Thomas2012

I had a procedure done about 1.5 years ago by Dr. Paul about 3k grafts. A game changer. He did a great job and was good about going over hair design and adding to my temporal points. I would highly recommend a FUT with him.

GFI, Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the info. With that said I would not be inclined to do a motorized FUE for the sole reason of margin of error. A doctor who is talented could be off a bit on a certain amount of grafts, human error, lets just call 5%, he or she is accountable. What if the machine is off? who is accountable? The doctor? The staff? The input person? I really think it reduces accountability of the physician's true skill set and ultimately liability. True the clinic ultimately takes a "marketing" hit, but ultimately the physician can say " the machine just wasn't good". I do agree with you that yield should be monitored every time after a one year check up and results posted. I agree with you we only see a huge majority of good ones.

Goforit, I agree with you, but how can even a FUT be monitored with accuracy compared to a FUE transplant? Lets say you get 2500 grafts either way, how can any hair clinic determine if 90 percent actually grow?? Counting hairs a year later? Maybe I am missing something here. Not trying to be sarcastic. Thanks.

I recently looked at a picture from 10 years ago and I can honestly say I have lost very little ground since I have been taking Fin. I started taking it about 8 years ago and it made an immediate impact on my crown area, both in thickness and maintaining hairs. Fin doesn't impact a receding hairline, that is where I had some work done, but I can attest over the years it does help the crown area.

stupid question, but why wouldn't scalp laxity excercises help out, or maybe in this case and others, the scalp is just that tight.

Hairless, I have been taking generic Fin the past 6 years and started Rogaine 3 years ago. The Fin definetely helped thicken my crown area over all. I think the impact was definetely noticeable. By adding the Rogaine I really feel it has helped my hair not miniturize as fast. Spex had a great post a while back on the benefits of Rogaine. Keep this in mind. A person experiencing MPB and does nothing his hairs go thru a miniturization s.p. phases. Basically they get finer and finer then fall out. The Fin and Rogaine help thicken a certain amount of hairs, making them more dense and actually promote growth in certain areas like the crown. Some guys swear it has worked well on temporal areas and in the front of scalp, but I personally haven't seen any improvements in these areas. Without batting an eye, Fin has worked for me and Rogaine has too.

Some great posts. Dwight you had a question earlier if I had any experience with SMP. I have not, but thinking of it within the next year. I just had a 3 k procedure, but overall I have a lot of native hairs and minor thinning. I want to see the outcome on the over all density on this last one and fill in areas that may be a little light. My only challenge is that I am going about a third gray right now and would probably have to dye my hair.

Northwest, thanks for the great posts and updates. It looks like you will get a great result. A couple of questions for you. Without any procedures where would you rate yourself on a Norwood Scale, 6-7? If you fast forwarded to today's progress in hair transplanting how would have done each session and how many grafts do you think you lost in donor hair with the plug technique? The reason I am asking is there was a recent post stated" is transplanting worth it for a 50 year old guy at a Norwood 6-7" Your a great example of why I posted yes. You're gonna look great with this last procedure. Thanks, Tom

I agree with Blake. It also shows just with a moderate amount of grafts what an impact a transplant can have. When he is done with a second procedure and ages another 10 years his hairline at 56 will probably look twice as nice as it was at 36 before he had the first procedure. ! just a bit lighter! Great job and post Dr. Beehner. For younger guys thinking of getting a transplant this shows a moderate progression on the benefits of transplants as they would advance in age.

No doubt 2-4 k is a lot of money. I agree with with you that the doctors on this forum are good, but their are ones more skilled at thier craft. Secondly, get a long term plan in place. If you are already a Norwood 5 / 6 you will probably want another procedure down the road. Choose a doctor you feel comfortable down the road and plan on a second one with them. As I mentioned earlier it is a life long decision. I am sure that a doctor would be willing to work with you on some type of payment plan for 2-3 k. Do this: 1. Try to stablize your hair loss with Meds (Propecia and Rogaine) if possible. So you can you predict, with some degree where you will look down the road. 2. Meet and go with a doctor you feel good about and discuss a long term plan based on on the following: Ask and write these down. - How much donor hair will be available based on hair loss projection. - Determine the diameter of your donor hair, it will have an impact on expectation based on the number of grafts. - Determine the density of the donor hair. i.e. the number of grafts in a given sq.centimeter. - What is the future plan and based on that how many grafts can be harvested in a first procedure. Personally I would recommend a FUT, but there are ton of opinions out there that may say FUE. - What can you expect. Go thru a lot of posts and talk to others your age that have gone thru a procedure and look at photos and talk to guys in their 30s and 40's to get even a better perspective on waht to expect in the future. Your a young man an obviously hair loss is bothering you. You have taken the first steps and doing something about it. It takes a lot of courage and I admire you for this. Bottom line is a transplant will make most likely feel better and more confident about yourself and the knowledge you are doing something about an issue that is bothering you. I wish you the best of luck, but for know gain more information I listed above before making your decision. Tom

Dwight great post. The expectation of a full head of hair for a Norwood 6 or 7 it unrealistic, but with SMG, and other concealers a person can really feel confident and feel good about themselves. The biggest attribute of this forum is educating others who have not had a procedure and gaining knowledge to make a decision and have realistice expectations!

