New to all this....

[Junior]

I am a new member so I thought I'd chime in and tell my story. I’m 43 yo and have probably been losing my hair since the late 20's. I have been on and off sporadically using Rogaine and have also been using Fin for about 5-6 years now with decent result in keeping my hair. I am probably a IV on the Norwood scale - enough to live with but also enough loss to do something about it. I have had a HT consultation with a IAHRS member to see what my options were and it was either FUE or the strip method. It was recommended that you get more density with strip and that the cost for FUE is almost double - plus you have to completely shave the donor area. I was also told to combine the use of Rogaine and Fin and to use Rogaine on the crown and frontal areas - I thought it was just for the crown - so I did that for about 5 months. I thought I was seeing results but then one day I realized that I was losing a lot of hair in the area I was applying the Rogaine to so I stopped immediately. I had never lost that much before, not even in my 20's so I got nervous. I think that loss is permanent as I have not seen any re-growth. So, now I am looking back at a HT and reviewing options but I have a thousand questions. I'll try to break them out as I'm sure the members have experience with all the below.

1. I am concerned about the "strip", will it scar, will it tighten my scalp and feel uncomfortable forever, will it show, is it barbaric to remove a part of your scalp that can never re-grow, lots of issues with that one but...

2. Can I eventually get off using Fin 1x per day, I don't like any medication that is daily - and "forever"

3. Then there are the usual questions like - will it look normal, what if it doesn't, will I need another session, what should I expect for the first month, can I do this legitimately without anyone knowing I have

I guess lots of questions. I have read a lot of the blogs and the web sites and have mixed emotions about it. Ideally it would be great to just sit with someone who has similar loss and age and have a dialogue about what to expect, see the scar, review the results, hear a day in the life basically.

As I go down this path it would be great to hear from the members up here who may have had similar thoughts and or experiences.

Any insight would be most helpful!

Thanks!