biolizard

There are several reasons actually. 1. First and foremost is the fact I feel as though I kind of mortgaged my future self for my current self. Meaning, my future self (5-10 years) will be the one to pay heavily for my decision to have a HT. I created FUE scar marks in the donor area in the back of my head, also a cobblestone ‘plucked chicken skin’ appearance of the recipient area, and I will have to deal with progressive hair loss more and more. As areas behind the recipient area continues to suffer hair lose. Inevitably it’s going to look pretty bizarre, and very unattractive and unnatural. Not being able to tolerate the meds and there side effects will ultimately accelerate this process and give me less time to ‘enjoy’ the benefits of the HT. 2. I don’t think I had a ‘bad’ HT. It looks passable now. I think maybe my expectations of what I would look like post HT was unrealistic . The hair density is still pretty thin and the hairs in front are much much thicker and don’t really have that super soft, natural hair line look. I’m sure I notice it more than others. I can put it like this, when I was younger, I would frequently get complements on what great hair I had. After the HT, even though I no longer appear bald, I have yet to receive even one single...’your hair looks good today’ type of compliment. The reason is, is that yes, there is hair in an area that once didn’t have any, but it really doesn’t look very good. Like I said, it’s merely passable most days. Point is I’m not bald, but I don’t have good looking hair either. I still feel more comfortable in hat usually. In a dimly lit room it looks good I’m sure. In the sun, say at the beach with wet hair and heavy light it looks pretty weird and shitty. You can’t reverse the clock, and looking back I realize that I had unrealistic expectations. I share some of the blame with the surgeon for failing to accurately educate me as to what to expect. I felt they honestly were too concerned with running to the bank cash my check, than spend the time it takes to properly screen and educate patients. 3. I got a HT at a period in my life where things weren’t going well at all for me. I was depressed, insecure and having other difficulties in my life. I turned to HT as a way to cope with many problems. THIS IS A HUGE MISTAKE! That should’ve been a red flag for me. Never make big decisions like that when you are depressed. One of my issues was grappling with an inability to accept the aging process and the fact I was getting older and losing my youthful looks. Fast forward a few years, and I’ve grown to accept aging much better, and ironically I no longer really care that much about my hair. I was pathologically fixated on it several years ago. Now I’m all honestly, I’ve moved on and I don’t care about it that much, and wish I didn’t have so much scarring issues (plucked chicken looks and numerous scarred pox marks in the back of my head) so I could just buzz down to a no guard. I’ve moved on from desiring a HT, however a HT is for life. REALLY what I want at this point is to buzz down, but cant do that now without things looking very very odd and noticeable because of the skin damage I experienced associated with the FUE surgery. I just unfortunately didn’t heal very cleanly like I’ve seen others heal. 4. The HT recovery process for was traumatic, and painful!!! I know many report almost no issues following a FUE, but I had a loads of pain! Shooting nerve pain, numbness ‘pain’ bleeding and overall discomfort for many weeks! The redness was SEVERE and very difficult to hide for months and months (even years) until the recipient hair grew out a little more to assist in concealing the redness. The redness took around 2 years until it finally went away. That’s a LONG time. I am glad to hear of others getting HT and not taking meds. Makes me feels less ‘stupid’. Personally I’m just going to ride out this HT for as long as I can and then try and figure out my next move for when the time comes that the baldness has further progressed to force my hand into addressing my hair. Im wanting to get out of the hair game all together, however, I don’t want to shave bald, just wish I had healthy skin and a natural balding pattern that I could shave it down with no guard. Anyway, best of luck to you with your HT journey, hope you are able to get many years of satisfaction from your.

