I can't prove with exactitude that this is The Best, but after years of extremely thorough if not outright insane testing and comparing, I feel confident in the following system of hair care for the HT, ultimately perfected when I was trying to combat a brutal shed I was experiencing.

The three tenants throughout research: density (the illusion and actual increase), naturalness (both undetectability of product *and* boosting the naturalness of the HT itself), health (is the stuff actually good for your hair and scalp, hair-geekdom aside).

Without further ado, and with much labor behind it:

a) Aveda Pure Abundance Clay Shampoo and Conditioner. The key ingrediant is 'acacia gum', which is the *only* ingrediant in a shampoo that I have *ever* felt actually improves the density and fullness of your hair. That aside, it makes hair more manageable, has a nice, fairly masculine scent, and is very good for sensitive scalps, as well.

*a lot goes a long way.

b)Samy Fat Hair Thickening Cream. This is a cream that essentially mimics what a volumizing mousse might try to do. Except it works better than any other product on the market in its class. Interestingly, while it does add extra fullness to your hair, the most remarkable thing is the following: it tames HT hair like nothing else, while not sacrificing density, but actually increasing it alongside this amazing benefit. This product facilitates naturalness and the ability to easily style your hair as you choose.

c) Blow Dry. Use a blow dryer following this, tilting your head downward, and when head upright blowdrying the hairs in an inward and upward way. The heat activates the thickening agents, and fully and seamlessly meshes the aforesaid product(s) with your hair.

d) Aveda Pure Abundance Hair Potion. Many people are reticent to use a "concealer". Aveda Hair Potion is the perfect middleman. It's an incredibly unique rooted in "acacia gum" being dispensed in the most effective, and result-producing manner. It is little white specs, not unlike small pieces of salt, except when lightly sprinkled onto your hands and rubbed together....disappears in a bizarre emulsification process. When you scrunch and do a mock-run of styling your hair with your fingers it transfers the product in a 100% seamless, undetectable way. The result: density and fullness is added to your hair -- particularly effective and special in that it can be used directly on the hairline in utterly seamless fashion -- and, it gives lots of texture to your hair which can allow more effective (and easy) styling options.

*a problem with having "actual" texture added to your hair by way of a stylist going to work is that density can be sacrificed, so in addition to the thickening effect, this a nice ancillary benefit.

e) Blow Dry. One more time, quickly.

*this step is a personal choice of sorts, and I wouldn't consider it essential.

f) Dirt. Described as "designed to easily give you the amazing way your hair looks and behaves the day after washing". In a word, this product is: perfection. It feels like space-age material, and is a totally uniqur hybrid of a wax and paste. It is the best styling product I have ever used, hands down -- both in controlling your hair, increasing perceived density, and, uniquely, it gives a "movie star" look in that while it's potency is incredible and incredibly varied, it doesn't look like you even have all this product in your hair.

*Jonathan's Dirt is the original product, and what I prefer. It's expensive, though, and there is a generic version by FX called Texture Dirt, which is a knockoff. It's dirt cheap (badoomching), but works pretty similiarly.

**I'll often mix in some Cristoff Texturizing Paste with Dirt, as the Cristoff product is slightly better at adding density to hair. I don't consider this essential, but I'm OCD about my hair and will often do this to just max out every possible angle of working the HT to its best.

That's it. One time affair and my hair will hold and stay cool till I shower next. IMHO, this is the Holy Grail of hair care, particularly if you've had a HT.

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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!

In retrospect, I possibly should have posted this in the Shampoo/Concealer section. Though, I truly feel *incredibly* strongly in how effective this regiment is, and think it could be a huge boon for a lot of people who have had HTs.

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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!

Thana,

Great post. You've already stated before that you had used concealers. Did you find these Shampoos, etc. more effective than dermmatch?

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2008 Dr. G – presumably 1,000 grafts / 2,142 hairs
2009 Dr. Paul Shapiro – 2,348 grafts / 4,258 hairs
2011 Dr. Paul Shapiro – 1,999 grafts / 3,624 hairs

My Hair Transplant Journey with Shapiro Medical Group

Thx Aaron. I would say....if you are "very" bald, concealer is still your best bet. I think this regiment is *perfect* for someone who has had a HT, though.

The issues we deal with: the illusion of density and naturalness are met reallyreallyreally well by this regiment, and in a way that concealers couldn't even touch.

Personally, nanogen and dermmatch can't even do *that* much for me right now -- with how my hair is, my goals, how I want to style it, concealers simply aren't geared at this, and they aren't that effective. On top of their detectability, which becomes more difficult to contain when you *have* a good deal of hair that you want to style, but you don't have *that* much true density.

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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!

Wow, an absolutely phenomenal post.....

Thanks, cant thank you enough for taking the time to write that.

Great post! The Aveda shampoo and conditioner prices are quite reasonable; I will definitely give it a go.

Really great info!

Looking at your blog your HT looks excellent. Do you feel that you need these products to make the HT look natural? Do you use them everyday?

If you had to use just one of those products, which would you say is the most useful? This could be handy for lazy people like me that don't spend much time on styling etc (although maybe that will change if my HT comes in as well as yours!).

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My Hair Loss Web Site

Thx. Scottish, I wasn't using any of these products in the pics in my weblog, actually, nor the more recent pics in my HT thread. So while I feel that these products dramatically accentuate my HT in a positive way, they are *not* necessary to achieve a nice, natural look.

I don't use them all everyday (probably 3-4 days a week I do); I do use the Aveda Pure Abunance shampoo/conditioner daily, along with Dirt pretty much everday.

If I had to pick *one* product....it would probably be Dirt. The Samy Fat Hair is pretty remarkable, but you should really blow dry your hair afterwards to reap the rewards, so....If you don't mind blowdrying your hair real quick, I would actually recco Samy Fat Hair as the #1 product....

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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!

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Consultant for Dr. Feller, Coalition Member and Dr. Lindsey, Coalition Member.

See my results --->>My Hair Loss Website

I am not a medical professional and my words should not be taken as medical advice. All opinions and views shared are my own. "Research-Research-Research"

thanks for info thana,ienjoy reading your posts very informative.you are wiser than your years.where can i find the shampoo and conditioner.i think i can get by with a good volumiser(spell?).i currently use aproduct called follipro which supposedly contains copper peptides.expensive though