gillenator

Another approach that I did not mention is the option of staring low dose finasteride under a lower dosage and regimen, under the direction and advice of your doctor. This approach can potentially reduce the initial impact of side effects and then your physician can methodically increase the dosage and frequency to the recommended level to sustain good efficiency. Just a thought...

It's unfortunate when threads start to take on a personal tone of inconsideration. And sometimes it's how we all respond to each other's comments and opinions that can make all of the difference because obviously our views are going to vary from one another. Sometimes the individual who starts the thread can simply benefit from the moral support shown by others who have similar experiences and concerns of the same issue. And let's remember we never know when a doctor, specialist, nurse, may post an opinion of great value and benefit. Possibly that was what Tony was waiting for. Guys, we are supposed to help and support one another. That's the overall purpose of this community and let's try to keep that in mind...

Sounds to me like the kids were just ribbing their father as kids sometimes do. And why would anyone give any credence to "kids opinions" much less to those who have absolutely no knowledge of this?...:confused:

Whew, glad to hear the good news...

Ryan, IMHO, doing SMP is just a quick fix and not a viable one. I would not do it. There is always the possibility that adding grafts to the thin area will thicken it up and doing it with a surgeon who does the extractions himself. You would basically be doing a "donor replacement" session. But IMHO, that would produce the best result with your own real hair shafts. I did not know that someone other than the surgeon did your extractions.

A red flag always raises in my mind whenever a drug company claims that a medication is "safe". No such thing IMHO but can a drug have a good profile with clinical confirmation? Sure. The thing we all have to remember is that individuals respond differently to the same drug. Since Propecia's inception, I have observed the "sexual" side effects to be higher as stated by the men who tried it. Yet you will never know how you respond to it both in terms of potential side-effects and efficiency, until you try it yourself. You definitely have some native hair that you can potentially hold onto so if I was in your situation, yes I would give it a fair trial. But only do so under the advice and oversight of a reputable doctor of your own choice. I agree that starting with the frontal zone with 2500 - 3000 grafts would give you a nice result. Probably more towards the 3000 mark because of the higher number of single hair grafts needed to define and strengthen your hairline without lowering it. Not lowering it is a wise decision on your part. None of us like losing hair in our crowns but keep in mind that the crown area alone can demand as much as 60% of the available scalp donor so again, if it were me, I would not touch the crown for now. You may also want to give some consideration of starting minoxidil in the crown as it could potentially rejuvenate some new growth along with using Propecia. Best wishes to you in your journey hair112...

Obviously this thread was going to draw lots of humor and at the same time I think paranoid was genuine in his concern. It would be best advised to wait on doing any activity that would potentially raise blood pressure to the scalp within 72 hours of having the grafts placed, whether its sex, weightlifting, etc, etc. Over the past four decades, I have heard from a dozen or so guys who had lost some of their grafts from having intercourse too soon after their procedure. Only several from masturbation. Yes, it can happen. So although the issue is going to draw lots of various chatter, better to wait than to lose some precious grafts...:eek:

It's always a good idea to get the opinions and examples of any surgeon's work directly from the patient. And undoubtedly the clinic will have more examples that you can preview as well.

No doubt it's the result of many severed nerves from the extraction process. The good news is that the nerves endings do heal and actually grow. This is what produces the "electric shock sensations" even up to one year or so post-op. Some guys also experience numbness up to 12 months or so post-op both in the donor zone and the recipient area. And that's also related to nerves repairing themselves. It just takes some time.

As long as you went to a competent surgeon with a competent staff, and you take proper post-op care of your grafts, then your yield should be in the upper 90 percentile rate.

This can be potentially graded on a curve somewhere between 40% - 65% depending on your own physiology. Some start with a slower rate of growth and some at a quicker rate.

ILMH, From your description, it sounds like you are experiencing a diffused thinning pattern. This is evidenced by loss of hair shaft diameter to some or a significant amount of your hair shafts. A more simple way of stating this would be that you are simply losing hair caliber. With a diffused thinning pattern, the individual usually does not start experiencing MPB with a recessionary pattern of losing hair shafts and/or density. It begins with a visual thinning of hair caliber and further manifested by beginning to be able to see one's scalp even though the hair shafts have not been lost. This is called diffused loss and eventually the hair shafts become so thin in caliber that they no longer produce hair and the latter stages of diffused thinning is complete loss of those hair shafts. Minoxidil can potentially improve hair caliber and may be the best option for the present time for those with diffused thinning. Low dose finasteride really does not improve hair shaft diameter but more of a DHT inhibitor to maintain hair density. That's what you are presently doing by quartering Proscar into very low levels of finasteride. I do the same thing cutting Proscar instead of using Propecia which is far more expensive. The best thing to do at this point in time is to get physically examined by a reputable HT doctor to get a formal diagnosis for MPB. Then you will know for sure what you are dealing with. Many HT doctors won't charge you for the exam/consultation. Best wishes to you in your journey...

