Truth Seeker

These are the results of three transplants from three different surgeons, totalling appx. 2500 micros and minis. The photos are as of March 5, 2007

I recall, 20 years ago, that a bodybuilder named Jeff King mentioned that he noticed a lot of hairloss from being on a very, very low fat diet in preparing for a contest. I'm sure it's more attributable to the steroids he was taking. Stress has been known to cause hair loss. I moved in July of 2006, and my hair loss has increased significantly. I'd like to attribute it to the stress of moving, and an overly powerful shower head with very hard water with too much chlorine in it (For years I had the benefit of slower water pressure in the shower), but I think, based on my Mom's side of the family, that it's just my genetics picking up speed. My Dad is 70 and has a full head of hair! Likewise his father and most of his uncles. My brother is a year younger than me, and has curly hair like yours. He is thinning, too, but he keeps his hair cropped short and hides it pretty well. For me, my hair is very straight, and I can't get away with it. My hair loss is much more significant than his, and topicals like ProThik are becoming harder and harder to use. I agree, cropping it tighter may hide it better. At your age, though, I'd hold off on the transplants. I started losing at 21, too, but was able to hide it much better back then. Good luck.

Is there a link to the exercises? A tight scalp is one of the concerns made by Dr. Bernstein.

Hey Darren, I just saw Bernstein in his Ft. Lee office back in January. He's very conservative. I spent more time in his waiting room than I did with him, maybe 5 minutes. I don't know if you went or not, but, coming from South Jersey, I can tell you first hand that the Ft. Lee office is a pain to get to! While it's a straight shoot up the NJTP, he is the VERY LAST exit before the George Washington Bridge. The exits around the area are very confusing, and if you don't get into the proper lane, you will find yourself at the toll booths, heading into NYC. The fun doesn't end there. If you happen to get off the proper exit, you will find yourself looking for parking forever! His office is in the bottom of an apartment complex/office building with private parking. You have to park on a side street in a residential area. Good luck with that. I drove around 15 minutes before I found a spot! Bernstein himself is pretty personable, is blunt and point blank. I find it ironic that a guy as bald as he is performs hair transplants.

I never could get the spelling correct on those two. It's been over 10 years and cannot find any information on either them now if I wanted to. I'm going strictly from memory. Their names aren't exactly "Smith" and "Jones".

Mike, Shapiro's office feels that the number of transplants plus the type of grafts (micros and minis) affected the elasticity of the donor area, and also reduced the amount of remaining donor hair by 1/3. I don't believe he meant what had already been used, but what the three surgeons left behind.

Thank you Pat. When I had my first session, with Giannoto, he very much indeed was a "back slapper". That was in 1994, and the only way to really research before the internet were infomercials. Back then, it was Bosley, and a couple of other chains, championing slit grafts, macros & minis, using actors like Dan Haggerty as their spokesmen. Giannoto was affiliated with a group in Boston, and was charging $11/graft while Bosley was charging $33, and doing scalp reductions. This group was also selling replacement systems, of which my salesman was wearing one (Cam Neeley, former Bruins center, was a client). They showed me all the pictures, and this guy, a salesman, was making the determination of what I needed. I never saw Giannato until the day of the surgery. Then there was the internet, and before this website came along, you had all the surgeons putting up their websites, again, showing excellent photos of their work. Lauria was doing grafts at $4-5/graft and marveled at the work he could have done had I seen him before Gianotto. The $6500 I spent on 368 grafts w/Giannoto would have been better spent at his place, according to Lauria, than w/Giannato. Pistone was ultra conservative with my needs from the beginning. He's got a great ad campaign...a billboard on the Philadelphia side of the Walt Whitman Bridge that shows a bald man with spark plugs on his head. But he also does liposuction and face peels. In the Philly area, he's considered the best of the hair transplant surgeons, and known more for that than his cosmetic surgery. The mistakes ultimately fall with me. They were my decisions. Of the three, I'd say I'm happiest with Pistone. Giannoto all but forgot about me and I had to call for follow-up to my care. When I finished with Lauria, my Mom, an LPN, was appalled at the amount of blood and scabbing on the scalp a couple of days after the surgery. Pistone however, there was little bleeding, a nice clean scalp, and the healing process was very good, with monthly follow ups for a year. My Mom, again an LPN, was very impressed with how my scalp healed with him. I wouldn't go back to him, though. It looks like I need to get a passport if I want to get a consult in Ottawa. Oh well. I'm a Phillies fan, and their AAA farm club will be playing there for the season. Two birds w/one stone!

