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A Hair Transplant Journey

Following NeoGraft Patient David from the Planning Phase to 6 Months Post-Op

The first thing we tell our hair transplant patients is always this: Unlike other plastic surgery, hair restoration takes a little bit of patience. You cannot expect the same overnight results you can achieve with, say, a tummy tuck, where results are immediately visible.

If you think about it, this is more a blessing than a curse. Yes, you have to wait a little for your new hairline and your crown to fill in. But relying on the natural growth cycle of hair ensures that the results look, in fact, natural.

In the end, our Nashville Hair Doctor and Memphis Hair Doctor patients are always surprised how fast this waiting time goes by, and how quickly the first results begin to show. The best way for you to get an idea of this timeline is to follow the journey of a hair restoration patient.

The Hair Transplant Patient

David Bernard is a 34-year old internet marketing specialist living in the Nashville area. His dark, coarse, and wavy hair was receding and thinning in the crown. He elected to have a hair transplant at Nashville Hair Doctor in July of 2018. The cause for his hair loss was male pattern baldness, a condition affecting many men of all ages.

Nashville Hair Doctor patient journey

Nashville Hair Doctor patient journey - before picture

A good view of David’s crown before his procedure. You can see the thinning hair.

Prior to his procedure, David had met with Shauna, our medical consultant. Shauna is available to meet in person at our office, but she also conducts virtual consultations. All a patient needs to do is upload his or her picture using a secure feature on our website, and she takes it from there.

The purpose for David’s meeting with Shauna was to evaluate the state of his hair loss and discuss goals for his new look. He was alarmed about his thinning crown that was at risk of turning into a bald spot, and he also wasn’t happy with how far his hairline had retreated. Shauna advised that a 2,800-graft hair transplant would be ideal to fill in both hairline and crown. She also recommended a PRP treatment to boost post-op growth. Then they set a date for early July during a slow week at work, allowing him to work from home.

The Hair Transplant Procedure

The only concern David had before his procedure was having to sit still for up to 8 hours. NeoGraft hair transplants can take a bit of time to complete, since each hair graft has to be transplanted individually. This is a good thing. The alternative is the Strip Method, which removes a strip of hair all at once from your scalp, resulting in a scar. NeoGraft leaves you with an unblemished scalp without scars.

It was easy for David to pass the time during his hair transplant. There was a TV in the procedure room, and he was given the remote. Occasionally he would have to change positions depending on where they worked. He also enjoyed chatting with Jay, the Nashville Hair Doctor NeoGraft technician.

He didn’t feel much of anything throughout the procedure, thanks to the placement of a numbing agent on the affected areas. Occasionally he might feel a little pinch from where they extracted hair, or a sensation of a pinprick where it was inserted. He says it was easy to manage because he controlled the pain level.

The Hair Transplant Recovery

David’s recovery lasted about a week. Not because he was in any pain, but because he wanted to wait that long before showing himself in public. Here is a brief timeline of his week of recovery:

Day 1

Made sure he followed all post-op instructions given by Shauna, like waiting for 3 days before washing his hair and sleeping with head in an elevated position. (Read our complete Tips for Best Results and Dos and Don’ts After a Hair Transplant for more information.)

Nashville Hair Doctor patient journey Day 1 post-opDay 2

Experienced a bit of swelling to the head from not having kept it elevated when sleeping. Would opt for sleeping in a recliner during first week if he did it again.

Day 3

Hung out by the pool, occasionally spraying back of the head when it was itchy.

Nashville Hair Doctor patient journey Day 3 post-opDay 4

Washed hair for the first time as instructed, using a cup to pour soapy water over his head so as not to scrub unnecessarily.

Day 5

Was thrilled with his hair looking almost back to normal, with hardly any scabs showing and tiny hairs growing at the front hairline.

Nashville Hair Doctor patient journey Day 5 post-opDay 6

Got ready to go back to work.

1 Month

Noticed some hair was falling out but was ready for this as per Shauna’s instructions. This is completely normal and part of the growth cycle of hair. The roots of your transplanted hair are still there and will continue to reproduce.

2-3 Months

Started seeing the first results at both hairline and crown. Was happy to wear tighter fitting hats again, which he had avoided entirely during first few months to protect the new grafts.

6 Months

Was delighted to be much further along than anticipated. His hairline had gained almost an inch, and his crown was almost completely covered with full hair. He was told to expect his best results at 14 months, so 6 months seemed like no time at all. David attributes his great results to three things: 1. Opting for a transplant early rather than waiting longer; 2. Following the post-op instructions to a T; and 3. Opting for the PRP treatment.

