ShavedDethMonk

SDM: Are you currently taking any hairloss meds? Yes Ive been on Propecia for 2.5 years now and have a HT scheduled for Dec 14th 2009 to 'fix' the recession of my temples and hairline. I just got a note sent to my Dr from my pharmacist asking if I can switch to Proscar to save some big bucks.

This topic interests me and I hope that some enlightened person comments on it. I have lifed weights for 12 year since age 18 or so. I have taken whey protein for all of my adult life. I am the only one in my family that weight lifts at all and I do so intensely, interestingly I am the only male in my immediate family with hair loss. My father have a full thick head of hair, that is so thick the barber curses him when he comes in, both brothers have a full head of hair. I am the only one with 1.5 inch recession in my forehead and IMO severe recession in my temples. I come from a science background so I am not willing to accept a theory based on case studies like mine but it does raise a point. It is possible that my tesosterone levels are higher than my other family members by the weight lifting, diet which has affected me unlike my bros. Looking forward to my HT to give me the same low hairline as my 50 year old dad ... sad that I need surgery to get what I should have genetically been bestowed with.

Hey Raphael84, I am booked for Dec 14th 2009 ... so we both have a ways to go until our dates. But in time we too will be enjoying new density and hairlines as are all the other pleased Rahal patients.

Hi Baldboy123, I haveto disagree with having a HT at 19 years of age. Though I am no expert by any means I think it is safe to say you are in for some more hairloss in the future. I would have to agree with the poster who suggested shaving your head. You would look ALOT better with a shaved head than what your hair must look like trying to hide your balding head from what I gathered from the one picture posted. I would say that you shave you head now and since you are young you will be meeting alot of new people in the upcoming 5-10 years who will only no you with having a shaved head so it will be no big deal. Once your hair loss stabilizes later in life (who knows 25,30,35) than you can grow it out and see what you have left to HT. I would hate for you to be one of those guys with all these terrible scars in the back of your head by trying to chase your hair loss for the next 10-20 years with successive HTs. If I were a girl, which Im not, I would think of a guy as more confident if they shaved their head at 19 than had a terrible comb over at 19 or 23 or whatever age. Think Vin Disel ... go to the gym, grow some biceps, shave your head and you will be cooler than most guys with hair! The reason why I say this is that I would rather you not go through the next 10 years of your life hiding your hair, worrying about how the wind catches it or whether some is seeing your hair from the wrong angle. Instead say 'F__k it', shave it, hit the gym and be confident throughout your youth. Im lucky that my hairloss only starting affecting my confidence in the last 3 years, Im now 30, and I was very confident growing up so I would hate to feel unconfident in myself like I do now all of my youth ... so dont let it take over your youth. Not sure if any of the ramble made sense to you ... but it made sense to me SDM ShavedDethMonk

Looks less raw than first day post op. Dont have any answers here for you Buba just a question about Dr.Rahal's approach with you. Did he do alot of work in the center of you frontal region or did he concentrate mostly on the sides/ temple recession area? Looks like you'll have a strong front hairline now. Keep us updated.

Without shaving my head and drawing little 1cm x 1 cm squares on my head with a marker I wouldnt be able to guess. People say I have a big head to so I may be above the 50th percentile in head size this probably scalp size as well I suppose if a person were REAL bored they could take a cloth and put it on there head tightly and outline the scalp area outside the 'horse shoe' line. After which you could lay the cloth out and figure out a grid of 1 cm x 1 cm squares and figure it out ... but I have too many chores to do something like that I tried to look up the answer to the average surface area of the adult human head and I didnt find it within 3 minutes so I give up. I did however find an interesting article from a Forensic Science program that uses the effect of hair on the deposition of gun shot residue as a means to decipher how a person was shot. Anyhow, within the article it states that human hair density ranges from 0-400 hairs/cm which seems quite high. So 100 grafts/cm would mean that each of them would be quads!! Id like that head of hair! SDM

No they dont but while they do your hair transplant they may be able to concurrently give you mental counseling or hire a poet to record your haiku/poem/personal reflective muses .... Im just teasing you of course. SDM

Looks like people are not planning for the future, as many people have suggested. Doing simple math if a person were to keep to 60 grafts per centimeter they would be able to cover TWICE the scalp area than going at 120 grafts/cm. So they would exhaust their supply before possibly covering all the area they want to cover over lifetime of progression of MPB. I would rather have more coverage and moderate density than excess density (that may not all survive) and less coverage. Though I dont know how many grafts a person can use from a donor area in their lifetime 7500 seems like a good number to play with. 7500 life time grafts / 120 grafts/cm sq = 62.5 cm sq coverage. 7500 life time grafts / 75 grafts/cm sq = 100 cm sq coverage. 7500 life time grafts / 60 grafts/cm sq = 125 c, sq coverage. These numbers didnt really need to be shown as they can almost be done in one's head but it illustrates a point that some may want to consider when in fact more density doesn really give much more illusion of density. If a lesser density looks dense why waste a finite supply. SDM

