EpilepticSceptic

Victor Hasson Look up my blog on here for all the details

I think you may be right because the temples are not yet as thick as the forelock area which is frickin ridiculously dense! I can only attribute this to the fact that my wispy existing native hair in that area all grew back and thus makes it thicker than the temples which had not one single hair remaining. Also, when I part the hair with a comb and inspect very closely I can still see countless smaller, thinner hairs growing in between all of the thicker ones. Jesus man, if these hairs thicken up like the others then I might have so much hair that I'll look like a freak with a bad toupe -- yikes !!! (LOL)

Count, Look up my blog on here under my name and you can see some pre-op pics. And just for grins, here is another shot taken of me about 1 year ago showing my pre-op condition. But this is also deceiving because my hair is a bit longer in this pic than it is in my 9 month pics. Had it been as short then the baldness would look even worse.

Thanks man, you're looking great as well! Another one of many Dr. Hasson happy patients out of thousands. I remember you with the dyed blond hair from a H & W video where you do the interpreting for an italian patient with black hair who had 8000+ grafts. That was actually one of the many things that influenced me to go with the H & W clinic, so I thank you deeply or that! The italian guy had an amazing looking result and it was really stunning to see his transformation. How does it feel ? I have more hair now than I did when I was 25 --- so it feels frickin great !!

Thanks everybody! Corvettester, I'm just as speechless and still have to pinch myself every morning to make sure it's not a dream. I lived for 17+ years as a half bald circus clown (age 24-41), so if anybody deserved a little justice it was me! BTW, you're looking damn good yourself bro so early on; I saw your recent update and get ready cause now the fun begins! I wish you the very best. Sean, Thanks man! Levrais, Thanks man, you're looking stellar these days yourself! multiplier, Yes, I am on 1.25mg fin everyday and have been using 5% minox for over 7 months now, plus 3000mg MSM & Biotin every day.

4496 grafts less than 8000 actual hairs

Well people, I appear to be entering that long awaited and dreamed of period where I am rapidly losing interest in spending any more time on hairloss forums. To even summon the energy to post these pics was quite a burden; so instead of being my usual obsessive/compulsive self I decided to have a sense of humor this time around. Gone are the days where I even care anymore about keeping the photo angles and lighting the same, or posting the most revealing harsh reality photos that allow other forum members to clinically and accurately evaluate my case. Indeed, since virtually nobody else seems to care to make such an effort then why should I ? So I hereby give you these "before & after" shots selected specifically for shock value and to give myself a hearty laugh! These photos are indeed real with no touch ups or modifications of any kind, no concealers, no nada! They show my progression from month 1 to month 9. Yes, I did have significant shockloss at the 1 month mark; so for you anal retentive skeptics out there, I will admit that the 1 month photos are not wholly accurate in representing my pre-op state. However, since 1 month postop was the lowest point of my life (cosmetically speaking) it gives me great pleasure to compare these photos. I had to live thru that dark period and so I feel like I have every right to make this comparison. If anybody wants to see my true preop state then visit my blog and be sure to look at my buzz cut photos to get an accurate picture. In the "after" shots my hair length is slightly less than 1", and they were taken 2 days ago.

I agree and disagree. I think if the scar is poor and very obvious (meaning that you can CLEARLY see the smiley face from ear to ear) then some people will make an issue of it in public and bring it up to you which I would certainly not be happy with. But if there are only small areas where you can see it thru the hair (but still cannot discern a 12" ear to ear smiley face) then it just looks like a normal everyday scar that nobody would think twice about. When I had my hair buzzed down a few weeks back the barber did not notice a thing until I pointed it out to him. Then, once he knew what to look for he was able to spot it; but still he was amazed and said he would never have been the wiser had I not pointed it out. When I mentioned the HT he was stunned because he said the hair up top looks completely normal to him. I had to show him my old driver's license for him to believe me. I constantly see guys with buzzed heads who have VERY noticable scars, some quite ugly/wide and with no chance of hiding it because it was from an accident. These guys don't seem to have any issues with exposing scars on their heads, and I don't get the feeling that they are too worried about people in public seeing them.

