Patient Story: Do Your Research, Find A Doctor & Go For It!

2020 FUE  hair transplant by Dr. Vories at Carolina Hair Surgery

I have been considering a hair transplant for about 10 years. I recently underwent a hair transplant and want to share my experience with you as I know you are looking for knowledge.

History:

I’m 39 years old. I have been using Propecia for about 10 years which may have stabilized my losses, ? a pill every other day. I have been taking Biotin 10mg tablets and liquid vitamin & minerals. I have gone through a few consults with the national chain hair transplant firms but did not have good experiences with their consult nor did I feel like they were honest about recovery times. I really liked Dr. Cooley in Charlotte, NC but just could not sign up for the FUT method. Luckily I talked myself out of these in the past. I narrowed my search down to Dr. Michael Vories of Carolina Hair Surgery. I had my consult a few months ago at the Charleston, SC office. After all the research on this site and the consult with Vories, I knew I found in my opinion the best FUE doctor in the United States. Dr. Vories was the only doctor that personally spent time with me compared to competitors where you meet with sales reps. and/or consultants.

Procedure:

A few weeks ago Dr. Vories completed a 2000 FUE procedure over one day. I am a Norwood 5A headed towards 5V in the early stages. We focused on the crown with 1200 and the mid top scalp with 800 graphs. I was able to take two weeks off of work which was perfect for me. I would recommend taking 10-13 calendar days away from work if possible, it not, that’s ok. I want to share my experience thus far as this family of members was so helpful for me. I arrived at 6:45am to complete the paperwork with Dr. Vories, then paid and asked additional questions with Mike Frame, Clinic Manager. Pre-op pics were taken, hair washed, drew around the balding spots, then buzz cut very short all over. Took two Valiums and we got started around 7:30. I began with my head facing to the right, then left as extractions were completed. The medicine relaxed me pretty quickly. There was soothing music playing in the background. The numbing shots were painful for me, he puts hair clippers vibrating upside down beside the injection site to distract/ease the pain. I’m a wimp so I had to request additional shots during the surgery. All extractions were manually done by Dr. Vories (he does not use Neograph anymore). By 11:30am he began using implanter pens to start on my crown. Around 12:30 we stopped and all had lunch like a family and food of my choosing. Then back to the chair in an upright position watching movies of my choice. They keep me informed on where we were in the procedure and many graphs remained. We finished up around 3:30. I met with Dr. Vories to go over the post-op instructions and Mike Frame personally helped me to my destination. I did get out of the operation chair too quickly which made me very dizzy (my fault). I had my prescriptions filled, pain pills and sleeping pills. I was very careful to not bump my head on anything, wear button up shirts and strictly follow instructions of spraying saline for two days post op. The post-op kit contained a washing sponge, shampoo and an instruction sheet. I was not let anything disturb the grafts for two days after my surgery, with the exception of a spraying a saline spray on them every hour. The third day after my surgery would be my first wash day. The wash would be a mixing of the shampoo with water in a cup, pouring it over my head gently and then dabbing it with a sponge. On the sixth day I began lightly shampooing the graphs and donor area with my fingertips. This got all the blood off and began working on the scabs and flakes. Days 7-10 all scabs and flakes came off, I put my shower on a low setting so the water pressure would not be too strong. It is common for some transplanted hairs to come out when the big scabs come off. I have experienced minimal shock loss, which if it is going to occur, would be within the first 1-3 weeks.

Pain:

The evening after surgery was painful until I was able to fill and take my pain medication. I slept in a recliner for five nights (only 3 required) using a large travel pillow or towel wrapped up. I took the pain pills for 2 nights. The pain really set in days 4 and 5 post op but eased some on days 6 and 7. The donor area become uncomfortable due to the scabs. On days 4 and 5 the nerves in the donor area were firing off and really eased up on day 6, fading further on day 7. As I was able to wash my hair under the low pressure shower and clean up the scalp the pain eased up to a slight sharp pain in two small areas in the back of my scalp (below crown in donor area). Pain (2-3 on a 10 scale) mostly faded away on day 12 & 13. I did start using lotion on my donor area on day 10 which really helped with itching and healing. I also used head & shoulders with almond oil to ease itching in the donor area. The more rest you get the better you are with the pain, especially when you can sleep flat in a bed. I used an ice pack on the donor area to help with the pain.

Recovery:

As described above, recovery went as expected. This website fully prepared me to (1) understand my hair loss, (2) find the best doctor for me, (3) read reviews on doctors, (4) get fully educated on the transplant itself, (5) recovery post op as the first 10-14 days was my biggest concern, (6) shock loss will occur and most importantly (7) expectations on the final result.

Results:

I am so amazed at what an excellent job that was done on my head. I have a full head of hair now. It is growing out and I understand I may have further shock loss and become fuller in about 6 months+. It’s like magic, in one day I now have a full head of hair, no more bald spots. The final stats were 2020 FUE, 800 singles, 1020 doubles & 220 triples hair families, thin hair type.

Dr. Vories and team:

This team is incredible. They are so personal and treat you like family. I can see that they truly care about their patients and really enjoy helping people achieve their goals. To my knowledge, Dr. Vories is the only doctor in the country that personally manually extracts all graphs and personally uses implanter pens. They only schedule one hair transplant per day. Tech’s help load the implanter pens. The icing on the cake is the price is currently $4 per graph which was great for me. I went into the surgery very comfortable and well informed and I thank you all for putting me in that position. Dr. Vories personally answered post-op questions that I had on day 6 along with a follow-up two week post-op appointment.

Summary:

Obviously you are considering a hair transplant or waiting to see the final result of your hair transplant. Waiting for the final result is the easy part, the hardest is finding a doctor, how to pay for it and all the research heading up to the surgery. I have been looking for unbiased information and found it on The Hair Transplant Network. Thank you all for sharing information which enables members’ lives to be positively impacted. If you are looking to have a hair transplant, narrow down if you want FUT or FUE, find a few doctors and have consultations, find answers to your questions on this website and schedule the hair transplant surgery. I have no regrets and have not seen the final product yet.