lostandgone

bighosedragger, welcome back. Great to see your pics, as Bills mentioned though initial pics were blurry the 4th day pics look good. Would be updating my blog soon once I am able to trim my hair. Keep them growing ....

bighosedragger.. i'l be flying in 6th night...

All, I wanted to share an update with you regarding the decision that i had to make recently. For the past few months I had been researching and also did have few consultations with recommended docs from this forum. Some were good , some were scary and some were just plain interesting... There was one consultation experience I had which I would say was over the top and made my decision a lot easier and made me ready for a new HT. The doc is Dr.Ron Shapiro. I live in the Baltimore area, and i did submit my pics to the Shapiro group and received a detailed consultation from Matt Zupan. There was something about this consultation as it put me at ease at very beginning, be it the friendly approach or the educational explanation. Due to my complex hair structure and terrible scars on both sides of my head, it was difficult to come up with a clear solution as to whether treating the scars would be a good approach or FUE or a strip. Fortunately, Matt mentioned that Dr. Shapiro would be in the Maryland area the next weekend and I was told that Dr. Shapiro would be willing to visit me in person for a better consultation in person. I might say that statement gave me a trust in this group, as I dont recall any doc who would go out of their way to provide a consultation when they are on a private/personal trip. The weekend arrives, and me with all the anxiety and ready with a barrage of questions head over to the location, where I could meet Dr. Shapiro. I believe we had discussed the procedure and solutions for over and hour. And the best solution, Dr.Shapiro suggested which i definitely agreed was to have two transplants to get better and fuller and less scar head. The first HT would primarily be concentrated on the strip removal procedure. So it would be a normal strip procedure but targeting the scar. Once the strip is removed, any grafts that would/can be retrieved would be transplanted towards the frontal section. Also Dr. Shapiro suggested that my current hairline was incorrect, so he said, he punch out few of the existing hairs from the side of the hairline and push it back to provide a better look. That would be the first HT procedure. The second HT would be after few months once the scar has healed, there would a FUE method to concentrate on the mid and the area between the crown and mid area. This would give me a look of a guy who might have some hair ... And the date for the first HT is set for JAN 7th 2010. I hope this decision of mine is definitely a correct one and would put me in a better position when I look at my head in the mirror. Please do provide me any suggestions or advices that may be helpful to me. If possible please could someone suggest a good financier and the cost of these procedures are not small....

that kinda looks like a scar similar to that of mine..unfortunately, mine was not a shock loss and have to bear the that scar.. but i'd give it a few more months before concluding it not being a shock loss scar...

ajm. i agree with forrest gump.. there didn't seem to have a need for a HT .. but i guess its your choice.. regarding your question.. i dont think its a shock loss cos, once a HT is done, these suckers fall off and then re-grow.. so give it some more time and they will re-grow.. fyi.. if shockloss does occur, it take few months to get them back....

KayKay, i had 2 surgeries done by Dr.Reddy too, and i the donor area is definitely visible after the procedure. It's one of the regrets I have. The only trick i employ is not to cut my hair too short. Hopefully, it clears off in due time...

I had mine @ 24 in 2005 and another one in 2008 and pretty soon another one to correct the second one..

Naren, check my post. It shud give u a clear understanding of the procedure and results from a HT done by Dr. Reddy from hyd.

Good luck bro... i hope after your HT you will consider dropping the "un" from "unfortunateHT" .. lol..

your ID is "feelzgood" ... based on your results you surely "feelzgood" of your HT.. your HT doesn't look like you've had a procedure done.. cos it looks so good... nice goin bro...

Hey Drew. Amazing transplant, top doc, satisfied to the limit,,, what more could one ask for.. looking forward to your updates... keep 'em growing...

Hey eman.. that is definitely some amazing results. Looking at the hairline and the invisible scar even in wet hair, there is no way of knowing that you went for a HT.. isn't that what of us like.. have a HT but not look like we have had a HT.. wish i could recover from my double scar and not so satisfied results... good luck...

Djjr1.. Its great to see the transformation within 5 months. Perfect hairline.. Few more months and more fuller hair .... All the best..

