23 and im loosing it!!!

[Browny217]

if anyone can give me any advice about a ht would appreciate it alot like how satisfied will i be with it etc been a tuff time for me latley so ive decided to bite the bullet and doit, ive made my appointment for the transplant with the reputable dr jennifer martinick about 1500grafts ive come back to a 3 and am relativly thin on top ,so if anyone can help me out please

[Browny217]

if anyone can give me any advice about a ht would appreciate it alot like how satisfied will i be with it etc been a tuff time for me latley so ive decided to bite the bullet and doit, ive made my appointment for the transplant with the reputable dr jennifer martinick about 1500grafts ive come back to a 3 and am relativly thin on top ,so if anyone can help me out please

[UGLY MAN 4 LIFE]

Browny217

 

It's hard to give you a graft estimate without seeing some photos. It's like saying I have a car that doesn't start, how much to fix it?

 

How satisfied you'll be depends on what your expectations are. What do you want to be able to do with your HT?

 

With HT density, you're unlikely to be able to go swimming without it appearing thin, also you're unlikely to be able to get out of the shower, slop a can of gel on your head and go out.

 

What you may be likely to do is to look non-balding when dry - depending on how good your donour hair is.

[dhuge67]

And you can always try to reinforce the look of your hair with something like Dermmatch.

[the B spot]

I think you should post some pictures so we can see what you look like. In some NW3 1500 would make them look great, in others it might be a waste of time and money. Martinick seems to be a good doc though.

[Browny217]

Cheers for replying

would i need to do another session to get it to the point where it looked good wet? im sorry but whats demmatch, this photo is a bit older (august last year but its as good as i could get since i try to avoid photos) id just like to be able to style it a bit and not look so bald i would like to thicken it up a bit while restoring the hairline

[hairbank]

Hard to say with your hair so short.........if I were to guess I'd say you'll need more like 2500-3000 for the appearance of density. You need to factor in the possibility of shock loss since you'll be transplanting in and around existing hair.

 

Do you have a loss prevention regimen? Are you taking propecia, applying minoxidil or using good hair care products like Nioxin and/or Nizoral? If not, you may want to consider this before jumping in the HT chair. At 23 years old, you're pretty young to have determined anything close to your ultimate balding pattern.

 

FYI...Dermmatch is a concealer that can be applied to give you the appearance of thicker and fuller hair. It's really a great product, very cost effective and water resistant so you can go out in the rain and not worry about it coming off. The catch is you need to have some hair to work with to avoid a "shiny" look. Your pics look like it would work well on the areas when you have thinning hair. If my crown work from HT #2 is a little thin I'll probably use it.

 

You may want to spend a little time using the Find feature on this site to assist you in researching many of posted suggestions.

[troy]

I am with you hairbank, 1500 seems to small. I think You will need 3000 plus, but given your age you may want to wait a couple years and see what happens, if your not on propecia try that for a year or 2 stay plugged in to this community then you will have somewhat assessed your hairloss pattern and can make a game plan from there.

[Browny217]

i understand where you guys are coming from and i appreciate your advice which is good but im getting very confused, i was recomended 1500grafts would give me what i wanted by DR martinicks adviser who sits in on her operations but i should talk to her personally i guess

 

23 may be young but i have thought about this for the past 2 years or even more maybe i just have my heart set on it,

now im going to get a bit personal here but when you get to the point where you dont even feel confortable going out with friends (theyre great they dont comment onit) but when you cant even go out without somone stating the obvious that your going bald (hello dipstick i look in the mirror everyday) and yes maybe i need to just deal with it or i have some other issues in my head, the fact that all i want is some of my temples back which from what i have researched it doesnt matter how much propecia rogaine or whatever else i can put on there i will never get them back which puts me more pro ht

 

now after looking through all the forums on whether or not to doit, very confusing

 

i will try and post photos from 3 4 years ago because i believe my loss to have slown down considerable i started loosing when i was 17 it was like "puff" bye bye temples overnight which is one main thing i want to do put a bit back into my temples while reinforcing what i have on top, i will jump on the propecia band wagon to keep what i have

 

please dont take that as an attack hairbank and troy once again i appreciate the advice after all i have not made my final descision

Cheers Browny

[future doc]

Browny -

 

I feel ya. I am turning 25 soon and just had my second procedure. I haven't lost quite as much but I still think we're in the same boat. Luckily, with propecia (on it for 3 years) and my two procedures, I have virtually stopped it. I think a HT would be a great think for you.

