Steve Hightower’s Inspiring Hair Transplant Journey

Hello I’m Dr Ken Anderson at the Anderson Center for hair and we’re here with Steve Hightower how you doing my friend I’m doing great today we’re going to talk about Steve’s hair loss how it affected him what he did about it his experiences with us at the Anderson Center for hair and we’re also going to reveal his before picture and compare to reality tell us a little bit about yourself well I’ve been doing hair for 36 years in Atlanta in bhead I’ve son for 34 years in the location I’m at now I’ve been there 27 years I specialize in fine thinning hair and coloring of hair I’m all into the here so tell me how long had you been experiencing hair loss before you you give us a call I’ve been experiencing hair loss for probably about five years before I gave you a call okay and just noticed it getting worse and then since I do hair every day and I do specialize in fine thinning hair working on it I thought I’ve got to do something and so I gave you the call what motivated you to look into a solution for your hair loss I do some modeling and on the side and I was watching a commercial that I had done and it was an ey drop commercial and when I tilted back in the commercial I saw all the thinness and was a little freaked yeah literally called you the next day yeah that can be very stressful I’ve had a lot of patients over the past 23 years talk to me about their aha moment whether it be sometimes it’s at at the security cameras at Walmart they’ll see the camera and they’ll be looking up and the camera’s coming from behind they’ll see some hair loss they didn’t know they had or in photos from the lake or some you know there’s typically a moment when patients realize it’s an issue they want to address how did your hair loss affect your daily life or your self-confidence with me it didn’t really I just noticed as I got older that I couldn’t style it the way I was always stying it and I’ve always worn more fashion trendy cuts and I was realizing I couldn’t do those as easy as I once could and I just took it well this is life I’m getting older but then like I said when I tilted back and it was an eye drop commercial yeah so when I tilted back putting the ey drop in and that camera at the back my hand I’m like okay time to do something can you do you remember your initial consultation with me what it was like at that first meeting I do I tell me about that that I came in excited because I’m one to want it then yeah and not wait I came in and y’all talked to me I remember calling you after seeing the commercial calling you and saying I need to see you immediately and they got me in came in and talked to me and took pictures and showed me what they could do gave me different options of what I could do and went over the cost Factor everything about it I felt very comfortable and I said book it and we did it and that we did totally easy it was not painful at all yeah I was going to ask you next about the the your surgery day a lot of people every morning that I come in and do surgery they’re nervous I ask everybody how did you sleep last night and most times that I didn’t really sleep well by the end of the day patients are are almost universally surprised that what a non-event it is so along those lines what was your day like my day was so easy I was excited to get it done I was not nervous so we drove up from Atlanta and got here and y’all talked me through everything was going to take place and started the process then we had lunch and we finished up I think around 4:00 Y and I went home and s in a recliner and was totally fine and to your surprise and to most people I worked the next day oh that’s right Stephen we went to work the next day and most people don’t I saw no reason to set at home and I am in a hair salon and I just thought my ladies I’ve seen them every way possible and they can see me I don’t care it is what it is so I put the bag on I put a surgical cap on I went to work and posted a photo and I remember you actually called me and said are you really at work and I said yeah so I worked the whole day I mean my head hurt a little bit but I took TI and all it was no big issue at all and so then I just continued shampooing every day with the baby shampoo as you recommended until I could fully get in there and use my own shampoo and it was easy breezy so on the day of your procedure were there was there anything that stood out to you were you expecting one thing and maybe it didn’t you know maybe a pleasant surprise or or something what what stood out to you from your memory in terms of the surgery day or any aspects of the procedure it wasn’t at all what I expected oh yeah tell me about that I was expecting it to be a lot more than what it was yeah it was very easy it was relaxing I your chair was extremely comfortable then watching a movie and stopping and eating lunch and I didn’t expect any of that I thought I was going to be totally knocked out and non functionable and was going to be in a lot of pain there was no pain really at all and so I was just surprised that it was as easy as it was well it was great the way you called and checked on me not only did Ken call and check on me he stapped it and and it’s been several several months since I had a transplant now my last one and literally last week I don’t even know if you know it one of your surgeons call check on me to see how my hair was good that was last week next we’re going to talk about your results got a little surprise here check it out wow wow what do you remember this guy I don’t really know what to say that to me barely I barely remember that yeah these are Steve’s pre-operative photos before we did the procedure to the frontal hairline and yeah it’s all it’s patience it’s it’s pretty dramatic difference and damn it I don’t know why that’s