WeAreCured

I have to poo-poo.

I had my procedure with Dr. Cooley in Charlotte, NC and not only did he stay there the entire time, he actually did one whole side of my hairline himself while his tech did the other side.

I had that too for a while. I'm almost positive you're just worrying too much about it. I'm pretty sure it's just wet dead skin. When a scab gets wet it has that white gunky stuff on it when you get out of the shower or bath, then when it dries everything's cool. That's all it is.

Yeah man, you can get hair transplanted into your crown, even though there is some thin hair there. A good surgeon would more than likely shave the crown with a razor before doing the HT though (if that's what you're worried about).

True. It's not a forum-wide thing.

I've read through this thread and the thread in question on HLH, and I have to say that they can state that the owners of this board are unethical all they want for making money off of having a Coalition. The fact remains that the surgeons in the Coalition are top notch. Also, there are no comments on this forum stating they had poor results from any of the Coalition surgeons. The people arguing in the HLH thread seem to think that since they admit to their ad profiteering, it's OK that the surgeon they support is unethical. I can't see how they don't see the true meaning of the argument. Who cares how much money anyone makes? As long as you get the results you desire, what else matters? The surgeons on this site offer better, PROVEN results for a very affordable price. If the owners are making money from this site, good for them. They brought all of this information together and work very hard to give people better, proven knowledge concerning HTs. We benefit from them, the owners of this site benefit from the surgeons, and the surgeons benefit from us. Sounds perfectly cyclical and natural to me. The bottom line with all of their whining and accusations lies in patient results. There's even a thread on this forum for patients to state if they regretted their decisions or HT in general and no one has stated they have. There is no evidence of anyone that I know of receiving poor work from any of the coalition surgeons. That's that.

This seems to be a hot topic right now between this forum and HLH. HLH has made it personal by attacking Bill, but he's a class guy so he won't say anything about the whole thing that's negative. As for the pics, apparently there are none yet since he's only been doing FUEs for a short time, but there should be some 3 or 4 month pics available by now theoretically. There aren't though.

Head and Shoulders Intensive Scalp Therapy can be used daily and does the same thing as the other expensive brands, with regards to the removal of surface DHT. It's in a dark blue bottle and is 1 dollar more expensive than other Head and Shoulders. Not sure if many grocery stores carry it, but I know CVS/Walgreen's, etc. does.

Are you really Matt Skiba?

Elon Matrix 5000 is a highly recommended hair vitamin and I think it works very well. It increases the strength of the hair, quality of the hair texture, and makes your hair grow faster. You can get it at folica.com.

NotSoBad, I've been taking Propecia for over a year and I've had NO problems whatsoever with a decrease in libido or any kind of dysfunction. I can still perform even after a long night of drinking and I take Zoloft as well. As someone else stated, the sexual side effects are a vast minority so they just have to say that in a warning for legal reasons, and to most men, it jumps out at you and scares you, but it's an irrational fear. I'm 25 by the way, 26 tomorrow.

When I went to see Dr. Cooley in the late summer of 2006, he warned me about all of this (I'm 25 and just have some recession in the front, no thinning in the crown or middle front). He said he wouldn't touch me or even talk to me again if I hadn't been using Propecia fro at least a year to see what my eventual loss may be like. Fortunately for me, the Propecia stopped my hair loss and I was able to confidently refine my hairline. I'm not too sure what dense packing is, but I had 1500 grafts filled in conservatively about 1/2 inch into my current hairline down to 3/4 of an inch into my "balded" areas at the hairline, but it wasn't to the extent of my teenage hairline. I too worry about future hairloss, but I've been on Propecia long enough to know that for me, there will be no sudden hairloss, and even if I do experience further loss it will be so gradual, thanks to the Propecia, that I will be able to have smaller touch ups in the thinning areas, since I have a large and dense donor area. As usual, I think that research and personal honesty is the best approach when tackling hairloss, but I think for us young guys, even in my case where Propecia works, I think it's important to have the attitude that fighting hairloss is going to be a lifelong quest. You should never think that 1 HT is going to be some magic cure, although my fingers are crossed. I'm only a NW 2 by the way.

It's been 8 days now, but you can get the basic idea of the placement and the work Cooley does to make the new hairline look as natural as possible (no straight line).

That's how it was before my HT as well as now, I just had it a week ago. I do have a lot of hair, but my hairline has receded about 3/4 in. on the temples and in the front. The way I've been styling my hair the past few years allows me to hide that fact, but I'd like to be able to have a more professional style because I'm going to be starting clerkships for judges and interning at law firms next year, so filling in my old hair line was important for me and I had the funds, so I went with 1500 grafts to restore my hairline. I'm 25 by the way.

You talkin' to me? If so, this is me right now (I had my HT on my front hairline one week ago)....

I'm one week today as well (the 6th). I still have no discomfort or dissatisfaction whatsoever. I'm back to 100% as far as my grooming and showering habits go as well. I have fairly long hair, so my donor scar is undetectable and I have bangs and usually wear a hat, so the recipient area is also undetectable. I can't wait for them to start growing in over the next year or so and getting my old hairline back.

