Al - Moderator

I had around 350 beard grafts taken from under my chin about a year ago. I don't have any visible scarring in that area unless you really get up close in the right light, but even then I can't tell if what I do see are from the grafts that were removed or if they are from shaving. I'm planning on using more beard hair grafts later this month. The beard hair that has grown started out much more wiry and curly than my head hair, but it calms down after a year or so and I can't tell the difference now. It actually grows longer and faster than my head hair. I also used around 1000 chest hair grafts. The marks from those are slightly more visible than the beard area, but not enough to be noticed by anyone unless they get close to me and are looking for them. I did walk on the beach this Summer with no shirt and I didn't even have to think about it. The chest hair grows slightly thinner and slightly more wiry than the beard hair, but this also straightens out and falls mostly in line with my head hair after a while as well. It also grows very long too. I can still feel a small difference between the chest hair and my scalp hair at this point, but it seems mostly on the ends of the hair now, so I think after another hair cut there will no longer be a noticeable difference.

Why did Dr True turn you away?

It looks like he still has a lot more beard hair that can be used. Does he have any plans to use that to start filling in some of the crown?

Back in the old days of hair transplants multiple scars was the only way it was done. Sessions were small, so it would take several sessions to get any kind of decent coverage. They would give you a 3 or 4 session plan and each session was spaced 6 weeks apart. At 6 weeks after the first session, there was still shock loss and healing going on from the first scar, so a 2nd scar had to be made. Then the 3rd one 6 weeks later. This was standard practice. Oh and don't forget that they would even do a scalp reduction on the same day they would do a strip scar surgery. So they are pulling your skin in one direction for the scalp reduction and then pulling it back the other direction from the strip scar. This made the scalp reduction useless and made sure you would get a wide scar.

Wrong. If you are looking for thick, dense hair like he asks, you are not going to get it no matter how good the Dr is unless you only have minor hair loss to begin with (but if that was the case there's no need to be asking about new technology to get you there). If you are going to end up a NW 7 with thinning donor area, it does not matter how good the Dr is. You are going to lose the transplanted hair and will never have enough to even get light coverage, since you don't even have enough to get coverage in just the donor area.

That is the route I would go.

Why were you even thinking about having a hair transplant in the first place? I don't see any hair loss.

I don't think that applies in this case as he didn't have a large procedure to begin with at only 1800 grafts. His scalp shouldn't be too tight at this point. He also claims that his scar is undetectable, probably partly due the the smallish sized procedure causing less tension, so there shouldn't be too much of a scar to remove in the 2nd procedure, thus allowing the Dr to get more grafts.

Totally agree with you. That's one of the lies they tell you to get you to do the procedure.

I basically had this done over 20 years ago in an attempt to eliminate space between plug grafts in the recipient area. It doesn't work.

Every medication affects your body. If they didn't they wouldn't work. If there's a side effect that you notice and don't like, you stop taking it. That is with any medication. Why are you guys so against finisteride? Why aren't you against all medications?

Let me see if I have this right. This Dr has no problems prescribing medications to people with issues such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. in which many of the patients he prescribes these medications to could solve their own issues themselves by eating better and getting more excersize. However, he feels it's putting money, profit and greed ahead of medical ethics if a Dr prescribes medication to those who have an issue that can't be solved any other way. Do I have that right?

Shampoo, I have been thinking of putting a hot tub outside on my patio once I get the fence put up around my yard. I will have to look up some reasons why not to have one now since you've posted here, but any comments would help. Thanks.

I don't think once per week is enough, but you can either take a smaller dose such as .5mg every day or 1mg every other day or even every 3 days and it usually won't make much difference in terms of working, but it can make a difference in the side effects.

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/uploads_user/156000/155582/11094.jpg That is me at 22 years old. You have no idea what you are talking about if you think having a full head of hair vs being bald didn't change everyones interactions with me. I wore a hairpiece for a while at that time. I can tell you that people treat you differently if you have hair at that age or if you don't. Depression is not from finsiteride. It may get worse when they are on finisteride but that is due to the feeling that there is no hope left when it doesn't work as well as they wish it would. It's not due to the finisteride itself. I am positive of this as I've been through it my entire life.