Pakid, DONT PRICE SHOP and go with Dr. Lindsay if you felt comfortable with him. It is a lifelong investment. I never shopped, but I believe the going rate is about 5 per graft with a reputable doctor. Maybe location of where they are located will save you a bit, but then you have travel costs. It is a life long decision. Maybe you could save 5k from another clinic, but what if you don't like it. You'll have to live with it, or at least partial for rest of your life. Take that 5 k "extra" and amortize it over 40 years. Its 125 addtional per year. Chicken Fodder. Save until you can afford to. i.e. you'll spend a lot more on a new vehicle than a transplant and will never get the same satisfaction! Keep that in mind or maybe not taking a expensive vacation. Best of luck, Tom

Spiral, I think your temporal points look great. Personally I think you would achieve a nicer result with a transplant, but would go for the most grafts possible. Though some doctors opinions differ, you would get an optimum result with shaving your head before procedure. I wrestled with this question before I did, shaved recipient area. My reasoning is that it cannot hurt, and only help. Except for the addtional time in the ugly duckling phase, there are no drawbacks. Dr. Hasson had a good article Bill (publisher) just replied to on a very recent post. Really take the time to interview doctors. I don't know if your on meds or not, but that in conjunction with realizing you will probably lose a majority of your existing hair over time without will have a huge bearing on achieving realistic expectations. You look like your hair is relatively thick or coarse so that will be a big advantage. Best of luck. Tom

Birdness, I would definetely go for it based on the following: 1. Pretty good donor in reference to the available grafts total. This is critical in understanding what you have to work with. 2. Hair diameter(something that seems to get ignored alot in physicians postings), even though you might receive 3500 grafts, if you have fine hair, it won't seem as dense as others achieve. Understand this. Lastly, have realistic expectations on what you can expect to achieve. D Dwight, that was a great initial post on how happy you were with just 2k plus grafts on how much it just framed your face. Spanker I don't know if you were just being rude or argumentative, but the illustion of density is talked about a lot by doctors and patients on this forum. The hair placement of 1-3 grafts, spacing, and where they are placed on your head really is an artistic talent surgeons use to create as much density as possible. If you get 2000 grafts bundled together in the frontal most part of your hairline and not much behind, yes they are there, but nothing gained. By the number of follicles per graft and how they are spaced on the scalp, the density, or "illusion" of density is much better if done properly. i.e. choose a talented surgeon recommended on this form. Some are more conservative than others, but interview them and decide. I think a transplant is well worth it. I am almost 50. Knowledge is power. Gain as much as possible and go for it. Best of luck.

I am about 6 weeks post up from my transplant, 3k. I have been using Rogaine foam for the past 3 years up till transplant. I started up again about 3 weeks after. I am back up to my 2x per day. It seems to create a little redness when first applying, but goes back to normal in about an hour. Can Rogaine harm any of the new dormant grafts at 2x per day? Thanks

Hair2012, thanks for the info on your other post in reference to Lipogaine I'm trying. The more I read about the hairloss shampoos I've almost come to the conclusion their not worth it. You bring up some great info on the dialator&constrictor effects. If the caffeine ones counteracts the minoxidil why would use it at all unless the benefits exceed that of minoxidil? There seems a lot more negative posts on the so called hairloss shampoos especially with shedding and the 2% ketozonale. If I cannot use a shampoo in conjunction with applying Rogaine foam 2x per day and see benefits added I wouldn't do it. Are there any out there?

Hair 2012, Its mind boggiling choosing a shampoo. Revita, Regenepure, Nioxin, Alpecin, Revivogan, Tricomin, etc. They all say they are the best, but who knows. The only only that shows it slows down hair loss that I have seen on this forum is a prescription strength, ketoconazole 2%, but beware. There are a lot of negative posts on over use and shedding. Once a week, maybe twice at the most with this. I personally have tried Revita and over the counter 1% ketoconazole ( Nizoral) 1%. I experienced some shedding and just tried it them for about 60 days. If 2% causes shedding with over use, a daily 1% ket. in Revita and Regenepure I would not personally do it. I am going to be trying Tricomin, with Copper Peptides and give it a try, I don't think the caffeine shampoos will do you any harm. Let us know which one you try and give some feedback. Thanks

I think you would get a fantastic result with Panine. I think he does the best frontal hairline work and doesn't have his patients shave their head. i.e. less "ugly ducking" downtime. I wouldn't even think about a transplant if it wasn't going to 2k grafts or better at your age. 1200 may very well get you a strong improvment, but not worth cutting a donor scare that big for such a small area. Propecia and Rogaine will really help out for future loss especially in the crown area. Best of luck.

I wouldn't advise it. I use Retin A everyday on my skin. It was very, very, drying at first until my skin got used to it. Combining the Retinin A with minoxidil I think would burn your skin and cause extreme drying. If your looking for a boost, get a minoxidil with Azeliec Acid in it. I just purchased a bottle of Lipogaine and trying it out. Currently I am on Rogaine foam 2x per day so I am alternating the Foam and Lipogaine.

