This is kind of random but I was just watching a poker show when I noticed a young player with a shaved head (looked to be #1 guard or lower) and a visible strip scar. You know what? It didnt look that bad at all. The reason I am posting this is because I'm sure many guys here including myself feel like they want to shave their heads but cant because of the scar. Because I don't wish to have another procedure I will be shaving my head when my hair no longer looks good. It is comforting to know I can always look good with a shaved head. (plus I bet 99.9% of people don't know that that is an ht scar anyway, I had to look close to realize it was)

Wanthairs shaved his head and felt quite confident when he was out. Pretty sure I know the guy in question, btw.

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*A Follicles Dying Wish To Clinics*

1 top-down, 1 portrait, 1 side-shot, 1 hairline....4 photos. No flash.

Follicles have asked for centuries, in ten languages, as many times so as to confuse a mathematician.

Enough is enough! Give me documentation or give me death!

i would disagree with this and say that it's completely the opposite.
HTs are so "out in your face" procedures nowadays and i'm pretty sure that pretty much everyone knows about them or at least heard of them one way or the other, except select few that still live under the rock. i would also guess that most people got general idea as in what is involved in HT process, what is cut, and where the hair comes from. just yesterday i was riding a bus and saw a huge overhead ad across from where i was sitting from one of the local HT surgeons here where i live. i mean it's not like transplants are still some underground procedure and only select few millionaires know about them. i also think if a real head trauma patient would of shaved his head and expose his scars (assuming that his injury was at the back of his head), i think he would have hard time selling it to others that they are scars from a major surgery made by real surgeons while they were reconstructing his skull. but hey if it makes you feel better to think that way, then all the power to you. and you know what they say - ignorance is bliss.

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http://i41.tinypic.com/33dwk79.jpg

I never knew that a hair transplant left that kind of scar. Until I came here. Most people would probably just assume you got into an accident or something.

I agree with GQ. HT surgery is no longer exclusive and many people can quickly recognize the scar.

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take care...

Ya, I agree, too. You have like guys like Joe Rogan giving worldwide, prime, TV time to talking not just about HTs but about his scar, specifically.

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*A Follicles Dying Wish To Clinics*

1 top-down, 1 portrait, 1 side-shot, 1 hairline....4 photos. No flash.

Follicles have asked for centuries, in ten languages, as many times so as to confuse a mathematician.

Enough is enough! Give me documentation or give me death!

Back in '03, a stylist kept rubbing the back of my head and saying something about a "line" in the back of my head. I was suprised she hadn't noticed my plug transplant but it was the first time she had. She assumed it was a hat line or something after cutting it down.

On the other hand, a few people over the years had noticed my transplant and made comments about it.

I can spot a scar from a mile away, but I don't think everyone will or even can. Most people are so worried about what they look like they'll never notice the rest of us. On the other hand, some people want to see something bad about everyone, and they'll look closely for any flaw.

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100? 'mini' grapfts by Latham's Hair Clinic - 1991 (Removed 50 plugs by Cooley 3/08.)
2750 FU 3/20/08 by Dr. Cooley

My Hair Loss Website - Hair Transplant with Dr. Cooley

Current regimen:
1.66 mg Proscar M-W-F
Rogaine 5% Foam - every now and then
AndroGel - once daily
Lipitor - 5 mg every other day
Weightlifting - 2x per week
Jogging - 3x per week

I had a Bosley minigraft session of 132 grafts for my first HT at a young age. I have no idea if it was ever spotted or not early on. I used to wear a cap so much that it was rare for anybody to even see me without the cap. Yet, on occassions where I did NOT wear a cap, I do not recall anybody acting like they had noticed.

I think maybe my paranoia was actually worse than the reality. I know Parsley made an 1100 graft cover job for those Bosley mini's go a LONG way a few years later. Lots of mileage for such a small number of grafts (which was not such a small number in 1999).

I hate even looking back trying to figure out if it was noticed or not, in the days/years after the first Parsley cover job of 1100. I think the particular crowd I was around in college at the time WOULD have said something. Plus, there are instances that I can think of that clearly indicated it was NOT noticed. I remember after NOT wearing a hat for about a week (just an unusual bout of boldness), I was sitting around talking with a guy and a few girls. The guy was VERY bald, like a diffuse norwood 6 who did not have much hair left at all (about 22 yrs old). Now granted, I was wearing a hat at this instant. It was in the days previous that I had not. One of the girls said something to this guy like "just let it go, don't try to get a transplant, people don't think we can tell but we always can...". This was NOT a jab at me (I know we are so used to being negative here). Mine had really NOT been noticed, after not wearing a hat and sweating in the sun for like a week. Also, I remember a guy I was having beers with at a bar one night saying that if he started to go bald, he would just "do that thing where they move the hair to the front of your head...". He also clearly did NOT know I had an HT, and he saw me without the hat all the time. The reason this gives me hope is that if ANY one person in that large group had known, they ALL would have known. So end story I don't think anybody knew. I know Parsley thought the Bosley work was not THAT bad. He pointed out that at least they stayed way behind the hairline, and also the angling of the grafts was not too far off.


Flash forward about 6 or 7 years, the native hair got more sparse (plus the fin/minox shed), and I KNOW some people at my current work place noticed. It's funny though. I don't really care. I also see some people looking at me funny after HT #3 came in (a year ago). I think it's the classic "something is different" look. Like I said though, I don't care. It's not a social job anyway, I'm like in the office for about 2 hours a week on average. When I see people, it's "hey, how have you been??". Even those who I KNOW noticed the HT treat me exactly as they always have. Again, bottom line, nobody really cares.

It all comes down to paranoia if you have a bad HT. It's kind of unfortunate, but a lot of people who are worried about looking bald are naturally kind of paranoid. And a bad HT will make you SO paranoid you will LONG for those blissful days of just looking bald (but natural). Even a so-so HT can make you paraniod and cause problems worse than the so-so HT itself really calls for.

Bottom line is that you REALLY need to think before embarking on this journey. HT's can cause you MUCH greater unease than just being bald. On the other hand, though, they have gotten SO much better in recent years...

Stimpy

I don't know guys, I think we all judge by OUR OWN STANDARDS. For example I didn't even know that there is going to be a scar until I came to this site a year or so ago. Now, call me obsessed, I look at people's hair, especially the ones that show a little sign of receding. I always look at their hair line and if I have a chance I always look at the back of their head.

I don't think the secret is a secret anymore. I think anyone who lose hair and research just a little about HT will quickly find that there is going to be a scar.

Another funny fact, I drove my uncle to a barber shop. I was waiting for him while he was getting his haircut (he has full head of hair at the age of 60)...anyways, the barber who was cutting his hair was positioned the way where I can see the back of his head and guess what I saw....under his hair - STAPLES. I just thought to myself, I hope this guy went to a good doctor in Phoenix like Dr. Alexander otherwise I don't want to bring my uncle back for his haircut months later to see a butchered barber

Just my $0.02

IMO people who don't have hairloss don't even think about hair let alone know that HT's leave a strip scar. I shave my head and am slightly more self concious about the scar than I am about my hairloss now, but I've had people ask me if I've gotten in an accident, had brain surgery, ETC... but have never asked if I've had a HT. In fact for some reason more people think that it's cool "I know wierd right" than think it's hideous. Of course if you have some outrageous story about wrestling alligators in the everglades it makes you look like a badass! LOL!!!