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ng2gb, IMO, 5000 in the frontal third will make a good cosmetic improvement on any individual; however, the more native hair the person has the greater the cosmetic improvement; for example, someone totally bald in the frontal third is not going to get the density as someone who still has native hair if they both got 5000 grafts; the person who had a decent amount of native hair would be able to pull off more styles etc and may be able to be more aggressive on the hairline height compared to the indivuidual with no native hair. IMO, the crown is the top, back part of the head where you see the "bald spot" on people; if you go to the Merk propecia website and see the pictures that show the improvement of the individuals; they refer to the area as the vertex, or crown, if you will; That picture of Elvis, he had awesome temple points, they almost touch his eyebrows

hehateme, in your post you say "Why should he wait till he gets to the point where he doesnt have enough donor hair available"; to me that makes no sense; so are you telling him to look good for today and not worry about the future?; with your statement, do you understand that the donor hair that is presently available will be "unavailable" if his MPB progresses far enough; in other words, his hair could look unnatural when the donor hair that was used thins out in the receipent area and shows the scar in the donor area;

hey ng2gb, if you go to a coalition doc, he/she will use their artistic skills to blend the HT hairs with the native hairs to look natural, cosmetically pleasing, and stand alone; I don't know your age, family history of hair loss etc. but if you get/stay on propecia you shouldn't have to worry about that middle area progressively thinning out for a long time; so in summary if you go to a coalition doc and stay/get on propecia your concerns should not be an issue; worse case you may have to get a future surgery to fill in that area if/when it miniturizes;

losing the bulb does not effect the ability to regenerate the hair; the follicle is well below the skin; if you lost a graft it would trickle blood; when transplanted the follicle takes root in a few days and after that it is well anchored.

ng2gb, If the area is starting to thin the doc will usually place grafts within the native hair to add density to the area so everything blends together for a cosmetically pleasing appearance and a stand alone HT; however, if the area you are referring to is not effected by MPB yet and is dense, it would be difficult to place grafts within the existing native hair; in that case, the doc would recommend you get on Propecia if you are not already to maintain the native hair; IMO propecia is effective in that mid-scalp area yor are refering to and should maintain that area for a long time; it has has for me;

sparky, you came to the right place to start your research; I'll try to answer your questions: Age is a HUGE factor in the decision to get a HT; to stabalize/maintain the hair you have, I would get on finasteride ASAP; to save money, get Proscar, which has the same active ingrediant as Propecia (finasteride) in a 5 mg dose to treat older men with prostate problems; cut it into quarters to equal approx 1 mg of finasteride that propecia contains; this is very inexpensive; I have been on Propecia for 6+ years and it has helped me maintain my existing hair; From looking at your pic, it looks like you have extensive loss for 18 years old; IMO, you are not a good candidate for a HT right now; you may need to post more pics, but from what I could see you are genetically destined to be a NW 6 before 30; at such a young age it is hard to predict exactly the extent of what your loss will be; you will not have enough donor to cover such a large area; if you did a HT it would be very sparse and convervative and you would not be able to shave your head if you ever decide to. I don't think you would be happy with the results right now; However, if you stay on finasteride and your hairloss stabalizes you may be a candidate in the future; I would say get on finasteride and evalutate your situation at 25; hell, by then there may be other drugs or hair multiplication that are more effective then what is out there now; Yes, HT's are expensive and there is some downtime in recovery; at your age I would focus your finances on school etc; try shaving your head and see how it looks on you; go to the gym to keep in shape, dress nice, and keep a base tan to improve your self confidence if need be; In summary, I would use this site to research and even check with some coaltion docs and get their opinions and assess your situation;

IMO, at the end of the day, the grafts are going to start coming in at the 3-5 month and the full results are achieved at around 12 months; there is no scientific proof that minoxidil promotes faster graft growth; it may help marginally; it definitely won't hurt; it is worth a try and some people feel it helped promote faster growth;

imo by looking at your pics, I think there is quite a cosmetic change compared to your pre-op pics; as a general rule I think by 6 months you have 50% of your final result, so you do have a ways to go; I would wait till 12 months to fully evaluate

secret squirrel, I'm sorry to hear about your unsatisfactory results; do yo care to post pre-op and post-op photos for us to evaluate? were your expectations realistic? Are you on finasteride to prevent future loss? after my first HT, I felt the results were unsatisfactory also; it needed more density; so I guess my expectations maybe were unrealistic; also the doc should have told me what density to expect; so I guess I was to blame and the doc in that scenario; anyway, I had another procedure by a coaltion doc to add density; anyway, maybe you need one more procedure to refine and add density; a lot of posters here have 2 to 3 procedures before they are really satisfied with the cosmetic differance; HT is not a one and done thing; I know going through the journey of a HT can be and emotional rollacoaster. I don't know your exact situation, as far as age, hair loss level etc. but there really are no other treatments other than finasteride, minoxidil, and HT, unless you want to wear a hair piece, which I don't recommend and most posters would not either. 10,000$ might have gotten you around 2500 grafts which really is not a lot unless you hair loss is very minimal. Anyway, you said you have no money left for this, but one more HT by a coalition doc may give you the results you are looking for; you can finance it and work you but off working a second job or whatever it takes---if you are happy it would be worth it in the long term; I'm not telling you to just go out and get another HT to fix things; I don't know your exact situation, but for me it made a huge differance.