kind of emotional but it’s like thank you you got it brother thank you you got it man and that’s and I know that’s crazy but when you’re in an industry that I’m in in a beauty industry you are judged every day by how we look and everybody expects us to look a certain way and when you are doing a job like I do a preaching fine and thinning hair helping women and men and you have it yourself and then it’s taken care of and then you go back and you see that that was like damn what was I thinking it’s like I should have done it a long time ago so thank you thank your staff you got it man very much I was not expecting to get emotional well that’s you know what it’s these are the it’s the highlight of my career when when when pay when you know the I’m fumbling my words now the the the ability and gift of being able to give someone back their hair and change their life in a positive way is just astounding and I I love it and it’s a reason why I put on my shoes and come to work every day I now know how many of I haven’t had a man to get upset or emot but I’ve had so many women when I will put you know temporary hair in a wig piece or whatever because I deal with a lot of cancer patients also and then people with fine hair when I give them back their hair and knowing that it’s not a transplant but I’m still making them look good and feel good and they get emotional I Now understand that feeling more than I have ever in my career I Now understand when they shed those tears and look in the mirror and see a new them their old self it’s like and life changing yeah yeah it really is I’m really happy for you man thank you I really am and yeah yeah that’s it can really be literally life-changing and what Steve just said about how he wish he’d done it earlier I hear that so often because there’s one thing not you don’t want to forget once the transplant is done once you build up the courage and get the transplant it takes about a year for the full transplant results to grow in and every month after you get a transplant you’re there in that mirror going I think I see something I think is a knowing we don’t but it’s like we’re still looking thinking we doing the clients that come in from transplants with you it might be two months afterward and they’re saying Steve I think I see new growth do you see it and it’s like like well it’s gonna take some time to get in there you know I’m talking from experience it’s going to take you a year to get this to fill in and then they see it you know eight nine months later yeah so what what what have your clients been saying did most of them notice most of them did not notice right at first because you it gradually comes in and then they start saying Steve your hair looks so much thicker it looks much Fuller I tell everyone I’m because being in the beauty industry it’s that stigma it’s just like I want it to go away and there’s so many stigmas in the beauty industry and so I wanted this hair transplant looking like the rose of corn yeah to go away because more people can benefit and I see my self-confidence I’m no longer looking in the mirror and putting to powders and everything in the mirror and covering it up or in the hairline no longer doing any of that and I just see has made my life easier and it can make people’s life easier so I’m constantly educating telling everyone just go and have a consultation what advice would you give to someone who has ha loss and thinking about doing something about it my advice to him is to one come and talk to you or your staff come and talk to someone about it to see what’s the cause there’s many tests that you can do to see you know where their dihydro testosterone DHD pretty much the cause correct for male pattern hair loss yeah it’s it’s actually a genetic sensitivity to DHT everyone has DHT only some people have the genetics whereby their hair thins in response to normal levels of DHT but yeah so it’s a sensitivity to the hormone so many people will just put it off so long and it’s like well I know it’s expensive I said look you know you’re worth it go in and talk to them and see and then they’re going to tell you you might could do it now you may do it two years from now but it’s always something just come talk to you the Cosmetic results of a hair transplant surgery will be best when we’re starting with the most amount of hair yeah and so some people are under the impression they’re going to come into Anderson Center for hair and they’re going to be you there going to be a hard cell about having a surgery right away there are many centers out there that take that that philosophy and that they’re all about gener profits and they want it right now I you know we’re not a national chain this this is my practice and and the way we do it here is like old school medicine it’s mainly about educating patients about what hair loss is and what they can do about it to stop it and then we talk about the non-surgical ways to correct it in in in patients who are candidates for that route and then kind of as a last resort we talk about surgery and so to patients who having thinning hair out there it’s important to remember that hair restoration surgery is does not involve it anywhere it doesn’t involve a creation of new follicles we’re moving around remaining hair and so the more hair you have remaining the better your final result is going to be my final fall in words to anyone that is experiencing thinning hair is don’t give up there’s always help many things that Ken can do so it’s like just come and talk to Ken his staff but don’t give up and just know that there is there’s help appreciate you bud absolutely thank you we’ve been spending time with Steve Hightower my name is Dr Ken Anderson at the Anderson Center for hair thanks for watching let’s do one more exit yep so if you please like And subscribe