Dan Shares His Hair Loss Journey

So I first noticed that probably in my mid-30s and it’s kind of funny I didn’t notice it on my head I just noticed that I wake up in the morning and there’s extra hair like on my pillow and when we see that for like couple weeks and months then we start say okay it’s more than usual starting to lose hair so it wasn’t something that was visible you know looking in the mirror but it was something starting to get like signals up how long was it before you took that next step then oh I did what probably a lot of people do is I went to just you know start picking up the ran products at the at the pharmacy or whatever at the drugstore and I was like okay I’ll do whatever’s easiest and just kind of address this I’ve seen commercials this should work are you still using the road Gade now no so what do you do for kind of a prevention or routine maintenance sure so you know since visiting Dr Anderson he pretty much gave me the formula and it’s you know I use a laser cap I use the topical solution that his office provides and then I take care of vitamins that coupled with a procedure things worked out well what made you cross the threshold from thinking about the surgery to actually taking the St to do it that one was pretty simple so I was at at the point of terms of hair loss where in my mind I was like I’m at I need to just shave my head like I’m just going to graduate to that nextx step I obviously got the jeans that inherited that I’m not going to have a great hair like yeah later in my life and so I was pretty much said I’m like okay I can get it cut once or two more times and after this I just getting shaved off and I was good with that so I actually went in to see the lady that cuss my hair and told her that and I said hey look this is probably the last cut or maybe we’ll do one more and then I’m just shaving this all off just giving you the heads off new great relationship and she was very adamant about suddening absolutely not let me tell you I had another client that I was cutting this hair for years he started to lose his hair he cared a lot more about his hair than you do dad and he went out and got a hair procedure done and the results are phenomenal I was like okay whatever and she’s like no you have to look into it so I went on that day and told my wife about it and said hey lady at the place that cut my hair said I should really look into this my wife was super supportive said I’d love for you to see if you can get your hair back or just have you know restored in some way and I was like okay I’ll do a little bit of home I started the research and that’s pretty much what you’re because up until that point I just wasn’t really aware of the procedure I mean you maybe see commercials or hear about it but I just don’t think it’s talked it talked about enough I just think people aren’t really aware and guys in particular that hair restoration’s pretty accessible and the outcomes are great people just don’t talk about it and because it’s not talked about you don’t think of when you start to see the air loss that’s what I should go do but that’s actually what most people should go to what were your criteria for choosing hair restoration surgeon okay so since this is my second one it was pretty easy to pick somebody that gave me great results the first time dark said but when I first looking at doing a hair restoration procedure I didn’t have a big list of criteria and I didn’t really know what to look for per se anyways but I knew that I wanted to go to somebody that had a good reputation that had credibility in the space that had basically the Reps under their belt to say okay this person’s proven they’ve been successful time and time again that’s where I was going to spend my time and my resources and that’s what led me to Dr hon how was your first consultation well I guess I could describe it you know it was encouraging in the sense that they said okay you’re candidate but coming into it it was like you know what’s this going to be like and it’s pretty much what you imagine I guess you walk in Dr Anderson and his team they come back your hair start taking a look at it do a little bit of analysis an assessment and say okay we understand what’s going on here we understand you know your profile and then they AK here’s the plan you know first thing you got to do is focus on prevention or you know keep what you have and that’s where things like the laser cap things like the topical solution things like vitamins com to play Maybe PRP and then second piece is like okay this is you know based on where you’re at this progression of hair loss this is the type of procedure we recommend and then basically balls in your court to decide okay yeah I’m going to go for it or not and if so what was there anything that surprised you about the experience anything you read online that didn’t happen or something that you didn’t read online that did happen I said in you referr to after the procedure or yeah before it or you anything about the whole transplant experience no I pretty much went in with with kind of open or say okay however this is going to work first of all I’m not the first guy that’s ever had hair loss and second I’m not going to be the first person that’s had a hair restoration procedure so I know that’s going to be f whatever you know there may be some bumps on the road but I was pretty open to saying okay look I’m going to start the hair loss prevention steps follow those I think one thing that’s important and I think people across the medical profession I’ll tell you is like you know half of it’s on the patient too to actually do what they’re told and you know if hair restoration doctor is going to tell you use a laser cap use this topical solution and take the vitamins then they should probably do it so it’s pretty straightforward I I’m I’m good with that I know some people say oh you get lazy oh I I don’t want to do what doctor say but I don’t know it’s just kind of like all right you got to follow the Playbook that’s kind of improving and work then do that do the procedure and then same thing with the after care and the results I’m happy to love based on your first transplant experience what was the initial healing process like like right after surgery but then you know six months and and beyond that right right so yeah so the procedure day happens okay that’s the day you get home and I think there’s probably three things to jump out the first is the swelling yeah you just have a thousand hair follicles or whatever they are like transplanted replanted in from your head back into your head you’re going to have swelling and so vers 2 48 Hours you notice the swelling so you’re not going to look good on camera you’re not going to look good in the Mir you just kind of roll with it I think you know did I know to expect that not really but that’s what happens I think the second thing is the incision you know it’s a decision it’s a cut and so as long as you C follow the rules put the antibacterial or it on it take care of it the body will do its thing heals out six to eight days later you know that’s pretty much taken care of it’s there the scar is to heal but yeah an decision just kind of take care of it and then the third piece right after the procedure is probably I don’t know what day it is but it’s in like the posttop instructions that’s St three or four whatever but you have to start washing your hair using some baby shampoo and a cup and you know you’re a little paranoid cuz you just went through this whole procedure and you don’t want to disrupt anything that they did but you know by that point you know the hairs have kind of like or the have kind of settled and things have started to heal youve got maybe some little you know scabs or you know scarring happening but it’s fine you go through it follow the instructions you do this little hair washing technique for a week or two and your fun unless that’s out the gate I think at the six what did you say six weeks six months you know six week Mark you know you kind of hear about okay you might be taking a shower and you start to see little hairs hitting the floor and that’s fine because those aren’t the ones that you’re after that’s pretty much what they tell you it’s more about having that root planted inside the scalp that that’s that’s going to produce the hair that you’re you’re looking for in teris of like growing and gain back that hair coverage on top and then six months is kind of really when I started to see results which I thought was fast and I think you know everybody’s some you know a little bit different on a timeline and across the Spectrum but you know at the six month Mark you can start to see new hairs coming out that weren’t there before and that’s encouraging and then it’s just you know you got to ride it for the next 12 months and that’s when you kind of get the full effect so the last one then is what advice would you offer to people who are considering a hair transplant an advice I think maybe it’s just be decisive about it and I think it’s okay you know that’s part of the process of recognizing if you have if the hair loss is happening okay there’s you can always hold on to Hope here I’m doing a couple things here that’s going to prevent it or it’s going to stop at a certain point and that may be true but you know you have to cross the line at some point and say okay either I’m gonna change the game here and go see professional get the insight and advice that you know you kind of need and you can still decide have to do procedure at that point but then if it’s clear that that’s probably what is necessary then just go for it you know carve out the time on the calendar fence it off get on the schedule do it you’re going to go through it the hair’s not going to come knock on your front door saying I’m here you got to go get it but if you do then it’ll be it can be worth it