Al - Moderator

Yes that's true, but You have to realize that no matter how long ago mine was done, I still have the bad look. If someone sees me today, they see a bad hair transplant. They don't know it's from 25 years ago, they only see it as today. If you didn't know about HTs, but knew me and then knew a friend who said he was going to try it, what would you tell him? It's not moronic to say "Hey I've seen a really bad one with doll hair and thin all over with scars showing, so maybe you shouldn't do that." I agree that techniques these days are much better, but you're being too hard on people trying to give advice to a friend based on what they may have actually witnessed. You could have just said that those kind of results are not the norm these days and your friends are thinking of older HTs without calling them idiots. Believe me, I wish someone was telling me about the possible down sides before I went.

It was some of both the scars and the hair thinning naturally. Much of the transplanted hair on top has since fallen out because that's what it would have done if it hadn't ben moved. At least 2 of my older uncles had almost no hair on the sides and some thinning in the back since as long as I can remember, so when I was around 20 and realized I had the same sort of pattern, I was pretty sure my sides and back were going to be gone eventually. That's part of why I had a HT! So I wouldn't be bald like them!

I was 15 when my mother was yelling at me every time I needed a haircut, blaming me that it was my fault my hair was falling out. I was teased about my bald spot from friends beginning around 16. I got turned down for the prom at 17 because she thought I was sick with cancer or something because all my hair was falling out. From 17 to about 20 I got lots of people asking what disease I had or what was wrong with me. Around 18 or 19 my mother would criticize my combover telling me I look like a 40 year old bald man, but by this time she was no longer saying it was my fault. She was now trying to convince me that I had a scalp disease and wanted me to see a dermatologist because a skin/scalp disease was the reason my uncle's hair fell out when he was younger. After seeing a dermatologist who couldn't figure out why my hair was falling out, I went to see a group of specialist physicians with 5 clinics in NY, NJ, and PA. They were "physicians who specialize in hairloss" (from their brochure). I had a HT with them because the "Dr" (found out years later that he was not licensed to practice medicine, although SOME people in their other clinics were) confirmed that I did have an "excessive hairloss disease" (his words) and that I "need surgery as soon as possible or else you won't have enough hair left to work with. If you wait any longer, you'll never be able to have any hair." (his words as close as I can remember). It just went downhill from there. He gave me an estimate of about $8000 and 3 sessions each spaced 6 weeks apart plus a possible 4th free session for any touch-up work if needed. The entire process from start to full had of hair would take about 1 year. I decided to leave my job for 6 months to a year and wait for the HT to grow. That was the easiest way I could think of to handle the ugly duckling stage because my job required me to be out in public every day. I basically lived in my bedroom waiting for the hair to grow.... for 25 HT sessions over 6 years. Now 25 years later I'm still waiting for the hair to grow and the ugly duckling stage after the HT to be over. I always wondering what I could have possibly done differently and I honestly don't know. I didn't go into it lightly. I did whatever research I could at the time (no internet). I read medical books that said a hair transplant can be used to eliminate scars, which is just the opposite of creating them, so when the clinic told me there would be no scars, of course I believed it. There was no mention of scars in the consent form. I was worried about future hair loss down the back of my head and sides as that's what my older uncles have, so the "Dr" told me I could pay an extra $150 per session to double the hair on the sides and back which would guarantee I'd never run out of donor hair. When I said OK, he even said I didn't have to do that because he didn't think it was going to be an issue since I had good donor quality, but I wanted to make sure there was no way to later say I should have done it differently and made sure of it, so I gladly paid the extra $150 per session. I don't remember exactly, but I think I paid that for about 7 or 8 sessions. I refused to pay more once I paid double the original estimate. I originally wanted to do just the hairline and try wearing a hair system behind it. I was already wearing a hair system at that time and the biggest problem is the fakeness of the front. However, he insisted that it was better to cover my entire area with a hair transplant and that there would be "no noticeable difference" (his words) in thickness between the HT and the hair system. To prove to me that he could do it, they started at the mid section first rather than create a hairline. They drew some hairlines, so I knew where it would be, supposedly, but he didn't start there. Looking back I'm sure he did that to make sure I went through the whole process thinking I'd stop after doing just the front and he wouldn't make as much. When we did finally get to the hairline several sessions later, 2 people drew a hairline on me that even I thought was too low, but I did like that they had the temples (sides?) filled in, but as I said I thought the hairline was a bit low, so they gave me the pencil and asked me to draw what I felt it should be. I started drawing a line and they said OK, we can put it there. I never did get the temple sides filled in though. Some people ask me why I kept going so many times. What was I supposed to do? They kept telling me I had a disease and I was an extreme case and had to do exactly what they said because I was in jeopardy of losing all my hair and it would be my fault if I stopped going to them before it was completed. I also had scars which I kept complaining about since just after the very first session. I was ready to stop then, but their answer was always that they remove the scars when everything else is done because if they removed them now, they would just have to make more anyway and the hair growing in the scars wouldn't be as good for transplanting, so I had had to wait until everything else was done. I really had no idea what else to do. I dreaded going there, but felt I had no choice. Over and over they kept telling me to give it time and eventually it's going to turn out to be a full head of hair. I still find myself checking my hair in the mirror to see if there's any more growth. I know that probably sounds crazy to you, but when you go though that for 25 surgeries and nearly 6 years, that's what you do... keep checking to see if there's growth. I'm still waiting for my hair transplant to be done, so I can date 20 something year old women who all ran away from me because they thought I had some kind of disease when we were in our teens... sigh...

