JohnH

Dave and John D. (if you're still around), I'm willing to bet it's the propecia. I was on it for a while and got the classic symptoms - swelling lips, swelling in my feet, and very uncomfortable itching all over. What I find to be strange is how a lot of doctors don't recognize that people can be allergic to finasteride. They say that it is very rare that someone would be allergic. Yet here we have several people who state that they are indeed allergic. I'm trying to take it every 3 or 4 days now and I am no longer itching. However, I'm not sure if it is working very effectively at this frequency.

I think you should go to work naked. Then everyone will be laughing so hard at your other disease - smallcox. They won't even notice your debilitating hairloss!

PID, you should not have had a lot of pain. I've had several procedures and never had more than mild discomfort. I can understand your disappointment with getting fewer grafts than you requested. From what I've read, a lot of UK doctors charge by the procedure which means you may have paid a lot per graft. If you have another procedure, I would consider flying to the US or Canada. If you search around this forum you will find other posters who have flown across the pond to have work done. At 3 days you can now gently wash your head. You just need a plastic cup. Take a shower but don't let the water hit your head. Use the cup to gently pour water over your head. Very carefully, pat some shampoo into the recipient and donor areas. Then rinse by using the cup. When drying, again gently pat dry with the towel. Don't go near the grafts with a comb or brush as this can dislodge them.

This thread is crap. [This message was edited by JohnH on October 26, 2003 at 12:27 PM.]

Here we see a person who really didn't need a hair transplant. I think these procedures are the easiest to do as long as FUs are used. Non-state of the art grafts would have been a disaster. To TL, do us a favor and click on the dead topics you created and then click the little icon that allows you to delete your post.

I really enjoy seeing before and after pictures of HT procedures. You can really see the happiness on peoples's faces when their hairlines have been restored and they again have some stuff to comb. [This message was edited by JohnH on October 30, 2003 at 03:24 PM.]

My first HT was 20 years ago and I was given Prednisone. I took 6 pills that night, 5 the next, etc, etc. It's my opinion that any HT doctor who would do a procedure and not give the patient prednisone should be totally avoided. Those doctors are simply trying to make a little extra money, can you say GREED? I'd like to know if anyone has had a recent procedure and not been given or prescribed anti-swelling medicine/prednisone? And if so, who are these doctors? People need to know that they should avoid these doctors.

Anonymous, I felt just like you when my hair started falling out. I would see tons of it on my pillow each morning. Maybe the finasteride has accelerated your frontal hair loss a bit. I would stay on it no matter what. You were destined to lose that hair anyway. It should save the hair in your crown. Start saving your money for some FU work in the front. I just wish that the quality of work being done now was around when I started losing mine.

Tiki, do you have to go back to work this Thursday? If so, you're still gonna have scabs in front of your head. You might be able to comb/brush your hair in front to help conceal the scabs. If that doesn't work, can you wear a hat? You could say that you had a reaction to some medicine or something. Can anybody else think of a good excuse for Tiki to give to his coworkers? Of couse, there's always the truth but that's not much fun!

I think a lot of HT doctors stay in business because so many patients don't do enough research until after they have a procedure. I didn't find this forum until I got wimpy results from a session. Also, hair restoration is not so much of a referral business - more of constantly finding new patients. Most HT recipients don't go around telling everyone they know what a great doc their HT doctor is. And vice-versa, before these forums, nobody would say much about a bad procedure either.

I agree with the previous posts. Good advice. A couple of things to consider are this: As long as you are getting microscopically dissected follicular units, the work will look good even if your hair loss does continue. The people who regret their grafts are the people who paved the way back in the 1980's. I'm one of them. I had pluggy grafts in my crown - thank god they weren't in the hairline region. Later I had smaller grafts placed amongst them. Another thing to consider is family history. Some people only lose hair in the crown. But if you have anyone who is very bald in your family tree, then you might want to go conservative and save for the hairline.

Jacob, Have you had success in choosing a doctor or was your post just a litmus test for Dr. Brandy?

Tiki, are you using graftcyte to encourage healing? After my last procedure, I used graftcyte only on the donor scar area. I used a salt water spray on my grafts. I heard that vitamin E oil is also good. Good luck and remember - keep your fingers away from those scabs!

