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Greetings All:
I write to summarize my excellent experiences with Dr. Cole and his team during the week of June 12.
I previously underwent two strip procedures with Dr. Boles (Dr. Mark Boles) at Nuhart in Pittsburgh 1996-97. As you can see from the attached photos, the results are difficult to live with. Notice, for example, that I have two sizeable scars. When I was told that the scars would be “pencil-thin,” I did not realize that they meant the thickness of the actual pencil rather than width of a pencil’s mark. I had no idea how invasive the procedures would be (see: http://www.angelfire.com/trek/hairtransplant/new.html), and I fell for all of the hard selling techniques documented elsewhere. I was in my early twenties at the time and getting hair transplants was a rash choice I made in a weak moment after getting dumped by my long-term girlfriend. I did some research with the Better Business Bureau and searched aggressively for legal claims against Nuhart (I was an attorney at the time), but the information available now was not within my reach in these early days of the internet. I was naïve and vulnerable enough to believe that all doctors existed to help people rather than disfigure them for profit. Even worse than my own situation, however, is the fact that others continue to undergo surgeries of this sort every day. If you visit Nuhart’s current home page (http://www.nuhart.com/main.html), Dr. Boles is the featured physician and they claim to have performed over 25,000 procedures.
This was the worst decision I have ever made, but thanks to forums like these and the help of Dr. Cole I am in the process of taking incremental steps toward improving my situation. As bad as my current photos look, they are already considerably better than how they would look without a session in the summer of 2004 when Dr. Cole planted 500 FIT on the hairline and removed many plugs from the frontal hairline. Without that work these 2006 pre-op photos would be even worse.
I visited Atlanta the week of June 12, 2006, spending four days in the chair. While we do not have an exact graft count, I would estimate that Drs. Cole distributed about 2000 FIT at and behind the hairline. The doctors and staff are a thoughtful, considerate, engaging, and hard working group. The details of FIT have been relayed many times, so I will spare you those details expect to say that I felt no noteworthy pain in four days of work. With religious use of the Biotin spray all of my scabs were off within a week.
Dr. Cole also removed about half of the most offensive grafts in the crown, divided them into follicular units, and re-implanted them into the crown. I have been in correspondence with Dr. Cole since 2000, and even then I was immensely impressed with his ability to extract plugs. At the time I was following the work of Dr. Woods, and Dr. Cole’s documentation of his work on extracted plugs was even more encouraging than that of Dr. Woods. Dr. Cole can remove plugs, even at the hairline, without leaving any trace that they were ever there. That was very encouraging to someone in my situation, and I can now be confident that removing the Nuhart plugs is only a matter of time and money.
Perhaps of most interest to readers is Dr. Cole’s practice of “recharging” the donor area with body hair. Whereas in the past individual grafts where removed via FIT and left “empty” to heal, Dr. Cole filled many of the holes left when extracting grafts from the head with body hair. Thus as Dr. Cole was extracting scalp hair and leg hair. The leg hair was then inserted into the very holes just made in the scalp donor area. This has at least two significant benefits. First, while FIT never left much in the way of a visible “scar,” overharvesting could lead to an aberrant pattern of stubble if one shaved the area down to skin or a “one” on the clipper guard. This might be unnoticeable to most, but for those seeking a very short cut this recharging approximates a perfect look because it replaces hair as it goes. Given my strip scars, I’m probably not able to enjoy this benefit. The second advantage, however, could be of great benefit to those like me who have depleted their donor area. Relocating the body hair to the scalp allows them to take on scalp characteristics, and cycling body hair through the donor in this manner greatly increases the number of grafts available long term. Also given that many of us wear our hair shorter on the sides and longer on the top, the limited length of body hair makes it more appropriate for the sides of the scalp and thus leaves the native scalp donor hair for placement in recipient areas where it can work to greatest cosmetic effect.
I will post photos of my results at six months and beyond. Especially given the use of body hair, results will take at least a year to judge. I hope to return to Dr. Cole in a year or two to continue to extract plugs, fill in the crown a bit, and work on the scars. I owe Dr. Cole and his staff my deepest gratitude. Thank you all. Please ask any questions that my experiences might be able to illuminate. I have spent far too much time and emotional energy on this process, and I would feel like I got more mileage out of those efforts by helping others. |
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