CJ'S Personal Journal

Procedure was done back in Jan 2006.

I am currently 2.25 weeks post-op of a BHT session with Dr Umar. I received around 900 BHT grafts- approx 75% pubic 20% armpit, and 5% leg all into the crown (see pic below). I went to Dr Umar as BHT is my only real option at this point as 5 strips operations plus, many scalp FUE’s have left my donor area and my bank account depleted. I would just like to say that the 1 day experience was very professionally done. He worked on me entirely by himself (i.e he scored 100% of the grafts, he extracted 100% of the grafts, and he implanted 100% of the grafts). He appears to have adopted the Dr Woods “one patient a day” philosophy. Compare this to the last BHT Dr I went to, who was never in the room 95%+ of the time, and did not make one extraction or implant 1 graft.


At the 2.25 week point, all the scabs are gone in the recipient area, and about 80%+ of the implanted grafts have remained. It appears that they are continuing to grow. I find this remarkable, as this has never happened in my 14+ prior transplant operations.

The donor areas look very similar to what donor areas look like post op. I.e no unusual redness. Very similar to my previous BHT donor areas.

Anyway I would like to mention several things about the procedure.

1) ‘the one patient a day, all doctor experience’ – I cannot say how much of a refreshing change this was. The last HT doctor I went to for BHT never ‘scored’ one graft, never made 1 extraction, and never implanted 1 graft. Dr. Umar worked on me for around 15.5 straight hours by himself! You are treated like a patient, and not some piece of a “hair-mill” business that churns out many patients a day.

2) The procedure and methodology – Dr Umar uses all proprietary tools, and at least 1 tool has been automated to minimize any human error. Additionally, each and every extraction is very carefully done with multiple tools, and each hair is micro-surgically removed, and not ripped out.

3) BHT Sampling & Patient Input - Dr Umar requires each patient to submit a sample of body hair clippings so before the surgery Dr Umar and the patient can determine what body hair will match up and look the best in the recipient area (see photo below). Dr Umar is the only Dr I know of (except Dr A of course) that requires this. Understand how very important this is for the patient. For some patients the body hair may not immediately (or possibly ever) take on scalp characteristics. So the way it looks on your body may be the way it will look on your head. Some body hairs maybe only good for scars. For me, the hairs that matched up best with my sparse, but pre-existing crown hairs were armpit and pubic. They were almost a dead ringer for my scalp hair. Take a look at my thin and short leg hairs. I went to another BHT dr who insisted on doing only leg hair on me because it was easiest to get out, and he had multiple patients that day to attend to and couldn’t put in the effort to get out the pubic/armpit hair. I was told by that dr to “pray” my implanted leg hairs get longer. Bottom line here, the patient must also have an input in this process, and Dr Umar coordinates with the patient to utilize the body hairs that are best for the patient, and not which are best & easiest for the Dr.

4) Taking only Anagen Hairs - I will start my last comment with a quote from another BHT dr’s website regarding Telogen/Anagen hairs. On the site it was written,
…
“Since hairs are in a constant cycle, the more anagen hairs transplanted, the sooner results will be noticed, since those hairs are active. Once the telogen hair phase ends and the hair becomes an anagen, then growth will be noticed in that hair. But this will happen at a later time since the hair is not active yet. So be patient.”

Dr Umar is one of only two Dr’s that takes only Anagen hairs for BHT patients. As a fellow hairloss sufferer, I believe that Dr Umar realizes it would be more of a benefit for a HT patient to get quicker results, and not have to wait forever. Taking only Anagen hairs cuts down this waiting game by YEARS. The doctor who is quoted above advocates waiting around 5 YEARS for some BHT growth. As you can see by the posts from Dr Umar and Dr A, the waiting for BHT should be very similar to head hair (scar tissue aside). They continually post at the 5 MONTH mark the growth they are getting from BHT. Additionally, some of Dr Umar’s recent patients have told him they are getting a higher and higher percentage of implanted grafts to not shed at all and continually keep growing in the weeks following their procedure. This appears to be the case for me, and if this is so, the waiting game for BHT patient would then be measured in WEEKS. Quite remarkable. I can only pray this continues for me.


Lastly I would just like to mention that of all the HT doctors I have been to in the past, almost everyone has told me that I have dandruff & flaky scalp. I have tried very very hard to get rid of this, but it continues. Despite every Dr mentioning it to me, Dr Umar is the only Dr that has actually put me on a regimen to combat this scalp condition. Maybe this condition has had an impact on previous HT operations, who knows? But the point is, is that first and foremost as a practicing dermatologist he was quick to diagnose AND try to remedy the condition. A condition that other were all too quick to point out, yet quick to forget about when all is said and done.

All in all, Dr Umar is a very professional and competent Dr, and while others talk of having the patient in mind, he actually does have the patient in mind, because after all, he was once one also.

Cj




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