My story: I tried it all!

[kooliya]

Hey guys this is my second post here, first one was not a very pleasant one and was a long time ago. Writing here to reflect upon on my struggle with hair loss and share the lessons I learned. the way I first lost my hair is quite peculiar. I lost my hairline to traction alopecia as my parents insisted I wear a turban(born a sikh) lost my temple points and first 2-3 cm of hairline. Until age 21, I had a concave hairline. So I always had long bangs since I stopped wearing a turban at age 17. Then in my early twenties I decided to do something about my hairline. Stumbled upon these blogs, looked for the cheapest surgeons possible and lowest number of grafts possible(being broke sucks!) Started taking propecia to avoid shockloss. Got dirt cheap finpecia from India and started searching for cheap hair surgeons in India or here. The plane ticket was a detterent for going to india for the procedure. Came across sword medical group for cheap grafts and then suddenly noticed Dr Ochs in LA with 2$ grafts. Read up reviews, didn't see any but did see one of his patient's blogs. Real lousy results but the guy stopped updating his blog at 6 months. So thought maybe he was a late bloomer(being young and dumb does that to you). Talked to Dr Ochs and booked up a surgery and planned to pay with my financial aid money. At age 23 with initial signs of balding I was excited for my end it all surgery. Dr Ochs came across as a very "nice" and calm fella. During my first consultation he basically went by what I told him. I had a hairline designed on a piece of paper and he told me he wanted to go much smaller. Then agreed to do it my way. Agreed to 1500 grafts and was supposed to get both temple points as well(wishful thinking!). So on the day of the procedure had a buddy drive me to his office(some third party salon). First thing that threw me off was the arbitration contract that they made me sign, I basically gave up my right to sue. When I objected, I was told that is a standard contract that everyone in california signs and if I have problems I can refuse and forfeit the cost. So I signed in on the spot. Then my hairline design changed. The temple points we agreed to were off the table as it would be impossible to have a good hairline density and a temple points with 1500 grafts(which is true but why was it okay yesterday?!!!) Then after the routine annesthesia he cut out a nice sized strip of donor hair. Harvested donor hair, stapled shut my scar all in 20 mins. Then His techs who were contracted for the procedure started dissecting my grafts. One of the girls was texting on her phone while dissecting my grafts. Then Dr Ochs came in with a needle and randomly punched holes in my forehead in really weird pattern. Then his techs started inserting grafts into the holes. He came back a couple more times and punched a few more holes. There was no pain involved. I was talking to the techs thru the procedure. Then Dr Ochs came back and yelled at techs to speed it up as he has another patient waiting. There was a lot of grafts still waiting to be inserted but magically they were finished in 30 mins after that. I have no doubt in my mind that my grafts were TRASHED! So we called it a day and after starting at 1000 am we were done at 3 pm. When I got home, my grafts looked nothing like the ones I see on some respected physicians blogs. So when I came back to get my staples removed I asked Dr Ochs that this density looks very dismal and I might need another procedure. His answer was simply "Well, this is what it is". I have rarely felt that stupid or cheated in my life. I just shut up and went home. To make things worse, left side of my forehead started to swell. Eventually a lot of pus came out and I obviously had an infection. Then my scar turned out to be quite wide at about 4-5 mm. Very visible on one side. Growth was minimal as expected. Now shaving was not an option anymore. I stopped propecia and rogaine about 10 months later. All this time I had a lot of shedding which I ingnored in denial. I was sure I would never go bald even though my dad is. 2 years after my procedure I woke up to the reality that I was losing my hair real fast. My temples had recessed considerably. I was developing a bald spot and my top was incredibly thinned. Started back on propecia and rogaine right away. I was depressed beyong belief. Here I was ready to take my first real job and this hairloss was consuming me. I was sure I would be completely bald in 1-2 years. crazy rogaine sheds made things worse. My first reaction I went back to a transplant physician. I saw Dr Siporin in LA, I wanted to still keep it local and he was one of the more reputable physicians in LA. He told me I will need another 1500 grafts. I was expecting him to tell me to wait and see how well propecia works for me before we schedule a surgery but he instead wanted to operate whenever I was ready. He couldn't guarantee a better scar and thougt 1500 grafts was the maximum that could be extracted in one session. I gave up on hair transplants. As my shedding became worse I decided to look into hair systems. I got one from toplace, which came back REALLY different from my specifications. But I went to salon and put that on my hairline, came back home looking like Justin Bieber. Another 6 months struggling with glues tapes, density and color I finally got it down to a flawed science. Blending was problem at times as my real hair is wavy fine and soft and system hair is soft for 2 weeks max. But overall it looked good. I would do my setup myself every week spend 3 hours each friday and it would last me 7-10 days. 4 good days and the rest okay days. Got busted one time by a gay co-worker(not to stereotypical but they got the "eye") Didnt let girls touch my forehead and lived in anxiety of getting "caught". Been wearing for a year now. Recently noticed that hair got so much better on propecia only. Even my temples were restored. forelock was back to pre-balding level and the crown even though a lot better never fully recovered but still doesn't look like its balding. I always had this idea of having a dense transplanted hairline and put a small system behind it. So my search for a reputable surgeon lead me to Hasson and Wong. Shapiro medical and H&W were both on my short list for surgeons. I was still on the fence about flying out for a procedure. Met up with Mike Ferko from H&W in LA and decide dto got with H&W. My plan was to get my temple points rebuild and get a 1-1.5 cm hairline and put a system behind it. I was sure I won't be able to get no more that 1500 grafts fro my scalp given the tight donor area and the wide scar. Booked Dr Wong for a 2000 graft procedure and ended up getting 3100+ grafts. He was able to close the donor area quite nicely and I am going to have to right a whole new post on how impressed I am with everyone at H&W!! They possibly changed my life! it remains to be seen. I will continue to post my current progress here periodically.