poet

thanks KG. I thought it over. I'm happy with what i've got actually and I have to wait a year for Avodart results. I'll see how it looks in a year. Good luck with your efforts. [This message was edited by poet on September 25, 2003 at 05:20 PM.]

I wouldn't even get FUE. If you don't have enough for a HT you probably have thining in the donor area too. True the medical route and/or shaving your head. A HT will probably leave you with scrappy results that you'd be better off without.

You may find resistance getting surgery with your HIV status. I'm not really sure how it all works getting surgery and being HIV positive but it seems very likely you would be declined. I also would definitely listen to your doctor concerning meds. Perhaps a less invasive drug like minoxidil would be tolerable? I would also consider shaving your head and just forgetting about it.

propecia doesn't freeze your hair in it's track. It prevents alpha reductase from converting into DHT which causes hair to shrink and become vellous which is basically useless tiny blond hairs. By stopping this enzyme hair follicles can get larger and give you more coverage. Many times hair that is greatly minitaurized cannot be recovered, but hair that isnn't too shrunken can be saved. This is why often propecia seems to stop hairloss but not grow new hair. It is saving the hair that doesn't have one foot in the grave or just plain dead. If you are lucky it can grow back hair that is even vellous but that is less common. Apparently DHT's potency changes over time and can overcome propecia in some people, but it def lets you hold onto your hair much longer in many cases.

You never know until you try. It is common that the drugs work better the farther your hair loss is towards the back. I strongly suggest the use of minoxidil with them. Minox 5% and minox 5% with retin a. My regimen is as follows Avodart .5 daily Xandrox day and night daily applied with Aussie leave in hair conditioner when I have time.

I would recommend to absolutely anyone, regardless of age or hairloss, to try propecia and minoxidil for 6 months prior to getting a HT. It might seem like a long time, but it will really show you where you stand, and it is quite possible you will need less hair to be moved. I use to think, I hate being dependent on drugs. I want to have a HT and be done with it. My atitude has changed completely. You never know how far your hair loss will go unless you are already a NW7. It is both economical and less invasive to use these drugs if you can tolerate them. There is a great deal of deception and bad results in the market place, you want to expose yourself to it as little as possible. These drugs allow you to control the outcome yourself to an extent and are proven to work. Hair transplantation can give great results and can fill in areas where drugs don't work, but should be considered an adjunct to medicine in my opinion. You may consider Dutasteride, but the jury is still out on it.

is one of the greatest men alive. His positive spirit and will is a lesson to us all.

I have thought about suicide beccause of my hairloss. Not only my hairloss, but it seemed to be the feather in my hairloss cap. I agree with the sentiment of it's not about not dating the hottest girls. It's about dating no girls. That may be an exaggeration. But when you are rejected 10-20 times in a row. Well only the strongest can take that with their chin up and not lose something. Personally I think most people, myself included are incredibly superficial. We live in a VERY beauty oriented society. It's so much so, if you tell this to most they say get over it. They think it's ok and that it always has and it always will be and that is the only reality. Personality COUNTS! WHO you are counts. I hate how we have come to glamorize the talentless, celebrate beauty in and only for its physical form. There are even scientific studies reinforcing this fact. Does it mean if you are bald you should kill yourself? No, of course not, only that the struggle is real. Not in our heads and is hard. I don't blame this fellow for feeling as bad as he did. I don't think his pain was in anyway self inflicted. I just think he couldn't find the humor and resources to keep plugging. I don't condone it, just understand it. It annoys me hair loss is seen as this joke. It's hard to even think of a parallel, of something you have such little control over. Yes it can be worse, and it also can be much better. But I feel strongly we must keep fighting.

4 and 5 hair grafts at the hairline, had to get them removed, but the donor scar was good, yield was good for a while. Then his partner Dr.Jones of San Jose left me with a huge scar. NHI is an assembly line clinic from my experience, and this lack of care has cost me tremendously.

View my FAQ http://www.anycities.com/user/poet/fue.html A doctor is not a top doctor unless they are participating in FUE. This is my first post, after visiting this site for a couple of months. Thanks for all the candid info. It's given me confidence to proceed, carefully, with my interest in a HT. Been seeing references to FUE and FIT, and am very interested and curious. Many questions: What is FIT vs. FUE? Does all donor hair from areas of the body other than the scalp assume the properties (diameter, color, texture) of the recipient site? Does the extraction leave any noticeable scarring? What's the current state of the procedure? Eg. How many grafts in one procedure? What's cost compared to strip excision? Results? Are most of the top HT surgeons embracing the technique?, etc., etc.

those micro grafts they put in your head would have looked terrible had they grown. I undrerstand you went to have hair and your yield was obviously poor, but those plugs looked like as Jotronic once said, "stadium seating." I think it's for the best they didn't grow now you should go to a good FUE doc.

I think waiting for the grafts to grow and donor area to heal are both important. I had a second procedure 3 months after my first. And this caused shock in my donor area. Not fun. Fortunately it has grown back but I do suggest waiting.

