matt3480

Never had the clinic wash me either before my HT's......we are instructed to use an anti-bacterial soap the night before and morning of on the scalp, face, neck, etc.

Glad I could be of service!

90 days....you will look great. My HT's with Dr. K always started growing right at 3 months....which a lot of people say is early. They looked real good at 6 months and as the hair grows longer the few months after that....even better.

Please tell me you guys aren't citing Youtube popularity as reasons for seeing a certain surgeon. Look at the other "popular" people on Youtube.

Haha....I guess now that I think of it, some areas of Chicago are probably more dangerous than Mexico and Turkey. I should have just shut my mouth.

Cool, go book with one and let me know how that turns out. Unless I am missing someone....there isn't anyone mentioned consistently as one of the top hair surgeons in the world who IS NOT a member here. End. of. story. You are the same people who will go to friggin Turkey and risk being kidnapped by ISIS to save $2k on a transplant. Just because a surgeon pays to be on this site does not automatically mean they are great. There are plenty on this site who I simply wouldn't go to. Why? It's cosmetic surgery. I'm not going with a doctor who is a 6 or an 8 (scale of 1-10), I'm going with the 10....especially when we all know who those 5-6 surgeons are and have been forever. Mohebi is likely who I would see if I were in LA. He has definitely produced some good results....pkipling being one of them. As some have said, though.....you learn that some people come on this board and already have their mind made up. OP has changed his mind and mentioned how he is confident in 3 or 4 different doctors alone on this thread....none of which I'd go to. I didn't even reply to the Baubac suggestion as that's laughable. Good luck with it, though.....after all, that surgeon is "young and has had 2 transplants and they sounded professional" (rolling eyes).

People who are not recommended here are not recommended for a reason. I think you need to do a LOT more research here. I used to feel bad for people who got bad results going to surgeons who weren't recommended. I don't anymore. There is a TON of knowledge on this board and if you choose not to take advantage of that then the final result is on you....you will have no one to blame but yourself....it's ultimately your hair. I don't know what the annual fee here is....but if it's $20k or $25k, that is pocket change to these surgeons. Anyone half decent isn't going to bypass recommendation due to $25k.

Great result!

Legend, tip number 1....stop listening to jjsrader and jeanLDD. They told you to stay away from 2 non-recommended surgeons just to point you towards Armani...another non-recommended surgeon on this site. I agree that you should hold off for a year and see what the Fin does for you. If nothing else, it is going to stabilize the hair loss and reduce the chance of shock loss when you do get a HT.

Photo bucket is no longer a free service. If you want to have them host pics that will show on other sites, you now have to pay for a subscription. They changed this a few months ago.

LOL, yeah OK. Your answer was wrong then. Just because you deduce that one doctor ordered 1.25MG because Proscar can be cut into quarters is ridiculous and not an answer, at all. You are simply theorizing why he ordered that dose....without any regard to whether it is right or, more importantly, needed.

I just think that's high to start with still....1.25. Propecia is a serious medication...take as little as you can where it can work still and not give you side effects. Taking anything over that is doing no extra good for your hair but will very possibly cause other issues. Yeah, maybe it's easier.....but it might also cause someone to stop taking it right away when they encounter sides versus them maybe paying a little more to get 1mg pills (and then cutting them in half) but not experiencing much in side effects (thus keeping them on the medication and saving their hair). Just my 0.02....

Eh....I had some of those hairs, too, that seemingly did not grow. Try pulling on one with tweezers, I bet they come out with no effort, at all (at least mine did). I THOUGHT I read that meant they were originally transplanted hairs that never took (died) but stayed in the hole. Again, this was very few....we are talking 10 or so out of several thousand grafts.

Recommended dose is 1 mg.....I have been taking 0.5mg and feel it's been very effective. Studies show that the increased efficiency from 0.50mg to 1mg is very small (in other words, not worth it). Bit surprised your doctor would start you at 2.5mg.....even 1.25mg seems high to start with. Normally people might ramp up if they have been on a low dose for many years and then it starts to become ineffective.

