I would have to say that I feel the same. If I could go back and undo it I would just let nature take it's course and go bald. But whats done is done and we have to live with our mistakes. Sucks!!

regretht and dakota3:

Is the reason you regret your HT because of the results or that you've gone down a road you can't turn back from? (as in will require more HT's in the future) I'm not sure why you would regret an undetectable HT unless it's because of the lost money.

nm76:

Yea, your head shape looks totally natural and you would look fine shaved. In fact, after people see you that way you would look odd to them to have hair. The shaved look is a lot more of a style these days. Even guys with full heads of hair commonly shave. I call it the "UFC" effect. MMA fighters typically shave or buzz their heads so the hair won't interfer in their bouts. A lot of younger guys emulate this and shave too. It really has become a preferred look.

__________________
My Hair Loss Web Site - Dr. Ron Shapiro

Any particular reason for feeling that way?

The reason that I regret mine is that I have minor pitting on top of my head, I have a strip scar on the back of my head. Mostly the strip scar bothers me. I cannot shave my head without exposing the scar. Also, I have felt trapped because if I lose more native hair eventually the grafts will look unnatural.

Hair transplants require existing native hair to look natural to some degree. Even if hair is dense packed on top of a bald head, what happens when there is more recession down the sides? There is a gap, which of course does not happen in nature. Therefore it locks you in to a neverending cycle of either worry or denial about the future.

My plan is to laser out all the grafts when the time is appropriate.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people really do NOT understand all the downsides of this procedure until it is too late. Hair transplants? Wish I never heard of em.

DITTO!!

regreht,

OK, so you're pretty much saying that full blown NW6 patients like Bill, LondonLad, Jotronic, Bobman, etc. who were completely bald pre-HT will eventually look like freaks of nature and bitterly regret their decisions to do this ? It's funny because I look a their pre-HT photos and wonder how they could possibly get any worse than that. And then you see their final results (some in person) and if you hadn't ever studied HTs you'd never know they had anything done, and they look 15 years younger!

So basically you still have a full head of hair but you have convinced yourself that the HT was the worst mistake of your life, even though you have never once looked in the mirror and seen yourself as a completely bald NW6 ? It just doesn't make any sense to me. You seem to be traumatized by something that hasn't even happened yet. Do you know for a fact that you'd be heading to Norwood 6/7 territory without meds and the HT ? Are you diffuse thinning all over (including the donor area), and perhaps were never a good HT cantidate to begin with ? Is this why you fear the future so much, because you KNOW that without meds (or even with them) that in the future you will be a NW7 with the dreaded combover look of a few thousand HT grafts up top ?

I'm just trying to figure out the specifics of your case and why you feel this was the worst mistake of your life. I've read many of your posts and you seem like a very intelligent person. But you seem to feel that HTs will be a nightmare for almost everybody who gets them eventually, yet there are so many happy patients that I have seen and met in person that look phenomenal and undetectable. I've seen people who look 15 years younger who were very advanced norwoods pre-HT.

Anyway, not everyone will head to NW6 territory. I'm 41 now, and still a NW3.5 vertex. I don't think my sides will go anytime soon (probably never according to family history), and my donor area is pretty dense. Do you think that even someone like me will live to regret this decision even if my loss has stabilized ? If so, why ? Or do you feel this mostly applies to patients under 30 getting this surgery who will later head to NW6/7 ?

Labrat, These guys are all in thier 30's with a high degree of balding before HT's. It is not unlikely that they could progress to NW7's. So yes it is VERY possible that they could end up needing more donar hair that some of them just dont have.

dakota,

I see what you mean. I've read WIP's posts on the HLH forum and he always reminds us that we are looking at a particular moment in time when we see the success stories. I think he is partly right and partly wrong though, and for 4 reasons:

1) most of the NW 6 men I see beyond age 60 in daily life (including my dad)have reatined that fringe of hair quite well. Had he had a HT at age 35 he'd still look pretty good now, because the fringe is still pretty thick -- and he's 74 years old !

2) NW7 I do not believe is nearly as common as NW 6

3) with today's meds even somebody who would otherwise become a NW7 can probably delay it by at least 10 years, or likely more

4) Even in the worst case scenario of a guy in his 30s getting a great HT, taking the meds religiously, and still ending up a NW 7 in his 60s -- what about the quality of life gained all throughout a patient's 30s, 40s, 50s, and maybe even half of his 60s ? Can you really put a price tag on that ? OK, so people may figure out he had a HT when he was younger and now he'll be in his 60s. Who will these people be ? Probably his grandkids. It's not like he'll still be dating and going out to clubs, so what's the big deal ?


I understand both yours and "regretht's" points, but I think you guys are just too jaded by your own HT failures to give truly objective advice to virgin scalp newbies. I do completely agree with you guys that anybody under 30 with family history of advanced Norwoods is taking a HUGE gamble with their life! Actually, 40 is probably the best possible age to wait until to see if NW 7 will be in the cards for that person. I've known a few NW7 people and those men were DEFINITELY that far gone by age 40, some by age 35. One guy had more hair than me in his late 20s(we are both 40 now), but today he is a full blown NW7 and I am still a NW 3.5V. But he had the diffuse thinning like "regretht", whereas I have pattern balding. Sometimes we run into each other in the coffee shops and he marvels at how I've retained the same hair I had 10 years ago. Now he shaves his, and man it's pretty scary looking at how small that little fringe of hair is. If this dude had a HT done 10 years ago I completely see what "regretht" means by stating patients like this will look like FREAKS and curse the day they ever heard of HTs. But I just don't see it in real life that guys who are Norwood 3/4 at age 40 end up NW 7 at age 60. That is just NOT a common occurence and is much more in a very slim minority.

I just wish that posters like "regretht" and "WIP" would give more specific details of their cases and ADMIT that the truth is they were never good HT candidates because they are in a minority of diffuse thinners, instead of going on a rampage ragging the whole concept of HT itself and trying to scare everybody out of it. They try to make it sound like everybody will be a NW7 eventually with a diffuse, depleted donor and that's just not the truth.