gillenator

One thing is for sure, any of the doctors mentioned are busy and most of them have reps that can assist you in the enrollment process. You can also go to their respective websites to get their contact info. Wish you the best in your journey my friend...

Trust me, when you see cases with those higher upward numbers, they are the exception and I am referring to those individuals that have upper end donor densities. Not everyone does. And obviously the best cases are the ones that get put up online. It is best to be physically examined with a microscopic instrument that can put your scalp on a monitor and show you your own donor density. You will see your own FUs and be able to calculate your density with the surgeon being considered. In addition, the doctor will be able to see the grade and quality of your hair shafts (caliber) which also is an important consideration. Taking 50% of one's donor FUs is not possible for every individual especially those with thin caliber. If the individual's scalp tissue is soft or on the mushy side, then the total available number or FUs also goes down because of the risk of collateral damage in the extraction process. If we were to pick an average number for the average individual, I would say a range of 5,000 to 8,000 would be more realistic.

You will most of them in Europe...

jeff1986, It always warms my heart whenever I see someone new doing thorough research and you bring up a number of vital issues regarding surgical hair restoration. If you take the time and use the same approach when choosing the right surgeon, someone highly reputable and recommended, then you should not experience the pitfalls that you outlined in your initial post. In fact, you can discuss each concern with any reputable surgeon and they should provide you a detailed response to each of them. Yes it is possible to experience some of the misfortunes when choosing someone incompetent yet at the same time, this industry has come along way over the years and today, there are many competent and reputable surgeons to choose from...

Are you considering a PRP for treating MPB?

Sounds perfectly normal...

The post-op redness can also be related to a corresponding lower level of collagen. There are some topical steroidal creams that can help with the redness however the surface must be completely healed before applying it and generally used when the post-op redness lingers for several months or more. Another idea is to simply use a cosmetic tan product which is a make-up to give the appearance of a facial tan. I know of several guys who used it for weeks on end and were quite please with how effective it hid the post-op redness. There are high end quality of facial make-up products where you can actually blend the appropriate level of skin tone to match your own. One is a granule type based make-up and not a cream. I just cannot remember the brand name of it but most women will know what it is. Kind of pricey though.

The hair that continues to grow is supported by follicles that have not retreated into the resting (telogen) phase. For the most part, grafts shed 2-3 weeks post-op almost entirely related to the trauma of the procedure. In days of old, when the instruments used to create the recipient sites were much more invasive, nearly all of the grafts shed. As the instruments continue to be refined, we see a higher percent of the grafts continue to remain and grow. There is nothing wrong nor detrimental about this. It's the lower level of trauma experienced overall in the recipient area. And simply put, all hair follicles behave in a cyclical intermittent manner including the transplanted ones. This is a good thing because if the transplanted grafts all shed at the same time and then cycled into the growth phase concurrently, we would undoubtedly experience subsequent periods of pronounced visual thinning and density. There would be periods where out hair would appear thick and then periods of low density. This is why we can never fairly judge the merits of any HT procedure without giving it at least 12 to 15 months post-op. Then at least all of the hair follicles have adequate time to move into resting, shedding, and growth and to attain at least several inches of length in the hair shafts. And also why I never support adding new grafts "within the same surface area" within twelve months, nine moths at the earliest. There could be some late blooming hair that has not yet broken the surface area of the scalp and the risk is the potential transection of that late blooming hair.

Patrick, due to the residuals of finasteride having a long shelf life, the frequency is not a big issue IMHO. The main idea is consuming an average of 1 mg daily to attain the level of efficiency for treating MPB and established by Merck's clinical trials when the drug was approved by the FDA. I basically switched to EOD because the generic form is difficult to cut into four equal pieces. I purchase the generic form of it which has an odd shape to the pill. The name brand Proscar tablet is easier to dissect but much more expensive. And the kicker is that I have two brothers who are just one year apart in age and neither of them got MPB, just me...:rolleyes:

The pain can be slightly higher due to the increased level of blood flow to the scalp as we are in a lying down position. The ibuprofen definitely will help with inflammatory pain...

Just for Men, Beard and Moustache does not have harsh chemicals. But it does not last long, maybe 5 days.

Yes it's possible however unlikely especially if the surgeon uses the least of invasive instruments, like blades for example, to create the coronal incisions. Some docs may choose to use needles to create recipient incisions. Some use a combination of both instruments depending on the variance of graft sizes. The key is that the size of the corresponding recipient incisions accommodate the peripheral sizes of the grafts that are placed within them. If the incision site is too large, there can potentially be some pitting at the base of the implanted graft when it heals. Sometimes that can be slightly noticeable. And of course if you are a good healer, that makes a difference as well...

Patrick, I used to take 1.25 mg of Proscar daily but now I take the same dosage "every other day" and still maintain good efficiency. Did not experience a shed either, knock on wood... I started low dose finasteride in 1996 and been on it ever since. My maternal grandfather and uncle were both a full blown Norwood 6 and I truly believe I would have reached that had I not started finasteride.

Possibly start a new cable show called "Beard Dynasty", get dressed in cammies, and who knows? This could potentially evolve into something big!... Just kidding. I think many of us can be the biggest critic of our own looks which is absolutely normal. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say...

