BetterLate

ersko72 and Raman, Thanks for the encouragement. It had been very long since I'd been online, so I thought I'd try to come back a couple times to take care of any questions. I don't know how helpful they are--the second one shows the results a lot better than the first after you open it up--but I snapped a couple shots with my cell phone to try to show the temple points. http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/user_album_update.php?album_id=4223 After seeing longer-term results from my own surgery, I think anyone who has receded on the sides of their forehead might want to consider giving up some of their donor hairs to add to the temples. In my particular case, it seems to have made a very big difference as far as giving the illusion that I've got a nice thick head of hair. Best of luck to you both as you take the plunge in the coming weeks! PS optimist800, let me know if you end up finding the book as useful as I did. If so, I'll keep recommending it. I try to temper my over-enthusiasm, but, when something really works...

ersko72, I wanted to answer your last few questions that you left after my post over the weekend. What percentage of follicles transferred do you estimate survived? If I were to make a ballpark guess for a million dollar prize regarding how many of the follicles survived transplantation, I’d say 95% of the grafts survived… give or take 5%. By far, the vast majority seemed to survive and still thrive to this day. Have many people noticed or commented? Everyone thinks I look much younger than before. Those who don’t know about my procedure have no idea what's different. Those who had been told by someone that I’d had the transplant still marvel at how fantastic it looks. How do you feel about the transplant 10 months on? I think I may have answered that final question fairly completely at the end of my post the other day. Perhaps the closest to a single-sentence bottom line answer I can offer is that I certainly look many years younger than I did before. [by the way, I want to apologize for my overly-lengthy and editorializing post the other day. I haven't been writing much recently, and was rather rushed. I just edited it down to be a little better/clearer.]

It's been a long time since I've been on the web site. Indeed, I had trouble logging on and then figuring out again how to post photos. Additionally, my earlier post from today did not appear right away (and still has not as I write this) because I guess posts now go to web site monitors before appearing in the forums... which is something new to me, but probably an improvement for a number of reasons. Anyway, below should be a link to photos I uploaded a few minutes ago showing results from my surgeries which took place at the end of the first week last December. Ten and a Half Months Update Photos If you do go to look at the photos, please note the comment I made on that page. Thanks again to everybody who helped me along on this years-long journey!

For starters, a correction to my last posting of photos--I’d said that I was then at the six-month mark. But, I was actually only five months post-op at that point. I’ll try to come back as time permits to post more milestone pictures down the road since it might be helpful for those wanting to see longer-term results during their decision-making process. There are a few things that I was trying to remember to mention whenever I'd have time to update my thread and post newer photos. One of them was my experience with Biotin supplements. I’d read a comment on the forums about them being good for making hair thicker/healthier... and also that some people suffer side effects from taking them. As my hair really started growing well after a few months, I started taking one 1000 mg Biotin tablet per day. It really did become noticeably thicker, so I decided that I'd continue taking Biotin indefinltely. Rather suddenly, I developed cystic acne on the back of my neck. I consulted a dermatologist who told me that cystic acne is one of the potential side effects encountered from taking Biotin supplements. I immediately stopped taking it, and the cyst subsided over the next number of days. It seems like it might be worth giving Biotin a shot. If someone gets the positive results I did but doesn’t suffer from any side effects, it could be a great thing? Many others in the forums certainly know much more than I on this topic, so I’ll leave it at that. READYFORHAIR, thanks for your positive comments, as always. I looked over your profile pages from your link and must say that you’ve done a fantastic job creating a great resource for anyone going through this process. Nowsthetime9, you’d narrowed down your choices to two great ones. I see that you opted for the trip to Madrid and are now sharing your experiences. Congratulations! johntra, man if you aren’t the Poster Boy every doctor would want. You say you’re happy… and you sure ought to be—you look fantastic! NewLook2015, I couldn’t find any of your pix. If you’re so inclined and feel like it at some point, drop a link on this thread to make it easy for this old man to see your progress. You’d asked about the process of the hair falling out. My experience was pretty much as you describe. In the end, ever since all of the transplanted hair grew back in, it’s as good as I could have hoped for—I can comb it and part it in any direction with it looking completely natural. I’m guessing you may have found the same? ersko72, thanks for the encouragement and the enthusiasm you put into all of your posts around the board that I saw--your appreciative attitude makes me and others want to come back and keep posting more future results. Obviously you’ve had no side effects from the Finasteride, so it would seem to make sense to keep it going. If you’re lucky, it’ll keep you in handsome shape until hair cloning becomes the practical state-of-the-art method. Optimist800, the original Psycho-Cybernetics book is a short primer on how to wholesale change your life in the quickest and easiest way possible. It jump-started the Self-Help revolution that continues in earnest right through today. Virtually all successful gurus in the market have acknowledged a debt to its author, Dr. Maltz. The explanations and examples he used in his original book are direct and to the point. As a successful plastic surgeon, he was in a markedly unique position to see how our self-image dictates almost everything in our lives. Now, back to the main purpose of this posting… I’ll upload some photos taken just last night with my cell phone camera. I’d been thinking that it might be helpful to show people here on the board how my ultimate results may not seem very good to some but are perfectly fine for me. I’ll put up a few “wet” and a few “dry” pix. If you look at the wet ones, things appear pretty dismal. I’m very balding, and there’s not much that can be done about it if these are the results of 5,000 grafts procedures. However, if you look at the dry pix, it seems to tell a different story. If I am under bright lights, someone looking down on my head might detect a distinct lack of hair and see through to my scalp. But when I am out and about in the world, the operations were a complete success. I have that elusive “illusion of density”… the appearance of possessing a nice head of thick hair to the point where on more than a few occasions I’ve been told how lucky I am for it. I did not have work done on my crown and suffer from ongoing hair loss there, despite my intake of 1/1.25 mg of Finasteride daily. The transplanted hair seems to have mostly taken and continues to grow so healthy that despite what’s happening on top with my crown, I’m blessed with a much more youthful appearance than I’d had before. In short, everything seems to work perfectly as far as my originally-intended purposes go. In wrapping up right now, I’ll refer back to a phenomenon that I’m sure I’d mentioned here before. When I was at my worst in the Ugly Duckling phase, I decided to convince myself that I looked absolutely great and consciously avoided looking at my reflection throughout the day. During that period of time, I exuded more self-confidence than I probably ever had in my entire life… just as a defense mechanism due to looking so horrible. (This was possibly my ultimate field test for Dr. Maltz’s theories on the self-image.) People I met then in public and private life reacted better to me than I had ever recalled in the past decades. I actually met and went out with a couple of the most stunning women I’d ever dated in my life during that time. That’s when I started questioning whether or not I should have ever gotten the transplant surgery… whether I just should have changed my way of thinking about myself, and saved all the money. Months later, I’m still not sure how to answer that question.