Since I could not post any more pics in my previous post, I'll post the rest here: The first 3 shots were taken today in the same indoor location and same lighting I took the first 4 shots in (in the previous post), but this time there is no Toppik. And finally, the last 2 shots were taken today indoors in more normal, moderate lighting conditions. Does anybody see a "toupe line" sticking out like a sore thumb from a mile away in these shots ? As a final statement on this issue I would like to add that IMO there is not very much difference (concerning image/hairstyles) between 1/4", 1/2", 3/4" or 1" hair length. With 3/4" or 1" you still get that neat and clean military look if it is trimmed evenly all the way around. So I cannot really understand what the big fuss is about losing the option to buzz down to 1/4" ? Compare my photos taken today to the ones where the hair was 1/2" -- is there really that much of a difference in terms of the general hairstyle perception ? IMO letting it grow out to 3/4" does not alter the buzz look very much at all. I mean really, is 3/4" hair length not considered short hair ? I guess if you are seriously going major bald and need to buzz down to near skin to hide the monk fringe then you have justification to be worried about losing that option ; but in that case you have no business seeking ANY type of HT IMO anyway!

moses, Well, you must understand a few things here: 1) the photos I posted of my scar were intentionally intended to portray the worst case scenario in terms of lighting (bright outdoor light, nowhere to run or hide:o) 2) they were taken shortly after a buzz cut to less than 1/2" length !! take a good look and you can see easily thru to my skin all over my head 3) I don't have the greatest hair density (70 fu per sq cm), and my hair shaft diameter is medium fine 4) I was still only at 8 months post op when those shots were taken and you can see that the scar is still red in some areas 5) there is one area of the scar in the rear that has a bit of shockloss and is also the widest, and this IMO brings out the noticability of it the most Taking all of these factors into consideration, I still feel that the scar is not very noticable and certainly does not "scream HT" or stand out from a mile away like you say. In real life I have found that nobody is paying much attention to the rear of your head, and also in real life the lighting changes dramatically by the second as you move your head and therefore you cannot compare this to how the scar looks in a very revealing still photo deliberately taken to portray the worst case scenario; in other words, in real life the human eye cannot focus in the way it can in photos like these because the head will be constantly moving and changing position. Also, I have found that even at less than 1/2" length buzz cut if you spend 30 seconds sprinkling Toppik around the scar line then it completely dissapears; so I disagree that you can never have a REALLY short haircut with a good strip tricho closure. Seriously bro, an extra 30 seconds each day to apply Toppik (IF I wanted a less than 1/2" buzz cut as a matter of styling choice) is not really a big deal to me considering the upside. So I will now take this opportunity to post more photos: The first 4 shots were taken at the 8 month mark right after the buzz cut (to less than 1/2") with a little Toppik sprinkled around the scar, and in very harsh flourescent indoor light. If you really feel that the scar stands out from a mile away in these photos then I will have to ask -- what are you smoking ? The next 7 shots were taken today with the hair around 3/4" in length, outdoors in the most revealing light possible. Again, this is the absolute worst case scenario for exposing the scar. Indoor lighting (yes, even the harshest flourescent light) is much more forgiving than this. Does the scar still look like a toupe line to you in these shots ? (lol) The 2nd to last shot shows the worst area of the scar which is in the rear to the right of center.

Do you have any clear photos of your condition from the top down ? I ask this because maybe your hairloss is not quite as bad as you think, and you might be able to pull off some styling changes that could easily mask it. Concerning how to cope with how hairloss dramatically changes your appearence at a young age, I guess you could say I am an expert on that subject. My hairloss was pretty unique in that almost all of it occured from age 20 to 25 and then slowed down dramatically afterwards; however, what happened in that time period was quite drastic to change my frontal appearence. Not to sound conceited, but all thru my teens and til about age 21 I was constantly being chased by women exclusively for what they considered good looks. Pre-hairloss I was basically considered to be male model material which back then I bitterly resented because I felt it to be so superficial. Anyway, it only took about 3-5 years for me to go from looking like a male GQ model to Richard Nixon! It was nothing short of shocking and I just had to swallow the bitter pill. As I look back now it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because it turned me from a cocky, insensitive punk into an artist/writer/poet who needed to seek the deeper meaning in life. I suddenly looked age 35 even though I was only 25, and the superficial attention from women was completely gone. I would recommend that you turn it into a positive instead of a negative. If that is you in that photo then I would say you look like a vibrant beautiful young woman to me; it's what your eyes say that really makes you beautiful IMO. Of course, at age 42 I could practically be your dad; but in my mind's eye I am no different than when I was 21, except much wiser and happier. I believe that the human body is just a suit for the soul anyway and something that we throw away like an old rag at death. If we didn't live in a culture that was so materially obsessed then none of us would have any problems with something so completely meaningless and trivial (in the grand scheme of things) as hairloss. Imagine how a superior and bald alien race would feel about the people on this forum stressing out about hairloss ? I actually think hairloss is part of evolution to be honest, and there will likely come a time when ANY hair on the body is considered quite unattractive. We are just still in the dark ages today unfortunately.

ukpatient, Just make sure your photos are jpegs and click on the paper clip icon when you post. From there just find the photos, select them, then upload one at a time until you are done and then make the post.