No. I have not experienced any additional significant shedding since discontinuing the Minoxidil. No more than ‘normal’. Since I’m not doing Fin, I still Shed a bit everyday I’m afraid. But that’s life I guess. I was worried what might happen with my hair since coming off of it. But I quickly became more concerned about my anxiety and heart issues. If I’m really scrutinizing my scalp up close, maybe a little less ‘thick’?? But not noticeable to anyone else. My density already had a slight ‘thinning’ appearance anyway after the HT, so that’s nothing new. The minoxidil ‘anxiety’ developed first, persisted and gradually worsened for around 6 months to a year before the heart issues kicked it. And that’s when everything bad really kicked into high gear. Even simple Walking (for exerciseI I started getting palpitations and reverberations in my chest. Along with some dizziness. Thought I was having heart attacks? It was weird. Once I stopped the minoxidil, the symptoms all but vanished after a couple of weeks. I sure hope nothing permanent in the way of damage was done to my heart over this. I really was getting very minimal (if any) noticeable benefits from the minoxidil anyway. It’s just a bummer, bc one by one, all my options to try and maintain my hair are disappearing. I’m kind of on my last gasp here. Just patiently riding out this HT for as long as nature will allow. As I mentioned before, the HT was remarkably hard on my skin! The redness took nearly 2 years to subside. The trauma to my recipient area was quite severe! . Any further HT would risk some serious permanent tissue scalp damage. The recovery period for me was very painful and LONG! My poor skin just didn’t tolerate the HT well at all. I’m not a good ‘healer’ I reckon. Can’t take Fin, and now can’t take Minoxidil. As you can see options are about exhausted. Oh well, I did most everything and more to attempt to maintain my hair. I gave it my best fight. But in the end I’m afraid my genetics will get the last laugh. I do enjoy sharing my story on the forums and hope that I can persuade even just one person to not make my same mistakes. My biggest mistake (among many) was NOT FULLY DOING MY RESEARCH!!! I only thought I ‘researched’ HT, but really what I researched was the HT industry’s marketing promises. I didn’t find these forums until it was too late, until after my HT. I wanted to believe in the miracle cure of the new FUE, so I did. I’m honestly not trying to tell others never get a HT. Just do things differently than I did. The way I went about this was totally wrong, and I’m paying for it now. A HT is SERIOUS life and permanent image altering SURGERY! Don’t fall for the it’s only a simple ‘procedure’ line!!! It’s major! Treat it as such when deciding what’s right for your unique situation. Anyway, I rambled. I do that from time to time. Sorry. Peace out.

I did read your entire story and it’s absolutely fascinating. I think more people should be exposed to stories like yours BEFORE jumping into HT’s and meds. I dove head first (pun intended) into a 2000 FUE HT over 2 years ago, without taking or even researching FIN very much, first to see if I could tolerate it and secondly to see if the sides were acceptable. I just pretty much blindly took the MD’s word (or lack thereof ) for it. HUGE MISTAKE! But I definitely only have myself to blame for this. Sex side effect quickly turned me WAY off and as if that’s not enough the brain fog issue could potentially kill my career. So Fin is out of the question for me. That left me taking Keto shampoo, and minoxidil foam. All that said, I most am responsding to just briefly chime in on your considering starting minoxidil statement. The minoxidil is NOT as harmless as it seems. After 2 years of taking it, I developed heart issues from it. This was compounded by anxiety over these issues. It took me a while and some expensive heart test, to finally deduce that it may be the Minoxidil causing this in me. Thankfully when I got off the Minoxidil the symptoms subsided and seem to have all but gone away. It was a rough 4 months until I got this figured out. Just be aware that Minoxidil isn’t without its own set up very disruptive and scary side effects. This whole thing has me pretty freaked out over nearly all hair loss drugs now. So now, all I can take is the Keto shampoo. Hindsight being what it is, I of course immensely regret my hasty mid life crisis decision to have a FUE HT. To each his own though. I realize there are many many people who benefit and are able to take the hair loss meds without negativie sides; but the flip side is that there are also a few unlucky souls like myself who experienced side effects are are unable to tolerate thiese meds. Plus, not trying to be conspiratorialist, but the more research I do on Fin, the less I trust the big pharmaceutical companies out there to tell us the real truth. They are loyal to their stockholders, and that’s where their concern primarily ends.

