My Hair Restoration Story — The Beginning
Hi, everyone! Welcome to my blog. I’m not sure anyone will actually read this, but I thought I’d document my journey as I work on restoring my hair. I’m a 32-year-old guy currently living in Calgary, Canada. In just a few days, I will be getting my second FUE hair transplant procedure. My first one was in December 2016, so it’s been a good 4 years since then. I am happy with the results of my initial FUE, but sadly, my hair has continued to thin since then. My front hairline is thinning (not as evident due to my first FUE), and now I am beginning to thin in the crown area as well.
Last week, I met with Dr. Bobby Sreenivasan from Sante Medical, here in Calgary. Our consultation was extremely informative. I really appreciated all the information he gave me. One of the reasons I am struggling with hair loss now is that I never started any kind of hair loss treatment after my first FUE. He made a lot of sense: it’s about protecting your investment. I shelled out the money for my first FUE in 2016, but now I have to have a second one because I let my genetics keep screwing with me afterwards.
Now, if I’m being honest (which I am since this blog is anonymous anyway!), I spoke with my family doctor about Finasteride last year. After hearing about some of the side effects and reading reviews online, I must confess that I was scared to give it a shot, so I didn’t; however, Dr. Bobby was able to share first-hand experiences with me about Finasteride, and I am happy to say that I started taking it a week ago. I likely won’t see any results from that for 3–4 months, or maybe even 6, but at least I have started the process. One of the top reasons I chose to go with Dr. Bobby and his clinic was how honest and considerate he was. He could have added my crown area to the cost of the procedure, but he said that it could still be salvaged with Finasteride, so the only area that needed another FUE was my front hairline.
Now for some pictures. The first three are how people usually see me walking around the world or how they see me on social media:
As you can see, my hair loss is not too evident when you see me from certain angles or from afar/in pictures. Now let’s see the real story:
As you can see, when I get the camera up close and with good quality settings, my hair loss is obvious. The crown area is not a total loss yet, but you can see that it's still evident even with other hair on top of it. My dad has very little hair on his crown, so I can only imagine that I would be heading that way had I not started on Finasteride. And my front hairline would look a lot worse if it weren’t for my first FUE. The hair you see at the front before it gets thicker is all from my first FUE.
I would consider myself as having medium-length hair, which can help distract people from the thinning areas, but most of my hair will be shaved in a few days. Contrary to my first FUE, which was done manually, my second FUE will be done by an ARTAS robot. I am excited to see how it works, and this method ensures that more grafts survive the transplant process, so it’s more bang for your buck! One of the downsides to using the robot, however, is that the donor area has to be clear so that the robot can get an accurate picture of the density and follicles in the donor area, so they will need to shave my back and sides. With the manual FUE I had in 2016, the doctor was able to shave only the lower back of my head, so the hair above it covered the area. This time, my head will look something like this after the procedure:
I am certainly not looking forward to that, as I have never cut my hair so short in my life (let alone shave it), but it’s all for the greater good!
That is all I have for this first entry. I want to post another update before the procedure, which is on the 18th of March. Thankfully, I have not had any side effects from taking Finasteride yet, and I am praying that I won’t have any, so I hope to be able to say that this is still the case in my next update.
If anyone read this entry, thanks for reading, and please let me know if you have any questions! This blog is intended for me to look back on in a few years to remember my journey to hair restoration, but I also want to share my experience with others and even answer questions if any come up.
Thanks again! Take care.
