arfy

Hi Robert I use Internet Explorer 5. I'm copying my posts before I hit "Post Now" just in case there's an error. Thanks for your help.

500 grafts is not going to give you a major WOW impact. As Gillenator suggests, you may want to use more grafts, or wait until later for an additional surgery. If you are getting a strip excision (how most HT are done) then it is not efficient to do lots of small sessions. Lets pretend you need 5000 grafts to accomplish your goals... it's better to do two sessions of 2500, then to do ten sessions of 500. Every time you take a strip out you are creating some collateral damage, and it is an inefficient way to use your donor area. You will have better conservation in your donor area (crucial for long-term happiness) if you avoid piddly little sessions. For most guys, I don't see any point in opening up your donor area with a strip for less than 1000 grafts (unless you are a veteran patient just trying to "finish"). The yield from just a few hundred grafts does not warrant the surgical down time and scarring that is created, in my opinion. Your posts really concern me, because you don't sound satisfied, and more importantly I really doubt if adding another 500 grafts is going to change your mind in a major way (who knows though). You need to think things over, discuss your concerns with your doctor, and do some research on strategies and techniques. Hope that helped...

Otto If you're thinking about shaving your head and undoing your HT already, and you also have a surgery scheduled in the upcoming weeks, you should postpone your surgery. YES it is possible to undo a transplant to a small extent, and a lot of your satisfaction will depend on how much damage was done, and what your definition of success is. If you want to undo things, better to realize that now, than later!!!! Take some time off, and think about what you want to do. Some guys can go through a post-op depression, which doesn't get discussed much. Make sure you have your head on straight before getting additional surgery, and that you are making a good decision that you can live with. Hair transplants are not the right solution for every guy with hair loss... make sure you are making sound decisions.

I just wrote about 6 paragraphs in response to someone's question, and when I hit Post Now I got a message that "the database was not available". My message was lost. ACKKK!!!!!!

Hmm, it's much faster now (but it's also after midnight, if that means anything traffic-wise). It was much slower when I logged in earlier. Fast is good!

Shampoo is only on your head for a couple of minutes, tops. I'd be shocked to learn that a shampoo did anything for hair loss. People sometimes recommend Nizoral, but a lot of that is due to Nizoral's supposed usefulness in combatting scalp irritation from Minoxidil. On it's own, I doubt Nizoral does much in battling hair loss. The main reason to use a shampoo is because you like the way it makes your hair feel. If that is worth the money to you to pay for a boutique shampoo to you, that is valid. I suppose it's possible that some shampoos can temporarily make your hair shaft diameter to appear to be coarser, and as a temporary fix that may be worth paying for. But a shampoo is not going to affect the root of the problem, the root of the hair follicle. My hair is extremely fine, so if there was a way to make hair shaft diameter thicker, I'd love to know. Hmm, maybe I should try Nioxin myself. The VIVE conditioner I tried seemed very good, and it was just a couple or 3 bucks, if I remember correctly. I also like Thicker Fuller Hair, which was about 6 bucks a bottle.

I hope you guys can figure out a way to optimize the speed... Nobody wants to wait for a page of text to load. Also, I can't use the New Topic or Search function. If I can't use it, then I'd bet other people can't use it either (Mac OS9, IE 5). Other functions like adding a link, bolding, etc work fine. Thanks Robert.

Last year Pat didn't report on the meeting, so I'm glad he wrote something about it this year.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Upon accepting his award Dr. Rassman commented on how pleased he was that the hair restoration profession had evolved so much that he had little left to criticize. As one of his profession's toughest critics, this was a high compliment. If Dr. Rassman now feels complacent about the state of the industry, which is still loaded with serious problems, then that is a big disappointment. Also, WHY OH WHY is there still talk of grafting artificial fibers, at a hair transplant meeting? This is a meeting about HAIR grafting, no? There is no hair grafting involved, when artificial fibers are used. Why not spend time talking about hair pieces? Hair pieces are closer to artificial fibers than hair transplantation is. I also noticed that Dr. Carlos Puig was on a panel discussion on "Managing the Unhappy Patient". Since Dr. Puig probably has several decades of experience in "managing" unhappy patients, he'd be able to contribute a vast personal insight to the subject.

