ScienceHair

I want to weigh in and give my honest opinion. I think you look good the way you are. You've got a badass beard and the way you have your head buzzed, the combination looks good. If you are going to have surgery done, Dr Gabel is a great choice, you can't go wrong with him. Just remember, once you have your head cut, regardless of whether it's strip or fue, there's no going back. You're scarred for life. I don't say this to try to scare you, it's just a reality that you'll have to live with. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

Hey Mikey, I have a strip scar and as of last June, I have resorted to shaving my head down to a 1.5 guard and my scar is barely visible. I did get carried away a couple months ago and went too tight and it was really noticeable. I was kinda self conscious for a few days until my hair filled in enough to blend in with it. You can tell the scar is not from an accident, it's too straight. One of my coworkers saw it and said it looked like someone had done experimental surgery on me. I don't push the envelope on trying to get it too short anymore.

You're welcome. Sounds like Dr. Bloxham gave you some good advice. You've got plenty of time so you don't have to feel rushed. Dr. Cooley is an outstanding surgeon. I've never seen a poor result or a complaint about him. You can use the search feature here and go look at his work. There is a lot of it and it's all good. If you contact him via his website, you'll be contacted by Lollie (sp?). She's cool and she'll take all the time you need and answer all your questions. Just so you know, I have no affiliation with Dr. Cooley, I'm just a huge fan of his work. Good luck.

Hi Baron, First off, don't feel like you need to rush this process. Take your time, do plenty of research and don't limit yourself to just 2-3 consultations. There are a lot of excellent doctors and you'll find that some will fit your needs better than others depending on their approach to your specific situation. The doctors you listed are all world class surgeons and you would be in good hands with any of them. Some other doctors you may want to look at: Dr Ron Shapiro - Minnesota Dr. Cooley - Charlotte, North Carolina Dr. Gabel - Portland Dr. Alexander - Arizona Dr. Konior - Chicago Most of the Doctors on these 2 lists will prefer you shave. H & W may even be mandatory (I may be wrong but you'll want to ask about this if you do a consultation with them.) I know for a fact that Dr. Cooley regularly does no shave surgeries. A little information about yourself would also help some of the members give you some advice. 1) How old are you? 2) Are you taking any meds for your hairloss? 3) What kind of hairloss history do you have on both sides of your family? Take your time, research everything you can & get plenty of consultations. Good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions. There are a lot of good people on this forum and they'll help you out along the way.

Hi Rob, I don't post very often, but when I saw your thread, I wanted to jump in and reaffirm a lot of what you've been told already. I don't want to see anyone make the mistake that I or some others on this forum have made by being uninformed and going to a hack surgeon. Whatever you do, don't rush this process, there's no need to. A few bits of advice, if I may: 1) Stay away from Bosley, as has been said already. 2) Research heavily, learn everything you can and get multiple consultations from top docs on this site, some in person if possible. 3) If you don't already know, familiarize yourself with the difference between strip & fue. Everyone has their favorites, this is a quick list of docs that produce consistent results and you would be in great hands with any of them. Dr. Cooley - Charlotte, NC Dr. Ron Shapiro - Minnesota Dr's Hasson & Wong - Canada Dr. Konior - Chicago Dr. Gabel - Portland, I believe Dr. Alexander - Arizona This is by no means a conclusive list, these are just some of my favorites and there are a lot of outstanding doctors on this site that I didn't mention. Use the search feature and go crazy. Good luck and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. There a lot of awesome guys on this site that will help steer you in the right direction.

Nice video. Hairline work is amazing, as usual, from Dr. Cooley.

Very nice result. This patient looks like he never had any hairloss.

This is an amazing result, especially for only 2488 grafts. The scar, or lack thereof, is also quite impressive. Great job by doc and staff.

This is an extremely impressive result. Dr. Konior is a true artist and does some of the cleanest work I've seen.

Thank you for the replies, gentlemen. This is what I figured, so I will probably try rogaine 5%. As far as fin goes, I really would have to give it some thought as to whether I want to take it over the long term. The native hair on top of my head is gone with only transplants left. At this point I would be strictly trying to save my crown. If I could do that, I could probably look halfway decent with 2 procedures.

As the title says can minox stop my hair loss without me taking propecia? My crown is thinning and I'd really like to stop it and possibly see if it will thicken back up a little. I've never used rogaine before, so I don't really know what effect it will have on me.

I've commented on this in another thread, but since you're asking, I had an HT 9 years ago and the transplanted hair is still there.

I was actually the one who started that thread. My reason for asking was because, like you, when looking at the pictures on this forum I saw quite a few people with donor area shock loss. I didn't suffer any from my first ht but was concerned that it could happen if I decide to go through this madness again. Looking at it logically, though, what we see on this forum is a very tiny percentage of people who have undergone surgery. I'm sure these surgeons do a ton of procedures on people that will never even come to this forum. Dr. Beehner did also state that pushing the boundaries on the length of the strip can contribute. You know as well as I do that we all want as many grafts as we can get, so maybe this plays a factor too.

I know exactly what you're going through as this is exactly my situation. I'm 44 and had mine done about 9 years ago. I never wore a hat before my ht and now I don't go anywhere without one on. It looked ok for a few years while I still had native hair up top, but now that it's gone all you see is the micro and mini grafts and they stick straight up. I wear the back and sides at a 2.5 guard and I tried buzzing down the top but it looks worse so I keep it a little longer and brush it back. I was curious about whether these grafts could be removed via fue and replanted at a more natural angle. I had also considered the same thing, having them removed entirely and just buzzing my head. The only problem is, I have a strip scar so I think I'm pretty much screwed.

@Johnny - This definitely makes sense considering Dr. Beehner's reply. @Dr. Beehner - Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question.

After my HT I never suffered shock loss in my donor area. Does this mean that if I have another procedure I won't suffer any the second time or can it vary from procedure to procedure? I've looked at a lot of post op pics on this site and I see a lot of people that suffer shock loss in the donor area.

Here ya go, a few pictures of the noggin. They aren't the best quality, but you can still get a good idea of what's going on.

Your results so far look great. I see an awesome result down the road for you. I think when it's all grown in, you're really going to appreciate that hairline design. You'll appreciate it even more 20 years from now. If it was me, I'd never add any more to the hairline. Good luck, Nick, I'll be following your journey.

@Caddy - I've only taken propecia once and that was for 10 months following my ht. I really didn't even want to take it then, but my doctor told me it would be best if I did. Had I kept taking it, I may have been able to keep my native hair on top. I know this probably isn't a popular opinion on this forum, but I don't like drugs and I especially am very wary about drugs that suppress or mess with your hormones. I suffered no side effects from propecia at any point, but my concern is what are the long term effects of taking this drug daily over a 10, 20, 30 year period of time. I don't think anybody really knows. This is strictly a personal decision for me and I certainly wouldn't preach against finasteride to anyone. I would only tell someone to thoroughly research it and decide if it's right for them. I definitely had more native hair than what was transplanted and I think I may have permanently lost some of that hair in my crown area during the transplant. @Daniel - I haven't posted any pics on this forum as of yet but I'll see if I can get a few up over the next few days. Something to keep in mind if you look at my pics. My ht was performed by an unskilled surgeon. My grafts are sparse and they all stick straight up, so I'm quite thin across the top of my head and honestly, it doesn't look very good (one of the reasons I came here, to find a skilled surgeon to fix me up). That being said, I would say that all my transplanted hair that was there at 1 year post op is still there 9 years later and it's still healthy hair, which is what you were concerned with. One last thought about people saying that their transplanted hair fell out. I'm sure that it does happen to some people but when your native hair starts falling out, it's easy to think it's your transplanted hair. I know because at one point I thought mine was falling out only to realize that it was my native hair and the transplants were still there.

Daniel, I had a HT 9 years ago when I was 35. Since then, the rest of my native hair has fallen out, but the transplanted hair is still there and still healthy.

