Bill_the_bald

dakota3, As long as my hair is dry and fluffy, I would say the photos are accurate. One thing I forgot to mention is that out of the five photos I uploaded, two of them (the front hairline and top scalp view) were actually taken by Dr. Cooley himself during my post-op examination in his clinic. I would assume being in this business, the good doctor knows about flash effects and how to provide unbiased results.

Thanks for your appraise guys! To answer Bill's question, yes I am quite ecstatic with my results so far. However, by now I also fully understand what you veterans mean by "illusion" of density: while I look OK under "normal" circumstances, everything starts falling apart when my hair is either wet or under intense light that I crave for more hair and more coverage! Yes, I am having hair envy!!! But instead of going through with another HT just to create a better illusion, I think with my current look I can hold out for another 10 years or so, enough time for hair cloning to become a reality, and just get 20,000 grafts in one shot to restore my original full head of hair. To answer 3v_2008's question about medication, yes that's another equally important part of the equation! I started using both Finasteride and Minoxidil about a month before my HT, and they are giving me fantastic results. In all fairness, while there is no doubt about the superb technical skills of Dr. Cooley, if you look at my photos immediately after the surgery, you will see that virtually all the grafts were concentrated on the frontal 1/3 of my scalp. In other words, the hair that grew on the mid-scalp and vertex region was pretty much results of medication. My greatest surprise is that the triangular tufts on both sides of my temples were completely regrown without a single graft transplanted. On the subject of medication, realizing that it's pretty much a lifetime commitment unless a better drug comes along, I have done my best to minimize their costs. Right now I am getting generic 5 mg Finasteride, which is covered by my health insurance. So a bottle of 30 pills, which is good for 4 month, only costs me $5. And when the current prescription is about to expire, Dr. Cooley is kind enough to call the pharmacy to renew my prescription. As for Minoxidil, I am getting the generic 5% topical solution in liquid form, and the price has come down quite a bit. The last time I purchased them online, it cost a tad above $4 per bottle. Since they have a shelf life of over 2 years, I can purchase them in bulk to mitigate the impact of shipping charge, and more than make up for it in not paying for the sales tax.

Hey guys, It's been quite a while since I posted any post-op results. At 18 month, I think I have reached full maturity and reaped the maximum benefit from the HT session, that it's time to post the "final" results for the sake of completion. You can look at my old photo album (http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/showthread.php?t=148858) to see what I looked like before and few months after HT.

2700 grafts from Dr. Cooley on 2/26/2007

So Dr. Beehner, for those patients of yours who are still attached to their hair, but have reached the point where Finasteride is no longer effective, would you recommend something more potent, like Dutasteride, to further delay the inevitable?

NS, I live in Durham, NC, pretty much right next to Raleigh. My situation is very similar to yours, that I began losing my hair at 17, and before my HT I was a NW5A who had lost just about all hair on the front and top. I started my research on HT around this time last year, and decided to go with Dr. Cooley on 2/26/2007, so now I have just passed the 9-month post op mark. You can view my pre-op and some early post-op photos from the following link: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/showthread.php?t=148858. As other veteran posters have stated over and over again, don't let location be a priority. But in your case, it's less than 3 hours drive from Raleigh to Dr. Cooley's office in Charlotte, which is really nothing compared to some of the other patients who had to take a flight to reach a Coalition doctor. Depending on your level of hair loss, 2500 grafts may not be enough for full coverage at decent density. Like you, I wanted to get everything done in just one surgery, so I actually saved up enough money for around 4500 grafts. But unfortunately, during my initial (free) consultation Dr. Cooley found that he could only SAFELY take out about 2500 grafts in one session due to my unimpressive donor density and laxity. So I was quoted 2500 grafts for $10,000. However, I got a 10% discount for paying the whole thing in cash, so the amount was down to $9000. Due to my diligent scalp exercise, on the day of surgery he was actually able to take out 2700+ grafts, though anything over the original graft quote was done for free. So $9000/2700 grafts = $3.33/graft, which is extremely reasonable, especially considering it was from a Coalition doctor. Attached is one of my favorite photos, taken when I was on a date around 7.5 month post op. I will let the result speak for itself and let you be the judge of Dr. Cooley's skills. And no, the girl in the photo couldn't detect I had a HT

Hey guys, Updating my album with 5 month post op photos. Also, I moved the pre-op and immediate post op photos from my original album to here, so that everything is now in one album. Overall, I am very happy with my results so far. After reading about some worried posters who hardly experienced any growth in 5 or 6 months, I feel really lucky.

rp1979, Even at this early stage post op, I am fairly happy about my progress. At 4 month my donor area is growing back enough native hair to make the shock loss virtually undetectable, even after a #4 haircut (the shortest I'll ever go) as seen from the posted photos, especially considering a recent thread where couple posters were still plagued by donor shock loss at 8 month post op. As for my recipient area, while far from maturity, there is enough growth to make a significant cosmetic difference compared to pre-op. There were couple recent threads started by folks complaining they see so little growth after 6 months. The advice from the veterans is that patience is the only way to tackle this. While this is 100% true logically, but psychologically I will much rather to see signs of growth at month 3 instead of month 6!!! It saves me months of doubt, insecurity, frustration, and of course the time wasted staring at the mirror So I guess compared to some of the other HT patients, I should consider myself lucky. Can't wait to see how much more growth I'll get in another 4 months!!