The Hair Transplant Results

We believe that these pictures speak for themselves. Also watch the video to hear David describe his journey in his own words.

Before and After picture of male NeoGraft hair transplant patient - top view | Nashville Hair Doctor

After picture taken 6 months after hair transplant

If you have any questions about hair restoration at Nashville Hair Doctor or Memphis Hair Doctor, please give us a call. To receive an instant quote, simply upload your picture, and Shauna will be in touch with you!

Nashville Hair Doctor by NuBody Concepts serving patients in Tennessee and beyond

About Hair Doctor

With over 20 years of experience in FUE hair restoration and led by a double-board certified plastic surgeon, we are a leading provider of affordable hair transplants in the Southeast. Visit us at our Nashville Hair Doctor or Memphis Hair Doctor offices, or take advantage of our complimentary travel package for out-of-town patients. Read more>>

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6 Reasons Summer is the Perfect Time for a Hair Transplant

We often get asked, should I have my hair transplant during summer or winter? Continue reading to get all the answers you need.

In our experience working with patients at Nashville Hair Doctor and Memphis Hair Doctor, hair transplants take a bit of planning.

It’s not that they are complicated. Hair transplants are minimally-invasive and require only mild local anesthesia. They are not all that different from a long appointment with your hairdresser.

It’s also not that you need a long recovery time. Our NeoGraft patients typically return to their regular activities just a day or two after their procedure.

But there is the matter of not wanting to appear in public or at work when the marks of the hair restoration are still visible. The tiny dots on your scalp where hair was extracted with the NeoGraft pneumatic pressure take about a week to ten days to scab over and disappear. Many of our patients prefer to schedule their procedure so that they do not go into work during that time.

Summer is an excellent and popular time for hair transplants. Here are some reasons why you might consider booking your procedure for June or July:

  1. Taking Time Off is Easy

    The summer months are often a good time to take time off from work. It’s considered vacation time, and no one at your office will question why you are taking two weeks off. You’ll come back nice and tanned after chilling on your back porch every day, and you can tell everyone about your trip down to stunning coast of Croatia.

  2. Great Time for Travel During Recovery

    You can actually take a trip down the stunning coast of Croatia, if that’s what your heart desires. While some hair transplant methods require a lengthier recovery, our NeoGraft hair restoration does not. No linear scar to heal, no recovery from anesthesia. You are cleared to be active as early as the very next day so that traveling to where no one knows you is a great option. Unless you are happy parking yourself on the sofa and watching TV.

  3. Easy Reclining to Keep Head Elevated

    While the recovery is easy, we do recommend you follow certain tips for your hair transplant recovery. It’s best to sleep in a recliner with your head elevated to avoid swelling, for instance. Easy to do in the summer when you don’t need heavy covers.

  4. Slight Pigmentation can Pass for Sunburn

    The pink pigmentation left after your tiny scabs flake off can look like a slight sunburn. What better way to be inconspicuous than with a slight sunburn on your scalp in the middle of summer?

  5. It’s Ball Cap Season

    Wearing a ball cap is a more acceptable look in the summer. Practically every man goes outside wearing a baseball style hat during the summer. You’ll blend right in. Just make sure you follow all the recovery guidelines given to you by your surgeon. Your list of instructions will include how many days to wait before washing your hair or wearing a tighter fitting hat.

  6. Shorter Hair Blends Right In

    Shorter hair is more of a summer trend if the classic fade needed for your transplant isn’t your current style.

We hope that we have helped answer your questions about hair transplants in the summertime. We still have a few open spots in June as well as July at both our Nashville Hair Doctor and Memphis Hair Doctor locations. Upload your picture today for a FREE quote, and then schedule your procedure to get all the benefits of a summer recovery!

Nashville Hair Doctor by NuBody Concepts serving patients in Tennessee and beyond

About Hair Doctor

With over 20 years of experience in FUE hair restoration and led by a double-board certified plastic surgeon, we are a leading provider of affordable hair transplants in the Southeast. Visit us at our Nashville Hair Doctor or Memphis Hair Doctor offices, or take advantage of our complimentary travel package for out-of-town patients. Read more>>

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Memphis Hair Doctor Now Open in Germantown!

At Nashville Hair Doctor, we are proud of having turned Nashville into a premier hair restoration destination. We don’t just help men and women in the Nashville area grow back their hair; our patients hail from as far away as Chicago and Washington to have minimally-invasive hair transplants. Our long-term NeoGraft Master Tech is known for his artistry in achieving natural-looking results, and our prices are far more competitive than in most of the larger markets.

