wesley949

That site is too, too slick.

I totally agree with Troy. if you don't have the money to do it right-don't do it. If you search this site you will find many folks who are still trying to overcome a bad hair transplant. There is no way someone can have a top staff and operation for $2.00 a graft. I would save my money and go to a top doc for an evaluation. Even with a top doctor you will have staff turnover but you at least have a fighting chance for a good job by going to someone who is highly rated on this forum. Are there other doctors who will do a good job-sure-but not at $2.00 a graft. I am certain of that.

Trojan: It seems Bernstein has a reputation on this site as being behind the times although he has been a pioneer in the field and has been cited as the best HT doc in New York by New York magazine for years. I would vist his web site and read his web blog on his site where propspective patients can ask questions. It is obvious he understands HT and the plusses and minuses of certain actions. I had a procedure done and some repairs about 6 months ago by Bernstein and I wish I could tell you what the end result will be. The repair was excellent but my hair is still in the early stages. He and his staff were excellent. Since I was travelling more than 150 miles they put me up at a very nice hotel nearby for two nights. Also, make sure you are comparing hair count and not simply graft count. My 2,382 grafts yielded 249 ones, 1,299 twos, 713 threes and 121 fours. The total hair count was 5,470 for a hair per follicular average of 2.30. If Bernstien had further divided my fours and threes it could have shown that I had 3,500 or more grafts done. Having said that, I would interview Bernstien and others and know the questions to ask so that you feel confident you made the correct decision for you. I will need a second procedure for better coverage and I knew this going in. However, I can already tell that even if I never got a second procedure, my hair looks totally natural. You want to make certain that the doctor who does the procedure makes it so the HT stands on its own. There are very few HT patients who get what they want with one procedure no many how many hairs/grafts are transplanted.

PCC: Isn't it amazing that so many of us have been made aware of our thinning hairlines by others-do these people actually think we are unaware. Its like seeing someone overweight and doing them a favor by telling them--heh-I don't know if you are aware of the fact that you are getting to be obese.

Dhoose75: I had a similar experience where I did stand up for myself in front of everyone and it was ugly. I had worked with a guy who was 20 years older than me. He was overweight and married and I was single, had a great head of hair, was in great shape and was dating all the woman he would stop in my office to talk about. Fast forward 8 years---I had left the organization for a new job, had gotten married and had started to lose my hair. I recieved an inviation to a retirement party for someone who was retiring from my former employer's place of business. Well I had not seen these folks for years and we are sitting having dinner and this fat ass yells across the room to me as loud as he could--hey (my last name)you're losing your hair- as if i did not know this. My friend remembered me as a well mannered, junior member of the organization.(It was my first real job out of college). Well, I turned around and yelled back at him something to the effect that he was still a big fat ass. He was devastated and could not respond. No one said a word, although I knew they were emabarassed for me but I felt they were happy I stood up for myself because this guy was considered a big mouth. Later that evening our paths crossed in the mens's room and he said to me that he was really disappointed by my behavior and he was just trying to be funny. I looked him right in his eyes and said you were only being mean and were trying to embarrass me. I turned and walked out and we have not spoken since. Beware when someone starts a conversation with " I don't mean to hurt your feelings but" One of the reasons I did what I did was that I was on the road alot at the time and was listening to self-help tapes/positive thinking stuff and the one tape focused on victimization so my brain was well-programmed to defend itself against this prick.

I strongly agree with Pat. The results folks get with some of the 4,500/5,000/6,000 graft sessions look very impressive but how many hairs does that equate to. This information would be very helpful to all since we are all trying to evaluate our options. My 2,382 graft session rendered 249 ones, 1,299 twos, 713 threes and 121 fours for a total of 5,470 hairs and a hairs/FU ratio of 2.30. I am one week shy of 6 months and can not tell you the final results yet. I am apparently a slow grower and the hair that I have been growing is, as expected like baby hair. I knew going in that I would need two sessions but would have loved to have gotten it all done in one. In my case I had some repair work at my inital session and a fairly tight scalp, but some of the amazing stories of graft counts must make even the most satified patients thinking they made a mistake. This is a frustating process that requires much patience and fortitude and full disclosure so that an educated decision can be made. Patients have no way to handicap the excellent doctors without a hair count comparison. If my fours were divided into ones I could have had almost 3,000 grafts. Further divding my three's would push me toward 3,500 and so on.

In another week I will be 6 months post-op. When I read this web site before I had my procedure, I used to think that everyone who had a transplant was too anxious. I am one of the most patient people I know, but HT's require a different kind of patience---This is especially true if you are planning another procdure. It's sort of like---hurry up and grow so I can see what I have so I can do it again, have shockloss, lose my hair again so I can really grow alot of hair and be done with it. The pschology of this is a bit confusing.

Troy: It looks like you had a very substantial increase in density from 5 to 7 months. Is that correct? By the way, your hair looks terrific.

I had it done 5.5 months ago and am extremely happy-and expect to be happier in about 3 months. If you go to a top doctor you should not have any problems as long as you are a good candidate.

Also, did you do a search of this site for feedback on Dr. Katz? I don't know anything about him, but I would only go to a top doc.