Amongst the little I know FUE and FUSS use the same donor area, using the area of hair that is most likely DHT resistant. When you look at immediate POST OP pics of FUE and FUSS patients you will see that the donor area that had been removed was from the back of the head, not too hight and not too low. So in effect they are competing for majority of the same hair. Someone else may be able to comment on this.

Thank you very much for the information I was looking for and so quickly. Good luck with traversing the 'continents' through the 'oceans', be careful around the Cape of Hope in Africa :-) Best regards.

Hi there, How do surgeons approach sections of minaturized hairs? My frontal region is receded though strong with a half a centimeter of minaturized hairs running parallel to the side of the frontal region on each side. Though Im sure many approaches could be done ... So the question is do surgeouns prefer to: 1) shave the minaturized hairs and graft densely in this area, knowing that the minatirized hairs will be gone anyway eventually, if a patient has good donor density to refill that area? 2) graft some in that area but not densely, with the idea that strengthen the area with the understanding that eventually revision work will need to be done. 3)graft densely beside the minaturized section if it is still somewhat dense with the understanding that in 5 years a revision will need to be done because there will be a gap later. Thanks ahead of time for any replies. I am assuming most would opt for number 1 but I cant be sure as Ive only started my learning recently on this topic. SDM

Hi there, How do surgeons approach sections of minaturized hairs? My frontal region is receded though strong with a half a centimeter of minaturized hairs running parallel to the side of the frontal region on each side. Though Im sure many approaches could be done ... So the question is do surgeouns prefer to: 1) shave the minaturized hairs and graft densely in this area, knowing that the minatirized hairs will be gone anyway eventually, if a patient has good donor density to refill that area? 2) graft some in that area but not densely, with the idea that strengthen the area with the understanding that eventually revision work will need to be done. 3)graft densely beside the minaturized section if it is still somewhat dense with the understanding that in 5 years a revision will need to be done because there will be a gap later. Thanks ahead of time for any replies. I am assuming most would opt for number 1 but I cant be sure as Ive only started my learning recently on this topic. SDM

Hi Dedom, I agree with everyone that your HT is looking great already. My quick question is how much did you lower your hairline? its a bit hard to tell from the pics ... would you say an inch, 3/4 inch? Thanks.

Thanks for the welcome. Indeed it is a long wait, luckily I will be occupying myself intensely with other things hopefully ... grad school, opening a community gym, full time work and a stack of video games to beat! I was lucky that I didnt obsess about my hair loss because I was obsessing about getting laser eye surgery, which I recently had done, now I need to concentrate on positive things rather than on hair. Canadian_buba: Im glad I was able to give you my perspective on the subject of disclosing having HT. Good luck with your procedure upcoming and take the 'blue pill' so you can go down the rabbit hole (a bit of a Matrix reference relating to taking some relaxant meds ).

Hi everyone, Just wanted to let the forum know that I have appreciated all the information while I lurked and read over the past while. I came on here a year or two ago and was given the great advice to not pursue 'The Hair Club For Men' avenue at that time. I was steered towards Dr. Rahal's clinic and feel very comfortable with the decision after hearing so many good reviews and have seen the pics of great results. I have been on Propecia for now over 2 years and am definately ready for the next step. I have booked my appointment with Dr. Rahal for Dec 14th 2009. Still a ways away but I want to take advantage of the healing time over the holidays. Now the long wait until Dec 14th ..... I feel very happy knowing that the disappointing view in the mirror will soon change. Best regards, SDM

Hi everyone, Just wanted to let the forum know that I have appreciated all the information while I lurked and read over the past while. I came on here a year or two ago and was given the great advice to not pursue 'The Hair Club For Men' avenue at that time. I was steered towards Dr. Rahal's clinic and feel very comfortable with the decision after hearing so many good reviews and have seen the pics of great results. I have been on Propecia for now over 2 years and am definately ready for the next step. I have booked my appointment with Dr. Rahal for Dec 14th 2009. Still a ways away but I want to take advantage of the healing time over the holidays. Now the long wait until Dec 14th ..... I feel very happy knowing that the disappointing view in the mirror will soon change. Best regards, SDM