New Hair Transplant Recipient

[sebastien]

Hey, I know what you mean. I wish there was a better alternative out there that was much less expensive. I can only speak from my own experience and so far I am pleased with what I am seeing. I guess only time will tell. It takes about a year before you see the final product. I am excited so far but I am not unrealistic about it. I know it is not going perfect and I don't expect my hair to look like when I was 20, but this is definitely a good start. When you go from nothing to hair growing back again you first instinct is to jump up and down for joy, although I am pleased with what I am seeing up to this point I am reserving that for the 1 year mark. I wish there was a better alternative but right now this is it, it seems that this is the only thing that works for the moment. I hope that in the coming years there will be something much simpler and less expensive.

The scar you are talking about in my case and from the others that I have seen that have chosen Hasson and Wong as their Hair Transplant clinic is barely visible and you would have to search to find it. Unless I chose to shave my head bald one day, which I wouldn't because that look just doesn't suit me, then I don't anticipate having to worry about it. I will continue to post pictures as the months go by so you can see for yourself how things are progressing.

Hair Transplants though as expensive as they are, really seem to work. I have met others who have had them and they look great. I am also taking Finasteride which is supposed to help keep my existing hair healthy and the non transplanted hair from falling out, again, this will take some time to know if that's working, but I am encouraged by the results that I have researched. I tried Rogaine but all it did is give me a rash. The "positive" results from that product are minimal, they can produce tiny transparent hairs at best, hardly an improvement and certainly not worth paying the money for.

[gillenator]

Sebastien,

Were you a true Norwood class 6?

Hope to see your results as everything grows out.

Best wishes to you!

[sebastien]

I am not sure what a true NW 6 is honestly. This is what the doctor had classified me as. It might be that I was an early NW 6 as it appears from the diagrams that it might have been less pronounced as it appears on the chart, but hard to tell for sure. I went to see the surgeon for the first time since the surgery and was indicating that my hair should show dramatic changes in the next few months. The 3 month mark apparently is a milestone, here's hoping!!

[gillenator]

sebastien,

It appeared to me from your last progress pics that you are a Norwood 6, and especially related to your comments about not having much if any hair left on top. I am asking you this because it's always possible that the use of finasteride (Propecia) may prevent you from progressing to a Norwood 7, though not probable IMHO. Are there any Norwood 7s in your family history (on either side) or did the men only progress to class 6 like youself?

Your matured appearance can be evaluated by mostly three things. First, the level of density per cm2 that was implanted. Second, the degree of coarseness that your donor hair presents, and thirdly, the yield. Ideally the transection rate was extremely low and possibly the grafts were pre-treated before implantation.

Keep us in the loop friend. You are going to look amazingly different!

[VictimOfDHT]

Amen to that. 'Acceptance' is such a dirty word to me. 'Acceptance' means living with something that you hate, and will therefore make you miserable. And I personally would rather die than live a miserable life. This smoking hot girl that I know has a that quote from some religious guy from the 1800's on her facebook page that says: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference". I think that quote is such a crock of shit. I guarantee you that if she was suffering from pattern baldness, she sure as shit would not 'accept' it. I will NEVER accept hair loss even though we have no cure for it. I sure as shit will never accept something that causes me such misery and despair.
I just wish we had more effective treatments to treat hair loss. I have such a burning desire to fight hair loss except there is no mechanism out there for me to fight it with. Rogaine is a joke and I've been on Propecia for years and it hasn't done much at all. And it seems that all of these doctors are so focused on these goddamn hair transplants that they won't offer anything else. Believe me, I don't begrudge people for getting hair transplants; anything is better than 'accepting' baldness. However, I just don't want to pay thousands of dollars for a procedure that leaves permanent scarring and doesn't generate any new hair, just mechanically moves it from one place to another. And then if got a transplant, I'd have to be on Propecia for life so that I won't lose any hair around the transplanted hair. And then I don't want to be indebted to hair transplants for the rest of my life, having to get them now every time some more hair falls out. But again, I don't begrudge people for getting hair transplants at all, since no one wants to be bald.
I've tried contacting several doctors about PRP and PRP+Acell, but every time, it's the same thing. Either they don't convince me that it works well enough or they try their asses off to sell me on a hair transplant. To all the doctors that read this board: WE REALLY NEED MUCH BETTER OPTIONS THAN ROGAINE, PROPECIA, AND HAIR TRANSPLANTS!!!!

About "accept what you can't change" crap that people always repeat like parrots, I know most people lack any real intelligence and I know it's almost always futile to try to reason with people. So, what I do in my attempts to make these idiots understand the -psychological- pain someone's feeling because of their hair loss or whatever is I ask them if they could live with a toothache or any kind of other physical pain, and they all say no. I tell them if you have a toothache and I keep telling you 24/7/365 to just accept it or to forget about it, does the pain actually go away ? Can you actually accept the pain and learn how to live with it ? Is there any ****ing thing under the sun that can make a bad toothache go away NO MATTER HOW ****ING HARD YOU TRY TO FORGET ABOUT IT ? The answer is -and should be- always NO.