If you are seeing Dr. Katz why would you ask your family doctor. I would go to a dermatologist or a doctor that specializes in hair loss.

Pat: Was there any general consensus on the optimal size of a mega-session?

Whoa East Coast: Whose transplants are you looking at. I just looked at my transplants under a magnifying mirror and I can not tell the differnece between my original hairs and those that were transpalnted. Maybe the white dots were there a few years ago, but I don't have them and my procedure was done 5 months ago.

I know two guys on Propecia who have thickened up considerally in the last 9 months. I would try that for a year. You still have great hair. If it does not help and it looks like the rest of your hair is maintaining, you would be able to take care of the hairline in a snap with a top HT surgeon.

I am just over 5 months with a strip procedure with Bernstein and extremely satisfied. There is no way anyone would know I had a procedure. I think people are starting to wonder what is going on but unless you know the state of the technology you could not hazard a guess. I was just at lunch with my son and he looked at my head and said he can not understand how they could do such a thing. In my case, I shaved down the little hair I had and returned to the office 11 days post-op and everyone thought I had just gotten a really short haircut. Now I think as the growth continues floks may try to remember if I had this much hair 6 months ago. As far as healing goes, my recipient area was red for quite some time, but a friend who knew I had the procedure said it looked like I had just gotten a little sun. If you are doing FUE I assume you have hair to cover the procedure and it is fairly small. I can't vouch for Bernstien with FUE but only with strip. My scar is just now only a hint of redness with no line or lack of hair. I assume he used the trico closure since hair is groing through any redness. Good luck.

Endoftherope: You are a very young man and you are fortunate that the technology is available. How bad is your hair loss? You may want to get on Propecia. From what I have seen it does work if you still have "good" hair. It helps you maintain what you have-And from I am reading options will just be getting better. Study-go for a few consulatations and if a HT is what you need you won't regret it if you go with a top doctor. I have just passed 5 months and the growth is starting-I will need another procedure-but really the first one of 2,400 was not a big deal. It is just the waiting. It takes some patience. My best advice for someone your age would be to go to a top doctor and make sure you really need one at your age. Propecia may thicken things up enough for you. Good luck.

My biggest hit came at about 4 months when three women I saw within a 15 minute period stopped me to say they liked my new hair style-and thought I looked different and good. They asked what I had changed. I told them that I had not changed anything thing since I had seen them a week earlier. I was miffed as to why on this day within this short period of time three different people would notice something had changed. I have not had anything else unusual happen and I have now passed 5 months. Maybe people are now just talking behind my back.

It is very normal. Actually about 4 months is when the pimples stopped for me. I was going sort of crazy for a while trying to get the pimples under control. I had never had a pimple in my life so I assumed I would not have the problem others had written about-boy, was I wrong. At 5 months my head is clear, except I got one in the crown last night which I hope means more growth there is on the way.

It is called Scar Zone with green tea. It has silicone and some type of onion extract in it, I believe. There are a variety of products on the market to reduce the appearance of scars. As far as the donor scar is concerned, this is my experience. The donor area where the original transplants were taken from in the 1970's never returned to normal. It has been numb for all these years. Dr. Bernstein must have cut out the dead spot because after my surgery the back of my head felt normal almost immediately. The scar I have now in the donor area after 2400 graphs is very minor. In fact I don't see a scar after 5 months, just some minor redness in some of it. Dr. Berstein must use the trico-closure because hair appears to be growing throgh it. I am not certain because when my procedure was completed in January, 06 I was unaware of this closure technique and failed to inquire about it, consequently. Good luck.

I had repair work done by Dr. Bernstein on January 12, 2006. My repair amounted to taking out plugs in my crown that were placed there in the 1970's so you can imagine how difficult that would be. At 10 days I had the sutures removed and used makeup to dimninish the redness and uneveness of the skin upon retruning to work the next day. After about a month I started using a scar reduction oitment and at this point I don't have any indication of anything on my head where the surgery was done. I am very pleased.

Baldman: I had some repairs done in January and 2,400 transplants. I could not be happier, even though I am only now starting to see growth. It is amzing how proud you become of the growth. My kids and wife think it looks great already and that I look younger. Bernstein did my transplant. I don't think My scalp could have handled 5,000 in one session, although I will need another session for better coverage. Good luck----if you go with a top doc----you will have good results if you are a candidate for the procedure.

Jackisback: I read your profile and see that you are only 19. Have you tried propecia. Also, if I were your age I would just shave my head, if you have the head for it. I see guys all the time that look very good with very short hair. When I say shave, I mean just get it cut short the same lenght on the top and the sides. My guess is that you would look better like that without the comb-over or trying to hide your hairline. Propecia will help you keep what you have until other procedures and medications come along. Good luck.

PCC, best of luck. I had repairs, etc. done on 01/12/2006 with Dr. Bernstein and I am very pleased with the results already.

I don't think its required that everyone has to shave their head. It depends on what you are getting done and the hair that you have. For certain procedures it is just easier for the doctor and helps guaranttee a better job. A 9 month chronology of a Berstein patient was recently posted by Pat. As you can see none of this patient's hair was shaved. Your consultaion will reveal what would be the optimum process for you.

Maybe Jupiter23 takes a great picture but if he looks anything like his picture that is as good as God gets it.