That first crushing comment.

[Bronte]

I was just thinking back to all the negative comments I have received over the years regarding my hair loss..I remember it like it was yesterday..I went to my usual barber shop for a haircut.when I got to the entrance of the shop I noticed my usual barber man wasn't there.I was about to go home when a young dude Norwood 0 yells out come in I won't bite he says "I'm the new barber I just bought this shop.so I went in reluctantly.well I sat down and could see the barbers face in the mirror he went silent and was looking at my scalp closely..Then he had the saddest look on his face he said "Your going bald mate"How old are you?..I said 19 but my heart had already sunk..I felt terrible and I couldn't talk for the rest of the hair cut.sensing I was pretty upset about his comment he tried to be nice to me but the damage had been done..I know it's hard but can you recall the first negative comment you received?ps I never went back to this c..t for a haircut ever again..

[Ireland78]

Oh mate i hear you. I remember i was in a nightclub with a mate and not saying i was Don Juan De Marco but i was good with the ladies in my early twenties. Anyway, under a harsh light my mate was looking at my crown and goes, your going bald mate, my friends took the p!ss for a few years but they knew it upset me and in fairness they don't hammer me about it. Then from barber, work colleagues and people just looking occasionally you know what they are looking at, devastating is the only word but such is life. Going to save like anything and sort it in the next two to three years. if not will just buzz it and get a tan :-))

[1978matt]

Someone at work pointed out my hairloss about 4 years ago. I wouldn't have minded but he's a NW4.

 

The turning point for me was renewing my passport after 10 years. There's something about those photo booths that makes your hairloss look even worse! It was from that point on I started to seriously look into HTs.

[tacolinowest]

oh man,, i been hearing this shit since i was 17,, pretty much every week someone will say something, my family and freinds arent shy about talking about other people imperfections, i got used to it after a while, like a broken record

[Rothki]

i remember when i was about 20, i was at the hair dresser and they said to me, why are you coming here for a hair cut, just get some clippers and trim your hair yourself, it is pretty thin. was a horrid feeling, and i went and got some hair clippers that week. i cant wait untill i can go to a hair dressers again hopefully!

[Arrie]

I remember when I found out the first time... I was driving and i was looking in my rear view mirror wondering why I couldn't style my hair "just right" like I used to.... Then it finally hit me like a ton of bricks..... GENETICS!!!!!! 19 years old and I noticed it has begun......

Edited May 22, 2013 by Arrie
spelling

[MAGNUMpi]

I remember when I was 26. My girfriend at the time woke up one morning, turned to me, looked up at my hair and said "You know you will be bald when you are older".

Oh man that hurt.

[Sparky]

I noticed when I got home from work one afternoon,it was after a haircut and i had slight, very slight miniaturization in the corner of my left temple, I was 19.

[Ireland78]

I remember when I was 26. My girfriend at the time woke up one morning, turned to me, looked up at my hair and said "You know you will be bald when you are older".

Oh man that hurt.

 

Hope you dumped her!

[MAGNUMpi]

Hope you dumped her!

No way! she was a beautiful beach girl from Corsica....and she told it like it was. We stayed together for years, though I think her new guy is about a NW +1 (rats!)

[lorenzo]

I remember when I was 26. My girfriend at the time woke up one morning, turned to me, looked up at my hair and said "You know you will be bald when you are older".

Oh man that hurt.

 

 

. I have never had extensive hairloss thanks to keeping up to it with hair transplant. I remember how devastated I was when my girlfriend told me at 27 that I was losing my hair. Fast forward 13 year later not only she married an NW7 but saggy everywhere. Its funny when I saw here I thought it was her aunt with her uncle until I heard her talk.

[OtherSyde]

I had just joined the Navy and was at my first duty station in Washington state, at age 22. I had my hair style with my usual for of "messy gel-spiked" look, but hadn't realized it was thinning and receding yet. Some douchey redneck in the rec center just said, "Dude, why do you style your hair like that, it just looks worse, like you're tryin' to hide that you're balding." I was immediately crushed and commenced freaking out, examining my hair in the mirror every day. I got on Propecia, which helped slow the progress, but I really just continued to freak out and become a social recluse until 2010 when I finally got my first HT.

