Gorpy

Well, its big selling point is that it is a "no touch" method that helps prevent damage to the follicle. Maybe gimmick is too strong a word, but graft handling in the top clinics is not a problem. So this device is not necessary for that and could even be a detriment to graft survival based on less visual inspection of it. If a doctor extracts an FU from me, I want it inspected to make sure it is intact and trimmed properly. Not inserted directly into my scalp with some kind of plunger.

Exactly Damo. I think that is because of follicle damage upon extraction. It is imperative that the Doctor examine the follicle after extraction to insure its viability. This device is a gimmick. Top doctors today take 3000+ follicles, examine them, trim them and place them in your head and practically all of them survive and grow. There is no valid reason for using a device like this.

I agree with Damo on the placement of the grafts, however it is the industry standard for the techs to place the grafts, even with some of the top doctors. Some of them do a very good job. So try not to worry too much over that. What's done is done. The good thing is you did a relatively small procedure and hopefully your donar area still has a lot of hair in case you need another one.

I'm not sure why you would want to cover your head while you sleep or are around the house. If you do, make sure that it doesn't stick to your head, which upon removal could damage a graft.

Zerro, Yes, 1600 in the front half is not much. But I think another 1600, for a total of 3200 in that area, would give you a good look. Why are you going for such small procedures? How's you donar hair and laxicity? How about going for 2600 this time. Add 1600 to the front half and spread another 1000 fading back towards the crown. An artistic surgeon could make this look quite good for you. You can experience shock loss to your existing transplanted hairs, but it should grow back. Generally shock loss that is permanent is from hair that was about to fall out anyway, not permantently transplanted hairs.

When you say he removed the strip and the girls did the rest, you really mean he took the strip and then made the recipient incisions and the girls placed the grafts in them, right?

Anthony, You can rest assured that Dr. Wolf who responded to you above is one of those ethical, skilled and artistic doctors. Look at his photo gallery here Notice one of his patients actually has the problem you were describing. You should not let geographic location influence your decision. Schedule a consultation, arrange a flight and see what you think.

Good luck ifloss. Dr. Cooley is one of the best. I'll be interested to see how much he can actually get. Your sides look a little thin. I would be surprised if he could get 3000. But, you never know. I would like some hair to comb in front also, so I'm hoping I have decent growth. Let us know how it goes.

Hmmm... Interesting. How does the doctor know that the follicle is not damaged before implanting it again? Sounds like it is never visually examined.

I can't really see your hair in the 31 year old picture that well. But, it looks like a very conservative hairline, which I think you might be able to acheive, BUT, only if you leave your crown very thin and don't expect too much density in the front. In other words, with a skilled surgeon you might be able to make a cosmetic difference. Don't expect much. You have very advanced hair loss and not much donar hair. Remember, if you are this bald at 36, you might lose more below the crown (the donar area) in the future. I don't mean to be negative, but you need to have realistic expectations.

My HT doctor put me on a prescription after my first consultation.

Sorry Jo20. I don't think Finasteride is commonly bought on the web. If you get a prescription for Proscar and cut it, it's only 20 bucks a month.

Zara, you must be VERY careful. Many of these places both in the UK and the US, are just butchers with good salesmen up front. They will lie, cheat and steal while at the same time disfiguring you. I have not heard of any Doctors in the UK that are worthwhile. Don't risk your scalp. You only have one. This DHI you refer to sounds fishy to me. Can you give us some details of how the hair is extracted and how it is implanted? If you don't know the details, then you aren't ready for a transplant. By the way, one of the issues with female baldness is that females typically don't follow the standard pattern of hair loss that males follow. It therefore becomes more difficult to find "genetically bald resistant" hairs to use for the transplant.

This latest picture was something I found interesting. The hair shown is a wild hair that was below my hairline and never receded like the rest of my hairline. So about a month after my transplant the hair had grown out a little and it had lost all pigmentation (You can see the clear area in the middle). This hair is about an inch long. Recently I noticed that it had regained its pigmentation. I wonder what caused this. Maybe it was the trauma of the transplant or the adjustment of my system to the new transplanted hair. Any ideas? This is not really important. I just thought it was interesting. I have not seen this happen with any other hair.