Actually this isn’t bad advice. Thank you. Plus in 5-10 years maybe some new technological breakthroughs or perhaps even they will have figured out a way to make Fin WITHOUT it having the nasty side effects? Who knows. In all sincerity thank you for your ‘tough love’ and your suggestions I actually do read and internalize the feedback and advice I get on these forums. I mean I have no other place to turn, in which I can discuss this topic with other people who will at least be able to accurately comprehend and grasp my delimma.

So Bill, what are we suppose to do? How long have you been off Fin? I mean I’m near you in age. I’m 45 your about 40’ish. I personally freaked out a couple of years ago and had what I now call a mid life crisis HT. A 2000 graft FUE. By all accounts it would heralded by those on this forum site as a smashing success. However, there are still some grave problem it’s left me with to address. There is no ‘happily ever after’ to my HT story. The recipient skin on the front of my head now has a permanent ‘plucked chicken skin’ appearance. The skin on my head almost never healed! The redness was SEVERE! And honestly after about a year, I just assumed it was permanent. It took OVER a year and half to resolve to the point where it wasn’t as noticeable. My main point with that, is that NO WAY my skin could tolerate another insult like that without potentially more severe and more noticeable disfiguring damage. So another HT is basically out of the question. Which brings me to another issue. The meds! The Fin sex side effects has me freaked out. (If I’m being brutally honest here I’ve had some instances, not related to Fin, where I have had trouble getting big Jim up for the big game!). Also I have a VERY responsible job, and ANY brain fog issue would endanger the lives of those trusted in my care. It seems irresponsible for me to not only risk my on own health, but also potentially other people who wouldn’t have any way of knowing that I may be ‘impaired’ with this Fin induced brain fog. I have been taking minoxidil for the past 2+ years without issue, until I recently developed a ‘whooshing’ murmur feeling and some chest discomfort in my heart from it. I’ve had to have expensive precautionary test ran on my heart. I discontinued minoxidil and within a couple of weeks, the side effects and chest pain seem to have gone away. Thank goodness. I hope I haven’t done any permanent damage to my heart with this. So now, I can’t take Fin and I can’t take minoxidil. I’ve had a previous HT. What are we suppose to do in the future, Bill? Both of us aren’t taking (or can’t take) the most effective meds and we have had HT’s. So are we destined for ‘wigs’ now? Will we be able to just shave bald and hope it doesn’t look too bizarre? I don’t know, but for me, things seem fairly bleak at the moment. Maybe not at this particular moment, but in say 5-10 years.....then what??? What is you ‘plan’? What is your exit strategy from all this madness? The most hilarious (and poignant) thing about all this, is that I no longer really care that much about being bald. I would love the opportunity to just shave it down to a no guard or a #1. But because of the damage to my skin in the way of donor scarring and recipient skin bumpy chicken skin texture appearance, I no longer have that as an option. At least I haven’t tried it yet. Anyway, thank you for sharing the fact you decided to go off Fin. The post HT journey can be a rough one for some of us unlucky people. Honestly I would pay TRIPLE the cost if I could go back in time and never have done the FUE HT. Hindsight is always 20/20 though. One thing is undeniable.... I was VERY unhappy with my hair prior to the HT; and ironically I’m still unhappy with my hair situation following my HT. I think I was just going to be unhappy with my hair no matter what. Now I’m left try and figure out how the hell to manage this HT mess and not being able to take meds dilemma moving forward???

I have those exact same issue. Bumpy texturized “plucked chicken” appearance. Knowing what I know now, I would never opt for a hair transplant. I’m in quite a pickle with it as now more than 2 years later I’ve had to discontinue all meds for maintenance of native hair. Fin caused sexual side effects and just recently the minoxidil has been implicated as a factor in the development of a heart murmur. Had to go have test and crap on my heart. Anyway, bottom line is that with me being unable to take Fin and minoxidil the hair behind my transplants is going to fall out and soon I’ll be looking very odd. I don’t see any point in additional surgery; main reason being my skin doesn’t heal well at all from this type of procedure. The insult to my skin was severe!! Anyway, just my 2 cents.