[Al - Moderator]

I was 15 when my mother was yelling at me every time I needed a haircut, blaming me that it was my fault my hair was falling out. I was teased about my bald spot from friends beginning around 16. I got turned down for the prom at 17 because she thought I was sick with cancer or something because all my hair was falling out. From 17 to about 20 I got lots of people asking what disease I had or what was wrong with me. Around 18 or 19 my mother would criticize my combover telling me I look like a 40 year old bald man, but by this time she was no longer saying it was my fault. She was now trying to convince me that I had a scalp disease and wanted me to see a dermatologist because a skin/scalp disease was the reason my uncle's hair fell out when he was younger. After seeing a dermatologist who couldn't figure out why my hair was falling out, I went to see a group of specialist physicians with 5 clinics in NY, NJ, and PA. They were "physicians who specialize in hairloss" (from their brochure). I had a HT with them because the "Dr" (found out years later that he was not licensed to practice medicine, although SOME people in their other clinics were) confirmed that I did have an "excessive hairloss disease" (his words) and that I "need surgery as soon as possible or else you won't have enough hair left to work with. If you wait any longer, you'll never be able to have any hair." (his words as close as I can remember).

 

It just went downhill from there. He gave me an estimate of about $8000 and 3 sessions each spaced 6 weeks apart plus a possible 4th free session for any touch-up work if needed. The entire process from start to full had of hair would take about 1 year. I decided to leave my job for 6 months to a year and wait for the HT to grow. That was the easiest way I could think of to handle the ugly duckling stage because my job required me to be out in public every day. I basically lived in my bedroom waiting for the hair to grow.... for 25 HT sessions over 6 years. Now 25 years later I'm still waiting for the hair to grow and the ugly duckling stage after the HT to be over.

 

I always wondering what I could have possibly done differently and I honestly don't know. I didn't go into it lightly. I did whatever research I could at the time (no internet). I read medical books that said a hair transplant can be used to eliminate scars, which is just the opposite of creating them, so when the clinic told me there would be no scars, of course I believed it. There was no mention of scars in the consent form. I was worried about future hair loss down the back of my head and sides as that's what my older uncles have, so the "Dr" told me I could pay an extra $150 per session to double the hair on the sides and back which would guarantee I'd never run out of donor hair. When I said OK, he even said I didn't have to do that because he didn't think it was going to be an issue since I had good donor quality, but I wanted to make sure there was no way to later say I should have done it differently and made sure of it, so I gladly paid the extra $150 per session. I don't remember exactly, but I think I paid that for about 7 or 8 sessions. I refused to pay more once I paid double the original estimate.

 

I originally wanted to do just the hairline and try wearing a hair system behind it. I was already wearing a hair system at that time and the biggest problem is the fakeness of the front. However, he insisted that it was better to cover my entire area with a hair transplant and that there would be "no noticeable difference" (his words) in thickness between the HT and the hair system. To prove to me that he could do it, they started at the mid section first rather than create a hairline. They drew some hairlines, so I knew where it would be, supposedly, but he didn't start there. Looking back I'm sure he did that to make sure I went through the whole process thinking I'd stop after doing just the front and he wouldn't make as much.

 

When we did finally get to the hairline several sessions later, 2 people drew a hairline on me that even I thought was too low, but I did like that they had the temples (sides?) filled in, but as I said I thought the hairline was a bit low, so they gave me the pencil and asked me to draw what I felt it should be. I started drawing a line and they said OK, we can put it there. I never did get the temple sides filled in though.

 

Some people ask me why I kept going so many times. What was I supposed to do? They kept telling me I had a disease and I was an extreme case and had to do exactly what they said because I was in jeopardy of losing all my hair and it would be my fault if I stopped going to them before it was completed. I also had scars which I kept complaining about since just after the very first session. I was ready to stop then, but their answer was always that they remove the scars when everything else is done because if they removed them now, they would just have to make more anyway and the hair growing in the scars wouldn't be as good for transplanting, so I had had to wait until everything else was done. I really had no idea what else to do. I dreaded going there, but felt I had no choice.

 

Over and over they kept telling me to give it time and eventually it's going to turn out to be a full head of hair. I still find myself checking my hair in the mirror to see if there's any more growth. I know that probably sounds crazy to you, but when you go though that for 25 surgeries and nearly 6 years, that's what you do... keep checking to see if there's growth. I'm still waiting for my hair transplant to be done, so I can date 20 something year old women who all ran away from me because they thought I had some kind of disease when we were in our teens... sigh...

