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hopefullhair

Regular Member
  • Posts

    12
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Basic Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Country
    United States
  • State
    FL

Hair Loss Overview

  • Describe Your Hair Loss Pattern
    Thinning Hair Loss All over the Scalp
  • How long have you been losing your hair?
    10 years +
  • Norwood Level if Known
    Norwood IV A
  • What Best Describes Your Goals?
    Maintain Existing Hair
    Maintain and Regrow Hair
    Considering Surgical Hair Restoration
    Considering Non-Surgical Treatments
    I'm here for support

Hair Loss Treatments

  • Have you ever had a hair transplant?
    Yes
  • Other hair restoration physicians
    several
  • Current Non-Surgical Treatment Regime
    Propecia (Finasteride)
    Generic Minoxidil 5% for Men
    Avodart/Dutasteride
    Laser Therapy or Comb
    Nizoral Shampoo

hopefullhair's Achievements

New Real Hair Club Member

New Real Hair Club Member (1/8)

10

Reputation

  1. I don't know if I am supposed to say which doctor but if you google "topical propecia santa monica" you will find him. Address on Santa Monica blvd. Name starts with a B. He will only ship within Californai
  2. I have been on topical for about 3 months. I really want the liposomal but it is not available in the United States. Mine is made with 8% minox , .01% retinoic acid and .25% finasteride. I have never been diligent with oral and I am making sure I do the topical once a day (directions say twice). I do it at night because it dries the hair and makes it a bit crispy. I do feel like it is effective. The reason I say this is because after about a month I noticed 3 hairs in my hairline popping through at the same time. To me this is very odd. It tells me that 3 hairs growing in close proximity to each other and happening at the same time would mean that something has been activated. I haven't noticed much else but I feel that it is worth keeping up with. When I started I got massive shedding and the dr said that is normal when started. After about 2 to 3 weeks the shedding stopped. I'm a freak about my hair so I will stick with it. The effect I feel I am getting may solely be from just using everyday and not slacking but I think there is something to this. I would really like to try the liposmal but my dr is not interested in switching up his formula. My dr will only ship inside the state of california by the way.
  3. I'm entering 3 months after my surgery with Dr. Z and I'm having a ball with it. He is my second dr and if you would like to message me, I will tell you all about it. I posted that I had a great experience with him and asked why he wasn't mentioned in the forum and was attacked in the forum as a fake. I've been dealing with hair loss since 1991 have now had 4 surgeries and most doctors that I have consulted with have said that I seemed to know everything about the industry both regarding surgery and future treatments. I saw Ziering in Hollywood but I know he has an office in Vegas. If there's things you are not sold on as you say, just bring up the issues and I'm happy to tell you what I experienced. Again, I'm only 3 month out put will have another procedure next year to finish off my density. It looks great so far
  4. I hear you takingtheplunge and I am a legit guy. I haven't received photos yet from the doc and the ones I saw on the cam were not so great because of lighting but I will share. My goal was to keep my face private but I have no problem sharing the work with people who really want and need to see it to help them with their own personal struggles with hairloss. I just don't want my face on the net with proof that I had surgery. The whole point for me is to hide the fact that I had work done. I am not interested in promoting any doctor here or anywhere else. Not even Ziering but I'm just being honest that my experience was great. I haven't called out the docs who did bad work on me because it is only my opinion and that's not fair. Saying someone is good can in no way harm their reputation so I'm cool with that. I understand how advertising works and I do understand your code of ethics. It is all very well intended but in my opinion once a doctor has paid to appear on a site or put an ad somewhere the whole system fails. A forum should be a place for us, not doctors. i'm all for them publishing papers here, putting up photos, guest lecturing on new tech and drugs but not paying to do it. There are some great docs in the "coalition" you recommend. I have visited a few and would recommend some based on my consultations but there are also people on the list who are fighting to keep their medical licenses. How are people who are totally new to this world and are freaking out about hair loss supposed to know the difference? It is nice to get input from doctors but anyone who could pick up business by using this forum by definition has an ulterior motive when dispensing advice. It just doesn't make sense to me. But I want to play by the rules and be a good member here because I have a lot of experience losing my hair. Also, you mentioned that you don't recommend Ziering here. Why not? What's the scoop on him? has there been some complaints about his practice? I researched him pretty hard and he fared very well. I really bust these guys balls when I go see them. I really make my docs prove to me that they can do a good job. This whole forum concept is very tough. The lines to walk are very fine. As I mentioned before I make my living doing web design and creating traffic for my clients but because I'm so entrenched in my own hairloss issue, I could never take a doc on as a client. It just wouldn't be ethical. Maybe because I know I could take the worst doctor on the planet and rank him at the top of the search engines for whatever he wants, I assume that others are doing the same thing and doctors are just paying to play.
  5. I hear you all but keep in mind that by profession I do SEO and although I hold my self to a standard of ethics, I fully understand how a site can be manipulated and any dr can pay to play. It is just a fact of life. Having said that, I popped in on Ziering to day to get some pics and have a hair wash. Of course the pictures looked like crap on the camera but they are going to be emailed to me and I'll post a few I guess as long as people understand that I had corrective work done and this was a very custom job. My breakdown of grafts was quite interesting and looks awesome in real life right now. Like I mentioned earlier, I never considered the temporal peaks but he felt that it would help thin my face. I'm pretty ugly to start with so I was up for it. I received 116 singles in my Right Temporal Peak 87 singles in my left temporal peak 317 singles in my front hairline then 1839 doubles and triples from behind the hairline back through the top of my head. My left side is a lot worse then my right so the placement is indicative of that. We estimated he could get 2500 out of my donor but my previous work had so scarred my area that he retrieve 2359 and created a beautiful closure. To tell you the truth I could give a crap about the closure but Ziering said that it set me up for a much easier surgery if if I chose to do more in the future. he spent a lot of time cleaning up the donor scar tissue. All and all he slaved over me for about 10 hours and I gave him crap the whole time. He was a real trooper and the staff was really great. I've tried to let you guys know that I had 3 procedures in the past and left each one in complete and utter shock. I left Zierings office on tuesday feeling an unbelievable sense of hope. Only time will tell but the work looks great. I couldn't have asked for a more skillful surgeon but I know myself and I'll always want more. Hopefull
  6. I was thinking about the blog but I might do my own on a separate domain just because I really am not into sites that accept advertising and have a list of member doctors. It doesn't seem to be a legit forum. But I might. We'll see what the doc's photos look like and if they show too much face.
  7. thanks for understanding. I think the work was perfect and could not have asked for better but just because the procedure was perfect does not mean that I will be happy with my results. I am proud to say that before the little hairs begin to die off and fall out and I can how my head will look and he did a remarkable job the directional problems he had to contend with around my plugs and the spacing was difficult but I cannot complain one bit. I'm not going to hasstle Ziering until I'm healed enough to top it off. His work will probably be undetectable and nobody will ever stare at my head ever again (after the next few months) But I am going to challenge him to create an end plan so that when I hit my 50's and 60's what will fall out will be in a distinquished pattern. he will probably punch me in the face when I show up in his chair again but I don't him I was tough. But if he says there is no reason to do more surgery than I would listen. But I'm gonna put up a fight. I'm going in tomorrow to pic up some pics and get the breakdown of my grafts. He did temporal peaks which I never considered leading up to the surgery but he showed me how it gave my face a thinner frame. I also want to see how many singles I got and where the 2's and 3's went. I had a total of 2359 but was shooting for 2500. My donor was swill cheese after 3 prior strips but he restored it and usable donor out of 3 areas and then created a closure that would be easy to work with next time. So if there is a next time, i will have plenty to work with. He slaved over me for 10 hours. I respected that.
  8. I've been reading about studies with drugs to lower cortisol. It seems that what is available to us as a supplement is Rhodiola Rosea. Is anyone taking it? If so what dose and mixed with what? It seems cheap enough so if it has any benefit it might be worth tossing some back. I cannot remember where I first heard about its relation to MPB but I think it was the UCLA study where they accidently grew some hair on mice.
