YoungGuy

Showering the grafts may be a bit harsh on them as well. My doc advised me to gently pour water on it out a cup for the first 3-4 days, THEN try a shower. To be honest, I've done the water out of a cup thing for well over a week before I got the courage to shower directly on it

I have not posted about this before, because a) I was dumbfounded by what I saw, having never seen anything like this before and b) I realized that I didn't know much about surgeries. Posting in the state of mind I was in coupled with my ignorance would not have come out well. That said, I'm learning a lot reading Dr. Rassman's replies. This stuff's fascinating, I should've gone into medicine myself! Dr. Rassman, I'd like to say thanks for coming by to clarify and explain what happened. It really does make s difference in people's perceptions. Surgery is always a risk, and unfortunately the odds catch up with even the best. This simply looks to be one of those rare cases that could have happened to anyone.

Man, I wish my sex drive would decrease a little. Then I could focus on important things!

1) It probably is safe; personally. I had someone pick meup. On the way home (40 min drive) I was feeling pain as the anesthetic was wearing off. Nothing terrible, but the kind of persistent, annoying pain which I'd imagine can make it hard to focus on driving. Why take the chance? 2) You'll look ok in 2 months most likely. 3) No idea on this one 4) Yes you can. in fact, you probably should.

Most b?®owse?®s suppo?®t the ?®egiste?®ed t?®adema?®k symbol, it's ?®eally not that ha?®d to type. Unless of ?©ou?®se you have an old b?®owse?® (p?®e-ve?®sion 3) which won't display them p?®operly! Ok, enough showing off

I wasn't asked either. If the pharmacy gives you a hard time, try going to another.

I think that most good/reputable doctors wouldn't work on you at such a young age. The reason for this is, your hair loss is very likely to progress and they know what you'll find out: the transplanted hair will stay, and when the hair behind it falls out you look bad. The only ones who would operate on you are the doctors you want to stay away from. Unethical ones. I know this is probably something you hate to hear, but seriously: wait a few years. In the meantime, start taking Propecia right now and see where you are in 6 months to a year. Propecia will help stem further hair loss and may even regrow some hair. If you successfully arrest your hair loss in a year, then (and only then!) think about a transplant.

If you want to avoid any risk, stop it for 2 weeks before. 1 week obviously wasn't enough for me

The drug is one of those that needs up to build up in your system over time anyway; I don't imagine it would make too much difference?

Perfectly normal, it's expected. You'll lose most, if not, all the new ones in a few more weeks and they'll regrow in 3-4 months. In fact, having them stay would've been abnormal & surprising I'm surprised your doc didn't let you know this.

Wow, 20 bucks a month? I picked up 30 pills for $10, which comes out to... $2.50 a month. Which isn't that terrible on my finances. Doesn't your health insurance cover it like mine does?

Hah, yeah, I guess it was too easy - hair clippers it is Believe or not, I've never heard the term before (honest!) and just didn't know what the silly implement was called. ... ya, I feel foolish hehe.

Personally, I believe there is no reason for hair gel unless you're in the mafia From your picture you seem to have a lot of hair; get on finasteride, you really don't need a HT. A transplant is a good option for many folks, but it is an invasive procedure and bear in mind that it can cause shock loss to thei hair you currently have. This hair does usually come back, but it may not if it was destined to anyway. At the very least, don't rush things. Get on finasteride for 6 to 12 months and see where you stand; it will strengthen your hair and who knows, it may give you results you will be happy with.

This is a silly question, but I never really did this before. What do I buzz my hair with? I'd imagine a beard trimmer won't do the job!

This is a silly question, but I never really did this before. What do I buzz my hair with? I'd imagine a beard trimmer won't do the job!

Want a bald president? Dwight D. Eisenhower! Beat that! And if that's not ehough, Dubya has a full head of hair. That alone makes me want to pull my HT out

If I made 1/2 of what he does, I'd be just as open and just as happy. Heck, happier Ya wanna know something funny about losing your hair? Most of it comes from YOU. Personally, if there's anything I noticed about folks I know, it's that most really couldn't care less about my hair loss and the ones that did, thought it looked fine and probably wished I'd worry about something else.

Personal experience: I screwed up and had 3 beers a week prior to surgery (honest mistake, really... for some reason, I got it into my head that it was 1 week prior you can't have it, not two and thought I was safe). Don't do it. Even as little as 3 beers makes a noticeable difference in the bleeding of the recipient area. The practical ramifications are, the technicians will get ticked off at you (as they have at me somewhat) because it makes their job harder, and it makes staple removal more painful since when you bleed more, more blood will dry & stick to your hair. None of the staples hurt enough to make me jump out of my chair or anything, but a few there had me catching my breath. I'm only 10 days post right now so I can't speak as to long-term ramifications and I honestly don't expect any, but the surgery itself is traumatic enough as it is. Don't make it harder on yourself than it has to be.

