My results after my first three hair transplant procedures in 2018
Hello, my name is Lance Fuller and welcome to my blog, My Follicular Journey.
What started as a blog to document my recovery and progress from my first hair transplant procedure in 2014 quickly became a community.
For the past 10 years, visitors from all over the globe have asked me what a hair transplant entails to what my final result looks like after four hair transplant procedures.
This blog is for you, the prospective patient to start your own follicular journey to restore your hair, youth, confidence, and self esteem and to get it done right, the first time.
My blog not only features dozens of posts and hundreds of photos about my recovery and progress from all four of my hair transplant procedures, but also features my advice on what to look for in a hair transplant surgeon that will give you a natural looking result.
If you would like to learn more about my story and how a hair transplant procedure can regrow your hair, feel free to email me or contact my patient educator Steve Cook at 305.416.8418 as well as steve@mcgrathmedical.com.
Enjoy, and thank you for visiting.
All my best,
-Lance
Why did I have Hair Transplant Surgery?
Judging by my before pictures, you’re probably wondering, Lance, you weren’t even bald. Why on earth did you have a hair transplant?
The truth is I wasn’t bald yet.
The Norwood scale identifies the severity of a man’s hair loss. Whereas a I contains no hair loss, I was a II prior to my surgery where I had noticeable recession into my temples. My father has been a VII for the majority of his life and if I did nothing to maintain my regular hair, I most likely would have continued down the same path.
Family history and genetics were not on my side as dear-old dad is bald and my older brother is getting there.
At 28 years old, I had significant recession in my frontal hairline and temples and hair loss is a progressive condition that gets worse with age.
I figure taking care of it at 28 is the best course of action instead of waiting until I am 38 when it is much worse and more expensive to treat. You don’t have to wait until you are noticeably bald before getting a hair transplant and the sooner you see a hair specialist, the sooner you can find out what your options are.
I first noticed my hair loss when I was 25 after going through a photo album with pictures from my teenage years.
Throughout my 20s, my hair loss made me incredibly self-conscious making me look and feel older than my age. I would avoid styling my hair certain ways as well as having my picture taken from certain angles.
Among the many insecurities that men have whether it be their career, height, or penis size, hair loss tremendously bothers a lot of men and as a young man it’s incredibly disheartening to enter the prime of your life only to see your hair in the shower drain.
Instead of viewing hair loss as an unwarranted vanity issue, I look at it like replacing your front tooth — if you knocked out your front tooth, you’d get it fixed, wouldn’t you? I see moving hair from one part of my scalp to another the same way.
This motivated me to start researching hair transplant surgeons and I ended up having four procedures in total; two FUT/strip procedures to lower my frontal hairline and build out my side temples, and two FUE procedures to revise my scar and soften up my frontal hairline.
My dad and me at a taekwondo tournament before my 15th birthday in 2001. My hairline used to be much more square-like in the front. Seeing this photo in 2011 surprised me with how much hair I had lost before my first hair transplant.
On a Caribbean cruise in June 2014, a month before my first hair transplant procedure. Notice how much higher my hairline is compared with the previous picture when I was 15.
2012 at 26 years old. Although most would say this is a good photo, I absolutely hated photos from this angle because of my noticeable recession.
At a formal event during my senior year of college in 2009 at 23 years old. My hair was cut too short and revealed my receding temples. The second picture was actually of two other people; I just happened to be standing in front of a mirror that revealed my recession.
Why Did I Write This Blog?
My education is in journalism and reporting so collecting information and organizing it are things that come natural to me. While I researched this surgery for two and a half years, I found that there weren’t any resources that gave an honest, comprehensive look into what a hair transplant entails and what to expect after the surgery.
Seeing that there was no authority or information on this subject from the perspective of someone who is not representing a company or a surgical practice, I decided I would become that authority.
Everyone has a story worth telling and I felt that sharing what I learned about hair transplants would be the best way to pay it forward to anyone looking to start their own follicular journey.