Wearing a baseball cap is fine if all your grafts are on top, but if you have a lot of temporal work done like i did, i would advise against it. Personally I would not even remotely jeopardize hurting the new grafts with the money that is invested in a transplant. Just plan on some down time, especially if you are shaving your head. I would rather look " strange" for a short period of time than risk the grafts. I just got done looking "somewhat" weird for the last 30 days! Why chance it?

I agree with StaggerLee, but this is a prime example of physicians posting a result with no information with the exception of age and grafts. Im sure Dr Harris your a perfectly capable doctor, but when something like this is posted, almost 4k grafts against another procedure from another doctor with a similar amount of grafts that shows much more density, there is usually more to the story. How many hairs total? What was the hair diameter? If this forum is to educate potential people thinking of getting a transplant, there is no consistency of reporting results. Apologize for being negative, but an honest opinion.

This is my first posting thread, so bear with me. I am new to this community member, but have been gaining knowledge and information for the past 4 years. I want to start out by saying thanks to the Forum for helping with my recent procedure at SMG. Most of the posts I was looking in the past were the results posted by clinics. I was trying to get a match with someone with my hairline that had a good result and see how many grafts I would need. Basically something to show my doctor of what my expectation level was and get feedback from him to say if it was realistic or not. Searching thru current posts and going thru a lot of photo albums realized there has to be a more simple way to be able to do this, thus my question to Doctors, Clinics, and this Forum: Why isn't there a more standardized way of posting results. I pulled a random 12 posts from clinics, three of them justed listed grafts, no hairs, 4 of them did no physical description or age of the client, and a third had terrible pictures. Physicians and Clinics, you are " all over the board" I think a majority of members who have procedures done continue to be a part of this Forum because they have had a good experience(s) with a transplant or meds and they want to help others, especially younger people who go thru hair loss at such an early age. Basically to educate and inform. Where I think this forum and especially the Physicians fall short in the posting a standardized description of procedures that include: AGE. I want to know ages of people similar to me. NORWOOD SCALE: If a person is about the same age and same scale, there is some definite correlations I could draw from. Part of this to is to give an opinion on where that person is heading based on... MEDS, how long the individual has been on meds, or not. Hopefully some young people are reading this, but if you are not stabilizing your hair loss and you get a transplant of lets say 2000 grafts, you could be losing an additional 500-1000 at a years time. So when you post a year's result and not being totally sastified, there you go. NUMBER OF GRAFTS and HAIRS. Big deal on the 1,2,3's basically how many hairs average per graft. A majority would range from 1.8 to 2.3. It has an impact. HAIR DIAMETER. Why isn't this posted more often? Especially the donor density going in. Dr. Bill Reed had a great explanation on the impact of hair diameter on a recent post. 40-80 microns? It has an impact that people need to know. A person with really fine whispy hair is going to need more hairs to create more density. PROCEDURE: FUT, or FUE, that is a given. PICTURES: Standardized, I don't know what that is, but maybe one of the clinics like SMG could give some input because their photos are always crisp and clean. A lot of clinic apologize for their photos. They, the clinics posts on this forum, but in reality it is a great advertising tool for them. Yes they definitely educate, but they also gain a lot of clients like myself because of it. Nohing wrong with that. How many feet away? what resolution? how many front, side, top, and back shots? Every clinic a part of this forum gain afford a new camera and take the time. If the posting is more uniform I really think if would make it easier, for especially younger people, for them to gain knowledge and have very realistic expectations if they decide to have a transplant. There is a lot of passion to help others in this forum, especially from guys that have had 2 or more procedures. Put that energy into developing a more standardized reporting that clinics need to post. In closing, (this book)! I will say this. It really hit home when I went to get my procedure done that the doctor I chose was an artist and I felt good about my decision Some doctors are just plain better than other in the placement of the grafts in achieving results. For a person thinking of getting a transplant and drawing their conclusions from this forum, put yourself in the hands of a skilled surgeon and more importantly an artist at his or her's craft. Even though travel, money, etc, go into your deciding a doctor when the time comes its a major decision in your life and the money part goes away. Doctors and Clinics help people draw their opinions from more uniform and standardized posts. Thanks.

Dr. Reed, thanks for the reply back. Would it be fair to assume that as a person ages his or her hairs become thinner overall? Secondly, I have had very favorable results with Propecia and Rogaine in the area of thickening of my hair and some regrowth in crown area. Would any meds in this case help this gentleman out at his age? Thanks again. Tom

I wouldn't touch your hair right now. Your hair looks great. Your over-thinking it. Keep in mind that even though you are probably on meds, eating right etc, you will probably continue to thin out over time real gradually. You were receding at age thirty and Propecia and Rogaine really doesn't cover this area. Some previous posts are correct in saving the donor bank for this. Take the advice you are hearing. Best of luck.

Orlhair, looks like you will get an awesome result. I am amazed at what a broad area SMG used for your donor hairs. Will you be posting some of your own photos. You really do a great job at communicating your experience in posting your thoughts and great photos. Best of luck healing up. Tom