ScottishGuy

Thanks for the input. I just tried shaving the hairs right down and it does look a lot less conspicuous. I can see the incision sites when I look closely, and I have some persistent pimples so I will probably put some kind of face powder on the area to conceal them...I don't think that should do any harm (although it's not ideal). I feel a bit sad to be cutting away new hairs that are growing, but hopefully I won't have to do this again.

Eek! I have an important job interview next week and I'm wondering whether my crazy appearance will be a problem. Does anyone have any advice for how I should approach this? If you have a look at my weblog, you can see the stage I am at now. I am wondering whether I should shave the hairs that are growing in the temple areas - they probably look a bit strange. Actually, the interviewer wrote to me saying I can wear casual clothes if I want. This opens the possibility of wearing a hat. I still feel that wearing a hat indoors, especially at a job interview, may be a step too far though. Bearing in mind that I will be getting interviewed by possible future work colleagues, I really wanted to delay the interview, but holding off for another week won't make a huge amount of difference. I hope that if they decide to hire me, they'll forget how I looked during the interview

Can you post some pictures of your hair? You'll get much more constructive feedback if you do. I've noticed a lot of patients with pinkness even at the 5 months mark so it isn't all that unusual. If your doc is recommended by this site, you can have a look at other patient results to see if they have similar growth patterns.

I can relate to some of this. About a month before my HT I (unexpectedly) started dating someone new. Since then I've "explained" that I've had some kind of scalp infection so I wore a hat for recent dates, and err, when having sex . I'm now at the 2 month stage where scalp redness is the main issue so I'm going to ditch the hat if we get intimate again - if my appearance is a problem then tough **** .

I'm two months post op and I see a similar sort of pattern: 1) A few grafts that just grew straight away. These are pretty thick and noticeable. 2) Grafts that neither shed nor grew. These are like little bits of stubble. The hairs are thick but not going anywhere. 3) Thin hairs that can only be seen at close inspection. These are either miniaturised native hair that has been kicked into life by minox or could be new graft growth. From what I've read, new grafts tend to grow in very thin at first so it is a bit hard to tell whether they are really growing or not. I also need more time to decide

I would quite like to know what other doctors think about this too. I guess the pros are possibly faster regrowth of the grafts. I don't think we have enough patient results to say whether that is the case or not though (we'd really want to see hundreds of results to make a judgement). Could graft survival be improved by minoxidil use? I assume not very much since minox use starts at 2 weeks post op, by which time the graft survival rate may already be set. Cons are increased skin irritation to an area that is still healing and possible shedding of existing native hair. Both of these are quite big issues for patients trying to conceal their surgery. Since other clinics post excellent results without the use of minox I'm not sure if it is really worth it (but I use it anyway since I am a Dr. Rahal patient).

Nick, Looks like you are healing very well - not much redness at all. How is your donor area looking? It would be good if you create a weblog, then you can keep all of your photos together for easy comparison later.

Hi Bruce Have a look at this link: http://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/blog/ Many patients (including myself) have posted pictures there. 3000 grafts is quite a large surgery. From what I've seen, it takes 3 or 4 months to look relatively normal. Only a lucky few are undetectable at the one month post-op stage. I cut my hair short just before my 3 and 4 weeks pictures so you can see how things look for me. To be honest, if you have short hair, the scar is going to be visible. Using a concealer like dermmatch can do an excellent job of hiding the evidence though. You can look at aaron1234's blog for an example of this. One other factor to consider is shockloss. If you have no shockloss at all, then you'll probably be in good shape, but many people have some shockloss in the donor area. If you have shockloss, then concealer will help. Also, you could just grow the hair longer to hide that area (this is what I'm doing). If you post some pictures, then I'm sure more experienced members of the forum can give you some advice (since hair type/colour/density) will also play a role.

Provided the grafts all grow you're going to have very good density - 63% of your donor density on average, or 135 hairs/cm2 (of course this will actually vary depending on where singles/doubles etc are placed). Comparing to my own case, you had a lot more triples and quads than me, so even although I had 3700 grafts placed, my total number of hairs was only 200 more than you, so you got better value for money Keep posting your results!

It was mentioned elsewhere on the forum that Polytar AF works very well to combat dandruff and related skin problems (use the find feature to search for related posts). It may be worth a try.

I'd be very surprised if your doctor really said/meant this. If he did, you should go to a different doctor IMHO. I'm not saying side effects don't happen since a lot of people do experience them (no doubt more than the clinical trials suggest). However, your doctor should be giving you information based on the facts so you can make an informed decision (and he doesn't appear to be doing this). I admit that the jury is still out on whether propecia can cause permanent side effects. I am willing to believe that for a tiny minority of cases, propecia can cause, or at least trigger some long term side effects. Bear in mind that millions of men take this drug for hair loss and for prostate problems. If 'most cases' had permanent and severe side effects I think we'd hear a bit more about it. If your hairloss is bothering you as much as you say then you owe it to yourself to try propecia and minox. PS: saw palmetto has undergone no clinical trials so it could be less safe than propecia. There is also no real evidence that it is effective for treating hair loss. Just my 2 cents

I should learn to read properly...I see you've been taking propecia for over a year. Anyway, the important point to remember is that hair shedding is normal and isn't the same as hair loss. It's probably also a good idea to take monthly photos of your scalp so you can gauge how well propecia is working.

