sonnyboy11

Wise comments above. I would also say to check out New Hair Institute. Rassman is top notch from what I have heard. I used Pak there and he the results are good so far (although I am still waiting for full growth). Do NOT go near Bosley.

Yea, I think I had to do like $1k up front with Pak. But it was refundable up to a certain time. It sounds like a normal practice to require some fees in advance but it will depend on the doctor I guess.

Hi guys- quick update. I got my first hair cut yesterday. The rear donor area is much improved! I was honestly not sure how it was going to turn out since I had let my hair get pretty long in back since Pak did my ht. But I got it trimmed short and the combining of my 3 scars into one scar appears to have really yielded a nice result. The hair stylist handed me the mirror and I prepared for the dreaded "look at the back of your hair" moment as she swung my chair around- and much to my surprise, it looked fine for the first time in years! So mission accomplished there. Not much in the way of growth just yet... but I did get quite a few more pimples. Yay pimples! I did want to say that as a New Year's resolution, I have decided to curtail my wearing of hats. Enuff already with the damn ball caps! It feels great, even tho it freaked out a couple of people at work who have never seen me without one. Oh, and sorry again for the lack of photos. All I can do to find time to post this during the holidays (work is crazy busy this time of year).

Well, I am certainly not going to try and counter the statements of an M.D! But I did have a similar situation with a couple of stacked scars and some hair in between. Ok, maybe not quite stacked as they were offset from each other a bit. I did have a strip pulled and the scars pulled together into a single scar. So far, I can see there is improvement in the overall appearance of the donor area (it does not look as thin in that area anymore). However, I did discuss some a possible FUE procedure with my doctor (Pak) if I ended up not satisfied with they way things looked. So, there is already some improvement for me and I am pretty critical so it's not just me hoping it looks better- it does. But long run I may consider some other options if I think the donor area is not quite how I want it. I suppose it all depends on the patient and I know everyone is different.

I think you're fine bro. Take a look at this link and scroll down to read Bill's comments http://hair-restoration-info.c...181009473#3181009473 Get some aloe vera. And be a little more careful next time!

Naw, I said squat to em, eh? Most of them think I just pussed out. Not a problem. When I go back and start lighting them up, they'll forget about the time I took off. Dr. Pak at NHI- about 900 grafts. Got about 3200 total so far but not all from Pak. Pak knows what he is doing. Wish he had done all of mine but I got my first transplant back in '94.

Interesting topic. Makes me think- I was just in to see my dermatologist the other day (had to zap a couple of skin breaks courtesy of too much sun) and she noticed the pimples on my head. I literally spent the next 20 minutes explaining that was normal and answering questions for her about hair transplantation. How long does it take to grow, did it hurt, etc. We even got into the subject of dandruff and skin issues (her specialty0 and what if any affect a ht might have to cause or exascerbate such issues. I did notice I needed to get on top of my dry scalp issue after my latest ht. She took a close look and said that it must be working since she saw no dandruff. Anyway, not to prattle on, but goes to she that even professional doctors in other fields don't seem to know much about ht procedures and are at least curious how it works.

I play hockey too. I stopped for a while after my transplant. Actually have not played since that so going on about 90 days. My reason there is that with a tight fitting helmet and all the contact, I did not want to take a chance on stretching the scar area. I also stopped doing crunches or any type of excercise that pulled on the back of my head. Now, pls keep in mind that this is just how I feel! I am almost certainly being over-protective but I just want to make sure my investment works out as planned. If that means taking a few months off from grinding pucks out of corners, then so be it. I am pretty sure I will get back to playing in another month or two. I should also mention that I ride motorcycles a lot and use one to commute to work. Even for that I was not fond of wearing my normal helmet since it fit so snugly and I could feel it pull on my donor area when I moved my head. So I switched to a slightly larger helmet. Not the best solution but I gotta get to work!

Ok, so no pics yet but here's an update- I am starting to get quite a few pimples now in the recipient area at the 90 day mark. I feel like a teenager fer chrisakes! I know that pimples are a good sign so I mostly just leave them alone. I have had a couple get kind of big though so I have carefully popped those to release the pressure. I have not had a haircut since the procedure so I probably don't have the best opinion of how the scar on the donor area has turned out just yet since my hair is pretty long back there. Right Now I cannot even see it. I still suffer a bit from 'melon head' in the back area where it is still numb, but for the most part I don't even think about the transplant during daily routine. So, it's definitely growing in, but I think I'll know a bit better what I am looking at in another 2-4 months and after a haircut... and after some of these pimples go away! Oh, and lastly (for now) after reading up a bit on these forums I got really proactive about my dry-skin dandruff which I have contended with in the past. Thanks to whoever recommended the Nutrogena T-Gel (4% coal tar). That stuff works! Still use a little aloe these days too on the donor site but I don't really need it. I've just decided I like aloe.

