Severn

That does look great, but I am wondering about that scar. It looks about 1cm wide, is that correct? And does the scar stay that wide all the way around your head or did it stretch just in one spot that you show?

I'm not sure why you would be afraid of propecia. I'm one the lower percentile that took it who had outstanding results for my crown area. No side effects. But as with other drugs, it lost its effectiveness after about 2 years. Dutasteride is another story. That stuff was bad news.

I remember years ago after getting his hair back he was on Leno pushing some herbal lotion or pill claiming that it was what got his hair back. It seemed more of a white lie trying to divert suspicion of a HT though.

Most people get get their hairlines taken care of then after a satisfactory result, add a bit in the crown (donor hair permitting). I have to do the crown first since I have some scaring there. Luckily my hairline is passable.

I dunno, he may have judged your density and scalp laxity too low at this point after all the surgeries. And if your donor area is as thin as your say, he would have to take a much wider strip to get the 2000 you want. He might have judged doing that would likely result in a widened, stretched scar that you would never be able to hide. Can you give us pics with your face covered showing your donor area and the area you want worked on? Thanks ahead of time.

Since my initial work will be only on the top and largely covered up, I feel like I'm getting a world renowned chef to cook me a cheeseburger.

There are a lot of good surgeons in the Coalition along with their respective consultants. Most people do hairline work first but I'm starting on crown area due to scars from a previous surgery. I might do hairline work in 2 or 3 years afterwards depending on how my frontal area holds out. Obviously everyone knows the quality of Ron's work, but I also have to give a lot of credit to his consultant, Matt Zupan. He gave an honest analysis and didn't just tell me what I wanted to hear to get me to sign up. He was even more conservative than Ron's first estimate of graft numbers expressing concern over my laxity. So I guess it's doing scalp exercises like mad until then. One of you guys needs to invent a machine to do the massages. Your arms can get mighty tired after 15 minutes!

There are a lot of good surgeons in the Coalition along with their respective consultants. Most people do hairline work first but I'm starting on crown area due to scars from a previous surgery. I might do hairline work in 2 or 3 years afterwards depending on how my frontal area holds out. Obviously everyone knows the quality of Ron's work, but I also have to give a lot of credit to his consultant, Matt Zupan. He gave an honest analysis and didn't just tell me what I wanted to hear to get me to sign up. He was even more conservative than Ron's first estimate of graft numbers expressing concern over my laxity. So I guess it's doing scalp exercises like mad until then. One of you guys needs to invent a machine to do the massages. Your arms can get mighty tired after 15 minutes!

Just means for whatever reason, the transplanted hairs weren't "shocked" enough to go into the resting phase(Telogen Effluvium). It might eventually happen, but it doesn't mean anything if it doesn't from what I understand. Just kind of rare.

Well, the final reduction was messy. The doc must have tried to take too much out because I bled like a stuck pig for weeks, had a widened scar, and a subdural hematoma develop. The numbness from the donor area went away. But it *seems* that removal of tissue in a scalp reduction should feel and look the same as removing it from the donor area. But it's quite different from my experience and from what I've read on here.

Go to the Hair Transplant Network Home page and click on "Multi-Media Center". Then scroll down to the bottom left for the "Graft calculator". It will give you a rough idea of how many grafts you might want with whatever density you chose.

I had fantastic results on the crown with finisteride for the first few years of trying it. It gradually lost its effectiveness though. I was hesitant to discontinue its use fearing I would lose more without the fin. However, there was no discernable difference after quitting. The finisteride had done a great job while it lasted but it's time was over for me.

That actually looks pretty good. If your hair were longer you would be able to conceal it easily. Might still be able to do it reasonably well with the dermamatch and nanogen fibers. I can't even really tell that there is any shockloss from those pics. Must be very minor.

Your pics don't show any of the donor area. How much shock loss are you talking about? Maybe dermamatch plus the nanogen fibers but I don't have any idea what you are working with without pics.

Thanks for the update dustinp. From everything I've read, if you do have temporary shockloss from the donor area, it most commonly will be below the sutures like you are showing. Maybe it's possible it might have been a little tight back there. I've read that sometimes sutures can kind of put a stranglehold on the follicles around the suture if it's a bit tight which is why a lot of docs use staples(plus it's faster). So sometimes under those conditions the hairs will go into the resting stage for a few months.

