aw33

Feel like themselves again? That is what I would expect after having a well-performed HT. How can you feel like yourself if you know that the "feeling" is caused by something temporary, something that can be gone in a moment? I think a hair system is more of an attempt at getting acceptance from society than it is of improving your self-esteem and what not. Sure you may look in the mirror and think you look great but inside, you know the reality. It is with the outside that people are more concerned about - once you have a hair system on you will always be wondering about what others may think of you. Confidence is one of the most important things that women look for in a relationship with a man. I have never heard of a woman staying with a guy after he told her his hair isn't really his hair. I don't think you can compare cosmetic solutions for hair with that of your teeth, eye color, shape of your nose or even breast enlargement. I mean, I have a broken nose and the usual black eyes but I have never felt the urge to "improve" them. A man's hair is much different because of the fact that it is always there, the amount of value our society puts on it and the fact that a lack of it can take you from looking like a stud to looking like your 10 years older. My opinions.

You wear a hair system so you can appear more attractive and younger. You now appear attractive and younger and you manage to get some dates going with someone you are interested in and a while later, a relationship is formed. But what happens if your partner discovers you hair isn't there? Are you really going to spend major amounts of your daily life making sure your "hair" is there and not detectable? Just doesn't make sense to me. Your better off using a different hairstyle, using meds and researching the possibility of an HT. Of course, not everyone can do this, so you gotta do whatever you can.

IMO topical regiments don't really work. I just finished month 2 of my Rogaine treatment and while I know that I should wait 6 months before making a statement on whether it is worth using or not, I don't feel like it is contributing much. It probably will grow some thin hairs and maintain a bit but I strongly believe that nothing can give you the benefits that Propecia does (if it works for you).

I have never used a hair system in the past and never will use one in the future but I do use hats. With a hair system you are always going to be tormented by what others can think about your hair, whether it shows and about natural occurrences, such as sunlight, wind and etc. If you have been losing your hair at the hair line region for a few years and if your not using a dht-inhibitor like Propecia, then you might be headed for future hair loss. Or you may just have developed a mature hair line. Try different hairstyles until your hair loss is stabilized.

You can wait for your hair loss to stabilize without Propecia and then do an HT.

Do you really think an athlete that wears a hat for a long period of time and plays gold in hot weather would put a concealer on his head and then not expect it to be evident when he removes his hat? Sweating, a hat and a concealer just don't match but then again, you never know...

Tattooing your head seems risky to me. Correct me if I am wrong but from what I gather, all that ink gets into your pores and stays there right? Is there any kind of research that shows tattooing like this is safe?

Thanks for your opinion Labrat69. My MPB was really aggressive up until the point I started taking Propecia. I STRONGLY believe that I would be an NW5/6 if I wasn't using the pill. Nobody In my family lost their hair in their teens. My father and most of my uncles started losing their hair during their mid 20s and early 30s. There are no cases of MPB from my mother's side. I STRONGLY believe that if an individual has had MPB for 6-10 years and if that individual has been using a DHT-inhibitor such as Finasteride for 4-5 years, an HT can be possible. As you say, there is a major risk for future hair loss, more times than not, up until you reach a mature age (40-50). Going through high-school and university with MPB hasn't been easy, I cannot picture myself waiting for 20-30 years for an HT. When I do plan for my HT 2-3 years down the road, it is just a risk I will have to take. I am okay with less than-normal coverage with my crown/vertex. My main goal is my hairline, temporal regions and my frontal hair.

Sorry, I meant Dr. Wong not Dr. Hasson. What I meant to ask was that, if you were 23 and looking into an HT at that age and came across H/W and if you knew all that you know now, would you have gone through it? Although my crown is important to me, it is not my priority. and I wouldn't want to do an HT for that particular region at a young age. My priority is my hairline and my frontal hair.

Thanks for your reply Matt. I keep it buzzed because most of the time, I try to do a "high & tight" cut by myself, and I just cannot get the back of my head to match with the rest of my hair, so I just buzz it all off. I will grow my hair out over the summer and go to a barber for a change and see what I can get, but the buzz cut sure does a decent job of lowering the effects of my thinning at the top.

