flyby

Hi Knox, I Hope all went well with your return back to work. From the picture it looks like you have definitely experienced some shock loss on the sides. It also looks like you may have average or less than average donor density and thinner hair which makes the scarring stand out a little more in the beginning. If you're looking to keep things concealed I honestly don't thing getting a shorter cut will be the way to go. Look into applying some Toppik or Dermatch to conceal the areas of concern. These can work wonders for you. I just had a second HT of about 2500 on 11/19 (ok not really second but I don't like to count the 600 graft bosley HT's from 10 years ago) and have had some shockloss in at the ends of the donar area on the side (one side more than the other. Although it might be nice to have not really cared if anyone knew I decided early on to take the approach of keeping this skeleton in the closet to myself only (ok Dr. Alexander and staff as well :-). I also didn't have the luxury of taking of alot of time off work since I own my own business and can't be away for long and I also can't wear a hat to the office. Because of this my needs required that shaving down was not an option. In each case I had the procedure on a Wed and was back to the office on a Monday. Having existing hair to conceal the recipient area and long enough thick dark hair in the donor area to conceal the scar we definitely key here. Try the concealers and I definitely think you'll go unoticed. If anybody does say something just tell them you tried giving yourself a haircut and kinda screwed up a little. If you didn't tell anyone at the office you were having this done they won't have a clue. Unless of course they're HLN members and have used this site to know all . Happy growing to you!

Beauty Shop or Hair Salon/Stylist? . Beauty shop makes me think of the 1950's. Looks like you're progressing very nicely and I'm sure they'll have you looking sharper than ever. I've been cutting my own hair for the past 3 years and I must say it comes out pretty damn good. Much better than some of the stylist I've been to in the past. I also like the convenience of it.

Hi Eman, Well the next few months should be really nice for you. Those little sprouties will become full fledged weeds :-). Look forward to seeing your results. Looks like you had a little of the Jason Statham look going on to start with so you already had a good look going and this should give you some nice options with the dooo.

I just had another HT on 11/19 to fill in the top and back towards the crown. There's a decent amount of existing hair (albeit thinning some) and the implants were placed throughout. I did not experience any noticible shock loss in the recipient area. I have however experienced some shockloss at the ends of the donor area. This was a second 2500+ HT and even though I have pretty good laxicity the tension was more noticible this time. The shockloss isn't really noticible since the hair around it covers it. I haven't worried about this too much since I've heard this is common but it's nice to hear Dr. Mejia's comments on this and I'm sure it will be growing back shortly.

Dr. Cooley! You're set. No problems. From what I've seen his closure are some of the best I've seen. I think it's Latinlotus who just recently had an HT with him and his donor and recipient were impecible post op. Best of luck to you but you won't need it. Take care.

I think Than had some great points! He's a sharp kid. There are way to many variables to this to nail down any exact formulas. While there are the obvious physical features of men and women which most will agree upon which define the extreme spectrums of beautiful and ugly (or should I say visually challenged), there are way to many variables in between. Both Men and Women are superficial at some level and being attracted physically is usually important with both. With that said, I do think that men are typically more superficial with regards to JUST looks. If you look around anywhere you'll definitely see a greater percentage of Beautiful women with less attractive men then you would see of Gorgous men with less then attractive women! I do like the screen name bro though, because it makes the forum sound like a high school/college party. Hey Bro, What up bro

Hi Fusion, With the details you've given you should have no problem at all concealing the donar scar. The denser and thicker and darker your hair is the harder it will be to see the scar or stitches. Most of the great dr's here shave the donor area perfectly so that once closed there's just a thin line where the stitches are and with trico closure the hairs eventually fill that in as well. Good luck!

If a coalition Dr. did a strip for only 200 grafts then I think this is something Bill should look into. 200 grafts isn't enough to do crap for anyone! Bosley Suck Ass! Mid 90's prior to real Internet topics on this I got suckered for 3 of about 500 each. luckily I required that the grafts were used behind my existing hairline so their work wasn't noticible. Dr. Alexander has since fixed me up good. They took the donor from way lower then they should have as well. Hope to get those revised later like spex did. F@#& Bosley.

