thanatopsis_awry

Righteous result; o' so lush.

Sounds good. For real, if you/Dr. True can document your case it'd be a huge asset, and could help out a lotta people considering BHT!

I would go with True > Epstein any day of the week. If those are the two whom you are deciding upon, I would go True all the way. However, if you are also looking to get traditional scalp hair taken, Dr. Feller is an exceedingly attractive option, and you'd have to weight the pros of that vs. not getting any BHT. (personally, I would have extremely low expectations for any BHT work). Honestly, I'm quite surprised Dr. True says he is able to get such high yield. I've never heard of yield that high for BHT.

Don't take this the wrong way, because it does bodes well for your future, but you seem to have some pretty severe emotional/psychological dilemmas that extend beyond the plane of hairloss. Maybe hairloss was the ultimate catalyst and straw breaking the camel's back (I know it was for me). No joke, though, your life sounds pretty sweet; you obviously loathe it right now, but that doesn't mean you have to loathe it "tomorrow". You have your health, physical talents, intellectual prowess, ambition, financial well-being, and youth. Basically, you have every superficial and otherwise accoutrement to attract people. You could be a NWfckin6 and it'd still be the case. And it seems you are hardly a NW6, though that's actually beside the point. The question is why with all of this you are nonetheless miserable, and why your misery happens to be connected to isolation (/alienation) from friends and lovers. I can almost guarantee you that if you had Elvis-hair tomorrow your discontent would not fundamentally change. Look to the future, in which a HT can make your life all the more perfect, but don't hyperfocus at the neglect of potentially omnipotent problems that lurk under the cloak of "needing" more hair. I would spend some coinage on finding a cool therapist and give that a go, to be perfectly honest and totally frank.

Many who went to the master currently self-named after a famous Italian designer, only to later resort to repair sessions via strip megasessions. So, I would say it is certainly possible; but, like any procedure that is done, subsequent ones will prove more "challenging" in being able to harvest as many /or more grafts. There are a couple guys on this forum who seem to have gone FUE --> FUT (Lesson and Hairdew spring to mind), but I don't believe either had extensive loss so their subsequent strip procedures weren't too huge.

One strip in the bank; ideally, one (not two) megasession of strip ahead of me, followed by FUE till my donor runs dry.

I too wonder what happened to Leeson. It was very odd -- that incredibly peculiar thread he created where it seemed he had become possessed by some egomaniacal, high-as-a-kite ingratiate was weird to say the least....I know Bill then said he had some reason to believe it may not have even be Leeson...but since I haven't a heard a word on this. LMS may have moved on, unfortunately; he has had a rocky road on the forums, this one included, though I feel he was treated fairly here and that his voice was appreciated.

Go consult with Dr. Lindsey and Dr. Vogel -- in McLean, VA and Baltimore (I believe), respectively. Not sure if they charge 2-3 graft, but you'd be doing yourself a disservice to not go for consults with them. In the NY area I would look into Dr. Feller, who is pretty competitively priced. Don't search off of price. Search off of quality, first and foremost, and let price be a factor *after* you've already done some legit research and narrowed down your choices some.

Are you positive that your legit donor is really unable to be harvested? FWIW, manymany times I have seen a doctor (or doctors) tell a patient his donor is poor -- if not inoperable -- and then they go and get a bajillion grafts. Maybe this would be the case with you, maybe not; but, I would certainly consult with a very wide range of physicians just to be sure on this, since it's such a critical decision. If BHT, as a last resort, was a route that I'd be going, Dr. Umar would probably be the only doc I'd go to. Out of Dr. True and Epstein, Dr. True has more experience and involvement in BHT from what I know. I also feel he is a superior clinic to Epstein. I would certainly consider Dr. True for BHT, and try to discover more. But the only doctor who seems to have truly devoted himself to this particular "craft" in a comprehensive way is Dr. Umar. And I certainly have reservations about him, nonetheless.

I'm getting de ja vu....but ya, MHR sucks and should never be seriously considered. Look into corrective work maiden1980.

I think he's reccomended on here -- not sure on his "Coalition" status, though. I don't personally know of anyone who has gone to him, but he has posted a good deal of results on this site. Check out the "clinic results" section, and/or run a search on him and you will find his work and responses to it. I know I was quite impressed by the last case he posted.

Pristine result; totally seamless.

All of the top doctors aren't charging fees, let alone outrageous fees. And it's *not* the norm. Go consult with Dr. Feller and Dr. True; both in NY.

While all of that is true about his sub-standard ethics; you won't get a nice rosy and robust 18yr old hairline. You will simply get a squandered donor (and bankroll) to be stuck with the remnants of what would-be a thick 18yr old hairline (if it wasn't for his horrible skills and inability to produce consistent/good yield).

