starr

Well, it was a drastic move to shave off my transplanted hair and get a hair system... but my baring vertex was really starting to make me self-conscious and feel ugly. I have to say although I felt like a million bucks confident man on a dozen days, thats only a dozen days out of 6 months. Most of the time I felt very self-conscious and paranoid. I've seen some people's eyes look at my hairline while talking to me and I just wanted to run. I dated briefly a girl who just wanted to run her fingers thru my hair... and I had to lie and tell her how much I hated having my hair played with! And then I had stupid hair when I got out of bed, when I took off a hat, and when I had been out in the wind. I work a performer and dread having stylists put me in their char and touch my hair and me have to tell them its a system. Is anyone in their 30s truly enjoying their hair system? If so, please tell me how. If I cant get used to it and absolutely love it, Im going to be looking at SMP and another transplant...

I'd never heard of Nanogen. Did you try both Nanogen and DermMatch and found that Nanogen was better?

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone here still uses DermMatch to add body to their hair even if they've had SMP done to add the illusion of density? I always found that DermMatch gave my hair a natural looking volume so I never needed to use product... Anyone?

Jealous!!! Well, happy for your success actually! CantDecide, how are you dealing with having to shave your head for each session? (I'm aware that you are using this for density and not the shaved head look) I'm seeing the owner at HISHair in Toronto this Wednesday... I know I cant expect a miracle but I am hoping for a step in the right direction. A talk with my parents today about how I could go talk to someone else about hair systems made me literally nauseous. I'm in no man's land right now and I truly hope that getting SMP can bring some improvement to my condition. I think even if in the end I HAVE to wear a system, I NEED to give my own head whatever possible chance I've got. And besides, with SMP underneath, it would be much less embarrassing to be seen without the system.

Wow, thats alot to swallow! But Im very appreciative of your detailed opinion. I have to admit I'm starting to reconsider meds. I was really trying to avoid FUE due to cost, but now Im starting to really worry about my strip becoming thicker than before. Exit strategy - well yeah, one way or another, I think ink ALL OVER scalp is what I should consider. Might as well boost the illusion of density everywhere in case I need to go really short. And I dont see why I would want to get temporary... from what I read, it fades after 8+ years so by then, I may be ready for hair cloning. In terms of wearing a system, maybe once I'm amazingly wealthy I can combine but right now Im in a position where I must take a deep breath and make a choice on where I want to put my money: 500$ every 3 months for something I end up throwing out, or 500$ every 3 months to pay off an investment into rebuilding my own head. Its tough call due to the time off I would need to take away from being "seen", but unless I get out of the hair system money suck, I dont see how I can ever start paying off another procedure, whatever it is. Getting a bit off topic but I have to keep in mind current logistics! scar5 : did you get SMP as well? have you found meds made a difference?

OK so based on the answers of 1978Matt and HairWeare, my understanding is that even if I have a set # of grafts left for harvest thru the strip, there is still some donor hair available for FUE during a 3rd procedure, yes? @Hairweare: You are advising strongly against another strip but Im not sure I understand why. First of all, my scar is nothing like the horror pics we see on the internet. Its long yes, but its very thin, and every specialist who has examined my head afterward commented on the good work. I asked Dr. Rahal is the scar would look worse after a 2nd FUT and I was told no. So maybe I'm not understanding something here... I also think its safe to say that I am considering beard hair because I AM near scalp donor depletion if you look at the area I still have left to cover. What I might do in the interim of having enough $ to afford FUE is to get SMP so that its easier for me to live with my self-image. At least my crown wont appear to big.

I took finasteride for probably 6 years ... stopped in 2008. I think I felt something odd with my sexuality... Personally I think Im too advanced to see any benefits from going back on that or dutasteride... are there any published cases on any forums where it halts the sides from dropping? PS> I appreciate you saying it looks natural as is now, but the problem is I look 10 years younger than my age and I work as an actor. They dont cast young guys with hair loss problems...as long as I can conceal (with Dermmatch or SMP), i can get by. What did you mean by "be careful"? what in my plan makes you think I could create a disaster?

Wow, you're like a human search engine to have been able to make the connection! However I made a HUGE mistake... I just verified my documents and I got 4339 grafts from my session with Dr. Rahal. I'm going to have to go and edit my previous posts! Thanks Matt for bringing this to my attention!

