HairIsThere

Augustus, I am 22 years old and have been losing my hair since I was 16/17 so like yours my MPB is pretty aggressive. Well the summer after I graduated from high school I found out about Propecia and started using it. It has truly been a life saver for me and I have been taking it everyday since then (almost 5 years ago). It is definitely the best drug out on the market in terms of combating hair loss. Studies have only been done with it's use on the crown but some claim that it also works in the front. It blocks DHT which causes those susceptible to it (genetically) to lose your hair. Propecia works for something like 80 - 90% of men in stopping hair loss and even regrows hair in some cases (but at a lower percentage). This drug is quite expensive as I pay about $70 a month for it, but to me it's worth all the money in the world to maintain my hair. I have had no side effects from the drug and they only occur in roughly 2% of men and if you have any you will notice them within like a week or 2 after you start it. I highly recommend it. Now Rogaine is topical and works in a lot of men but also at a lower percentage and there's a shampoo called Nizoral and Revita that have supposedly been proven to be "weak" DHT blockers. IMO, I highly recommend you try out Propecia. Hope this helps!

Simon, your doc mentioned that adrenaline could delay the healing process?

Jim, all of those questions will be answered by your doctor. He will give you post-op instructions and protocol to follow. But in the first week after you do have to be very careful and have to wash your hair very gently. From my understanding, the grafts are essentially 100% stable after about 10 days and after that really all you need to worry about is not stretching your donor scar by putting too much strain on the back of your neck. The scar should reach 100% strength by around 6 months.

I'm about 3 and a half weeks out post op and I'm pretty sure just about all of the scabs are gone but I just wanted to see what you guys thought abut this.

I'm about 3 and a half weeks out post op and I'm pretty sure just about all of the scabs are gone but I just wanted to see what you guys thought abut this.

Hey man..from what I can see you look like a really good candidate for either an FUE or FUT. You have pretty coarse hair it looks like and if it has really been 6 or 7 years since you have started losing your hair then IMO you are in pretty good shape!! It seems like you are losing hair very slowly. You have virtually zero loss in the mid-scalp and crown which is good because your transplant can be a little more aggressive in the frontal 1/3 of your scalp without the fear of progressive hairloss later on (that is if you stay on Propecia). I think you would get really good results after an HT because with your hair texture and thickness you could probably achieve a pretty good density with only 1 HT. I know you are hesistant about an FUT because of the scar, but it's really not that bad. I'm only about 3 and a half weeks out from my 1st HT and my scar looks great...I had a double layer suture though which is supposed to help out tremendously so I recommend that you request getting that. If you do that and follow the post-op instructions (like no heavy weightlifting for a while) then it should be essentially undetectable.

Yeah this exercise works your traps and upper back like no other..hopefully it's ok to do right now!

I have noticed too that some older men essentially have no donor hair left. But when you hit a certain age, around 60 or 70 or so, unfortunately pretty much everything starts fallin apart, not just hair. Plus, when I'm 70 years old I don't think I'll be near as concerned about my hair as I am now at 22.

.........wow...that is awful..I've read rassman charges like $10 a graft for the first 2000 and then like $8 per graft after that. For results like that, no way in hell is that worth it.

Alright thanks doc! Yeah I had a 2 layer suture done and the width of my strip was only 1.2 cm....maybe that's why my doc said just 2 weeks that I needed to hold off on weights (other than exercises that directly pull my neck).

