pkipling

Thanks for the new pics, and it's good to hear you scheduled a consultation to see what the doctor has to say. The updated pictures definitely give a more accurate depiction of your hair loss, and hopefully you'll be able to get a good idea of how your hair loss may progress at your consultation so you can come up with a proper plan of attack. :cool:

I will say it's quite remarkable how much better your hair looks when it's dry as opposed to wet. That's a nice little trick you'll be able to keep up your sleeves.

That's awesome. I can only imagine the difference this has made in his life. Good work!

Hey guys. I'm happy to say that I just reached the 4 month mark over the weekend. So technically, this means I'm about a month into the beginning stages of growth. I decided to completely buzz my head after surgery and kept it that way up until about a month ago so that it could all hopefully start coming in nice and even. I'm extremely pleased with the way it seems to be turning out and am really looking forward to months 6, 7 and beyond.

I'm taking 1.25 mg of Finasteride daily as well (with no sides, as of yet). All I know is that it feels so fantastic to leave the house without feeling so insecure about my hairline. :cool:

Any way you can post a working picture so we can see? The link you gave says the photo is locked.

From what you've described though, it sounds quite normal.

Check out my photos on my blog and look at my pictures from the day after my surgery to see how they compare.

Hey guys. I just wanted to share this exciting little discovery with any of you suffering from dandruff/dry scalp/dermatitis/etc. I've had a problem with it since I was a kid (dermatitis and dry scalp, specifically) and have never found anything that would really work. I tried all the dandruff shampoos over the past 20 years and have never had much success. My scalp has even gotten so bad at times that it gets all red and scabby and super itchy, which is not only painful, but can be quite embarrassing as well.

Oddly enough, after my HT several months ago and buzzing my head completely, it all stopped (I assume because the hair was so short and the scalp was able to breathe? I have no idea). But once my hair started growing back in, the flaky scalp/dandruff started back up at full force. I tried coconut oil, which helped a bit with keeping the scalp moisturized, but the flakes would pick back up a couple days later. (Not to mention, the oil stays in your hair for a bit and looks really shiny - which you may or may not care for.) Anyway.... Raw Organic Apple Cider Vinegar is proving to be my miracle cure.

At first, I simply applied the vinegar directly to my scalp to really give my scalp an aggressive cleansing. Since then, I have added the vinegar to my regular shampoo at about a 1:1 ratio and use it about every other day. So far, it has stopped the flakes and itchiness completely.... 3 weeks and counting. Hallelujah.

Side note: Try to followup with something in your hair that will mask that vinegar smell so people don't smell the ACV when you walk by. It's not the most attractive scent out there. (Speaking from personal experience.... :cool:)

Would love to hear if anyone else has success with this.

Just realizing you'll be starting work back today. How's the redness? Did you end up using aloe vera or anything on your scalp? Would be interested to see if you had any success with anything of that nature. I'm not aware of that being a common treatment, but it does seem like something that could possibly work.

Exactly what London81 said: If anything, there are reports showing that caffeine can actually help the growth of your hair. But the primary point is that after about 5 days post op, there isn't really much you can do to damage those grafts. So take a breather and let it run its course. The only thing for certain that isn't helping your growth is your stress level - so let's keep it cool, calm, and collected with a smile on your face.... I mean, you do have a new hairline waiting on you right around the corner. That's something to smile about.

I agree man. Don't pay too much attention to the horror stories. I'm not saying to be careless, as there are side effects with any drug you take, but the number of people who do experience sides is very low. Not to mention, there are so many other factors that contribute to ED at any given point in a man's life that I think it would be difficult to narrow it down to one specific factor and be able to blame the drug entirely.

The only way to know for sure if you yourself will experience side effects is to give it a shot. I've not had any problems with it so far, and all the guys I know personally that take it haven't had any problems either.

I started taking it before my HT and believe that it may have contributed to me not experiencing any shock loss. In fact, I even managed to keep some of my original grafts. If you're otherwise quite healthy and in shape, I don't see why you couldn't give it a shot and trust that the system down south won't let you down.

