HK500

Hello Harry, Yes, you are in good hands here, this could well be the very best community for our shared affliction. - Please tell us your surgeon(s) name(s) It's very important to log here a record of all experiences, good and bad. - Finasteride/Propecia daily or EOD is the first step to take, negative side effects are quite rare. - Once we see your pictures we will be able to give you a much more precise evaluation. - A good HT surgeon as per our list of recommended and Coalition Docs will determine the best location for your donor area taking into account your previous scars. - FUE is great with a VERY highly skilled surgeon and if you can afford it. - Once you agree with the surgeon on the number of FU to be extracted he will give you a breakdown of single hair FU and multiple hair FU. - Single hair FU should be used mostly for the visible areas of the frontal hairline, temples, any good Doc knows this. - Dense packing is totally real, within a realistic range of 40 to 60 FU/cm2 - You can get free online advice from us with your pictures AND free online consultations from our recommended Docs. We are looking forward to seeing you pictures, remember, no flash if you can, it tends to project shadows and multiply the perception of density.

I agree with Hairbank, if you can do it all in one shot go for it. I also think you might not happy with coverage and density with any less than 4,000 FU, you would get appropriate density and coverage between 5 and 6K FU, don't worry you'll never get the rug look with even 7k. Who is your surgeon?

Welcome. Additionally to the pertinent info requested by our experienced members, please tell us where you are located and who performed your previous HT's.

Welcome to the forum George. It would help if you could post pictures, many of us will be able to give you an opinion. Who is the surgeon you chose? It sounds like you have spent time reading on this forum.

Thanks for the details Franklin. FUE is a great method with a very highly skilled Doc, too bad it's so expensive, I'll be going for my second and I hope last strip HT in two days, I never considered FUE because of the cost mainly.

Cousin we miss you, all of us and the newbies. We all hope you'll have a change of heart. Best, H.

I agree with Salt&Peppa, try to do it in one shot if possible but first and foremost: - Are you on Finasteride? How old are you? - Post pictures here so the veteran members can give you advice. You might be surprised to hear something other than 6000 FU - Make a list of the forum recommended HT Docs you choose and get free consults. The more consults, the more knowledge plus you'll hear different opinions - Once you know what you need from your research and consults, bargain with the Docs, ask them to book you when they are slow, when they have a cancellation, etc ... be creative and don't be afraid to ask, you'll be treated the same whether you pay full price or not. Keep us posted and have fun with the process, you have lots of friends on this forum.

JohnS, Can you tell us who the surgeon is? Always good to know whether it's a good or bad experience. Franklin, Given an equal set of skill the strip excision will almost always give you a higher regrowth percentage versus FUE. You need to find an extremely skillful HT doc who specializes in the FUE method in order match the regrowth rate you'd get from a simply good strip surgeon, so yes, I agree with you. As I asked JohnS above, can you tell us who did your HT's?

Thank you, I think many of us are aware by now that you can get generic Proscar. Can any one shed light on the generic Propecia situation? I heard the Patent expired in 2011 and then recently someone posted a link to a Yahoo board where the comments indicated that the Patent expired in June 2006 ... Which is it?

I also would like to know.

Anybody has the lowdown on whether Propecia is really available in the US as a generic since June 2006? Anybody?

Good advice, I second that.

While it's possible to improve your situation, total undetection may not be achievable. I would do a search on the forum for the best surgeons to do the repair/revision work. The veteran members should be able to advise you, I would also sent a private message to Pat (the founder of this forum) since he has personally whitnessed many surgeries.

Dr. Rassman is one of the elite HT surgeons, he is a member of the Coalition I believe, he is probably the most expensive surgeon on our site with the strip excision method although he is now giving forum members a discount. I think his advice on Finasteride is as good as any screened an approved surgeon on this site. I do not have any negative side effects from 1/4 Proscar daily, neither did I have side effects from one Propecia daily when i was taking it prior to switching to Proscar.

Hopefully the Google explorers will find the knowledge on this forum to make an educated decision.

That's a tough one, some members take it EOD, personally I take 1/4 Proscar daily which is 1.25 mg daily. If you run a search on the site you may find more answers. I am not sure there is a consensus though ...

Proscar is definitely available in the US as a generic. Anybody has the lowdown on whether Propecia is really available in the US as a generic since June 2006? Anybody?

Hey JohnS, It sounds like you want to try the laser comb, I have not heard of any downsides except that on the web site link you posted they say no more than 3 times per week ... I would follow this reco. Why not make a case study on this? Since you are a member of our forum and if you want to of course, you could post pictures taken in the same conditions, of before, at one month, 2 months, etc ... I read Dr. Bauman's post comments and I think there may be some benefits to laser. Let us know what you want to do but this might be a good opportunity to document a new "Hair Helper" on our community.

He was interesting in his own freakish way. Is'nt it amazing how fascinated we are by different looking people? His large buddy was a riot too, the two of them could put together a successful show I'm sure. Too bad baldness is not fascinating enough, we could save a lot of money ...

You made the right decision, you are in good hands. There is no question that all Dr. Feller's experiences have been very positive, whereas Dr. Pistone's reviews have been mixed at best.

Hey guys, I read in an older post that the patent on Propecia expired in like 2011 ... Johnson posted links saying it expired this last June 2006. Has anyone seen generic Propecia in a US pharmacy? I have doubts as to the expiration date on the patent.

I will agree with Bill and NNelly, for example you frequently hear that the plastic surgeons in Brazil are the best.... These general statements really do not mean anything until we narrow it down to the specifics (the Dr. name, his specialty area, his track record, etc ...), there is only 1 or 2 (can't remember exactly) HT Doc from Brazil recommended on our HTN site and I am sure that Brazil has tons of surgeons who claim being the best at doing HT. The results will affect you for the rest of your lifetime so why take a chance when there is no reason to?

That's quite an exotic discovery Pat, I guess I speak for most of of us located in North America. I will have to say that the work looks good from the photos presented to us. We have established high standards on this forum and if a US clinic was to present such photos we would immediately ask for better, more varied angles with accurate detail of the procedures such as grafts and hair counts, etc ... It's the only way to make sure, short of having a veteran member of the site experience a procedure personally. Any volunteers? I may sound overly cautious but to me the work I see from such pictures is inconclusive at best, the pictures do not substantiate much in an attempt to determine the quality level of this clinic, there are no after pictures shooting down on the hair (camera well above hair, lens axis perpendicular to the top of the scalp) in close up which is the most critical angle, as several members have previously posted we all know that thick wiry hair on a darker skin tone will look fantastically dense especially if the camera axis is mostly parallel to the top of the scalp. If I were the owner of this clinic I would not try to make a case before my dossier is fully ready to be inspected under a microscope by the members of our demanding forum.

Welcome to the board, I also concur with the experienced members who already replied to your post. Get on Finasteride ASAP, preferably 1/4 Proscar/day it's very affordable, especially the generic version. Check your progress after 6 months and then one year with pictures taken from the same angles and the same lighting. You should be getting nice results from the medication and you're still too young to get a HT so Finasteride and Nizoral or Nioxin shampoos are your best bets.

The first step for you would be to post pictures here or even better post an album and you'll get lot's of good advice from experienced members.