[Spanker]

I was 15 when my mother was yelling at me every time I needed a haircut, blaming me that it was my fault my hair was falling out. I was teased about my bald spot from friends beginning around 16. I got turned down for the prom at 17 because she thought I was sick with cancer or something because all my hair was falling out. From 17 to about 20 I got lots of people asking what disease I had or what was wrong with me. Around 18 or 19 my mother would criticize my combover telling me I look like a 40 year old bald man, but by this time she was no longer saying it was my fault. She was now trying to convince me that I had a scalp disease and wanted me to see a dermatologist because a skin/scalp disease was the reason my uncle's hair fell out when he was younger. After seeing a dermatologist who couldn't figure out why my hair was falling out, I went to see a group of specialist physicians with 5 clinics in NY, NJ, and PA. They were "physicians who specialize in hairloss" (from their brochure). I had a HT with them because the "Dr" (found out years later that he was not licensed to practice medicine, although SOME people in their other clinics were) confirmed that I did have an "excessive hairloss disease" (his words) and that I "need surgery as soon as possible or else you won't have enough hair left to work with. If you wait any longer, you'll never be able to have any hair." (his words as close as I can remember).

 

It just went downhill from there. He gave me an estimate of about $8000 and 3 sessions each spaced 6 weeks apart plus a possible 4th free session for any touch-up work if needed. The entire process from start to full had of hair would take about 1 year. I decided to leave my job for 6 months to a year and wait for the HT to grow. That was the easiest way I could think of to handle the ugly duckling stage because my job required me to be out in public every day. I basically lived in my bedroom waiting for the hair to grow.... for 25 HT sessions over 6 years. Now 25 years later I'm still waiting for the hair to grow and the ugly duckling stage after the HT to be over.

 

I always wondering what I could have possibly done differently and I honestly don't know. I didn't go into it lightly. I did whatever research I could at the time (no internet). I read medical books that said a hair transplant can be used to eliminate scars, which is just the opposite of creating them, so when the clinic told me there would be no scars, of course I believed it. There was no mention of scars in the consent form. I was worried about future hair loss down the back of my head and sides as that's what my older uncles have, so the "Dr" told me I could pay an extra $150 per session to double the hair on the sides and back which would guarantee I'd never run out of donor hair. When I said OK, he even said I didn't have to do that because he didn't think it was going to be an issue since I had good donor quality, but I wanted to make sure there was no way to later say I should have done it differently and made sure of it, so I gladly paid the extra $150 per session. I don't remember exactly, but I think I paid that for about 7 or 8 sessions. I refused to pay more once I paid double the original estimate.

 

I originally wanted to do just the hairline and try wearing a hair system behind it. I was already wearing a hair system at that time and the biggest problem is the fakeness of the front. However, he insisted that it was better to cover my entire area with a hair transplant and that there would be "no noticeable difference" (his words) in thickness between the HT and the hair system. To prove to me that he could do it, they started at the mid section first rather than create a hairline. They drew some hairlines, so I knew where it would be, supposedly, but he didn't start there. Looking back I'm sure he did that to make sure I went through the whole process thinking I'd stop after doing just the front and he wouldn't make as much.

 

When we did finally get to the hairline several sessions later, 2 people drew a hairline on me that even I thought was too low, but I did like that they had the temples (sides?) filled in, but as I said I thought the hairline was a bit low, so they gave me the pencil and asked me to draw what I felt it should be. I started drawing a line and they said OK, we can put it there. I never did get the temple sides filled in though.

 

Some people ask me why I kept going so many times. What was I supposed to do? They kept telling me I had a disease and I was an extreme case and had to do exactly what they said because I was in jeopardy of losing all my hair and it would be my fault if I stopped going to them before it was completed. I also had scars which I kept complaining about since just after the very first session. I was ready to stop then, but their answer was always that they remove the scars when everything else is done because if they removed them now, they would just have to make more anyway and the hair growing in the scars wouldn't be as good for transplanting, so I had had to wait until everything else was done. I really had no idea what else to do. I dreaded going there, but felt I had no choice.

