Son of a Plug

John H, The recent picture shows more recipient site healing than any growth. That is all my existing hair grown back after the buzz cut. Check back next wednesday for my 3 month picture. There should be some sprouts large enough to see in a photo. There are some sprouts in this last photo however they are too small to be evident in a photo.

For a mega session of over 3,000 FU Strip you would not pay more than $2.50 per FU.

Kevin James has definately had a HT in the front and on top. You can also tell he uses concealer on the crown and most likely the rest of his head too. His hair looks very good but way too neat to be natural. I'm sure he's got 99% of normal viewers fooled (that 1% of whackos that notice the HT is all of us

is marked by my 4th ingrown hair. It's a little strange how all four have been in the left temple. They appear as little white head pimples. I have been putting neosporin on them and trying not to touch them since I'm afraid popping them will scar my hairline. What does everyone else use to treat ingrowns?

John H, Thanks for the kind words. At 10 weeks I have fully recovered from the buzz cut and have prouted several "new" hairs and some surviving grafts are growing strong and thick (thick only because they didn't shed yet). My alleys are what I base my progress on since the temples are the only areas where I was slick bald. I am tapering off the 5% Minoxidil to every other day since it is making my face red but I think it really kick started my growth. I have some shock in the forelock near the left temple region and some donor shock too. I am waiting until week 12 to take another set of photos, but here is one from week 8. I'll post more at week 12.

I take the approach that even if 1/4 Proscar everyday doesn't grow one hair BUT it stops further loss it is worth taking. Something may come along one day that will regrow hair, but for now I keep taking Proscar and hope to hold onto as much original hair while my HT grows in over the next year.

I think my hairline receeded in the temples very early, probably by 24, and then I began to thin on the top and was able to notice the thinned crown by age 28. If I would have taken propecia starting at 25 I would have probably only needed to rebuild the hairline needing only 1,800 grafts. I've been on 1/4 Proscar for exactly 12 months and am 9 weeks post HT.

John H, You may not have gotten a refund but MHR is sure going to lose enough money in the long run from this type publicity that, in the long run, they will wish they would have given you a refund AND extra money to go elsewhere for a repair/replacement HT. Prime example of not seeing the big picture. Even if just one guy reads this type post and changes his mind about going to MHR they have already lost money due to YOU. Good Luck!

Good advice Lorenzo. Whether it's a family Dr or even a local plastic surgeon, do not expect them to know who to go to for a HT. I bet if you called 10 Family Drs, Plastic Surgeons or Dermatologists in your home town, half would tell you to go to Bosley. Being from Ontario you are VERY lucky since you are not far from several Canadian and U.S. HT Docs that are the best in the WORLD. Golden Rule of Hair Transplantation, you need to go to the Dr and NOT expect the best Dr to have a clinic in your home town. A good DR will reduce the HT fees to make up for the travel and lodging, so what is the excuse not to travel to have the best work done by a Dr that YOU researched and with whom you feel comfortable? I traveled from AZ to Toronto to have Dr Jones do my HT and SAVED a significant sum of $$$ over a local HT clinic. In one session I also received twice the FU yield and twice the FUs per cm2 than the local HT clinic estimated for the same procedure. Just because Dr Jones is not listed among the preferred HT Drs here anymore does not mean he isn't a top choice. That was a business decision that doesn't do prospective patients like you (in Ontario) any good.

I don't think the sensitive feeling along the scar line is due to the choice between stitches or staples. The sensitivity or even lack of sensation is a result of the damage done by the opening of the incision not the closing (plus the skill of the person making it). It's a matter of taking the strip too high, too low, too deep, too wide, etc. Also, results will vary based on your ability to heal, tension in your scalp, previous scars, thick or thin skin, etc. So basically there will be some initial discomfort after stitches/staples are removed which will take a few weeks to substantially improve and up to a year to feel 100% healed.

Matthew, Beautiful endorsement for staples, but let's answer the guy's question pal. Pastor, I am about 7 weeks post Strip and noticed that during weeks 5 & 6 the sensitivity along the back of my head, middle of the strip, has greatly diminished. At weeks 3 & 4 it still felt sensitive to even lay on a pillow. At this point I have to apply pressure at the same point to feel any sensitivity, while the strip scar on the sides of my head feel completely normal already. I hope this answered your question.

I think you have caught the thinning and recession at a good time. Your hair density and recession has matured but in no way do you have anything that would be considered "balding". I think you should stay on Propecia and 5% Minoxidil to halt anyfurther loss. The hairline may go a little further but that is easy to recreate with a HT. It's the crown and mid-scalp area you really want to protect because that is where a lot of FUs get used-up quickly. You'll notice that if you maintain your current NW status until 30 yrs of age, a lot of your friends who have plenty of hair now may catch up to you with their own hair loss and possibly pass you on the NW scale (if they are NOT on any meds). It isn't as much about regrowing hair as it is KEEPING the hair you have until you need the HT.

