GoForIt

Hello, As you have looked at Bernstein's website - I would start there. He has good advice for dealing with scabs. Advice actually backed up by science. I think the grafts are safe, but you could certainly delay healing or make any scarring worse by what you do now. Good luck!

We see some pretty amazing mega-sessions here. I would view them like home-runs (to use a baseball analogy). Regardless of whether you use FUT or FUE, I believe most of the time two 2500 FU procedures spaced over a year will give a better cosmetic results versus one 5000 unit procedure. Ignoring the technical challenges and time the grafts are outside of the body, the surgeon can see how the first transplant has grown in and then plan the second procedure appropriately; the hairline can be tweaked, whether or not to address the crown can be discussed, and the donor doesn't get too taxed with one procedure. While it is really appealing to get everything done with one procedure, I think only a minority of patients, and a minority of physicians can successfully do this.

Believe me, you will not like hair loss any more in your 40's than your 20's! Be really careful as you are doing and do not jump into anything. Whichever surgeon you chose should plan for future loss and make sure that whatever procedure they do can stand on its own. Propecia helps - but nothing is guaranteed to work forever.

Ironically when I look at the hairline from the front-on perspective, it almost looks like a female hairline rather than a male hairline. I think this is from how the temples were closed. I hope is continues to respond and tolerate finasteride. This is a gamble, and only 30 or 40 years will tell. I have seen quite a few aggressive frontal restorations recently here. I wonder if in 10 years instead of talking about plug repairs we will be talking about repairing aggressive hairline and crown transplants.

This is really dependent on your first hair transplant. Most cases, with a well-placed initial incision, the scar is incorporated into the new procedure. I'd think long and hard before having a series of parallel scars up the back of my head - so if whoever you see isn't going to incorporate the first scar into the procedure I'd get a few other opinions.

This is a really nice result! The point here is not about covering every bald area, but about improving appearances. To that end, this procedure is a great success. While some clinics will do mega sessions, I think the best results I have seen are from several moderately sized procedures - that way the physician and patient can see what is important and tweak important areas like the hairline. Great job!

if you want old school - there is always castration. I have not seen anyone post there results though . . . .

Nice pictures Spanker - though I think you should have gone with crayon! :cool: the 3K difference by combining the approaches is huge in terms of coverage - that would be an additional 60 CM2 at 1/2 density (~100 vs. ~160 cm2 covered) - more if you had lighter coverage towards the back. While the math is on - I think in practice most people would get a bit less than 2.4K grafts after being stripped out, but the pictures really show the idea well. I think people forget the goal is maximum coverage with as natural look as possible, not to have a particular type of operation.

There is always a wire transfer or a traveler's check. Then there is always the suitcase full of small bills route . . . :rolleyes: (NOT A GOOD IDEA!). There are legitimate reasons to prefer cash (no fees), but then there is also the issue of them not reporting the income and dodging taxes.

Reach back onto your head and pinch your scalp. Most people can pinch a roll of skin. There is some redundancy. When you cut out the strip, you essentially are doing a scalp reduction. You have some stretchback (which is why scalp reductions didn't work too well), but it isn't 100%. Think of it as a tummy tuck for your scalp - why would people have tummy tucks if the skin were to just stretch back to the original size? The goal isn't to get FUE or FUT, but to maintain or create the fullest head of hear with the most coverage. FUE, FUT, and medications are tools

I'd recommend that you go to Dr. Bernstein's website, he's a forum member and he has a good discussion on this topic. If you could look into a crystal ball and say where each individuals safe donor region was and harvest over the entire safe region with FUE then you could probably just go with FUE. The older the individual, the less the hair loss, the greater the confidence in the safe region to harvest from. It isn't about 1+1 = 3, but about how you can move the most number of hairs which are safe without compromising the look of the donor region. If you have reasonable scalp laxity you can cut out a portion of the scalp and not affect the apparent density much (though you will have less surface area of hair-bearing scalp). With FUE, you don't decrease the surface area much, but you diffusely decrease the density.

Bernstein is conservative - you don't see any 'repair' cases generated by him, but he does plenty of repairs of bad hair transplants. I visited with Bernstein - he will tell you what he sees as the best option, not what you want to hear. If you look through his website you can see he's thought about every aspect of a hair transplant and wants to maximize the cosmetic impact of a limited number of grafts. Feller has a following on here - but if you read through some of his posts on here, I was not impressed with the way he responded to questions or criticism. If you're in NY, why not visit with True & Dorin and Wesley as well. You have fairly extensive hair loss, and you need someone who is going to make sure you look good 20 years from now as well as a year from now. Good luck, GFI

When I investigated going on finasteride I looked at several studies. You have more than a chance at stopping your hair loss. This study was not done by a drug company and followed 110 men on finasteride for 10 years: Rossi Dermatologic Therapy, Vol. 24, 2011, 455–461 86% either had no further progression or even improvement in their hair loss. Only 6% had any side effects, and fewer men stopped because of side effects. So, not 100%, but more than a chance. There are a lot of people who will go on about the side effects - you may get some, but most men don't have any. Good luck!

Yes - local pharmacy. I live in New England as well. Pharmacies will vary in price a bit. Generic is cheaper than brand name. Generic 1mg finasteride still costs more than the generic 5mg. You need a prescription - my primary card provider gives me mine. Why the price difference - I have no idea. Someone must be making money off this somewhere.

I split 5mg finasteride tablets into quarters. The cost is $15 for a 3 month supply. $60 a year.