There is a lot about shock loss we don't know. A lot of the answers to shock loss questions are "it depends..." or "Maybe". Do a search on this website Shock Loss or Shock Fallout, and when you get the your search results, look for the replys that were made in the "Ask A Doctor" section, for a medical perspective. A quick search got me this thread, there are many others: http://hair-restoration-info.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=5696015661&f=3466060861&m=9356002861&r=9356002861#9356002861 Since there is hardly ever anything new under the sun, it helps to rely on he Search tools heavily. Log in first, in my past experience that affected my results (not sure if that is true with the new software here). The Search button here is near the top of the screen.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Those who want to excerpt outside non commercial articles in their posts are free to do so if the information is non promotional in nature. Hooray! Good move.

Wow, this old thread came back up. Since this thread was started, I've met three different patients who had scalp lifts from Dr. Brandy, with devastating life-wrecking results.

I think the transplanted hairs in a specific area will all emerge around the same general time, more or less. What happens is that these hairs mature and get thicker, which means more coverage... the hairs cover up more bald area. Hair shaft diameter is a huge factor in coverage... Wispy hair does not cover as well as coarse hair does. That's what people refer to, when they talk about 50%, 60%, 70% etc... how mature the hairs are. Immature hairs don't cover very well. If you are already many months out of surgery, and you already have some growth, but there are gaps in between hairs, it's unlikely that new hairs are going to show up to fill that area in. But hopefully, whatever hairs you do have, will cover better with time. The crown may sometimes grow in slower than the frontal hairline, and scarred recipient areas will grow in slower than virgin recipient areas. But I doubt that the hairs in any one area will grow in at different times. It will probably all show up around the same general time, more or less.

Dr. Feller asked<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>How is your healing and growth since you trip downunder? I'm doing fine, I see the beginnings of growth and that is positive. half of my grafts are body hair, and they were placed in a scarred recipient area, so I expect a slower response than a virgin patient. I think your comments about a pregnant woman not even touching Propecia may be a little overblown. Handling tablets and ingesting tablets are 2 differnt things. Sure, why have a pregnant woman touch Propecia unnecessarily. But your comments might suggest that Propecia shouldn't even be in the same house where a pregnant woman lives.

Besides your crown, it's incredibly helpful to keep the hair on the sides too! The higher the sides are, the better! The more natural hair you can hang onto with medications, the better your overall appearance will be.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Is there a danger of using it for longer I wonder? I dont think so. It's just shampoo, I don't think there is any medication in there whatsoever. Graftcyte doesn't require a prescription. I've always used my Graftcyte shampoo til it's gone, the couple of times I've gotten it as a freebie, and I can't imagine why there's anything wrong with that.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Is this the same Dr. that butchered Arfy ? My original doctor was Carlos Puig.

Guys who shave their head can still use Propecia (and even Minoxidil) to try to maintain or regrow hair, while they do the shaved-head thing. I think shaving is a great option that guys should try. I think it's a myth that you have to be "built" or a tough guy to shave your head (look at Moby). I live in a big city, so maybe it is different here, but I constantly see good-looking girls out on the town with guys who have shaved heads (and hair loss). These are not Vin Diesel types, they are ordinary looking guys with hair loss who said "f" it and shave or buzz their heads.

Ramfan I wonder if surgery is your best decision right now? 1000 to 1500 grafts is just a drop in the bucket for most guys, and not worth getting a strip scar for (in many cases) in my opinion. If you are just beginning to thin, you may be better off going on meds like Propecia, rather than committing yourself to multiple surgeries. Conventional wisdom is that guys should wait until they have progressed to Norwood 3 or higher, and that getting a transplant for a trivial amount of hair loss is a mistake. Is your hair loss still in the beginning stages? If so, I would not get any surgery at this point in time! Can you post some pics? During the surgery, the doc will inject numbing agents into your scalp, along with epinephrine (a stimulant) that keeps the area numb longer (by slowing blood flow). If you are prone to nervousness, this is something you should know ahead of time... it raises your heart rate slightly, and that type of thing. Everybody gets nervous before surgery. make sure you are making a good decision by getting a hair transplant! A hair transplant isn't always the right answer for every guy with a hair loss problem. It's usually best to start with non-surgical approaches first, whenever possible! I would encourage you to try Propecia for a year and see what kind of results you get. Post a pic if you can, and give some background info... how old are you, how long have you been losing hair, what else have you tried besides considering a hair transplant?

