A 1984 Bosley Patient

[zip]

Here is my story:

In the 1980's hair was huge, and if you were a musician you could fail a audition strictly because your hair was not right. I was a 29 year old musician in 1984 with baby fine hair and a receding hairline. I walked into Bosley Medical Group with my mind made up that I was going to get transplants hell or highwater as long as I could afford it. That was bad judgement on my part.

I was young and I had not lost much hair, and in addition my hair was very fine. Bosley agreed to add the hair to the front of my hairline, so consequently, not knowing how much more hair I would lose in my lifetime, I was rolling the dice because of my obsession with my hair. Also, back in those early days they were doing what they called scalp reductions in which they take out a strip of scalp along the midline (center). The theory was that there would then be less bald area that needed to be covered later on. I don't believe that scalp reductions are done anymore. I hope not, the scars that I have because of that scalp reduction is like something from a Frankenstein movie. The process of doing the transplants continued off and on from 1984 to 1994 and 3 different doctors worked on my head during that time. This obviously is not the ideal way to have transplants done. It was done wrong from beginning to end.

As it turned out I lost all of the hair behind the transplanted area at the front of my hairline. I am now 56 and all that is left besides the frontal hairline is the hair that was transplanted in the area along the scar left by the scalp reduction that was meant to cover the scar, but which does not even come close to doing so. It is not pretty.

If I had it to do over again I would not have had transplants at all. Hair is not nearly as big a deal as it once was, and I would just as soon shave my head and forget about it. But, of course I can't do that because of all of the scaring. So, I have to wear it long regardless of the fact that it looks like hell that way, just to cover the scalp reduction (it still does not). I hope that those of you out there thinking about hair transplants read this so that you don't make the mistakes that I made.

I don't want to put a lot of work into my hair anymore, I am sick and tired of worrying about it.

My question to the experts on this forum is this:

What options are there that might give a 56 year old man thicker, healthier looking hair and maybe keep him from losing anymore, without a lot of time and expense? Would Nizoral shampoo be worth a try? Would Rogaine do any good whatsover? Using the hair loss scale I have seen on another site I would say I am a six, in addition to the transplanted hair at the front and along the center, which does not really amount to much. Sometimes I look at it and wonder, “where did all that transplanted hair go?”

And lastly, did scalp reductions have any long term benefit at all?

Sincerely,

A Bosley Medical Group Guinea Pig