phil mascallpen

In the third picture down of the donor scar that is probably not shock loss. It appears to be scar tissue. Have you sent this photo to Dr. Cooley? I would be very surprised if he said it was not scar tissue. Otherwise everything else seems to be going well.

I think it looks good but without question the majority of the success has been from the rogaine and proscar. There is no way 1600 grafts fills in like that and anybody looking at this should realize that. If you are thinking of getting an HT do yourself a huge favor and take proscar FIRST for a year. I would also like to commend Dr. Rosanelli and company for stating the drug regimen as pretty much every other clinic seems to conveniently leave that out. Kudos.

I wouldn't be happy with that scar but Like Bill said if it's better than your old one then that mitigates it somewhat. Your hairline looks better than before but my question is if you put in no product how does the hair lay?

I think the drug therapy is what you are mostly seeing here.

Can you tell us the timeline for these results?

Thanks for all the comments guys. Good or bad, I appreciate your honest opinions, I definitely don't want any sugarcoating. Like Megatron and Spex said it's only 6 months so I'm expecting big improvements over the next few months.

Thanks for the honest opinion Mr. GQ. Anybody else?

I agree with Megatron FC. Can't tell anything with those pics. Any chance of bigger files with grafted areas shown?

Thanks HMO and Bill. HMO the jury is still out at 6 months, although I would have thought I'd be further along at this point. Bill would you change the title again to say 6 months instead of 5? Thanks!

Updated the blog with 6 month photos. Bill would you please change the Thread Title (for some reason the new IF does not allow this anymore) to the following: "UPDATED: Phil Mascallpen, 6 Months, 4734 Grafts, Dr. Hasson" Here's the link to the blog: http://philmascallpen.blogspot.com/ All comments welcome!

Hey HMO, I also have some areas where I'm still hoping for more new hairs. As for your pics it's hard to tell with the hair so short. But maybe some macro photos of the temples at the largest resolution allowed here would help? Anyway thanks for posting. I've got my 6 month pics and just need to put them on the blog this week.

Okay, outside of the fact that you sound like a morally bankrupt sociopath (redundant, I know, but fitting), let's address something. Once your clone is "born" and is a living being what makes you think you would then own this other human being that is completely separate from you and have the right to murder that human being? Your argument that you would just be killing yourself is also just plain stupid. But if you believe that, then get cloned, actually kill YOURSELF and see how well that works out for you Einstein. Bill you'll notice that I did not insult the OP. I just said what he sounds like and that his argument is stupid, not him. He might be the world's next evil genius for all I know.

You met one patient who wasn't even grown out yet and you're putting Gabel at the top of your list? From the few recent posters of his Gabel seems good, but you might want to meet 3 or 4 grown out patients in person. When are you looking to have your surgery with Dr. Gabel and will you be documenting it?

Looking good HMO. I've lost the hat at work and have had a few comments but I mostly just say "changed my haircut" and then change the subject. As far as the left versus right thing when I asked the techs they said they mostly stayed on one side because it was easier once they became used to placing from a particular side. My left side still seems to have more areas where grafts have not come in but I hope the next 3 months will sort that out.

Congrats Drew, I think this should do it, but hey a 3rd will put you up in nicnitro territory! BTW I left my staples in for 15 days to be extra careful with the scar. I also didn't lift again until week 12. You only get one shot at keeping the scar thin so I think you are being wise.

Creative, The most bothersome would be a slight reduction in libido, but that seems to have gotten better over the 6 months that I've been on it. Other than that nothing notable except hair growth.

Is it likely or common? No, but it is possible. I'm 47 and in only 6 months on 1.25mg proscar eod I've filled in a 3 inch bald/thin spot on my crown. Obviously the OP has much less hair than I started with BUT he's much younger and proscar is supposed to be more effective in younger men. After being on these boards for years I've come to the conclusion that many of the best HTs are ACTUALLY a combination of a great HT doctor and a great response to proscar. The point is until you try it and give it enough time you'll never know if you're one of the few guys who gets an excellent response. And since you'll likely be told by your HT doctor that they recommend you go on it anyway why not find out what it will do for you before going under the knife. Maybe your crown and middle comes back and that reduces the size of the HT you need by 2/3 because now you can focus your HT on the front 1/3. Maybe it's more, maybe it's less but is there a good reason to not try it before getting an HT? Here's a link to my pics. Take a look and I'll tell you that not only has it filled in that spot but all my other hair on top has gotten way thicker as well. http://philmascallpen.blogspot...ied-beforeafter.html

Thanks Julius, hairshare, FC and Drew! Fingers I'm still amazed at what the proscar has done for the overall fullness of my hair in only 6 months. That's why I really believe anyone contemplating an HT, especially younger guys with mild loss, should take it for a year first to see if they can hold what they have and/or make any gains to avoid or put off an HT.

You don't want two smaller sessions. With the extent of your hairloss you would want one mega-session. I think you should wait though and try finasteride for at least 10 months first. You might have good enough results that you don't even need an HT.

Updated the blog with 5 months pics. There are 4 sets of pics under April. One showing the front and the right and left temples. The other 3 are a series of shots showing my 6 months crown progress from proscar. I'm really glad I kept photos because without looking back at them I don't think I would have realized how much the proscar has helped. Just to clarify I had no grafts placed in my crown, all 4700 were placed in about the front 1.5 inches. http://philmascallpen.blogspot.com/

I think I had a minor shed. I've been on it for about 6 months and it has made a huge difference in my hair overall. I also started Rogaine once a day about 3 months ago but think the proscar is helping much more.

At one month your grafts can not be "disturbed." Also at one month you should not have scabs anymore. Perhaps you need to be a little more aggressive with your shampooing to remove them. Like Bill said, just communicate with your barber about the HT and your concerns. He/she is the one person who you can't really hide it from anyway.

I don't know, it seems a little refreshing to me when a doctor admits that he's not happy with a result as well. Normally it's the standard "oh it looks pretty good, the patient had way too high expectations and/or bad physiology." Now would I go back to him? Probably not. It doesn't mean he's a bad HT doc because of one result but standing behind it means some sort of refund if the patient prefers that to a free surgery. I'd ask for a refund and then reassess my options.

Just my opinion but I don't think this looks very good. It's pretty clear that no matter how you are combing them the angles are not the same as the native hair. That's a pretty basic thing to expect from an HT: that the doctor matches the HT hair with the natural direction of growth.

jbkg I think the work Rahal did looks excellent but he should have excised ALL the old grafts if he wasn't going to camouflage them with new work. It seems to me that since he knew the rest of them would have to be removed in the future then he should have done it right then. An HT is enough of an emotional roller coaster already without having the wait for the new growth to be almost over and still have to look at old grafts and worry about what to do with them. For now I would pluck them and I think Dr. Rahal should remove them gratis at your earliest convenience. He's one of the best in the world but IMHO this was a mild misstep. Again though, the hair Dr. Rahal placed looks amazing and it appears you've had rapid growth. Still a huge improvement.