I agree. Sometimes by the time you feel the symptoms, for a few very unlucky souls...it’s too late. You are in essence playing Russian roulette with your bodies endocrine/testosterone balance. Just because you arent feeling more severe symptoms doesn’t mean that later nothing of significance will occur. I have a low’ish testosterone level and can’t take Fin. Now after being on Minoxidil for around 2 years I’ve notice some heart palpitations and murmur’ing. So I have stopped taking that too. I’ve had to have test ran on heart because of the minoxidil side effects. Again, I have been taking it for around 2 years. For years I didn’t notice anything, until I started having heart issues because of it. I hope it resolves ok and I havent done permanent damage. Just tread very very carefully!! I’m done will all these dangerous ‘hair’ meds! It’s just not worth it for me! I’ve had a 2000 FUE and whatever happens in the future happens, but m not going to take these meds anymore. Good luck with whatever route you go and TY for posting your journey.

My advice is always the same. Do what I wish I would've done 2 years ago. Find Self-acceptance! But let's be honest very few come to this forum site to hear about self acceptance nonsense. Lol! And I definitely wouldn't have heeded my own future selfs advice 2 years ago. I know that. So with that said and for whatever grain of salt it's worth here is what I wish I'd done. Just buzz it down with a zero guard. Grow some in facial hair. Join a gym, start lifting weights, get into good physical shape. Skip the all the dangerous risky meds, pricey shampoo and foams, and best of all completely avoid the life long sentence that comes with getting a HT. I ultimately regretted my decision to get a HT and wish I'd made a different choice. Of course that was just my experience. Some people here are positively thrilled with their HT's. But not everyone is! Good luck with whatever you choose, and do what feels right for you. I only have one last word of advice. Judging from your pics It looks like you'll likely be losing a good deal MORE hair as you age into and near your 40's. What are you going to do as your native hair loss progress? More surgeries? Have you tried Fin for at least half a year to see if you can tolerate the sides associated with that drug? Again don't do like I did and find out AFTER you have a HT that you are unable to take Fin. In my opinion if your going to get a HT you MUST be ok with taking Fin to help halt future loss. Otherwise you just lose hair behind your grafts too fast, and eventually the donor site will become depleted. Just something to think about before going all in on the HT route.

I wonder if an exit strategy could include a buzz down and then some strategically placed tattoo dots procedure. (I forget what that's called at the moment). I hear such mixed reviews on that though. I've heard that over time the ink starts to change color and spread out in the skin and doesnt look so neat and clean after (x) amount of years. I dont know? Just try and thinking about future options? Likely will be either a total shave down and a beard type look? But even then, I have NO idea what the skin underneath all this looks like, as I haven't have my hair cut close since the original FUE procedure. Honestly I'm becoming very curious to give it a buzz down just to see what the hell it would look like? I may try a very close cut tomorrow and see what up with that look? You are correct about people generally being so self absorbed that they really don't notice you as much as you think they do. Most everyone else is far to concerned about themselves and what others are thinking of them to be very preoccupied with what you got going on! LOL!!! HT Soon I always admire and love to hear your insights! Thank for your contributions to this forum site and helping to 'keep it real'. Peace man!

Yea. It's pretty splotchy and wasn't extracted in a very even pattern. So some areas appear very barren. It's like a freaking war zone on the back of head. I'm not sure I could shave it down without it being very odd looking? I'm Definitely trapped inside this hair transplant I no longer want or care about. A couple of years ago I really cared about my hair and was depressed having relationship issues and lead me smack into a mid life existential crisis. Fast forward a couple of years later and now hair is not such a priority. However, once you have a HT it's essentially a life sentence. Like I said previously I give A LOT just to be able to undo this and return to my natural self again!!!! Just to clarify I'm not trying to say that everyone will have a negative experience with HT. I'm only trying to highlight the fact that there are many of us who do get a HT then regret for the rest of our lives.