It's hard to judge the before pic since it looks like your mid-scalp/crown area was shaved. If so, what was the reason for having it a different length than the sides?

The HT was for me, not anyone else. I didn't want to be known for anything else than what people had already known me for. I didn't hide anything actually. I took two weeks off during the summer just like anyone else would, except I came back with a buzz cut and gotee. I wore the gotee for a couple more weeks and am letting the hair grow out now. The only comments I got about my head were from a couple other balding guys in the office who seemed happy I was embracing the losing battle against hairloss and just buzzing it all off. Won't they be surprised at six months

The internet is available 24/7 and Dr Cooley still can't find time to write his OWN posts?

Don't forget to first narrow your choice of Drs down to a final list before you think "price" anymore. You scare me a little because you seem very focused on price. If you sort 100 Drs by price you may get a very different list than what is recommended here. First rank the talent then rank the price if you must.

Well if you are so concerned with price I think you should keep waiting until you are financially stable enough to afford the hairloss preventative maintenance as well as the follow-up hair transplants. Unfortunately this is not a matter of 1,600 FU and you're done for good. There is likely more work down the road at least to refine the first pass. Finally, you also need to SERIOUSLY consider traveling to get the best possible job to reduce the risk of needing even more HTs down the road or even needing to have repair work done. I went to Dr Robert Jones in Toronto who offers some of the best work and rates available for Strip and FUE.

When Dr Jones replied to the e-mail containing my photos and commented on the 90% color improvement and to expect a 10-20% difference in the width, I had to write back for the same clarification for which TS808 is asking. Dr Jones then replied "the width will be 20% smaller". I believe that while the color fades to 10% of what you see above the width will also decrease because much of what is measurable is the pinkness, so when that fades all that is left to measure will be the "seam" along where the incision was made. Also, the scar line is still a bit raised and will probably smooth out a little. Dr Jones has said a few times that I should not stretch given that the amount of tension on my scar was not very much. [This message was edited by Son of a Plug on January 23, 2004 at 09:38 PM.]

I sent these same photos to Dr Jones recently and he advised that it will take up to a year for the scar to fully mature. He predicted that the color will improve 90% and that the width should decrease by up to 20%. I am already satisfied with the current width, so if it does thin out some more I have no doubt it will be very difficult to detect especially once the color fades.

Listen to Patricia, I also have a great deal of experience in these type situations too. Let lawyers deal with lawyers, because he/she will eat you alive especially in your current state of mind. Take pictures of yourself with a good quality digital camera (sounds like it may be WELL worth the investment in your case). Better yet, document the results on a video camera and while taking the video of your head explain what is being recorded and how you are feeling about it. If you dare talk to that Dr again you need to be aware that he may be recording your conversation. And if you go talk to that lawyer, you need to know that the Dr sucked you into his web again. BE CAREFUL! GOOD LUCK

Dreww, While the nurses were planting my FUs we got to talking about return patients of Dr Jones. They commented on how gratifying it is to see patients return with grown-in results, HOWEVER they advised that several patients get so caught up in the self improvement regiment that they go too far by coloring their hair. In short, by coloring your hair you lose dimension and increase the contrast between your hair and scalp ACTUALLY decreasing the effectiveness of the HT results. You may have noticed that white, grey, and blonde men tend to achieve better results with less FUs since the contrast between light scalp and light hair is less noticable. Heck, men with dark hair would be better off going out and getting highlighted hair than coloring dark to cover the grey. HT patients would be even better off with salt and pepper hair since it both decreases contrast AND adds dimension.

I had many requests for scar pics after posting the before and post op pics of the recipient site. I didn't post any suture pics because I didn't think that tells very much about the future of the scar. Going into the HT I really didn't stress out very much about a scar until it was on MY head. By the time I returned to work all the scabbing was gone and the only thing anyone could have possibly noticed was the "hat head", however no one said a word. All that being said, I wanted to post my scar at 4 weeks for the benefit of others here as well as getting an opinion from the forum. I am pleased with Dr Jones' work and hadn't seen anyone else posting scar results from his work, so I hope this is a fair representation of what can be done after a 3,313 FU harvest. The haircut was mostly a #4 but she was careful to blend the scar line a bit longer, so in fairness it wasn't a straight runover with the clippers. Thanks!

Here I lifted the hair to give the best view I could of the scar at its widest. One year updated photo on page 2.

Here is a side shot of the donor site combed

I thought I would post a couple pics of my donor scar at the 4 week mark following my 3,313 FU strip with Dr Jones on 6/24/03. So far I think it has and is healing very well. It still has some scabbing which I am letting shed at its own pace, and it is still quite pink. This pic is a couple days after my first hair cut using a #4 guard in the back and sides. It is very hard to see through my hair when combed down.