TC17

Assume that you can safely harvest the average 6,000 grafts via traditional strip, is there a way to estimate how many grafts would be left over for FUE? Also, can't you conceivably get a much higher yield from only using FUE? If the average person can lose 50% of his hair before it becomes noticeable, can't a doctor theoretically take every other follicle in the entire donor area without it appearing thin? I may be wrong here, but I'm under the impression that there are close to 25,000 follicular units in the donor area and 12,5000 would be enough to fill in even Norwood 7's, right?

If the results posted are indicative of Dr. Carman's usual work, then he absolutely merits membership in the coalition.

My ex gf's dad went to him for some FUE and there was no sign of scarring even when he shaved his head completely bald for a fund raiser. The hairline looked good, but Dr. Wolf has some photos on his website of hairlines that I would not be pleased with. I know little of his work, but if there is even one showcase patient that I am dissatisfied with, I cross that doctor off of my list. I also think that it is misleading to say that he does not promote himself on forums because he is very active on one of the other ones, rather he has chosen not to involve himself with this forum. I question why he has chosen to refuse invitations to post his work on this particular site. Although I may be connecting dots that do not exist, in my opinion there must be a reason for why a doctor would refuse such great exposure. Either he does not need it (which is very possible), or his work may pale in comparison to other doctors from this site. I wish Dr. Wolf would post his work here for review because I live only 2 hours from him and would prefer to travel a short distance for a great surgery.

bishal82, Ask Bill if he can move this thread to a different topic thread so that it gets more hits. The best way to get an answer to your question would be to have an in person consultation with a physician. If for some reason that is impossible, send them some pictures so that you get a better idea of your situation. If I were you, I would be most concerned with the fact that you have lost so much hair in only three years.

The "before and after" shots from both sh3sw and JWSFL are found on Dr. Larry Shapiro's website. I find it highly unlikely that two showcase patients from the same physician managed to post the EXACT same pictures on the same forum post. If either of you are genuine, then humor me by posting different pictures please.

So it is $4 per graft regardless of session size? I know a lot of the doctors reduce after 2,000 or so grafts. Rahal's prices are in Canadian dollars though, so when you factor in the exchange rate you actually get a nice little discount if coming from the US, in addition to a 10% (up to $1,000) travel discount. If Dr. Rahal didn't require shaving I'm 99% sure I would visit him, but I can't shave the head down.

What does Dr. Alexander charge per graft and does he require shaving?

In addition to possible side effects, I'm concerned that taking Finasteride misleads the doctor with regards to your actual balding pattern. For example, you may be 40 and been taking Propecia for 10 years and have evolved to a NW4, but if you had never used drugs you would be a NW6. If you get a transplant the doctor may be more aggressive because of your age and relative minor balding, but if you get off the drugs you're left with more bald area, less available donor, and a potentially poor result. I take Proscar 1.25 every day, but I don't want to take it the rest of my life and I fear that as a result of the Proscar the doctor will have no possible way to estimate my future balding.

My head is about 57cm around, not sure if that's big, medium, small.

BTW, I just looked at your blog and the work from Dr. Feller looks REALLY, REALLY good to me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

LMS did bring up one point that has been a slight concern of mine regarding Dr. Rahal and that is the high number of grafts in the hairline and front area of relatively younger patients. While the work looks amazing, I too wonder what may happen if future loss occurs. Now of course these patients may have plenty of grafts to spare, and the 3000 to the hairline and frontal third may only be 25 to 33% of the total number of available grafts, but my in my observation Dr. Rahal goes lower and denser than patients of the Shapiro's, Konior, Cooley, Alexander, H&W, etc. Merely speaking for me, I'm 26 and there is no way in hell I would ever lower my hairline because of the fear of future loss. While LMS does at times have a negative slant with his remarks, if you look past that, I think most members will see his concerns as genuine and his beliefs rational.

While there is a high level of subjectivity in hair line design, I'm partial to the work of Dr. Wong, Dr. Konior, Dr. Rahal, Dr. Alexander, Dr. Arocha, both Ron and Paul Shapiro (although I haven't seen nearly as much from Dr. Paul, the things I have look very similar to his brothers), Dr. Tykocinski, Dr. Nakatsui, and Dr. DeVroye.