If the hair shafts do not come out with a reasonable amount of force then that's a pretty good indication that those hair shafts are still in the growth phase. When the grafts go into the telogen (dormant) phase, they begin to shed the graft hair soon after and subsequently it does not take very much effort to remove the dead hair because the hair shafts become disengaged with the dormant stage follicles.

That will depend on the size of the surface area where the grafts will be placed and how dense you want the area to be. Typically, the surgeon will draw in the area where the grafts will be situated which will include the starting point where the single hair grafts commence. The two of you will then concur and the surgeon will be able to estimate the needed graft count based on a defined level of density.

I would recommend that you leave the crown alone for now because of the potential that you are going to lose everything on top of your scalp. If you are going to move forward, you may want to start with only the frontal zone keeping a high placed hairline and see how you respond with that.

Your graft count in that zone may very well be higher than anticipated because of the high number of single hair grafts required.

Local anesthesia and general anesthesia are two different types and while local anesthesia does not require the presence and oversight of a anesthesiologist, rendering general anesthesia does. Your vitals are constantly being monitored by a licensed medical professional throughout the procedure. As far as the impact on regrowth or the final result of your HT procedure, nothing comes to mind that would present a negative impact. Yet if I were you, I would get the opinions of your PCP as well as the specialist doing your nose procedure. Although we can offer our own insights, there's nothing like the knowledge and medical experience of your physicians when it comes to this type of issue...

multiplier, Just curious...how many grafts did you have added into the scar? The thing about ink into any scar is that scar tissue lacks blood flow, and as a result, the body absorbs the ink very differently than normal uncompromised flesh tissue.

Vitamin C is also a good vitamin to take as it facilitates healing. And you can take more than 500 mg daily for the next several months...

Roughly a decade or so ago, almost all clinics and doctors prescribed anti-biotics for their upcoming HT procedures. I believe this practice was simply a pre-cautionary measure for potential infections. Yet infections are not very common for this type of surgery so in essence, many practitioners ceased the use of them. I also think that in the past decade the medical community began to see some clinical evidence of resistance to some anti-biotics. So the prescribing of them began to be more scrutinized in the interest of the general population. Keflex was probably the most used for HT surgery. Yet over the past four decades I have not heard of any negative impact or trend that suggested that anti-biotics in general have a negative impact on the actual result of the procedure. The bottom line? Follow the advice of your doctor who is treating you for any condition or procedure that he/she is performing.

Do you mean the graft hair?

Ukboy, When you say, "hair not falling" we assume that you mean your grafts have not shedded, is that correct? If so, that is somewhat out of the norm, but not necessarily a bad thing. It could be that some of your grafts have continued to grow however many of them should be shedding at 3 months post-op. Here's a suggestion. Using your fingertips, simply pull some of the graft hair and see if they come off. If so, then it's really a matter of getting more pro-active in removing the dead graft hair shafts. At 3 months post-op, your recipient zone must be fully healed by now and so any of the crusts would be removed. If they are not removed, the new hair shafts cannot get through the sites where the crusts still exist and that is probably what your doctor was referring to when he was explaining the regrowth results. If you still have the crusts, get in the shower and shampoo up your scalp, let the suds saturate your scalp for roughly 5 minutes or so and then begin to rub off the crusts. At this point in time, they serve no purpose because the crusts are nothing more than dead graft tissue above the scalp line. By getting them wet in the shower will soften them up and make them easier to remove. You will see that most of the graft hair will come off with the crusts. Every now and then, I hear from a guy who is not removing the crusts after 7-10 days because he is just being extra careful and think removing them is not a good idea. If you read and review many of the post-op instructions that clinics provide, they advise their patients to remove these dead crusts after 7-10 days. For those individuals who heal under normal time frames, 10 days is more than sufficient time for the recipient sites to heal enough for the crusts to be removed. Once your recipient is cleaned up, the new hair shafts have a clear path to grow through the scalp. Then you should start seeing a difference with new regrowth coming through. Feel better now my friend?...

You're very welcome newhair . And yes I agree that it would be best to continue your once daily regimen including the crown area so as to not disrupt what you already started. I just would not change the amount of frequency in the daily amounts and listen my friend, time will soon tell. I don't think it will affect your overall yield or the final matured result. It's more the time period of regrowth that is impacted. Again, the progress since your last photo update have been significantly improved so that's a very good sign that things are progressing, not regressing. It's the waiting that can be challenging but you will get through this period newhair and am looking forward to seeing your final result...

DD, That looks amazing...what a difference...CONGRATS!

If you did not receive PRP concurrent with your recent procedure, I would not recommend having it done until your scalp heals. IMHO, the additional injections into the scalp could potentially raise the level of trauma that you already sustained with the multitude of recipient incisions. I actually heard from a guy who did this and said he immediately went back five days later for PRP injections. He then ended up sustaining a very high level of shock loss. Was it from the PRP injections? No one knows for sure yet the level of his shock loss was alarming to say the least. And he did not have this type of shock loss from his previous procedure where no PRP was used. Possibly his experience would have been very different (with a low level of shock) if the PRP was added "during" the procedure, but again we just cannot say for sure. Just a thought...:rolleyes: