HopelessHarry

The First 3 pictures are 1 mth post op. You can see there's quite a bit of hair still in there The 2nd set of Pictures is 3 mths Post Op (I never got around to 2 mth Post-Op Pictures, sorry). At this stage most of the hair has fallen out and it looks somewhat odd, but I know that's part of the process.

The transplated hair is (hopefully) taken from the "Safe Zone" that is not susceptible to MPB. I was told by Dr. Arocha once that Rogaine can help the transplanted hairs grow in thicker. My second procedure with Dr. Paul Shapiro he advised me that Rogaine is for miniturized hairs (which transplanted hairs will not be). After my initial growth I'll probably NOT use Rogaine on the transplanted hairs. I hope this made sense

The primary goal was to densify the existing hairline first, but we did then drop it down and round it off a little so as to not have as much of a widow's peak. Originally we planned 1000-1200 grafts. The reason we got up to 1615 was in order to make the Temporal Peaks look right we had to add the additional Grafts. Dr. Paul did cut my hair back, including some of the previous 2500 grafts in the hairline in order to add density and make it all work.

All I want for Christmas is Hair, and Dr. Paul Shapiro gave it to me. My procedure was on 12/12/13. I can't say enough nice things about the SMG. I got in Minneapolis for my surgery on 12/11/13. It was Zero degrees when I got in, and a frigid -4 degrees ( felt like -16) by the time I went to bed. I got the free hotel shuttle to the La Quinta Inn from the airport. The morning of my surgery 12/12/13 I managed to miss the Hotel Shuttle that was supposed to take me to the Clinic on its way to the airport. That was my fault for being a few minutes late. It was alright tho as the Desk Clerk kindly called a Taxi and it was only about 5 bucks. I was greeted at the front desk by a friendly gentlemen named Dal. He had me sign a few things and then went to take a few pictures. At this point I got to meet Dr. Paul. After my pictures we went into an office for a pre-op consult. I discussed my goals and my 2 previous procedures with Dr. Arocha. I drew in a suggested hairline with a black pencil/marker. Dr Paul looked it over and talked with me about how many grafts we would need. Getting enough to do the temple points was an area of concern.Initially we talked about 1000-1200 grafts to add density to the hairline and fill in the corners and temples. Eventually we drew in a slightly more rounded hairline with less of a widow's peak. As it turned out we needed 1615 grafts to get our goals accomplished. We also discussed my scar from my previous 2 FUTs ( that was a bit wide for my liking). Dr. Paul explained to me that he would take out the scar and hopefully be able to get enough hair from that for this procedure as well. I made it back to the procedure room and was given my meds and most importantly a lunch menu. Crucially I went for the Italian Sub. My initial two assistants were the easy to remember Vicki and Nikki. The next part was for me the most impressive and comforting part of the procedure and that was the relatively pain free administering of the local anesthesia. Dr. Paul explained to me his history in Pain management and boy did it help. They used a vibrating device to help numb the nerve before I got sticks above both eyes. It feels pretty weird, but it doesn't really hurt. They used a similar method for the numbing of the Donor Area. I don't even remember much about the donor extraction. I remember a little bit about the sticks close to the hairline but because of the excellent pain management I just remember feeling a little pressure and maybe hearing a small crackling sound but little to no pain. And now a very important part, there is an Apple TV I believe it was in the Procedure room with virtually unlimited radio, movie, and TV programming. I selected Argo to try to watch. This was a mistake to try to watch something so serious while in and out on pain meds. I remember Ben Affleck in a beard looking very pensive. I'll have to try and watch that one again. Being the cold season, I had a bit of a cough and the staff was very helpful with cough drops and syrup to help me out. This is good as I was worried I might end up with some hairy eyeballs if I coughed at the wrong time. So relaxed was I that I actually fell asleep with a cough drop in my mouth (which is slightly frightening but I survived). Anyways, we started the procedure about 9:30 am, paused for lunch a little after noon, and finished a little after 4 pm I believe it was. Dr. Paul came in and looked things over and even put in the 115 or so leftover grafts in the temples and behind the hairline I believe. I paid and and the nice ladies at the front desk called the hotel shuttle and I was on my way. I slept reasonably well. I did ooze a bit of blood from the donor area but I used the pillow cover provided by SMG so as to not bleed all over the hotel's pillow. I got the shuttle to the airport in the morning and I was on my way. I've followed post-op instructions pretty religiously with the Post-Op Spray, gel on the donor area, Prednisone, Pain medication, and careful shampooing using a cup of water. The only slight pain I've had is from the donor area where Doc took out the scar. He told me this might be the case and it's not too bad, very manageable. Overall a great experience at SMG. I went up to Minnesota by myself and it was no problem at all. Smooth as a machine. I would recommend it to any and everyone. If anyone has any questions don't be afraid to ask. Thanks HH Photos from 1 Day post-op