 

Over and over they kept telling me to give it time and eventually it's going to turn out to be a full head of hair. I still find myself checking my hair in the mirror to see if there's any more growth. I know that probably sounds crazy to you, but when you go though that for 25 surgeries and nearly 6 years, that's what you do... keep checking to see if there's growth. I'm still waiting for my hair transplant to be done, so I can date 20 something year old women who all ran away from me because they thought I had some kind of disease when we were in our teens... sigh...

 

Man, that's heart breaking.

[Spanker]

I was 15 when my mother was yelling at me every time I needed a haircut, blaming me that it was my fault my hair was falling out. I was teased about my bald spot from friends beginning around 16. I got turned down for the prom at 17 because she thought I was sick with cancer or something because all my hair was falling out. From 17 to about 20 I got lots of people asking what disease I had or what was wrong with me. Around 18 or 19 my mother would criticize my combover telling me I look like a 40 year old bald man, but by this time she was no longer saying it was my fault. She was now trying to convince me that I had a scalp disease and wanted me to see a dermatologist because a skin/scalp disease was the reason my uncle's hair fell out when he was younger. After seeing a dermatologist who couldn't figure out why my hair was falling out, I went to see a group of specialist physicians with 5 clinics in NY, NJ, and PA. They were "physicians who specialize in hairloss" (from their brochure). I had a HT with them because the "Dr" (found out years later that he was not licensed to practice medicine, although SOME people in their other clinics were) confirmed that I did have an "excessive hairloss disease" (his words) and that I "need surgery as soon as possible or else you won't have enough hair left to work with. If you wait any longer, you'll never be able to have any hair." (his words as close as I can remember).

 

It just went downhill from there. He gave me an estimate of about $8000 and 3 sessions each spaced 6 weeks apart plus a possible 4th free session for any touch-up work if needed. The entire process from start to full had of hair would take about 1 year. I decided to leave my job for 6 months to a year and wait for the HT to grow. That was the easiest way I could think of to handle the ugly duckling stage because my job required me to be out in public every day. I basically lived in my bedroom waiting for the hair to grow.... for 25 HT sessions over 6 years. Now 25 years later I'm still waiting for the hair to grow and the ugly duckling stage after the HT to be over.

 

I always wondering what I could have possibly done differently and I honestly don't know. I didn't go into it lightly. I did whatever research I could at the time (no internet). I read medical books that said a hair transplant can be used to eliminate scars, which is just the opposite of creating them, so when the clinic told me there would be no scars, of course I believed it. There was no mention of scars in the consent form. I was worried about future hair loss down the back of my head and sides as that's what my older uncles have, so the "Dr" told me I could pay an extra $150 per session to double the hair on the sides and back which would guarantee I'd never run out of donor hair. When I said OK, he even said I didn't have to do that because he didn't think it was going to be an issue since I had good donor quality, but I wanted to make sure there was no way to later say I should have done it differently and made sure of it, so I gladly paid the extra $150 per session. I don't remember exactly, but I think I paid that for about 7 or 8 sessions. I refused to pay more once I paid double the original estimate.

 

I originally wanted to do just the hairline and try wearing a hair system behind it. I was already wearing a hair system at that time and the biggest problem is the fakeness of the front. However, he insisted that it was better to cover my entire area with a hair transplant and that there would be "no noticeable difference" (his words) in thickness between the HT and the hair system. To prove to me that he could do it, they started at the mid section first rather than create a hairline. They drew some hairlines, so I knew where it would be, supposedly, but he didn't start there. Looking back I'm sure he did that to make sure I went through the whole process thinking I'd stop after doing just the front and he wouldn't make as much.

 

When we did finally get to the hairline several sessions later, 2 people drew a hairline on me that even I thought was too low, but I did like that they had the temples (sides?) filled in, but as I said I thought the hairline was a bit low, so they gave me the pencil and asked me to draw what I felt it should be. I started drawing a line and they said OK, we can put it there. I never did get the temple sides filled in though.