Personally, I just got a 1650 hair graft HT to the very front of my hairline, so I have no way of giving you a definite answer to your concern... naturally. On a non-natural level, I can give you a DEFINITE answer: Straightening Iron. There are so may different gels/lotions you can use pre-blowdryer to get the effect you desire of your hair if you are Caucasian, whether it's straight, curly, wavy, thick, etc... Then following blow-drying, the best way to further rid kink or frizziness is a straightening iron. Plenty of companies make straighteners for men that are anywhere from 1/2 in. to 1&1/2 in. wide. If you're going to spend thousands of dollars on a HT, and more money a month on Propecia and vitamins and whatnot, why not spend 100 on a good straightener or hair-dryer? I can guarantee that a combination of serums, lotions, gels, etc. combined with blow-drying and or straightening iron will give you 100% uniformity for your hair characteristics. The point of a HT is to add more hair and density to the areas where you have lost hair. The journey to looking your best or the way you feel best doesn't end there however. If you want to look the way that you do in your dreams/subconscious/mind then you may have to fight genetics a bit. Fortunately technology has progressed to a point where you may do so given the research or experimentation you are willing to attempt. If technology can insert donor hairs into places where you used to have hair, don't you think technology can provide uniformity to your hair?

Thanks a lot guys and girls. I think I'll just stick with my Dove Volumizing 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner for a while. It's got a lot of moisturizer in it anyway. My itching is better today too.

True that. My transplant was only in the hairline and my hair's about 4-5 inches long in the front, so I suppose I just wasn't thinking with that logic, since most people got a lot more grafts than I did and in many more areas. As for the gay thing, I just think it's funny how men who are into hairstyles are labeled gay by a bunch of homophobes who wish they had the balls to do cool stuff with their hair instead of the run of the mill executive cut. These days a guy can't even work out without suspicion. People are all like, "Damn, he's cut like a gay guy!" What a crazy world we live in.

Yeah, it's just the "Intensive Care Formula" that sort of worries me as far as the no medicated shampoos rule goes, and it's like $1.50 more expensive than regular head and shoulders, which to me, hints at the possibility that it has something special going on, possibly medicated wise. Ailene will know, since she's the one who turned me on to it.

I'm not sure if this section is the right forum to post this, but after viewing so many weblogs I felt I had to chime in. Most of you guys are keeping your hair way too short in my opinion. Of course, the longer hair gets, even if it's 100% healthy, it will look thinner, but that doesn't really start to happen until the 5-6 inch range. I think cutting your hair with clippers and such is utterly ridiculous if you've gone through the trouble of having a transplant or are merely thinning. Personally, I think many of you would benefit from having a 2 inch range haircut and add some thickening serum like Fat Hair makes when damp, then blow dry with a round brush on low heat for added thickness and volume. Two inches creates the perfect amount of density in my opinion and conceals more on top as well as falling onto your forehead enough to cover recession. Just my humble opinion, and I'm not gay or anything, I'm just into hairstyles and looking my best, and I think that since everyone on here is so concerned with the appearance of their hair, I just had to put my two cents in concerning the matter.

I know that I'm not supposed to use medicated shampoos for a while, but does the new Intensive Care Formula Head and Shoulders qualify as medicated. I haven't been using it yet, but I figured it would help with the recipient area itching if I pat it lightly on there, plus I like to use it before my normal shampoo/conditioner because it adds thickness and cleans surface DHT and such. Thanks, Jonathan

I mean, I definitely feel it, the donor and recipient areas, but I wouldn't describe it as pain. Maybe I just have a high threshold or something. I have suffered from migraines since I was 11 (past 15 years) so I guess in comparison, this just tickles a bit. Thanks for your clarification, especially about month two with the shock loss. Dr. Cooley was very clear with me that the new grafts won't have significant results for 9 months to a year, so I'm ready for the wait, but I'm sure anxiety will set in in a few months knowing me.

Thanks a lot guys, and Janna and Ailene. Bill, I opted out of getting copies of my pre-op pictures because to be honest, I don't want anything to do with my receded hairline. I view the surgery as a step toward the future and I don't even want to remember the hurt I felt as my hair receded. However, I'll start a weblog using my digital camera to return the favor that the people of this site have provided for me.

Yeah, the donor strip part is definitely the weirdest. I never felt discomfort per say, but it felt like when you tear that protective strip from the bottom of a milk top on a gallon of milk. You know the peeling and everything. Weird sensation. I used to do a lot of drugs and have had a couple of serious surgeries so I just go with the flow during procedures and don't even ask what they're doing or have them tell me what they're doing. It helps me not get nervous, and I developed a serious trust with Dr. Cooley. After all, he's the doc. I had mine the 29th so it looks like you and I will have the same time table for recovery and that anticipated regrowth. Cheers to us both and our new confidence.