I read a lot about the healing process involved in the donor area. Mostly numbness, ridging, etc. I had 3 scalp reductions 14 years ago and there was no tingling, numbness or "ridging" from any of these. In fact, just a couple of days after the surgeries it felt (and looked) like nothing had been done at all to my scalp. However, after I did a very small HT of 400 grafts from the back of the head, I did experience these effects everyone speaks off. I didn't have any shock loss from the donor area, but I did have the numbness and ridging which took a long time to go away. Are there a lot more nerves on the sides of the head instead of the top that causes this?

I read a lot about the healing process involved in the donor area. Mostly numbness, ridging, etc. I had 3 scalp reductions 14 years ago and there was no tingling, numbness or "ridging" from any of these. In fact, just a couple of days after the surgeries it felt (and looked) like nothing had been done at all to my scalp. However, after I did a very small HT of 400 grafts from the back of the head, I did experience these effects everyone speaks off. I didn't have any shock loss from the donor area, but I did have the numbness and ridging which took a long time to go away. Are there a lot more nerves on the sides of the head instead of the top that causes this?

Be careful of that stuff. It appears to be a lot more powerful than finisteride. I read about it for a long time before finally trying it out a few years ago. I knew an initial hair shed was likely, but I wasn't prepared for just how severe it would be. A few weeks after starting it, I experienced a massive shed. Top, sides, hairline etc. all started falling out like crazy. My beard thinned significantly(I have very thick beard hair) and even my body hair started to disappear. My skin dried up and my pores stared to close. That part was a plus because I have somewhat oily skin. I had read that a majority of people using it go through one or more shedding phases before showing results. However, I had also read that some people continued to shed for months with no results. It was just too strong (for me at least) and was starting to scare the poop outta' me so I stopped. BTW, I was one of the few that had *extremely* good results with finisteride. I regained most of my crown hair back. However it lost its effectiveness after about 3 years so I stopped using it.

I don't have the thread saved, but after doing some searches on here I remember reading an informative thread on laxity vs. scar width. According to one of the docs, you can actually get a wider scar if your scalp has too much flexibility. He explained why but I do not remember the terminology. Now obviously it's better to have a loose scalp than have one thats drum tight, but it was an interesting point that I didn't realize about having too much laxity.

classic shockloss? Please define this.

I assume the hair is spread apart to show the full extent of the shock loss. Are you able to hide it somewhat until the shocked hair returns?

In '96, I had 400 minigrafts on the crown. I experienced complete shockloss all around the area where I had the grafts and freaked out. I didn't realize it is just going into a resting phase for a few months. I called the clinic and they were quite flippant saying it was hair I was going to lose eventually anyway so I shouldn't be complaining. Luckily it all came back though.

These variables could all be entered into a program. They could show you what you would look like after the transplant with your current hair pattern. Then subtract all the hairs that are existing to show what it would look like if only the transplanted hairs remained (in a worst case scenerio). Caliber of hair(fine, course, medium, wavy, kinky, etc.) along with skin tone(dark, fair, medium, etc.) could all be easily entered variables. Lighting could be adjusted on the program to show the different scenerios under sunlight, room lighting, flourescent lighting, etc. It would not be a program that would show you *exactly* what to expect, but it would be a lot better than looking at pics of other patients who are likely best case scenerios that the clinic has. I think it would be an excellent tool that the patient could adjust on the fly to get a rough idea what he could expect after a year for whatever number of grafts he enters into the program. This would stop a lot of the misconceptions some have thinking that 1500 grafts will give them a full head of hair when it actuality it would only be a start.

It seems like some type of photoshop image generator would be a great tool to show the patient what to expect. The program could use your current hairloss, and calculate a rough approximation what you would look like after full growth given FU/CM2, individual hair characteristics, hair style, etc. The biggest problem on deciding whether you are getting your money's worth is trying to estimate what you will look like after X number of grafts have been implanted. Looking at pics of other patient results is a good start but a more exact tool is needed.

That's scary to hear. I work at a refinery and I get random drug tested all the time. I have never been a drug user so I always go in with a clear conscience. But if you can get false positives from legal substances, that's bad news. They don't give you any second chances on the drug test. They escort you off the premise and fire you immediately.