Shampoos, etc. are not going to work. Rogaine I feel doesn't do much, either. You look to be a great candidate for a HT, though. You probably wouldn't need many grafts. What dose of Propecia were you on? I really really would try to get back on but lower the doses. I personally take 0.5mg per day and have been for almost 3 years now. I have had minimal side effects and I don't feel my hair has gotten any worse in these 3 years. I don't feel it would be any better on 1mg per day....but I bet the side effects would be much more noticeable. There are people on the forum who take Propecia every other day.....or even a 0.50mg twice per week. It seems to work well for them. Looking back on my hair loss...I tried a million things, too, and none of them really worked until I had a HT and the Propecia. I wish I had started the Propecia 10-12 years ago because I would have been in great shape without any HT.

Eh, not sure I would went the route of having even more transplanted into the hairline. He would have needed, what, another 2k in there minimum? That's 6k into the hairline. My question is couldn't Dr. Gabel have removed, say, the first cm or so and then just moved those hairs back another cm to make it thicker? Then you would not be wasting those grafts.....and it would be killing two birds with one stone. (EDIT: I re-read and see he implanted them further back) Looks good, LMC!

It's quite constructive. Yates? Huh? What research or credentials do you see that impress you? Hell, the guy has only been doing transplants for 10 years. Is he even recommended on here? Anyways, the top 5 to 10 doctors in the world are consistently listed on this site. I don't have much sympathy for people who have access to those doctors yet want to go to Iran for a transplant because it's cheaper or pick some surgeon because they saw some celeb on one of the surgeons websites.

Huh? Based on their credentials? Seems like you better do some more research.

Looking good for 3 months!

Exactly what Voxman said....grow it out, sweep it forward. You should not see any red at that point. Grow it out a couple inches.

He probably shouldn't have said that but he may not have realized how you cut your hair. I would bet if I shaved to the bone that it would look similar but it's completely invisible when I have it shaved even down to like a 2 guard. Depends what you "shaved". I consider OP's hair to be Bic'ed, not shaved. I don't see that getting a ton better....you likely will get some color back. It's like any other scar, though....could take years for it to really fade.

I don't see much abnormal about the OP's pics. Who gets a HT and then friggin shaves his head to basically the bone? I mean no sh*t you will see scarring then. You are going to see every single nick or ding or scar you've had from anything over your whole life. You just don't do it. However, I'd love to see pics of his hair at a number 2 guard or higher....I'd bet the scars would be completely unnoticeable.

Posters like this seem shady. You supposedly are the only one who has had issues contacting Dr. Gabel and then he replies on this thread and you ignore him. Seems suspicious.

Looks fine to me. Post pre op pics....amazing people can pay for a HT but don't know how to upload pictures on a website. A 6-year old could do it...

Agreed.....would not be worrying about what a dermatologist is saying. They deal with skin issues....not necessarily skin issues relating to trauma. I am 100% with what Shera said regarding them. I would not go with steroids or lasers at this point....these definitely could affect your yield. I'm sorry but any HT doctor who says they have never seen significant redness after 2 months is lying or doesn't know what the hell they are doing. Skin changes can take 1-2 years to finalize and heal (this is what Dr. K told me). I believe he told me he never had a patient (or maybe he had one), that had significant redness for more than a year. You have blonde hair and very fair skin. You are going to have redness or pinkness longer than most. Might be 6 months minimum for you due to your skin type. Even when mine started to get better and was more pink....it would still get red after working out, etc. (blood vessels are working). Also, lighting affects it a lot....meaning it would look much redder in bright lighting. That's just the way it is. I can assure you mine went away 100% percent. I can't tell you when as the hair indeed started to cover it at some point....but I was still definitely pink then. Also, you are going to start getting pimples in the recipient area due to hair growing....that also is going to contribute to redness. You, like me....had hair transplanted into an area that had no hair. The blood flow was much less in that area versus an area that has existing hair and an existing blood supply. Read online "This healing process is nourished by lots of tiny blood vessels that the body produces to (temporarily) provide an extra blood supply. This causes the area to appear red." Think of a scar from trauma......it starts red....it gets pink, eventually it's light. It could take years. Same concept here....not that it will take years but that it takes time to heal. For what it's worth, I had NO redness or even pinkness on my second pass in that area. I believe it's because I had a good blood supply there at that point from the first transplant and it wasn't as much of a "shock" to that area (and I had my second pass only 8 months after my first) due to that. I understand you might be apprehensive right now....but don't be. Have you tried aloe vera like I suggested? As I said, that really kick started the healing for me. Aloe vera is common stuff and I was pretty shocked at how that helped so much.