Rugman

What is SMP? And I'm referring to shaving my head completely bald with no hair left

I had strip surgery about 10 years ago but have finally lost the battle of continued hair loss and plan on shaving my head. I wanted to see what can be done to minimize the scar if I shave my head completely bald. Has anyone used dermabrasion or other techniques to minimize the scar successfully?

I have not had the additional procedure--only just had my consultation. Shock loss for the frontal and mid scalp was mentioned by the doctor

1st procedure done over 10 years ago. Did not take Finasteride during or after as side effects were not good---as you can see hair loss has continued to progress behind the initial procedure which was ballpark the first 1" of my hairline, temple work and some filling in on the crown. Concerns I have and was also brought up with my initial consult with Eugenix is that frontal and mid scalp is a candidate for shock loss especially with clients that are not currently on Finasteride. I also had inquired about donor farming (process of filling in scar line from previous strip surgery) and beard (middle center chin) and mustache (around the corners of my mouth is sparse). Couple of questions for the group: 1) how much could shock loss potentially come into play as i try to add density to frontal and mid scalp areas? 2) would Finasteride if started now and procedure only a month or two from now help reduce this? 3) I am going to try Finasteride again--are there any solutions to the potential side affects? or other solutions to take other than Finasteride? 4) has anyone had a successful beard/mustache transplant? And please confirm if you had beard hairs transplanted in the beard region or if you had beard hairs transplanted in the scalp 5) has anyone had successful donor farming to minimize the bare scar left from the strip surgery donor area?

It's true H&W does have a powerful P/R machine and that allows them to pull clients from all over the world but I would gather all successful HR Docs would also like the same. My research was based on both the H&W website, conversations with Joe and the forum (mainly the forum as this is the unbiased/unfiltered info). As for unsuccessful procedures--I think that they would post on the forum as I've seen good and bad here. Really what it all boils down to for me is trust--I felt very comfortable with the entire process I went and am going through with H&W. When you asked if I talked with any unsuccessful clients from H&W the answer is no--I wouldn't know how to go about contacting them. My only hope is they would let this forum do it's job and post/present facts about their experience. Since I rarely see any negative feedback concerning H&W that is why I chose them. I hope this helps...

I am sorry to hear about your unfortunate exp with HT and it is nice to hear that Dr. Wong stands behind his words..however, i have a couple of questions for you. I can understand you going for a second procedure with Dr. Wong after your first did not turn out well!!! however, if your second does not turn out well, why would you want to risk a third one with the same doctor..personally, i would not let the doctor touch my head again after a failed transplant..you run the risk of loosing valuable donor...if the doctor messed up in the first place, what made ytou think that he would give you the desired result in repeat procedures!!!! My response to that is 2 reasons: 1st-I have complete trust in Dr Wong as he has an impeccable reputation. 2nd-the cost as he was doing the procedure for free. I don't feel he was directly responsible for my poor growth. I don't think anyone can pin point the specific physiological reasons why either I or someone else may not respond well in certain areas as far as transplanted growth goes but I do feel that he is doing everything in his power to make it right. Granted that the initial procedure was a substantial amount of money and for any future procedures I will still have to endure the travel/lodging expenses again along with the downtime for recovery but I truly believe that Hasson & Wong was/is the best possible choice I could have made for restoring my hair.

I apologize for the seemingly out of place post-I'm not familiar with the format and when I posted it was meant for the very beginning of this thread on the first page. I do however thank you for your suggestions and will try to complete. My purpose for the post was merely to express my opinion on my progression throughout this process and to give support to another who sounded like he was experiencing a similiar situation. And as directed I will be in contact w/Dr Wong. Thanks again for your help.

I too am unfortunately one of the unlucky ones. I had a mega-session April 2009 (4700) with good results in some areas but less in others. About 10 months after my procedure Dr Wong requested updated photos, when he received them I think he too could see that around my upper temples and frontal area of my hairline only about 40-50% of the implanted hairs grew and called me personally and offered another surgery free. The second session was only 2400 and concentrated mostly on the areas around my hairline that were extremely thin. I'm about only 4.5 months out and may seem early to some but have not seen the results I was looking for to thicken up this area. At the same point in the first surgery I could see noticeable small fine hairs and could even see good growth on the crown area (which I'm told takes longer to show). I would guesstimate that again I am only seeing roughly 40-50% of the hairs transplanted growing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that at this point hoping that it may be tougher to see the new growth because of the previous transplanted hairs around it. Dr Wong did say that for my second procedure he was going to go conservative considering the results we got from the mega-session and that the hairs being so close could cause the poor growth. In any case Dr Wong also said that if this second procedure didn't yield the results we wanted that he would also do another surgery. Dr Wong offering the surgery's for free definitely helped but unfortunately I live on the East Coast of the US and just the travel and lodging along with food cost me a little over $1000 dollars not to mention the recovery needed from the surgery--and if I have to have another surgery (which looks very possible) then I'm looking at another $1000 plus and more recovery time. I will admit this recovery was much less painful/time consuming than the first initial mega-session but all this still has to be factored in as they are all necessary due to the lack of results from the initial surgery. In any case I continue to think/look long term and hope you also do the same. Best of luck in getting the final results you are looking for

You should definitely fly home the day after. I was one of the unlucky guys that had major swelling and you will want to be locked up at home when it takes place. I also had/have a big nugget and even the XXL black baseball cap they gave me was a bit snug and worried me with temple recipient area so I got a bandana and tied it on as loose as I felt comfortable and actually covered quite well with none the wiser (the doo rag was too homeboyish for me). You made a very wise choice going with Dr. Wong and they will walk you through the entire process. And also as another post told--I too was careful the whole trip home and bumped my head getting into my car at airport parking so keep that in mind and carefully duck down into your car!

Thanks for the info to all. I have finally completed my blog and should be attached to my signature (should be on left by login for pics to review varying degrees of shockloss).

Dr. Wong was the doc and yes pics are coming. I just took my 4 week pics and I must retract my original posting of 90% remaining. It certainly felt like 90% (my wife didn't help telling me that she thought that none of the hairs had fallen out) but after review I would estimate 60-70% of the graphs still remain. I know that is a smaller percentage but in relation to the majority of the graphs in the front/temple regions in the same time frame there seems to be a big difference.

I'm 4 weeks post op and had grafts done in both front/temple and crown. I have lost 95% of implanted hairs in front, 80% in temple but only about 5-10% in crown. My question is can there be varying degrees of shock loss for different areas of the scalp or is it just a delayed reaction for the crown? I had my shock loss in front/temple area mostly at 2 weeks, since then only very few hairs daily.

I'm 4 weeks post op and had grafts done in both front/temple and crown. I have lost 95% of implanted hairs in front, 80% in temple but only about 5-10% in crown. My question is can there be varying degrees of shock loss for different areas of the scalp or is it just a delayed reaction for the crown? I had my shock loss in front/temple area mostly at 2 weeks, since then only very few hairs daily.

Thanks to all (especially Eman) as that was very specific and well thought out. I will purchase these products and begin at once...