I think you are fine; imo it looks like the scabs with the hairs that are shedding; grafts do not come out as easy as people think; I mean you can loose a graft in the first few days but after that it becomes more difficult; after 7-10 days you have to practically surgically remove them to get them out of your scalp;

from what i understand finasteride is evenly distributed in a proscar tablet; in the manufacturing process the active ingrediant (finasteride) is mixed with the fillers and binders before the actual pills are "pressed." If the active ingrediant is not evenly distributed, then in theory, a random proscar tablet could have 0 mg of finasteride in it; about 2 years ago I did a google on "active ingrediants being evenly distributed in a pill" and the information I seen seemed to confirm this; also i work in manufacturing, and this engineer I knew worked in a pharmaceutical plant and explained the process and told me that as a general rule the active ingrediant in a tablet is evenly distributed; so I think this can be extrapolated to proscar

I don't think it will be an issue with dr rose; just explain it to him and i'm sure he will let you reschedule the following week or when your schedule works out; most instructors are not going to let you take your exams early--they usually don't bend the rules unless you said something major like a death in the family or something.

socal, I agree with ng2gb, that you should take your time and maybe consult with other docs, Hasson and Wong, Shapiro, etc. 1500-1700 grafts is a small session today; I originally had a session around that size and my loss was quite minimal compared to most on this site and I was not happy with the density; If you had a HT 17 years ago, I'm assuming you have enough hair loss where you will need much more than 1500 grafts to be satisfied; the down time, healing and waiting sucks, so it is better to do a larger session if it is possible; if you have most of your hair and just want to soften the hairline and camoflage the old grafts, than 1500 might work. It sucks waiting a year for the results than realizing the density and styling options are not what you hoped to achieve.

thanatopis, as daboski said he could be a genetic freak or is streching the truth and on drugs; I seen pictures of former Olympia ronnie coleman when he played college football; at that time he didn't even train like a bodybuilder; just did power exercises for football and he could of stepped on a bodybuilding stage and blew people away; he already had that freaky double peak on his bicep in his late teens or 20--example of a genetic freak; however for the average Joe 6ft 200 lbs at 5% bodyfat is difficult withouth some assistance in the medicine cabinet, and I'm not talking just protein powder and creatine.

hey ng2gb, here is another pic from the side of how i style my hair; like i said it is styled forward.

3000 grafts is a large session, so i would recommend scalp exercises; also it can help decrease the chances of scar stretching and provide optimum conditions for a good scar; there are other physiological factors in how many grafts can be exised and how the scar will turn out, but I don't think you can go wrong regardless of session size by doing scalp exercises;

I guess i have never tried to see; I usually just get a scissor cut cause I like my hair aroud an inch in length, just as in the pic. so to be honest I am not sure; to me the scar is really a non issue; at least at this stage in my life and with my current hairloss;

the second doc is a coaltion doc on this site; dr. aronovitz; I have a very tight scalp so I was limited on the amount of grafts; also I didn't need a large session, just some refinement and density; overall even before my ht's my hairloss was not extensive.

at the end of the day, the main thing is that dr. feller is an excellent HT surgeon and has an excellent track record of results

ng2gb, I definitely feel better now then I did before the ht's; I wish I would have done it a little more efficiently by finding a coalition doc first; mhr didn't butcher me, but I was not happy with the results from them; it was a little pluggy I thought and not as dense as they said; but at the end of the day, I feel more confident then I did before my surgeries.

I don't have any presurgery by the doc pics, but I might have some pics around that I can post sometime;

ng2gb, I can kind of spike it up, but I have to strategically work with it a little in the front to get it to look how I want wo too much scalp showing through; where someone with no hairloss would not have to put as much effort to get it to look right cause the density makes it good regardless for them.

ng2gb, here is another pic someone took of me at work; not sure if it is a flas or no flash though;

hey ng2gb, i am 32; been on propecia for 6 years; norwood 3; have had 2600 grafts total; went to mhr originally but then found this site and Dr. Aronvitz did 1000 grafts to refine it and add more density; I usually leave it around this length, about an inch on top because it helps with the illusion of density; also push the front up; the surf hair also helps with the illusion of density; I know i could never do a short cut with clippers because the density isn't there; when my hair gets too long it looks thin cause i have fine hair;

notgoing, here is a pic with hair styled forward using surf hair; pic is with no flash; took in mirror so camera would hide my face.