This is called a horizontal pullup and it is one of my favorite exercises to do. It's great for workin your upper back/traps and shoulders. Now at first glance this exercise seems absurd to do post HT (only a little over 3 weeks out) because it may seem like it pulls your neck...but I really don't think it does. and you're only using your bodyweight. I never feel any pulling in my donor region and I've had my brother feel the back of my neck while doing this exercise and he said he can't feel it pulling down either. I was just going to see what you guys thought. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiH6tKHd0fQ

This is called a horizontal pullup and it is one of my favorite exercises to do. It's great for workin your upper back/traps and shoulders. Now at first glance this exercise seems absurd to do post HT (only a little over 3 weeks out) because it may seem like it pulls your neck...but I really don't think it does. and you're only using your bodyweight. I never feel any pulling in my donor region and I've had my brother feel the back of my neck while doing this exercise and he said he can't feel it pulling down either. I was just going to see what you guys thought. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiH6tKHd0fQ

I don't think as of now that there is anything that for sure stops hair loss in the front. However, there are a few guys that actually do stop and/or regrow some hair in the front from both Propecia and Rogaine but from my understanding you have to be pretty lucky for that to happen! I was reading an article recently by Dr. Rassman in LA who is probably one of if not the most respected hair restoration surgeons around and from his studies Rogaine does help out in the front...but I'm sure it was still only a very small % of men and the benefits are probably minimal.

Thanks Ron J....and by the way I laugh every time I see your avatar...it's awesome.

Yeah I'm actually now at 3 weeks post op and I didn't do any exercising until the first week was over...and even then I just did body lifts like pushups and chinups and things like that but really no weights at all..the only weights I do now is lat pulldowns and isolated leg exercises like leg press and leg curls...everything else I just use my body as weight. I know none of my grafts ever popped out because I would have probably seen it and had blood running down my forehead which I never had but I was just wondering if that was even a possibility.

With todays ultra refined techniques, I've heard it's almost impossible for this to happen after day 5 or so because the incisions are so small. Should losing grafts in this way be a real concern or is it nothing to worry about? Has this ever happened to anybody??

With todays ultra refined techniques, I've heard it's almost impossible for this to happen after day 5 or so because the incisions are so small. Should losing grafts in this way be a real concern or is it nothing to worry about? Has this ever happened to anybody??

Will stopping to use Nizoral have as dramatic of an effect as stopping Propecia and Rogaine? I know whatever benefits you get from using the shampoo will be lost upon stopping to use it but would it be as bad as stopping Propecia and Rogaine?

So I was just taking a shower and was just barely rubbing my scalp with my fingertips to try to get the remaining scabs off..then out of no where I noticed a little spot of blood around one of the transplanted hairs. Now it's not much and it wasn't like streaming down my forehead or anything but it still got me a little worried Should I be concerned about this or was it probably just scab or pimple or something? This friday will be the 3 week mark from the day of my HT.

So I was just taking a shower and was just barely rubbing my scalp with my fingertips to try to get the remaining scabs off..then out of no where I noticed a little spot of blood around one of the transplanted hairs. Now it's not much and it wasn't like streaming down my forehead or anything but it still got me a little worried Should I be concerned about this or was it probably just scab or pimple or something? This friday will be the 3 week mark from the day of my HT.

LOL....that a boy!...wa wa we wa!!

Yeah it just goes away with time. I'll be 3 weeks out this friday and I still have some discomfort back there but it's minimal. I'm actually just now getting my sutures out tomorrow. But definitely continuing to sleep at an angle helps take some fo the pressure off the donor are and helps with the pain.

I would also like to know what everyone thinks about this. What does your scalp look like shooter? Is it just a few red looking pimples? Is there a white head on them? Does it itch?

Yeah I also just noticed from those pics you posted PGP that all the before photos were taken with a white background and the afters with a blue background... the white produces a huge contrast with anyones hair, causing it to look thinner and diffuse and then I assume they switched to a darker color to not give such a contrast so you can't "see through" their hair.

Does being a good "picture taker" with before and especially after photos truly make that much of a difference? I know some docs are considered bad picture takers and some are considered good. But I guess what I'm wondering is - if you're really good at what you do, if you're really good at restoring hair why should you need to be a good "picture taker" you know? Shouldn't the pics, untouched, speak for themselves? Are some docs better than what their photos show, or are some docs not quite as good as they seem because they know how to get all the perfect angles, lighting, flash, things like that? I mean I guess I don't know just a whole lot about photography but to me, you can only doctor up a "hair photo" so much. But maybe you can? All comments are welcome! Thanks!