From my own experience -and I think any intelligent human will agree- psychological pain can be a million times worse than physical pain. Physical pain is usually confined to one part of the body and doesn't usually affect your mind, while psychological pain (depression, anxiety, sadness...) affects your mind, which WILL ultimately affect all of your body, which can literally destroy your whole life and leave you paralyzed.

Again, telling someone who's too concerned and worried about his hair loss to just "forget it" and "accept it..." and just get on with their life is like telling a paralyzed person to just get out of his wheelchair and to start walking.

Sure, some people live with physical pain, but ask these people if they can enjoy their lives. Ask someone with joint pain if they enjoy a walk in the park or whatever, if they can walk at all. Ask someone with Arthritis how much they enjoy playing the piano....
You try to learn to manage how to live with it, but the bottom line is that your life has been changed and you're not able to do this or that, which again will make you miserable no matter how much you try to deny it or convince yourself that all is well.
And what pisses me off more than anything is that it's usually people who don't know shit about what I, you or he/they are suffering. It's the guy with the full head of hair telling the balding man it's ok. It's just hair ! Or the filthy rich guy telling a minimum wage guy money isn't important. It's the beautiful woman telling the ugly one beauty is only skin deep.....blah blah blah

People are just stupid.

[sebastien]

Thanks for your comments. Well, both my brother and I have been losing our hair at the same rate and about the same age, but slow and steady. I understand that we inherit the bald gene from our mother's side and from what I have seen on her end of things no men in her family are bald or balding. My brother being about 5 years older than me is steadily thinning but at a very slow rate, he doesn't look like he is close to being a NW 7, at least not yet. But the hair that he does have, assuming he is a NW 6 seems indicate more of a fully developed NW 6 and if i had left things as is I have little doubt that I would have reached that level. So, that being said I think I might eventually reach and NW7 but unless things really speed up in a short time I doubt that will be in the next 15 years or so. Hopefully, the finasteride will work and/or when the time comes perhaps I would return for a second HT. Right now, I am happy with what I am seeing and I'm looking forward to it looking even better in the next few months.

[sebastien]

hi Victim of DHT. I agree in principle with what you said. The most common argument I get from people is that it's natural to lose your hair, it's part of life. Well, sure it's part of life, well at least for some, but that doesn't mean I have to accept it. There are a lot of things that are natural, normal, etc but it's how this change affects the person inside, psychologically that in the end whether you learn to tolerate it or adjust to it, it never leaves you. I tried for 20 years to accept this, and I know that there are those out there that have, perhaps it suits them, but when there was a fix for it and I was convinced it worked, why not make that change. I have and so far no regrets. Life is too short, if you know you can be much happier by fixing the problem, then I don't think there are any strong arguments that someone could counter with.

[VictimOfDHT]

hi Victim of DHT. I agree in principle with what you said. The most common argument I get from people is that it's natural to lose your hair, it's part of life. Well, sure it's part of life, well at least for some, but that doesn't mean I have to accept it. There are a lot of things that are natural, normal, etc but it's how this change affects the person inside, psychologically that in the end whether you learn to tolerate it or adjust to it, it never leaves you. I tried for 20 years to accept this, and I know that there are those out there that have, perhaps it suits them, but when there was a fix for it and I was convinced it worked, why not make that change. I have and so far no regrets. Life is too short, if you know you can be much happier by fixing the problem, then I don't think there are any strong arguments that someone could counter with.

Thank you. Indeed, life is too short and if it is possible to change whatever that's making you miserable or preventing you from enjoying those few years on this damn planet then you should change them. The problem is that for many of the men with hair loss problems the limited fixes available these days are no fixes. So, for them there's nothing they can do but watch their hair continue to disappear while their unhappiness and misery continue to grow. I don't think hair loss is normal or natural and I don't think there is even one man on this planet who would voluntarily choose to lose his hair if he had a choice. Some men are lucky enough to have it in them not to care about their hair. It's not because they somehow made themselves that way. No. It's just the way they are. They're kind of blessed with that. For many others however, they just don't have it, and no matter how much they try to accept it they just won't be able to. For those, their hair loss will continue to be a source of misery, unhappiness, depression and sadness....

[sebastien]

Here is a pic of my hair at 4 months. It seems to be growing a little each day. I was told by the surgeon that growth should be moving faster now, at least the appearance will look more dramatic in the upcoming weeks and months. So far, I'm excited at what I am seeing and what will be coming. Now remember I just about had nothing on top before having the surgery, so this to me although it is not the final product, is encouraging.

[VictimOfDHT]

It must be a good feeling when you have hair were there was no hair. The way I see it, any amount of hair is better than no hair at all. You still have at least a couple of months of more (new) growth.