Centurian, if you want to reduce those 500mb (u sure it aint 5mb each) pics, an easy and free way to do it is to.. Step 1: view the pics using "Microsoft Office Picture Manager" Step 2: Click on Edit Pictures Step 3: Click on "Compress Picture" (right side of screen) Step 4: Select your preferable size and SAVE AS a different file. Now you can post them here easily.. Hope this helps..

Bill.. 4 transplants definitely gonna give you a clear and more thicker hairline and denser... Congratulations and looking forward for your monthly pics.. Are there any plans on covering the scar bu FUE procedure.. ??

You can see clearly see the huge increase in the look of more hair. Congratulations and keep them growing...

Not sure about the grafts but, Dr.Ravindra Reddy and Dr.Ashok from Hyderabad, India charge apprx $1000 for a HT (strip method).

Thanks hair_care. I definitely am planning to get a consultation and third HT done with the top docs here. I only wished I had better exposure to this site and/or world of HT before my second surgery. I hope, third time's a charm and it works wonders for me....

Thnx ej for your support and advice. I'll definitely check the posts you mentioned abt scar revision. It would be great if you could post or send me some pics of yours HT/scars to look and understand more. Also when are you coming here and meeting with Dr.Lynsey. Take care..

Hey ej.. Its been a year since the surgery. If nothing happened in 1 year, i dont think i can expect hair in that area. I am hoping that maybe a third surgery can remove that scar. Do correct me if I am wrong. I have been using 5% Rogaine and finasteride 1mg for the past few years.

Can somebody help me out with a flux capacitor. I want to go "Back into the Past" and correct the mistake i made. The story goes like this. I started experiencing hair loss since my early 20's (2002ish). Didn't pay much attention to it (a big NO NO) and let it go by. By 2004, it became a lot that i could/did not go out without a cap on my head. Come 2005, the amazon forest turned into a crop field suffering from a drought. This is visible in the first picture. Me, being in hyderabad, India had only two options/doctors. Dr.Ashok or Dr. Ravindra. This was the time when these two were working together. Got an appointment and had the surgery done in Feb 2005. Surgery was done by Dr. Ravindra. Time passes by, the baldness look kinda recedes and hair is visible on my head. Alls fine and dandy. Honestly i was impressed by the results, definitely less than what i was expecting (damn TV ads!!) but enough to regain my confidence and stay out without any issues. The crown was not attented to citing reasons for insufficient hair with the strip. Since my knowledge about HT was zero at that time, i dont have any counts on grafts etc. Come 2008, welcome to the USA. Started gaining some knowledge as exposure was a lot more to the subject of HT (not sufficient though..why..you'll know later). At that time my hair was fine, no issues. Get to thinking about having the crown area also filledup. So, i go back to hyderabad, India to get the second HT done. Since I was not dissapointed with the first HT, i decided to go back to Dr.Ravindra. I aint ashamed to admit, yes the cost factor was also a major criteria in that decision of mine. (approx $1000 for each procedure). The pics show my front left and right and crown area. The doc suggested that he could and would fill up the crown and the temple areas due the reduced density in the front. I give in. I dont see anything wrong with that. 2 pics show the procedure adopted by Dr.Ravindra for the surgery (shaving etc). The scar also seems fine, extremely thin. So the Analysis so far is... first HT surgery by Dr.Ravindra a success which would make the second HT a confident and more success story. Unfortunately, like the Law and Order series, there is a suddent turn of events in this story my friends... I have absolutely no clue why there was a second scar required. This second surgery ruined it all. The pics speak for themselves. The temple areas both sides lost more hair than it had pre-second-surgery. The crown seems the same or maybe worse. Those damn scars, both left and right side have a area of approx 1-2 cm of damage. Have no clue why this happened or how it happened. When asked, the genius doc tells me that its the stretching of the skin. I so repent my decision to go back to Dr. Ravindra for the second HT. Looking at what was done, i fear if I can get this repaired. Can i get another HT to have just one thin scar with possible population of the temple areas atleast so that i dont look like a fizzed out soda. I dont know if I have the right to disapprove my doc. But based on my pics and my experience you guys can make the judgement yourselves. As for me, I pretty well know that I aint going to his clinic. Any advise ?? P.S: pardon me for my analogies. I make fun of my issues and troubles which helps me actually from being bothered by them.