Hair greed and other advice from Dr. Lindsey Patient

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Ok guys, listen to Steven...first off he has a mop of hair.  Some courtesy of a few FUE cases by me, but mostly from his GENES!   Here he is 77 months after I first operated on him and he's signed up for a little tweak of the hairline and partline in a month or so.  He does however give excellent advice on hair loss and hair transplantation.  Even seasoned veterans would be wise to hear his 2 cents on the life long progressive nature of hairloss.  And that is despite meds and surgery.

 

The video is: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Lindsey 

McLean VA

[Spanker]

Dude sounds legit. 

[Motoro]

I'm the dude in the video. I intended to chime in earlier, but my (healthy) aversion to hair loss forums kept me away. More on that in a moment.

First of all, a big thanks to Dr. Lindsey and his staff, especially Wendy. This was my forth transplant with Dr. Lindsey, which says all you need to know. Donor hair is a limited resource and hair loss is a never-ending battle. Pick your surgeons carefully. 

I’m almost 39 and started losing my hair at 17. Every male in my bloodline, going back three generations, went NW6 by 30. I started minoxidil at 18, finasteride at 20 and dutasteride at 22 (replacing finasteride). I’ve been taking 0.5 mg of brandname Avodart each morning for the past 17 years. 

In the early 2000s—when the forums were less foolish and hysterical—people talked about “the big 3.” Minox/Fin/Niz. I took that to heart and never wavered, which is why I still have most of my hair in spite of genetics. In 20 years nothing has changed when it comes to drugs that work. The guys from the early forums who still have hair don’t have it because they ordered unapproved and untested drugs from China on the advice of online bro scientists. DHT-prone follicles are an even more precious resource than donor hair. Don’t mess around. Get on one of the two FDA-approved 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors and stay on it. Forever.

While I’ve had four hair transplant procedures, they have all been relatively small FUE sessions—think 500-1000 grafts. I have thin hair and the illusion of density requires tight packing and multiple sessions. Realistically, that’s true of most people and is what you should count on. One and done isn’t reality for most guys and hair loss never stops. Let me say that again: hair loss never ends. The idea of “stabilizing” loss with meds before getting a transplant shouldn’t be confused with stopping loss—meds slow loss in good responders, at best, over a lifetime. And once you’re taken a surgical stand against hair loss, know that there will be more transplants in your future at your current vanity levels. Don’t think hair loss isn’t going to bother you once you’re reached some unspecified age. If hair loss bothers you now to the point where you can’t accept it, hair loss will always bother you.

Finally, be careful about spending too much time on these forums. Countless folks lost hair they’ll never recover as a result of the finasteride hysteria that started around 2005. It’s easy to freak out online, quit the things that work and convince yourself your dick is about to break off and tumble down your pant leg. 

Don’t believe the hype. Take your meds religiously and if you decide to get a transplant, plan it out with the next several decades in mind.

Thanks again Dr. Lindsey. I’ll stop by in 6 months or so to catch up.

[Legend007]

One of the best n meaningful post I’ve read , Motoro.. good to see past folks come back and spread some wisdom .

Edited March 30, 2019 by Legend007

[Dr. William Lindsey]

I really appreciate your contribution.  See you this fall.

 

Dr. L

[Dr Blake Bloxham]

Dr. Lindsey, 

Great video. The patient looks excellent too. Nice work. 

[Motoro]

Last night’s post put me in a reflective mood and I have a few additional thoughts about thinning, transplants and length. I didn’t talk about hair length in Dr. Lindsey’s video and I don’t want anyone thinking hair loss and long hair go together. They do not.  

My hair hasn’t been this long since 2001 and it isn’t going to stay this way. I grew it out to cover my FUE donor and recipient areas (all my surgical work is in and around my hairline). I did this with each of my four procedures and recommend it to those who want to keep their business private. As far as I know, nobody knows about my work aside from a handful of close friends and family. Advertising hair loss and your treatments focuses attention behind the curtain, where it doesn't belong. It’s much easier to find Waldo when you know where to look.

On that note, I currently blow dry my hair and basically have long bangs. I generally wear a hat as much as possible during this “ugly duckling” recovery phase, but I can and do go hatless when necessary. A little planning is all it takes.

That said, I normally keep my hair short and neat. To repeat that old line, hair restoration involves a lot of visual trickery. Short hair and low scalp contrast conceal thinning and loss. Indeed, dying my transplanted hair to reduce scalp contrast is something I’d consider if I wasn’t already going gray. Guys obsessed with looking “young” and dying their hair dark often end up with a shoe polish look that draws attention where it shouldn’t. Older white guys with thinning hair and dark dye jobs universally look terrible. That’s not a look you see in nature, which is generally the best measure of any treatment.

SMP, which I’ve never had, can contribute to the contrast illusion from the scalp angle. Combined with very short hair, FUE and a nicely shaped head, SMP results can impress. But all density illusions break down with length, and if I had a nicely shaped head I’d just shave it off and call it a day. There are more important things in life than hair, but it didn’t feel that way to my 17 year old self, who committed to this endless fight. My shaved head looks like a still-lumpy proto-planet that's full of impact craters, however, and I don't regret my choices. 

To conclude on a positive note, I haven’t been excited about my hair since the mid-1990s, when I first noticed fallen strands in the pages of my high school textbooks. But I’m genuinely excited about going gray and getting older. Hair loss in your 30s and 40s is commonplace. Only now do people ask how I kept my hair when all my people went bald. There's still a 17-year-old kid in the back of my head who chuckles each time this happens.

I’m entering new and uncharted territory as I close in on 40: no man in my extended family—to paraphrase an Irish saying—has ever combed gray hair. 

Edited March 30, 2019 by Motoro