One photo/ one decision

[chrisis]

I was tagged in a photo on Facebook that basically confirmed my wish to have a hair transplant. I've been wrestling with it for months, but it's amazing what one photo can do.

In the pic, I'm drunk and clearly have lost the ability to care about my hair, which has totally fallen out of its usual style.

Anyone ever had a similar moment of realisation? The only fears remaining are money and scarring... also a little apprehensive about the "ugly duckling" phase

[stratofortress]

I was tagged in a photo on Facebook that basically confirmed my wish to have a hair transplant. I've been wrestling with it for months, but it's amazing what one photo can do.

In the pic, I'm drunk and clearly have lost the ability to care about my hair, which has totally fallen out of its usual style.

Anyone ever had a similar moment of realisation? The only fears remaining are money and scarring... also a little apprehensive about the "ugly duckling" phase

You're lucky in that you could probably hide it for the most part with a bit of clever styling.

It does seem that you'd be a good HT candidate, but you would to go for a miniturisation study just to make sure things are likely to get worse further down the road.

If it's not, you could definitely get great results.

[clandestine]

I'm curious if you hope to use anything in order to maintain post-transplant, besides minox.

[Tracy C]

Anyone ever had a similar moment of realisation?

The extent of my hair loss became evident to me almost two decades ago when I saw pictures from a wedding I attended. I had no idea it was as bad as it was before seeing those pictures. My life basically ended the day I saw those pictures. I cried for months/years afterwords and eventually became a hermit for almost a decade before I found help from the American Hair Loss Association.

[chrisis]

You're lucky in that you could probably hide it for the most part with a bit of clever styling.

It does seem that you'd be a good HT candidate, but you would to go for a miniturisation study just to make sure things are likely to get worse further down the road.

If it's not, you could definitely get great results.

Thanks! How do I get a miniaturisation study?

I'm curious if you hope to use anything in order to maintain post-transplant, besides minox.

Just minoxidil, unless anything else comes out which may help. Propecia is poisonous to me.

The extent of my hair loss became evident to me almost two decades ago when I saw pictures from a wedding I attended. I had no idea it was as bad as it was before seeing those pictures. My life basically ended the day I saw those pictures. I cried for months/years afterwords and eventually became a hermit for almost a decade before I found help from the American Hair Loss Association.

Glad you got it sorted I foresee looking back at this pic in particular and being happy with my decision... I hope...

[gutted]

I wouldnt recommend HT due to the invasive nature of the procedure. But i guess if you think it will help your problem, then you can try??

[8868alex]

Chrisis -

I hear what you are saying mate and I know you've been back and forth with this. The suggestion to get a minaturisation study is good, but you are still a young man and even if you get a good feedback from this, it won't neccesarily mean you are in the clear as this could change in 5 - 10 years time. The crucial issue is then, what your plan of attack for arresting further loss will be? I'm so sorry to hear about your experience with Propecia but the bottom line is this - If a guy your age is not taking Finasteride (assuming you are a good responder), then not only do you risk shock loss, but you are leaving yourself exposed to the full expression of your genetics. You do a good job of styling and in all honesty, the person who will most notice any percieved post surgical improvement in terms of aesthetic will be you (which by the way, I believe to still be a valid reason to go ahead). If you don't have a family history of progressive hair loss and you are committed to it, then I say all the best. Perhaps Aderans, Histogen, Replicel, etc will arrive in time to help you out, should you proceed with the surgery and encounter problems on the other hand. I'm hoping this is the case.Whatever you do, get several proffessional opinions before moving forward.

As for you letting your decision be influenced in part to an online image?

"You are not you Facebook Profile Picture" (a little Tyler Durdenism, lol!.)


Seriously though, think it through!

[chrisis]

even if you get a good feedback from this, it won't neccesarily mean you are in the clear as this could change in 5 - 10 years time. The crucial issue is then, what your plan of attack for arresting further loss will be?

Thanks for your feedback alex! My goal would be to get a HT to shore up my hairline now, and hopefully keep it looking good for 5-10 years. If it got worse again, I'd either get another transplant, with a more local doctor as their ability would matter far less in a non-hairline surgery, or I'd be banking on the success of new treatments to save my ass. I will stay on minoxidil and Nizoral and maybe some other supplements to give me a better chance.

[Cr779]

I had an interesting moment last weekend. Just to give some background I've always been kinda fat and had long long curly hair(I loved it, people thought it looked stupid) but over the past year I started working out and now I'm actually decently buff. I also cut my hair and it looks quite nice(I can hide the loss perfectly, woo curly hair).

But anyways we were out for my friends 21st birthday and for the first time in my entire life I was getting attention from girls. Random attractive girls were coming up to me at the bar and trying to talk to me, one even offered to buy me a drink. My friend Liz even told me how good I look these days and how my new hair cut looks so good.

It's funny I thought a night like this would reassure me that everything will be alright and that hair isn't everything. But I just don't think I'm ready to give up that feeling I had. I mean I should be allowed to have confidence and be attractive for my 20's, that's not too much to as is it?

So after months and months of trying to tell myself that propecia is not worth the risk that even a 1% risk to kill your sex life is not worth it. I mean as a virgin how horrible would it be to loose it before I got it. But I have to try, so I got my prescription and I'm gonna start on .25mg for a month and then move up to .5mg and stay there. Wish me luck.

And to end my long winded and poorly written post I just wanted to thank Chrisis. Of all the members here your story and your posts have helped me the most and even though I'm now going to try propecia it was very important to me to be aware of what i was doing.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

The extent of my hair loss became evident to me almost two decades ago when I saw pictures from a wedding I attended. I had no idea it was as bad as it was before seeing those pictures. My life basically ended the day I saw those pictures. I cried for months/years afterwords and eventually became a hermit for almost a decade before I found help from the American Hair Loss Association.

Those last 2 sentences really hit home for me, and very accurately convey the depression and heartache that hair loss causes a person. I am living proof of that. Although I often force myself to go out, I most often need to get so drunk and/or high so that I can forget about hair loss and have a good time. I've done my best to try not to become a hermit, but there are still certain nights where I just curl up in my room, turn off the lights, and unfortunately wallow in my hair loss depression. I saw an article on here that was posted recently that talked about possible evolutionary theories of baldness and as usual, it was a cutesy article that made several joking references to baldness and used such idiotic and cutesy phrases as "empty pates" and "depilated domes" and of course had a photo of a bald guy with his eyes rolling up to his head in a comical way. Those types of articles that diminish hair loss really ****in piss me off. I wish the authors of those articles would read the emotion in those last 2 sentences that you wrote, Tracy, and then maybe they would get it through their empty dumb-ass heads that hair loss should be treated with compassion and tact, not as comedic fodder. Sorry everyone, I'm a bit off topic here, but an article that I saw here, coupled with Tracy's post, really made me want to write about something like this.