr. Hasson? Everywhere I read they both had equally good reviews, one not surpassing the other in his skills or practices as a surgeon. One day, I read the blog of Jatronics, who was a patient of Dr. Wong and who now also works for Hasson and Wong. On his site, he described in detail his own hair loss experiences and why he chose Dr. Wong and his entire transplant procedure with Dr. Wong. After reading that post, I decided that Dr. Wong was the one for me. I made my first contact with Hasson and Wong via email, actually my entire hair transplant consultation was done online. I sent a couple of pictures of my current state of hair loss and Dr. Wong made a guess as to how many grafts I would need and what the total cost of the surgery would be. I told him I wanted the maximum possible, which we agreed on about 3800 grafts, the cost at the time was about $11,000, which was fine with me since most surgeons here in Los Angeles doubled that amount. In addition, the airfare and hotel where it is also included. Hasson and Wong pay for 2 full days of room and airfare. We got a great room and in the great Granville Hotel on Granville Island in Vancouver. My wife and I decided to make it a short vacation for us.

When we arrived in Vancouver in mid-2004, we went directly to our hotel in Granville. We unpacked and had lunch, and because I insisted on meeting Dr. Wong in person for a face-to-face consultation before surgery, we left for Hasson and Wong the day before surgery. My wife and I met with Joe Tillman and Dr. Wong that afternoon, which turned out to be more than I bargained for. We discuss how the surgery will take place, the donor scar, my donor density, etc. It was a great meeting that helped me prepare for the upcoming surgery the next day at 6:00 am. My wife and I went back to our hotel and had a great dinner and relaxed.

The day of the surgery I was really nervous and reality washed over me. Trust me when I tell you that just before I went to have the donor area taken, I was having a panic attack, my heart was pounding and I was saying to myself, if this goes wrong, I will be scared for life. No one knew this was happening except my wife and she reassured me that she had no doubt that the procedure would be done correctly. So I lay down in the chair and Dr. Wong came in and anesthetized me and started cutting into my donor area. Now let me tell you everything, I have a low pain tolerance and I can honestly say that going to the dentist is more painful, I personally did not feel any pain when Wong was cutting my donor area. After the donor area was taken, I was stapled together and taken to another room for extraction. They had 6-8 nurses, not including Dr. Wong, who removed the implants, which took 10-12 hours. We start at 6:30 am and finish at 4:00 pm. I watched 2 DVD movies, “Lord of the Rings”, talked to Dr. Wong, talked to the nurses, my wife and had sushi for lunch. I did all of that while the implants were being removed. There was absolutely no bread. After the surgery they gave me some painkillers, gave me a hat, paid, thanked everyone for their accuracy and professionalism, and went back to the hotel. We left for Los Angeles the next morning. The next day, my face was swollen from the anesthetic that was put into my head to numb the transplant area.

This swelling lasted for 1 day, after which the transplanted area was red for approximately 2 to 4 weeks. This reddening of the transplanted area depends on the individual’s skin finish. If one is white and pale skinned like me the redness lasts longer, if one is tanned and dark skinned the redness may not even be noticeable. All transplanted donor hair fell out within 10 days. The next phase that lasts approximately 3-6 months is the rest phase. I started to see hair coming out around 4-5 months, which was amazing for a boy who got bold every year before this. By month 8-10 I noticed a completely new me with a completely new set of hair, absolutely amazing. For the first time in 10 years I can use a brush and not a comb to brush my hair. Visit my website for before and after photos.