Getting a reply from somebody who has thorough knowledge about this topic is certainly much appreciated - thank you for your response My hair is thinner at the top than at the sides and back - The extent of my crown's baldness is not fully shown in those 2 other pictures. I have uploaded a picture that shows the back of my head. http://i42.tinypic.com/91maer.jpg I do have a good head shape but I would rather not get all of my head shaven bald. What I can do is shave the sides and back of my head bald and buzz my hair at the top, so that the my thinner hair at the top can match closely the rest of my hair. I wanted to ask you, most people say that an HT at a young age isn't right. But can this be because of the fact that most people are under the assumption that at a younger age, the majority of people don't have much hair loss? I think 2 years from now, when I will have used Propecia for 4 years and when I will have dealt with MPB for 7 years, an HT should hopefully be suitable for me, what do you think? (considering of course that Propecia keeps my hair relatively stable, I am sure H/W can perform something that can be safe for the future and give me good coverage). And lastly, you had your HT at age 23 with a horrible Doc, but if you had the chance to re-do your first-ever surgery with Dr. Hasson at age 23, would you?

Any other opinions guys?

Seeing H/W's clinic produce results like these eases us all, seeing how much one can improve their image after an HT or 2, using the best surgeons out there. Just out of curiosity, do you use anything special on your scalp, such as a thickening agent like toppik? Forgive me if you have already stated, but do you still use minox/finas? I for one believe that not enough can be said about how good your hair looks.

Yeah I have been using Rogaine for 2 months but I am having 2nd thoughts about it because I am a sweaty guy, wear hats sometimes and wouldn't want to apply foam onto my head for the rest of my life. H/W are the best in the business and if they tell me to wait for 2 more years, then that is fine with me as I have already gone through almost 5 years of this nightmare-of-an ordeal. My hair loss started at age 16 so it wasn't pleasant. I am in excellent shape, tall and good looking but hair loss in most men just pulls down your self-perceived image to the ground. I am however confident because of Propecia. In the 5 year studies most people benefited positively from it and kept large amounts of their hair, and I am okay with taking this pill daily indefinitely. Here is what my hair looks like right now: http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/3940/1004023.jpg http://img687.imageshack.us/i/1004025.jpg/ You can see that my temples are receding and that my crown is slowly balding. Here is what I am hoping for 2 years from now. This guy is pretty young, my pattern resembles his and I have pretty dense hair and good elasticity (when I try to stretch and play with my scalp) http://www.hassonandwong.com/p...type=normal&nwScale=

I am currently 20 and I am a NW3 with vertex balding. This summer, I will mark my 5th anniversary of the start of my MPB. I will also have used Propecia for 2 years. Propecia has kept most of my hair at the top of my head relatively stable. No one can tell a change, but I myself can see my temples receding a bit more and my crown getting a bit balder. I cannot have an HT but I am thinking about an HT in 2 years when I am 22. At age 22, I will have used Propecia for 4 years and I will mark my 7th year of MPB. Judging from the 5 year Propecia studies, I believe my hair loss will have progressed a tidy bit then but I will still have a decent head of hair. Would an HT then be suitable? I do have family history of strong balding on the top of the head. I have spoken with Bill and I have consulted with Hasson and Wong. I was told to wait at least 2 years before considering an HT and I was told to stay on Propecia and Rogaine. Thanks

The earlier you use propecia, the more hair you will have in the long-term. If you keep debating this and keep wondering about the side effects, your hair will be gone and you will have nothing but all the time in the world to think about what would have happened if you had used propecia.

I put on the foam as I am supposed to but even after several hours, when I wash my hair I end up washing the actual foam (residue) away. Shouldn't it all be absorbed by that much passage of time? Or maybe I am applying too much as I apply directly to my hair and sometimes it is hard to squeeze in the 1/2 capful. Thanks for the response.

When I put on the foam at night and wake up in the morning to wash my hair, the area in which I applied the lotion gets white and I end up having to clean out the lotion from my head. Is this normal?

