Thehairupthere

I believe you are referring to proscar when you speak of splitting the pill into 4 because that medication is 5 milligrams as opposed to 1 milligram of propecia. They are the same medication, but one is a higher dosage, so you have to cut it into quarters. It is common to see increased shedding with the medication in the first 3-4 months, but this is temporary that hair will return and you will see better results around 6 months and hair can regrow around one year, but that is less common. This medication should at least stabilize your hair loss in the long run. I am not familiar with the websites in the UK but I would try and buy it from your local pharmacy that way you know what you are getting.

The success rate of Propecia (and proscar which is the same medication just 5 milligrams as opposed to 1 milligram which propecia is) are very high. 9 out 10 men using the product should at the very least see a stabilization in their hair loss within 6-9 months and hair regrowth can occur around one year, but the regrowth is not as common as the stabilization. Consult with your dermatologist about propecia and you can also use rogaine foam along with it to increase your chances of regrowth.

Most doctors will most likely charge you for a touch up, unless you and they feel that the results were poor and therefore fix it on their expense. But just because you need extra grafts does not mean the results were poor, sometimes it's simply necessary to get more work done as there are limits to how many grafts can be placed at one time due to blood flow, shock etc. Best to talk to you doctor to see what he/she feels.

A second procedure or touch up, would be the same procedure as last time, only it may be a bit smaller in size. If you opt to have the FUT surgery again, the surgeon would reopen your old scar, thus still leaving you with one scar once it heals. This should feel a lot easier this time around as you know what to expect, but overall it would be pretty much the same.

Shaving does allow the doctor to see better as no other hair is in the way, but again it's not necessary some surgeon just prefer to do it that way. Shaving does not affect shock loss, only the transplanting process.

Some surgeons ask that you shave the recipient area when doing the procedure, but many surgeons also do not, you have to ask when you see them for a consultation. The procedure will be noticable for about 1 week as you will have scabs and redness.

Here is an example of how the stitches look like from the same day as treatment with the strip FUT procedure. They are attached to this entry.

It does appear that you lost some additional hair between the time of those two photos. How long have you used rogaine for? At your age you should be very conservative with your approach, and I would suggest starting on propecia (finasteride) along with the rogaine for at least 9-12 months before considering a hair transplant. These medications will help you stabilize your hair loss and maximize the amount of native hair you'll have in the long run, this can also regrow hair. After that, I would imagine you would do a medium to small size procedure to the hairline and corners but you should not consider anything into the crown as you are too young to do that, and with those medications you may not even need to, once you see the results.

Agreed if you do the FUE you would have a more drastic change in your appearance as you will need to shave the entire donor area to get that much out. If your current hair length is a about 2-3 inches than you can easily hide the stitches and scar, and have longer hair on top to comb it in a way to hide the scabs, and in one week you will be pretty much back to normal.

These products are all cosmetic they will not regrow hair or maintain hair, it simply gives you a more full looking head of hair. Toppik is like a powder, which is small microfiber hairs, which you simply sprinkle onto the area, while dermatch is also a powder but thicker consistency which you apply with an applicator and does the same thing. My personal preference is for toppik as it looks more natural, you can do some research on their websites if you are interested.

Again sorry to hear about these results. I noticed you were saying how you would like to hide this for a few years, some products to consider are dermatch, or toppik they work quite well at making your hair look thicker and can mask the unnatural look. I believe you can only buy them online, or some hair restoration surgeon's offices.

If you can I would suggest using minoxidil along with the propecia, as you should give yourself every opportunity to save or regrow hair. At your age you should not consider having transplants in the crown, as you may go on to lose significant amounts of hair in the hairline and top, and you do not want to use up your supply on the crown. If you were to consider an FUE transplant you should do a conservative hairline and top, and leave the crown for later (sometimes depending on the situation people should wait until their late 30s to transplant into the crown due to not knowing your full pattern yet at such a young age)

This is normal, the hair you are seeing is the graft that was transplanted, and the crust is just the scab that was healing. You should start removing the crusts at day 8 after showering for about 20 minutes to soften and loosen the scabs, and with a little brushing with your finger tips (not scratching) they should all fall off, and some of those hairs will start to shed as well, but will regrow at 3-4 months.

