biscuit

Nice documentation. Looks like you will have good results.

Just checked your blog, thanks for the documentation. IMO, you just need more grafts. Your hairline probably needed 4k-5k. Unfortunately you had to use a good percentage of your 3000 grafts on your temples (which now look very natural). So you only got about 2000 up front... not enough for a great look. Do your scalp exercises and go back for another pass. Best of luck with it.

Just be aware that a scar @ 6 months is not the finished product. Scar tissue continues to form for at least the first 12 months. It will thicken and harden somewhat after the 6 month mark, maybe a little, maybe more depending on your healing characteristics. The color of the scar changes over time. It goes from pink->tan->white for most caucasian skin types. Optimum match time with surrounding skin is around 4-8 months. Give it 12 months.

The forum search section is kinda hard to find: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/search.php Try searching for "meds" or "propecia" in the Hair Restoration Questions & Answers section. Select "Search Titles Only" to narrow down the threads.

I'm 53 and 7 years post-op from H&W with no meds and my hair hasn't changed. Unfortunately its very difficult to predict what your hair will do in 10-15 years. Great donor hair and a family history of limited hairloss helps your odds of success. If you're destined for NW7 then not much is going to stop it.

Just be aware that a scar that is 7 months old is not the finished product. Scar tissue continues to form for at least the first 12 months. It will thicken and harden somewhat after the 7 month mark, maybe a little, maybe more depending on your healing characteristics. The color of the scar changes over time. It goes from pink->tan->white for most caucasian skin types. Optimum match time with surrounding skin is around 4-8 months. Not saying you can't get a small scar, just that the scar looks best from 4 months to 12 months. Same holds true for FUE scarring.

The forum search section is kinda hard to find: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/search.php Try searching for "meds" or "propecia" in the Hair Restoration Questions & Answers section. Select "Search Titles Only" to narrow down the threads.

To address your opening question, 2000 grafts on a NW5 is not going to give you satisfying results. It's just not enough grafts to achieve an illusion of coverage. If you pack a dense area in front and leave the top/back untouched it will look very unnatural and probably force you to wear a hairpiece. Your strategy/goal needs to be around 5000 grafts to have decent coverage. It's difficult to get that many grafts from FUE without severely thinning your donor area and/or harvesting from areas that aren't as safe. If you can pull off a good look with a shaved head then work with what you've got. In your profession it's common to use a hairpiece for roles that require more hair, which is a great option for short periods.

Stop. Spend about 6 months reading the questions/replies here on the forum. Learn about HTs. Learn so you don't make a mistake that you'll live with for the rest of your life. Your question is akin to someone asking if they can buy a car without seeing or driving it. Sure, you can, but why would you want to? At least with a car you can sell it. With a HT, once you've taken the plunge there's no way to reverse what you've done. And it's on your head for everyone to see.

:rolleyes:

5 year info is in my blog link. I try to post photos once a year.

After looking at the gallery on Dr DeVroye's web site I suggest you meet some of his patients in person. The photos show the pre-op and post-op conditions nicely, but I don't see many photos of the final result. And in the end, it's the final result that determines your happiness. I'd guess a lot of his gallery patients will have thin coverage in real-world conditions. Primarily due to the number of grafts. 3,500 grafts is not going to cover a NW5. 5,000 grafts is a good estimate, more is better. Does he have the staff/facility to do more than 3,500 grafts in one day? If not you will end up going back for more surgery. Can you post some photos so we can see your current condition?

Mederma info: Mederma® Scar Gel | Mederma.com Mederma is a gel, Neosporin Scar Solution is a silicone sheet. Sheets won't work on your scalp because the hair will prevent them from laying flat on the skin. Most clinics will give you an anti-bacteria gel for post-op to reduce the chances of infection. They're not really intended to reduce scarring. Scar gels shouldn't be used until the staples/sutures are removed and the scabs are gone. I haven't seen conclusive proof that they produce any benefit.