I'm actually 10 days post op myself, and some of mine are shedding as well. I kinda want them to all drop out already, along with the annoying scabs, so I can buzz my head and ditch the hat My doc says they're in solid by now, and that I can't get the roots out short of cutting them out in surgery, so don't worry. They're supposed to drop out.

As much as I'd love to jump on the MHR-bashing bandwagon, from the pictures provided it doesn't look like the surgery itself has gone badly. If anyting, it's as others have said - your expectations weren't managed realistically, and the clinic did not inform you thoroughly. As much as I hate to say this, you're may partly be to blame as you may not have done all the research & due diligence you could. It sounds like doctor skill was lacking in your surgery and as a result, you ended up with permanent shock loss; that was something they should have warned ya about and was also something you could've dug up on your own before going in. In the end, though, I agree. MHR is at fault. They should have the decency to tell prospective patients what to *realistically* expect and let them make an informed decision rather than promise the impossible and then merely deliver the possible, without any great skill to boot.

Day 9 update: The sutures came out 2 days ago and I can now sleep much better (you wouldn't believe how many times those silly things will wake you up at night!). Skin on my head is still a little tight and the scar a little tender, but everyone who saw it commented on how small it was and it doesn't hurt anymore. SO it's largely back to normal. The new hair has began to fall out, ever so slowly, and scabs are forming. At this pace I'm hoping in another week or two I'll be able to get a buzz cut and go without a hat, which would be great! In short, so far - so good! I will post some before & after pictures as soon as I have them available.

About working out - I asked about this specifically, both the doc (Dr. Feller) and the technicians since I work out regularly and I was told 2 weeks or so till I can resume my normal workouts. I will likely wait 3 or 4 since I figure an extra 2 weeks can't hurt, but 3 months? That sounds surprising to me?

I would imagine that you'll end up going for 2-3 HTs total in your situation. You might want to find some posts by jotronic, he has gone a similar route (first the front 2/3, then the crown, then some filling in on the 3rd HT) and now he looks great.

Nobuzz, I really would like to take more time off but can not. I wish though! I was really surprised to feel no pain whatsoever when I woke up today. The doctor really must've done something right for it to last such a short time! As far as the pictures, JohnS, you're not lying as "poster boy" was exactly the phrase used But hey, the way I see it, if the doctor is good and wants to use a lot of people to show off his work, more power to him. The more people he works on, the fewer will be butchered by some other quack, right?

I have a thread going here from earlier but I wanted to start a new one and describe what happened to me today. I've just had a procedure done with Dr. Feller today, in fact I just got home about 3 hours ago. Surgery: I arrived at the doctor's office about 15 min early, which gave me time to get a cup of coffee to help me wake up. I'm lucky since I live about 30 min. drive away from his office. The doctor went through the pre-op session with me which basically was me asking questions, him answering candidly. He then drew a hairline which was to be filled in. I'm lucky I suppose, since while I have pronounced hair loss on the front of my head the back & top and perfectly fine & hairy. The doctor commented that I'd be a good showcase for him, being relatively young at 27 and that the difference would be fairly dramatic. He asked whether he could use my photos for advertising, etc. and I told him to go ahead & do anything he likes with them. The surgery itself was long. I was originally to have 2,500 grafts put in, but he managed to extract more and put those in which means I ended up with 3,300 grafts total, all concentrated on the front half of the head. The doctor seems to think the results will be very nice and boy, do I hope he's right. Additional grafts mean more time spent, and I was there from 7:45 am to 5:00pm. I watched some movies during the surgery and the doc bought me lunch; still, the entire process was fairly grueling. Not painful, but how long can you sit without moving before you start to feel uncomfortable, really? The doctor's staff was very good and friendly. They were somewhat bummed at the fact that I'd had a few beers the week before surgery, which thinned the blood and made their work tough. I didn't receive the pre-op instructions and the prescription for painkillers which were mailed to me and, as a consequence of which I did a few things wrong (no button down shirt, no painkillers bought ahead of time, beer). He gave me another prescription as I was leaving and I bought them on the way home. When I did get home, I found a letter in my mailbox - the prescription and the instructions. Go go gadget US postal service... Once surgery was done, the doc took a few more pictures, gave me a prescription for Propecia and I headed home. On the way home anesthetic wore off and by the time I got my prescription filled, 2 hours later, it hurt. Boy, did it! Fortunately, the painkiller took care of it and I could think again So now I have 3 days off ahead of me before I go back to work. I'll get Propecia tomorrow and spend the weekend sequestered, sheltering my new hair. Afterwards I'll probably have to see a lot of people as nearly everyone I know has been told I'm getting it done and will want to see the result! I'll update this post in a few weeks with some pictures and try to provide an ongoing progress report. I feel pretty good about doing it. So far, so good! To conclude, I'd recommend Dr. Feller to anyone based on the initial experience, and I hope the results will be good enough for this recommendation to stand.