Just like you said, it's very difficult to access how you have progressed or regressed with the medication as your hair is even shorter than the first photos. Let the hair grow out a little bit and then submit those photos. If your hair has regrown or has stabilized then you can consider having a small treatment to the hairline and corners, but at your age you just need to proceed cautiously and not do anything to rash as you may lose a significant amount of hair in your lifetime if the medication didn't work for you, so you have only a finite amount of grafts available to you, so you have to act accordingly.

I understand your hesitance with using propecia due to the side effects but they are quite rare, it is worth trying and seeing if you feel it, and if you do, it should go away within a few weeks. If you don't feel comfortable with that rogaine would be the best bet, there is only so much saw palmetto, biotin or any other supplement will actually do for you. Just so you know the earliest you should consider having another procedure is between 11-12 months after this surgery as your skin needs to heal, so consult with a recommended surgeon again at that time if you want to do corrective work.

Hopefully everything went well during your procedure and you will experience good results, but from the photo I see you have significant scabbing on your grafts. If you or the clinic haven't cleaned or helped remove those scabs for you, you may experience poor results. It is very important to keep them as clean as possible and not let large scabs (normal scabs which are small and only cover one graft are ok, Large scabs would cover more than that, possibly several grafts) remain untreated. As for the rest of your questions, we will have to see your results in the future when it is all grown in to see how well it came out, and see if that was the right amount of grafts, unless you show us your before photos that way we will be able to access the correct amount.

The numbness is normal for 5 months after transplantation. It can still last somewhat from 6-7 months, but it will come back. There is nothing to worry about, you're still in the time frame where this is normal.

You can use saw palmetto and biotin as herbal supplements which can help, but if you are not comfortable using propecia, you should use minoxidil instead, it works much better than the supplements.

The first thing that you should do is see one of the recommended surgeons from this site to see if you are a good candidate for surgery. The doctor may also suggest using medication like minoxidil and finasteride to help with the hair loss you are experiencing. If you are interested in FUE only and do not want to shave the recipient area you should check out Dr. Feller, Dr. True and Dr. Dorin, who are all in the New York area, but there are others in other parts of the country.

It is unnecessary to use general anesthesia for hair restoration surgery. Most clinics use localized anesthesia and the patients do not complain of any pain during the course of the entire procedure.

Xtine, I'm sorry to hear about your situation. If you are experiencing hair loss in the temples but still have some hair in that region, you may experience shock loss as Dr. Feller mentioned. If you were to go through with a procedure you may experience the shock loss, but with the hair growth from the transplant you may wind up looking relatively similar to what you look like today; not realizing a significant change due to the shock loss. So if you are planning on having only one treatment this may not be the wise way to go, but if you were determined to have the temple areas fixed, you would more than likely require another transplant to add the density to the remaining areas that may have shocked out. Again to clarify, if you were to do one procedure you could look similar to what you are today, but the hair that is there are the transplanted permanent hairs, and the unhealthy native hair has shocked out. If you were to proceed with a second treatment you would be able to increase the overall density of that area, now that all that remains are the transplanted permanent hairs. You could either do it this way, or wait for further thinning in those regions, and in the meantime you could use products such as dermatch, or toppik to disguise the thinness.

It is normal to see the transplanted hairs fall out around this time. They usually fall out 8 days after surgery to about 3 weeks after, so do not worry. Most or all of them should be falling out soon and they will reappear in about 3-4 months when the normal growth cycle begins.

Using Rogaine would definitely be a good first step. It does usually work the best on the top and crown, but it can also work on the forelock and frontal area, it's just much less common. Saying that you should not expect major differences in the front, but mostly a stabilization effect, while the better results would normally occur on the top and crown. Propecia seems to be a better medication in terms of overall results, and the side effects are rare. If you do experience the side effects it would be within the first two months and if you stop the medication immediately after noticing those effects you have a high chance of returning to normalcy after 2-3 weeks when it is out of your system. If you were interested in adding extra density to the frontal portion you would have to consider transplantation as it is the only way to really enhance that region for the majority of the medication users out there.

Dr. True and Dr. Dorin can maximize the amount of grafts you have available, through the FUT procedure, and also possibly through a combined FUE and FUT procedure to get as much as possible, for this last go around. You should come for a consultation so we can see the situation, and see what the best route is.

The doctors can predict quite accurately what Norwood class a patient will regress to if he or she were to avoid using medical therapy or transplantation. This would have to be done during a consultation where we can inspect the donor supply as well as the current hair loss. There is no percentage of accuracy that I can give you, but if you are using Finasteride or Rogaine the chances of you progressing to a Norwood 6 or 7 are greatly diminished.