Dunno about #2 and #3, but internal stitches that dissolve over time are nothing new. They were used in my transplant but I also had some staples used on part of the scar removal. In general both were uncomfortable for a time. The stapled area felt much better after the staples themselves were reoved after 10 days. The area with the internal stitching never really hurt but I noticed a marked improvement in general comfort after 5 weeks. The stitches are designed to dissolve. Leave them alone and deal with it. It'll get better.

Are you saying once daily hairwashes in general (all the time) or are you mainly referring to the few weeks following post-op? Washing daily really dries my hair out unless I condition every single time. Edit- nm. I see now how that you meant that in response to the initial post. Carry on!

I've been using Aloe sans alcohol on my recipient/donor area as well. Get a clear one without any dye or alcohol. I have scaled back the amount of times I shampoo to every other day at most. That definitely helps with the dry scalp. I also use Paul Mitchell conditioner on my hair after I shampoo and towel dry. That is a leave in conditioner and does a nice job keeping the follicles moisturized. Lastly, with all this dry air out west lately, I have been running a Honeywell filterless humidfier at night. That probably helps my throat and hose more than anything but it does seem like my skin is not as flaky.

I haven't heard of any doctor's that offer a 'discount' if you elect to have more HTs done over time. The success of your hair transplant is subjective in the sense that it's impossible to predict just how much hair it will take to keep a person happy. It seems to me that most HT patients have at least some touch up work done over time, if not another full HT session (I've had four in 15 yrs). Again, all that will depend on what makes you happy, so I don't see why any given doctor should offer a discount for that.

Although I am no expert, my guess is your discomfort in your donor area, as well as the tightness, does indeed have something to do with the size of your session. But don't worry about it too much. From most of what I have read it appears that much of the sensation of tightness fades after a while. I still have some tightness after 6 weeks and I only had around 1000 grafts done (touch up work). It took me till around 4 weeks before I felt totally comfortable sleeping on my donor area. One thing I did that might help you- I used quite a bit of Aloe on my donor area. I also made sure to use a good conditioner on my hair in general once I was able to shampoo normally again. I have always had dry skin, so, although it may just have been psychological, using mosturizer and aloe really seemed to help me.

The first one is a myth. Male hair loss and pattern baldness is mostly genetic. Applying hair gel ain't gonna matter one way or the other.

My donor area still feels a little tight 6 weeks later. I would say that after 4 weeks though I was back to comfortable sleeping with just one extra pillow. But then I normally use two pillows anyway, so I don't know if just one pillow would be uncomfortable.

Come on now- your first post here is trying to tell people there is a correlation between hairloss and body heat???. Umm... no. Whoever told you that is full of BS.

These are all fairly valid points. I had my first transplant 14 years ago when I barely had a dial-up modem and getting online info about this sort of thing was hardly the norm. I just put up a review about NHI and Dr. Pak here because after some searching I found there wasn't much info about him. Whether I'll stick around to post more and help out I don't know. HT is not exactly a hobby and that's usually where I spend most of my time when it comes to forums (like politics or my beloved Triumph motorcycle). That said, I'm still very glad places like this exist. If anything I can share some experiences with others who may or may not go through what I have gone through to restore my hairline.

Hi all. My first post here so go easy, eh! I recently had 850 FUTs done by Dr. Pak, along with a large scar reduction in an old donor area left behind by the unwieldly knife of Dr. Sword. I had my first transplant back in 1994 by Sword for 1000 grafts. Later he did an additional 600. That first session left a pretty good sized scar in my donor area. A year later, I had Dr. Petersen (Torrance, CA., no longer practicing) do another 800 grafts. After that was done, I was fairly happy although most of my original hair fell out over time and I was left with nothing but the grafts. I had a sort of pluggly look (remember this was 14 yrs ago) and I think I experienced something shrinkage as well so, after a while, I thought I might need a little more transplantation done and just evaluation in general. My Norwood scale is about a 5, so more hair was in order but my donor area and scarring really concerned me. I did some research and consulted with Dr. Jae Pak over at NHI (I live in LA). I knew about Rassman but, like a lot of you, my pockets aren't especially deep for something like this $$. Still, it needs to be done right obviously since a screwed up transplant is worse than no transplant at all, so I met with Pak and we went over my options. First let me say about Pak that he is open-minded to whatever YOU want. He did not push any one type of solution on me. I have never been big on the idea of a lot of hair up front while my crown is nice and shiny. This seems to be a common theme for a lot of hair transplant surgeons... don't worry about the back! (yes, I did see Bosley ). I also expressed to him my concern for the scarring from previous surgeries and told him that was a primary concern. Once nice thing we got out of the way right off the bat was that any scarring would be repaired as part of the cost of surgery, regardless of how it got there. Just getting the scar removed was $2k but there was a minimum of $3k for any surgery. This sounded reasonable to me since I wanted both scar removal and some additional hair transplanted anyway. As I said, Pak was open-minded about what I wanted and threw out several options to enhance my own ideas. In the end, we decided to reserve about 30% of my donor harvest for the crown while the remaining 70% would be used on my front and to restore hairline. We also decided to soften my hairline by bringing it down on the temples a bit (make it more rounded up front instead of pointy), and putting slightly denser concentration of hair on the right side since I part my hair from right to left. So how did it go? Well, like you would expect, it's way too early to tell how it will turn out. But I can tell you that Pak nabbed that scar area pretty good. I had three good sized scars from previous surgeries and he combined them into one thin scar. Then he harvested from the sides of my head where my hair was thickest. I can still see the line of staples course, but I already know that the area I used to see as a 'blank spot' after haircuts on the back of my head has been dramatically reduced. The crown and frontal transplants all took very well taken hold and I had a surprisingly minimal amount of scabbing. I have not lost any grafts. I'd say the only down part was the meds they gave me for the surgery and post-op kicked my butt pretty well and left me out of comission for an additional day. Still, I was back to work the day after that and fortunately I can wear a hat at work so that helps. Pain... well, it hurts in the donor area. Most of you know that's going to be the case to some extent. Once I was past the first day all was well and now I just follow regiment to keep away any complications. I'll see if I can get some pics up over time. One of the first things Pak did after the scar removal was take a snapshot and show it to me. I mean, like immediately he took shot and said "Take a look at this!". Obviously very proud of what he had done. Of course I was pretty well sedated at the time! But he really seemed happy with it and later, once the nurses were done inputting the grafts, he stated how satisfied he was with what we had accomplished. So far I give Pak at NHI a pretty big thumbs up, but give me at least another 6-12 months and I promise I'll update here for a well-rounded opinion of his work. Happy to answer any questions/comments if you have them.