I agree completely. Find something natural with very few chemicals that will be very gentle on your scalp. Additionally, I would wash my hair with a sponge for a bit to give it some extra TLC, and used a rubber "scrubber" type thing on the donor area. It all worked very well - and felt quite nice.

I agree with Muso - Can you take us some photos of your hairline from the front with the temple/front area lifted up? That would give us a better idea of what you're dealing with as far as your recession goes. Based on the pictures, you seem to be in pretty good shape to me as well.

New pictures pending, it does seem that you could be somewhat in the same boat I was in (though my MPB was quite a bit more advanced than yours). I had 2,000 grafts done (FUE) about 3 1/2 months ago and ended up doing the buzz cut post op. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and it goes by quick... And in the end, worth every second.

I opted for the buzz cut after surgery myself and did the full buzz to even everything out about 1 week after the surgery. After day 5, the grafts are firmly in place, so I forced myself not to worry about losing them, but I was still quite careful when cutting it. I still used a decent sized guard on the clippers so I didn't even risk the razor getting too close to my scalp, and I just kept going over everything really gently until it all looked more even. I think at day 18, you should be fine as long as your scalp isn't particularly sore or tender.

As for the redness, definitely make sure you keep sunscreen on your scalp and that you apply it frequently enough based on the SPF you use. I chose to go the hat route for the first month while the redness was still really noticeable, as I didn't have much luck with concealers (and I didn't want to bombard my healing scalp with too much "gunk"). After the first month, I started going without a hat, as it didn't look as alarming or drastic as it did at first and started to appear to more more like a slight sunburn.

Also.... I noticed that hot showers seemed to increase the redness of the donor area for me that would last at least several hours after my shower. So try to keep the water closer to a room temperature when washing your hair and see if that helps keep the redness down.

Best of luck, and keep us posted on your progress!

Haha. It's funny you say this. I've found myself associating certain generic avatars with one particular user, and it always throws me for a loop when I see that same avatar with a different name. It's definitely confusing. :]

Woah! Mad props buddy. On the transplant andthe weight loss.... Quite the transformation, indeed. You've gotta be proud of yourself, that's for sure.

And the kicker is that I have two brothers who are just one year apart in age and neither of them got MPB, just me...:rolleyes:

Looks like we need to find out who your real father is.

On another note, I've been cutting the generic into quarters myself, and I agree it's not the easiest to cut evenly. Some days I may get a tad more, some days a tad less - but I assume it balances itself out in the end.

Don't die! Whatever you do, don't die.

Hard to say if it's MPB or not based on that alone. A picture would definitely help and I'm not familiar with the differences in the bulbs, so I can't speak to that. However, it's important to note a few things:

"Hair fall" is very normal and doesn't necessarily mean hair loss. Most people lose up to 100 hairs a day, but we have so many that they keep themselves in rotation, so to speak. Now that you're noticing the hair falling out, it's possible that you're just highly sensitive to the hair loss and what could be completely normal seems worse than it actually is.

I know firsthand how terrifying it is when you first start losing your hair (or just even the possibility that you're losing your hair). It would make me physically ill some days - but that was in large part due to the fact that I didn't know there were solutions. So on the chance that this is something you're gonna have to deal with in the future (and you would be in great company), there are solutions - from prescription medicine, to over the counter treatments, to vitamins, to an actual hair transplant (which is what I've done recently). So try not to stress too much about it. The stress will only contribute even more to any hair loss you could be experiencing.

Just curious - Does baldness run in your family? If so and you know it's something you need to keep an eye out for, you're safest bet is to set up an appointment with a physician and see what they have to say. The earlier you can catch it, the better off you'll be.

Best of luck!

And seriously.... Don't die.

Just stumbled across this post. Fantastic results. Now it's gotten me all giddy waiting for mine to grow in like that.... 3 months and counting!

This is fascinating to me. It looks great, first of all, but it never even crossed my mind that this was something people would be so concerned about and go through an expensive surgery to have repaired. My facial hair looks like this guy's did before the transplant - and while it might be cool if I had the full stubble/beard look, it would have never even crossed my mind to do anything about it. I'll stick with my minimal scruff and my standard HT. But kudos to this guy for taking care of business... (I mean seriously... FUE in the face? Dude is a boss.)

