Hi all.

This is my HT journey.

I flew from Newcastle airport on Saturday morning to Amsterdam with KLM which took one hour. Then it was a direct flight to Minneapolis with NWA which took eight hours.

Arrived at the airport at 3.30pm, went through customs and got the hotel shuttle (mini bus) to the hotel which took about 20 minutes. The hotel was the Country Inn and Suites. This is a nice hotel and is five minutes from Shapiro Medical Group. One extra bonus the hotel had was free use of computers with internet access. It cost me £637 all in with flight and accommodations for three nights.



There are quite a few sports bars and restaurants a few minutes walk from the hotel and a downtown area which has loads of bars, restaurants, shops etc.

I also visited the Mall of America which is a huge shopping centre full of everything you need. It’s one of the biggest malls in the world. The hotel shuttle will take you to and from the airport, Mall of America and to SMG as a free service. The hotel is used to SMG patients and the shuttle bus drivers too. They were all very friendly. The hotel gives discounts to SMG patients. The discount rate is $99 per night.



Met Janna on Sunday for lunch and she showed me around the downtown areas. There are two downtowns. One is Minneapolis and the other is St. Paul. The two cities are close within 15 minutes drive of each other. The center of the 2 downtown has skyways – walkways from building to building above the streets so you don’t have to go outside in bad weather. They were both beautiful clean cities.



Monday morning Janna picked me up and took me to SMG. I met Dr Shapiro and we talked about my expectations and he examined my hair. Then I was in the chair. Got my anesthetic needles in my scalp which I never felt a thing as they use a vibrating tool. Dr Shapiro removed my strip and then the techs starting the cutting while I was being sutured up and then Dr Shapiro made the incisions for my new hair. When about 90% of the incisions were made, they used a dye onto my recipient area for them to see the incisions better. They save the other 10% to be used for fine tuning at the end. They were also taking estimates of how many grafts were to be expect every half hours or so.

Janna and the other techs then started to plant with Dr Shapiro checking all the time as my crown planting was not straight forward due to my previous poor work which left plugs in there growing in the wrong directions. My crown work went great and then they proceeded to plant in the middle of my hairline. Janna planted every single graft in the hairline. Then towards the end, Dr. Shapiro and Janna did the stick/plant method to fine tune the hairline. This is where Dr. Shapiro makes the incision and Janna plants straight away after each incision is made. They said once the incisions are filled with grafts, you can see spaces in between, so Dr. Shapiro always asks for single hairs to be saved for this part.

Photos were taken at every opportunity by Janna and Dr Shapiro.

Once finished I was shown the work and asked if I was happy which I was.

Went back to the hotel and logged on the net and chilled out for the night. I took two Vicodin for pain before I went to bed, woke up fine and didn’t need any more pain relief meds. I took two though just before my plane journey home to be safe.

Next day Tuesday, checked out of hotel and went to SMG for a hair wash and haircut. They took more photos and a video of the work.

Janna and Dr Shapiro chatted with me again to confirm I was happy. I then hung around and was invited to watch a live surgery of planting and cutting grafts which was very interesting. They were very professional and great at what they were doing.

I would without any doubt say that if you choose to have a HT with SMG that you will have a great experience and receive a world class result.

I flew home at 7.30 pm on Tuesday. I took some valium on the plane and slept most of the way back to Amsterdam. Then the short one hour flight back to Newcastle.

Now sitting at home happy as can be thanks to SMG.

I had two prior very bad strip surgeries from Norton clinic England and a very poor fue surgery from a greek FUE clinic who are banned on this site.

I had 250 or 350 grafts in the hairline ,i will check exactly and the rest went into my crown.
Here is my graft count.

1s-285

2s-907

3s-399

4s-23

1614grafts =3388 hairs

strip size was 1.3width by 16.5cm length



I will add a web log shortly.

Cheers Bri.



