drandres

Unless the person were your identical twin, or you chose to take very potent immune-suppressing drugs (hint: bad idea), your body would reject the living hair follicles in the graft and destroy them.

There is a HT doc named Robert Thomas (losingyourhair.com) in the Midwest...anyone know if he's the Dr. Thomas formerly of Elliot-Thomas Medical Group (which was reputedly disbanded because of incompetence and subsequently Elliot teamed up with Dr. True)???? Just want to know if the guy who butchered me in '91 and '92 is still out there mal-practicing his "art..."!!!

There is a HT doc named Robert Thomas (losingyourhair.com) in the Midwest...anyone know if he's the Dr. Thomas formerly of Elliot-Thomas Medical Group (which was reputedly disbanded because of incompetence and subsequently Elliot teamed up with Dr. True)???? Just want to know if the guy who butchered me in '91 and '92 is still out there mal-practicing his "art..."!!!

finasteride is the generic name for Proscar and Propecia...it is a drug that blocks the conversion of testosterone to the form of the hormone that causes, among other things, hair loss. Some men have found it to work great (like me), others not. But dude, if you haven't heard of the drug, there's probably a lot else you still need to learn. I repeat for the sake of emphasis -- do your homework!

Amadio: you need to really be careful here. I think you are setting yourself up for unfulfilled expectations. Dude, you're not alone -- EVERY 25 year old who is losing his hair is upset about it, and looks with envy at the luckier others around him who don't have the receding hairline. Most of the happiest HT patients are those who either got repaired, or are older and who have more-matured balding patterns. Trust me, in all likelihood you will have a much different take on your hair loss in 5 or 10 years; you just won't care that much. If finasteride works for you, you may even dramatically slow down (or partially reverse) your hairloss (and NO, I am NOT paid by Merck to say that, it's just that it has worked great on me, and YES, I did get HT and your age and YES, I do regret it). And of course, if you are still unhappy in a few years, you can still get that HT. But the odds are overwhelming that you will not look like this guy in the photo. Think about it, and then think some more! Best of luck.

Yes, I had 4 bouts of crappy mini/micro's in the 90's. I'm not suggesting that Mr. Mahair didn't have shitty work, or that he isn't upset, or doesn't have a right to be. What I AM saying is that he has been leaving his crazed rants on this and other websites for MONTHS, and I think we would all be better off, most of all HIM, if he would either send in some photos or at least give specific details of what happened so that we could pitch in and brainstorm ideas of how to help him out of his mess, or just cease and desist with his freaked-out diatribes because they are most tiresome.

Ditto. Mahair, you've been posting these rants of despair for months now. While they are probably effective at keeping people away from HT, hopefully and especially from MHR (!!!), they are not solving your problem, while becoming increasing annoying. Perhaps some of us could offer helpful suggestions to you, if you could please post some photographs. Thanks, and good luck.

Just an aside -- I am a doctor (NOT in the HT business!) and what Arfy says about State Medical Boards is totally true. While a doctor who WASN'T certified would be worth looking into, having a state license basically just means they were willing to pony up the dough.

1) Will donor scar bump go down further. 2) Will reddish color of scar fade. 4) Will donor area feel natural when i run a comb through it. From my recollection on another post, your surgery was only a few weeks ago. A lot of scar healing issues have to do with how wide the scar is, how well the edges were opposed, the tension the scar is under, as well as characteristics unique to you -- do you form keloids, etc. Infection and trauma can also make for poor healing or wide scars. However, there is also a considerable component of time involved as well. Scars take months to mature; for weeks and weeks after the initial injury, there is swelling and redness from increased blood flow/vessels. Especially for the first few months, while the underlying tissues are healing and generating tensile strength, this is a very dynamic process. If you didn't have a problem with infection, etc., and you are not prone to poor healing or keloids, etc., then "redness" and "bumps" per se hopefully won't be a problem (although poor surgeon technique can influence the end texture). Over time, the redness will fade -- in fact in the end the scar will be less pigmented than the surrounding skin. The edema (swelling) should also subside -- again this takes weeks and months, not days, and you shouldn't freak out yet about its final appearance. On the other hand, scars can be wide, and stretch, and hair does not grow in them. This is probably going to be, long-term, the bigger issue in terms of visibilty. 3) Will all original hair that fell out from shock grow back. It depends. Check out NHI's website for an intro to shock loss: www.newhair.com/next/faq.asp

1. $3000 doesn't sound too out of line. Some of the most reputable surgeons post their prices on their websites, and $6 per graft is reasonable, especially for a small procedure (many docs give discounts for more grafts, so while 400 or 500 might cost $7 per, once you get to 1500-2000 this can get to $4 or $5 per). The cost varies from surgeon to surgeon, of course, and by itself really is no measure of the quality of the doc. Are these FU grafts, or mini/micro? 2. I never heard of him but that doesn't mean anything. 3. "I may have a "dead spot" on my head that will not take to transplants." I'm no expert but this sounds like a load of B.S. The scalp is richly supplied with vasculature and FU grafts are so small that I would think that with appropriate technique (that is, mimimal transection of the grafts and minimal scarring of the recipient sites) that you should have good growth just about anywhere. I can't imagine what the physiological basis for a "dead spot" could be. Assuming you're not malnourished/diabetic/a smoker or have any other reason to heal poorly, I would worry that your doctor's donor technique is poor -- i.e. he damages the follicles/grafts during the extraction, perhaps transecting the follicles or mangling them during implantation. Ask: does he do FU's or mini/micro? Does he dissect with a microscope? There are also handling requirements that these delicate pieces of tissue need. I would recommend you seek another opinion -- there are good docs in NYC and of course elsewhere -- that do free consultations. You can ask these questions yourself and see what they say. Good luck!