Albion71

Just a quick update following my meeting with Dr Lindsey and Spex last week.

Both were of the opinion that I still had a bit of maturing left, and that we would review after Xmas. Dr Lindsey is prepared to do a scar repair job for me FOC.

I'm not sure how much growth I can expect, and I'm coming to terms with the notion that I may be unsuitable for hair transplants due to physiology, or maybe the scarring from my previous HT with Transmed hindered the chances with this one. Hey ho.

It was good to meet Spex for the first time, and see for real his amazing barnet.

Hi all. I've posted a new update on my blog at 8.5 months.

I've also posted a selection of pics below.

There hasn't been much change in the density since 2-3 months ago. While the density is better than after the Transmed operation, it is still thin I feel.

My biggest concern is the scar, which is very wide, and I will have to have some further surgery there.

I am meeting Dr Lindsey and Spex in a couple of weeks for a review.

Thanks to everyone for their best wishes.

Thanks for the best wishes guys. Yes, wish I hadn't used Transmed now, but hopefully my experience will be a warning to others not to use certain surgeons.

I've added some more pics under normal lighting conditions to the blog here.

And posted one below:

Hi all. I've just done a six month update on my blog.

To be honest, progress has been a little disappointing, and the scar's prominence is alarming.

I've been in regular contact with Dr Lindsey and will hopefully be meeting him in the UK in October.

Hi Joe,

We met in London recently, and talked in terms of waiting till two years after my most recent HT (a second strip surgery, done in December), before I would be ready for a third.

But that may have been due to my scalp not being very lax?

Hi all.

Bit of a delay since the last update due to a few technical issues.

Here is my latest blog post with photos: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/Albion71/blog/1572/

Density starting to pick up in the recipient area but there appears to have been a bit of shock loss in the donor area.

Your thoughts welcome, as always.

Thanks Dutch. As it happens, I'm meeting Drs Hasson and Wong on Saturday for a consultation to assess my donor supply and what my future plans might be.

I hope something like replicel comes good in time to make a difference for me, though I hold out more hope with the rapid progress being made in transplanting of beard and body hair by surgeons like Bisanga - I have plenty of donor supply there!

Rod G - re finasteride and libido, if it's any consolation, I came off finasteride after 13 years last autumn, and my libido has come back pretty strong - to about 80% of what it was before I reckon. Though I'm now over 40 which may explain the other 20%.

Hi Dutch - I may try the approach of half a tablet of finasteride every other day, but only as a last resort. Ultimately, having a libido is more important than having hair.

Your plan sounds a sensible one, good luck.

One long-term concern I have is over what happens when all donor supply is exhausted but native hair continues to fall out around the temples, sides, and back. That could look odd.

Hi Dutch - I may try the approach of half a tablet of finasteride every other day, but only as a last resort. Ultimately, having a libido is more important than having hair.

Your plan sounds a sensible one, good luck.

One long-term concern I have is over what happens when all donor supply is exhausted but native hair continues to fall out around the temples, sides, and back. That could look odd.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

RCWest - I came off finasteride because of the effect on my libido, which has since come back, so pretty certain the two are linked.

As a result, I won't be trying finasteride again, so will almost certainly end up around NW6.

Therefore, I will be planning future HTs on the basis that some areas will have to be left with a thin covering - due to insufficient donor hair for a full covering - I wondered if anyone else had worked out a similar plan with their surgeon.

I wondered if anyone who has had a hair transplant is now NOT using meds - finasteride, minoxidil, etc?

These meds are generally recommended as the best way to preserve existing hair. Personally, I've come off finasteride because of the side effects, and I'm now trying minoxidil, though without great expectations.

Ideally I would prefer not to use any meds, and use surgery to deal with future hairloss. However, this is complicated by the fact that I'm likely to end up around a NW6, based on family hair loss history.

Is anyone else in a similar boat? Have you planned your hair transplants on the basis that you won't be able to cover all balding areas, eg. the crown, so settle for a thinner covering in those areas?