First off-- Optimist800, Fue2014, NewLook2015, Ready4Hair and Ersko72... thank you very much for your kind messages. I was totally offline for weeks now but had set a notice on my calendar for yesterday that I should upload photos at this six month mark. I'll be one day late, but want to do the progress update because it was kind of discouraging for me when I used to follow others' progress over time and then suddenly there were no further photo/updates when I was wondering how it all was turning out. I took some photos from right, left and center angles, both wet and after towel-drying. After I settled into the ugly-duckling stage, I consciously started ignoring how I looked (spent less than a few seconds looking at myself in the mirror each day) and just carried on in my mind that everything was going great and I was looking great. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it was the best way for me to psychologically deal with making public appearances while looking my worst. (Fortunately, my ultra-positive outlook actually paid off big time, as everyone I was dealing with responded to me better than ever before, despite my less than stellar physical appearance.) After I posted the last previous photos here, for the first time I realized that I could actually comb my hair a little, and started doing so from then on... but still probably spent less than 20 seconds/day looking at my head in the mirror. A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine told me that I needed a haircut, so for the first time I spent a few minutes seriously checking out the progress. I was amazed at how great the "illusion of density" had worked its way into the mix. It is obvious in the wet pictures that there is not full coverage of hair on my head. The pictures after towel-drying look much better. But I can tell you for sure that after my hair fully dries, people think I have a full head of hair, and, actually (which is hilarious for me) a few have complimented me on my hair and said I was lucky that I had such good genetics. I just decided that I should take one more set of three photos and upload them, too, since my hair is now completely dry. Just took three more photos and uploaded them. Those final shots are after 45 minutes of air drying, and you can probably see that the hair looks a little bit thicker still. Keep in mind that I've got my cell phone camera almost right on my head. Anyone looking at me from a few feet away doesn't see any of the details of the scalp at all once the hair is dry. I'd have to say so far that all appears to be fairly successful. If it gets much better and thicker, that will just be a bonus. However, although I'm happy with the success of the surgeries, what makes me feel the best about my life is that I'd made the personal and firm decision that I will continue changing everything about myself for the better for the rest of my days. Part of me wishes that I hadn't decided to get the HT and instead had only changed my attitude--I'd certainly have more cash for taking a vacation whenever I might find the time for one. Having more hair and looking a bit younger is definitely not a negative thing... it's just that I'm not sure how necessary it was for me to have gone through the time, expense and process to attain that when the real change comes from what's inside our heads, not what's on top of it. Before I get carried away with my blabbering again, let me give a link to the latest photos... which should make anyone considering going my route be a lot more comfortable: Six Months After Surgery I will make sure to log on again and post more photos/upates at the milestone points. Thank you all again for the kind words and wishes, and I hope to see all of your progress on your threads. (Please add your links here to save all of us time in finding them!)