hopingforhair

Hi, I have played with the idea of a HT for a couple of years now and am especially interested in BHT but not much progress seems to have been made with it. I would want to wear my hair short- level 1 or lower buzz cut after a HT so the length of BHT doesn't bother me but is there anyone on here who keeps it that low after HT? I'm interested in seeing the scars (if any) in the donor and recipient areas. Cheers!

Did anyone find out anything about this? I've seen his youtube video but can't find any info on forums etc.....seems a bit too good to be true?

Thanks darlinglocks, I haven't been on the forum for a while as I was seeing if I could learnt to live with it but I think I want to take the risk as if it all works out I know I'll be so much happier!

HTsoon, when you refer to good cosmetic result are you talking about the length that the hair will grow or just the look/ feel of the individual hairs? I am considering using body hair as I feel that my donor area isn't great and also I buzz and will be buzzing my hair even after the HT so hopefully in this case the cosmetic look will be similar to existing scalp hairs. Another reason is I don't want to have a lot of visible scars on the back of my head as I'll have it buzzed.

Thanks splitting hairs, those suggestions are very helpful! I have been using t-gel therapeutic shampoo which I think is the main tar-based one that they have but I havent heard of the sensitive shampoo so I'll check it out. My GP isn't great I get very frustrated with them as, I do understand it is their job, but they assume that I have not researched or read up on things and are going to them with a blank mind so it gets frustrating when they prescribe me ketoconazole based shampoos even though I explain they have dried my scalp out in the past. Out of curiosity, how often do you wash your hair? Do you leave it in for around 5 minutes like they suggest or less/longer? Have you ever used oil to soften the scales and then remove them? Ive read this on the internet a lot and have tried it to some degree of success. What is the consistency of the Cocois ointment like? If my hair was thicker/stronger I have no doubt I would be able to control the condition but as removing the scales often removes some hairs with it I think this must be having quite a large influence on my reluctance to keep it as clean as possible.

Hey pkipling, I know it is a weird concept lol. Basically I think it comes down to the fact that I wear my hair very short (0.5 on the sides and pretty much the same on top) so I can get away with the build up almost looking like its part of my hair? I do clean parts of it here and there but I think I'm so worried about the extent of my hairloss that to clean it all would be a big shock for me and would also make any hair transplant I have a lot more noticeable which is one of the main things I want to avoid. Ideally, I want to convince a surgeon that it can be fully cleaned but for me to only do this a few days before surgery for those reasons. I thought it would be possible to gradually do this- clean part, get surgery, let it heal and then go for another but I see that this isn't really an option. To clean my whole scalp is what needs to happen first which is dissapointing. I have been taking propecia for the last few months and I'm hoping that will strengthen some of my existing hair or even start to grow it back again, so far I think it is haveing some beneficial effect and I haven't noticed any sides- I've been going to the gym more in an attempt to counteract any effect lower DHT might have in my body and this is obviously having a general good effect on my health. I think you are right about the 'keeping the build up at bay' affecting transplanted hairs. The build up is largely due to my thinking that I'd rather have this here than loose more hair/ reveal more scalp.. so if the new hairs were strong I would have no problem washing that area properly as I know these hairs won't be falling out.

Thanks for the detailed reply darlinglocks! It sounds like you had a good experience and if I decide to have a larger transplant I think I will go to Dr Bhatti. Did you travel on your own? I suppose the advantage of going there would also be that you could see a bit of the country like you said however what about healing times? I am a bit worried about flying when the transplanted areas are still healing. This would definitely be the main advantage for me if I could have it done in Europe.

Thanks darlinglocks, I have heard a lot of good things about Dr Bhatti so will be reading up more on him. How was your experience in general? Hotel/ service etc?

Hi pkipling, whenever I don't wash my hair my scalp gets very oily and tends to stay that way BUT it feels dry.. I know its weird but yes, I'd rather have the build up on my scalp than clean it off as it makes my hair look thicker. This is why I want a hair transplant and am going to try to convince the doctors that the build up can be removed fairly easy (with my before and after pics mentioned above), I just don't do it as it would make the results seem even more obvious which I want to try to avoid. Even reading this back I think I sound a bit crazy lol but I guess I have just got used to it over the years. With that said I know it needs to change and a hair transplant feels like my best hope. I have tried the apple cider vinegar but as there is build up on my scalp it seemed to "hold" the smell and I couldn't wash it out properly. I will look into the ovation cell therapy shampoo but as you mention, I have learnt to listen to my scalp. My experience with Nizoral wasn't very pleasant and I continued to use it as I had heard such great things but eventually my scalp felt horribly tight all the time and I had to stop using it. I even tried to mix a bit of it with other milder shampoos but it still made my scalp overly dry. I appreciate your help though, when I find something that works for me I'll defintely make sure I share my story in the hope it works for someone else becuase it can be so frustrating!