No, it doesn't produce equal tension to doing it all in one session. Skin will stretch over time and you can gain laxicity again, slowly. Doing the same amount in one strip would produce much more tension. The length of those super-mega session scars would bother me too. But the only way to get the same amount of grafts from a shorter strip is to go wider.

Looks good dude! At just 6.5 months, I think you'll get quite a bit more thickening.

Mudpuppy, I didn't mean to sound harsh. You sound like a reasonable guy. Thanks for your input. The new closure technique you refer to is I believe a "cosmetic" technique that helps disguise the scar. It does not however prevent stretching as far as I can tell. All of the top doctors are able to close with a nice tight closure. Stretching of the scar occurs for other reasons, not because the strip wasn't closed properly or because the new technique was not used. I don't think Shapiro and others do not do the huge mega-sessions because they are not set up to. I think it is because they don't want to risk taking a wider strip. I personally have seen many bad scars, in person and on line. I'm a little paranoid about it, so at this point I don't think I would risk getting 5000+ in one sesson. I'd rather do one, then reassess my laxicity later for another. It's an interesting topic with so many variables.

That's a silly response Mud. Of course it is going to look good right after surgery.

I think you are correct GuitarPlayer. They probably go home to their families and feel like they are good husbands/parents and valuable members of society.

Thanks for that in depth explanation Pat. I think I understand it now. Boy was I way off. I'm glad I didn't go to the doctor that wrongly explained it to me. There is one point that you touched on that's still confusing. The proponents of lateral slit keep repeating the following: "the lateral slit technique offers a high degree of control over the angle and direction in which the transplanted hairs will ultimately grow." I don't really see how lateral slit would add any more control over any other angled slit. Won't the hair grow precisely in the direction of the slit, be it parallel or perpendicular or somewhere in between?

Troy, I don't remember if you posted any pictures or not. If you don't have much hair up there already, it might not be too noticable.

Troy, It's hard to say. My donar area was immediately undetectable. That is to say, my hair covered it well from the start. But I suppose it depends on your hair length, the doctors methods, shock loss etc. I just had one small area that showed a little unevenness, but a little creative combing fixed that. The recipient area was another story. My grafts took a bit longer than usual to shed. At one week, I still had some bloody scabs (scabs created from light bleeding)left. At two weeks the final follicular scabs (tiny white scabs associated with each graft) finally fell out, but I still had most of my grafted hair. This gave me a look of a 5'oclock shadow all over the area. Very noticable. Sometime between two and three weeks, the grafts started to shed rapidly and the area started to look very much like I never had anything done. If I wanted to go out I used a little of my wifes makeup to cover the redness. It works great. So, I'd say sometime after a couple of weeks you'll be ready to go. These things vary from person to person, but I'd think you'll need at least a couple of weeks if you don't want anyone to suspect anything. Did this help?

Relax Troy, you're gonna be a happy camper after it's over. At two months out I'm getting excited about what the next few months hold. My scar looks great and my grafts are primed and ready to grow. When you go with one of the top doctors, like Dr. Rose, the whole process is actually very interesting and exciting.

Yes Jotronic, please put up a sketch. This is a confusing technique. Thanks for your input.

First of all this term only applies if the device used to make the incision is in the shape of a flat head screw driver (or similar), which most doctors use. Upon insertion into the skin, it literally makes a slit about 1mm in length with virtually no width. In other words, it does not apply to the use of a needle that would make round holes. The term 'lateral', meaning sideways, refers to the direction of the slit upon the scalp. A slit pointing from one side of the head to the other, or ear to ear, is referred to as a lateral slit. Obviously, the slits can be made in any direction upon the head. A slit pointing front to back would be called a longitudinal slit. Now the tricky part - as grafts are placed into the slit, they tend to 'lean' slightly one way or the other along the slit. Also multi-hair grafts will 'splay' like a bouquet of flowers along the slit. Picture a forest of pine trees. If all of the trees were prefectly vertical you would have a certain amount of depth of view into the forest. Now imaging that each tree was randomly leaning to one side or the other. Your depth of view would be hindered. This applies to hair on your scalp. The slightly leaning hairs in lateral slits causes your hair to be less 'see through' when looking at it from the front, thus giving an enhanced illusion of thickness. This is my best understanding of slit direction. I am not a doctor and could be mistaken about some of the details. Feel free to add any corrections or additions.