HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

I know this is effectively an unanswerable question but as a regretful young Ht recipient who has just undergone some repair work I am fearful of the future. Fearful of further recession and what lies ahead.

I understand I still have plenty of donor left for now (I have had a strip of effectively 1000 grafts...2nd one was a scar revision using the tricho closure) and approx 700 FUE. Therefore I would hope I still have considerable donor utilising the FUE method.

But with all the advancements in the Ht arena what can we hope for 5/10 years down the line - if we think about how far you guys have pushed the boat in the past 10 years should we be fairly optimistic about further refinements and improvements to FUE/BHT, even HM as a long shot?

Sorry and one other thing I meant to ask - with the continued advancements in FUE and the ability to perform more and more grafts per day is it likely the cost will come down in the future? Just a thought.

the future: hmm...my opinion is that the cost of FUE will not go down drastically until some sort of HM comes out. So, it wont be for a while. The procedure is just too labor intensive and there are still only a small percentage of doctors capable of such a technique.

Ten years from now, I would imagine some sort of HM will be available, but it will be in its infancy phase and I'm not so sure I want to get the 1.0 version.

Fue will continue to be less invasive and refined, although there still will be some scarring.

In the end, though, if I knew what the future actually held and WHEN "better" techniques were available then the wait wouldnt be so bad...its the not knowing feeling which is so difficult.

Bradley

I completely agree with you that its the fear of not knowing. Having undergone a rash, uninformed procedure that has recently been repaired (hopefully) I'm a tad scared of the future. I just wish I'd stuck with the meds and sat this out for a while. It may seem like its the end of the world losing hair but in putting it into perspective there is a lot worse and it certainly shouldn't hinder your life.

Being a young guy (24) and not knowing where his hair is going, not knowing what the future holds is a scary thought AND especially knowing that I have to tackle this for the rest of my life now.

With the advent of BHT though, I do believe full restoration is effectively here. The issue with cost and how the hair looks is obviously still of concern but to use BHT simply as a filler around scalp FUE's would surely work wonders.

Regarding cost, as instruments develop - as FUE develops I can't see how the cost can do anything but come down. Ok I'm not saying dramatically but these top Docs are doing more and more FUE per day and as the instruments and their skills develop they will be able to more in the same time period and thus theoretically the cost may come down. I mean if Docs go from being able to do 500 per day to 1000 per day then surely the cost would come down. Just a thought.

When did you have your first strip? Being younger like yourself (25), the "not knowing" feeling can be quite overwhelming. I guess your best bet is to stay on the meds and approach it in a conservative way (i.e. having small sessions every so often...paying them off and having some more if need be. I don't mind having a more mature, higher hairline as long as it looks good and I'm not totally bereft of hair.

Good post hairbrain!
The only thing that i want to mention is that your case is not always an indication for how things should be planned, some other patient putting themselves in a risk by doing a hair restoration at age 22. In your case it turn out to be good, but there are other patients that went to a doctor that his objective is to take money. then with the wrong plan and with progressive hair loss...add to it "high expectation" and you have a recipe for a disaster.

With the advent of BHT though, I do believe full restoration is effectively here

That is a good option for the future, but we can't fully count on body hair, it is still too early and we need to see more results. A young patient is not going to count on body hair as a stand alone procedure yet...

Guys, i can tell you one thing tho...after all this years working with our unbelievable team, and considering that i 99% of Dr. Cole's patients are happy with their results...
anyone who consider a hair transplant or even just a consultation is in a very good hands and will get the best outcome.
Dr. Cole knows to choose his patient (this is something that many other doctors fails) and we have no room for errors!
There are handful good hair restoration surgeons in the world, and most of them are in the USA. But there are thousands of patients that some will end up in the wrong chair.
Thank god that we have the internet forums...
Happy Holidays!

well said! - cheers...

I had my first strip at 23 - a completely rash and uniformed decision by a crappy clinic who were only after my money. Didn't explain anything about meds, future loss, hairline design and it eats me up daily for being so stupid......but once your in the office they've effectively got you and if I'd looked at it objectively I should have smelt a rat - all is good and well in hindsight!