Statham looks good to women because he is famous and plays "tough guy bad boy" characters in movies, and the same with Vin Deisel; plus there is a HUGE difference in the way people look on screen and off screen! Take either one of them and strip away the fame and the "look" that they portray on film (that the well paid editing wizards of Hollywood help them acheive) and they would both be just 2 more faceless baldies in the crowd who would have a hard time convincing a fat chick to get in the sack with them. You simply CANNOT compare the average balding joe to a famous, rich balding celebrity! the women are reacting to the fame, NOT the look! The grand wizards of Hollywood could take a 3 ft. tall bald midget with tumors growing out of his face and make him into a sex symbol celebrity where the hottest chicks on earth would be lining up in droves for a chance to sleep with him; and those chicks would be saying things like "he's just so hot and mysterious, I really don't know what it is" --- blah, blah, blah, blah !! 99.9% of chicks are sheeple and they just follow the status quo and accept whatever trash is shoved down their throats in mainstream society. And never forget, the bald celebrity is famous because he "knew somebody that knew somebody" in the biz. If you think that people become famous today in the acting world exclusively because they have talent or charisma then as the late great PT Barnum said : "there's a sucker born every minute!"

Here's a link to my blog: Hair Restoration Site for Epileptic Sceptic Take a look at my 1 and 2 month post-op photos. The shockloss was very bad at first! I was alot more bald than ever before in my life. I had a hat glued to my head at all times and it was frightening to look in the mirror. By month 3 I was about 80% back to my pre-HT state. By month 4 I was ahead of my pre-HT state. Thanks for the comment on the quality of my photos. I have been determined to take the most realistic shots in various different lighting because when i was researching I was so frustrated at the poor photo quality on all the members' blogs. I didn't really pay too much attention to the various clinics' posted results because those can be cherry picked and I knew that; so when I found this site and the patient blogs it was like the best thing since sliced bread because these were the "average joe" HT results. But, like I said, the photo quality was pitiful on many of them and hard to judge objectively. For me it took meeting patients in person before I was actually convinced modern HTs could stand up to the hype portrayed on the forums. I was fortunate enough to discover that with the right doc/clinic the results actually did live up to the hype. To the OP, sorry I did not mean to hijack your thread. If you posted clear photos of your results it would mean more than anything you can say or write here. You say the HT hair sticks out and looks unnatural amongst the native hair; this was one of my biggest concerns pre-HT so I would like to see what it really looks like. I know some that have coarse dark hair might have this problem, but the blend of native to HT hair on my head looks seamless and perfect to my eye and also my girlfriend. I have medium fine hair and I think that helps out alot in this regard.

Dr. Victor Hasson in Vancouver, BC

Below are a series of photos: 1) one of my hair at 1/2" length at the 8 month mark 2) one of my pre surgery condition 3) one of 3 months post-HT showing native hair growing back normally 4) two of my scar area at 8 months post-op after a #3 clip haircut, in very bright daylight 5) one of my scar at 8 months post op (#3 clip) with a little Toppik sprinkled around it, under harsh indoor flourescent light If what you were saying was true about all HTs no matter who the doctor/clinic then a patient like myself could simply not exist. For the record I had a 4496 graft megasession strip surgery on May 20, 2010. The strip was 30 cm long and 2.5 cm wide in some places! Name your doctor and upload CLEAR before and after photos if you expect your post to have any real significance. Naming your doctor and showing photos is 10X more important than anything you can write, and the truly educated posters here are aware of this. When I was researching I was constantly looking for failed HT patients like yourself; it was practically an obsession of mine since being a hardened sceptic by nature inclined me to doubt all the positive stuff I was seeing online about modern HTs. Ironically, the one common theme among the majority of these unhappy patients was that they wanted to blame HTs in general and not the doctor or clinic they went to for the failure of their procedure. They found it very emotionally difficult to consider that they just did not do enough research and chose a sub par doc/clinic, or that their particular physiology was just not conducive to a successful outcome. Instead, they were adamant in the belief that the only fault was that HTs in general will inevitably result in failure because the procedure itself is flawed. Had I believed them then I would still be half bald today, which would be a travesty due to intentional misinformation.

Baldecristo, I think you fail to understand that I was not trying to be anybody's savior warning against Armani. Dude, it was simply common sense to see that what he was doing would eventually be a disaster for a large majority of these young dudes. He was frontloading the hairlines of 20 year old guys whose fathers (maternal uncles) were NW7 !!! he was using 5000+ grafts to take a NW2 hairline to a NW0. So yes, these young guys were not only stupid -- they were also simply greedy and refused to acknowledge the OBVIOUS future repercussions of their decisions. The excuse that they were "gullible" or "misled" by shills doesn't really fit; back then the HLH forum was pretty good and strong dissenting opinions of sceptics (like me) were allowed, but these dudes decided to only hear what they wanted to hear. I feel sorry for Balboa because if Hairsite was all he was going by then he was basically in a pit of snakes and didn't realize it because dissenting opinions are not allowed there. However, I was smart enough to back out of an old minigraft plug surgery with NuHart back in 1993 before there was any internet or any possibility of researching anything in this shady industry. If you get hacked up today with all the information available on the web then you simply have to take some responsibility and realize that you had to be incredibly naive to fall for the tactics of these stupid greedy shills. If you've done just 6 months of proper research then you will be able to spot a shill in an instant, and you will be immune from their tactics.

