mattj

Mark Wright: I don't know who he is, but he has almost certainly had work done. Matt Goss: definitely a hairpiece. He looked better without it. Olly Murs: he has always had a high hairline. Different angles in the photos so I'm not convinced. Ronan Keating: I'm not sure. His temples look a bit more receded in the first photo, but it could just be the angle and styling.

That's a very fast and incredible response to the Fin!

I know his face but I don't know where from. I agree it looks like he's had work done. And it's very good work.

Unfortunately it's very possible that Finasteride hasn't helped you - but it's also possible that your thinning has been slowed down by taking it. For many guys, that is the best that the drug can do. Slowing down loss is a worthwhile outcome, even though it isn't the regrowth that we all hope for. But perhaps the Fin has been a total dud for you. After 1 year, do you feel that the rate of loss has stayed the same, decreased or increased?

I'm very open about my hair transplant (and that includes in normal daily situations where I have no need to reveal that I've had it done), but I do understand when people want to keep it a secret. I don't blame celebrities for denying it as the tabloids would give them endless abuse. I wouldn't have guessed that those guys had had it done. Can you give us some photos to show the difference?

I was getting 5mg Proscar tablets and splitting them into four pieces - so 1.25mg per day. I would hesitate to blame the Finasteride for the skin problem. It's unlikely that the drug would cause this after 2.5 months of use and it's not exactly a common side effect. There could be another reason for it. As you've seen such a great improvement with the drug, I would encourage you to stick with it.

Fantastic result. Very impressive! I'm curious how old he is now.

I took Finasteride for over five years and I only realised that I'd been experiencing side effects after I stopped taking it and I noticed improvements in the libido department. I haven't noticed any major loss of hair in the years since I stopped it. So I'm not a huge Finasteride advocate, but I do think it's worth trying. I'm sure the side effects are more common than the medical literature says; but I also believe that the negative experiences you hear about online give a false impression of how common and severe they are. The truth is somewhere in the middle. You have to weigh up how important your hair is to you and whether the risks outweigh the benefits - and the benefits can be great.

Are you talking about shedding from Minoxidil or just general shedding? "Normal" varies from person to person. Anecdotally, my other half leaves a huge number of hairs in the bath and she has very thick, dense hair. I was amazed enough by the amount I found last night that I actually took a photo and sent it down to her. She said it's always like that for her. That's her "normal". It doesn't sound like you're losing a massive amount of hair and the important thing is whether those shed hairs are being replaced by new ones or not. Losing density, receding or the formation of a bald spot are the true indicators of hairloss.

Different hair length but I see clear improvement. You've got more hair at the crown and the midscalp area looks thicker too. This just goes to show what Minoxidil can do.

Nice work, Mark! Yes, it will depend on how much hair you have in the area. If there is still a sufficient amount that the SMP isn't very visible, then the SMP will act like a concealer. If the area is very bald, then it will look like you have shaved hair within the longer hair, which will appear unusual.

That is a sound plan and actually a very common strategy. Often patients are happy with just the first procedure. Is there a reason why a higher number of grafts wasn't quoted?

We've posted a lot of Dr Rahal's FUE results over the past six years. See these search results here: Forum By and for Hair Loss Patients - Search Results

The follicles should fall into a totally random sequence of shedding which is natural and what you would expect from every follicle that is on your head. It's possible that you're experiencing a totally normal shedding of transplanted hairs in combination with a shed caused by the Finasteride.

It looks like you have enough hair on top to allow it to grow out and it would look good, as well as covering the scar. Your photos don't show the SMP. I agree Mark Weston that it wasn't a good idea to lower your hairline with SMP. But what is done is done. I wish I could share with you experiences of successful SMP removal, but I haven't seen any examples of this. Frankly I'm not sure how successful laser removal would be, as it doesn't always result in complete removal of tattoos.

If you have lost transplanted hairs, which you definitely appear to have, then that's puzzling. This is rare but does happen and it isn't possible for any surgeon to predict that it would happen. It is possible that the same thing would occur if you went for surgery with another doctor. I'm not saying it would, but you must keep that in mind.

I can see that fibers/concealers would be very effective for your midscalp and crown areas. I know they are no substitute for hair, but you still have a lot of hair in those areas so shouldn't be totally reliant upon those products.

Well I did notice that your hair now doesn't look as good as it does in the photos on your other forum thread. It does look like less density. It's strange as your result looked complete after the first procedure.

Looks like a great result. How many grafts in total over your two procedures?

This is very early days. Even patients with the fastest growth aren't seeing much cosmetic improvement at only 3 months. You will most likely see changes within the next few weeks and significant improvement over the coming months. Just sit tight for now.

You're very fortunate that with your blond hair and fair skin, you have a very low colour contrast between hair and scalp. This makes your HT look better than it is, and what it is isn't a disaster at all. Would be interesting to see your before photos to see where you started.

I would agree with every doctor that has advised against treating the midscalp and crown areas as you simply haven't lost enough hair yet in those zones. In fact, you don't even have that much frontal recession - but you do have enough to justify a procedure. I think around 2000 grafts would do it. Of course it depends on how low you want to go with your hairline. Better not to go too low as you will certainly lose more hair in the future.

You could take 1000 grafts at most, but you're already looking like a great post-op result. Minor recession? Yes. But thick hair overall.

^that is a good ideal to consider if you don't see any improvement. I've seen IPL work wonders on redness including very prominent 'port wine stain' birthmarks.

We tend to use the term 'diffuse' to refer to thinning across the entire balding area, but most people who have hairline recession do have diffuse loss in the frontal zones. So what I'm saying is, there is nothing unusual or challenging that I can see about your hairloss pattern. No decent hair transplant surgeon removes hairs - they plant transplanted hairs around those native (existing) hairs. The native hairs will continue to provide density until they are lost. After that you'll still have a good result.