gmonasco

But to call Dr Rahal unethical is out of line and since this is a public forum we do take great offense and respectfully ask you to withdraw the comment.

Eh? He said "I think it's unethical. Am I wrong here?" and solicited opinions about whether or not he was being objective. It's hard to imagine how he could have approached the subject in any less accusatory a fashion.

I had a recent consultation with a highly regarded hair restoration surgeon and couldn't help but notice that he had a hair loss pattern similar to mine. Since he himself obviously hadn't had a hair transplant, it got me thinking afterwards, "Hmm ... I wonder if I should infer anything from that?"

So, now I'm wondering: How many hair restoration surgeons are out there who have themselves undergone HT procedures? I know Dr. Rassman had three scalp reduction surgeries(!) twenty years ago, and his associate Dr. Pak told me that he (i.e., Dr. Pak) had had an HT. Who else is in this category?

For any man, early hair loss can be a crushing blow to self-esteem, but things have moved far beyond the hairpiece, toup?e and bad hair replacement.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0207/1224289180186.html

Al Davis could definitely use a transplant -- or a transfusion:

Very informative, EpilepticSceptic, as is your entire Hair Restoration Journal. I'm looking forward to seeing some updated photos soon.

there aren't any quality face forums to post on.

I hear Facebook is pretty popular.

Your age at transplant and now would help to assess this situation. I noticed that people asked for the same informaition that I did in your previous posts but the answers are no longer there.

According to his profile, he was a 34-year-old Norwood 2 who underwent a procedure with Dr. Jeffrey Epstein. Sounds like bad choices all around.

What happens when you are laying in bed and your girlfriend is rubbing that back of your head and says, how did you get this scar from ear to ear? You either have to tell her you had a hair transplant or say you were in a serious accident. If you opt to lie then you have to have to worry about her bringing up that lie to your close friends and family members who know better.

If you have to lie to your girlfriend about something like that, you should realize you're with the wrong woman.

with the recent go ahead with gene science and cloning at least now we have the ball rolling.

At this point we don't really know if the ball is indeed rolling.

its just a waiting game.

As it has been for centuries.

have a read of this by dr bernstien

That's just an outline of a concept; it's not something that has been proved feasible, much less perfected.

No such thing?? Not commercially viable…Really?

Yes. really. It's not commercially viable because:

a) Too much energy is lost in the process of converting chemical energy to electrical energy to compressed air.

b) The efficiency of compressed air energy storage vehicles is so low that they have larger carbon footprints than internal combustion (i.e., fossil fuel-driven) vehicles.

c) U.S. consumers don't want to plunk down money for vehicles with such a limited range when they can spend the same money on cars suitable for either short- or long-range trips.

Seems pretty realistic and to be fairly viable to me.

Only if you have a flawed understanding of the concept of "commercially viable."

Ok, so we just turn a blind eye to the fact most of the major oil companies basically control what these vehicle manufacturers design, produce and sell?

Please adjust your tinfoil hat before resuming your ride here at the Hair Restoration Discussion Forum.

IF they happen to design something new such as “the air powered engine” the oil companies would surely step in to buy the original plans…there is minimal profit in it for them otherwise. The oil company purchases the plans; the vehicle manufacturer pockets a few billion, opens another plant and continues in its ways. This process happens!

Only in the realm of urban legends:

snopes.com: Miracle Carburetor

I do not recall claiming HT physicians specifically would attempt to stifle any future research for a cure.

You said: "If a miracle drug/treatment comes to fruition all of your favourite physicians can potentially kiss their years of perfecting HT goodbye." What else would one reasonably infer from that statement?

So you presume these “developers” wouldn’t sell their findings/ideas but instead market the entire treatment themselves

No, I said they aren't going to spend all that time and effort developing a cure and then happily walk away after selling out to a company that simply wants to suppress the product of their work. There are contractual ways of preventing that from happening.

Also, think of this scenario: A standard hairloss suffer purchases Minox and Propecia once per month as part of their regimen. They continue to do so for the next 20 years…OR, they walk into a hairloss clinic that cure them in one treatment.

As has already been noted, the patents on those drugs are going to expire relatively soon, so your example is moot. And as I already noted, you falsely assume that any such treatments will be mutually exclusive rather than complementary.

Here's a scenario for you: Scientists discover a drug that will regrow hair on the heads of men with MPB, but the regrown hair isn't completely DHT resistant. How do you think such a development might affect the sales of finasteride?

On the flip side they have engineered vehicles which run on air, why are they not in the market?

Because there is no such thing as a commercially viable automobile that "runs on air."

Why would they release the vehicle if they blatantly knew creating or designing another fossil fuel guzzler would be far more profitable?

The automobile industry has a vested interest in anything that gets people to drive more. If more people wanted to drive vehicles than ran on "air" rather than gasoline, and such vehicles were commercially viable to manufacture, the auto industry would be producing them.

If a miracle drug/treatment comes to fruition all of your favourite physicians can potentially kiss their years of perfecting HT goodbye.