It is good you've come out of the other side though and I'm keeping my fingers crossed I can do the same. I have a couple of options which is good wether it be continued restoration or FUE the scar and buzz it down with a further sprinkling of FUE to make it look natural. As forhair said, we can no way count on body hair yet, certainly not as a stand alone procedure but I do believe that it can revolutionise the whole ht process in terms of being able to add to the numbers and use it as a filler.

Wether somebody accepts their hair loss, feels an ht is necessary (looking back I didn't - a decision on an emotional whim!) or hides away hiding there hairloss there is only one thing in the world that matters - and thats confidence. If an Ht makes you feel more confident then great, if you regret it and become more introverted then its a bad move. All patients should seriously consider the road their about to travel on before they get to the point of no return. The psychological aspect of Ht and any surgery is often played down............

..........If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.

it eats me up daily for being so stupid......but once your in the office they've effectively got you and if I'd looked at it objectively I should have smelt a rat - all is good and well in hindsight!

NeedHelp, your are not stupid...and i will explain:
We humans usually have good instincts when it comes to good or bad.
Other humans with good selling techniques can play on our emotions and faint our judgment abilities...usually pretty easily.
NeedHelp, when you came to that clinic in age 23, you prepperd yourself emotionally to get a hair transplant. You already convinced yourself that you are so miserable that hair restoration will be your only option to get a better life.
Then all the guys in that clinic needed to do is to give you what you wanted to hear to strengthen your decision. it happened to all of us at some point in our life...either from buying something that we didn't need or getting ourselves into more complex situations.
I have been doing consultations with Dr. Cole and have observe this phenomenon...i have seen young patients coming to the consults after they been advised by the patient coordinstors to just stay on the meds hoping that Dr. Cole will change is mind...
Then usually after he spend an hour with them explaining why they should wait with hair transplant, i could see how the patient was disappointed...
He didn't get what he came to hear!
Thank god we have the internet and places like this and other forums that can prevent or reduce the damage.

Yeh I guess thats true and its a poor reflection on certain people to play on these feelings and fears and I only have respect for the Docs who continually turn people away.

I think the future does look bright though, fingers crossed that the repair has gone to plan and grows well and with Dr Cole, Dr Wolf and the likes continually pushing the envelope I think guys who felt like a lost cause can finally stand up with their head held high and have high hopes for the future.

Well, I think the long term future looks bright (10years+). I think anything nearer than that and a lot of us need BHT to work consistently - if it does really grow consistently on people then subject to price (BHT is never likely to cover the way scalp hair does) the whole HT world does a back-flip.

I am hoping we will have a definitive answer to this question in 2006.

My dear Skywalker...you are right. but it's not a question of "does body hair grow?" , We already know it's growing and we proved it. the question is "can it grow as or better then scalp hair?" , we are waiting for this answer...in the meantime we don't want to push any patient to BHT but if a patient is fully aware to the risks, and is finasealy capable then there is no problems.
BHT is producing no visible scars and we are impressed with the healing acceleration of BHT especially when using Hair Cycle" and this is true...and not some cheap Infomercial...
In the worst case BHT will be a last rescue weel for norwood 5-7 with a very poor donor supply as a filler.

Forhair,
well, to be fair I didn't say that. We all know it CAN grow but does it grow CONSISTENTLY - that is the 64,000 dollar question. For instance, if Joe Blow walks into the office and has a 5,000 BHT today can we say within reasonable confidence limits (97%+ ?) that in 2 years time 80-90% of those grafts will be growing on his head at any one time. As I understand it nobody is claiming this with BHT although you are all very hopeful further data will show this to be true. I am not criticising, I think it is to your credit that IHTI does not make claims it cannot back up. If and when you guys come out with a staement saying it can grow consistently like this I will believe it.

I think the issue of the hair calibre is a different, personally I think it seems to be doubtful and I would regard it as a bonus. For myself, I can say that this matter would not stop me having a BHT.[/b]