My Story

[heresjohnny]

Hello, I wanted to share my story and get some advice and information. I started losing my hair at about 24 years old. My front hairline was ok (to me) some recession not terrible, but my crown was thin and by the time I was 28 I had a blown out crown. I had worn my hair long for years which probably helped perpetuate and accelerate the loss. When I was younger I actually hated my hair it was very wavy and uncontrollable unless long, well that was UNTIL it fell out! Hehe hair gel wasn’t really in vogue at the time either… Damn!

I wore a hat anytime I left the house (still do) and really became a reclusive person as my hair loss was really bothering me. I will leave most of this out because it was such a huge of waste of 6+ years my life.
I have to say that I took a job about 7 years ago in retail and cannot wear a hat at work and that is how I got past it and moved on with life. I have had very few comments about it mostly to the extent that they know I had work done mostly older people. Now, I even make fun of it and steal their thunder so they have nothing to say that will offend me (but really deep down it does bother me)

I had my first HT in early 1994 at the age of 29. Unfortunately for me there wasn’t much information really available on the topic. I went to the phone book (lived in Md. at the time) selected a HT doctor, made an appointment for a consult, and the next week had work done. Pretty stupid in hindsight I actually had real trust in doctors and believed what they said, which was mostly what I had wanted to hear. I now have alien crop circles on my crown from punch graphs and a shot-gunned donor area in question.

I have been lurking this and a few other sites to see what was and could possibly be done and have learned a ton thanks for the site and you folks. It’s good to see I’m not alone.
Since seeing this site and the remarkable results from Hasson and Wong I decided to call them. Mike Ferko in Seattle returned my call to schedule a consult. He wanted me to take pictures but with the past damage I wanted to see him in person (from Portland a 3hr drive) to get a true assessment of the damage. He estimated I had about 4000 graphs left because of the punch graph damage. I do not know the original 1994 HT graph count? Mike thought it would take 2 surgeries since some of the original plugs would need to be broken up to get the correct appearance. I really enjoyed speaking with Mike, very informative, even though I did not like all he said, but sometimes the truth hurts and sucks. His assessment was that I could get coverage but no real density a major improvement from current. I am stuck at the proverbial crossroad on what to do now… I will try and post some pictures later