Hi all. My first post here so go easy, eh! I recently had 850 FUTs done by Dr. Pak, along with a large scar reduction in an old donor area left behind by the unwieldly knife of Dr. Sword. I had my first transplant back in 1994 by Sword for 1000 grafts. Later he did an additional 600. That first session left a pretty good sized scar in my donor area. A year later, I had Dr. Petersen (Torrance, CA., no longer practicing) do another 800 grafts. After that was done, I was fairly happy although most of my original hair fell out over time and I was left with nothing but the grafts. I had a sort of pluggly look (remember this was 14 yrs ago) and I think I experienced something shrinkage as well so, after a while, I thought I might need a little more transplantation done and just evaluation in general. My Norwood scale is about a 5, so more hair was in order but my donor area and scarring really concerned me. I did some research and consulted with Dr. Jae Pak over at NHI (I live in LA). I knew about Rassman but, like a lot of you, my pockets aren't especially deep for something like this $$. Still, it needs to be done right obviously since a screwed up transplant is worse than no transplant at all, so I met with Pak and we went over my options. First let me say about Pak that he is open-minded to whatever YOU want. He did not push any one type of solution on me. I have never been big on the idea of a lot of hair up front while my crown is nice and shiny. This seems to be a common theme for a lot of hair transplant surgeons... don't worry about the back! (yes, I did see Bosley ). I also expressed to him my concern for the scarring from previous surgeries and told him that was a primary concern. Once nice thing we got out of the way right off the bat was that any scarring would be repaired as part of the cost of surgery, regardless of how it got there. Just getting the scar removed was $2k but there was a minimum of $3k for any surgery. This sounded reasonable to me since I wanted both scar removal and some additional hair transplanted anyway. As I said, Pak was open-minded about what I wanted and threw out several options to enhance my own ideas. In the end, we decided to reserve about 30% of my donor harvest for the crown while the remaining 70% would be used on my front and to restore hairline. We also decided to soften my hairline by bringing it down on the temples a bit (make it more rounded up front instead of pointy), and putting slightly denser concentration of hair on the right side since I part my hair from right to left. So how did it go? Well, like you would expect, it's way too early to tell how it will turn out. But I can tell you that Pak nabbed that scar area pretty good. I had three good sized scars from previous surgeries and he combined them into one thin scar. Then he harvested from the sides of my head where my hair was thickest. I can still see the line of staples course, but I already know that the area I used to see as a 'blank spot' after haircuts on the back of my head has been dramatically reduced. The crown and frontal transplants all took very well taken hold and I had a surprisingly minimal amount of scabbing. I have not lost any grafts. I'd say the only down part was the meds they gave me for the surgery and post-op kicked my butt pretty well and left me out of comission for an additional day. Still, I was back to work the day after that and fortunately I can wear a hat at work so that helps. Pain... well, it hurts in the donor area. Most of you know that's going to be the case to some extent. Once I was past the first day all was well and now I just follow regiment to keep away any complications. I'll see if I can get some pics up over time. One of the first things Pak did after the scar removal was take a snapshot and show it to me. I mean, like immediately he took shot and said "Take a look at this!". Obviously very proud of what he had done. Of course I was pretty well sedated at the time! But he really seemed happy with it and later, once the nurses were done inputting the grafts, he stated how satisfied he was with what we had accomplished. So far I give Pak at NHI a pretty big thumbs up, but give me at least another 6-12 months and I promise I'll update here for a well-rounded opinion of his work. Happy to answer any questions/comments if you have them.