Congratulations Altair This is going to be a major improvement. I'm sure you anticipate needing another go, in a year or so, to add to (and refine) what you just had done. For one thing, to add grafts where the old plugs were removed from. I think removing the plugs made sense. Recycling grafts does not have a great survival rate (as mentioned) but we are talking about a small number of follicles... only a handful of plugs. If you would have left them in, you would have needed to drop the new hairline in even lower. That uses up a lot of grafts and it look s like it would have been too low. I'm sure Dr. Charles explained it better in person. You want to avoid having those old plugs dictate your current aesthetic choices, like the shape of your hairline, if you can. So I think you did well. Heal well and good luck to you. Bravo to Dr. Charles.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>There is just SO MUCH we don't know about the body, so I have a hard time messing with the works unless I absolutely have to. If it ain't broke, why fix it? Hair loss isn't a pathological (sick) state, after all. The obvious response would then be "Why the heck do you intervene with surgery, if you think "it aint broke"? Also, I have to say that I am surprised that several statements in your post are what I would call "less than scientific".

I didn't know a generic was even available. Since when?

Your pic doesn't really show much, but it looks like you still have a lot of hair. I think a hair transplant surgery is probably premature at this point. I agree with Bruin Hair that if you're remotely interested in shaving your head, then you should give it a try. Start with the simplest, cheapest, and most reversible options first. A hair transplant is not reversible, and it's a big commitment. If you keep losing hair you'll need to keep getting more surgeries. Having a realistic long term plan is important, if you decide to get a transplant. So one of the problems with getting a hair transplant when you are only in the beginning stages of hairloss, is that you start off with a hair transplant 'master plan' for a guy with minimal hair loss, but you can end up with extensive hair loss, and it turns out your initial master plan doesn't actually fit your characteristics. You've started out by going in the wrong direction. I usually tell guys not to get any surgery if you are only in the beginning stages. It's jumping the gun. Hopefully you will start responding to Propecia and you can stablize your hair loss. You mentioned that you are self conscious about your hair. Well there is no guarantee that you wouldn't also feel self-conscious about your hair transplant! Getting a hair transplant doesn't mean "no more hair worries". You may be trading one set of worries in for another. This doesn't mean you can never get a transplant, I just think at your age and level of hair loss, it seems premature at this point. I would read up on transplants in the meantime. Not that many doctors can do a good job, and a novice usually can't tell which doctors are good and which doctors aren't. There are plenty of doctors out there who just want to make a buck and will give a guy a hair transplant, even if it isn't in the patient's best interests. Be careful, there are a lot of sharks in the water.

The stem cells are not coming from aborted fetuses, as far as I know. They come from embryos from fertility clinics, that would have been destroyed anyway (as far as I know). Some people think that human life begins the moment the sperm penetrates the egg. Other people think that human life starts later, after the fetus has developed a little. In the middle ages, I believe they used to think that you didn't get a soul until age 6 (if I recall correctly). Since the mortality rate was so high for children then, this philosophy may have been a reaction to seeing so many children die before age 6. Everyone is entitrled to their beliefs and i wouldn't try to change anyone else's. But not everyone agrees with the President, that using embryos for stem cell research is destroying human life. Also, there may be a way to do stem cell research using adult cells now. We may not need to restrict ourselves to embryos. If so, that would take some of the controversey out of the equation.

See if you can post some copies of your pics (with your face blurred or blocked is fine). The clinic should be able to supply copies of your pics to you, and you are entitled to have copies of your own pics. I am especially curious to see the pics that you think may have been retouched, if that is possible. 950 grafts is not a lot of grafts, especially spread out over a large area. I wonder what the logic was, for doing a small number of grafts and distributing them over a large area.

Some people have complained that in some Hair Club clinics they'll deny it's a hairpiece, and only refer to it as a "system". Come on, just admit it's a hairpiece to the potential clients! Also, I've heard some stories about HCM not telling a guy they will need to shave the area before applying the hairpiece, until the last second. They try to make it sound like you can "integrate" your existing hair with the hairpiece... not really true. They also overcharge you for maintenance and tack on all kinds of extra costs. I would definitely NOT get a hair transplant at HCM! (I hear they may be doing hair transplants in some locations). They also sell overpriced propecia and Minoxidil along with some other stuff you don't need (herbs) as a hair loss treatment, that is wildly over-priced (as the previous poster wrote). I would avoid them in general.