Hey spence - I noticed my hair shredding more and more around age 15 and when I turned 17 my hairloss was evident but thanks to Propecia I have kept a substantial amount of my hair - Meaning that the hairloss is evident and I can't cover it up but at this stage, 1 transplant would suffice (if Propecia can help it stay this way). Get on Propecia. I just began Rogaine so I can't tell you about that drug from personal experience. You won't grow back most of the hair you lost - it is really rare and even if you do, the benefits don't last forever. There is one benefit to hairloss that I think we can all agree on - it helps you think about improving other aspects of your body/mind - getting fit, a better personality, experimenting with different styles of facial hair and etc. I personally get a high and tight hair cut and that works decently for me. Try different hairstyles - since you have hair at the front and none at the back, why don't you let the front hair grow a bit more than the hair at the top of your head and shave everywhere else? PC

No shed for me on Propecia when I started it a year and a half ago and no shed from Rogaine which I started weeks ago.

Wow, this is so strange but my hair right now looks 100% the same as your pre-op hair. And seeing how you did your transplant gives me great ideas for the future as I am only 20 now. How old were you when you noticed hair loss and at what age did you do your transplant? It took my hair 3 years to get to the stage that you were in before your operation. I will have used Propecia for 2 years this summer and it has given me some good results. Recently I have noticed my crown getting somewhat balder but my mid and front is exactly as it was before i began Propecia, if not improved (hard to tell as I didn't take photos) I just began Rogaine 5% foam so hopefully that should help me with my crown. As for your question, since both drugs have nothing in common, they wouldn't really give you any good indication but if your relatively young and if you have mild-moderate hair loss then both Rogaine and Propecia would be perfect. That is what a good transplant surgeon told me when I met him - he told me I was too young for a HT and I gotta let my hair loss pattern unfold as I continuously use the 2 drugs. GL :-D

Been using Propecia (2 year mark this summer) - I have the same amount of hair as I did when I started it, my individual hair strands are thicker but recently I have noticed my bald spot on my crown expand - other than that its perfect for my mid and front. No side effects whatsoever. Started Rogaine a week ago to combat the expanding bald spot, no side effects yet and I am very optimistic, I am 20 (nice age to have a bald spot ain't it)

I have posted before about my situation but since it got no replies, I will be posting about something relevant. Just a quick sum, been on propecia since July/August of 2008. Best results were a few months ago, around the 12 month mark. Past August I stopped taking the pill for 2 weeks and soon later realized that I had lost a small amount of ground around the top of my hair, connecting to the mid-scalp. My question is, what is the difference and how can we tell normal loss of 100 hairs, shedding and permanent hair loss? I have recently over the past few months seen the bald area on my crown get somewhat larger. I have been using rogaine for a week now (5%,foam) and the hair is still "shedding". How can I tell if this is a shed or permanent hair loss? Is a shed suppose to mean just loosing actual stands of hair or can a shed also mean getting areas of your scalp a bit balder? Thanks

Hey Guys, Where in Ontario, Canada can I get 5% Rogaine Foam? I heard that Canadian customs might not allow the shipment of this product, is that true? Thanks

Hey guys, I am new here and would greatly appreciate some info. Started losing my hair at around age 17 and now I am 20. This July/Aug will mark my 2nd anniversary of starting Propecia. All was as expected earlier on and I maintained almost all of my hair. Currently, I still am maintaining a good portion of my mid and front hair but my crown is getting emptier and the bald spot is getting bigger. My question is, what are the implications of steadily losing your hair in a certain region after taking Propecia for quite some time? I mean, I have been using it for 1.5 years, so why is my crown slowly getting emptier when it was not earlier on? I should add, my individual hair strands are quite thick (the ones that land on my hand when I wet my hair or fiddle with my hair) Should I take Rogaine? I am too young for a transplant (imo anyways) but that can be a future option if I maintain a respectable amount of my hair. Other than my hair everything else is perfect I have a good body, tall (6'3) and good looking (according to women anyways) - What a pain in the back. Thanks