AAPE/Harg treatment/clinics in Japan

[Neko]

Hi all first time poster short time lurker

A bit about me first. 34 year old Canadian living in Japan. Never gave much thought to hair loss before (the past couple of months of lurking has made me gain a lot of respect for those of you who get inflicted with this shit in your 20s) until my last hair cut a couple of months ago. noticed definite recession (NW2.5ish) and although my hairdresser said my crown was fine I soon realized it's definitely thinning. Damn. Obviously you all know the feeling.

After researching possible treatments I ruled most of them out (Minox might kill my cat-I know many will dispute this but for me even the slightest chance makes it a non starter-, Nizoral, PRP, LLLT probably won't do much, don't have the DIY mindset or willingness to go on the black market for other alternatives)

That leaves Fin, which I haven't ruled out but am scared of for obvious reasons, and AAPE/Harg Therapy.

I won't describe AAPE/Harg because there are already several in depth threads on here discussing it but what there is a massive lack of is actual first hand reports on here. There is one excellent thread by notfittowin but it is still in the early stages, and another one by someone else that seemed to get abandoned last year (not a particularly good sign). I obviously cannot give a report yet since I have not done the treatment. I will however be visiting some doctors in the coming weeks to discuss the possibility of taking this treatment. In the meantime in gratitude for the help this forum has given me (wouldn't have had a clue what AAPE was without it) I'd like to share what I've learned in the past few weeks of scouring the Japanese websites and message boards. I realize that it's completely impractical for most of you to move to Japan or to fly every month or so for the treatment but since it is becoming more available in N.A. and Europe I hope the info will be of some use.

First of all the treatment is used in more than 180 clinics all over the country and has been around since about 2009 if i'm not mistaken.

Cost:

It is pretty fukking expensive. Prices vary but in general at a normal place you pay about 100 000 yen (about 800 bucks) per treatment and the absolute bare minimum to get results seems to be a 3 set course. Most places seem to recommend 6 times and there are reports of people spending over a million yen (more on their results later). basically on average it seems like people pay about 3000-6000 USD. It looks like Notfittowin has been able to obtain a much, much more attractive price by buying on line an getting a doctor he knows and trusts to do it for him in the U.S. (I think) so that's good news at least.

Does it work?

It seems that depends on who you ask. The doctors who sell it unsurprisingly say "Hell Yeah it works!" In over 90% of cases. Some claim as high as 99%.

Here are some links to clinics (I know most of you won't likely read Japanese but hopefully you can get the gist using google translate. I'm happy to answer any questions as best I can-my Japanese is decent but reading is tough and takes a long time):

http://www.harg.org

http://www.a3-clinic.com/mens/harg.html

http://www.osaka-chuoh.com/harg/

Here is a link to the the Harg Assosciation:

http://www.jp-harg.jp

So obviously in any country it's not unheard of for doctors who are trying to sell a product or treatment to embellish their results.

What do customers have to say? This was harder to track down with my imperfect Japanese but I managed to find some message boards and customer reviews (couldn't find anywhere near as good of a forum as this place though)


http://call-to-beauty.com/ope/man_007/

This seemed to be the best site I could find From what I can tell they basically offer a (hopefully) objective overview of different kinds of cosmetic treatments and allow for customer reviews as well (they also introduce clinics that offer the treatments).

Their overview basically describes what it is then gives the good points which they describe as:

Unlike Propecia it can be used by women
Does not cause side effects
Has proven efficacy in clinical studies

It's bad points:

Although individual results may vary for some people it can require taking the treatment a lot of times before they see regrowth
If numerous treatments are required the costs can pile up

It also says that it will not work on people who are already slick bald.

The next sections are basically saying the type of doctors you should look for and the way the treatment should be given.

Even if you can't make sense of the reviews you can still see the star ratings out of five. Both male and female customers give reviews. you can tell which is which at the bottom of the reviews 性別:女性 =female and 性別:男性 is male. You can also see their ages next to gender. On this site the reviews are mostly positive for both male and female. The negative review guy basically says he completed one course (I'm sorry to say I haven't figured out exactly if this means six times or 3 times, I think it's 6 though) and hasn't seen any result. Basically everyone else claims some positive result although some of the men say they're on propecia as well. Some claim it hurts and a lot of them complain about the cost.

A far more less favourable board:

http://biyou-iryou.jp/catalog/detail/179/

The write up at the top follows a similar format but is less favourable regarding the efficacy. It doesn't say that it won't work but basically says that there are reports of it being ineffective and that careful consideration should be exercised.

The comments are also waaaaay less favourable than the other site I linked. There are definitely still some positive reviews but I'd say at least 60% or so are negative. There are a lot of super bitter ones by people who dropped like 10 000 bucks or so and saw no result. Then again unsatisfied customers tend to be more vocal right?

So basically from what I can tell it's far from perfect but is effective for some people and given my situation i plan to look into it more. I don't like the idea of spending that much money on something that might not work but it may be worth the risk. I'm going to start with asking my hair dresser her opinion and then I'm going to visit a few dermatologists and then some of the clinics themselves. I plan on doing that within the next month or so and will keep you posted. If i do decide to do the treatment I will document my progress here.

In the meantime I plan to see what more I can find on the web and will try to share it with you. Any questions or advice or things you think I should ask the doctor let me know.