Thanks California that was very helpful- I'd be more than happy to sacrifice axillary hair for use on my head. I'm slightly worried about the scarring from using a donor area on my head as I wear my hair very short (clipper grade 1 or lower) and so using axillary from my armpit would be ideal. Does Dr Bhatti offer smaller surgeries? I'd like to see how it heals on a smaller scale before commiting to a bigger surgery. Thanks

Hey Dr Blake Bloxham, Thanks for the reply it was very helpful, the enlarging of the sebaceous glands with androgenic alopecia makes sense to me as when I started losing my hair I noticed a big increase in the greasiness of my scalp. It seems whenever I wash it the greasiness will return a couple of hours later so I try to stick to washing it every two days as any more seems unecessary. I have tried Nizoral but unfortunately it made my scalp very tight and I feel like it was counterproductive. The t-gel shampoo I currently seems to be agreeing with me for now so hopefully my scalp doesn get immune to its effects if thats possible. I have taken pics of my scalp with the seborrehic dermatitus build up and then taken some more pics after cleaning an area to show that it can be removed and my scalp isn't damaged beneath it but the surgeon I showed it to wanted a full clean scalp before proceeding. I was disappointed as I live in the UK and his clinic in Belgium is highly regarded on this site so it would have been convinient for me but I'll contact a few more surgeons this weekend and see if I can get a smaller surgery on a clean area to understand heling times before commiting to a larger one. Thank you for your advice!

I've read through all the threads on washing hair and I'm surprised that there aren't more as I felt that this would be a common worry for men losing their hair. The consensus seems to be that washing hair will not speed up the hair loss process, is this true? My post is kind of long so my main questions are: what mild shampoos are recommended to use along with the stronger ones and does anyone use oil on their scalp to loosen hardened skin? I think I stopped washing my hair properly about 10 years ago when I started noticing hairs on my towel/ in the shower. After I started shedding I shaved my head to about a level 1 and its been that ever since. I used minoxidil and didn't really wash my hair properly and I think this is what has lead to my seborrheic dermatitis. I'm genuinely scared to wash my hair properly, skin seems to build up and now when I'm looking into a hair transplant I can't get one until my skin is clean (which I guess is fair enough). I want to clean it but the skin is quite tough in some places. I use T-gel and sells blue and leave it in for at least 5 minutes. This loosens the skin but I think the water also weakens the hair so if I try to peel bits off I often lose hair with it. I've noticed when it is hot and I've been out the night before my hair can get greasy but this seems to loosen the hard skin a bit. This is why I'm thinking using oil on my scalp can help me to clean it of this residual skin build up. Has anyone discussed this before? I'm still searching so might come across something on the forum. In a weird way I've come to like the skin build up as it makes my hair look thicker but I know its not healthy and catch some people looking at it which can be embarrassing.. I want to clean it and get a transplant ASAP so that its not as noticeable that I've had work done so I'm trying to figure out my options. I was curious if I could have a smaller operation to see how it heals etc before I commit to a larger one but I'll start another thread on that. Appreciate any replies! Thanks.

Hi ratha, Did you go through with the surgery? i'm thinking of doing something similar.

Hey California, Do you know why the patient wasn't able to use the hair on his stomach? Does it have to be from the chest? What other sources have doctors had success with except bearch and chest (both of which I have little of). Thanks Ben

Hi Abbie, I have seen some of Dr Umar's work and am particualrly interested in his use of body hair. I know in the past some of his patients have used hair from their legs and I have read about others being able to use armpit hair. Have any of Dr Umar's patients in these circumstances had to return or has the transplanted hair remained? I am worried about using chest hair due to the scarring, does Dr Umar still use leg or other hair for surgery or is it mainly chest and beard? I have only recently decided to look further into this so apologies if it has been mentioned in other posts, I will be reading a lot of the next few days. Thanks Ben