My ex girlfriends dad is a high school principal who promised his school that if they raised X amount of dollars at some fundraiser that he would allow them to shave his head at an assembly. They ended up raising the money and he kept his word and shaved his head. The only reason why that is important is because he had a FUE surgery two years prior, and there was NO visible scarring. I see quite a few older men with see through fringes of hair that would unquestionably show a strip scar. Also, if the hair is thinned in the donor area you would lose those grafts as well anyway. Of course undergoing what is a temporary hair transplant has its drawbacks, but the combination of medication and the time a surgery like this could buy someone may be invaluable. Hair loss might bother me at 30, but by 40 I may not care. What if a 25 year old gets a small surgery fulling expecting to undergo future transplants to "keep up" with his hair loss, but for financial reasons is unable to afford one when he is 35 and he now looks silly and is unable to shave down because he has a strip scar? God forbid we ever get cancer, but what if a hair transplant patient does undergo radiation therapy and loses all of his hair, again exposing a strip scar? I just think that anything reasonably calculated (and if this is not reasonable than so be it) to buy a hair loss suffer time for medical breakthroughs (cloning, PRP, cures, other meidcation) and/or surgical advancements and refinements has to be a good thing. Does anyone really expect strip surgeries to be the norm in 15, 20 years? If you're still a young man, why would you bind yourself to a lifetime of having a linear scar if it is not absolutely necessary?

So I'm wondering, if FUE scarring is so minimal that it is virtually undetectable, why can't a doctor take FUE from a non safe zone and transplant it to lower a hairline or fill in the temples on a young patient? Is there any reason why FUE's cannot be taken from the top of the scalp? I know that those hairs will not be resistant to DHT and will fall out in time, but some younger patients may only want to look like their peers and not commit to a lifetime of hair restoration. Can't a surgery like that buy the patient some time to decide whether he truly wants to undertake the lifelong process of maintaining his hair without limiting his decision to shave his head in the future? If he ever decides to undergo full strip or FUE from the safe zone, none of his limited supply has been touched and with his increased age it should be easier for a doctor to assess his future pattern. *of course this all assumes that the scarring is virtually undetectable, but even if it is moderately visible, very small scars on the top of the head shouldn't be that noticeable*

So I'm wondering, if FUE scarring is so minimal that it is virtually undetectable, why can't a doctor take FUE from a non safe zone and transplant it to lower a hairline or fill in the temples on a young patient? Is there any reason why FUE's cannot be taken from the top of the scalp? I know that those hairs will not be resistant to DHT and will fall out in time, but some younger patients may only want to look like their peers and not commit to a lifetime of hair restoration. Can't a surgery like that buy the patient some time to decide whether he truly wants to undertake the lifelong process of maintaining his hair without limiting his decision to shave his head in the future? If he ever decides to undergo full strip or FUE from the safe zone, none of his limited supply has been touched and with his increased age it should be easier for a doctor to assess his future pattern. *of course this all assumes that the scarring is virtually undetectable, but even if it is moderately visible, very small scars on the top of the head shouldn't be that noticeable*

I've gotten good prices of the real stuff on ebay.

I head to my gym every morning around 8:00am, and at that time there is always a mix of men in their 30's, 40's, 50's and a lot of senior citizens who I assume are retired. My observations have me slightly concerned about future hair loss because I would categorize AT LEAST 50% of the senior citizens as Norwood 6's, and AT LEAST 20% as Norwood 7's. A lot of the guys have see through hair in their donor area and pretty extensive balding patterns. I used to think that those guys must have been balding considerably in their younger days, but when I look at the younger men working out, I see a much smaller percentage of men showing any hair loss. Of course a lot of them will begin to lose their hair at some point in their life, but for the number of 6's and 7's I see, I would have thought that a lot more of the younger men would already be showing hair loss. Obviously there is no scientific evidence in my observation, just what I've seen in a small sample group, but it doesn't seem to mesh with Dr. Rassman's statements that only 7% of men reach NW 7 status or that hair loss slows down with age. DO NOT take what I am saying as anything more than people watching though!

Good luck cautious. Do you mind elaborating on what it was that impressed you about your conversation and how he put you at ease? Also, what were Dr. P's prices?

Does anyone know anything about Dr. Fisher in Tennessee? I met a guy today who had a transplant with him and I must say it looked really, really good.

Does anyone know anything about Dr. Fisher in Tennessee? I met a guy today who had a transplant with him and I must say it looked really, really good.

Aska, Does Dr. T offer any travel discounts to out of town patients? How much do hotels cost around his clinic? Does he require shaving of the recipient area? Does he use blades or needles?

