I have been a regular visitor to this site for over a year now and I want to thank Pat and Bill, the patient contributors and surgeons for making this such an excellent site for research and personal hair loss experiences. I felt it was time to post some information about myself. I'm 47 years old and started losing my hair at 17. By the time I was 30 my hair loss was very obvious. I tried minoxidil with minimal success. Then I went on finasteride and a year later had my first of 5 hair transplants with Dr May. How I wish I had come across this website between 2002 and 2005 but at the time I knew very little about the hair transplant industry. Hence my repeatedly returning to Dr May at the Wimpole Clinic. The thing was, in spite of being regarded by people on the hair loss forums as an average surgeon at best, he did significantly improve my appearance and, as I was unaware of what could be achieved by an excellent surgeon, I was content to go back for more! After 5 years of being on Finasteride I belatedly recognised some very unpleasant side-effects which meant I had no choice but to come off it. It gets worse. I felt I needed to compensate for this with another transplant. Instead of going back to Dr May I liked the sound of FUE but had still to discover this and other websites. Yes I truly was a computer Luddite.This is when I very foolishly got sucked in by the marketing of those notorious hair transplant cowboys DHI. I went the way of countless other victims of theirs; paying by the hair instead of by the graft and having minimal results, not to mention horrific shock loss, followed by non-existent post-op support. Basically, they took my 4 grand for so-called 2000 hairs and ran. I was extremely depressed for a good six months until the shocked hair regrew (without any DHI new additions). That was about one and a half years ago. So bringing you up to date, I have a final opportunity to have a world class transplant and thanks to your website I've decided to go with Dr Ron Shapiro, a man I feel I can trust to do the best with my limited donor hair. I'm hoping for 2,000 grafts (please God)and the plan will be to thicken and strengthen my hairline and thicken the rest of my hair going back to my crown. Any hairs that could be placed in my crown would be a bonus. I've been so ignorant about all of this in the past I don't even know my Norwood stage but I think I'm a 5. Nor have I kept a record of how many grafts have already been implanted. I hope that Ron Shapiro will be able to estimate this for me so that I can include it in my profile along with pre and post-op pictures. Whilst I regret what has gone before, I'm hoping for a happy ending. Other people have had worse results than me but of course lots of you have had a lot better. I have to look forward now and be positive knowing I'm in the hands of an excellent surgeon. I fly out from Heathrow on Sunday and my procedure is on Tuesday 14th July. Bloomington here I come!