Forrest Gump

Are you sure your current hair density is 175. From what I have heard, it is apparently rare to have density higher than 120 per cm2 (most people apparently have around 100).

A doctor can give a technical reason, but common sense would dictate that wearing a (tight) headband might restrict flow of blood to the scalp area which can be detrimental to the nurturing and growth of the newly transplanted grafts.

Jim Jones, in the case of a very small percentage of patients there is not much shedding and the transplanted grafts start growing right away. Who knows, you might be among those lucky few.

I had my surgery on a Monday, and my swelling was gone by Saturday morning (I did maintain the 45% sleeping angle). I am guessing your swelling will be gone within 7 days or so.

Prasad, congratulations on being a happy HT patient. Would you have any pictures to highlight your before/after HT looks? Good luck on continuing growth!

Btw, on a different note, I'll have to strongly disagree with your statement: "do not waste your time for 1 or 2 years searching for a correct doctor."

I strongly believe that everyone should do quite a bit of research searching for the correct doctor (fine, if it's for 1 or 2 years or even more). I personally know a couple of people who got butchered because they chose their doctors in a hurry without bothering to do their research. They are spending more time and money now, trying to fix their initial error.

Stay away from Manoj Khanna. I have seen first-hand results of one of his patients - it was extremely scary to say the least.

Try to see if you can travel abroad for a surgery. If not, try other doctors in India (based on forum postings, there seem to be quite a few in Hyderbad, Delhi, etc.).

It seems that most of the cosmetic changes occur between months 6 and 12, for the vast majority of patients.

Who was your doctor? How did it go?

It seems like in trying to do too much dense packing, your doctor might have permanently damaged your native hair, while making incisions.

I hope you take steps to make sure that he doesn't get away with this.

Call your doctor's office and/or send him emails to bring this issue to his notice, and see what remedial action he provides.

I feel sorry for you. I hope you find some remedy in the near future.

2000 sounds about right.

3800 USD for 500 grafts sounds pretty steep. I can think of quite a few coalition docs with excellent track records, who will do 1000 grafts for almost the same amount (around $4000 or so).

Also, 500 grafts won't make any cosmetic difference. Do at least 1000 grafts.

I also think that Rahal's dense packing might give the illusion of greater early growth. Moreover, several of Rahal's patients seem to be adding hair to the hairline (as opposed to the crown). It's possible that the hairline and temple regions give greater illusion of faster growth than the crown region.

I've heard some movie stars and even celebrities like Letterman had HT.

I have never heard of any sexual side-effects from using Rogaine.

Did you have very densely packed grafts? Is your skin tone very light? If you answered "yes" to these questions, then it might take longer for the redness to stay on.

Dr Mohmand, that might be a very good move on your part. I have traveled extensively in that part of the world, and Pakistan is an extremely scary place, especially if you're a foreigner and/or a christian, jew, or hindu. Right now, with the Taliban problem, it might be even scarier.

Dubai, on the other hand is much safer and nicer. Good luck with your office in Dubai.

I would agree with HTInitiate.

For work-related stuff, I have traveled extensively in the middle east and in South Asia, and Asia in general. If you're from India or Israel, you can potentially get into serious trouble in Pakistan.

Thailand would be much safer and more welcoming for an Indian.

Also, don't rule out the outstanding doctors from the US and Canada. Most of them would give a travel discount for out-of-town (or in your case even out-of-continent) patients.

So at this stage, consider all options irrespective of geographical location, and then make an informed decision.

Seems like a shock loss. Usually nothing to worry about. I had quite a bit of shock loss in my donor region, but they came back within a few months.

Quite good so far. You still have at least 5 more months of growth and maturity.

Looks very nice!

Dr Ross and thana make good points. Very often in life, we tend to draw a correlation between price and perceived quality, especially when we're uncertain about the outcome. This correlation need not be true objectively.

For example, the best doctor for hairlines (in my opinion) actually charges slightly less than most of the other coalition doctors. On the other hand, I have seen a couple of doctors charge slightly higher than others (about $5 or so per graft), but their work is not that great (again, in my opinion).

I don't know much about Dr. Ferudini's work, but you are definitely a good candidate for HT (assuming you're over 35 yrs of age).

Reds, based on the results I have seen posted, both these options (Feller or H&W) seem almost equally good. You can't go wrong with any of these docs.

Go through their patient results, and see which one of these docs achieved results most closely aligned with your goals.

I do not recall any reputed doctor from Northern California. There are a couple of southern California docs (e.g., Reed, Carmen, and Ross) who seem to turn out decent results. You can check them out.

Also, think about whether you want to restrict yourself geographically. There might be "better" docs beyond your immediate geographical area.

2000 grafts sound a little on the higher side. If you're planning to fill your temples, around 1500 should do.

Btw, your hair looks quite good as it is. Research well to determine if you're currently a candidate for HT in the first place.