Did you see my recent photos on this other thread: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/159300-pictures-uploaded-fue-strip.html This is as short as I would ever wear the sides and back, a bit less than 1/2". For me the scar is a non-issue and I walk around in bright daylight in public and no one seems to notice, even though it is still a bit red. My density or hair thickness is not great either to hide it. BTW I saw your other post. IMO FUT is the far superior technique if you need alot of grafts. If it was 2X as expensive as FUE I still would have done FUT for sure!

Well, I did not intend for my comments to make it seem as though I was laughing at the misfortune of others. I am not that type of person, so I apologize for the misunderstanding. I care about people very much. The FACTS are, however, true about Armani patients being disfigured freaks today and some suicidal. And yet he still is in business and will continue to disfigure and rip off many more with pie in the sky promises. What you fail to understand about me is that I was one of the SCREAMERS back in 2005 WARNING these kids about the stupid mistakes they were making. However, they were COCKY and laughed at me and thought I was some stupid older fool, Armani was a GOD and could do no wrong because all they could think about was that next 2-3 years in the clubs with their NW0 hairlines. Both me and "dodgedabullet" WARNED THEM INCESSANTLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But they were arrogant, cocky, and yes -- STUPID !!!! Why ? Because they they were dutifully WARNED but they still dove head first into Armani's meat grinder! So yes, now that years later they realize their complete stupidity in NOT HEEDING THE ELDER'S WARNINGS I may seem harsh in my comments. Perhaps if I had been even harsher maybe some of them would have listened back then ??? :confused:

I remember you from the old days on the HLH forum. I also remember that both myself and another poster called "dodgedabullet" predicted that Armani would take a big dive in the future. It was pretty easy to see how unethical he was even when he was showcasing success stories from his FUT days. It didn't take a prophet to see that all those 20 year old kids he was using 6000 grafts on to restore their 14 year old hairlines would eventually become suicidal disfigured freaks with weird looking dense, permanent mustaches on the fronts of their heads.

ukpatient, Here's a pic of my head I took 2 days post-op from a 4496 graft surgery with Dr. Hasson. As you can see, not many scabs (if any) had formed. The work is so clean at the H & W clinic that healing was super fast and the grafts just started to grow right away for me. Just follow the advice on that sheet and try not to stress and be overly cautious which may actually be counterproductive. You picked day #3 to fly home which IMO was your first mistake; not because your grafts will get damaged, but because on day 3 the swelling starts and if it's bad then you will look (and feel) very strange and just want to be at home in bed.

ukpatient, congrats man ! there's a store down the street from the sheraton wall centre. hit it bro the night before surgery and stock up that little fridge with all the food & drink you need. trust me, you don't want to go grocery shopping or out for a meal post surgery. you really need to keep the elements out and keep your head as clean and warm as possible!

Lorenzo, Thanks man, and your HT looks spectacular to me as well! I guess with Dr. Hasson it's hard to go wrong, eh ? But really man, I didn't mean to start a witch hunt here. I'm sure Cooley is a great doc. It's just that these doctors make so much money that IMO when they have an obvious failure like this they should offer more than just a touch-up. Patients should not have to PAY full price to be human lab rats for unproven, experimental procedures!:cool:

Another fine example IMO of how easily the "top doc of today can become the hack/quack of tomorrow". We have seen it before and we will certainly see it again on this forum and others! That's why if you are a newbie and you think simply because your chosen doc is on the recommended list of the HTN then -- THINK AGAIN !!!!! No offense intended EJ, but I think you were a modern day lab rat for this new procedure. And to hear that Cooley offered you a "touch up" simply does not cut the mustard in this case! He owes you much more than this IMO !!

bishal, Look up my blog and you can see my pre-HT pictures as well as my surgery pics. I was a NW4v. Dr. Hasson did the entire front third with 3300 grafts and a small (2.5" X 2.5") crown bald spot with 1200 grafts. The strip was quite large, 30 cm long X 1.5/2.5 cm wide in some places. My donor density averaged about 70 fu per sq. cm I'll probably keep my back and sides at about double this length in the future, which is still fairly short for me. IMO there is not much difference looks-wise between a crew cut and this length of hair. A little stubble looks better than bare bald skin to me anyway, so i can never understand why so many guys are so worried about retaining the ability to shave down to a 0 guard ? Look at Jason Statham for example. Would he really look any different shaved to a 0 guard as opposed to a #3 ?