Hi Spanker, thanks for your advice. My total grafts to create the front was around 4339. According to Dr. Rahal, my scalp is tight and my density is light so he's estimating 1500 from another FUT. And if I understand correctly, your advice is to do whatever he can with another FUT (strip), THEN do an FUE with scalp, and then beard. Please clarify this for me, as I am a bit confused: If Dr.Rahal says he can get 1500 from another FUT, does that mean its the end of donor hair from the scalp area or is it still possible to get some thru FUE after? If I understood correctly, your advice was to do one more strip then do a scalp FUE, so this implies that another FUT is not final. Is this correct? Why would he be able to harvest more after a 2nd FUT if he said he'd only be able to get around 1500 grafts during this round?

You have NO marks whatsoever? Wow - thats impressive. Dr Rahal's clinic told me that if I decided to "move" some of the transplanted hairs in my hairline to the vertex or crown, I would have tiny dots/scars in that area of my hairline, which I obvsiously dont want. I wonder why they would say I would have marks but you didnt. Dr. Rahal is a great doctor. Perhaps your Doc used a superior FUE technique?

Wow, you did 2 scalp/beard sessions? How are you finding your neck? Are the scars noticeable when clean shaven? Whats the reason that 2 sessions were needed - is that typical?

Thanks for your help - much appreciated. Perhaps I should start another thread about what the pros / cons are about getting surgery done out of country. I know that I was happy being a drive away during the first year following my first transplant....

Hmmm, I'm thinking that short term I have 3 options. 1. Continue with a hair system (I cringe at this one...) 2. Get SMP for the areas where I have thinning hair, but maybe not at the heart of the crown (I will leave this up to the technician's better judgement) 3. Exhaust my scalp donor thru a 2nd FUT, and get SMP a year later (this is not very short term but more of a medium term option) And longer term solution - the "real" solution: Get another transplant of remaining donor hair + beard hair. This plus the previous SMP should give me good illusion of density.

thanks hairweare for the feedback. This raises up an important question... are you saying that I MUST have beard hair transplanted at the SAME time as the rest of my scalp donor, or is it OK to use beard hair as filler once a person has completely exhausted their donor area? Also, I'm assuming that you are not advising a change in my hairline to harvest extra grafts? Finally, can you give me a few names of reputable docs in Europe? I'm in Canada and there doesnt seem to be anyone qualified to do such a procedure...closest seems to be Dr. Umar in LA.

I've attached the post and pre op pictures here. And you can see by my avatar the area I wish to cover with another HT + smp. Doc thinks he can only get 1500 grafts.. but maybe I can get more with lots of laxity exercises (?). Still not a high number but yeah, concerned about changing the hairline he made if there will be scarring. I currently work as an actor so yes makeup could cover the scars I guess but... if its going to be visible everytime I look in the mirror, I may be no better off than seeing thinness in the back.

Hey CantDecide, im thinking that maybe slicking my hair back will have to become my new hairstyle... or the short fauxhawk... seems to me your thin spot in the crown is strategically covered. I think Dr. Rahal will need to leave an open spot so I might as well pick something likely to be covered up just by styling my hair a certain way. If only he did, FUE from beard hair, I'd be saved.. I'll look for Hairthere and start a conversation. In the meantime, can you PM me a few pics of the top of your head pre and post SMP? Pictures of those are so hard to find online.. they're almost all shaved heads! Id be super happy to take a look and see a real picture to see whats possible..

giantrangers - thanks for the suggestions... i was wondering if you keep your hair shaved to zero or you did it to create the illusion of density in longer hair? ..

Hey ChrisDav, Your picture looks great... is that a hair system on the right? Your signature indicates 2 unsatisfactory transplants but looks to me like you have a nice density... Anyway, whats the reason you advise temporary? I'm already using DermMatch and thats pretty temporary! I dont see what I would not like about having a darker looking scalp?

I never thought I'd say this because I was very please with the work of Dr. Rahal in creating my hairline. Unfortunately, I wish I had been told "You might want to get a more recessive design and save your limited donor supply to fill in the crown when that time comes!" Its a bit upsetting... no, its very upsetting that I was not advised about this, as I am now scrambling for hair... So like I posted in a different thread, using beard hair is one possibility for filler. But Im not sure if I can get this done with fantastic results in Ontario. So, I'm debating whether to undo some of the transplants done by Dr. Rahal to move them further back where its balding too much. I've been told this would leave little scars, which is not something I think i would like, given the area that this would be in (unlike the neck where I would have other beard hairs and creases). Should I leave the hairline as is, or take a chance and relocate the transplanted follicles that are closer to the sides and make my hairline of a receding type? Good idea, bad idea?

