Dear Bill,
Many thanks for your reply. In fairness to my surgeon at this stage, I would rather not say who he is, except to say that he is regarded as one of the best in the world. I was impressed with the effeicency and professionalism of his clinic. However, I am very nervous about the lack of growth. I had 2000 grafts which broke down into just under 5000 hairs. Initially the hairs were slow to fall out, giving me a false sense of hope that I was one of the lucky few who would not lose all of the transplanted hairs. I also thought that it might mean quick growth. I would estimate that at least one third of the grafts never fell out. As I mentioned before, I can still feel those transplanted hairs on my head almost 7 months on. So those follicles at least must have survived, and that is the thing I can't understand. Can I draw hope from that? If I was one of the unlucky ones where surgery fails, then surely all of the hairs would have fallen out and the follicles would have died?
I can also categorically state that there has been no hair loss since surgery. I am on proscar, so I don't believe that the new hairs could be growing, with the old ones falling out. I am 41 years old, and I have been aware of losing my hair since I was about 30 years old, (so i guess I was losing it even before then). So my rate of hair loss has been very slow, as I am a Norton 4A.
I e-mailed the clinic photos about one month ago, and on the basis of that they reported that I must be a late bloomer and to post them more photos in January. If there is no sign of growth by then I will insist on a free consultation and will want to know what the surgeon proposes to do next, without me having to shell out 10K again! Is there any research of the percentage breakdown of time for growth? I am familiar with the statistical notion of the "bell curve", and the fact that not all of us will fall into the average growth rate. However, there is also a small group for whom this does not work.
Kind regards, and thanks for your interest.
gforce