Gorpy

Average penis length was 5.6? Damn, I am truly blessed.

Dude, you had a ton of triples! That should give you some nice density.

Hairfree that is an excellent question. The stem cell injection method does create a problem of hair exit angle being uncontrollable. As Dr. Keene puts it, it will be used for providing an "underbrush". It will have its limitations.

He didn't say he didn't work for the clinic. He said he wasn't "employed" by the clinic - big difference. There's a lot of slick word smithing used in these forums. Slick Willie would be proud.

Hairfree, Have you used minox before? If so, you will know how your skin reacts to it. If you don't have a bad reaction to it before the HT, you most likely will not have a bad reaction after. It is generally considered safe to start minox 7 days after a HT. The other guys bring up some good points, so you'll have to decide for yourself. I can speak from personal experience. I am a good responder to minox and it does not irritate my scalp in any way. I decided to restart minox 7 days after my last transplant. I used it years ago and should have continued. I like the foam much better than the old stuff. I have no irritation from it and much of my transplanted hair didn't shed. It just started growing. I think it is due to the minox. BTW, I use it in the front part of my scalp (I don't have any crown loss).

You will want to sleep with your head elevated for the first 5 nights. This helps control the swelling. Prop yourself up with nice soft pillows. And yes, you sleep with your donar area (back of head) on the pillows. Sleeping was the only reason I ever took pain medication after the procedure. I would feel some soreness in back when I would rest my head on the pillow. The pain medication eliminated this pain. Sometime in the middle of the night, the medication would wear off and I'd wake up and have to take some more medication.

Valium works wonders to change your attitude

Hi Donna, While I have not had a procedure with Dr. Alexander, I can say that overall the procedure is pretty painless. The worst part is the injections for the anesthesia. After that takes effect, there is really no pain. They will give you more if you feel anything. The problem with the initial injections is that there are many of them all over the donar and recipient area. But once that is over you're home free. I actually drove 2 hours home from my procedure the next day. Knowing I was driving, I didn't take any pain medication that next morning. The pain was minimal. As far as breaking up the long day - generally you are on valium, which helps make you more comfortable with the LONG day sitting in the chair. Even though the chair, which is somewhat like a recliner, is comfortable, it is still difficult to sit that long. The valium helps with this. You can watch movies. You take restroom breaks, You get lunch brought to you, etc. Hope that helps.

krispykreme, I'm glad to hear about your experience with Dr. Epstein. He is top notch. In 6 months to 1 year, you'll start to forget about your previous problems. Good luck and be patient.

This is a good topic. Is it not true that most clinical trials only focused on the crown? My own experience with Minox tells me that it does affect the frontal hair in a positive way. I used Minox years ago. I only had frontal thinning with no crown loss, so I only applied it to the front. I did notice a slight thickening of the front. Over time (years), one tends to lose faith in it because there is little change. A level of doubt starts to creep in. Unfortunately I came to a point where I said heck with this, and I quit. As documented, I lost the hair it was preserving and became noticeably thinner.

I don't think grafts placed by one of the top doctors would contribute to existing ridging. I think the new grafts would not only camouflage the larger grafts, but also the ridging.

Hair2stay, I have to agree with the others about camouflaging the plugs rather than removing them. One good thing is that they are high enough on your head that you can put a good amount of camouflage in front without lowering your hairline too much. Doctors can do wonders with this type of work now days. Go with a hairline specialist like Shapiro or Keene.

B Spot, You need to keep telling it like it is. Don't worry about what other think. Your input is extremely valuable even if it hurts somebody's feelings. You are correct. This doctor is using old school technology (small sessions and mini-grafts of 4 to 8 hairs). Gorp

Yeah Bill, how do we know that second pic is not you when you were 17? Next time hold up a newspaper so we can verify the dates.

Hi PB, Bill is correct. It's somewhat unpredictable. I had some minor shock loss this time.

Yes, I can see you are a diffuse thinner. I agree, you need to give the propecia a chance to work for a couple of years.

Wow! it really is growing in. You're an early responder.

Ah! OK, that makes sense.

Andrew, yeah that's interesting stuff. From my own experience, as my front thinned I could see that I had very few multi-haired Fu's left. So, my assumption is that what were once multi-haired slowly became single haired. Yes, there are many measurments that could be done, but graft count and hair count are relatively easy to provide. Hair caliber is not only difficult to measure, but it can vary over the head, e.g. hair caliber tends to be less on the sides of the head. Hairfree, I would like to hear from a tech or Dr on this, but I would think that 455 singles would be enough. Keep in mind that much of it depends on the doctors strategy and how thick they want to make the hairline. If you consider that a typical hairline is about 10 cm across - going about 1/2 cm deep with singles means that you are covering around 5 cm2 of area with singles. So you can see that you could easily spread 455 in that area and maybe go a little deeper.

Andrew, I think you are saying that with natural recession multi-haired grafts start to show up on the hairline. I don't think this is the case. As recession happens in nature, I believe it causes formerly multi-haired FU's on the hairline to lose most of the hairs and become single hair FU's. So, in essence, you always have single hair FU's on the hairline.

Ian Ziering of Dancing with the Stars looks like he had a transplant. Overall it looks good, but I can detect it as a plant. Here's how: <LI>His temple points are gone, yet has a hard hairline. <LI>He has a fairly hard hairline, yet high. <LI>His hairline starts exactly where most HT hairlines start. <LI>His hairline goes straight into his temples rather than a natural rounding/blending. <LI>His crown looks a little thin, which indicates he should be losing more in front. He's probably wearing some Dermatch. The guy is an actor and knows how to do his hair and makeup. What do you guys think?

It looked real, although it wasn't something you would notice in the movie, unless you were looking for it.

One thing we should consider is that it is commendable that Dr. DeYarman's office placed a "not so stellar" result for us to view. Doctors usually only display their "showcase" patients. ALL doctors have "not so stellar" results. It is usually is due to hair characteristics, patient physiology, health etc.

Are you referring to Dr. Jeffrey Epstein? You know, those estimates are not set in stone. If you feel the need for more, you can discuss it with him.

Thanks guys. I'm currently at the 2 month point. I'm looking forward to it growing out.