Hi Predator, Looks like you've recieved alot of good feedback here. I think you're definitely in for a VERY pleasant suprise in the months to come. As you mentioned your existing hairloss with a NW3 puts you at a really good starting point for your HT especially at 41. It must have bothered you enough to proceed with the HT and I definitely think your end result is going to be what you were looking for. From the looks of it your a lucky one and your loss pattern may not progress much futher either. Stay on the propecia. As for the itching this is very normal. The cause is due to the severed nerves in the donor an recipient areas caused by the incisions. As the nerves grow back you experience this itching sensation and as time goes by the itching goes away along with the numbness as the nerves get all connected back up. Try not to dwell on this much as it really shouldn't be that bad. This process takes longer for some than others. Best of luck to you but I honestly don't think you'll need any.

It's interesting to see such passionate, heated and in depth discussion here about LLLT. While I definitely do agree with Dr. Feller for the most part that LLLT for hair regrowth is a bunch of BS, I don't quite understand such a progressive and proactive stance against it. As far as I've seen LLLT for hair regrowth has never caused any one physical harm or damage. It's not like laser hair removal or skin rejuvination treatments which can and do cause trauma if done wrong or treated by inexperience operators. I do think that the ball is definitely in the LLLT Industry's court to show some serious scientific studies to prove the effectiveness of LLLT (to date they have NOT). I also don't like the claims that they make about hair regrowth, but in the end it's really more of a buyer beware type of topic. Unless I see evidence of damage caused by LLLT then the only thing being hurt is the gullable persons pocket book. I do like Dr. Fellers tenacity about calling BS about the LLLT industry, but I think that the talented HT surgeons such as Dr. Feller and many others on here would be doing hair loss sufferers looking for a solution a much greater service by proactively and aggresively trying to weed out the bad HT surgeons out there in the HT industry who do cause harm and damage to peoples lives (same goes for the cosmetic surgery industry in general). After all these are the Dr's seeing and repairing damage by unqualified, unexperienced or untalented ht surgeons. Is it taboo for the good HT doctors to go point out their peers who are crappy HT doctors. Just my 2 cents!

Hi NW3, I had about 2800 with Dr. A on 12/5/07 basically focusing on the frontal 1/3. For me the procedure and recovery period was pretty much a piece of cake. The waiting is hard and time seems to go slow but I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am with the results so far. I still have a pretty healthy head of hair on the top behind the front 1/3 ht back to my my crown but I'm sure at some point I'll have to go back again and do one more session and I won't hesitate to go to Dr. A. I didn't experience any shockloss at all and was pretty much back to my normal routine (minus workouts etc) after a week. You've made a great choice in Dr. A and try not to lose too much sleep :-).

Hi Mopar. I actually think it's a good idea to shave/buzz your hair down before deciding to get an HT. If you look good with it and like it then you may no longer consider an HT an option and not. Looks at someone like Pro Surfer Kelly Slater. Dude pulls all kinds of ladies and probably doesn't worry about hair loss since he's shaved it off. If you really hate it then atleast you gave it a shot then looking into an HT would be an option. Shaving down after a strip HT imo isn't gonna look to pretty. I think are are actually quite a few HT doctors out there that have very high ethics. There's also alot of them that don't. Hopefully this site will help you weed the bad ones out. Unfotunately not everyone's hair loss progression is the same so predicting the future isn't always possible. Propecia also does a pretty good job of delaying, slowing and in some cases stopping the hair loss progression. If your losing hair at the temples and thinning throughout the top and crown at 27 there is probably a good chance that you would need another HT in the future. If you post some pictures here I'm sure you'll get some good feedback from Dr's and members. I had an HT on 12/5/07 with about 2800 in the frontal 1/3. The top and crown are definitely thinned some but propecia has definitely help maintain what I have and it's not bad at all at this point. I'm 39 now and hopefully it will continue to maintain. If not i would fully extect to need another HT of about 2800 to complete those areas. Kind of a hope for the best, plan for the worst scenario. Good luck!

