Longpig

Looking good Balody. If you can eek another 1500 - 2000 grafts out of your donor to beef up your crown you'll be sorted. You've come a long way mate!

Thanks forchie

Will there ever be a mainstream discussion in the UK about male hair loss that actually treats the subject seriously? Last night Radio 5Live had a feature on it. Dr. Rogers was interviewed and gave a brief description of what a transplant involves and the type of people who have them. The presenter suggested that this was all about men wanting to 'vainly reclaim their youth'. Dr. Rogers quickly put her straight on this by saying in some cases this was true, but what about blokes in their early twenties? They are still living their youth and simply want to look the age they are. After a few minutes of semi-serious discussion, it all to quickly and predictably descended into the usual mickey taking. The presenter then invited listeners to send in their 'unusual cures for baldness'. Cue a load of moronic suggestions like ''Rub beetroot on it, get a cat to lick it, put a rabbit on it, from a distance it will look like hair etc. Oh, and of course the old chestnut: ''just shave it off - after all it works for - (insert name of any shaven headed celeb). It reminds me of the Dear Deidre column in The Sun. Whenever anyone wrote in depressed about hair loss, her standard reply would be: ''Look at Phil Collins. He's bald but look at the success he's had!'' Well yeah, but as you say Deidre - 'look at Phil Collins!', that's not the look I'm hoping to achieve thank you very much. Why is it vain and a sign of weakness for a man to want to improve his appearance and self-confidence by putting hair on his head, yet perfectly acceptable for a woman to get a boob job? I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick to death of male pattern baldness being treated by the media in this way. Hair loss has affected me by completely repressing my personality throughout my twenties and well into my thirties, with others it can ruin their lives and has even been known to occasionally lead to suicide. When is the media-sniggering about this depressing condition ever going to end? LP

FS, Congrats on your second HT with the Farjos. It looks to be really good work as usual. You and me were in their chair in the same week! You're going to be one hairy fella when that's grown out. All the best with it mate.

Apologies for not responding to the comments sooner - for some reason I can only log on to this site on my work computer and I have only returned to work today. Thanks so much to all who have commented. Your words mean a lot. I'll add pics when I have a spare couple of minutes. LP

On Monday I had my third HT at the Farjo clinic(fourth in total) It was a day that will be etched in my memory forever for another reason though. Upon arriving at the clinic at eight o'clock I informed Dr. Farjo that my father was very ill in hospital and could go at any time. Therefore I asked him if he could possibly work around my existing hair as opposed to cutting it very short or even shaving it, as there was every likelihood of me needing to attend a funeral in the next week or two. He said it would be slightly trickier and would take an hour or two longer but was quite happy to do it given the circumstances. I was very nearly sent home without an HT as my initial blood pressure result was sky high. (Dr. Farjo put this down to my recent stress in relation to my father) He gave me a sedative and said he would do another test in twenty mins. Thankfully it had reduced enough by then to go ahead. I have had a total of around 2500 grafts over three procedures over the last ten years, and I was hoping for that amount again with this HT. Dr. Farjo said what he would like to do would be to take out the two parallel scars I have at the back but this would probably mean me getting closer to 1500 than 2500 grafts. The other option was to leave those scars but take out of my Rogers scar at the side, allowing me possibly 2000-2500 grafts.(There were issues with my scalp laxity after three previous HT's, and although my hair quality is good, the density is not so great) Hair greed took over, and I asked Dr. Farjo to get as much as he could, as this probably my last chance for a good sized strip surgery. In the end I got around 2450 grafts mainly in the front third with a few hundred in the crown, and I can tell from the placement and dense packing that I'm going to be really happy when it grows out. The Doc also told me that I have a fair amount of donor left should I need to address the crown in the coming years. I want to thank the Farjo clinic and all the staff for their professionalism and willingness to go the extra yard. They were working away on me from nine in the morning to around seven-thirty at night. I'm sure had they shaved my hair, they would have got away a lot earlier. When I got back to my car in the multi-storey car-park across the road, I rang my brother back home to find out about my dad. He gave me the news that he had passed away that morning. I'll have the image of that desolate car-park engrained in my memory forever. It made me think what am I even doing here, doing something so vain and self-obsessed. I guess I'll be glad I did it a few months down the road though. I want to say a big thank you to Mick for booking me into a hotel for the night free of charge. As things worked out though, I just wanted to get home to my family so I drove straight home. My mum was in tears begging me not to risk the long drive after my procedure, but I assured her I felt fine and was ok to drive. Finally I just want to say that even as late as Friday of last week, as thing were happening rapidly with my dad, Mick gave me the opportunity to cancel my appointment with no loss of deposit.(He even told me later he would have let me cancel as late as Sunday night with no loss of any money) I went ahead with it as there had been a slight improvement in his condition but sadly over the weekend he deteriorated. So , all in all, an eventful day. Again, thanks to all at Farjo for their dedication. I'll be posting pics as soon as I get them from Mick, and I'll be doing regular updates over the next few months. LP Last edited on Wed Nov 5th, 2008 04:41 pm by longpig

No probs. Glad I've saved you a few quid!

Where are the pics? Can't see them.

I've just pinched myself to make sure. Yep..I'm for real. Just make sure you let them know how much your hair loss bothers you, basically lay it on thick. And if you've got an unsympathetic GP, just ask to see another one. Give it a try mate

Marc, No one in the UK has to pay that sort of amount for Propecia. Go to your GP, and ask him/her to prescribe finasteride (identical to propecia - but you have to split the tablets for daily or every other day dose). This is what I do and it costs me just the price of a private prescription - around ??14 for a four month supply. Obtaining it this way also pretty much guarantees you are getting the genuine stuff whereas via the internet you have to be careful. Hope this helps

Crown, I've got to agree with Richie. This is all way to elaborate to pull off. The golden rule of lying is to keep it simple and your story is anything but. Good luck though!

Fallenstar, I've sent you a PM. Cheers

We often see examples of repair work on here, but what we don't seem to see very much is an example of a GOOD transplant from way back. What I mean is, it would be really interesting to see what kind of work was being done by the likes of Feller/H & W/ etc from 10 years or so ago, in the days before megasessions, dense packing etc. Are there any photos showing this anywhere? Thanks

We often see examples of repair work on here, but what we don't seem to see very much is an example of a GOOD transplant from way back. What I mean is, it would be really interesting to see what kind of work was being done by the likes of Feller/H & W/ etc from 10 years or so ago, in the days before megasessions, dense packing etc. Are there any photos showing this anywhere? Thanks

These pics clearly demonstrate that in the hands of a good surgeon, and with good donor management, it is possible to achieve the look, or at least the illusion, of a complete prat

bullitnut, just realised your in UK. I've got my fin from Boots, Superdrug and NHS pharmacy in the past-different ones each time. Not heard of Dr. Freddys, did you mean Dr. REDDYS? I got these last time from Superdrug.

Bullitnut, I think the answer might be right there in your PS mate! Seriously though, as long as you're getting it from a reputable place ie. not internet, I wouldn't worry about it.

This is a straightforward question to HT surgeons in USA/Canada and concerns something frequently debated on this and other forums but never properly resolved. In your opinion, must a UK resident looking into hair transplantation travel to the US or Canada or do you feel a top quality HT can be achieved in the UK? I ask this because I genuinely want to get to the truth of this. Also we here a lot of opinions from many different angles but rarely from surgeons themselves.I'm not asking you to name names either good or bad just for your general honest opinion. My personal interest in this is that I have potentially only one more strip HT left (having had three so far)and as a UK resident will be looking into it in the next year or so. Thanks