wesley949

My first transplant-a massive mistake-my second transplant-great. In fact at 3 months and 1 week I can feel my donor site that I have not felt from the first transplant in over twenty years. If you have doubts at 50/50 I agree with Gorpy, don't do it. Things will only get better. I went to an open house and had three consultations on the second HT. I was ready and this web site is terrific at helping you compare notes with others. Good luck.

I'm not sure what you mean that it is real obvious. I had very little hair and returned to work at 11 days after getting repairs and about 2,500 grafts. I was nervous the first day back because everytime I looked in the mirror all I could see was the transpalnts---but no one noticed. And you know what they say-no balls-no blue chips. The two people that did mention something said something about a short haircut or a sunburn on my head. At about 3 months and one week I am getting over the pimple phase and the hair is starting to grow very nicely. It was really a small inconveinece to deal with to gain hair and get rid of the bad looking transplants I had from years ago. My only regret is that I will prbably have to do it over again-and not because of pain etc. but my heads feels so good and there is no scar and just the thought of having to ruin my non-scar just sort of bums me out since I am back to kick-ass weightlifting. Hasson and Wong may have done 5000 or 6000 and I would not have that concern but I don't think I have the scalp flexibility for that. The payoff is getting up in the morning when you forgot the transplants were done and your first look in the mirror is like-- hot damn my hair is growing.

Johnny69: I had my procedure done in January and had planned everything so that I would be free for at least 10 days. First thing that happens is my partner's mother gets sick in Oklahoma. He leaves town and I have to get legal papers redone that were done before I did the HT-not once but twice. Next up my daughter who lives in LA is being stalked and I have to get her out of her apartment and get all her stuff and her car shipped to an un disclosed location. Even with what I had to deal with I think my worst fear would be an untimely death-going to my church with a hat on would take some balls.

Troy: I agree. This web site is a god-send when it comes to knowing what the hell is going on out there. There is alot of misery, just not with HT's but with other procedures, that are being avoided because of the internet where the pricks and quacks don't get their way as easily with the public----truly knowledge is power. About 10 years ago my brother was going to get all these procedures done at a chain, simply because he went in for a consulation after hearing an ad and was told all these great things about flaps, etc. Luckily his job responsibilities made the procedures impossible. He had no real way to check at the time-now we do. I had a procedure three months ago and except for the pimples and in-grown hairs, I could not ask for a better experience. My procedure was done by Doctor Bernstein and although he gets some criticsm on this forum for conservative hairlines and cost, I was very pleased with everthing. At three months I am not sure how the end result will look, but I am a 6 and had repairs done and no one even knew I had the repairs or 2400 graphs when I returned to work 10 days later. Even if my transplants don't grow I don't have the punch holes in my crown, which I absolutedly hated.

If you have not been on Propecia I would try that for 9 months to a year before doing the surgery.

Hairbank: Thanks for your response.I know alot about everything ralated to HT's because of this forum but this minor bump has me miffed at this point.

I know the question of pimples and other such eruptions have been discussed on this forum but I need some advice on something I have not seen addressed specifically. I had 2300 units transplanted three months ago. I probably have 10 pimples on my head right now and the new hair is just starting to break through. I know this is normal for many transplantees but I also noticed in the last week something that appears like a few raised very tiny lumps?/bumps?/raised skin? that would be a pimple but are not red and do not hurt. I know some folks develop cysts but these are very small. My question is this: Did anyone experience anything like this and did it clear up on its own? Thanks for any information regarding this?

I know the question of pimples and other such eruptions have been discussed on this forum but I need some advice on something I have not seen addressed specifically. I had 2300 units transplanted three months ago. I probably have 10 pimples on my head right now and the new hair is just starting to break through. I know this is normal for many transplantees but I also noticed in the last week something that appears like a few raised very tiny lumps?/bumps?/raised skin? that would be a pimple but are not red and do not hurt. I know some folks develop cysts but these are very small. My question is this: Did anyone experience anything like this and did it clear up on its own? Thanks for any information regarding this?

Bobman: Thanks. I know there are alot of variables but my density is also 2.3 so I would need essentially the same amount of grafts. I recently had 2400 done.

Bobman: Now that should be fun, especially if your classmates have not seen you thin with hair. But remember, you are doing this for yourself not them. As good as you look now there are bound to be some aholes who can be mean. It will hopefully be wonderful but I attended a reunion last summer and one of our classmates made it big in Hollywood and there was some jealousy expressed by mean remarks. Every class has idiots. You have to be mentally tough and prepared for various reactions.

Bobman: Was the earlier picture simply a bad picture? I have seen some pictures of friends where the picture does not do them justice. That said, you have clearly improved your hair, as well as your muscles mass.

If I was 23 I would get on propecia and give it a year. Your goal should be to hang on to your hair as long as possible. The longer you can go the better the medicine and the surgical techniques will be if you do in fact need an HT.

Bobman congratulations on a beautiful head of hair. Do you have any idea how many actual hairs the 7804 grafts produced. I am curious how many hairs it would take to get hair as good as yours since we all have different densities in our follicular units.

I am 10 weeks post-op and the mid-scalp seems to be coming in first as best I can tell at this early stage.