This is the situation I am in, interested in how others may have addressed it.

Looking good, and should be plenty more progress ahead.

I used Vitamin E oil on the scar for about two months after surgery, as advised by Dr Lindsey. Just a small amount, gently rubbed in.

I had a check up with the nurse at my local GP last week to see how the scar looked and she had a job to find it... So Vitamin certainly hasn't done me any harm.

Hi all.

Latest blog update here, six weeks post-op.

Not much to report other than steady healing, but there are hardly any pimples whereas at this stage following my previous HT I had loads in the recipient area. Hope that is a good sign.

UKresponder is right - the best options are abroad.

Flying to the US, for example, may seem a major deal, but your no.1 priority has to be getting the best outcome possible. And even with flights and hotels, it is probably cheaper overall than any UK clinic.

Do your research on this board - lots of it - and you should end up with a shortlist, none of whom I'll wager will be UK-based.

Also worth having a chat with some UK-based consultants for foreign surgeons - Spex does Feller and Lindsey in the US, Stephen does Bisanga in Belgium. Both good guys.

Many thanks guys, for your words of encouragement. And thanks to Dr Lindsey, for saying I was a good patient!

I've added a few more pics to the blog, not much change, but the scabs are all gone so it's a bit cleaner.

The surgeon who I used for my last transplant - Dr Lindsey - is dead opposed to the idea.

I'm aware that BHR - Dr Bisanga - has done transplants of beard hair successfully. Beard hair is obviously a little different to the hair on the top of your head, so I think the approach is to use beard hair in conjunction with hair from the more usual donor hair areas so that it is not too noticeable.

I would be very cautious about it. But as I'm likely to end up a NW6/7, and I doubt I've got enough donor hair to cover that size area, I will be monitoring developments with beard/body hair transplants.

@orlhair: I'm trying not to let air travel dissuade me from choosing a doc but to be quite frank the thought of going through security and a flight doesn't seem appealing to me. I would like to hear from guys who had to travel after their procedure and how things were handled. This might be a ridiculous questions but do the metal staples used for closing the donor area set off the metal detector? Having TSA hovering around you wouldn't be cool!

I've done it twice now. You don't feel completely comfortable but you just have to grin and bear it. If you wear any headgear, you'll have to take it off going through passport control, etc, but only briefly.

I had staples with my first HT and it didn't set off the metal detector.

For my most recent HT, I didn't use an ice pack on my face post op, but I flew back four days post surgery so it didn't matter. If I had flown back any sooner, I would have been a bit self-conscious as I looked like the elephant man.

Happy growing mate. Was over with Dr Lindsey myself on 22 December for 2495 grafts FUT. Flew back into London this morning.

Thanks guys, for all your kind words.

Will be keeping the blog updated regularly with my progress following the HT with Dr Lindsey.

Thanks guys.

I came off finasteride about 3-4 months into my current relationship, so think that's definitely why my libido has bounced back, not that I'm unhappy with my new girlfriend!

blkblk - take your point about reduced levels of finasteride, maybe that's an option in the short term.

Any of you ever had your DHT tested? This thread has some interesting points about it - notably from one guy who found it took a year for his DHT level to drop back to normal after quitting finasteride.

Hi all.

Some of you may remember me from my unsuccessful hair transplant with Dr Melike Kulahci at Transmed in June 2010. It was documented in my blog and in this forum thread.

I am pleased to say that I recently decided to go ahead with a second hair transplant, with a different doctor. Following advice from Spex, I booked a HT with Dr William Lindsey in Virginia, USA, and had surgery on 22 December. I'm typing this in my hotel room 48 hours later.

Everyone on this forum is here because they were depressed by losing their hair. I can only say that, if you have a HT expecting to partially recover your hair, and it fails, then you can multiply that depression 100 times over.