 

Some people ask me why I kept going so many times. What was I supposed to do? They kept telling me I had a disease and I was an extreme case and had to do exactly what they said because I was in jeopardy of losing all my hair and it would be my fault if I stopped going to them before it was completed. I also had scars which I kept complaining about since just after the very first session. I was ready to stop then, but their answer was always that they remove the scars when everything else is done because if they removed them now, they would just have to make more anyway and the hair growing in the scars wouldn't be as good for transplanting, so I had had to wait until everything else was done. I really had no idea what else to do. I dreaded going there, but felt I had no choice.

 

Over and over they kept telling me to give it time and eventually it's going to turn out to be a full head of hair. I still find myself checking my hair in the mirror to see if there's any more growth. I know that probably sounds crazy to you, but when you go though that for 25 surgeries and nearly 6 years, that's what you do... keep checking to see if there's growth. I'm still waiting for my hair transplant to be done, so I can date 20 something year old women who all ran away from me because they thought I had some kind of disease when we were in our teens... sigh...

 

Behappy,

 

After reviewing your photos, you case seems to be extremely severe and unusual. I think I could walk around in public for a few days before I saw someone with such poor donor. Have you ever been diagnosed by a legitimate doctor with anything besides MPB? Have you lost any body hair? I hate to see what you went through. Tragedies such as yours are very rare today, which makes your case that much more heart breaking. Sorry to see what you're going through. Lesser men (like myself), I do not believe would be able to endure what you have described.

[Pulpedfiction1]

I don't even know where to begin with this.

 

My heart truly goes out to BeHappy.

 

25 strip surgeries within a 6 year span? Is this even possible?

 

Have you spoken with an attorney?

 

 

 

 

Behappy,

 

After reviewing your photos, you case seems to be extremely severe and unusual. I think I could walk around in public for a few days before I saw someone with such poor donor. Have you ever been diagnosed by a legitimate doctor with anything besides MPB? Have you lost any body hair? I hate to see what you went through. Tragedies such as yours are very rare today, which makes your case that much more heart breaking. Sorry to see what you're going through. Lesser men (like myself), I do not believe would be able to endure what you have described.

[OtherSyde]

BeHappy, there has to be some kind of hope for you; Granted, not Justin Bieber hair (not for any of us, really, though), but I know there has got to be some doc who can fill in those thin/bald spots and mask your scarring, at the very least. I know people keep mentioning Dr. Umar, and looking at his work HERE and HERE, it might be a good idea to get ahold of him? I mean there's no guarantee that he can duplicate these amazing results on you, per se, but I would wager a bet that he could dramatically improve your situation and disposition in life at the very least.

 

Now granted, I don't have any personal experience with Dr. Umar, so if I'm wrong here then someone please help out. I can empathize with BeHappy's case, and really would like to see something good happen, is all.

[BrianR]

Wow very cool a thread about sharing feelings...

I have a father and brother that always had amazing hair, I too had the BEST hair ever (I mean I got layed all the time and im pretty sure it was my long hair (Drummer, motorcycle and long hair) It was perfect and I don't think I was a jerk at all.....1 day BAM about 23yrs old, I noticed my scalp (I had good hair for my age just couldn't handle seeing any scalp.)

I had hair almost to my ass (really, haha it was the 70s) It killed me but I got a short hair cut to hide my thinning hair (And it looked really thick short) Then BAM again, it started looking thin short haha WTF I spent Hours in front of the mirror getting ready to go out (Fucking ton of hair spray) and then if the wind blew I had to turn my head to compensate so my hair stayed good.....AT about 28? I never went anywhere without a hat, I wouldn't go to weddings or nice restaurants, swimming, riding roller coasters, family parties, ect I planed everything around my hair! Im 56years old now and im still controlled by my hair (that's why Im here) Its so sad and weird how insane we are...

My dad is dead now and hair dosnt matter to him anymore....

Maybe we don't need a cure for baldness, maybe we need a cure from ourselves?

We are, are own worst enemies.

I talk a lot of shit, but im so vain when it comes to hair...

The only thing I hate more then going bald is writing...haha im sure you can tell from my pinmenship...

[BrianR]

Wow very cool a thread about sharing feelings...

I have a father and brother that always had amazing hair, I too had the BEST hair ever (I mean I got layed all the time and im pretty sure it was my long hair (Drummer, motorcycle and long hair) It was perfect and I don't think I was a jerk at all.....1 day BAM about 23yrs old, I noticed my scalp (I had good hair for my age just couldn't handle seeing any scalp.)

