HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

Dear Moderators & fellow Visitors of IHTI/ForHair :

First of all, thanks for keeping this Forum so helpful & content-rich! I'm thinking about HT, & would really like your kind advice:

a) I am 37 yrs old, & started losing my hair about 6 years ago. I've been taking Propecia on a regular basis, but noticed the effect of Propecia seem to evetually become weaken over the years.
b) I'm close to a NW-3, but I do not have completely-bald portion on my vertex, it's just thin enough to be visible.
c) No family or relatives that I know are bald; they do start to lose hair at their 60s or 70s.
d) About 6 months ago I went to a BOSLEY office (I was working in Seattle at that time) & was accepted by a bosley senior consultant, as a candidate for HT, & told me I'll get a good result after 400-800 grafts. However, I was not comfortable about the STRIP-method pictures I was shown, so I did not proceed with BOSLEY.

Since then I tried to obtain more online info from helpful forums like HairSite, HairLossHelp, IHTI, etc. I was excited to find out about Dr. Cole's FIT, as well as Dr. Woods' FUE, & DHI in Europe.

I'm a college teacher & with the thin frontal+vertex hair, I could see myself's "spot-lighted-reflections" on TV monitor during my classes on stage.

(attaching a picture / completely dry hair) Will I (a relatively early-stage patient) be wasting Dr's time to perform HT on me?

* The thin-est part is the vertex; but my frontal/top hair is also thin, -- under light or sunlight, my top scalp shows.

* After the past 6 years, my current hair loss is basically stable now.

* It would be great if HT can be performed on me; (maybe relatively easier or less-traumatic, since I do not require a lot of re-build of frontal-hairline / mostly just for top + vertex density).

Would any experienced fellow or someone from Dr's office be kind enough to offer any advice?

Can you post a photo of your top and hairline too?

You are 37 with a minor degree of hair loss at this time. It is very hard to see what is going on in the front from this photograph. This could be important if the loss is significant. if it is not, it is not terribly important.

there is really little that distinguishes a 2V to a class 5 on the Norwood scale. They all are prone to loss hair in the same distribution. The class 6 and 7 loss much more hair in the crown. Your crown or vertex loss currently is minimal. In other words, it is very treatable. Prior to looking at your photos, i thought the graft count that Bosely recomended for you was too low. This is because i assumed they would treat both the front and the crown. If they were planning to treat only the crown, this graft count is plausible. In fact, you might be able to accomplish a significant improvement with fewer grafts.

The problem with the crown is that loss tends to expand laterally so that the circle of loss increases. This means that if you begin treating the center of the vertex you may later on have an area in the periphery that has no hair. Therfore, it is sometimes better to start with a lower density in the crown so that if you loose hair laterally, you do not have tremendous density in the center and no hair at the periphereal margin. this would be an unnatural pattern of loss.

are you a candidate? of course. the key factors to consider are always your goals, the supply of hair in the donor area, and the demand or degree of hair loss. Your loss is minimal, and your supply is abundant. Unless you want a density that exceeds something you would see in nature, your goals are not excessive. the other area of concern is the potential for future hair loss. you will have some most likely despite the use of propecia and a stable situation for some time. a minimal degee of loss at age 37 is a good sign that you will not expand beyond a class 3V. A family history of loss where we could assess how you are mimicing a relative would be of value, but as you stated, there is no family history that you can pinpoint of earlier hair loss. this does occur sometimes and you are forced to follow the gene back to your maternal great grandfather or farther back. it is there, however.

Yes, i would say you are a good candidate provided you understand that you have a good bit of crown hair currently that is prone to fall out. if this occurs, you will need additonal work later on in life to keep up with the loss or you will have to accept your appearance later in life. there is no gurantee that this progression will occur many years from now or whether it will begin next month. we simply do not have a crystal ball to make that prediction. As such, you could find yourself taking 3 steps forward now, but taking 4 steps backward later on in life.

Thanks for SiteAdmin/forhair's prompt reply! (sorry I don't have more pics at this moment)

Dr. Cole's thorough advice is not only very helpful, but also greatly appreciated. It outlines an overall picture about current & what might happen in the long run, --- extremely insightful advice! It's not often to be able to find a Doctor who has exceptional medical skills, & at the same is willing to assist / care about his patients. (one may have good skill, but may be too busy to care; not to mention those commercial-Drs who have neither)

It's also a relieve to know that at least a good doctor will be willing to treat a mere class 2 minor-loss candidate, provided the loss is stable for years. (Certainly understand any surgery should not be taken lightly, & of course a class 2 minor-loss is nothing compared to others with more advanced-stage hair loss)

Since I've now found a good Dr. that I can trust, I can really start to seriously consider the HT option.
* to plan for work-leave / find out flight info (never been to Georgia); saw somewhere online that it may take as long as 4-6 months to book a surgery with Dr. Cole, hope it's not really that long. From the site's FAQ it seems that I do not have to shave my hair short prior to the surgery at all.. (meanwhile I'll also dig further into IHTI forums to absorb more info)
* given that the featured ADs product (such as Hair Cycle) shares the same Contact address as the clinic, is it safe to assume that these hair-products are approved or co-developed by the forhair-clinic?
* it's another delight to read: "At IHTI, we actually want to hear from our customers. Whether you're calling with hair loss questions, to provide feedback about one of our services, or are interested in finding out more about us, we're happy to talk to you. " on http://www.forhair.com/Office_Locations.htm

Thanks again for all the above advice & help!

Hi Needadvice,

For sure I didn't need to cut my hair in order to receive a Dr Cole hairline ht, I don't think I'm unusual here. I know some Dr's do prefer to shave the recipient area, and they must have their reasons, but for me this is way too traumatic to even think about!

NV

Hi, NV: Thanks for the input! Best Regards,

Hello. "Need Advice",
I'm 41 started loosing my hair at 37 too. I know how you feel. I'm a 3 vorteck. I've been wanting to have this proceedure done for at least 4 years. But did not have this information at hand. The pass 8 months I've really been doing my reasearch. I've had 4 consultaions. This lead me to Dr. Cole. Thank God..... I finally had it done on 3-21-2006. Everyting turned out better than any of these forms could have informed me. Dr. Cole and his staff set up my Hotel room, and lunch. I was treated very well. My wife EVEN had a good time there too. All the major stores were located around the hotel. If you have any questions. please feel free to ask. I'll answer to best of my abilitiy. Pictures will be available soon, I'm 1 week out post op. Thanks, Hairy-Vador.

p.s. I had the strip method with 3,000 graphs, and it was a breeze.

> I've been wanting to have this proceedure done for at least 4 years.
> But did not have this information at hand. The pass 8 months I've
> really been doing my reasearch. I've had 4 consultaions. This lead
> me to Dr. Cole. Thank God..... I finally had it done on 3-21-2006.

Hi, Hairy-Vador: Glad to hear that you had a success! Congrats!

> Everyting turned out better than any of these forms could have
> informed me. Dr. Cole and his staff set up my Hotel room, and lunch.
> I was treated very well. My wife EVEN had a good time there too.

So it's convenient for your wife to accompany you during the HT procedure? She's in a resting area or by your side?

> All the major stores were located around the hotel. If you have
> any questions. please feel free to ask. I'll answer to best of my
> abilitiy. Pictures will be available soon, I'm 1 week out post op.
> Thanks, Hairy-Vador. p.s. I had the strip method with 3,000
> graphs, and it was a breeze.

Very happy for you! Now it's about 2 weeks post-op, hope everything goes well for you. Best Regards.