Unless you're shedding hundreds of hairs it's likely nothing to worry about. Shedding is a completely normal part of the hair growth cycle and we all experience phases of increased shedding every so often (maybe it gets triggered by the change of season or something). It will probably take about a month or so, but the shedding should ease off again then you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. How long have you actually been using propecia? You generally need to use it for a year before evaluating the results. Unless your dermatologist agrees that propecia isn't working for you then it would probably be wrong to change to different meds at this time. Some people report that propecia can lose its effectiveness after many years of use although I've never heard any HT surgeon say this. I suspect that for some people propecia only slows down hair loss so eventually the hair will fall.

I've read somewhere that concealers such as DermMatch 'glow' when exposed to black light. I mean the type of lights that they sometimes have in clubs/discos. Can anyone say for definite that this is just nonsense? It will be quite a long time before I feel able to go to a club again, and I am not in the habit of wearing concealer, but it's something I wondered about.

I don't think that it really matters, although it's not something you should rush into doing for many other reasons. If you don't mind waiting for a few years to see how your hair loss progresses then that is often the best choice. Since you already have quite a lot of loss in that frontal area, most docs should work on the basis that it will be bald soon enough and plant grafts assuming all native hair will fall out eventually. Taking finasteride is always wise since any hair you do retain in that area will add extra depth to any possible HT. You can have a look at my web log to see how things worked for me - I do have some hair in the forelock region, but it was pretty much treated as being completely bald for the HT. I'm not long into my HT journey though so can't say whether it's a success or not

I had the same sort of doubts before my surgery. If you're a cautious person who likes to analyse all possible outcomes then this can be even more intense. It's not doubts about the procedure or doctor as such - those can be resolved through research - it's more the feeling that you don't know what will happen in the future, but you somehow hope everything will work out in your favour. I think that every HT patient hopes for a bit of luck regarding future loss etc, but not everyone can be lucky. No amount of research can fully resolve this - you can only prepare yourself by choosing a doctor that meets your needs. After surgery you may continue to have the same worries and may even have moments when you regret the decision. These should go away once you start to see the new hair grow (I assume), but it's a difficult wait.

Can you post a couple of photos? I also think my density is poor above the ears. In fact, if I cut my hair short it looks very patchy, but this seems to be pretty common (I don't know if that is something that happens due to MPB or not). In the end I still ended up with 140 grafts/cm2 from the donor strip and 3700 grafts so you probably don't need to worry. Remember also that the strip is actually taken from quite high on the sides of the head, which is usually thicker than just above the ears.

Here's the blog link at least: http://www.baldingblog.com/200...3/minoxidil-tablets/ The possible side effects seem to include death, which is somewhat inconvenient.

For the benefit of anyone looking at this analysis in the future, we don't want to imply that these options are mutually exclusive - if you undertake an HT you're also committing yourself to take propecia for the rest of your life (based on current treatment options) so the total cost could be $78,000.

Really great info! Looking at your blog your HT looks excellent. Do you feel that you need these products to make the HT look natural? Do you use them everyday? If you had to use just one of those products, which would you say is the most useful? This could be handy for lazy people like me that don't spend much time on styling etc (although maybe that will change if my HT comes in as well as yours!).

You could try asking your doctor to prescribe proscar. It's produced by Merck so is totally legit and works out around 70% cheaper than propecia. I've switched to proscar recently and my arms haven't fallen off yet.

I bought it at Dr Rahal's surgery. The label says 'prepared sept 16 2009, best before dec 16 2009'. The packaging is just a small plastic bottle without any branding so I guess it was prepared by a local pharmacist and bottled.

OK, I'm an idiot. I thought I was being smart by stocking up with a 7 month supply of minox but I only just noticed that each bottle has a "best before" date in December. Does anyone know why it has such a short shelf life? And, what is likely to happen if I use the product after this date? Is it less effective?

I'd recommend that you consult with some of the top HT surgeons to see how many grafts they'd think you need. Most will allow you to send pictures for an initial online consultation. Post a few pictures here to get the opinion of forum members too. I don't think I've ever seen anyone post a result that showed laser therapy regrew any hair so I'd forget about it - seems to be a complete waste of money. If you search around this forum you can find a lot has already been written on this topic. I'm also not sure that blood supply problems are the reason for hair loss although they may be a factor (I'm sure more informed people can chime in here). A better route for now is to start taking meds (propecia and rogaine). These are proven to halt hair loss in most men and can allow some hair regrowth. After a year or so on these you can re-asses your progress. SG

Thanks. The transplanted grafts look a bit different to other hairs so I can usually tell them apart and don't count them. Many of the transplanted grafts have shed already. I'll visit Dr Rahal in a few days so he can check that everything looks normal. Otherwise I'll just keep taking the meds and no doubt things will settle down within a few weeks. I just hope that the fin is working.