Given the current state of technology, it seems that beard FUE would be the holy grail for me, in order to add filler to my low density transplants. But I live in Ontario. Are there any recommended surgeons that have a track record of producing great results using beard hair to add density to transplants?

I am looking to have SMP done to add the illusion of thickness to low density transplants. I live in the Toronto area and I'm scared to end up with a place that will make a mess of my scalp (ie. use tattoo inks that turn blue instead of true pigment etc). Can anyone recommend a place? The only 2 that I have seen mentioned are HISHair and ScalpAesthetics. Are these equally good and the top 2 in this geographical area?

Hi "Cant Decide" - your username is very appropriate for where I am at today. Glad I found your post. Like you, I got a great Dr.Rahal hairline done a few years ago (you and I are approx same age) and got over 3200 grafts from that FUT session. Unfortunately, the back has experienced agressive loss and due to that it was starting to complicate using DermMatch for the illusion of density. And working as an actor, I was a bit concerned of its appearance or of people noticing... Anyway, at the summit of my panic, I opted to get a hair system last December. WOW, it has been 80% nightmare and I think my anxiety was just as bad with that solution. A dozen days I felt good and confident but now its become an obsession and I've stopped going out completely and shyed away from being seen. So I started secretly regrowing my own hair under the system for the last few weeks and revisiting a solution I briefly considered BEFORE getting a hair system: Micropigmentation (SMP). Im not sure what made me not book a consultation for SMP before I jumped on the hair system bandwagon but in hindsight, I think that would have been a wiser thing to investigate - after all, we all want to give our own hair a chance and a permanent (rather than disposable solution) sounds more like an investment than consumerism. I possibly did waste money on hair systems and products but at least I did my own maintenance and got pretty good at it. And at least I did not make the mistake of joining hair clubs! But now I'd rather invest in a permanent solution because I dont see myself doing hair systems til my old days and well, I cant seem to adapt or accept.... I recently went to see Dr Rahal for a followup and sadly, it appears that I could probably get only 1500 grafts from a 2nd FUT. He told me my density is light, and the area I want covered is large. He said "you're going to have to combine solutions". Man, I was depressed.. and I think I am still in depression... I feel like I got robbed from a career, a dating life, etc...and from self-image! Straight up, if I had 30K, I would go see his recommendation for beard hair transplant (I've got plenty of donor there!) and blend that with what I've got left in the back of my scalp...but Dr. Umar is in LA and its not realistic for me right now. Im so pissed that Dr. Rahal wont do it... and well, there is no way I would trust Dr. Jones with that! (I'm in the Toronto area). So, in comes the possibility of SMP. Its frustrating that most SMP sites publish only the shaved head look because thats not a look that I want (or given that I already have scarred the back, I probably will never opt for that.) But as an actor, I currently need to maintain the same look as my photos. But anyway, it seems you are blending your hair with SMP and liking the results. Of course though, you had more grafts and your hair really looks full,,, not sure why you needed SMP lol May I ask where you decided to go and if you can recommend a place in Ontario? I feel you probably did a ton of research and are well informed... Also, looking at my picture, do you think it would be wise to get SMP first to see how I like it and THEN commit to filling up the bald area? If I do 2nd FUT in Dec, I'll need to wait a year before I touch it with SMP... thats a long time to wait! Sorry this was a long reply...

How come my bottle of minoxidil (5%) says "Not to be Used by Women"? I thought this product was only safe for use with men?

Hi everyone! I just wanted to say that I'm now at 4 months Post-Op from a 4339 graft FUT performed by Dr. Rahal in October 2012. I created a number of blog posts on his website and I think you may enjoy reading some of these... (link removed) I was going to start a blog here but I got frustrated with the primitive interface...fonts kept changing on me, sizing, etc...I was expecting something like WordPress interface...anyway, got too fed up so I just thought i'd post a link here! Anyway, I wanted to share my experience with everyone so please feel free to drop by my profile over there or suggest for me a better way to post here. I wrote blog entries about my operation day, about the 5 candidates I researched in the Greater Toronto Area, about things to consider prior to getting a hair transplant, etc.. Enjoy!