While it is true that there are really no formal residency programs for HT surgery, some docs do offer internships including for FUE but they are far and few between. A good share of them do have formal training and education in the field of dermatology and you will see that if you read their respective biographies. But as KO stated, some come from a wide array of medical specialization. There is another thread in this forum entitled, "FUE: Extractions not done by the doctor" where I posted some comments. Interesting thread...:rolleyes:

Yes it is gone now but again, am left with a small scar the size of a pea. Still think it was a piece of staple that broke off. I keep the length at roughly 1 1/2 inches so you can't really see the small spot scar unless my hair is wet. One other possibility with these tiny pea size bumps is they are simply cysts. A cyst can develop at anytime and do not have to be related to having HT surgery. Cysts do not normally go away but can be surgically removed. If they are bothersome, usually a good dermatologist can look at it and determine what the problem is. And I'm referring to ones that are not directly on or adjacent to the strip scar. Anytime there is a bump or lump anywhere on the body, we should have it examined by a doctor. Sometimes they can be abnormal growth from a whole host of possibilities and why seeing a physician is the best thing to do.

I wore hair systems for 11 years before I had the nerve to pull the trigger in 1996, my first procedure. There was no internet when I started my research so all that was available was what I could find in the main library, and that was not much. In 1980, when I started research, most of the medical community regarded HT surgery as a renegade field of unscrupulous doctors who preyed upon desperate individuals. Almost every doctor I inquired with thought I was nuts to ever consider HT surgery. But of course back then, it was open donor methods and had no aesthetic appeal. I remember Dr. Bosley doing segments on public TV channels which set the stage for infomercials which came later. I got referred to Bosley a number of times, but did not want that type of result with plugs. I waited for the industry to begin doing micros and minis and did my first procedure in 1996 which came out reasonably well. It freed me from wearing hair systems which I desperately wanted. So in conclusion, it was not a matter of how long I spent doing research, it was a matter of waiting for the right techniques to arrive and then finding the best surgeon that I could find at the time.

There are many guys who would die to have a beard that thick and dense. And it's not unusual to have some sparse spots because that makes it look natural IMHO.

IMHO, running in itself does not put tension in the donor zone, but I would stay away from push-ups and sit-ups for at least 4 months post-op.

Roughly ten years ago, an experienced tech opened his own FUE clinic in the Jacksonville, FL area where he is from. I can't remember the name of the clinic but his first name is Larry. He was an independent tech and contracted with one of the clinics that I used to work for, and that's how I became acquainted with him. He decided to open and operate his own HT clinic, yet he has no formal education or training in the medical field. He held no license as far as I know because he told me this himself when I first met him. I then heard about him starting his own clinic and discovered that he shared office space with a licensed physician who was not a HT surgeon. This physician practiced in a completely different field of medicine that had no relation to the hair restoration field whatsoever. In other words, Larry was able to use the doctor's shingle (license) so-to-speak in order to meet the state's regulatory requirements to operate a medical facility. Yet Larry himself was performing the procedures...:rolleyes: And they put up some examples of their work and some of it looked good. The best work? Not in my opinion yet at the time, there were only a handful of North American surgeons performing FUE with very few examples to showcase. Some of you long term hair junkies may remember some of the controversy that occurred with this clinic in several of the online forums back then with the debate that if the work is good, "Who cares?" Others, like myself are of the opinion that an experienced licensed physician needs to be present in the OR whenever "surgery" is being performed no matter which individual is doing it. How in the world can anyone allow surgery to occur without an experienced licensed physician present?..:eek: Why am I of this opinion? Because people forget that various complications can arise during any surgical procedure. Individuals health conditions vary. They can be on medications or have sensitive medical issues/concerns that must be addressed before the procedure even takes place. Does the clinic take a complete medical history of every patient and have each and every one of them "cleared" for surgery? Things can change on a dime without notice. Things like a sudden drop in blood pressure, cardiac arrest, diabetic seizures, etc, etc...:eek: And I am not speaking exclusively about hair restoration surgery, it applies to any type of surgery including oral surgery and/or whenever anesthesia is applied. And how many of us also know that anesthesia (local or otherwise) should only be administered by someone who is legally licensed and experienced to administer it? That's the law in most states. And I could go on and on with numerous other violations but the real issue, "Is the patient at risk?" Are the patents' vitals being competently monitored throughout the procedure and by whom? Yes there are some very talented techs out there. But it's not just about the bottom line results or even the price. First and foremost, we cannot forget that the safety and the well being of every human being is imperative! Things like this can and do occur in an unregulated industry.

This is another phenomenon that is controversial regarding large procedures or the mega-session. In today's world, that is attainable with FUHT providing the individual has the accommodating scalp laxity for a strip that large, and of course the density level. Yet some docs do not like to do them because of the added level of trauma that the additional thousands of recipient incisions can cause. Some are of the opinion that yields and regrowth are better attained in smaller sessions of 2500-3,000 grafts for subsequent procedures. Initial procedures tend to have the best yields. So the impending question is, "Can a higher level of scalp trauma affect the overall yield?" I think that it can. There are many variables that can impact the regrowth or level of yield in mega-sessions. The first consideration is how the individual responds to the trauma. Some patients really experience inflammation and swelling, some do not. Some surgeons employ the use of custom blades to create their coronal incisions which lowers the level of trauma because they are in many cases, less invasive. If the mega-session is a subsequent procedure within the same surface area, then the recipient zone is already compromised with previous scar tissue and can affect yields in subsequent procedures. One of the other dilemmas is that a subsequent session does not appear to be as dense as we think it should be, visually speaking. If there is hair within the recipient area to begin with, how does one track the added level of density as per cm2? It can be done using a series of photos before and after the procedure using a scope but not too many clinics if any do this for the patient.

Yep, crunches, squats, shoulder and back routines all potentially create tension in the donor zone. Sit-ups especially create tension on the strip scar...:eek:

The industry is unregulated and so techs are not required to be licensed or regulated. Only nurses are regulated by licensure.

Lots of good information being provided...

Talk about popping out of the woodwork after 7 years...:rolleyes: