generic1

I'm sure this question has been hashed over already. Can anyone point me to some links on the forum discussing how long the recommended wait period is before a second HT? I'm finishing up on month 9, and it's doubtful the three remaining months will yield satisfactory results. Is there a standard duration? Or does it vary from surgeon to surgeon?

Is there anything to be done about this? I went to a top 5 clinic, and 8 months in, I'm very disappointed that much of my new hair grows in an unnatural direction. From the temples, a significant number of my transplanted hairs grow forward, pointing towards my face. Others straight point out, perpendicular to the skull, and don't follow the natural flow of my native hair. The same problem goes for the hairline. If I would've know this was going to be a problem, I'm not sure I would've taken the leap. I'm thinking maybe using that high-powered relaxer stuff that African-american women use, but I don't have any experience with it. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Ditto. I'm at 4 months post transplant. My right side is coming in much stronger than my left as well.

My HT was done by Shapiro Medical Group

He is a top-5 doctor and I dont think he did anything wrong. I think my expectations for density were set a bit high, and there may have been some reduced growth in the hairline. I have seen him use "jaggies" on other patients and it looks good, but for whatever reason, in my case they seem pronounced. By any chance, do your "jaggies" look anything like mine? I'm only 2 months post-op, so you'll only be able to see what mine looked like the day after the procedure. I've always thought of them as "piers" because that's the way they look on a map. http://tinyurl.com/jaggies http://tinyurl.com/piers482 Like you, I've seen my top-5 clinic produce good outcomes using this method. But I wasn't aware of their "jaggy" technique until after the procedure and have no small amount of anxiety about what the result will be.

This has to do with the control boundaries that were set up during the initial pharmaceutical research. The pharmacological effect is potent throughout ALL areas of the scalp. Is this true? I should be applying Rogaine to the hairline too?

I think this is important. The result, while insufficient, is utterly organic. Also, that scar at "11 months wet" looks nigh undetectable.

??? While the actual photos that H&W chose to use for their estimates did not include my whole face, they did indeed receive a number of pictures separately that showed my face in its entirety. ??? The Epstein pictures were taken by the patient coordinator, so I can't speak to those. I'm guessing not. ??? The Shapiro photos included my entire face, and were edited by me afterwords.

Of course I'm not going to go for the full Mike Ditka, and I understand the notion of saving donor hair to guard against future loss. But I do question the received wisdom that a hairline at 34 can't reasonably look the same as a hairline at 64. I look at Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Alec Baldwin, etc. Putting the issue of density aside for a moment, their hairlines did not recede or mature at all, and I don't recall them suffering adverse consequences -- quite the contrary. Their very success depends on remaining in the public eye. No one mentions their "immature hairlines." These are not the majority of men, sure. But I see these Stalin-esque hairlines in men over 50 all the time. And even the Shapiro estimate isn't that aggressive.

Really? If I'm not mistaken Bill is 32, and he had significantly more hairloss than I do. Was his decision ill-advised? What am I missing?

I did receive graft estimates. ??? Hasson & Wong recommended 1500 for the hairline and a minimum of 2000 grafts on the crown. ??? Epstein recommended 2400-2700 for the hairline, with little or no work recommended on the crown. ??? Shapiro Medical Group recommended "1500 -2300, maybe 2500" for the hairline and 800-1000 for the crown. Before going further, I should mention I have a very rare learning disorder called dyscalculia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia Numbers, spatial relations, even reading a map, is very difficult for me. So if there's ever a discrepancy regarding numbers, it's usually my fault. Anything that has to do with the abstraction of quantity is very hard for me to understand. That's kind of why I needed the pictures. It was easier for me to figure out how the numbers corresponded to the hairlines. Still, the large variation in graft recommendations was pretty distressing.

I'm certainly open to what kind of work everyone thinks I should have done. The majority opinions of this forum are certainly more informed than my own.

Hasson & Wong are the only ones who offer this service as a function of their online consultation, so yes, more time was taken in the process of rendering the photo digitally. But I wouldn't penalize the other two in comparison though, being as how they don't normally offer the feature. I liked the service so much that I requested it from the other prospective clinics, and they were kind enough to accommodate me. I think everyone should offer it. It's a great way to manage expectations. ??? The Hasson & Wong photos were taken by me with my laptop camera. After looking at the lighting quality of some other photos on this site, mine left something to be desired. So if there's an apples-to-oranges effect going on here, I apologize. ??? The Epstein photos were taken by their patient coordinator on a visit to me here in San Francisco. They were more for the surgeon to evaluate back in Miami, than for the me, the patient. ??? The Shapiro photos were taken by myself after I went out and finally bought a digital camera. (Which I should've done in the first place.) Yes, absolutely. It's tough for those of us born with huge, high foreheads to resist thinking of hair transplantation as a cosmetic way to mitigate that fact, instead of just the hair loss, (which is what we should be focused on). It's not that we want high-school hairlines per se (a la Robert Pattinson) we just wish for more natural forehead-to-face ratios. (And no Mane Attraction, I have had no previous hair transplants. Virgin scalp, for the moment.)

Hey guys, My research phase is drawing to a close and I'm about to choose a surgeon pretty shortly. I want to make sure my pre-op photos are good enough for everyone to evaluate for the before and after stages. I've tried to mix in a variety of lighting brightnesses and flash settings. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Hey guys, My research phase is drawing to a close and I'm about to choose a surgeon pretty shortly. I want to make sure my pre-op photos are good enough for everyone to evaluate for the before and after stages. I've tried to mix in a variety of lighting brightnesses and flash settings. Thoughts? Suggestions?