I took it for around 10 or 11 years I think. I stopped maybe 2 or 3 years ago because it was no longer working and my hair was continuing to thin. I decided to stop and let my body hair grow in order to do a body hair transplant. So far my body hair growth has improved since then.

Hmm... well my HT didn't "take", I went bald anyway, the little bit of hair that did grow has the doll hair look, etc. So you're saying I'm an idiot for pointing out what happened to me? Perhaps that's why there aren't many people who post negative results here. View my pictures on my profile. Now you've seen it instead of only hearing about it.

I really wish you guys would stop saying it only happens in men in their 60's and older. Please go back and read the first paragraph from Dr Konior where he states "men in their twenties, thirties and forties may experience it too. You can also view my photos for proof. The latest ones that show the sides are from 2009 when I was 42. I should ad some new ones as the entire area has thinned noticeably more since then. It's easy to pass something off as rare as if it shouldn't matter to anyone, but you don't know if the person you are telling that to will be the one with the condition. When you are the one it happens to then the "chances" are 100%. What I mean by that is no matter what the chances are, each single individual is concerned about if will it happen to them. For the sampling size of 1 (me) the rate of occurrance is 100%. It really doesn't matter how rare anyone else wants to think it is. It is not rare for the one who has it. AL

If you can tell he had it done just by looking at him, then I'm wondering how successful it really was. Or am I missing something?

Hmm... somewhat disappointing as I was hoping to use my back hair for fill in since I'd like to get rid of my back hair anyway, but this video says that the survival rate is worse than bard and chest hair. It might not be worth trying that then.

Don't believe the myth that it won't thin until you're 80. I'm 45 and my so-called safe area has been thinning for years. My transplanted area keeps thinning as the years go by and the donor area is so thin that I can't cover the scars. You can see my pictures in my profile if you don't believe me. The HT was supposed to give me more hair, not leave me with less.

My hair loss on the sides of my head has extended past the point of the scar in the Hasson and Wong picture posted. You can see what I mean if you look at my profile picts.

I think underarm hair is better. Seriously. It grows longer and straighter... at least on me.

Ok, so the front looks better, but he's still a bald man. I would in no way be interested in that look. And I bet all of the people thinking it's a great transformation wouldn't want to have that look either. Most of them have HTs long before they get that bald.

This is exactly what I need. Thanks for posting. At least there seems to be some hope for me. Now all I have to do is come up with $30000.

I disagree with the diet theory. First of all men were going bald long before the 1900's began when there was no processed foods. Secondly, when I was a kid my mother made my whole family breakfast, packed our lunches, and cooked dinner every night, so I ate the same things the entire rest of my family ate. I started losing my hair at 15, yet my dad had a full head of hair well into his 60's. Third, my cholesterol is 170, blood pressure is normal, glucose is good, etc. and they have always been good, so what I'm eating isn't affecting how my body is functioning in a bad way.