What is a good site to get cipla's fincar from? I ordered from inhousepharmacy.com but they require a prescription so I'm not sure they will ship before I submit that to them, which of course I don't have. Thx

Are you located in the US? If so, I get mine from Target for super cheap. I get 30 of the 5mg and cut them into quarters so that the one prescription lasts me 4 months. I don't recall the exact price of the prescription, but it's under $15 - so I just pay several bucks a month.

Patrick,

 

I used to take 1.25 mg of Proscar daily but now I take the same dosage "every other day" and still maintain good efficiency. Did not experience a shed either, knock on wood...

 

I started low dose finasteride in 1996 and been on it ever since. My maternal grandfather and uncle were both a full blown Norwood 6 and I truly believe I would have reached that had I not started finasteride.

I've heard of this being quite common - switching the dosage to every other day... I'll run that by my doctor sometime in the future and get his thoughts on it, but for now I'm just fine with the daily dose.

Any particular reason you decided to switch to every other day? And how long have you been on the lower dosage/frequency?

Regardless.... I'm glad you dodged the NW6 bullet. ))

I work in an office so can't get away with a hat. I hope my normal hair will grow 2cm+ quickly so I can just let the fringe cover it.

 

Sucks for me that I'm not olive... I hope the concealer will do the trick for the first weeks.

Just a thought, but I wouldn't rule the hat idea out completely. Technically, we can't wear hats at my job either, but Dr. Mohebi wrote me a note saying that I needed to keep my scalp covered due to surgery - and if it's dictated by a physician, I don't think they can object. Fortunately, I didn't even have to cross that bridge of what to do if they had said no, as my employers didn't even ask to see the note (I had it as more of a backup plan).... I simply explained to them that I had a minor operation and would need to keep my scalp covered for at least a month. They were more concerned about my wellbeing and health to really question it, not to mention it's generally in bad taste to push for more information when dealing with personal things of that nature. Sooooo..... I was able to get a nice, professional, hat (that my bosses and the owners of the company actually thought looked great and approved of), and I wore it until the redness went down (about 4 weeks). So it's worth a shot. I anticipated at least a little bit of push back, and got none... So you could be surprised. Ya never know until you ask.

Woah! That looks awesome man. Congratulations indeed.

I tried the makeup solution myself and it didn't look right. Granted, it may have been user error, but it simply wasn't effective for me. In order to cover the redness, I had to use a lot of makeup... And when I used a lot, the makeup was noticeable. So I washed it out and opted for a hat instead. I wore the hat for a month before I felt comfortable going out without it. Even then it was still a bit red, but not alarmingly so. I found that even the few people who knew I had the transplant just felt that it looked like I was a bit sunburnt. Even now, almost 14 weeks post-op, the redness isn't completely gone but it's hardly noticeable anymore as the hair has started growing in (little by little)....

Is wearing a hat an option for you?

Good to see you're doing your research. I wanna reiterate what has already been said about not being afraid to travel. You want to make sure you choose a doctor that you feel comfortable with and trust to do the job right, first and foremost. I lucked out with the doctor I chose being local for me, so it was quite convenient, but many doctors will help compensate you for any travel/hotel expenses so that you don't have a ton of extra costs on top of an already somewhat pricey procedure.

And just a thought - Given you're a NW2, did the doctor mention that you could possibly fix the problem with medication? Granted, this would require you even considering going on Finasteride, which is an entirely different subject altogether. But it's my understanding that some doctors won't even consider operating on a NW2. (Can any of you long-timers verify if this is true?)

Thanks bro good luck on your journey. Would it be ok if I could pm you in the future to get more info if I take the transplant route.

For sure dude. Anytime.

Thanks friend for the idea let me ask you or anybody else that had hairtransplant. Does the hair implanted start growing like normal hair or does it do the peach fuzz route then shed for the regular hair. Thanks

Mine has started coming in pretty much just like normal hair, though at first it did seem a little bit finer than the rest.... But that seemed to be because they were coming in so little at a time (and a few of the grafts had never completely fallen out from the surgery). I definitely wouldn't call it peach fuzz though.