Hi Toad, I DIDhave an in person w/Bernstein, and he wrote me the script for Proscar. It's a 5mg pill, quartered. 3 month supply, $20 at CVS. Once the weather breaks around here, I probably will go see Fuller in Great Neck. It's not too far from where I had my second transplant, Eastwood Medical with Lauria. Awful experience, contracted Hep-A up there (not necessarily from him). He also gave me a lousy stock tip on a medical company that cost me a lot of money!

Hairbank, Thanks for the input. I'm already on a daily regimen of Propecia, prescribed by Dr. Bernstein. I'm taking 1/4 tab every day. I haven't seen any results, but it's only been 6 weeks. We'll see how it goes. I've been extremely judicious about this. I even went back to Pistone a couple of years ago for another consultation. He recommended only 1,000 more grafts, concentrating on going down the center of the scalp. That's the big issue that I have had. None of the three surgeons ever came up with a game plan. The transplants neverfilled in an area. Pistone ascribed that to continued fall out of my hair, but I believe it has just as much to do with his lack of packing the scalp with any density.

I sent photos to Dr. Rahal. I never heard back from him.

Thanks! Those pics are 6 months old. I think the thinning is worse now. I recently moved, and my shower head has very hard water...lots of hair in the drain, like I've never seen before. I know a lot of that is scrubbing out the Pro Thik. I've only been on Propecia for 6 weeks. I don't see anything yet, but I expect that at 6 weeks, I wouldn't.

Feeling around the back of my head, I myself feel that the donor area is limited. Shapiro and Bernstein have stated that having three previous transplants, primarily micros and minis, have really reduced the number of available donor hairs. In addition, the planning of these doctors was so poor, just scattering the hairs almost randomly around my head. They never said, "OK, this is what you need to be doing...work the hairline and move back." That didn't happen. Propecia was always recommended, but at the time, it was unaffordable to me. In addition, I was resistant because I try to keep as much toxic, man-made drugs out of my body. That's just the way I am. But, I'm at a point where concealants like ProThink are starting to show their limitations. I really don't want to go the replacement route, considering I've already spent $20,000 over my adult lifetime on hair transplants.

I was never able to afford Propecia in the past. Bernstein broke it down to 1/4 tablet/day. The first surgery was 368 micros/minis in 1994 with a Dr. Giannato in Boston. In 1999 I had 1100 with Dr. Lauria out in Long Island. In 2003 I had another 1100 with Dr. Pistone, who says he did micros/FUs. Bernstein says that the grafts are good, but he would have positioned them differently.

I've had 3 transplants over the course of 7 years, the last in 2003. Over the last 7 months, my hair loss has accelerated to the point where I have almost nothing but transplanted hair on top. The thinning has started to drop to the sides of the scalp and to the back of the crown. I use Prothik as a concealer, and it is getting more and more difficult to apply this without it being noticeable. I can only style my hair one way, and it's very, very flat. I also have concerns that, when out in sunlight or people standing over me, that this is very noticeable. I had a phone consult with Shapiro and based on photos that I sent, they felt I had one transplant left with about 2500 FUs available. They referred me to Dr. Bernstein in New Jersey because he was closer. What he told me was very distressing. He felt that I had less donor hair available than Shapiro estimated (Though Shapiro told me that Bernstein is more conservative). Also, the donor scars from three previous surgeries are all over the place. None of the surgeons really tried to keep the scarring uniform. The back of the scalp was too tight to do any further surgery. Bernstein's conclusion was to wait a year, prescribed Propecia, and felt that I could only get 600 FUs and do the hairline. Needless to say, this is very disappointing to hear. I needed to vent, but also wanted to hear anyone else's thoughts on this?