Transection rate is the number of follicles sliced in half, and unable to be transplanted and which may potentially no longer grow in their donor site either. If FUE is done improperly transection can be higher than strip, but ideally FUE is lower because it doesn't waste excess tissue and/or hair in this tissue. With Strip, grafts can be sliced blindly by the scapel, furthemore you will be left with at least a 1/4" halo around the area of the incision where the hair is either minaturized or no longer grows. I call this the "beast halo"

get the gel if possible. it's normal. It sucks but it should stop in a few months.

he left me with a big scar. Get FUE instead but not from NHI.

if you are this bald now, you have a lot more to go. Your donor hair may be totally unstable and you may be a poor candidate for Hair transplant work. Propecia or Dutasteride are your best choices. Get on them now.

it will still be visible. But less visible.

got any before shots? East Coast.

I would wait 4 months or longer, I don't know the exact specifics of face lift and ht interaction, but a hair transplant can cause significant facial swelling, I could see that being problematic for recent surgery to the face. Give it the proper time to heal. Then get a FUE transplant from Dr.Woods,Dr.Cole or Dr.Jones. Dr.Jones does other plastic surgery as well and you may want to get his opinion on this matter.

2.6 months post op and grafts are just starting to grow in great. I'm very satisfied so far. Hope this keeps up! FUE is well worth the extra cost if you get strip surgery you are left with what is known as "the mark of the beast" along the back of your head.

I tried toppik as well, but I think I had two problems preventing it from working. 1) My hair was slightly shorter than an inch long, second I had some slick bald patches and toppik needs something to cling to. It seems if your hair is at least 2 inches and you have no slick bald patches toppik can work for you. Otherwise it does tend to look like you rubbed soot on your head.

believe me I and others understand totally what you are going through. I'm not saying forget the HT, as if I'm brushing you off and think your concerns aren't valid. I know very well how emotionally vexxing it. Hair loss has driven me to the point of suicide many times. I have said what I said to you because I care, and because now about 10 years after I noticed I was losing my hair. I realize ironically I may have been better of doing nothing. I'm not advising that for you. Propecia in the long run will be the best for you. The surgery may seem dramatic and definitive, but it is an imperfect solution. You must have particular characteristics to really benefit from each kind. Your characteristics lend itself to using meds.

First I'm going to hop on the band wagon of many others. You are headed to NW7 and your donor hair on your head is not strong enough to support a cosmetically acceptable result. Even if you got 3000 grafts. You may feel like, why did I bother? You definitely should not get strip, and that amount of FUE would cost you a great deal and like I said, it would only be a drop in an ocean of baldness. I think you should try propecia or dutasteride + minoxidil 5%. In the same amount of time it would take to get the final result of a hair transplant you will end up with a larger gain.I know it's a pain to have to take meds for life, but that is your only choice at this time if you want hair. Also you have a nicely shaped head. I don't think you would look bad with a shaved head. It is true it's great to have hair, but you don't seem like a bad looking guy and with a quirky sense of humor and a little persistance I'm sure you can get plenty of ladies. If you shave your head no one is going to think, hmm is he going bald. It's obvious you are, and they will either accept you or not and you can progresses/evolves from there. If and when hair multiplication comes along. Which is a variation of cloning and gives you essentially a limitless donor supply, then a hair transplant might be smart. The final thing is if you have a very high amount of body hair. I mean like a gorilla chest. As FUE progress and more docs gain expertise like Dr.Woods you could use this hair. In my opinion you need at least 5000 grafts to make it even worth while and at this time my guess is that will be way too expensive for you. You also must understand you will have fine scarring all over your chest if you go this route. Make sure you would be willing to make this sacrifice before you go forward. I want to repeat again. DO NOT GET A STRIP. This is not meant to say strip doesn't work for some people, it worked great for jotronic. But a strip is another form of sacrifice, if you are going to make this sacrifice you damn well better get a nice reward and in your case you would not. So you'd then have a scar, would not be able to shave your head and have less than acceptable results. In summation. Keep your head shaved. You have a nicely shaved head. Use the meds. If at one point you have significant dough and/or some variation of hair cloning which is affordable coems to fruitation then you can get a HT. P.S. You have one of the strongest Whirls (back of head) i've ever seen, it would be cool if you took propecia and could regrow that.

I think the majority of your hairs will be sprouted around 6-7 months, but don't under estimate how much coverage you'll get as these hairs mature. they may double or triple in diameter, giving you double or triple the coverage. Really it takes a year for the final effect. It's a long wait. If you don't; at the very least, see a very significant amount of fine or wispy hairs around 6 months then it is time for concern.

Hair transplant can cause you to lose hair, even the newer FUE. Since you seem to have diffuse thinning, which I also had at your age. I would higly recommend. Propecia or dutasteride if you can afford it. Also use minoxidil 5%. This will halt further hair loss and at your stage very likely cause significant regrowth. You can do this for a couple of years and Hair multiplication may become a reality which will in essence be a cure for hair loss. By all means do not get a hair transplant at this time. Try the meds first.