Sorry that the quality of the pics aren't that great, but they were taken with a camera phone at the office. I was a pretty fast healer with very little redness and no swelling, obviously everyone's not the same. All of my interactions at the office are typical casual encounters and it's not like people were standing above me under a bright light closely inspecting my melon. Both Shapiro and Alexander do super clean refined work with custom cut blades so the trauma is kept to a minimum. Your assesment about shock loss due to large mega sessions is very good. I'm sure Hasson & Wong experience less trauma than other less experienced Dr's doing mega sessions but it's still more trauma. HT55. In a perfect world I think most of the top Coalition doctors would probably rather have the patient shave down if their situation would alow for it. If I was a student, had a job where I could wear a hat or could take 2-3 months off and not worry about it then shaving may have but an option for me. But the fact of my situation was that I run my own business with employees and customers and taking more that a week off or wearing a hat just wasn't an option. Showing up to work with a shaved head and a nice donar scar also wasn't an option especially since I have chosen to keep my HT private. As with anything there's always differing opinions and I think what is important is that each doctor follow what they feel works best for them and that they are most comfortable with. I totally respect a doctor choosing not to do an HT without the patient shaving if that's what they're most comfortable with. Just saw your pic HT55. They probably wanted you to shave down because your hairs already pretty damn thick . Propecia's done wonder for you. Nice work. Every patients characteristics are different any maybe with yours they felt it was something they needed to do.

I'm sure every patients situation is unique but Dr. Shaprio definitely does. Here's a quote from Janna on another thread regarding this same topic that was posted in 3/08 "We generally don't require shaving unless the session sizes are going to be more than 2500 grafts. We try to work with each patient's ht goals. Like any doctor who does not require shaving, the session size may be a little smaller to accommodate the challenges associated with long hairs as it's somewhat like working with the lights dimmed. Our doctors eliminate as much of the negatives by utilizing very high magnification loopes to make incisions and have polarized/unpolarized lighting with magnification to avoid the glare on the scalp from the overhead surgery lights. We've been performing procedures without shaving since the beginning of my time with Dr. Shapiro so we have plenty of experience."

The shaving topic has been discussed many many times on here. Both Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Alexander perform HT's without requiring shaving and they both achieve some of the best results you'll find anywhere. Shaving does make their job easier and for mega sessions (3000 +) they pretty much all require it. As I've stated before, Shapiro and Alexander would not put their reputations at risk if they thought transplanting without shaving would not achieve their typical superiour results. Hat's off (or should I say on ) to those who are cool with shaving down but for my situation it wasn't even an option and at 5+ months out I'm completely happy in my decision. Everyone's different but I had absolutely no shock loss at all and I had a pretty decent amount of native hair. I was back to work without a hat an my existing hair hid recipient area and the donar are superbly. This pic is 5 days after and if I had shaved there's no way I could have pulled off going back to work a week later without anyone noticing.

MERCEDES VS. BMW here! Both are awesome doctors who consistently produce incredible results. Dr. Alexander 2739 on 12/5/07

Hi La La, Your answers as to not choosing to do a mega session with H&W are dead on. I also did not want to and could not shave down due to work reasons. Since that is your case as well then you'll be able to accomplish an incredible complete (crown and all) results in probably 2 sessions of about 2800 or so. Most surgeons who don't require shave down won't do anything above 3000 in one session due to time constraints. Not sure what your preferrences are for your hairline but if you're not looking to lower it too much your post op concealing efforts will be alot easier. Especially with your Toppik artistry . For your case Dr. Shapiro would be an excellent choice. As hairthere said Dr. Alexander also does amazing work and does not require shave down. With the two of them it's like comparing a BMW to a Mercedes. Both are awesome it just depends on your individual preference and who you gel best with. I had my procedure with Dr. Alexander on 12/5/07 2739 grafts and I've been extremely pleased so far. I had my procedure on a Wed, Stayed in Scottsdale AZ til Friday and was back at work on Monday. Nobody ever knew I had the procedure done.

Hi La La! With that many consultations I'm sure you've become quite educated. Dr. Shapiro is one of the best so you'de definitely be in great hands with him. Have you already consulted with Hasson & Wong? With your amount of loss I think it's going to take Shapiro at least 2 sessions to get you where you want to be whereas Hasson may be able to get you there in 1 with their ability to consistently perform 4000+ (obviously depending on the individual patients characteristics). Best of luck to you!

Hi 23, I would have to agree that Hair Club for Men weaves are pretty noticible. Don't let marketing brochures fool you. If it's noticible on someone like John Travota who has mega buck then I'm sure it's going to be noticible on an average Joe. I personally would have buzzed my head before going the weave route. I'd recommend finding a top reputable HT surgeon somewhere near you and at least go in for a consultation to give you a prognosis. Sorry to hear Propecia caused problems for you. Best of luck!