  9. Hi all, I do understand all your points and unfortunately I am not a fake poster. Forums that accept advertising from doctors or get paid to sell products like rogaine cannot be viewed as pure. I happen to rank websites for a living and fully understand the Pay to Play world of E-commerce. So my goal here is allow anyone who is interested in my experience to contact me. I'm not interested in credibility on this forum or any other. My concern is that someone who is freaking out about hairloss can look up terms on the internet and get sold a bill of goods from an unqualified Doctor. I was let to slaughter at age 21 and in this day and age it does not need to happen to any young person. I've talked to many doctors, met with many doctors, swallowed every snake oil ever produced and am very willing to talk to people about this. As for the photos, I prefer not to post them for everyone to see. The reasons are obvious. I have yet to see them and I assume the lighting will not be that great. I have now had 4 surgeries and looking at a photo with no explanation for the placement of each graft and the overall corrective game plan might make a wrong impression for someone looking to have a procedure on a virgin scalp. I will have some photos available tomorrow and and happy to discuss them with real people through email or chat. I have spent the better part of 20 years trying to hide the work I had done as an uninformed kid. I have never walked out of a surgery happy but I did on Tuesday morning at Dr. Ziering's office. So in my opinion, anyone that cares should have the right to know my story and if it was done by Ziering then I won't hide that fact. I have not called out any of the Doctors who in my opinion do bad work, charge too much or have no business cutting on a human. I'm just trying to point out good work when I see it. Hopefully in 6 months I will be happy with my result but my Main goal was to hide previous work and look as natural as possible. If my hair ends up looking thin, I told the Doc I was ok with that as long as my thinning pattern was dignified and representative of a 43 year old man. Ziering put up with all the BS I gave him and I put him through the ringer. I had other doctors shaking in their shoes because they knew they couldn't pull it off. Unfortunately Ziering is good and I'm sorry to report that. If I find out other docs are good, I'll say that too. But I can only talk about my personal experience. And before anyone really concerns themselves about my credibility they should be worried that you can actually search the coalition of surgeons on the side. That is alarming and really has no place in a place where people come to discuss procedures. Good vibes to all, lets reverse our hairloss and talk about the good stuff. hopeful
  10. well that's the name and I've been reading it for years. This is the problem with sites like this. I'm trying to share the experience I just had with a great doc and some joker tells me I'm lying. If I would have said that I had an awful experience everything would be fine. Complaining about my hair loss and getting caught in the crossfire between 'THE NATURAL' and "hangin in there" on hairsite does nothing for anyone so i only asked questions about regiments when absolutely necessary. Guys like you really make things tough for people who want to find out real information. What's your story? For any other members who are researching Dr. Ziering and want to talk to a patient, I'm still willing and will send pictures as soon as I get them from the Dr. But because of some people on the site I will not give permission to post, only look at in your email. I am going to look at my chart on Friday to get the exact breakdown of my grafts and will get some photos then. I'm trying to helpful to this forum but this bonkerstonker person is ruining it.
  11. wow that is quite a welcome bonkerstonker. And maybe part of the problems with forums such as these. I post very rarely at hairsite and a few others but hairrestornationnetwork has had interesting posts over the years but nothing I felt i needed to comment on. But since I was looking for reviews on Dr. Ziering to see if he was reputable enough to do a good job, I came across this thread which talked a bout him being part of the mill at MhR and all that . Now when I had my first surgery in 91 it was with Matt Leavit who founded it but I had stopped going before his first commercial started to air because I wanted a doc to concentrate on me and not his acting lessons. Ziering might have left because of similar issues. Transplant mills are jokes and Dr's don't want to associated clinics that get reps for being a joke. So him leaving was a good thing for his career and his style of practice. Now that I'm comically accused of