rmf55

Jotronic, Congratulations, this looks like a fantastic result. Do you know approximately what density this will have been planted at? Are there any other factors that would have contributed to such a dense result, eg hair characteristics, or would you primarily attribute it to the density of the planting?

hi tragedy, not sure if you are still following this thread but I have just gone through a very familiar experience: definite thinning after 3+ years on finasteride. there clearly has been a regression as I had an HT last year and the hairline has now receded back slightly behind where we planted to. I've switched to Dutasteride- its really the only proper option though using minoxidil and nizoral will all help some. Dut does have a very long half life so the suggestion to keep up your fin and then add Dut is a good one if you are not able to afford using it regularly. You should also note it will come off patent this year or next so hopefully then generics will start to become available.

Hi RNZ, Now 8 months out on the hairline and 6 months on the crown. Both are growing well. I haven't let the hairline grow out yet as the rest of my hair is very thick (due to 2 years of taking finasteride and rogaine prior to the transplant) and I want to wait until it is almost completely grown before I start. However I leave it for a couple of days at a time over the weekends and it grows quickly. There are a couple of small areas that are lagging behind which I am primarily waiting on, and a couple of patches where the hair has come through but needs to thicken up. I also have very fine hair so my growth and thickening is probably a bit slower than some people, particularly people with thick curly hair. Overall I'm happy, the waiting sucks but I'm getting through it now. Just have to hold on for a couple more months I'd say.

No worries. You can get Finasteride from a GP obviously but she is very pragmatic about dosing- will give you like a years supply in one script, which GP's are too scared to do (and they often don't know about pill splitting). In case you're not on it already, Rogaine Foam is now available in NZ pharmacies too.

hi insonne, I'd thoroughly recommend Dr Elizabeth Baird at Remuera Dermatology. Current president of the NZ Dermatology Association. Her office is on Clonbern Road. Richard

mumzman, I had a fantastic experience with Dr Knudsen and would seriously question the wisdom of flying to the US. I had 950 into my hairline, and another 420 into my crown. It was done over two procedures, but we continued the strip so it is only one straight line. I am now 3 months post for the hairline and the hairs are starting to grow. Dr Knudsen is currently on the ISHRS board of governors and as I'm sure you will know is a past president, having been a member since its inception. he is warm and goal orientated, and extremely technically skilled. He even has his own private premises in newmarket now, which is much nicer than the shared space he used to have in albany. I know there is a lot of talk on this board about how the american guys are supposedly better than anyone in australia, but I just don't see how they can possibly justify that stance. It seems to be based around the fact they contribute more often to these forums, but while that is obviously not a bad thing to do, I'm not really sure its a great criteria on which to judge someone's personal skill. Its not so much that the guys recommended on here aren't very good, but just that I suppose it is a little self-perpeutating in that people on here recommend those guys and so more members have their surgery done with them. in any case, there are in fact a number of past patients of dr knudsen on here, many of whom I have also been in touch with and have all had great experiences. In fairness I should also note that I would be careful about using anyone other than Dr knudsen or jennifer martinick (it goes without saying you shouldn't touch the skin institute, ashley and martin etc with a bargepole), and if you weren't using either of them I would say going to the US would be a logical step. Feel free to message me if you have any further questions.

thanks heaps mate. at the very least your posts were a reminder that surgery shouldn't be taken lightly and that no doctor is infallible. but yeah I'll let you know how I get on.

Kiwiguy, thanks heaps for that info, interesting about the skin institute, I agree they're out and out crooks. maybe not ashley and martin bad but pretty bad nonetheless. I'm booked in with Dr Knudsen for late April and i think pjwb went in for his this week so i'm sure both of us will keep you posted on how we get on. if things don't work out we can't say we haven't been warned!

Kiwiguy, just one more thing, when did you have your procedures done? From what i've read things really started to improve in hair transplantation around 1994. Also, out of interest, do you know anyone in NZ who has had a procedure done with the Skin Institute? They really seem to know very little about the procedure and are horrendously expensive.

