baldinasecond

Hello all, I just came back from my consultation with Dr. Rahal. He believes 2400 grafts would restore my hairline, but this does not include filling in the frontal 1/3rd. This is interesting because he and I was confident that there will be further hair loss in the future, and that his philosophy is to not touch the areas where there is native hair. However, some surgeons would fill in the frontal 1/3 to anticipate future hair loss and I appreciate the long-term benefits and reduction in future surgeries with this strategy. I wonder if shock loss becomes an issue with this. He also answered an important question of mine and thinks that I may have roughly 7000-8000 grafts available, which I think it's average. However, is that going to be enough to cover a NW6 in the worst-case scenario if I get there someday? Dr. Rahal may even think worst-case may be somewhere in the NW5 area given my family history that I explained to him, but no one can guarantee how MPB would progress. He did say I was a candidate, and that really comes down to a personal choice for me to go with it or not, which I completely agree. I think I just need some time now to re-evaluate periodically whether I should go with it or not because this is an important decision to make. I want to be sure I am comfortable with it before I do it but I am glad I got some important questions answered.

mattj: i got about 4K estimate from Dr. Rahal. I got about 3.5K estimate from H&W. They haven't seen me in person but I plan to see Dr. Rahal some this month. Perhaps I wouldn't fret too much about my candidacy if I weren't such a diffuse thinner. ..: im looking towards the future 5, 10, 15 years down the road if meds don't work anymore, and my hair continues to fall out, or whatever reasons maybe, I don't want to jeopardize the investment and maintenance to my head by not having enough graphs. It's such a delicate balance in that I would like that assurance for potential crown filling (with sufficient graph count) and also not expose a huge scar. jmg544: i saw your pre-op pictures and it seems like you were in a lot better shape than me currently. Perhaps our texture are similar but it doesn't look like you are a diffuse thinner all over. Nice looking results by the way!

thanks for your responses. i'm on the meds for a month now, but realistically I'm thinking it would just slow or halt further progression. Yes, in a few cases it does allow for some regrowth but I'm not counting on that. HT is a big investment but I want it to work out. I really do. The last thing I want is to go through with the procedure and leave a big scar behind my head and still go thin and bald. I'm thinking this might be a likely scenario. What if meds stop working one day, and I realized that I don't have enough graphs remaining to fill in the crown. All these questions, little answers. It's a difficult time to see these visual changes so rapidly and adjusting my perception. I realize I have to make a decision soon because it's consuming a huge part of my thinking. I'm going to see Dr Rahal later this month. I've see other physicians but feel that they aren't being honest in their assessment about my expectations and just think more along the lines as to how to improve their business. Hence that's why I like to get some feedback from the community. Will see what happens.

Hi everyone, I'm a 28 year old asian male who appears to be heading to NW6. This past year I have been dealing with rapid hair loss and to which I am having hard time coping and coming to acceptance. I can't believe in as little as one year, I could lose so much hair. I just started propecia and rogaine for 1 month but I'm afraid that too much damage has been done. I have done a lot of research on this forum and reading and educating myself about hair transplant but I am convinced I am a bad HT candidate which means I am faced with the decision to possibly quit the meds and accept going bald completely which is a choice I am uncomfortable at this moment (I'm very self-concious). I have diffuse thinning all over. My sides and back are thinning as well, which is really bad because that's where my donor hair will be harvested. I'm going to see a well known doctor this month to have his assessment. But before I do that, I just want to get opinions from the helpful community here about whether I could really achieve a cosmetic improvement given my current situation, which I doubt. I tried finding people with my hair characteristics to no avail. I am not sure whether HT will be worth it, and here are my expectations (1) restore hairline and some 1/3 on top (1st operation), was told I needed about 3500-4000 graphs (2) leave ample graphs to fill in crown if need be (2nd operation in the future), probably another 3500 graphs. I just don't think I have enough graphs to do all this due to my diffuse thinning plus the near certain progression of additional hair loss given my age. I also read asian hair characteristics are not very good at producing adequate graph count as well. Here are pictures: http://img693.imageshack.us/i/topwet2.jpg/ http://img14.imageshack.us/i/topwet.jpg/ http://img695.imageshack.us/i/top3h.jpg/ http://img268.imageshack.us/i/righta.jpg/ http://img6.imageshack.us/i/leftwet.jpg/ http://img697.imageshack.us/i/leftj.jpg/ http://img697.imageshack.us/i/front2s.jpg/ http://img6.imageshack.us/i/back2gw.jpg/ http://img694.imageshack.us/i/back1j.jpg/ What do you think?