That is why I haven't posted on here for the past few months; I've been trying to 'regroup' mentally, and decide what to do next.

I considered raising the white flag in my battle with hairloss – but decided after much deliberation to give it one more try. Enter Dr Lindsey.

I'd like to thank Spex for his advice, and of course, to the many of you on the forum who have posted about your experiences, which helped convince me that it was worth having a second shot at a HT.

However, I remain unsure of success. Transmed provided no explanation as to why the previous operation failed, although the photos on my blog prior to surgery with Dr Lindsey, 18 months after the Transmed HT, show how poor the outcome of the HT was. (Incidentally, I notice that Dr Kulahci has since left membership of the coalition.)

So I'm still in the dark as to whether the HT failed because of Transmed, or because of me and my physiology. I am confident that I've chosen an excellent surgeon in Dr Lindsey, but I do wonder if I may be fundamentally unsuited to HTs. As I've never had much luck with the classic HT preventative treatments – finasteride (used since 1998), minoxidil, nizoral – I'm a little pessimistic. We shall see.

On another note, I've posted on another part of the forum about my experience with finasteride. I have been taking the drug for 13 years, but my girlfriend persuaded me to give it up recently to see if my libido would improve. It has. So I now need to consider finasteride alternatives. Your thoughts welcome.

Thanks again to all of you who posted sympathetic and encouraging comments about my first HT. I hope you are winning your own battles with hairloss.

Hi all.

I wondered if anyone had any good suggestions for alternatives to finasteride as a DHT blocker.

My story – I started taking finasteride in 1998. Apart from a six month period in 2003 on dutasteride, which hammered my libido, I used it solidly until six weeks ago.

It has never reversed or stopped my hairloss, but I think it has slowed it down.

In 2007, I noticed my libido starting to flag. It was much harder to get an erection, even harder to climax. At the time, I put this down to a number of things: stress caused by work; depression following a relationship break-up; age.

Then about two months ago, my current girlfriend discovered I was using finasteride and told me to get off it. So I did. My libido has come back sharply.

So I am now reluctant to go back on it, and I'm weighing up the alternatives. Currently I'm thinking about:

• Finasteride every other day. Reduced effect, and potentially still damaging to the libido.
  
• Saw palmetto. I did try it once before for about nine months, but it was in addition to finasteride, so I don't know how it would affect my libido. It had no noticeable effect on my hairloss.
  
• Super Zix. A saw palmetto-based topical application.
  

Beyond those, there are many other topical applications, which often have wild claims but limited support for the hairloss community.

Things I have tried without success (generally for 9-12 months each): topical spironolactone; topical copper peptides; topical minoxidil 5%; dermaroller (in combination with the previous three).

I should add that I am planning to give minoxidil foam a go. I did try minoxidil 5% for about nine months in 2008, but without much success, unless you count a tougher beard and more ear hair!

Does anyone have other recommendations?

How common is this approach by some surgeons, whereby they have a 'supervising role' during the HT?

When I had my surgery at Transmed, Dr Kulahci removed the hair from my donor area, but only came in 2-3 times after that, with her assistants inserting the grafts into the recipient area. She just seemed to check what they were doing.

How common is this approach? From consultations I've had with all HT surgeons, I was always given the impression that the surgeon would do EVERYTHING. It was only when surgery started at Transmed, that I realised Dr Kulahci would not be doing the graft insertions.

It didn't strike me as an issue at the time. I assumed it was normal. But I ask the question wow because I'm still trying to establish what went wrong in my own HT, and wonder whether this could have been a factor.

It may also be an issue for Lisco by the sound of it.

I can only second Jessie's comments - the questions you are asking should really be asked well before you book surgery. Most people who have had successful HTs will have spent years undertaking painstaking research before taking the plunge.

As you've noted, my experience with Dr Kulahci was not a good one.

However, based on the research done by Bill and the panel, I think she is the only Transmed surgeon who has coalition membership. Be careful before going ahead with any other surgeon.