Surfarosa

Just now, John1991 said:

Right.  Then apparently it wasn't taken from the safe zone because it's evaporating.

When I had it done, the hairline was up against hair, the hair that is "evaporating" is what happens when you lose more hair as you age.

1 minute ago, John1991 said:

That picture is the opposite of the nightmare everywhere worries about.  Most are worried that if you lower the hairline you'll end up with a hairline and loss behind it.  Yours is the opposite - you have hair behind a disappeared hairline.

That hair in the front is all transplant.

And here is what that looks like in 12 years. Exciting huh?

Same day but syled to conceal ....

So this is the day that made me freak the F out. I had it cut way shorter than ever and was able to take this picture.

This is the absolute worst I can make it look. Be gentle 😬

Should i have them removed ?

9 minutes ago, Mike10 said:

Look you got a good 10 years out of it, that is what a HT is supposed to do. This is just the normal course of a HT journey. It is a progressive disease and a lot of people will not be done with 1 or even 2 procedures. And some will not have enough donor hair without taking Finansteride. Even on Finansteride hair loss is likely to proceed in the long term. In short it is a life long journey 

Most young patients do not care about all those things , they just want to go aheady with surgery

I was very careful and cautious but once I felt I had it cracked, I took my eye off the ball and just decided to stop taking meds due to a) being happy and b) worried about the flood of scares in the press. I had not started my family at that point in life.

The difference I am hearing here vs what the London HT doctors said is drastic. They say it's a repair job, ya'll suggest it's not that bad - which is of course a way better prognosis. That said, there is a moat of 1cm behond the hairline which is very obvious if styed to highlight it.

I was looking into how I could have them removed so that I had one hairline and could cut shorter.

What i was hoping when I visited the doctors was them saying, thats an easy fix with 500 grafts and FUE (which was still new when I had mine done). They quoted a surgey that was bigger that anything I have had before which blew me away.

 

5 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

first of all I think your hair looks decent enough, and is age-appropriate for 47. So you always have the option of doing nothing....

My only other advice is to hop back on Fin or Dut asap. It appears you didn't suffer any side effects but instead stopped due to all the hysteria of guys who would have ED or depression with or without DHT blockers. 

It's way easier to blame the hairloss pill than one's own biological chemistry and the aging process. 

 

Ordered Fin and Min today! Also, Vitamin D as having moved from Cali to London - "there ain't no sunshine" and that can have an impact on hair health - apparently.

Thanks for the confidence boost towards my preferred option - doing nothing and aging on schedule!  At least not until I have gotten to the point where it looks obvious to the untrained eye.

The HT docs here in the UK said it was really bad and needed repairing but they are very pushing here.  I had my work reviewed by top doctors in the US and they all thought it was stellar, but that was 10 years ago when I had more hair in the front. When I asked the UK doctors what would the plan be if they put 2000 more in the hairline and I lost the lot - they had no answers.

5000 in the front and nothing in reserve is this situation but much worse.

But if I do that, I will have used my entire donor supply in the hairline and could be in a worse situation in 5-10 years time.

I appreciate the recommendation though and will research 👍

No it does not.

So - I'm back after a happy decade away ....

• I had 3 proceedures with over 3000 grafts.
• First in 2003, the last one was in 2008.
• I was on Propecia from 1999 for year and then Avodart from 2009 but stopped in 2012 (stupid I know but I was done with it all and honestly forgot about it for a decade). There was a lot of negative press at the time and I felt my hair was stable and I was happy with the result.
• These picture show the two hairlines that I now have.
• I can make it look a lot better than this and also a lot worse.
• My origional goal was to try and look like I was not losing hair.
• My goal now is to not look like I have had a hair transplant.
• I tried going really short recently and it made the double hairline look waaaay worse so that option slammed shut.
• I now lived in the UK vs. CA and visited 2 HT surgeries - not a chance on this earth that I would trust UK doctors. I'm not new to this (out of date maybe) but I know what awful patient pre-care results in.
• So - I feel stuck
• My wife is a hairstylist and wishes she could just have all the "work" removed. I asked about this, thinking that would be easy with FUE, but they said it would replace my transplanted hairline with a scarred one.
• One clinic said they would do it with 1200 another said 2500 grafts.
• I really thought I was done with this game and feel full of regrets.
• That said, this forum has saved me before, it may have some sage wisdom going forward.
• Hopefully there are lessons for others in my journey as most don't span 20+ years !
• I am 47 years old
• Crown looks ok in this pic but is really thinning and I would not touch it at this stage
• I am getting back on Propecia and Minoxidil asap

So - I feel trapped in mess of my own making and pretty stupid to boot.  I can just about style myself ok, but I fear that will not be a long term option. My biggest fear was always to look like I had a HT - now that looks like my end game.
 

I may post more pictures if needed but these are a fair reflection of where I am at I think.

Here's a picture from 2010.


 

My advice would be to wait. Anyone who will do work on a 24 year old is unethical, especially if your thinning is diffuse.

If money is an issue, then be double careful as this is not a one time deal - especially at your age.

Background

• I started enquiring/researching when I was your age.
• I had my first at 29 and the last one in 2009.
• I'm 47 now - you will be surprised how much your goals change.
• My goal was to avoid looking like I was losing hair, so that I would have the confidence to date women I was attracted to.
• I'm married now with children and my goal is to not look like I had a hair transplant.
• My wife is 15 years younger than me (not that it matters), a hair stylist and wishes I could just have them removed.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do becuase its so hard when it bothers you. I am just sharing my experience.

What's the point of my story & response?

