The so called "Negativity" in hairloss forums...

[Jotronic]

Since this little endeavor of a thread began I've been far too busy to keep up but since it is Saturday I have had a wee bit of more free time to explore the threads. Boy, this one really took off.

 

Hopefull, you've got many posts and many comments in this thread, too much in fact to peruse and respond to, however here are a few that I will respond to.

 

 

"1. It doesnt sound so good for a clinic to endorse a drug like avodart which is not approved for hairloss and its for another illness."

 

Either you have a bad memory or you choose to ignore the FACT that you asked me about this same issue last year on Farrel's site and I answered you in detail. Very few of our patients are on Avodart and in fact I would guess with confidence that it is far less than 1% overall. Proscar is the gold standard and it will be for the foreseeable future. Your notion that we prescribe it for a lot of patients is based on Bobman and Nicnitro. They hardly make up the bulk of our clientele. Out of the relative handful of our patients that do take Proscar about 25% of them were on it BEFORE they came to see us and those that do start up for the first time with a prescription from us are told to research it themselves to see if they feel comfortable taking it. Stop saying we push this on most of our patients. Your issues with clinics giving out bad or little information is mirrored by your own bad information.

 

"2. It doesnt saound so good for the strip to start and end so close to the nw6 borderline area...what if you nw7?What if you develop sides to the drugs one day and you have to stop them."

 

How do you know where the borderline is if you say we don't know where the borderline is? Fact is, we stay where the good hair is and this range of good hair will vary for each patient. Any good doctor will tell you that there is a "sweet spot" of good hair that helps to determine where to go as long as it is in the safe zone. Once this good hair starts to blend into areas where even the slightest bit of miniaturization is indicated then the strip stops. Period. Do we know for sure with absolute certainty that the Earth isn't going to open up and unleash some gaseous plume of hair loss inducing chemicals? Of course not but we do our best to inform the patient about potential issues and to help them to prevent further loss as best as is possible. And as far as meds go, I know not of a single person that has suddenly developed sides to Proscar after a few years. We've been prescribing it for ten years and not ONE case of someone suddenly developing side effects has been noted.

 

"3. What percentage of people coming at your office have the laxity for these megasessions of 7000-10000 grafts? is it over 5%?"

 

Over how many surgeries? In one? Very few in the 7000 range and none in the 10K range. Over two or three? Most average patients can achieve at least 7000 grafts in more than one session.

 

 

"And we have to protect newbees and raise flags as often as we can and not let them be informed just by consultants or salesmen."

 

Hopefull, if it were up to you no one would get a strip hair transplant, no one would save the hair they have left with medication, and everyone would be shaving their heads. Looking out for others is a great thing and is quite admirable but do so regarding things you know, not things you think. You assume too much my friend.

 

I on the other hand got butchered when I was 23 by a no-ethics quack that ruined my (at the time) life. I went through my twenties pretending that no one saw my bald-ass noggin that was dotted by pluggy "thinning Ken-doll" hair grafts and trying my best not to shoot myself in the head to end my misery. Not only did this doctor perform two VERY unnecessary procedures on me (leaving me with two stacked scars) he also did NOT tell me about Rogaine which was the only medication on the market that was worth a spit. It may have helped me to keep much of my hair before Propecia came out. Who knows? He should have told me about it but he took your approach and didn't inform me of a possible way to keep my hair but instead set me up for future surgeries (he had a third planned for me) to "stay ahead of my hair loss".

 

Then of course I found Dr. Wong and the rest is history but in case you have forgotten my story is here. Hair Transplant Mentor

 

On top of that I've done more to inform people about the perils of this industry than most from both a patient perspective and that of someone in the industry. Let's start with showing what surgery looks like from a patient perspective. Then showing how the surgery progresses on a daily and weekly basis. Photos of my grafts, photos of my incisions being made. I was basically the first to do so in such detail. Endless videos, postings, phone calls all over the world telling someone why they should NOT get a hair transplant instead of convincing them to hop on a plane and give us their hard earned money. And there is this little subject of photographs that I firmly believe in. In my opinion it is one of the greatest deceptions in the entire industry. The use of flash photography or studio lighting in gallery photos improves the results so much that the result in person looks nothing like the photos. Why are you not screaming about this? Photos LIE and I've proven over and over how this is true yet no one including you will carry this torch. I believe in this so much that it is part of my signature as well as my statement about being on salary and not commission because I do not want to be influenced by commissioned sales. I do educate patients because I don't want anyone to go into this blind like I did. Been there, done that, and I paid the price.

 

The bottom line is this. Educating patients is something we firmly believe in and we like to think that our patients are among the most informed out there. The biggest single problem I see in patient education is that sometimes even though the patient says they understand something they in actuality might not really understand. This is true in life itself and there is nothing that can be done about that but as long as we put our best foot forward and do what we think is right then we will be able to sleep well at night, and we do.

 

Lost my Swagger,

 

You and I have not had much direct interaction on the forums but I have been aware of your case as it somewhat mirrors my own when I was in my mid-twenties. I feel for you and understand your pain. If you ever want to vent you are welcome to contact me anytime. I've been in your situation and lived with it for nine years.

[Mr. GQ]

awesome post Jo!!

have you ever considered to write a book or something in that nature related to hairloss and HT world? you are so, how should i put it - aha eloquent - with your words and style of writing is bang on. who knows it might be a best seller

 

 

its so silly to me that ANYONE would call for this thread to be shut down... if you are no longer enjoying the views being shared then MOVE ON! goto another thread by all means

for todays failing economy the only solution is ________ (fill in the blank) as in purpose of my post

you SILLY you

[hopefull]

Originally posted by Jotronic:

Since this little endeavor of a thread began I've been far too busy to keep up but since it is Saturday I have had a wee bit of more free time to explore the threads. Boy, this one really took off.

 

 

Yeah, it turned unavoidable...

 

anyway thanx for the answers...i seem to assume alot as you say.As in Armanis case where i never saw a consultant who is so much in the know and he is not assuming to fight the BS like some of us did...

 

by the way here are some very recent example posts from HLH for us to assume more about scars, meds and transplants...

 

by sceptic

"I got my Ht in Novemeber 2007. For the first year everything was ok. But 13th month..i started shedding heavily. I used to take Proscar 1.25mg/daily. Apparently it stopped working. The shedding is heavy and i switched to Avodart (dut) for the last 3 weeks. Now there has been no change.

 

Now..the hair is thinning..as per my Doc it could be native hair..but i never had that many native hair to begin with initially ... so at this rate of shedding i will be back to pre HT levels in about 3 months.

 

Is there anything else that i can do?. Blood test. Switch back to Proscar?. This aspect of HTs no body discusses. Now i cannot go ahead and shave my head as i have a scar now. Sometimes, it makes me wonder whether the money spent was worth it."

 

by innermind

"yeah... skeptic4 Im basically in the same spot you are. I had a huge shed, although im pretty sure it was the minox foam, and the hair never came back and propecia, after almost 2 years did nothing. I keep it as short as possible. I will soon get FUE into my scar so i can go as short as possible. Its really the only option for now. Pray for HM, acell or follica. Good luck."

 

Lets assume that there wont be more posts like this in the future...