this being a fake post what does that mean.. I have typed what seem to look like letters into letter groups forming what known as phrases and senctences. So what's the problem. Is it betterto monitor the site and monitor constantly on the off chance you might feel compelled to coment. Or if I see conervsaion that intersts me and I have some pertinent news and experience with this doctor shouldn't Icomment. Or as you tell me that you can smell BS so well you ought to get your nose fixed. I have read this forum a lot when threads showup in the search engines. most just get sandboxedin the forum and remain locked in untilsomeown comes in and reads. I spend more time ad dynamic forum and databases with more information. But the truth is I was very exicted to report in about my proceedure and want anyone who was wondering what it is like to consult and have a proceedure with zeiring might be interestet.I offered to let people to ask questions aandse photos if they wish. So thought I was been cool and adding information about a very well known doctor that many member might want to meet....So this place isn't exacly what is cracked up to be. It' is morelike a choice between docs supportthing the site and no body else. Don't miss out on ziering.He'
  12. Hi all, I came upon this thread when trying to do my due diligence on Craig Ziering. I'm glad the site is here. I've been treating my hair loss since 1991 was looking to do a final surgery and take advantage of the new technology. My last was in 2001 so anything I decided to to would be considered corrective by any doctor. My original work was very good for the time and every doctor who ever looked at said it was great work. But it wasn't what I had hoped for. Over the years I've read every article on hair growth treatments, seen a bazillion before and after photos and read tons of threads on forums though I rarely contribute. I feel like navigating through all the BS about doctors online might be easier than for someone just starting out but the decision process was tough. Ziering was the 1 of 6 doctors I saw in person and I had at least some contact between 32 others. Most were dismissed quickly. I met with Ziering on 3 occasions over 10 months and each time he was great. A lot of doctors will stop seeing you for free after a few visits because they want to only invest their time into patients that they feel will end up in the chair but Ziering wasn't like that. He was in no rush with me and there was absolutely no sales pitch. I've walked out of the offices of some of the "best" so called surgeons over the years Ziering was terrific. So were a few others but I won't mention them because I didn't choose their services and I don't want readers to think there was anything wrong with the doctors. I simply came to the conclusion that Ziering was my guy and I had a procedure on May 17,2011 in Los Angeles. All that I can report at this point was that the surgery itself was a breeze and the healing thus far has been better than anything I expected. His time with me mapping out my short and long term goals were invaluable and the time he spent explaining how he needed to angle certain hairs in specific areas of my scalp to best work with my existing plugs was exhausting but proved to me that this guy was no joke. Obviously the next few months will determine my level of happiness with the procedure but I would not discount Ziering's artistic ability and I'm happy I found him. I understand he started at MHR and respect the postings of the other contributers to this thread but I wanted to let people know that they can talk to a real patient if they choose. I'm happy to talk about my experience but don't really want to post photos publicly. I will send photos to people to look at if they really want to talk about Ziering. The pre and post ops are nothing exciting but the ones I get at about 5months will be very telling. I'm really expecting to be happy with my hair for the first time in 20 years. Good luck to all of us who are going through this stuff and hopefully my 2 cents will help others
  13. Welcome to our Hair Restoration Social Community and enhanced discussion forum. Feel free to customize your profile by sharing your story, creating blogs, sharing your treatment regimen, presenting your hair restoration photos, and uploading videos. You can also join groups and interact with other members via public chat and instant message those you add to your friends.

    Feel free to ask questions and interact with our members on our new and improved hair loss discussion forum.

    If there's anything I can do to help or make things easier for you, don't hesitate to send me a private message or post on my wall.

    All the Best,

    David (TakingThePlunge) – Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant of the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the new Hair Restoration Social Network and Discussion Forum

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