Hey all. I've been lurking around here of and on for the past year or so and have been going back and forth on the possibility of going a surgical route with my hair.
I'm 30 years old and started really noticing my hair loss when I was 27. It was pretty devastating as I had always felt my hair was one of my best features. I can clearly see that my hair loss is developing into a NW6 pattern and while I haven't lost it all on top, it's thin enough that I am constantly wearing hats.
Previously, I had met with a hair transplant surgeon in Phoenix named Dr. Sharon Keene. She was recommended by my fiancee's co-worker who had work done by her that, in my opinion, looked pretty damn good. I was little weary of proceeding with her though as she was suggesting between 2000-3000 grafts on the mainly in the front of my head and then getting me on Propecia to maintain the top and back. I'm pretty anti-medication and wasn't interested in getting on Propecia and still am not, so I decided to keep doing a little more looking around.
A few months ago I had an online consultation with Hasson & Wong after reading all the great reviews of them on this website. I got a call from one of the members of their office who gave me the low down. It all sounded great and I liked what I heard, until I heard the cost. Albeit, H&W were looking at doing a far higher number of grafts on me, but at nearly 3x the cost of my original quote from Dr. Keene, I basically gave up on the idea of going with them and actually gave up for a while on the whole hair transplant idea in general for a while.
Since then though, I found the product toppik and have been using that for a couple months now. I've been quite impressed with the results and using it actually made me forget about the whole transplant thing for a while. Recently though I've been finding myself a little less satisfied using it and get really self-conscious that it's very noticeable when I have it on my head.
So... now I'm back considering the hair transplant option again and just really looking for some words of advice. I know HT's are not cheap and I'm willing to put some money into getting it done right. Unfortunately this is also coming at one of the worst times for me too as I'm having to figure out how I'm going to be paying for my wedding next November... which is a whole other reason I want my hair back sooner rather than later.
I don't know what to do or where to go. I'm so nervous about getting surgery before my wedding and having it look terrible on the day of. I can currently get away with the using toppik for now but will I be able to in another year?? All of this is giving me huge amounts of anxiety and I just wish I knew what to do.
I know I rambled on here for a while but I just don't know what to do. I'm looking for any and all advice you guys can give, and I really do appreciate you taking the time to read this... if you made it this far
Thanks!
I apologize. "Anti-medication" was extremely broad. Let me take that back. I'm not anti-medication as much as I just rarely use any sort of medication outside of over the counter stuff for headaches and cold and flu type stuff. I've always taken a more holistic approach to things and am pretty selective of what I do put in my body. To me, finastride doesn't seem as benign to me as it may to you. Look, I have two very good friends that have taken it for years with no side effects and I have considered using it, but in the end I'd rather not.