I hope something becomes available soon, but before you get too sure of it, let me give you some parts of an article I have. This is from July 11, 1995. That's 1995, not 2005. 17 years ago and it still hasn't become available. I can tell you that articles similar to this were around from at least 1989 because I read them when researching my own HT. I just don't have them saved. ----- In a promising step in studies of hair growth, researchers at a biotechnology company in California have found a way to fire "bullets" at hair follicles... "We think this delivery system opens the whole hair-loss field to the possibility of gene therapy". … "we found that the skin growing in culture produced hair. This was a big breakthrough". The ability to produce hair bearing skin in the lab provided the researchers with a means for screening "molecules that could modify hair growth." … the next step was to test whether the liposome delivery system could be used for gene therapy. ...the so-called lacZ gene deposited the gene in the hair follicles near the base of the hair shaft. ...a dermatologist at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City, said his research team has performed similar experiments "and we've been pleasantly surprised at what can be done with liposomes via the hair follicle. -----

A hair grows, stops growing, falls out, and a few months later a new hair starts growing in its place. This is normal and happens to everyone. So some individual hairs will be just beginning to grow and others will be long and need to be cut and others will be somewhere in between. Also not all hairs will be exactly the same thickness either. This is all normal and none of it means you are losing your hair. Miniaturization is when a large percentage of hair in one area is much thinner than hair in another area. This is usually an indicator of where hair loss will be occurring soon because hair will generally grow thinner, wispier first before no longer growing at all. Your hair appears to be looking very good in pictures, so I don't think you should be too concerned with hair loss.

Am I a client of yours? LOL I deal with the public in my job and from personal experience I can tell you that people who are drunk and/or people who are mad at me for some reason will make comments and it is usually a lot worse than simply saying what's up with your hair. It happens on a semi regular basis.

I would want to know more details of why they are doing more than 1 surgery that day. If yours is planned to be less than 2500 and the other surgery scheduled is just a touchup session of a few hundred grafts that may only take maybe 2 hours then I can see them wanting to schedule another small to mid size session the same day. The fact that he is giving you a discount only if you take a certain day may mean that they don't normally schedule more than 1 per day... unless it's just a sales technique to get you to go for the HT. There's nothing wrong with getting a discount if the situation is OK. Of course it depends on who the Dr. is too, but you haven't said, so I can only comment based on the multiple surgeries in a single day.

As bad as my hair looks I will not wear a hair system (or whatever you want to call it) again. I tried that years ago and felt even worse knowing I had fake hair.

When you place grafts in an area that already has hair you will most likely experience some shock loss of the previous hair. It sounds like that's what happened. It should all grow back in a few months.

I always thought 7 to 10 days was the normal range of time for suture removal.

I had a bigger bald spot than that when I was 15. Most people who have megasession hair transplants don't even get back to the stage you are at. Stop ruining your life over something that isn't there.

I would love to be able to do a BHT transplant to fix my mess, but 6500 grafts at $8 per graft is $52000. I doubt I'll be doing it any time soon, unfortunately.

I keep saying the donor area is not permanent hair like the Drs want you to believe. This area does thin out in some people and it happens long before they reach "old" age. I posted some new pictures on my profile to show what I mean.

Mine is a very old case. I started in 1989. HT surgeries in those days consisted of only a few grafts. Most of mine were in the 50 to maybe 75 range, mostly in size from 2.5mm to 3.75mm. I think the most I ever had in one session was 122 grafts. One thing I now find really disgusting is that they did scalp reductions during the same session that they were doing a strip of 50 or 60 grafts. They had to know the strip scar would be competing for tension along with the scalp reduction. I went through the whole lawsuit thing years ago, but you can't get anywhere with a malpractice suit for elective surgery.... even if they tell you it's necessary! On top of that, in NJ it's not malpractice for someone to perform surgery without a license because malpractice can only be used against an actual Dr., so I'm not sure why anyone would ever bother to go to medical school if they want to practice in NJ. The whole thing makes no sense. I finally posted a couple of pictures on my profile. I may post more in the future. Bill, sorry for taking over your thread.