>>HOME >>Patients' Accounts of Their Stories Yoshinobu Abe,46 i-Land Tower Clinic executive officer Transplant count: 800 grafts (c. 2,200 hairs) Before After Even just a forehead transplant gives the impression of more volume. Even when I was young I had fine hair like a cat's, but then my scalp grew and my friend the hairdresser from my twenties was continually making unpleasant remarks like "Your hairline's not going to hold much longer. You can see it's beating a retreat at the front corners." I'd shampoo every morning, maintain my volume and use hairstyles to cover up so it wouldn't be so obvious, but when a wind came along and the front of my hair collapsed, you could see right through to my bare white skin. Even though I tried not to let it bother me much, it became a routine for me to fix the front of my hair up whenever I was in front of a mirror -- whenever I'd go to the toilet, for example. And that really gets to be a drag. I didn't have that kind of trouble when I'd had all my hair. As i-Land Tower Clinic office manager, I was seeing so many patients undergoing procedures right before my eyes and I also saw the results of those procedures, so it was a tremendous pleasure for me to experience autologous hair transplantation with the QHR System for myself. Until I'd had that experience I thought I knew twice as much as anyone else about autologous hair transplants, but there was so much I learned by undergoing it myself -- from the way it feels during the procedure and what aspects of my job seemed important to me afterwards to the way you wash your hair and even different kinds of pillows that you can sleep with -- that I truly felt as though the scales had fallen from my eyes. And now, as someone who's undergone autologous hair transplantation, I can show our patients how my own hair has grown in and the aftermath of sampling for donors from the rear of my head (though no trace remains of that procedure now) and I can actually give them advice. People who are considering undergoing the procedure say to me that it helped them to observe an actual case rather than just see photographs. And I look forward to helping people who are concerned about thinning hair in any way I can. And it goes without saying, of course, that my friend the hairdresser has stopped with the unpleasant remarks. Kohei Mitsuhashi,38 Transplant count: 1,400 grafts (c. 4,000 hairs) Before After I no longer care what other people are looking at! It was sometime around my late twenties that my hair started to gradually thin out. At first, it just seemed that my hairline was starting to recede, but then my hair started gradually thinning at my crown as well . . . And it was then that I started to get bothered about what people might be looking at. At work I'd be talking business with someone and start to think, He's looking at my head, and then I wouldn't be able to focus on the job. I've got a daughter who'd just started elementary school, but I wouldn't go to parents' day and instead pleaded they needed me at work. And recently it's also fathers, not just mothers, who go on parents' day. But when I look at the other fathers, they're all so young with heads full of thick black hair . . . [Laughs] I think my daughter also felt that her dad was a little different from the other dads. I said to her, "Next time I'll be there too," but she said, "That's okay, you don't have to come." And that really made me feel down, when she said that to me. I guess it bothered me all the more to hear it from a girl. But what could I do? When I casually said to my wife, "What I'll do is, I'll get a hairpiece," she just replied, "That's just going to be too much hassle." I was in continual torment over whether there wasn't something that would help me. And then I saw a piece in the newspaper about autologous hair transplantation at i-Land Tower Clinic. I looked through their website on the Internet and realized, "Transplants with your own hair? That's for me!" Right away I made a consulting reservation, and three weeks later I had the procedure. It's now almost seven months since I had the procedure, and even I myself am amazed. Your hair really grows in! I can feel it myself when I shampoo in the bath. Before I didn't have that sensation of sturdy hair. And my daughter will be sitting over there in the tub staring at what's happened to my head. "Something's different," that's what she must be thinking. At one point I was considering a hairpiece, but I'm really glad that I decided on autologous hair transplantation. These days when I see myself in the mirror, I'm grinning. My wife and my daughter give me funny looks, but now I no longer care what other people are looking at. Masato Kobayashi, 45 Transplant count: 1,500 grafts (c. 4,200 hairs) Before After It's great to have an active life! I enjoy exercising a great deal and I've tried my hand at all kinds of sports. I keep a positive attitude and make a daily effort not to let stress build up. And a big reason is that I've heard that stress can lead to your hair thinning. And even so, I'm a guy who's suffered thinning hair because of stress. It started all of a sudden after I turned 30. I told myself that worrying too much would be no good for my hair, but here I am after all, among the ranks of men with thinning hair. Now, for a guy like me with a positive attitude, it's pointless to be always worrying about this and that, so my practical solution for a while was to be a skinhead, but that tends to make a poor impression, socially. In the end, I decided just to be natural. But you still have all kinds of problems without hair: When you sit down on the train and lean your head against the window, it's cold on your scalp, and when you're stuck in the rain without an umbrella, it's obvious that the water runs from your crown to your brow . . . As a vigorous, sports-loving, no-longer-young man, it bothered me to have thin hair but nothing I could do about it seemed attractive to me. And it was when I was feeling down and out like that, that I came across autologous hair transplantation at the i-Land Tower Clinic. I was surprised at how little time the procedure took and at how little pain was involved. And it really made me happy that I wouldn't need any post-procedural care. And the result is as you see before you. At one point I considered a hairpiece, but there's really no question that your own hair is the best, is there? I mean, it's your hair that you want to grow in again. I don't think there could be anything that outdoes the QHR System for autologous hair transplantation. They say that a woman's life is her hair, but it's important for men too! You only live once, but you're young over and over again. I want to be again like I was before! I'm playing sports more than ever now, and my family looks like they enjoy watching. Today I'll be at five-a-side soccer practice and I'll be working hard on my headers! Shinji Yamaguchi, 48 Transplant count: 1,500 grafts (c. 4,200 hairs) Before After Released from worries about artificial hair I've been worrying about thinning hair since my twenties, and I've tried hair growth tonics, hairpieces, hair restoration, and finally even artificial hair implants. Not one of these was satisfactory, however. What always put me off was the maintenance hassle or the high ongoing costs. When I finally came to the artificial hair implants, I was briefly delighted -- it was the first time I'd thought, "Wow, I've got more hair!" -- but then my scalp puffed up and it got so bad there was nothing I could do about it. I went back where I'd had that procedure and asked for help, but they had no idea what to do with me and said, "We'll just have to pull them back out." So there I was at the end of my string, when one day I came across a piece in the newspaper about the autologous hair transplantation at i-Land Tower Clinic. The article talked about transplanting your own hair to where you were losing it. It talked about using new technology in an entirely new surgical technique that was both trustworthy and reliable. So straightaway I looked into the details on the clinic's website. I saw that the transplanted hair had a high persistence rate, that it was very safe, that any number of professors at well-known Japanese universities were recommending it, and I thought, "Here's a clinic I can rely on. Can it really be this good?" and so I made a decision and called the clinic. I'd tried all kinds of things up to that time and so I asked every question that came to me: "Is it true, as the newspaper said, that your own hair will grow back in?" and "Is the operation painful?" The person who took my call may quite honestly have thought me a huge pest. But that's how big a concern it was to me. But I was treated politely and properly, so I decided to go in for a consultation. At the consultation session, they examined my scalp and gave me a detailed description of the QHR System of autologous hair transplantation. In my case, the artificial hair that I'd had implanted had brought on a rejection, so my operation would be after I'd had that removed. One year has passed since then, and the result is as you see in the photo. * Results differ among individuals.