Thanks JH for the advice and warning. I had some repairs done by Dr. Bernstein 10 weeks ago that are excellent. My initial bad work was done years ago and the Doctor is now dead and can do no further harm.

Good luck Slapshot: I returned to work after 12 days and everyone thought I had simply gotten my hair cut really short on top. I also had some repairs done and no one knew. My scalp was still red but anyone who noticed thought I had a sunburn and I live in the northeast and had the procedure done in January, 2006. Go figure----It really confirmed to me that most people are not really that perceptive or interested in you to keep track of your haircount. To keep bleeding to a minimum don't take aspirin and other things such a vitamin E for two weeks prior to the surgery. You should have a checklist of before and after recomendations from your doctor. My doctor had me wash my hair four times on the day following the procedure---then twice a day after that for another two weeks. He gave me some grafcyte shampoo, but not the spary which some folks on this site swear by. I started using some emu oil at night to get rid of the redness after about three weeks. I am now about 10 weeks out and still have some redness. This varies by person, but no one really has noticed it and my kids and wife from the beginning thought that the tranplants looked good. The repairs were the problem for me. I had about 20 old plugs removed from my crown and the red spot that were there when the sutures came out at 10 days are just about gone. To go back to work I put just a very small amount of my wife's make-up on the spots to tone down the redness. I did this for about a week. Now I am patiently waiting for the growth to start.

Dear Embarrased One: My heart goes out to you. I have made numerous mistakes of judgement in my life which I have regretted and am still beating myself up on. Try not to do this, it is not healthy. As far as lawsuits go, unless an attorney takes it on a contingency basis, it takes money to get a law suit to trial (unless Dr. Williams is agreeable to an early settlement if he thinks you have the resources to get to trial where a jury would see the damage). Your goal should be to make the situation the best it can be. I think that Dr. Williams should pay for you to have surgery done by a doctor of your choice to make things right. I had some repairs done by Doctor Bernstein in January, 2006 and the pain was minimal. The donor area has full sensitivity, where before the surgery it was numb from transplants I had done 25 years earlier. I can't say anything about growth at this point because it is too early, but my head never looked like yours with the massive crusting. Based on your post, I think Dr. Williams is at the least disingeuous and most likely incompetent to boot. Good luck. Keep us posted.

This is sort of strange. I had transplants done in the 1970's. the donor area on the left side of my head never regained its feeling and has been numb since. In January, 2006 I had some repairs done by Dr. Bernstein and 2382 grafts and the feeling has reurned to my donor area after 25 years. I don't know if cut out the bad incision or what, but it is good to feel the left side of my head again.

I would not even consider Bosley.

I have been to Bernstein on several occasions and dicussed Propecia with him and he never mentioned taking except as directed which is one a day. Was his advice to you in response to a specific question?

B Spot---You the man!

Please don't waste your time. You will regret the day you ever thought about transplants if you go to them.

I have pictures of my head buzzed in the service where it looked like my hairline was painted across my head my hair was so thick. It's strange that although my father was bald I never thought i would lose my hair. It was just so thick. The thing about the service is they want everyone to lose their individuality and the way to do that is having everyone looking the same. Some guys looked like they had money, some looked poor, but after taking away your clothes and your hair everyone looked like we all came from the same place.

I had about 20 plugs removed from my crown. I had originally had them done in the 1970's when I was in my early 20's and still had very thick hair that was just starting to thin. The plugs caused alot of shock loss but I had so much hair that I was able to cover it for many years. Clearly, I should have never gotten it done. As my balding continued I lost most of my hair but the plugs continued to grow. My main goal was to get the plugs out but when I saw how far the technology had prgressed I decided to get 2,300 grafts along with the repair. The sutures on the repair were removed at 10 days post-op along with half the staples in the donor area and it was very obvious (to me especially)that something was done in my crown area. The skin where the plugs were removed was uneven and red when the sutures came out. I was returning to work the following day so I used a little of my wife's make-up to tone down the redness on the dots. The uneveness started to disipate very quickly and my crown at 3 weeks from suture removal is almost perfect as far as uneveness. There is still some redness where the plugs were but it is not a concern and is getting better each day. I only used the make-up for about a week. As far as going back to Bernstein for removal, Dr. Bernstein examined me and took some pictures but his staff took out the sutures, as well as the staples. I am about 200 miles from NYC but can take a train so it is not a big deal to get there. I also returned about 10 days after that to have the remaining staples removed---again Dr. Bernstein examined me but his staff did the work. I don't think it would be necessary to return to get the sutures removed if someone else is avialable close by. In fact on getting the remaining staples out I was considering just going to my regular doctor. I have read on this site that Bernstein is good at repairs and it appears that in my case everything is working out. As you know, alot of guys look very good with with very little hair if there is a symetry to their appearance. With my plugs I never felt right sitting in front of people because I had hair sprouting in a stange way from my crown even with it cut very short. I am very confident now that my crown will return to its pre-transplant days. Please let me know if you have additional questions and best of luck with your repair.

I am very happy with the repair work Dr. Bernstein did for me. I am only about 5 weeks out but I can already tell it is going to look good. He was also very critical of my original transplant doctor. He did not sugar coat.