21 years old is very young to be considering HT surgery. If you're destined for NW6/7 then you will need to plan very carefully to create a look that you're happy with for the rest of your life. Keep on your med routine and see what happens over the next 5-10 years. Hopefully the meds will prevent more loss.

Try a simple test. Grab some hair/scalp in the donor zone and move it back and forth. Scalp laxity varies from person to person, but when I try it my face doesn't move at all.

The forum search section is kinda hard to find: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/search.php Try searching for "meds" or "propecia" in the Hair Restoration Questions & Answers section. Select "Search Titles Only" to narrow down the threads.

Another major consideration is your baldness pattern. It's not uncommon to see older guys with a strong horeshoe of donor hair but a bald forehead. Meds aren't going to help much in that scenario. In my case I lost the hair on the front half of my head by the time I turned 40, but my donor was(is) thick and strong. My family members have very little donor thinning. So for me I wasn't worried about diffuse thinning. All I needed to do was move some hair up front. My single-pass HT is holding strong at 6 years post-op and I've never taken any meds. So it's a case-by-case decision. But there is definitely a category of patients who have less need for meds.

It's only as permanent as your donor horseshoe. Study some men over 70 and you'll see a wide range of donor conditions. Almost all will have grey hair. Most will have diffuse thinning. Some will have a very narrow band of safe donor hair. There is zero chance of your transplanted hair being "permanent" if you are destined to have severe diffuse thinning in your horeshoe area. The good news is that you could have decades of nice hair before it starts thinning. And, grey hair tends to hide thinning better than dark hair. I would also add a 4th factor to Dr Beehner's excellent post. A lot of guys are opting for a HT strategy that relies on meds. For that strategy to work you have to take the meds for the rest of your life, otherwise you'll quickly lose all of the hair the meds saved. I personally knew that I wouldn't have the diligence to take meds for 20/30/40/50/60 years. So I opted for full coverage with slightly less density. If I had banked on meds the doctor would have placed more grafts in front and none in the crown.

The term "massage" is open to interpretation and I can envision a lot of people doing it wrong. About the most I would do to increase circulation would be to press/release on the area with my fingers.

Sounds risky to me. You want to avoid stretching the scar area.

I try to take mine outdoors in sunshine. No zoom, no flash. I hold my camera at arms length and shoot a bunch of photos so I can throw out the ones that aren't centered or aren't focused. Almost any modern point and shoot camera should do the trick, Canon's seem to be among the best quality and durability. Style your hair like you normally wear it. Examples are in my blog link in my signature. Jotronic also has a guide: “Unofficial” How To Take Photos Video | Hair Transplant Blog - HairTransplantMentor.com

The OP can do his own research. Ask some NW6/7 men when they lost their hair. Most guys with significant hairloss started losing it in their teens and early 20's. I'll stand by my statement, if you already have hairloss at 18 your chances of losing a lot of hair are significantly higher.

You think you have a similar pattern to your dad. Unfortunately hairloss isn't that consistent. If you're wrong, and heading for a NW6 or worse, the last thing you want is a strip of 1500 grafts on your forehead and visible scarring in the donor area. If you already have hairloss at 18 the chances are really high that you will lose a lot of hair.

It's not quite as cut and dry as rch91403 makes it sound. The manufacturer claims 1%, but that doesn't mean it's really that low. And the negative side effects aren't always as easy to get rid of as simply discontinuing usage. Take some time to read the Meds section of this forum. It might also be worthwhile to take a few minutes to read the forum at www.propeciahelp.com for a slightly different perspective than what you will hear from a clinic. Your hair loss looks similar to mine. Meds won't bring back your hairline. Check my blog for more info.

My wife took out my staples. It's not quite as simple as removing a staple from a piece of paper. There's usually hair tangled in and there's always the looming risk of damaging the closure. I did removal for a fellow HT patient after his wife had trouble with it. Turned out she was tightening them instead of loosening them. I had to resort to a wire cutter and needle-nose pliers on a couple of them.