We love hosting out-of-town patients in Nashville. See Destination Nashville: Music, Hot Chicken, and New Hair for our ideas of what you should do while in the Music City.

But now we’ve done one better: We’ve brought Memphis Hair Doctor back to Germantown to serve patients in Memphis and the surrounding suburbs in Mississippi and Arkansas. As of this week, you are able to come in for a free, personal consultation. And should you decide to have the procedure, you can have your hair transplant in our state-of-the-art Germantown practice under the supervision of plastic surgeon Dr. Skytta.

Do you suffer from thinning hair, hair loss, or a receding hairline? If you live in the Greater Memphis area, here are the reasons why you should call Memphis Hair Doctor now.

1. We Grow Your Hair

If you’ve been losing hair, a hair transplant is your best solution. Forget lotions and supplements – the only path towards a full head of hair is to grow more of it. With Follicular Unit Extraction, our technician can restore your hairline and fill in your crown and other areas. While hair transplants require a bit of patience, you will be stunned at the before and after pictures. Hair Doctor patient David Bernard was surprised how soon he could see a big difference in his new hairline. (For a day-by-day video journey of his experience, visit David’s testimonial page.)

Before and After picture of male NeoGraft hair transplant patient - top view | Nashville Hair Doctor

After picture taken 6 months after hair transplant

2. We Make Hair Restoration Easy

NeoGraft Hair Restoration is minimally-invasive. You don’t need general anesthesia, and the procedure is virtually pain-free. You won’t hardly have any downtime at all. Some patients prefer to take about a week off to allow for the small pinpricks dotting their scalp to scab over and disappear. But you will feel completely fine a day or two after the procedure. You can either sit back and watch your hair grow, or perhaps you’d prefer to go bungee-jumping – the choice is yours.

3. We Know Hair Transplants In and Out

Our NeoGraft technician is one of the most experienced in his field. Hair restoration requires that rare combination of technical skill and artistic talent. Each head of hair is a unique work of art. It’s important to consider small details, such as the slant of a particular hair, to achieve natural-looking results. The truth is, you do want people to notice your new look. But you may not want them to know what you did to get it. An experienced hair restoration specialist like Jay at the Hair Doctor can find that sweet spot for you. In both our locations, our hair transplants are overseen by a plastic surgeon. However, the real work is in the hands of the experienced specialist.

4. Unsightly Scars? Not at Hair Doctor!

If you’ve done any research into hair transplants, you may have learned about the Strip Method and linear scars. A linear scar is a scar spanning across the width of your head in the back, where a strip of hair is removed to harvest follicles for transplantation. At Hair Doctor, we don’t use the Strip Method. With Follicular Unit Extraction or FUE, hair follicles are extracted and transplanted individually – a much cleaner and trauma-free method. You may wonder why the more invasive strip method is used at all, and the answer is that it’s easier (and faster) for a surgeon to simply extract an entire strip of hair. But it’s not easier for the patient. At Nashville Hair Doctor and Memphis Hair Doctor, you can be sure that you won’t ever have to hide any scars with combed-over hair, because you won’t have any.

5. One Treatment, and You’re Done

The beauty of a hair transplant is that it’s a one-time procedure without the need for repeat treatments. If you are among the 2/3 of Americans affected by hair loss by the age of 35, you can take charge now. Why suffer from hair loss and loss of confidence in the prime of your years when there is a one-time fix? Why try a series of treatments that probably won’t make a difference, when you can have proven hair growth results after just one day of sitting still while watching TV? A hair transplant is a good investment. It is the gift that keeps on giving. With a one-time investment in new hair, you’ll feel good about yourself for years to come.

Still have questions? Contact Memphis Hair Doctor to set up a free consultation.

Memphis Hair Doctor is located in the heart of Germantown

Memphis Hair Doctor, a new convenient location for hair transplant patients in Western Tennessee.

If you don’t live in Memphis, or not even in Tennessee, it’s not a problem. Nashville Hair Doctor continues to serve out of town patients from all over the United States. Request your online quote and make sure you ask about our travel package.

Nashville Hair Doctor by NuBody Concepts serving patients in Tennessee and beyond

About Hair Doctor

With over 20 years of experience in FUE hair restoration and led by a double-board certified plastic surgeon, we are a leading provider of affordable hair transplants in the Southeast. Visit us at our Nashville Hair Doctor or Memphis Hair Doctor offices, or take advantage of our complimentary travel package for out-of-town patients. Read more>>

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Can a Hair Transplant Fix All Hair Loss?