Bill, - This is the post I was referencing where you said it was unreasonable to post 100 or so pictures of their work. Associate Publisher and Forum Moderator Follicular Grand Wizard Picture of Bill - Associate Publisher Posted April 17, 2009 12:18 PM Hide Post Though I appreciate everyone's concern and desire to see as many photo examples of a prospective doctor's work as possible, it's simply not realistic to ask them to present hundreds of examples of their work. ------------------------------------------------ - I totally agree with you that asking a physician to post 100 or so pictures merely for recommendation is overkill, but that is excerpted from a post that was not talking about recommendation, but was instead about a post where I asked if it would be possible to compel each physician to post 100 pictures of their work. Clearly you do not disagree with me that physicians can and should post far more frequently, so there is no disagreement between us. I would personally LOVE to take a vacation to Brazil and visit Dr. Tykocinski, and indeed I have called his office to get more information but was unable to do so because the woman who answered did not speak English, and although she was willing to speak Spanish with me, neither of us spoke that language well enough to gather any real useful information. I'm not knocking Dr. Tykocinski here, I'm just saying that for my selfish reasons I want to see more of his work so that I can include him on my list of potential physicians, and I again ask why we cannot compel those physicians who do not have an adequate presence on this forum to post more examples of their work? (and yes, I realize that "adequate" is ambiguous, so let's just say 75 and call it a day!) Last, I personally appreciate all that you do on this site Bill, and I do not want this to come across as in anyway being disrespectful towards you. You're always there to answer our questions and help out, and I thank you for that. And yes, I realize that if I have this big of an issue with the lack of pictures from certain physicians that I can exercise my right to choose another physician, but I want to choose my physician based upon his results, and not because of ignorance brought about by limited information not under my control.

The spring before my senior year of high school my football coach took clips of my best plays and put them together with music to create a highlight tape to send to college coaches who were interested in me as a player. The tape lasted about 15 or 20 minutes and made me look as if I was the second coming of John Elway. The tape did not show the interceptions, fumbles, bad decisions, and inaccurate throws though. I received a lot of positive feedback and a lot of phone calls and emails from coaches from top 10 programs in the country the summer before my senior year and I did fairly well at some summer camps. However, when my senior season started and coaches began watching me play in person, the flaws in my game became more apparent. In person it was easy to see that I didn't go through my progressions, was too quick to take off and run, threw a flat deep ball, forced too many throws, etc. Needless to say, by about the middle of my senior year the Oklahomas and the Michigans no longer called, and I was only offered scholarships from some MAC and WAC programs. What's the point in that story? In my highlight tape, I showcased what I wanted to be seen. It was a fair and accurate portrayal of my talents as a quarterback, after all, the 40 yard digs that I zipped in weren't faked, my ability to tuck the ball and run and make people miss in the open field wasn't either. My highlight tape is analogous to the physician posted results. My junior year was 10 regular season and 1 playoff game. That comes out to 332 minutes of football with a 15-20 minute highlight tape. If you assume that we were on offense for half of that time, that means I had 166 minutes to cut down to a 15 minute tape. I'll completely ignore the fact that I handed the ball off far more than I threw, and use just the 166 minute to make my point. The 15 minute highlight tape was about 11% of my body of work and no coach worth their salt put any stock in that other than as a precursor to scouting me in person. In an ideal world we would all be able to fly to Brazil and meet with Dr. T and see dozens of his patients in person, and then fly to Canada and meet with Dr. Rahal for the same visit. But in reality, few, if any members of this forum have that luxury. I realized that you and Pat do your best to get as many results posted as possible, but if Dr. T has done 200 surgeries per year for say 5 years, and only has 20 posted, that's like 2% and with ZERO patient blogs! Look, all I'm saying is that nobody here should rely upon a highlight tape, and since we can't scout in person, we rely upon this forum to give us as much information as possible to make an informed decision. When there are ZERO patient blogs and an extremely small percentage of patient photos, it is difficult to accurately gauge whether one should visit a physician or not. I'm not knocking H&W, Rahal, Feller, etc. here, but if they only had 20 pictures and zero patient blogs, does anyone really think that they would be talked about so effusively by members, myself included? And Bill, you've said before that it is unreasonable to expect physicians to post 100 or so pictures of their work, I disagree with that statement only because so many doctors on here do post regularly, and Dr. Tykocinski pots irregularly.

Cautious, Keep me posted please. Like you, the pictures I've seen from Dr. T look great, but if he sends different ones to you forward them along to me as well please.

I use a pill cutter and it works well. I lay the piece horizontal and cut it in half in the middle, and then flip the cut piece 180 degrees and split it lengthwise. The pieces usually end up very close to even.