I had hair almost to my ass (really, haha it was the 70s) It killed me but I got a short hair cut to hide my thinning hair (And it looked really thick short) Then BAM again, it started looking thin short haha WTF I spent Hours in front of the mirror getting ready to go out (Fucking ton of hair spray) and then if the wind blew I had to turn my head to compensate so my hair stayed good.....AT about 28? I never went anywhere without a hat, I wouldn't go to weddings or nice restaurants, swimming, riding roller coasters, family parties, ect I planed everything around my hair! Im 56years old now and im still controlled by my hair (that's why Im here) Its so sad and weird how insane we are...

My dad is dead now and hair dosnt matter to him anymore....

Maybe we don't need a cure for baldness, maybe we need a cure from ourselves?

We are, are own worst enemies.

I talk a lot of shit, but im so vain when it comes to hair...

The only thing I hate more then going bald is writing...haha im sure you can tell from my pinmenship...

 

That felt good haha thanks

[OtherSyde]

Its so sad and weird how insane we are...

My dad is dead now and hair dosnt matter to him anymore....

Maybe we don't need a cure for baldness, maybe we need a cure from ourselves?

We are, are own worst enemies...

 

I'll avoid going on one of my signature rants here, but suffice it to say that what we all need is one of two things: Either A.) a cure for hair loss, or B.) for society to stop judging people and denigrating their worth as people based on looks. If society suddenly stopped caring at all about how a person looked, and the pretty people with great bodies, faces, and hair suddenly no longer held a higher status in society, we'd all stop caring. Unfortunately, the competitive nature of society and human nature will never change, and none of us are willing to just accept second-class-citizen status over hair loss, so we'd better aim for the first option.

[Garageland]

I first realised it when I was 21 and on holiday and a girl that I was into told me I was loosing my hair in front of all my mates. I also burnt my head that holiday for the first time. And that's when my paranoia began basically.

 

Unfortunately I had lost my dad only a year earlier who was a full blown Norwood 6 I am sure if I had him to turn for support I may have never gone down the road of getting 450 mini and micro grafts at the age of 23 and wasting so much of my precious donor.

[Al - Moderator]

Just wanted to answer a few questions that were asked of me.

 

I have a lot of body hair. Some of my chest hair grows about 3 inches long if I don't trim it.

Yes, I've been looking into doing BHT, but there's a small matter of between $40k to $50k that it would cost for between 5000 and 6000 grafts which I think I would need... so I haven't been able to do it.

 

Have I spoken to a lawyer? Yes, back in the day I certainly did. I think I went to 5 of them before one finally took the case based on consumer fraud. The ridiculous laws in NJ don't allow a medical malpractice lawsuit against someone who doesn't have a medical license, so it's actually better for someone in NJ to practice medicine without a license! There is apparently nothing illegal about it. The only thing we could claim was consumer fraud for not providing the service that was promised at a cost reasonably close to the estimated price. There were other lawsuits against them as well. One was a class action with about 120 claimants. The HT company claimed bankruptcy and sold the client list to another company started by the same people using the same offices and phone numbers. So we had to file motions for the right to sue the new company claiming they were actually still the old company. Once that was allowed, the 2nd company simply did the same thing over and started a new company again. At that point it was obvious they would keep doing it forever and there was nothing we could do. They've since merged with other Drs and changed names several more times over the years.

[wylie]

BeHappy,

 

All I can say is I've been in your shoes man. And as one one who has gotten over 5000 beard grafts added to his nugget, this donor source was a lifesaver for me. One reaches an age where they feel something has to be done. Guys like us, and most on this forum, reach that stage in our early 20's, and there are/were so many bad actors in this industry that young guys like us are targets of opportunity for scumbags like those who took advantage of us.

 

I first wasted ten grand with yet another unscrupulous hack repair doctor out of Alpharetta Georgia before I did the right thing and got in to see Dr. Umar. I'm not exactly sure how much I've spent with him over the past 4 surgeries I've had with him, but I do know I've gotten actual results for the first time in my life.

 

It's been expensive, and I'll be paying it off for the next couple years, but throughout those years without hope I invested my paychecks in my retirement accounts and at this stage I at least know that I'm not in too deep, that a safety net I built is beneath me.