 

However as some of the other posts stated, it is tough to tell because your hair is so short and we can not really take a good look at your donor area. If you grow your hair out, is the hair on the sides and back thick? If so, I think you should do it, and the recommendations of about 3000 sound very accurate. It sounds to me that where you want to get...1500 will definitiely not be enough.

 

Don't feel bad if you find yourself getting a little hostile every now and then, most of us have been there, it's frustrating. In the meantime, get on propecia. Then you might want to grow your hair out just a little bit so you can see what kind of donor area you have. Anyway, that's my two cents. Keep your head up.

 

FYI - I just had another 900 grafts from Dr. Epstein about 5 hours ago. Procedure went great, I will posts pics soon.

 

Take care

[the B spot]

Browny, first off, I and all of the other members of this community feel your pain. Each of the members here have given you some sound advice, and some info to really think about. I can't tell for sure, but you seem to have recessed quite a bit in the temporal region and possible completely lost your temple points as well. You need to understand right away that a HT done ethically at your age will NOT completely restore you hairline. Taking this another step further, 1500 grafts if placed in the right spots will widen your "V" (from the mid-scalp to the tip of your hairline, but that is all. In addition, you have to consider the possibility that simply doing a HT will result in considerable shockloss that may cause you to lose some of the hair you currently retain, which after 1500 grafts, may put you back in the same position you are in now. May I suggest a 6 or 7 month trial of Propecia, if only to strengthen the hair you have, and possibly limit shockloss if you decide to go through with it. My personal belief is that I would not open my scalp for anything less than 2500 grafts at this point, simply from a pricing/results standpoint. If you need less than that, you probably do NOT need a HT. I think I would give it some time and put together a plan of attack. Remember, you are signing on for at least 2, probably 3 surgeries, so you need to make sure mentally and financially you are able to make the commitment. Believe me, losing hair after and around transplanted hair can result in some very ugly results, so you don't want to get stuck there. You may think this is the end of the world, but take a look at my pictures and imagine having NO hair by 25, and then shaving it off for 4 years, until the industry caught up with what I and others desired. I would KILL to have to hair you have!!!! Others have given you quite a bit to chew on, so take some time and relax a bit, and ask questions until you are totally ready to travel the path! I hope this helps you out buddy!!

[Browny217]

cheers for your replys fella`s

i understand where your coming from bspot about no hair at 25 i looked at a guys posting who had nothing at 20 who i take my hat of to cause i could not imagine that at that age

as future doc said and myself, i think my mind is made up and i think you guys are probably right i will need more than 1500 but as you said from midscalp to the tip of hair line and widen the "V" (no offence i hate that term "V" mainly cause i almost knocked a bloke out over it but in this case it describes it well) 10-14mm which is all i really want i would be stoked with that infact (and if theres some left overs to join up my mistache so i could grow some porno handle bars, jokes)

i do thank everyone who has and is putting there bit in to this forum i have all this bottled up in me song long feels go to let it out

kinda theraputic

cheers

[dhuge67]

bspot, wouldn't the donor hair characteristics play into whether or not a surgery of 1,500 to 2,000 FUs would be worth doing? I would think so. I'm not saying this just because I did it, but because I think hair characteristics are the underestimated variable in all of this. Why are some 1-for-1 transplants vastly different? A lot has to do with the quality of the donor hair, it seems.

[JakeVig]

Hi Browny217

 

I think anyone who has experienced hair loss at a young age will know exactly what your going through. It does sound like you have good friends though, my friends cant help giving me shit infront of other people about my balding and receding hairline, so count yourself lucky. I know its hard to wait before doing something about it, but you should definately start on a hair care regime of Proscar/Propecia and Minodoxil/Rogaine for at least 6 months - if just to strengthen what you already have to avoid shock loss and to halt future hair loss.

 

At 23 you are still too young to get a HT the longer you do wait the better off you will be. At this poing in time I would recommend a positive outlook in life and some dermapatch.

 

If you still must go through with it, I would consult with as many ethical surgeons as you can to assess your donor density and what is possible for the future.

[dhuge67]

Originally posted by JakeVig:

Hi Browny217

 

At 23 you are still too young to get a HT the longer you do wait the better off you will be. At this poing in time I would recommend a positive outlook in life and some dermapatch.

