Gorpy

E! entertainment channel on TV had a 2 hour show on bad plastic surgery experiences (horror stories). I missed the first 30 minutes, but the remainder of the show did not have any hair transplant patients. It mostly concentrated on surgeries like nose jobs, brow lifts, lip injections and liposuction. What did I get out of it? The stories were very similar to bad hair transplant stories I have heard online. Patients would make the mistake of not doing proper research. Doctors can basically buy board certification and practice any kind of plastic surgery they want, regardless of skill or experience. There are many, many unethical doctors out there disfiguring people daily with a variety of procedures. How about a nose job that is done so badly that too much cartilage is removed and the nose collapes? Talk about not wanting to be seen in public. Keep in mind, just because someone is a doctor does not mean they are skilled or even ethical. A doctor who might be trained in liposuction for example can decide to set up a hair transplant clinic. It's perfectly legal and their are no rules, laws or governing board to prevent it or regulate it. They pay their money and they receive an impressive sounding board certification. He must be good right? How else could he have this fancy building and presentation? One more very important thing. Many patients who have been disfigured and have sued the doctor have had the case settled out of court with a secrecy agreement stating that they can never publicly tell their story. Think about it and do your research.

E! entertainment channel on TV had a 2 hour show on bad plastic surgery experiences (horror stories). I missed the first 30 minutes, but the remainder of the show did not have any hair transplant patients. It mostly concentrated on surgeries like nose jobs, brow lifts, lip injections and liposuction. What did I get out of it? The stories were very similar to bad hair transplant stories I have heard online. Patients would make the mistake of not doing proper research. Doctors can basically buy board certification and practice any kind of plastic surgery they want, regardless of skill or experience. There are many, many unethical doctors out there disfiguring people daily with a variety of procedures. How about a nose job that is done so badly that too much cartilage is removed and the nose collapes? Talk about not wanting to be seen in public. Keep in mind, just because someone is a doctor does not mean they are skilled or even ethical. A doctor who might be trained in liposuction for example can decide to set up a hair transplant clinic. It's perfectly legal and their are no rules, laws or governing board to prevent it or regulate it. They pay their money and they receive an impressive sounding board certification. He must be good right? How else could he have this fancy building and presentation? One more very important thing. Many patients who have been disfigured and have sued the doctor have had the case settled out of court with a secrecy agreement stating that they can never publicly tell their story. Think about it and do your research.

Hi Prosp, You are in good hands with Dr. Cooley. I can see how 3000 would give you reasonable coverage from your existing hairline back to about the halfway point. I think 2000 would be very thin coverage. Are you planning on doing the crown later?

BUMP. I've added a 2 month picture. Waiting sucks!

Bill, I think you're just at the beginning stages right now. Over the next few months, I think you'll experience a lot of growth.

I noticed some of my grafts just kind of broke of at the base, leaving a stub of hair. Of course that looks like a dark dot. Maybe that is what you are seeing.

Trachound, 12 days would be cutting it close. Each person is different. In my case, my grafts didn't start to fall out until after the two week point. The new grafts were very obvious and looked like a 5 o'clock shadow. I also had lingering redness. It's just now cleared up at almost 2 months. It depends on what you want. If you want no indication of a transplant, you had better wait. If are ok with some indication of a transplant, but want it to look good, 12 days is probably ok. Smaller procedures use a shorter donar strip. Doctors go longer, not wider for more grafts. That allows for easier closure and less chance of a widening scar.

Well, that is obviously a little bit of an overstatement. My grandfather recently passed away at 93 and he didn't ever get it. My great uncle is now 89 and he doesn't have it. There has been quite a bit of longevity on my mothers side of the family, even some men living into their 100's. None of them had prostate cancer.

Brav, I think PB mentioned something about this and I wish I had done it. Take a picture of your head with a ruler next to the area. Then from that you can load it into something like PhotoShop and make litte squares that represent a square CM.

Brav, read Dr. Keene's opinion on why she feels it is important that she place the grafts and not the techs. You'll see alot of different opionions on this, but I like the fact that if I'm paying 10k for a procedure, the doctor performs and/or supervises all of it. Dr. Keene

Good question.