Adding 3 month and 4 month post op photos

You are absolutely right Bill! Take my 70-year-old father for example, he is a full NW6 with completely bald front, midscalp, and crown. However, he grows what's left of his native hair very long, and combs them sideways to cover up the mid portion, so when you look at him from the front, it would appear he is only bald in the frontal 1/3. My dad and I drove to a nearby beach during Memorial Day couple months ago, and we took some pictures. The wind was strong that day, blew all his native hair aside, and completely exposed his bald area. When he saw his photos, he was SHOCKED at how bald he was!!! He even half-jokingly said he might consider a HT So bottom line: if you still care about your hair at 70, chances are hair will be important to you for the rest of your life.

Guys, As you all know, the weather is getting pretty hot this time of the year. In fact, yesterday afternoon I was getting all sweaty on my scalp just being 10 minutes under the sun in the 90+ degree temperature and the humidity. And it wasn't even due to any strenuous physical activity, I am talking about getting out of work, walking toward my car on the parking lot. As my scalp was heated up under the blazing sunlight, I was so happy I got my HT done back in February when everything was nice and cool, even though I didn't factor this in back then. After all, all those heat, sunlight, and sweat can't be good for a freshly wounded scalp that had just went through a HT surgery, even for temporary exposure. So the question for you guys is: do you take the season into consideration when scheduling your HT? In other words, do you schedule one right now just because that's your earliest availability or will you wait till at least October/November timeframe when the sun is not as strong?

Guys, As you all know, the weather is getting pretty hot this time of the year. In fact, yesterday afternoon I was getting all sweaty on my scalp just being 10 minutes under the sun in the 90+ degree temperature and the humidity. And it wasn't even due to any strenuous physical activity, I am talking about getting out of work, walking toward my car on the parking lot. As my scalp was heated up under the blazing sunlight, I was so happy I got my HT done back in February when everything was nice and cool, even though I didn't factor this in back then. After all, all those heat, sunlight, and sweat can't be good for a freshly wounded scalp that had just went through a HT surgery, even for temporary exposure. So the question for you guys is: do you take the season into consideration when scheduling your HT? In other words, do you schedule one right now just because that's your earliest availability or will you wait till at least October/November timeframe when the sun is not as strong?

I am almost 4 month post-op, and a pattern I noticed is that the recipient region with the most recent hairloss seems to experience the earliest growth, while the other areas that have been completely bald for almost 20 years hardly had any sprout. Intuitively I guess it makes sense, that it takes longer for hair to appear in areas with more extensive DHT "damage." Do you guys also experience this, where the area that has been bald the longest also has the slowest growth rate?

Dr. Cooley also has a similar practice, which I don't have any problem with. During my initial consultation when I decided to go ahead with the surgery, I had to pay $500 deposit right then. Also, since Dr. Cooley had a chance to physically examine my donor density and laxity, he had a pretty good idea of the maximum number grafts that could be extracted in one session, which at that time was estimated to be 2500 grafts, so I was quoted as such. He also said he would safely take the maximum strip size possible, so if I could get my donor laxity up during the actual surgery, he would not charge me for any extra grafts above 2500. The full payment (taking into account the deposit I already paid) was also due 2 weeks in advance, which I am OK with. I mean, if Dr. Cooley allows his patients to pay at the day of surgery, and one of them decides to cancel the appointment the day before, it is almost impossible to fill in that vacant spot with such a short notice, so he would end up losing a lot of money and just get to keep my $500 deposit. So I can certainly understand the mentality of this practice. One good thing that happened was that due to diligent scalp exercise, Dr. Cooley was able to extract slightly more than 2700 grafts during the surgery, and he did not charge me a single cent more, as promised.

I am suddenly wondering why are we so paranoid about the donor scar? I mean, I have seen people walking around with scars on other parts of their bodies like arms and legs where there are (usually) no hair to cover, some of them pretty long and hideous, like a burn scar, yet they don't seem that concerned about exposing the scar to the public. Take myself for example, I had several surgeries on my fingers and wrists to remove various ganglia, and the scars are very visible with no hair to cover at all. But I am not a bit concerned about other people seeing them. Yet when it comes to the donor scar from my HT, I absolutely don't want it to show. Is it because our mind works differently based on the location of the scar? Any thoughts?