Do what you want. I'm just here to offer another side to this for you. I had a hair transplant 2000 graft FUE in August 2015 and it was one of the biggest mistakes I made in my adult life. I honestly would give 4 times the money if I could go back in time and undo this like it never happened. So be warned that not of these HT live happily ever after. There is a darker side. First your HT will not ever give you your hair back like you remember it. I don't give 2 shits about the quality of the surgeon. The transplanted hair will look and behave differently. Styling your hair like you use to won't be possible. Hair loss WILL progress!!! Hear that loud and clear, as you age, if it's written in you genetics YOU WILL continue to lose hair period!!!! Then you'll find yourself in the spot I'm finding myself in at this very moment!!!!! I'm unable to take the VERY dangerous (yet most effective drug) Fin/Propeciia at halting hair lose because of impotence and brain fog issues. So guess what?....my hair behind my frontal transplanted area is continuing to shed!!!! Everyday I find more hairs in the sink! And the transplanted area is becoming increasingly noticeable. You'll find plenty of hair transplant fanboys on this forum; but be aware that there are a significant percentage of guys that take the plunge and get a hair transplant and then feel nothing but regret and shame for the foolish decisions they made. Don't make my same mistake; take the high road of Self-acceptance and acceptance of the natural aging process. Ultimately do what you feel is best for you, I just wanted to take a moment and pass my personal experience along to you. Do with itvwhat you feel. Good luck in whatever direction you go.

2 years ago whenever I last regularly posted on this forum site and received my 2000 graft FUE HT, these forums were vibrant, alive and full of discussion and advice. Now .... you can hear a freaking pin drop in these forums. What gives? I'm seeing MANY post going unanswered or at best 1-3 replies. Also, much fewer post being started overall compared with 2 years ago. Where did everyone go? This forum site just has such a different 'feel' and tone now than it did a couple of years ago. What the hell happened? Did most everyone bail and go to another forum site to discuss hair loss issues? If, then what site? Cause I would like to belong on that one. Just looking to see if anyone has any plausible explanations as to why this forum site seems to drying up?

I Had a 2000 graft FUE HT 2 years ago. I pretty much freaked the hell out after it, with the change to my appearance and all the adjustments in which I was NOT adequately informed of or prepared for. Hearing of the side effects of Fin I flipped the heck out (already psychologically in a fragile state) and refused to even try it. Well.... fast forward 2 years, my hair transplant has grown in pretty nicely overall, and I have certainly become more concerned about future hair loss behind the transplanted area. I'm currently on biotin supplement, minoxidil foam and Keto. shampoo. My hair loss has been very stable over the 2 years since the transplant, but I'm looking to get on a trial LOW dose Fin for some additional help in maintaining my native hair. At least give it a try and see if I get side effects or not? I know without Fin my hair loss WILL progress the point of becoming more noticeable in probably another 3 years max. If I can't take then fine, but at least I would feel I have done everything in my power to keep what hair I have since the HT. I contacted my surgeon and made and appointment with him. The doctor said he normally prescribes 2.5mg every other day. I feel that's too high for me. I've never been 'tested' but I can tell I have a pretty low testosterone level and at 45 years old, it's only getting lower. I'm considering more like a 1.25mg dose every M/W/F and then monitor for how my body responds. If I get any significant sides then I can abort the trial low dose Fin and hopefully recover fairly quickly. More interested in a low dose trial of Fin for maintenance purpose. Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated! TY!

It's passable for now. Kinda has a 'pluggy' unnatural look to the hairline. Also the way the hair grew in the recipient area are 'kinky' and 'wavy'. The is unlike my native straight hair. Trying to style my hair has proven to be a challenging process. In sunlight, and when my hair is wet, it looks its worse. I don't know. It could be worse, but it's not something I'm proud of and want to show off either. All in all it's 'ok' now (I guess). It's at best neutral at the moment. I don't EVER get any complements on how great my hair looks like I use to when I was younger, however, I also don't get called a bald or balding guy. I'm still self conscious of it because of the 'pluggy' loook, so I still like to wear a hat when I can. I recognize that things could be MUCH worse; however I still wish I would've never had the FUE done, and still regard it as a HUGE mid life crisis mistake. I'll try and upload a recent pic when I get back home and have some free time.

My redness lasted well over a year. Still have some discoloration to this day. You (like myself) unfortunately have sensitive skin that doesn't respond well to the trauma created during an FUE.