Depends on the doctor. Some techs place 100% of the grafts. Others just help some. Each doctor has his/her own preferences. It is pretty much the industry standard that the techs place the grafts. I personally have a problem with that, but many seem to do a good job.

Yes. The donar hair should only be taken from this zone. The hairs in this zone are generally genetically immune to MPB. If you take hairs outside of this zone, they would end up falling out at their predetermined time. Not only would the scar be exposed, but the hair taken from that area and placed somewhere on you head would fall out due to the normal MPB. The whole point of a transplant it to put "permanent" hair in you bald spots not temporary hair that would end up falling out anyway.

They are referring to the area of hair that is not susceptible to MPB. That would be the "horseshoe" area around the back and sides of the head.

Anyone considering Body Hair Transplants, should think twice about it. Check out Lucky Man's story on the other site. Who says FUE is scarless?

Anyone considering Body Hair Transplants, should think twice about it. Check out Lucky Man's story on the other site. Who says FUE is scarless?

Ok - a seven week update. I know you guys didn't believe me when I said I was seeing growth at just 6 weeks. Now that I am at 7 and a half weeks, I am defininitely seeing new growth. I just want to mention it here for my own records. I'm seeing quite a bit of new growth popping out. Just the early stages right now, maybe 1mm in length. Many of these new hairs are clearly visible with the naked eye near the (new) hairline. I can also feel a lot of stubble in the areas behind the hairline when I lightly run my fingers over it. Some of the hair that never shed (maybe 5%) is growing and is about a cm long now. The new hair that is appearing constitutes a small percentage of the area that was transplanted. I'm seeing maybe 10 new hairs in the hairline and many more behind it. Remember I had zero hair in the first cm of my new hairline so it's easy to spot. There is still a lot of sprouting to do, but early signs are encouraging. This is not visible in pictures so I won't post any until there is a visible difference. I had my first post HT haircut a few days back. I told my barber that I had a transplant. He looked at my hair, pointed to my crown (where I had never lost hair) and said, "where here?", as he fluffed a chunk of my crown hair. I proceeded to point out that it was in the front half of my head.

Have any of you seen Country and Western singer Randy Travis lately? He has an obvious plant. His hairline is WAY too strait. It looks totally unnatural. I saw him on TV recently making some rediculous religious statements about natural disasters and God punishing us. I almost have to laugh when I look at his hair.

Starting to look good Bill. I like the hairline. It frames you face well.

It was $3.50 per graft.

Brav, I understand your disappointment with the coverage, but this is actually a good example of what 20-25 grafts per/cm2 will get you on an area with little to no existing hair - light, see through coverage. You could go with another procedure to get more density, but expect some temporary shock loss. I'd go with one of the recommended docs this time.

Ok, that makes sense. Well, I guess my density estimates ARE getting better. 20-25 per/cm2 is exactly what I was thinking. I think Kamin is correct in that it is pretty good coverage for such a large area.

Trachound, the cutting of the strip is definitely the most major part of the surgery. The area is thoroughly numbed, so as others have said, you don't feel any pain. If you think about it too much and try to imagine what it looks like, it could gross you out. If it's any consolation, the strip removal was surprisingly quick. Before you know it, it is removed and the doctor is sewing you back up. I felt relieved after that. I took the valium they offered. I was very nervous the morning of the procedure and my blood pressure was way up. Funny though, I didn't feel any effects from the valium. The only way I knew it was working was my blood pressure came down. Maybe I needed more?

Brav, thanks for posting the new picture. After having my own transplant, and looking at so many pictures, I'm getting better and better at a general guess of density. I'd say that is no where near 40-50 per/cm2. It looks less dense than my transplant, which was around 30+ per/cm2

Brav, it's a little difficult to tell where the majority of your grafts were placed from the pictures. You show a side and front post op, but I don't see any grafts in the hairline. How long post op was this? Are these one year post ops also? Also, 2200 grafts is not much depending on how far back you went. It does look a little thin, but it depends on how much area you were trying to cover. How far back did you go. You said 3/4 on the front and hairline. Does that mean the entire front 1/2 of you head. That would be about 1600, which is not much.