Tiki, use Paint, Composer, or PhotoShop to reduce the size of your jpg's before posting them.

AC, How many grafts did you get and were they on the crown or front? Are you using graftcyte or salt water? You'll get better advice if we can know more about your situation. Can you wear a hat at work? If not, you may want to fess up to your workmates that you had a HT. It sounds like swelling has not been a problem for you. I looked a little Klingon-ish after my last couple of sessions. That can bring a few stares. Fortunately only my wife got to witness it. I know this wasn't much help but if you post more info, you'll get better help. Also you can search on words like "postop" or "post-op" and find some good stuff.

Stephen, I believe that Tucson is about a 6 hour drive from San Diego but I would seriously consider Dr. Keene. She is highly recommended by some of the regulars here. I've visited her website and it is very informative. Her prices are very good - grafts start at $5 and then come down depending on the size of the session. Find a nice hotel to stay at for a night or two. Trust me, a good HT is worth traveling for. I personally have not been to Dr. Keene but I have driven about the same distance to go to a doctor that I trusted. Dr. Keene's website

Jacob, Check out Dr Koher and Dr Cooley. They are in North Carolina which is not too far of a drive for you. I recently drove from Atlanta to Highpoint NC to have a session with Koher. He does great work and is very generous - both sessions I have had with him I got several hundred extra grafts for free. I've also heard good things about Cooley in Charlotte.

Have you seen actual patients of Dr. Khan? If not, I would do more research here before committing to a session. One of the posters here (Bverotti) has had a laser HT. He didn't go back for his 2nd HT and actually flew a long way to go to another doctor. If you have chosen your doctor out of geographical convenience, I think most people here will tell you to rethink your game plan.

mmm, You are at the worst point in time after having had hair work. You will feel much better in about a month. Your scar will have healed better - eventually you won't feel it at all. Your shocked hair is gone but will soon start to grow back. The redness around your scar and recipient area will diminish. Soon you will start to notice that your hair looks better/thicker. Right now your hair looks probably the worst it is going to look. I am also at 5-6 weeks post-op. I had a decent amount of shock loss. The gown I wore during surgery had a lot of hairs on it when I removed it after the procedure. My hair is just now starting to look like it did 6 weeks ago. I am trying to be patient and wait for good things to happen. By Thanksgiving you should feel a lot better. Hang in there.

J, I don't know if you're going to get a good answer to this. No doctor is going to want to admit that some of their patients didn't get great results. It's probably the same for cosmetic surgeons. What doctor would say that some of their female patients' augmented breasts looked uneven and droopy (example: Morgan Fairchild). If everything is done correctly and the recipient doesn't scratch at the scabs, all of the grafts should survive. I'm answering your post because I too would like to know what can cause a "no results" session. I have all but given up hope that results from my 7th HT are going to come in. I didn't scratch, used graftcyte, did everything right. I think the blame lies on the technician who separated the strip.

The videos are actually pretty good at showing the process of HT without showing the blood and scabs. What they don't tell you is that your are going to pay twice as much as you should. $10 a graft was an ok deal a few years ago when mini grafts were the norm. Of course you weren't getting the best looking results. Now that even MHR and I suppose Bosley are doing smaller grafts (micros and singles) they haven't lowered their prices. I guess running infomercials on TV costs a lot of money. That's what you pay for when you pay that extra $5 per graft.

Didn't you say that you have just started using proscar? This is probably just a shedding phase as the finasteride starts to work. Are you taking 1/4 pill every day or every other day?

I almost got sucked in by the Bosley infomercial. I got the video tape in the mail. I went to their location which is in a very expensive suite near pricey Lenox Mall in Atlanta. The doctor told me it was going to cost me about $40,000 to get good results and wanted me to start with a reduction in the crown. I scheduled one but later cancelled it. I'm really glad I didn't go that route. I did however go back to Dr. Chambers even though I never saw any commercials that he was in. I got my first HT from him in 1983 and as you can imagine, they were pluggy grafts. When I went back for more work, he was doing mini's (I think I've had every size that has ever been offered). I'm sure that if Dr. Chambers was still alive he would be doing FUTs, maybe even FUEs.

Follicular Isolation Technique

Very funny Vocor1.