My goals changed and the current one - the one that I will live with forever -  could have been achieved by doing NOTHING.

At best, do nothing, at a minimum - WAIT !

Looking to be a winner!

You are an amazing candidate with donor galor, no crown loss and a nice skin<>hair contrast.  Your course hair would suggest that your coverage would be great but that there may be difficulty in establishing a natural hairline. Not in this case - great work.

Make sure you stay on the meds! I did not and lived to regret it 😖

 

At least you are learning about the risks now vs. when its too late 👍

3 minutes ago, NARMAK said:

Hair transplants are an elective procedure and therefore people may undergo it for different reasons.

Usually its to treat androgenic alopecia which is the leading cause of male hair loss but some people may do it for more aesthetic reasons. 

Imo, i've seen members with little to no hair loss choose to do this because they wanted a better aesthetic look where they reduced their forehead etc. 

You just need to be incredibly informed about the potential pitfalls of front loading the hairline in cause male pattern hair loss strikes you later. You also imo should take into account if you actually could lower your hairline where you want to if that's the goal because the Frontalis muscles in your forehead can be a limiting factor. 

One final thing i think is that if you are happy with the hairline where it is, and just concerned about the density in the temporal areas. I'm sure you could get a "fill in" type of procedure via FUE. It does seem like from your post itself it's just the corners you want to address and not dropping the hairline lower. I know people say your hair looks great but if it did bother you that much, you could go for it but you need to be aware of the potential pitfalls of shock loss causing hair to permanently go in that area etc. too. 

Let me just expand on the last part of what NARMAK just said, "you could go for it but you need to be aware of the potential pitfalls of shock loss causing hair to permanently go in that area etc. too"

Because you have so much hair, you risk hurting the hair around the ones that get implanted. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that you could end up with less origional hair after you are done.

Thats the potential risk.

The potential reward is that you get added density that only you can notice because its only you that looks in the mirror and sees only a hairline looking back.

What Gatsby said perfectly. Anyone doctor who would agree surgery on you should be struck off. That said, most of Harley Street would.

Your hair looks awesome. What you are experience seems more like a natural maturation of your hairline which is not the same as MPB.

The reason I would not dream of it is because I was you (but worse) and now I'm you in 12 years.  Hair transplantation is filled with risks in both the short, but especially the long term. 

Everything in life is about risk reward. In your case the risk is high and I see practicly zero reward.

If you want to change your appearance, go running, workout more & smile more often.

You are good dude.

 

As someone who  has had 3 HTs - all considered state of the art - I would not even dream of having surgery if I were you. And many consider my work to be excellent (it was - it's not now).

I would also echo some of the comments here about London surgeons. I just visited 2 and both were F*ing awful for multiple reasons I won't document here. The UK industry seem to be in the dark ages still in terms of their approach to potential patients.

My surgeries were in the US and now 12 years on since my last surgery, I am having to consider another as I now have 2 hairlines with a cm gap between them. Go figure - receeding continues, donor supply only goes down.

When I had my fist HT in 2003, I just wanted to look age appropriate, all the usual reasons etc. Now, I wish I could buzz cut my hair and just look like loads of guy with natural hair loss. Your goals change bro.

My goal now is to not look like I've had a HT and if I could remove them all - I would. With styling my hair still looks ok, however, under the cover is a different story.

Do the maths - it simply does not add up for most cases.

Epilepticsceptic - From what I can recall you have a loving supportive girlfriend (who was against you having a HT as she loved you as is). From what i can perceive from your many posts, you are simply wanting to play the field and/or (sorry to be so blunt) - upgrade once you Ht is grown in. I'm not judging you on that, but it's a bit different to just wanting to find one true love & the only thing holding you back is MPB.

That paints a slight different picture ?

Anonymous Man - I feel for every word you shared. Good luck to you ....but just keep taking the finesteride.

ES - what's happening dude ? You outta here already ? :cool:

ES - would love to see the clipped scar as I'm dying to clip my hair down again but am too chicken shit. Part of the problem is that my scar is still sensitive (some nerve damage) so I feel it's more than it really is. Hasson & Bill Reed have both given my scars the all clear as good but I'm still a baby about the clippers. Of course it's more about what's in my head vs whats on my head as usual !

Wow ! Looks like all your research took you to the right place at the right time ! Bet you wish you had never heard the term FUE Just kidding - Atta boy ! Grow baby grow !

I had it done and it achieved nothing. I actually think it caused shock loss but I'm not totally sure. Also, it is quite a procedure. My head hurt like f*#k the next day and I needed a Vicodin prescription to deal with it & I have a high pain threshold.

I've not heard anything positive about PRP other than it can't harm you unlike a bad HT.

It's absolutely great if you can wear it proud - good for you brother ! But for most patients they are trying to keep the procedure a closely held secret. I was very lucky as I could wear a hat and use hair to cover it but I had to be careful.....

not that noticable - looks good

I think that for patients worried about going back to work this highlights just HOW noticeable this surgery is on one's head. I think many clinics and patients down play this far too much and mislead patients which can lead to unnecessary embarrassment and poor planning.

HTs into bald scalp stand out like a beacon post surgery. It is what it is.

Why is this patient being presented as an early stage thinner ? 2A ?? And you should not be able to tell that he had a HT - that's the entire point ? Nice work, confusing commentary.

The ethical doctors are also smart enough to know that cheating on graphs is a short term money maker. They are all in this for the long term and know the power of the internet when it comes to damaging their reputations. If you really trust your doc at some point you have to become a passenger or you will drive yourself nuts.