Modern Hair Restoration is as close to a medical miracle as you can get. It’s relatively easy to understand how a person can look thinner after liposuction. It doesn’t strike you as rocket science that fat can be suctioned away. It’s even less surprising that plastic surgeons can enhance a woman’s breasts with the simple addition of implants. But to grow natural human hair where there was none before? It never ceases to amaze.

Hair Transplant Surgery is Easy

What’s even better about a hair transplant is how easy and pain-free of a procedure it is. There are several different methods of hair transplantation, and some are more invasive than others. But compared to other plastic surgery, hair restoration is a walk in the park. Or, rather, a very slow crawl in the park – a hair transplant is not a fast procedure. Depending on how many grafts you are having transplanted, your surgery can take from half a day to a full 8-hour day. Most patients pass the time chatting to their surgeon or specialist, listening to podcasts, or watching TV.

NeoGraft Master Technician at Nashville Hair Doctor

Nashville Hair Doctor patient David during his hair transplant procedure

You don’t need general anesthesia to have a hair transplant. A bit of local numbing is usually sufficient to take away the small sting where hair follicles are extracted or re-inserted. It is reapplied as needed throughout your procedure. In the aftermath, you might experience some swelling for several days. Your head will be covered in small red marks that will scab over and heal within a week. Most patients feel perfectly fine within a day or two, ready to return to their regular activities.

So all this is great news if you are balding, right? You book yourself a hair transplant, continue with life while the new hair grows in, and eventually you’re no longer bald. True?

Not quite. To understand the limitations of a hair transplant, let’s talk about how medical hair restoration works.

How Hair Restoration Works

Most balding occurs in a certain pattern. In fact, the most common type of hair loss in men is called male-pattern baldness. Your hairline recedes back towards the top of your head, often at a faster rate in the corners, and your crown begins to thin out. The one place where there remains a healthy growth of hair is the ring around the back of your head.

For women, hair restoration works a little bit differently. When women lose hair, it’s not always constrained to a particular area as it is for men, though it can be. Most often, women’s hair loss is more uniformly distributed. This means that the donor hair is not harvested from one concentrated area but rather from all over the head. This can be done inconspicuously so that the longer hair helps disguise these spots. Read our blog post Hair Transplants are for Women Too if you want learn more.

When you first meet with your hair restoration consultant, he or she will assess your hair loss type. Where are the balding areas, and how many grafts will be needed to restore your hairline and fill in your crown the way you imagine? At this stage, it’s important to manage your expectations. The more healthy hair you have in relation to your balding areas, the easier it is to harvest from (and thereby thin out) this healthy hair without it being noticeable. But if your baldness is more advanced, this becomes harder to do. Once the area of healthy hair becomes smaller than the bald area, it becomes increasingly more difficult to achieve a full head of hair with a hair transplant. This is when you may reach the limits of hair transplant surgery.

pictograms of different hair loss types

Hair loss types 3, 5, and 7 respectively. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for a specific hair loss type. You should ask for a consultation at a hair restoration clinic to find out if you are eligible for a hair transplant.

Managing Your Expectations of a Hair Transplant

This doesn’t mean that you should lose heart entirely if your balding is more severe. Even entirely bald areas can be transformed. It’s not a matter of how bald a particular spot is. Once you transplant hair follicles, they grow in their new area, whether it was just thinning out or entirely bald. More important is the size of the area of healthy hair. The larger it is, the more hair you have available to be transplanted.

If you look at before and after pictures of hair transplants, you will some incredible transformations, even with varying degrees of baldness. The important thing is to be realistic. You wouldn’t be happy if your hair clinic promised you a mane of hair when it’s more realistic to expect modest growth.

At Nashville Hair Doctor, we take extreme care in giving you a realistic assessment. If you’re not sure what hair loss type you are and what results you can expect, let us assess you for a quote. It’s super easy and it’s completely free. Simply upload your picture(s) to request an online quote, and our consultant will reach out to you to give you a quote. We won’t overpromise or talk you into something bigger than you need. And we will give you plenty of time to do your research and make a decision without badgering you. We know it’s not an easy decision to take this step. But we also know that it’s one that you won’t regret!

Nashville Hair Doctor by NuBody Concepts serving patients in Tennessee and beyond

About Hair Doctor

With over 20 years of experience in FUE hair restoration and led by a double-board certified plastic surgeon, we are a leading provider of affordable hair transplants in the Southeast. Visit us at our Nashville Hair Doctor or Memphis Hair Doctor offices, or take advantage of our complimentary travel package for out-of-town patients. Read more>>

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