Hmmm....from all you've expressed, it seems that the #1 decider in whether going through another HT would be worth it is how many grafts you'd get. You obviously have made a nice improvement post-HT, but you have reasonably high expectations, and rightfully so; a 2nd HT would assuredly improve you, much like the first, the question is whether you can stack the cards in your favor (vis a vis grafts) to get you a "superlative" result, in which the end result will approximate something worth the risks/sacrifices of going with a 2nd HT to begin with. The risks of a scar are immutable, as is the recovery phase. Scalp exercises + the right clinic could give you an excellent shot of superseding the ~2500 figure you initially mentioned. Replace 2500 with, say 3500 and how does this impact your perception of the risk/reward.

The more I think about it the more I really do believe it's predominantly attributed to a high range of densepacking (+ very high yield) over the backdrop of patient physiology, that being the most important, and ultimate, decider. Whether it's a hairline vs. crown case, or an entire scalp being rebuilt as opposed to a more supported area, are all little things that would also contribute to any perception that "miracle" growth rate is occurring.

Interesting....so it's not that grafts are even being sacrificed, per say, but you lose a few hundred grafts in terms of what could be harvested in a particular session. I think Dr. Lindsey and Dr. Simmons gave the most concise and substantive description of tricho's pros (and cons) that I've seen. Thx!

IMHO, Swim isn't John36; though I do see a certain similarity in style (I've always thought swim was foreign/non-US), Swim strikes me as more intelligent, seasoned, and not loaded with an agenda. Maybe I'm wrong, but.... I also actually enjoyed this thread and it got me thinking a good bit, even though I'm still not entirely sure of everything that was said; SERIOUS, mmhce, and swim too raised some challenging points, even if the debate got a bit convoluted and difficult to discern at times (swim, bro, listen to Bill and use proper tags ). Not the easiest read by any stretch of the imagination, but I appreciate that SERIOUS and Co. didn't back down.

So, I don't think I've ever mentioned this in any capacity, but I play poker professionally; henceforth, illuminating one of the reasons I'm able to be on here so much. Anyways, my ADD was particularly ferocious this afternoon and betwixt making my rounds on the tables I couldn't resist cruising HTN and oggling mop shots. Historically, this has cost me a "bit" of money when I've been especially involved in a thread and my hand times out, I misread something, etc. But it's a sacrifice I'm generally cool with as this *is* the best follicular inspired community around. Sundays are a huge day for tournament poker, and I'm a sucker for playing glorified lottos, and today was no exception. And here is where a special, and surprising thanks needs to go out to this forum, and, even more surprising, Dr. Alvi Armani for inspiring the latest threat concerning him. Midway through a hand fairly deep in a tournament and I had an easy decision and fold to make facing a mammoth "alllin"; I was more focused on the aforesaid topic and eagerly toggling through my windows I clicked "call"...unwittingly...and without even knowing what I had pressed until I went back to my game and realized the following: I called a shove facing two mammoth stacks holding KK and KK, respectively, and my 23 ended up winning the gargantuan pot. This would be reasonably funny and cool no matter what, but over the next 7hours I proceeded to go on a complex tear of bizarre mathematical proportions, ultimately making the final table of the multi-thousand man field and doing super good. And without a doubt I owe about 95.6% of my windfall to the HTN community for the equity that the insane misclick gave me. My appreciation will be paid forward at the next ISHRS conference. /blog

I like Dr. Tykocinski's work; would look forward to seeing your case documented! Also, if I could pick one doctor solely based off of location, it'd be Tykocinski.

I'd agree that it's in part chance. But, I also think that it's due to Rahal transplanting at very high densities, comparitively speaking; so, the actual growth rate would still be consistent with most other clinics, but the growth itself would look more impressive at a given time.

IMHO, they may very well do more for your hair than yer physical performance.

Dr. Dorin was the first doc I consulted with actually. Anyways, you need to figure out what 2500 will look like on you; and then you need to decide if it's worth starting a process of HTs, over the backdrop of what your ultimate end is (5000 grafts if you went to Dr. Dorin, let's say). Only you can really decide this, and decide it after a good deal of research. Regardless, I would strongly caution to not make *any* definitive decisions until you're sure the "risk/reward" is there and you're very confident. Also, look into setting up consults with a nice blend of clinics to round out your research (I'd recco Hasson&Wong, Feller, Shapiro Medical group) Without seeing pics of your...as a ~NW6, I'd say 2500 might establish a conservative hairline and give some semblance of coverage over the frontal 1/3rd, maybe the top. There are actually *a lot* of cases on this forum of ~NW6's getting ~2500....so, you should be able to get a good feel for things. I should prolly be playing poker right now, but I'd rather ogle HT pics, so I'll link you some in here.

He had 2700; was densepacked into his hairline...he was like a NW2.5

Don't see why not. It's an industry predicated upon illusion, and HTs can certainly give that. I actually know of one personally who's been OK, and I've heard of others, as well.