Hi guys, Many of the points I would have made have already been made by pwjb85, but there are a couple of things I would like to add. First I'm sure we are both very grateful for the discussion and advice we receive over this forum and certainly don't discount your advice. If we did we wouldn't have bothered to ask in the first place! But I think one comment in particular sums up my personal standpoint, you say that: "a couple of bad posts should be enough to put you off a particular doctor". I really don't agree with that statement- both pwjb and I have both done extensive research through a number of settings and the vast majority of information we have received (even from this forum!) is that Dr Knudsen is a skilled and conservative doctor. I agree with PWJB's comment that there wouldn't be a doctor in the world that would have never had any patient not have a 100% positive experience, particularly given the amount of procedures (over 4000) that Dr Knudsen has performed. I would also echo PWJB's comments that although we may not be frequent posters on this forum, that does not mean that we have not done our research and know about hair loss and hair loss procedures. Before even considering a hair transplant I was treated by a leading dermatologist in Auckland who stabilised my hair loss and in fact gave me significant hair regrowth. It was only when she advised me that I was never going to regain the hair lost through my temples through pharmacological means that I even looked at surgical options. So I too am going to take the standpoint of PWJB and say that I certainly have been warned, and if I have a bad procedure with Dr Knudsen I will take it as a risk I have chosen. In any case I will keep you guys informed and try to remain to be impartial.

hi kiwiguy, thanks a lot for your posts, and better to have these sorts of opinions come out now. however like pwjb said, could you give a few more details about exactly what dr knudsen apparently did wrong? in particular, how many grafts did you have in each session? it sounds like your experience may be slightly different to what we are seeking with a small session of 600-800 grafts. i really think there is a lot more scope for dissapointment with more advanced stage hair loss where there is a substantial amount of bald scalp to cover and a much larger donor area needed. like pwjb i have also read a number of posts from people on this forum who have had surgery with dr knudsen who have been very happy. many of them are not prolific posters but have made short comments here and there. if you could give me details of the people who had their surgery and were unhappy I would be grateful, and in particular if you could ask them whether they would be happy for me to perhaps email them to speak more directly.

hi guys, thanks heaps for your replies. i think a lot of your comments appear to be based on the before and after pictures on dr knudsen's old website (URL edited by moderator), he now has a newer website under the knudsen clinic sydney. as an aside I don't really think the calibre of before and after pictures displayed on a website is necessarily a great way to judge a surgeon compared to the steps he takes when you meet him to outline the procedure and his proven experience (including as former president of the ISHRS.) i agree that being in NZ doesn't give as many options, but I'm happy with dr knudsen, based both on his experience and the reviews of the lions share of people who have had procedures done with him on this website. in relation to a couple of your specific queries, i'm nowhere near a NW4 these days, i've had very good results with 2 years of finasteride and rogaine foam and would be a 2.5 to 3 at most. the surgery won't give me an 18 year olds hair line but it will restore much of what I've lost. in relation to having a scar for a small procedure, if you're suggesting I have FUE done then that is a much bigger debate than just whether you have a scar. i've read the ISHRS's position papers on FUT vs FUE and am happy with using FUT based on that. the scar really isn't a big factor for me- from another person on this forum who had almost the exact number of grafts with dr knudsen it will be about 10cm long and 1cm wide, and only visible with less than a number 2 shave. i'd be happy explaining the scar to people anyway, but aside from the immediate recovery I'm certainly not having a hair transplant to shave my head down to a number 1! I don't even do that now. finally, re possibly travelling to have a transplant, i'm sufficiently comfortable with dr knudsen to not think that justifies the significant additional cost. if my only option was the skin insitute (my first consult) travelling definitely would be worthwhile. again i'd encourage you guys to look at some of the posts from people who have had work with dr knudsen on here- almost all are very pleased and report good, conservative results with very good healing. some of the forum approved doctors know dr knudsen well and visit him when they're in sydney. overall, thanks again though for your points- i'm glad to have people raising valid potential criticisms given this is such a big decision.

