biscuit

Just keep in mind that very few clinics or patients document the density. It's more of a ballpark figure that isn't super accurate because it's difficult to count. The exact same planting density on two different patients can produce wildly different results depending on the yield and hair charactertics. For me I look at the area that needs to be covered. In your case you have some hair remaining up front, but I would write that off to future recession and the very real possibility that it's already weakened and won't make it through the surgery/healing phase. The most accurate way to see what you really need is to shave your head or go with a really short cut. Doing that will avoid overestimating your current condition and being overly optimistic about your results. For those of us who've been on the forums for over 5 years, it's all too common to see high hopes dashed by a clinic that underestimates what you really need for a satisfactory result. IMO, if you get 2k grafts I guarantee you'll be back in the chair at least one more time, soon.

There are a few guys in Dr cooley's gallery section with similar hairloss. Jerry E. Cooley, MD Hair Transplant Surgeon in Charlotte, North Carolina FWIW, a lot of those results aren't documented very well and they will look thinner in real life. Since you're local, ask if you can contact & meet a few of the most similar patients. Big red flag if they won't do that. 2,000 grafts is on the low side. 3-4k is more realistic, with the assumption that your hairline will continue to receed and thin. example: Hair Restoration Site for 502hairplease I'd recommend a more rounded closure where the temples meet the hairline. G'luck with it.

No worries, always go with what you like. I'm just saying the pics you posted on pg3 show a nice noggin. Completely shaved, tanned, with a goatee etc and you'd look pretty good.

I think Dr Bernstein gave you good advice. There's just too much area to cover and not enough donor. A strip would be risky if your donor area thins out in the future. I personally think you should try the shaved/tanned look. You might be pleasantly surprised by the feedback.

If your goal is to shave to a 1 or 2 then strip is not a good choice. If you prefer to wear your hair that short I'd say don't get HT. A HT is going to be expensive, leave potential scarring, take 6 months to heal, and you will only end up with a little stubble where you didn't have it before. Just cut it short and be happy.

With that much hairloss at 28 I think you're not a good candidtate for a HT. You appear to be heading for a NW6, which means you will not have enough donor hair to achieve good coverage in the long term. Having a HT right now will deplete your donor area leaving you with few options if your hairline receeds in the future. FUE will leave your donor area thinned out with the possibility of buckshot scarring, strip will leave you with a scar. Neither are good if you continue to lose hair in the donor area. I'm not a fan of meds but they appear to be your best alternative right now. Try them for 5 years and see where you're at.

The bottom line is that 6 months is way too early to judge a final outcome. A lot of changes happen between 6 months and 12 months. I continued to see improvement all the way to month 24.

Check my blog for pics of mine. I also have dense donor but was completely bald up front. I'd say it will take at least 1/2" to hide the staples and redness. After several months the redness will fade and start blending in to the surrounding skin. During that time I could cut my hair very short. Then at about a year the scar tissue will have fully formed. In most cases the final scar won't match the surrounding skin color perfectly so you will need to wear your hair at 1/2" or longer. My scar is whiter now than it was at 6 months. Luckily I wear my hair at over 1" so the scar is always out of sight. It's still small. Just keep in mind that each clinic has different techniques so results will vary. And each person has their own healing/scarring characteristics. So choose your strategy and clinic wisely.

Here's a thread with more info on HT's with no meds: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/136170-hair-transplant-meds-necessary-well.html

My hair can look a little thin in windy/sunny conditions. So the honest answer for me would be no, I'm not super comfortable in bright sunlight. The density of any large transplant is around 50-70% of a thick head of hair so very few people will achieve enough density to hold up completely to bright sunlight. But for me a sligthly thin look is still a lot better than having a shiny bald head. And you can always wear a hat when you know conditions will be tough. Indoors I'm completely comfortable.

On this one I marked 20 groups of 10 grafts, then made a box the size of 200 grafts. So in this case there were at least 1500 grafts just in the frontal area. Example pic.

Take some clear photos of the recipient area after the scabs fall off. You can manually count half the area, then double it for an approximate total. I counted mine that way, marking each graft in Photoshop. The count from H&W was right on. For FUE you can also count the extraction dots fairly easily. I counted them for a friend who had work done by Dr Umar, the numbers were correct.

I don't really see the need to bash nemo and tell him to leave. He brought up a very valid point about the HT industry. Most HT clinics have really dropped the ball with their web sites. To make the excuse they can't afford a good web site is ridiculous given the cost of a typical HT. It costs almost nothing to post a gallery of photos and update them frequently. If I want to buy a Porsche I go to Porsche's web site first. I expect to find great photos, detailed technical information, a history of the company etc. If I don't find good information I might try to track it down on a forum. But I know that forums introduce a huge potential for incorrect information because the contributors have widely varying levels of knowledge and experience. Forums like this are great, but they really shouldn't be the first line of promotion/documentation for a clinic. Nemo, if you're looking for FUE you should check into Dr Alexander in Arizona. His web site looks like it was designed in 1980, but you will find patient photos and from what I've seen he does nice work. Just be aware that he also does strip HT's so it might be difficult to determine what kind of surgery produced the results you see, especially if the patient had more than one transplant. Biltmore Surgical Medical Hair Replacement - Arizona Hair Loss and Tansplant

Mine feels completely normal. You wouldn't be able to find it by feel. From everything I've seen over the past 5 or 6 years, staples give a flatter scar. Sutures tend to bunch up the skin causing a ridge like you find on a baseball. But the most important thing with either technique is to choose a great clinic with a lot of experience and lots of proven results.