Great to hear what a great experience you had with Dr. Cooley. While having great results in the end are what's most important, the whole process of the experience, your comfort level, confidence in the Doctor and staff, healing process and other intagibles as you've noted is also very important. With out seeing your before and after photos from your prior procedures with Dr. Friedman it's somewhat difficult to accurately assess the quality of the results, BUT from your pictures prior to Dr. Cooley it looks like he did a damn good job. Very natural as well. With the addition of the work of Dr. Cooley the great you're gonna have one awsome melon of hair. NICE! 2739 12/5/07 Dr. Alexander

Hi HLNewB, This will never happen! You can do a search here and you'll find this question has been asked at least several other times. There are many problems with this - Your body rejects foreign tissue. Taking Anti rejection drugs and their many side affects may be acceptable for a life saving operation such as kidney, liver and heart transplants but not for a cosmetic procedure such as HT - If the body didn't reject the foreign tissues who in the hell would want to have a strip removed from their own head so someone else could have hair. - other peoples hair isn't going to look natural (color, texture etc.) with your own hair. - Cost would be extremely high - No respectible doctor would do it, Medical malpractice insurance would cover it, etc, etc, etc, As for restoring a completely full head of hair I'm sure things such as tissue regeneration science, hair cloning etc are much more likely but I wouldn't keep my fingers crossed for the near future. If you still think implanting other peoples hair into your own sounds like a good idea I'm sure you could pull something off is some third world country. Just make sure you report back to us on the results

I was reading an article about how much of an increase there has been in males getting cosmetic procedures over the past years. While male procedures are still only 9% male compared to 91% female the growth rate is the same as for females. Here's some numbers from 2007 as reported by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Nose reshaping (74,090) Eyelid surgery (34,896) Liposuction (32,800) Male breast reduction (21,311) Hair transplants (13,393) I'm surpised to see male breast reductions beat hair transplant. I guess there's lots of manboobs out there or something . I also think that with some of the great work that these top docs are doing hair transplanst will be moving up that list. As for liposuction I'm not a big believer in getting a cosmetic procedure for something that can be achieved through diet and exercise. Too bad diet and excerise doesn't work for hair.

I was reading an article about how much of an increase there has been in males getting cosmetic procedures over the past years. While male procedures are still only 9% male compared to 91% female the growth rate is the same as for females. Here's some numbers from 2007 as reported by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Nose reshaping (74,090) Eyelid surgery (34,896) Liposuction (32,800) Male breast reduction (21,311) Hair transplants (13,393) I'm surpised to see male breast reductions beat hair transplant. I guess there's lots of manboobs out there or something . I also think that with some of the great work that these top docs are doing hair transplanst will be moving up that list. As for liposuction I'm not a big believer in getting a cosmetic procedure for something that can be achieved through diet and exercise. Too bad diet and excerise doesn't work for hair.

Hi Hounddog, I definitely don't think you should spend the next 6-8 months worrying about your procedure with MHR. You can't go backward and stressing won't do anything but make things worse. While I don't believe that MHR docs will typically achieve the absolute best results possible at the ratio the top docs here do I'm sure there is some good work that comes out of MHR. You're also fortunate that it's 2008 and I can guarantee their techniques are greatly improved from years ago. Also take comfort that most of your grafts are in the crown where work that may not be the best in the world will not be as noticible as if you were recreating you're entire hairline. I had mini/micro grafts with Bosly about 11 years ago and while the work wasn't anywhere near the quality of work the top docs are achieving today it also wasn't something where people noticed. Having a decent amount of existing hair no doubt helped. I've since recieved a new HT with Dr. Alexander on 12/5/07 and any of the previous work is now blending in with the new work and is looking to be world class top noch work. You can also lookup Spex on here who had previous work with Bosley and had some repair work with Dr. Feller and his results are nothing short of amazing. So bottom line is. You're gonna be OK! If these results don't turn out to be the best possible then you can always go in for a touch up. Best of luck to you!

Coming along nicely Richie. Propecia has worked amazingly well for you. It's odd that its seems to have worked the exact opposite for you as it does for most. Seems that most experience regrowth or stabilize loss in the crown and don't see much results in the front 1/3. Hope you have some great growth over the next few months.