Hi folks, I've been reading a lot of this forum and thought I should move from long time reader to first time poster in order to share my treatment experiences to this point. i've given a bit of background to my hair loss below, but if you're interested just in my hair transplant experiences feel free to skip to the end! I'm 27 and have suffered from hair loss since I was 17, at which point I quickly lost the hair from my temples. I'd say I was a norwood scale type 2 by the time I was 17, and although I became increasingly unhappy with my appearance, I never made the connection to male pattern hair loss. Through my early 20's I continued to lose my hair through the temples, and when I finished university a particularly stressful year as a new graduate lawyer at a corporate law firm saw me reach crisis point, where I was probably between a norwood 3 and 4. it seems silly but i only finally made the connection to male pattern hair loss that year when a particularly cocky friend and flatmate of mine started to tease me about being balding. at the end of that first year of work I resolved to turn things around. i researched FDA approved treatments, and luckily was a patient of a very good dermatologist in auckland, who prescribed me generic finasteride and suggested I try rogaine. unfortunately rogaine foam wasn't then available for sale in new zealand, but i managed to privately import it though quasi legal means! beginning to use those was a revelation. i noticed the hair loss start to stop and was incredibly excited to see new tiny hairs start to grow in places on my frontal hairline. however after about a year and a half the effects started to tail out, and I realised I was never going to get back the hair I had lost through the temples through my current regime. it was at that point that I became very depressed again and frustrated, wondering what else I could possibly do. it was only midway through last year that I learnt of hair transplant procedures. the more i read about the more excited I got. i was desperate to not give up on the prospect of having a head of hair untainted by male pattern hair loss, and to not have to stare at it in the mirror every morning! even though i wasn't sure if I had the finances, i was excited to know that at some stage the possibility of getting lost hair back would be there. after this i started to take some tangible steps to investigate the viability of having a transplant. looking up the first google hit (ignoring charlatans like ashley and martin etc) sent me to a private cosmetic surgery group in auckland called the skin institute. i booked an initial consultation and was referred to their "specialist", a nurse called zohreh barkhodari. Although in was still so excited at that stage to even be considering the procedure, in hindsight it was a distinctly underwhelming consultation. zohreh was very nice, but didn't really provide me with any concrete details of the procedure or where she would transplant the hair, and to be honest I wasn't that impressed to be only meeting with a nurse given the amount of money i was proposing to spend. then there was that amount of money. again I didn't realise it at the time, but she suggested that she would do 450-500 grafts, at a cost of NZD $7000 to $8000 (the NZD currently buys about 80 australian cents). So around $16 a graft, with the procedure to be done by a nurse! There would be some surgeon oversight, but it appeared it would be minimal as she was their proclaimed "specialist". a month or so later I continued my research and found that dr russell knudsen also consults in auckland. so I did a lot of reading about him and was very impressed, particularly compared to the skin institute. a past president of the ISHRS and over 4000 procedures. so i met with him and auckland, and was even more impressed. he met with me personally, first explained the non surgerical options and only upon learning that i had already been on them for almost 2 years started to talk to me about possible surgery. he used a marker to draw the possible hairlines on my forehead, and showed me what various numbers of grafts would achieve. that was exactly what i wanted to know. when i suggested to him i wanted to spend a reasonable amount of money on the procedure (well by my standards anyway) he suggested to me having 800 to 900 grafts. the quote for 800 was NZD $6650 and for 900 NZD $7450 (so about $8.30 a graft). for the same money as the skin institute, actually less, i would recieve exactly double the grafts, with the procedure performed by a proper hair surgeon. i went away very impressed, and excited for the procedure. aside from his technical skills, I was very impressed by dr knudsen's warm and reasonable manner, something which seems to be a common comment on this forum. although he does not perform FUE, and without wanting to start that debate, I am comfortable from the information he gives on his website and that on the ISHRS's own website that he has sound technical reasons for not doing so. so i have now booked the surgery for april 2012, with a further consult in february to discuss it again with him pre surgery. i am now thinking that it may also be worth me having a small amount of grafts put into my crown, for while I have recovered a lot of hair in that area, there is a slight thin patch which I think would be noticable if i was to grow my hair long in the future. so hopefully i can talk to dr knudsen about that when I see him next. i'm hoping it willl only need 100 or 150 grafts, and therefore seems well worth doing as it would still mean my total procedure would be only 1100 grafts maximum. i'm intending to pay for the transplant using a 3 year retention bonus i'm eligble for at work (touch wood), so there hopefully will even be a nice symmetry about using work funds to replace some of the hair their stress contributed to me losing in my first year! I'll be sure to update my experiences when I have the procedure finally done. thanks for all your helpful information.