Paranodi, Here's my advice, for what it's worth. If I were you, I wouldn't even consider a hair transplant. You have a solid head of hair. No matter how skilled the surgeon is, there are always risks involved. Ask yourself how you would feel if after the transplant your hair actually looked worse or it somehow gave an unnatural look. What if you didn't get the results you were hoping for? Could you live with that and be happy? I don't know enough about FUE to comment on that. If you get grafts put into your hairline and later on you lost more hair on top, you will have hair across the front of your head and be bald behind that. This would mean that you would need more procedures. As far as Fin goes, I know a lot of people support it and take it daily. It's a personal decision, but you have to ask yourself if you want to take a drug everyday for years. There are a few things to consider 1) There are those who don't respond to Finasteride. 2) Some people experience some harsh side effects. 3) Does anybody really know what the long term effects of this drug are? I don't mean to be a downer, but I believe in being honest. Always remember this - Once you get a hair transplant, there is no turning back. Good luck to you.

Danny, I know it can be hard, but try not to stress yourself out or worry too much. What's done is done. Hopefully some of the experienced members will jump in here and take a look at your pics. Best of luck to you and I hope you see some great results down the road.

First of all, I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I've been lurking here for a few weeks and finally decided to post. I'm 44 years old and my hair loss started when I was in my early 30's. I had my one and only transplant at age 35, in early 2005. I went to Lawrence Shapiro and it's the single biggest regret of my life. I had consultations with 2 other doctors prior to Shapiro. At age 33, I still had a solid head of hair, but I noticed it was thinning and I wanted to be proactive, so I met with Dr. Greco (when he was still in Vero Beach, Fl). He was a very cool guy, had plenty of good before and after photos on his laptop and wasn't pushy at all. Even though his results looked solid, though, I found that he wasn't actually an M.D., but a PHD, with an MD on staff. The next consultation was a local Dr and he told me that he really didn't like to perform ht's on men younger than 40. He also said that he felt I didn't need a transplant and that he would just prescribe me propecia. I declined the propecia and over the next 2 years my hair thinned at a drastic rate. It's quite possible that had I started propecia at that time, I'd still have a solid head of hair. However, I stand by my decision and have no regrets. I went to see Larry Shapiro and I did some research on him and in late 2004, there wasn't really much I could find, good or bad. Maybe I just didn't look in the right places. The whole process was high pressure sales. His before and after photos were pictures in a photo album. I honestly don't know why I went through with it. I'm so much smarter and more savvy than to be roped in by people like that. We agreed on 2500 grafts and right before my surgery, the girl came in and they wanted to sell me more grafts. So, we went with 2750. Larry cut my strip and sewed me up, otherwise I didn't see him unless he was parading prospective customers into the room to "show off the fabulous work on my donor strip." (In all fairness to him, he asked me if he could show someone the sutures and I said ok, but that turned into 5 or 6 different people.) I could also hear him going room to room working on other patients. After I had my stitches removed, I didn't hear from anyone until about 10 mos. post-op. They said I needed to come in and have my 10 mo. checkup. I was unhappy with my results, so I definitely wanted to go see them, but couldn't until my 1 year mark. When I went in, the girl asked me how everything was and I said I have some issues and I'm not happy with my results. She said, your hair looks great , this is healthy hair, 3 or 4 more procedures and the top will look like the sides. I laughed and told her I wanted to talk to the Dr. Larry comes in and says, so let's get you set up for your next session. I proceed to list the following things to him: 1) I was promised 2750 grafts and I felt that my density was very poor for that many and I felt that I hadn't received any where near that amount of grafts. He told me it looked great. 2) I also told him that my hair didn't look natural ( the plugs stick straight up) and that I had 2, 3 even 4 hair grafts in my hairline. He said they had to do that for density, because I have fine hair. ( I have coarse hair by the way). He then told me we should set up another session. At that point it took every bit of self control I had not to punch him in the face. My two biggest concerns with an HT were an unnatural look (which I now have) and having a scar on my head. He assured me the hair would look 100% natural. Sorry this is so long winded, hopefully anyone reading this who has never had an ht will take this as fair warning. Do Your Research. Also, I can't place all the blame on Lawrence Shapiro, part of the blame lies with me. On a positive note, though, I have a consultation with Dr. Glenn Charles in 2 weeks. I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully, I can finally get this repaired. Thanks for reading