That would be like saying you should watch a root canal or heart bypass before having one. IMO it's more important to understand the technque than it is to see the details. In the end you have to select a good clinic and trust them to do their job. The good ones do it every day and it's just a routine slice and sew procedure. BTW, FUE looks pretty scary if you see post-op photos as well.

I'm at 5 years post-op right now. I haven't noticed any changes or hairloss. But my hairloss was fairly established as I was 45+ when I had my HT. Pics in my blog link. Young guys with aggressive early hairloss should consider where they may end up... NW6 or NW7 is a possibility. That's the risk of getting a HT too early. You may end up with a very small safe zone which would mean a lot of the transplanted hairs might not be there forever. Example: What we he look like now if he had a HT at 23 years old?

My first choice would be to do nothing until you're 30. If you're heading for a diffuse NW6 or 7 then a strip will be a disaster later in life. Go to a senior center and observe. What would you tell the NW6 horseshoe guys if they asked you if they should get a HT? Choice 2 would be a few thousand FUE. It might give you what you want, or it might convince you not to do any more. A HT never restores natural youthful density. It's a compromise. I'm not sure if you understand that. But, really, at 23 you are too young to have a HT. It's kind of like doing a double-D boob job on a 14 year old girl. There's just so many things that could go wrong, so many potential future regrets. Since you live so close to H&W you should try to meet several patients.

Congratulations, I wish you the best of luck with your HT results. My experience is that 3700 grafts on a NW6 is not going to provide what most people consider to be satisfying results. My general rule is that you need 1000 grafts for every Norwood number, and that's just to achieve what I consider Moderate coverage. Forum members in their 20's will most likely not be satisfied with your results if you show them photos. That's part of the problem too, expectations are very different when you're 20 years old. Rod, I encourage you to start a blog and document your progress before/during/after photos so others can benefit from your experience.

It's mostly because at a young age you don't really know where your hairloss is heading. Basically, if you are going to end up being a NW6 or NW7 it's almost impossible to transplant enough hair to create a good look. And if you lose that much hair it's likely that you'll have visible scarring from the transplant. Another factor is emotions. Young patients typically think they're invincible, so they don't take into considerations a lot of important factors. They make decisions based on short term goals, like finding a girlfriend. Look around at guys who are 50/60/70 years old and ask your self if those guys should have a transplant. Diffuse thinning, aggressive hairloss, grey hair. I sat behind an older guy yesterday and he had a very small horseshoe of grey hair and a huge area of baldness. If he had a transplant when he was young it would have been a disaster.

If you look around you'll find some that document the process over multiple years. I try to update mine every year. But you're right, it's dissappointing that more people don't follow through with their updates.

As a counterpoint, spend some time on: PROPECIAHELP: Unresolved Finasteride Propecia Proscar side effects info & forum Read some of the articles, visit the forum, learn about having your blood tested regularly if you end up taking the drug.

Welcome buckeyguy. HLH gave me an ultimatum, disclose my real name or be banned. I said adios to that craziness. There's more activity and sanity here, enjoy.

My suggestion for shaving your head was for 2 reasons. The most important of the two was for you to get a realistic view of your current hairloss. The side benefit could be a positive response from your group of friends. I reviewed several threads on Dr Keser. The post-op photos look great. I would be concerned about yield based on the high-density placement. Studies on yield v. density have been done and they indicate yield goes down when packed very closely. The key is to see what the growth was at 1 year. Of the few grown-out results I saw from Dr Keser, none of them achieved the density you appear to want. So be careful.

Update: Here's an example of a shaved head with a thin scar Hair Restoration Journal -post up photos

I agree with EpilepticSceptic. Your hairloss is worse than you think it is. I skimmed through some of the posts, did anyone mention your temple points? IMO, if you shoot for a young & dense hairline you will need some major reconstruction of your temple area. Another point, almost every Armani result that looks incredibly dense was done on NW2 patients with coarse/dark hair. Your hair is light and not coarse. You will never achieve the look of the Armani homerun examples. I would strongly encourage you to shave your head down to a #2 guard for a while. It will give you a better understanding of where you're at in terms of overall hairloss. And, you might actually like the short look, which could change your strategy. Check the "Pre-HT" photos in my blog. They show how easy it is to spot hairloss when you cut your hair short and take photos in the sunlight. You need to do that.