Hair transplant surgeons aren't the ones who conduct research into developing medical hair loss cures, not are they in a position to stifle such research.

Minox would be void, Fin would be void. There is too much at stake for companies such as Pfizer etc to ever let such a cure escape, surely they would pay top dollar to keep it underground for as long as possible.

You falsely assume that:

a) Such treatments would be mutually exclusive with a "cure" rather than complementary.

b) The developers would happily see the product of all their hard work suppressed just to sell it to a big pharma company that wants to suppress it (even though the product would be worth huge money in its own right).

c) The market for a true hair loss cure wouldn't be immensely larger than the market for minox and fin.

Good for you! That's a total of over 7,600 grafts -- you must have the elasticity of Reed Richards!

There's something a bit off about the common charge that men who have transplants (or otherwise attempt to hold back or cover up balding) are vain

Really. Why isn't it similarly considered "vain" for men to wear nice clothing, shave, have styled hair, use deodorant, get designer frames for their glasses, etc.? Those are all things men do to make themselves more acceptable and attractive to others.

don't let the "illusion of density" thing scare you off. bottom line, a good doc will deliver a huge cosmetic improvement that the average person will think looks great probably 9 times out of 10.

That's always been my thought. My hairline (and to a lesser extent, my vertex) are so thin now that I already have just the illusion of density, so anything that adds to that should be a positive -- even if it's just technically a better "illusion."

Announced recently was the completion of R-Tech Ueno’s Phase 2a study of its alopecia treatment medication, RK-023. This is treatment for baldness is focused on the androgenetic type which currently has no topical drug available in the market.

Alopecia Treatment: Androgenetic Baldness Medication Study Completed « Rillara News

I know cloning won't be around today or tomorrow, but what about a decade or 15 years?

Since we don't yet know whether hair cloning is even possible (much less know how to do it), banking on its availability within that timeframe is rather problematic.

For how educated i am on this field now, i wouldnt touch it. It's not worth the risks at ALL!!! Keep in mind u will probabley experience shockloss along the hairline and may need another procedure just to fix that!! I am aware there are a some good docs but overall its not worth the risks.

I'm curious why you feel that way. As I recall (your pics don't appear to be available any longer), you had an HT with Dr. Rahal, and everyone (yourself included) thought the results were amazing, but you seemed to be dismayed that your hairline was *too* dense. Did I miss something? Did you experience a loss in your hairline further down the line?

I'm afraid you probably won't find this all that helpful, but in my experience (which encompasses many trips between the U.S. and Canada) Canadian customs and immigrations procedures can vary widely from one port of entry/exit to another, and it's virtually impossible to get a definitive answer (or any answer at all) about them in advance. I'd say what you're planning to do (i.e., have a doctor's note, emphasize that it will be a short stay and you won't be driving but will be spending a considerable sum of money in Canada) is probably your best course.

Has the probationary period for your DWAI been completed?

(And if I ever go for an HT, I will most definitely be heading for Ottawa.)

Are you going direct from the U.S. to Canada via airplane?

Actually, I did have very, very slight thinning in the crown area before I took Finasteride and now that seems to have recovered. So at least for now, I know for fact it has been working to some extent in my situation.

Actually, you don't know that. It's possible for hair to sometimes go through temporary thinning and regrowth for reasons unrelated to MPB.

Because something isn't there 100% should not detract from its value.

That's generally true, but hair is often (and unfortunately) one of the exceptions. Sparse or thnning hair can look worse than no hair, which is why many men with MPB choose to shave their heads.

For instance, in my situation the Propecia is able to maintain the crown and mid-scalp regions

One of the difficulties is that no individual can really know whether finasteride is actually "working" for him or not. It's possible the finasteride isn't really doing anything for you, and you would have maintained the same amount of hair even without it. It's also possible you'll still lose the hair even though you are taking finasteride. It really is a crap shoot -- finasteride is helpful for men who are just trying to preserve their existing hair and nothing more, but it's very tricky when you're depending on it to maintain native hair upon which a HT is based.

Of all the details surrounding Prince William’s April marriage to his longtime girlfriend, Kate Middleton, few seem to have garnered as much attention as his rapidly receding hairline.

Which poses a question: Is it possible that the 28-year-old prince felt an urge to lock up a commitment from Ms. Middleton because his heart-throb status might be beginning to disappear with the hair? If so, what must the rest of the not-so-princely men in the world feel when youthful looks begin to fade?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/fashion/weddings/23FIELD.html

Expect clinical options for hair restoration to grow in the future, said Dr. Ricardo Mejia.

http://www.skinandallergynews.com/news/aesthetic-dermatology/single-article/future-technologies-hold-promise-for-hair-restoration/f3b083622f.html

I'm really curious about this statement from the article:

“The procedure only took about an hour. I had a local anaesthetic so I couldn’t feel anything – I watched a DVD while it was happening! And it was only a little bit tender afterwards.”

What kind of hair transplant takes only an hour?

Gordon Ramsay, James Nesbitt and the bald truth about hair transplants - mirror.co.uk