 

If you still must go through with it, I would consult with as many ethical surgeons as you can to assess your donor density and what is possible for the future.

 

I don't understand this perspective, since I have had a transplant and am only 20 (and will be for another 4 months). If you have a proper plan of attack and you go to a surgeon that has an ethical history (and they are willing to do the surgery), then I don't see why there is a problem.

[the B spot]

Great Point D--- Yes donor characteristics play a huge role in any HT. What we need to look at is measuring the donor density. Say a Dr. measures Browny's donor at 90 fu's per cm/2, at that point the doctor can estimate a 17cm long X 1 cm wide strip will yield slightly over 1500 grafts. Regardless of fu distribution (1's, 2's, 3's) the fact is the most a patient would yield even after graft splitting (ethically!) is probably 1700 to 1800 grafts.

Using your HT as an example, you spoke about your doctor using 3 hair grafts in your HT, which he could have split to make your graft number higher. In Browny's case, the risk he is running (much like yourself) is doing many small sessions in order to "keep up" with the hairloss. Obviously continuous surgery is the main issue, but pricing, and recovery is a factor as well. This is why most people believe that younger men, such as yourself, are not candidates for HT's, because mentally and financially they cannot forecast 5 to 10 years into the future. Say you pay 6000 for 1500 grafts for 4 surgeries throughout your 20's. (remember, you cannot do massive surgeries 1-because you don't need that much, and 2- the larger the surgery the greater the chance for major shockloss). The immediate BENEFIT is that during your 20's and early 30's you stay ahead of your hairloss, the 4 surgeries notwithstanding. It is after you run out of donor hair or money where you run into the problem, so you may be left with a youthful hairline and no chance to address the crown.(2 3000+ HT would probably cost you 18-20 thousand, and limit your surgeries)

D, I would have to say that you are one of the only younger men (I have seen) to really do research and come to terms with what you might be facing. Most people in their early to mid 20's do not do the research necessary to understand this. That is why most people and doctors take a real hard line on young guy's who have lost enough hair to require a HT, and refuse to operate until later. All of this is subjective though, and each individual is different, so people just need to keep doing research, asking questions, and then make an informed decision.

[RoboNick]

Im in the same position as you Browny, almost 24 years and have the same kind of hairloss as you. Ive been on this forum for some time and I think it was a good thing I did not do one when I came across this site first time as I was realy down and Im still am but as to now I need to do something about my hairloss.

 

Eather do a HT or shave it all of, the main thing for me is that I realy do not think shaving the head is such a bad thing because it feels good BUT the main thing is as I have dark hair the areas where the loss has accured doesnt look nice with shave head and I also do not have a small head

 

I have been checking many docs sites especially in the US but still as young as I am the scar is an issue as propably will loose more hair, propecia do not stop it 100% but it sure does slow the process down indeed I guess, but I cannot be 100 on that as when I started lose hair when I turned 18 I did lose the hair slow for 2-3 years and since then I started eat propecia and still I may have slown down and stopped the hairloss in the begining but now it feels its not stopped 100%. Maybe my immun system doesnt work with propecia more, Im not sure.

 

Anyways what I wanted to tell is you need to think about this decision, its not an easy one as it can mess up even more then it can do. Ive read many posts on several forums where it has messed up for people that rushed into it and also for other that did rush into it as this is a risk you take when youre at a young age and still in the process of losing more hair.

 

I myself was near to go through a 1500 FUE in my country but was very concerned that 1500 wouldnt acchieve the density I was trying to get so I canceled in the last moment.

 

Right now Im looking and searching more about a top doc in Thailand that has a good reputation and the price is realy different to USA surgeons but there are some factors involved like thailand is not in the same standard as USA and everything is cheap over there.

 

The decision to be made is if getting a FUT then then to forget to be able to shave your head, maybe in the future there will be new method to revise the scar as the technique is going forward and not backwards but as right now its not possible to shave head and not have a noticeable scar.

 

If you wanna chat sometimes, Im on msn pretty often, just IM me.

 

 

Cheers!

[Browny217]

well i decided to take my trusty olympus in hand and decided to take some nice photos i dont feel too bad how they came out actually my hair is still short so its still a bit hard to tell but i think its thickish

[Browny217]

top donor

[Browny217]

side

[Browny217]

first propecia tablet today

bottoms up!