Severn

This is an insane result. I consider this one particularly impressive because it's showing black hair against light skin. It's sometimes hard to judge the true result if the patient dyes their hair blonde.

Some absolutely require it, others do not. Some are in between. During my procedure, Dr. Shapiro shaved the main crown area being worked on but agreed to leave a 10-15 FU/CM2 area that I could sort of comb over. He did mention how it would be difficult to work in an area that is above 30 FU/CM2 such as diffuse thinners without shaving. This makes sense because of the higher possibility of transection and finding the right places to put the grafts in. I'm sure there are others but I don't think Dr. Arocha in Houston ever shaves.

As mentioned, hats don't have any effect. But the turbins that are common in the Muslim world can cause traction alopecia. In fact, there was a hair transplant case on here that was caused by that.

John: While you are waiting for more results to come in, could you possibly customize your haircut a bit? By this I mean specifically grow the hair around the scar long enough to cover it, while cutting the top short enough to make it natural looking

That's almost the exact same pattern I had due to the scalp reductions. I had 3008, only one off from this guy. Great result btw.

ok but even the renowned Armani does this: (promotional link removed) am I just suspicious? lol, Armani is far from renowned. Just enter his name on the search function for some stories.

Everyone responds differently. The first time I took it in '97, I had no shedding and it restored pretty much all my crown hair. I only took it for 4 years then it lost its effectiveness. I stopped in 2002 and restarted recently in preperation for my procedure. This time though I started shedding a lot. Mostly in the hairline and frontal core. I didn't stick it out to see if it would stop though.

Seriously chan, either buzz it down or go to a top repair doc. The advantage is you could likely look completely normal with a buzz cut. It's a lot more obvious there is something wrong by keeping it long. The gaps show a lot more. With a buzz, you would likely look like a dude with slightly thinning hair that decided to cut it short. If you decide to do strip for repair, maybe look into H&W, Ron Shapiro, Rahal, etc. If you decide to do FUE again, then Feller or Shapiro (IMO). You can get back to a completely normal life again if you decide you do either of the two options though. (buzz or repair).

I get to wear a hat so it's not a big issue. But the crown area was shaved where they were working. If anyone catches it I plan to just say I had a slight case of folliculitus and the area was cut and I am putting medication on it. I haven't been busted yet though.

40? Wow, well that explains a lot then. I thought he was in his early 20's which is why I was worried about future crown progression. He certainly looks 20 now after the fine restoration though.

Yea it does look good but I agree with hair-care. He could end up with a bald crown and a teen hairline.

sounds like you might be going through a synchronized telogen phase of the transplanted hair. I asked Ron about this during my procedure and he said it is a common phenomenon.

Be careful not to grab the hair while doing the exercises. I was doing that at first because my hair wasn't long enough and it was hard to get traction. It helps a lot of you do the exercises after washing your hair and it's still a little damp. A lot better grip on the scalp without having a tendency to grab the hair itself.

Sounds like you will be golden especially since Ron is the King of zones 1 and 2.

I can only speak from my personal experience from duta. Based strictly on what *I* experienced, this is absolutely not true. My hair was falling out all over. The hairs on the side and back of my head which are *not* subject to DHT were falling out just as quickly as the hair on top and front of my head. I could very lightly pull on the sides and back of my head where transplanted hairs are removed, and a lot of hair would come off in my hands. Even my beard hair was becoming very thin which is normally quite thick and coarse. Again, this is only from my personal experience, but this is not what happened to me. I quit and continued to shed for about 5 weeks. Duta stays in your system for a long time. After about 5 weeks, the shedding started to slow then stopped roughly 2 months after I stopped. About 3-4 months later, the hair I lost on duta started to come back. I probably regained 95% of what I lost but it took several months. Again, it's up to you to make your own decisions on this. But for what it's worth, if someone offered me $50,000 tax free cash to get back on duta for one year, I would turn it down.

Ah, I didn't notice the second scar below. What BeHappy said sounds dead on.

Man, I'm no doctor but I'd get off the duta if I were you. I got off that stuff quick when I tried it. It was wrecking my hair bad. Years ago when tried it, I was reading other peoples accounts. It helped some, but others it wrecked their hair. Many of those (like me) who quit had their hair return. Some of them didn't though. Duta is too strong of a drug on the hair IMO.

Good luck Prez! Do you have a projected number of grafts? Will it be mostly hairline work or crown?

I had a chance to see it before I left but forgot to ask.

Same here. I was really scared of the stuff but wanted to try it. So I took half the recommended daily dosage and only once every three days. It still started knocking out my hair like I was on chemo. I got off it fast but it still took a couple of months before my hair stopped falling out.

That's a good idea B Spot. And I agree the techs do play a pivotal role. They have the most tedious part of the process and I'm sure it will liven up their jobs to get a little recognition.

Yep, when I consutled with I think Jo at H&W, he seemed surprised when I reported I stopped because it no longer did me any good. That's when I realized I was a rare case that responded so well, and a rare case where it later stopped working all together. If it had continued to work for me I definitely would not have needed a transplant. I would say it restored all my crown hair from 5-10 FU/CM2 back up to 50+.

From reading another forum ages ago that got me started on Fin, I thought finisteride losing its potency was the rule instead of the exception. Kind of like what happens with minox. But apparently most are still reaping the benefits a decade later. I guess I'm the exception in two ways. I was one of the rare cases where finisteride and minox both individually created a full restoration of my crown, but both stopped working completely after about 4 years. I've read theories that in some men, the follicles actually slowly develop more DHT receptors to compensate for the blockage that finisteride causes. Hence why it ends up back where you started. And if you stop you now have a rush of DHT flooding follicles with twice the DHT receptors which leads to accelerated hair loss. I have no idea if this is theory or something back by fact though. However, I don't mind that it doesn't work for me anymore. Dr. Shapiro heavily carpet bombed the entire problem area. In nine months, I should be able to put this behind me for life unless I want to do some hairline work in the future. So even if they discover some miracle genetic cure for hairloss tomorrow, it doesn't affect me. My hair loss journey has pretty much ended.

It was the same for me when I switched from 2% to 5% minox. There was more alchohol in the 5% and its drying effects just caused the skin to flake to an insane degree. If you are using 5% I'd try going back to 2%. I never tried the foam, but if it doesn't have as much alcohol that should solve the problem too.

It was very gradual. I slowly lost all the hair I had gained on finisteride. I kept taking it for about a year longer out of fear that if I stopped, I would start losing even more but this did not happen. I watched my hairloss closely after I stopped taking it and nothing really changed for the next year. The drug had done all it could for me.