 

It has absolutely been worth the cost, and I did not find anyone else who could have done my repair. There are some docs. in India using body hair for less money but I simply cannot take the risk of more failure, life is too short and my faith in the medical establishment won't endure any more disappointment.

 

So, in summary, I just want to remind you to not lose hope. Dr. Umar can fix anything, he has seen the worst this industry can deliver. I was in such bad shape I never left my house without a hat for over 15 years. It is a habit I'm still trying to break, but knowing that I can go out without one if I want to? Well, that is priceless to me.

 

Good luck man, don't ever lose hope. I did and now I realize that no one ever should.

[OtherSyde]

Yes, I've been looking into doing BHT, but there's a small matter of between $40k to $50k that it would cost for between 5000 and 6000 grafts which I think I would need... so I haven't been able to do it.

 

Those pieces of sh!t at that clinic make my blood burn. Scamming people for some money is generally just sleazy, but scarring them for life in the process is unforgivable; and the fact that the law knows exactly what they are doing and condones it is sickening. I literally hope someone sets their clinic on fire with them in it. And I hope they don't die, but instead suffer severe third-degree burns all over their faces and bodies that they have to live with for the rest of their lives; that would settle the karma. Where is Dexter Morgan when we need him?

 

Anyway, though. As far as the money, man... Where there is a will, there IS a way. Do it $10k at a time by saving about $3,000 or $4,000 and then taking a relatively small $6k loan that you can pay off in a year or two through aggressive payments.

 

Three years ago I was a low-ranking E4-level enlisted military peon who only made around $30k per year, but through the creative use of a combination of relatively small chunks of saved cash, a few personal loans, and exploiting the no-interest period of new credit cards, I managed to afford a lot of expensive stuff that would normally be way out of my range. I pulled together roughly $7,800 for my first HT; I did this by taking out a retirement-fund loan against my own account (only about 2% interest, which you end up paying back into your own account), and I did that while simultaneously using $3,600 of saved cash from a matured one-year CD (Certificate of Deposit) in combination with financing $10,000 in oreder to get my wife a combo brachioplasty (arm-skin lift/tightening with lipo) and abdominoplasty/tummy-tuck after she had lost about 86 pounds (this was about $13,600). This amounted to over $20,000 at once when it was all said and done - and all that was completely paid off over a year ago; I was very aggressive with payments because I knew I was going to want something more - whether it be a new car, another HT (as it turned out to be), or something else.

 

Now I just recently engineered (with relative ease) about $6,000 for a second HT by using the combination of a personal signature loan from my bank for $4,000, and about $2,000 on a new Chase Freedom card that has an 18-month zero-interest intro rate. It's only been 5 months and the Chase card is long-since paid off and zero'ed out, and I'm almost half done killing the signature loan already - which brings the added benefit/bonus of ultimately paying much less total interest than anticipated. And even after taking out all these loans and credit cards, my credit score has jumped about 40 points to a 762 just over the last few months (this is a combination of having high available credit limits but low balances, as well as having a history of making lots of payments to lots of lenders - all on time and never late).

 

For years I've been bothered by the fact that my chin and jaw line are uneven/asymmetrical and it really shows in pictures, so I'm going to kill that last loan in the next 2-3 months and then creatively direct between $10k and $15k towards some high-end facial surgery to fix that, probably performed by the highly-rated Dr. David Mabrie of San Francisco.

 

And yes, I've also been saving for retirement this whole time and investing money into my Roth IRA and some stocks (Starbuck's stocks are making a lot of money right now FYI), plus I'll have my military pension when I hopefully retire at 40 in eleven years.

 

Again: Where there's a will, there's a way. Money is just numbers, just a means to an end. It's all about spinning plates and making your resources work in tandem to augment each other. I think getting what you want is more important than having pocket money to blow.

 

I'm just putting this out there hoping someone will benefit from the positive results I've come upon, without having to do the risky/scary experimentation that I had to do. Follow this road-map and stay aggressive, and you'll get what you're after!

 

I'm rooting for you, man. Make it happen.

Edited August 29, 2013 by OtherSyde

[jakemane50]

cant remember the first but recently when i go out people will make smart comments such as your only young and your going bald, was talking to a girl at the time and my heart sunk felt so embarrased and now scared to go out