Scotsman: People teasing me about my bald spot at 16 years old was not a cosmetic problem. You could MAYBE argue that the bald spot itself was cosmetic, but the problems and issues it caused me were not. Being turned down for the prom at 17 years old because I was bald is not cosmetic. Stinging pain on my head at the hair roots when I try to my comb hair as it's coming out in clumps at 16 years old was not cosmetic. Trying to date someone my age at 19 and having her think I'm as old as her father is not a cosmetic issue. Being told to stop trying to "rob the cradle" when the women are the same age as me is not cosmetic. Having women 25 years older than me trying to date me because they think I look good for 45 (when I'm 20) is not a cosmetic problem. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Stop thinking that hair loss is simply a cosmetic issue that doesn't affect anyone. The simple fact that men are taking finisteride to fix it should be proof enough that they feel it's a problem. If people like you would stop pushing our medical issue aside as if it doesn't matter because you feel it (we) are not important enough then maybe we wouldn't feel so ashamed of it or so depressed about it or so suicidal. Maybe we should start blaming you for the suicides and not the finisteride.

I took it for about 11 years from when it first came out until around 2009 or 2010. I stopped taking it for several reasons including the increased side effects of loss of erections and the fact that it seemed to stop working over time and my hair was falling out again. 1. It definitely slowed it down in some areas and helped regrow some hair slightly in some other areas during the first few years. 2. Tougher to get and keep erections. For 5 of the years I was on it I was in a long distance relationship, so I only saw her once every few months. That made it easy to work around the issue because I would stop using it for a few days before I was going to see her. The side effects slowly got worse over time and I started getting very concerned about long term effects. I've never been on any other type of medication for more than a few days. 3. Generally from 1.25mg per day at first (5mg proscar cut in quarters) except for when I would skip a few days when I knew I would be having sex and then down to every other day near the end to try to lessen the effects. 4. No shedding that I can remember, but I had multiple hair transplants already and did not have much hair left to shed.

This is excellent results for less than 6 months. I can't wait to see your 1 year results.

If it's women telling you these things then tell them to stop wearing makeup because that's a sign of low self esteem.

Do they get haircuts? If so then they are paying money for their hair issues also aren't they? Is it because they have low self esteem? Why are they doing that if they just said it doesn't matter? I never understood anyone saying these things while they are doing the same things. Tell them there are some homeless guys who never shower either, so they should stop doing that too.

It is silly to think that people only see you from the front. Are you trying to tell me that nobody sees me when they are sitting behind me on a bus, train, theater, etc? Are you saying nobody is ever walking behind me? What about when I'm with a large group at a party, club, or other function. There are people all around in all directions. Do you really think they only see me from the front? That is so dumb to even suggest that. Of course the crown is important! People DO see it.

Shampoo, I don't disagree with you. Women get away with it because somehow they are "supposed" to do those things, but they feel men aren't. I don't think it's as bad these days as it was 25 to 30 years ago. Today women are more accepting of men doing something to enhance their appearance and some of them even encourage it now. It wasn't like that before. I also wasn't trying to put anyone down who uses concealer. If it works for you and makes you feel better about yourself when you go out then go for it. I am just surprised that a lot of guys seem to be trying concealer these days. I do think though that some men who simply don't have enough hair for it are fooling themselves thinking it's not detectable. What I was trying to say that for some reason on these boards there seems to be a feeling of just put on some concealer to fill in the thinning and that is somehow supposed to make you ok for a few years. Maybe that works for some, but it doesn't for others.

This has become an interesting thread on concealers. I think for me I always had a thinning area that was too large and too thin to ever really make it work. If I only had a thinning crown that wasn't so huge I probably could have gotten away with using a concealer without it being noticeable. I think if I had enough hair for it, though, that I probably would simply do without it anyway as a bit of thinness wouldn't concern me enough to use it.

OK, but doesn't it worry you that someone might notice? Don't you worry about a woman putting her hands through your hair and getting some of the stuff on her hands? Don't you worry that it doesn't look the same in different lighting than it does in your bathroom? I was never interested in being fake. I feel like I'm lying and it just eats at me. I can't do it. I can't let a woman think this is who I am when it's really not. That's just me I guess.

I think there's at least a possibility of FUE falling out of favor over the years and FUT regaining in popularity. If you look at a lot of FUE patients, there are a lot of them who have grafts taken from areas right up to where they are thinning or bald. In a few years when these people's crown loss area increases and the bald area in the mid section widens, they will also be losing transplanted hair as the balding areas will be going past the areas where grafts have been taken from. For this reason I feel that, in general, the overall results of FUE patients will not last as long as FUT patients. FUT patients almost always have all of the transplanted hair taken from the area that is likely to keep growing hair for the longest amount of time. Of course the FUE patient will be unconvinced and claim it was a good thing he chose FUE because now he can shave his head without worrying about the linear scar.... while the FUT patient is still sporting a decent head of transplanted hair and telling the FUE patient that he should have just shaved his head from the start of that was his goal.