Thinking about Transplantation

[komal]

I am new at this, went to 3 centers NU HART, TOLD ME 600GRAFTS Bosley told me 800 to 900, and ELLIOT AND TRUE, TOLD ME 1050, I ma a class 3 and 35 yrs old, started to take PROPECIA..Very hesitant, about density? SWELLING? I am in sales, cant take 3 or 4 days off, hOW LONG DOES IT Hurt as far as bieng uncomfortable? Just confused know everybody is different.. I need to do it eventually, dont look bad now, but know in 3 to 4 years will progress at the temples pretty bad..SHOCK Hairs, do they always fall out will i look bald, WILL I look bald for at least 6 months, 500 grafts are to be placed in exsisting hairs, could use some advice??

[komal]

I am new at this, went to 3 centers NU HART, TOLD ME 600GRAFTS Bosley told me 800 to 900, and ELLIOT AND TRUE, TOLD ME 1050, I ma a class 3 and 35 yrs old, started to take PROPECIA..Very hesitant, about density? SWELLING? I am in sales, cant take 3 or 4 days off, hOW LONG DOES IT Hurt as far as bieng uncomfortable? Just confused know everybody is different.. I need to do it eventually, dont look bad now, but know in 3 to 4 years will progress at the temples pretty bad..SHOCK Hairs, do they always fall out will i look bald, WILL I look bald for at least 6 months, 500 grafts are to be placed in exsisting hairs, could use some advice??

[arfy]

I have been around the block on the hair transplant thing, and I have learned a lot...sorry to say I had to learn it the HARD way, so please don't be like me.

 

First, do yourself a favor and do NOT go to any clinic that advertises on TV. That means Bosley, NuHart and MHR. These clinics are not the best, and they are also not the cheapest. These clinics spend millions on advertising, and they pass those costs on to you. Reputable doctors do not advertise on TV. These clinics do not use the latest methods, they use the same techniques they were using 5 to 10 years ago.

 

I would also not go to Elliot & True, unless Dr. True himself was going to be your doctor. Even then, he would not be my first choice.

 

If I were you, I would wait to see if Propecia is going to work for you. If it does work, you might very well not need a hair transplant. In any case, stay on Propecia, because it is important to not let your hair loss go any further. Propecia might not regrow your hair, but it will most likely stop the hair loss from progressing, which is crucial.

 

If I were you, I'd take some time to read this website, and do as much research on the internet as you can. Read everything on this site. Look at the list of recommended doctors, and visit THEIR websites, and read them from top to bottom. This will teach you quite a bit about hair transplants, it will allow you to make an informed decision.

 

A good place to start reading is on the page here called "Best hair transplant" Can I give you a hint, and tell you that Bosley, MHR and NuHart are NOT using the techniques described in that article... those 3 clinics use outdated Minigrafts and Micrografts.

 

As far as Elliot & True goes, Dr. True is recommended by this website, however Dr. Elliot is not, and neither is any other doctor at their clinic (besides Dr. True) as far as I know.

 

Be careful, only a handful of doctors can be considered excellent hair transplant surgeons. Everyone else is just pretty good, mediocre, or lousy. Please, do yourself a favor and don't bother going to guy who is only just pretty good!!! Unless your goal is to look like "a guy with a hair transplant". If that is what you want, that will be easy to accomplish, and won't require any reading or research. Just open the phone book and pick someone at random.

 

Give Propecia a chance to work, before you commit to any surgery. I would say 6 months to a year, probably. Good luck.

[HotCreek]

I have visited several HT offices here on the West coast including Bosley and Elliot & True. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I would NOT let anybody at Bosley touch me! I have no direct experience with NuHart (sp?) but have heard nothing good about them. I have a friend who was done by Dr. Elliott of Elliott & True and got far less than perfect results.

 

I would not consider allowing anybody to perform the procedure on me unless they were recommended on this site. The people who post here (physicians, patients and prospective patients)have literally hundreds of years of combined experience in hair loss treatment.

 

As far as pain goes, most patients say post-op pain is minimal and easily managed with mild pain killers. Pre-op pain consists of the discomfort of receiving hypodermic needle injections. I'm sure you've had shots before, so bearing in mind you'll get them in the head, you get the idea. Swelling seems to vary with the individual and some physicians prescribe various meds to control it.

 

If you can't take a few days off work, you might want to forget about it. Remember, surgery is surgery and is always traumatic to your body. Your head will be red (especially if you're fair-skinned) and there will be scabs and crusting, and as indicated possibly some swelling.

 

Anyway, just my "two cents" I'm sure you'll get more. Also, many of your questions are already addressed on other threads on this site.

 

Best of luck whatever you do!

[HarryLemon]

If you can't take 3 to 4 days off, or can not go without a cap for at least 2 weeks, forget it - you might as well tell everyone what's going on because, if you are white, and not very tanned, you WILL have a reddish-pink (and then just blatently pink) mark showing behind and along the edges of your procedure. Your temples, should you get any work done there as well (as I did), will take even longer to die down. I am 1 week and 3 days post op, and, while the healing is done now and the stubs are falling off and going into their resting faze, I do still have a bit more pink than I would care for, (not that much, but just enough). At the rate it's going (which really is very good, considering I had over 2,300 holes punched into my scalp less than a fortnight ago), I believe I will be able to venture outside hat-free in no more than a week's time.

Just so you know, I have an almost abnormally fast metabolism (sub-clinical hyperthyroidism), to the extent which even the surgical technicians were astonished at how fast I was metabolizing the novacain (and consequently requiring more). What I'm getting at is that my healing process is just as remarkably fast... I don't know how much hair you currently have to comb forward over any work you may want done, but you should know that WHEREVER the line is drawn from, expect it to be noticeable for at least 2 weeks if your a white guy who's not particularly tanned.

I work from home and am not out of place wearing a cap, but in sales I know it may be different for you. Don't let that discourage you though - if you can wing a cap for 2 weeks you should be fine...

 

HarryLemon