There's varying opinion on this. I have been on Propecia for 10+ years and recently went to FIN to save money and do seem to have thinned. I sumbitted for an online consultation and Joe from Hason and Wong firmly believes that real Propecia or Proscar work better. The Docs I've talked to said if you start thinning go back on the real stuff. My dad is a retired doctor and called pharmacy to call in my Propecia and the Pharmacy said they use the same pills for Propecia and Finasteride. Strange and frustrating

Hello JBH No one is obviously going to tell you to get a transplant at your age. I'm not even sure they'll prescribe Propecia for a 16 year old. If you were 20, I'd say Propecia, Rogaine Foam, Nizoral shampoo, and Biotin or MSM supplements. At least you're aware of your hairline. Some people comb over and are denial. The good news of for you is you are so young that they'll hopefully have a cure for MPB while you're still pretty young

CaddyTad, You can see my thread here http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/165521-slowly-losing-battle.html in short, if I was a Norwood 5 and had as much hair as I do now, I'd be thrilled. However, as it is I had both receeding and diffuse thinning. I've had 2 HTs and my hair continues to thin. If I could get a little density from front to back and get the corners done I'd be happy. I'm in the no man's land of enough hair to make it difficult to work in between hairs but not enough to have much density. My hair now is thin and dry and whispy and you can't really style it. I may be in the worst possible position of having had 2 FUTs left with an obvious scar where I can't shave it, without enough donor left for further procedures.

Spanker I'm not thrilled with my scar to be honest. I know you're kind of an expert, what do you see with my scar there? I'd appreciate your input.

Here is my FUT scar after 2 HTs 2500 and 1200. This is 8 mths out cut to a 3 on the clippers. I'll probably do 5 at the lowest from now on b/c of the visibility of the scar. http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/attachment.php?attachmentid=48415&d=1376359468

Interesting dilemma regarding Fin. "the drug could reduce the incidence of prostate cancer by almost 25%. However, there was a catch: there was actually an increase of almost 27% in the number of high grade-or more serious-prostate cancers in the group treated with finasteride compared to those men who did not get the drug" New Update On Prostate Cancer Prevention With Finasteride Creates A Dilemma For Patients

Hello All, I'm doing a followup on an old thread. A lot has happened since I first posted on here. I did a 2500 FUT with DR Arocha where he worked on the hairline at the end of June 2012. He did an additional 1200 (maybe it was 1400) in the crown in December of 2012. We were very conservative and basically tried to solidify the hairline without bringing it down. While I would really like to do the corners, that's not my main concern The top of my head is thinning pretty bad now it seems. BTW I'm 35 and have been on Propecia for 10 years. I've been on Rogaine about 2 years and have mixed in Biotin and Nizoral the last year. Now I've had 2 procedures and I seem to be losing my hair anyways. It's so depressing. I'm feeling angry defiant and severely depressed about losing all my hair on top. Is this something that can be fixed? Would an FUE be better? I know there's some hair up there but it's so thin and choppy up there. When the wind blows or it rains my hair just falls apart like wet makeup. I'm hoping some of the clinics and online docs will weigh in. I'm so upset after putting in so much to be losing the battle still. Thanks for your input

Well, it's been a year since i posted on this thread. To update, I did go in to Dr Arocha for a 2500 FUT in June of 2012. He ended up putting all the grafts in the hairline. I wanted to put some in the crown,but we didn't have enough left. I went back in December of 2012 and we did an additional 1200 grafts into the crown. As for the results, my hair is falling out faster than we can put it back in I'm afraid. I'm probably going to go in for another procedure this winter.

Well, The deal is I'm deeply unhappy with my thinning hair. So until I can get in to see Dr Arocha I've ordered some DUT from United Pharmacies and I'll see if that helps thicken me up at all. If I shed then I do I guess. I just feel like I have to do something other than slowly lose the battle as the thread's subject states.

Stuart, Does the Doctor at your clinic prescribe Avodart for hair loss? Aaaron, I know I've read both sides of the sides issue. I feel I've lost a lot of hair in the last year and I feel I may be reaching the outer limits of Propecia's ability to slow my hair loss. I kind of would like to gamble on Avodart and know I have a HT as a fallback. I also use Min 5% and Nizoral so I'm using more than just the Meds.

RC West Thank you. I have a lot of questions about Avodart, but I'll limit to 3 with Avodart 1) would I experience more regrowth? 2) fewer Sides? 3) Is there a shedding period or any sort of shock to the system when transitioning from Propecia to Avodart? I asked my hair transplant surgeon about Avodart but since it's off label he wasn't willing to prescribe it to me. I'm willing to switch and order on the internet I'd just like to find out more.