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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

Edited: 08/10/2008 at 02:38 AM by bigmac

Nice write up Bigmac, looking forward to seeing your pics. Rest and heal well my friend, hope to see you in the summer and check out your new barnet

Thanks London Lad
I`m having problems getting my pictures up but hopefully Farrel can help me out.

I`m looking forward to meeting the H&W crew later this year and hopefully patients from other docs.



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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

Looking forward to following your progress Bigmac!!!!

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Disclaimer - I am not a physician or an expert and my advice should not be considered medical/expert advice. - If you follow my opinions and/or advice you do so at your own risk.

Thanks Farrel much appreciated as my pics are playing up somewhat.

Thanks Pats 205.I will update regular.

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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

Edited: 05/03/2008 at 04:07 PM by bigmac

You'll be a happy bunny in a few months bigmac, the scar is very neat.

well done bud!

I had my sutures out yestersay at day 10 and the scar is looking great already.
Will have my pictures and website updated shortly.


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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

Edited: 05/09/2008 at 03:53 AM by bigmac

I ll be waiting to see updates!

Hi Fuzzy
I`ve updated my weblog but it wont show up but it is dispaying its there on my personal page.
Is there a problem with the websites.

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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

Congrats Bigmac! - Heal and grow well - Looking at your pics on other site your healing has been rapid - Hope your growth is as fast!

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UK consultant and patient advisor for www.Feller Medical.com All opinion expressed are my own.

My Website

Email :spexhair@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks Spex

My scar is great but my hair is in desperate need of a haircut now.Most of the transplanted hairs have shed and my hair is all different lengths.



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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

Hey Bigmac, hows it going?

Hows the scar feel now mate?

Thanks Lucky

The scar is good,i`ve enclosed a 28 day pic on my weblog and will be adding some more shortly.

I can only feel my scar on the left side of my head as its raised slightly where the old one was taken out.

The rest of it has nearly disappeared.

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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

just my opinion but you look like you might also have a fair amount of donor left!! thats great considering what you have already been through... it seems to me even if you have no laxity left you could go the FUE route(with a quallified Dr. whos can produce several good fue results, ofcourse). is this anything you have thought about?? or how do you feel about your remaining donor situation?? you would know better than me..lol. your crown looks like it should get much much better coverage and i kinda like the subtle hairline graft placement also.. should make for a nice improvment... im very happy for you that you were able to 'slip up' a few times with other drs/clinics, but were able to put yourself in a great position to FINALLY get what your after.... good luck man and please keep us posted

Thanks lost my swagger.

I`m like most guys who get hairgreed and would love to have my hairline lowered but i`m realistic enough to realise i may lose more hair even though i`m on proscar.

I have about 3000 grafts left with strip and probably a little more with fue once stripped out.

Its a good feeling knowing i chose wisely 4th time around.

I`ll update my album when i have some noticeable growth.

Thanks Bri.

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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

Just updated with a 40 day scar picture in the 28 day section.
Scar is doing great with no tenderness at all and just a little redness on the sides.


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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

Edited: 06/21/2008 at 08:02 AM by bigmac

That's looking good BigMac! Here's to continued healthy growth!

Thanks M&M
Are you consisering any more work as i dont look at the other forum you post on and have pictures.

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Two poor HTs with Norton(strips)
One poor HT with a Greek fue clinic
Two great HTs with Shapiro Medical Group
Strip and fue

Hi Bigmac.

Yes, I'm considering more HT work so I can stop using Toppik once and for all. I think my old Bosley work is pretty much concealed now, but my (relatively) thick hair shafts combined with light skin makes even the newest work appear somewhat pluggy since it is only about 50 grafts per cm2. I think I need a denser hairline to pull this off. Plus, I'd love some temple work (no 'triangles' remaining) and a scar revision. Crown and everything else is holding up very well thanks to Propecia and Rogaine Foam.

I am due to take some updated photos and post my plans for my next (and hopefully final round!!) in the very near future, so I will be sure to post on this site and HTN.