HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

Here is a photo of my left side. Dr. Cole is repairing the pluggy hairline and giving me some added density on the front top of my head.

About 200 grafts were taken from the left side of my head. 1200 were taken from my back. The following photo was taken after the second day of surgery.

The following is a closeup of my back 4 days after my procedure. Healing is coming along very well.

For me, 1400 grafts is a first step toward repairing an unnatural looking hair transplant from the late 70's.

Although I am 53, I obviously still care about how I look. I'm sure the typical man in his 20's will also care about his looks when he turns 50 as well. This is why it is so important to carefully select an excellent surgeon if you decide on surgical hair restoration. Even if you live in a foreign country, it's well worth the extra plane fare to have your work done by Dr. Cole and his staff.

Again, as I look at the transplanted hair 10 days after my surgery you simply cannot tell that it was transplanted. It looks 100% natural.

I will continue to post progress photos.

“nthmainneighbor”, what an inspiring story you have told. I hope that I can buy you a drink when I go in for a procedure at IHTI. Good luck with your Hair Loss Battle!

“reallydumbmove”, I am only a year younger than you and have slightly more hair loss than you. I have not had a HT Procedure yet, but I am planning to sometime soon. I just wanted to tell you that there is a kid at my work that, when he was 2 years old, fell down the stairs into the basement. He cracked his head open. Now, 20 years later, he is walking with a scar that runs from his right temple, behind his head, to just below his left ear. In other words, it’s all over his head. When he spikes up his hair, you can notice it, and people sometimes make comments. The thing is that he doesn’t care. He gladly tells the story how he fell down into the basement.

My point here is that it is all about how you PERCEIVE yourself. I know how much it hurts to loose your hair at an early age. Most of us here know. But no matter what, life goes on. And sooner or later, we will all have to find a resolve to carry on about this little problem of ours. The sad thing is that nobody around us can really understand how painful hair loss can be. Only the ones that experience it themselves can. Hair loss, in my opinion should be viewed as a challenge, especially in young people. It should be viewed as an opportunity to improve oneself, ones character, ones strengths, one’s overall well being.

I am talking from my own experience when I tell you that, one day when you resolve not to waste your time crying about hair loss, your life will change for the better within a moment. Although a better attitude will not get you your hair back, it will surely make your journey towards your full head of hair much easier and better.

Once a wise person said: “If you knew how often people care and think about you(your hair loss in this case), you would be offended, because they are busy thinking about their own problems. They have no time to think about you”

13 Days after my surgery, all of the scabs fell off and my scalp looks normal. As I mentioned in a previous post, I used the Hair Cycle products and Minoxidil 5%. I was pretty much prepared for some shock loss and the usual transplanted hair shedding. In other words, I expected my hair to look worse after the surgery for a while before I would begin to see improvement 12-24 months down the road.

It's now 20 days after my surgery and I didn't have much, if any shock loss. About 70-80% of the transplanted hair is still standing up straight. I did read the post about the guy that was "too nice" to the recipient area and suffered painful scalp inflammation, so I am being careful, washing my hair twice daily and gently scrubbing the recipient area.

The bottom line is, only 13 days after my surgery, my hair looks much better than before the surgery. The 5-7 mm length transplanted hairs as short as they are, are doing a remarkable job of filling in the gaps between old plugs transplanted by The Bosley Medical Group some 28 years ago. My wife says it looks "wonderful". For the first time in years, I am comfortable being in public without my ball cap.

I really didn't expect my hair to look so good so soon after my surgery. I am thinking about trying Propecia along with the Minoxidil. What do you think?

By the way, the little donor dots have faded by about 70%. I expect the light pink/brown to be completely gone within a month.

I will post more photos as soon as I can.

I am a digital artist by profession. Part of my job is making special effects for film and video look real. It takes years to develop a critical eye that sees more than the average person sees. I just wanted to mention that Dr. Cole consistently produces natural hairlines. Dr. Woods hairlines by comparison offer a coarse, slightly less natural appearance. I'll give Dr. Cole 100% and Dr. Woods gets about a 90%

My back has healed up. It looks as hairy as ever. I went through a 3-4 week period where I was getting some pimples in the donor area. That has resolved, and my back looks like it did before my surgery. My wife can't see any evidence that anything happened there at all. At 2.8 months, my new hairline is beginning to kick in. You don't know how much I hated my previous plug-job hairline. I had 200 FIT and 1200 BHT. There is a lot more growth taking place than just 200 FIT. The body hair has already given me a slightly fuller look on top. By slightly, I mean about 8-10%. Remember I'm under 3 months post op.

I will get some more photos up when I get a chance.

I believe the Hair Cycle products have contributed to the early growth. As I have mentioned in other posts, since I have been using these products, I get a lot less shedding on a daily basis.

Wow, good luck man...can't wait for your photos...

since you are close to us, we want to have you come in for some BHT testing. we will be able to evaluate you on a month to month basis. also, since you have quite a bit of bare area, this will allow us to get some good hair counts on you. we will need to place some small tattoos that will look like a small mole. we will place grafts into the boxes we make and perform hair count studies. of course we hope you are up for this. we need more data to better understand body hair growth and yeild. email me to discuss the particulars of this study. i think it is a great opportunity for you and for others who are watching the body hair revolution unfold.

This is truly an inspiring post; thanks to everyone who posted (especially nthmainneighbor, Bradley, Shane, etc).
I heard tatooing black dots tend to fade away to blueish. Good luck reallydumbmove for the recovery & all! Don't think about it too much & give yourself some time to recover from your 800 HT; meanwhile, there should be options for your problem, given that the HT technique is ever evolving; if finance is a problem, you could also consider smaller HT (from what I saw online, both Dr Cole & Dr Feller in NY did operate for as few as 200 grafts).

dont worry body !
Forgat the scar, just shave it and be prowed of who you are ,show the world that we all are medical malpractice cases with no help. Stripe session should be forbiden and all HT's couse they are not the way to cure the hair. This all is sick idea of punch of criminals.
People used to call me half grepfrut, frankestain...
but I dont care anymore ,just wish sombody gonna send those doctors to prison for all this manipulation, hipnotizing by internet vizual effect pictures and some set up storrys( like the best investment in my life-B.S.)
They have so many nice words about getting youthful look, on the other side they kill you mentaly and U are never what U used to be.
Forget the scar ,show it to the world and to your friends, you were traped into it , that was not what you wanted, it is not your mistake. You just wanted some hair and nothing wrong with that. Im scale 7 shaved with beautiful scar( my doctor did not have mrcy) from above one ear to above another ear and I just love my scar. I cant live without it any more , Im planing to do another scar and be scar face head all the way, they may take me for some horor movies In Hollywood.
Viva shaved hair scar,
God bless you my boy!!!