Hi Abbie, I have seen some of Dr Umar's work and am particualrly interested in his use of body hair. I know in the past some of his patients have used hair from their legs and I have read about others being able to use armpit hair. Have any of Dr Umar's patients in these circumstances had to return or has the transplanted hair remained? I am worried about using chest hair due to the scarring, does Dr Umar still use leg or other hair for surgery or is it mainly chest and beard? I have only recently decided to look further into this so apologies if it has been mentioned in other posts, I will be reading a lot of the next few days. Thanks Ben

Great update William its always fantastic to hear about and see when someone gets the results they are looking for. These pictures are exactly what I was looking for in terms of any scarring that results from the BHT. In your case it looks minimal but you do have more chest hair than me so I feel it would be more noticeable on my chest which is disappointing. I always knew there would have to be some kind of scarring I just wasn't sure what it would be like- I'm not sure if you had a chance to see the message I sent you about leg hair? The surgeons you went to seem really good so I wondered if they ever offered you that option or explained why they didn't use it?

Every time I get close to thinking I'm going to start using Fin I read a post like this that makes me change my mind...Originally I was thinking I would just buy it off of a website but now I'm going to go to a doctor and ask to get prescription for it and if I can't get one I will at least ask to get a blood test so I can compare how/if it has effected me in 12 months time.

Congratulations on your results William! I'm going to be looking to get a transplant soon and was hoping I could utilise some body hair so its good to see that it actually heals pretty nicely. Is there any reason why surgeons don't want to use leg hair? Mine is much thicker than my chest hair with three or so hairs per graft so I hate it but if I could use it on my head that would be great! If you were to shave your chest is the pigment of your skin darker where the donor hair was extracted? I don't have much chest hair so if I used it I would probably have to use it all lol.

Has anyone heard from cousinr? It would be so interesting to see how the results are now. I'm also really interested in knowing what the scarring is like on the BHT donor site because I feel like I can use some of my chest hair but don't want any spots etc on my chest where hair used to be..

Great thread, really interesting as I am reading up as much as I can before getting one done...maybe I'm just trying to put it off as long as possible lol but it is nerve-racking stuff!

Thanks for your reply, the link really did have a lot of information in it. I didn't read through the whole thread because after the first couple of pages it was mainly people asking questions that had already been covered but I did read through a good 20 pages with some interesting points. It didn't directly answer my question but it seems that 0.5mg is just as effective as 1mg and even 0.2mg can provide nearly as much benefit as 0.5mg. As these were based on findings I guess I can take 0.2mg and hope to get good results... Definitely going to up my exercise and improve my diet to try and counteract any sides I might get though.

Hi, I was wondering if anyone on here has done anything like this? Although there is a lot of praise for the drug there are always some bad experiences and these are the ones that seem to stick in peoples minds. Personally, I had a bad experience but I think it was partly down to lack of knowledge on the subject but more recently I'm thinking it may be down to my size. I am still learning and don't have half the knowledge of some of the people on this forum but I'm a pretty small guy- 5ft 7in, 64kg and I think with a drug like this, the dosage could be very relevant to the mass of someone. I say that because I assume that the larger someone is (more muscle mass etc) the more testosterone/DHT they would have running through their blood. I get that you could have a small person with high levels and a large person with low levels but on average would this not be the case? The problem with forums are that you don't know who is talking, its just a screen name and rarely anything more. So when I read a guy saying he has taken 1mg propecia tablets every day and has had great results I'm thinking that's great news for me as well, let me try it! Unfortunately he could be 7ft and pure muscle so I'm certain that the drug would have a different effect on him. I get that these are extreme examples (and I didn't take 1mg) but I feel that there are so many people on this forum who use the drug and have had experiences that there is literally a gold mine of knowledge out there. We are always citing clinical studies that lasted 'X' amount of months but there are people with years of experience- real life experience and I know it won't be 100% scientifically accurate but due to the massive sample size I feel confident that some kind of pattern would form from it. Perhaps one where new comers can see as a first reference what they can expect from the drug. Unfortunately I don't have the capacity to do this- I'm not nearly scientific-minded or organised to create a project like this but perhaps someone on this forum is capable of doing it? Just a little thought...

Hi Mickey, I'm new here and seriously considering FUE but am very curious about the scarring it causes, especially on more tanned skin which is what I have. From personal experience I noticed that if I cut myself shaving then the scar it leaves is normally darker than my natural skin colour and I don't really want the back of my head to be riddled with dark spots from the donor area... I noticed you said you were going to add some pics on scarring? Or was this a differnt thread? Apologies, I am still getting used to using the site properly. Cheers