thanatopsis_awry

Rigged.

Welcome. A few things: Look into getting on a three-pronged attack of propecia, rogaine foam 5%, revita (or nizoral) shampoo...this is also known as The Big Three...combined, it gives you your best shot at halting your loss and at regrowing hair...especially in the frontal region, stopping loss, let alone regrowth, is most difficult -- but, a combination of the aforementioned has done the trick for many. And, either way, you are giving yourself your best shot. Right away, I would recommend trying different styling options that might adapt better to your newfound -- though unfortunately not intentional -- hair...often gel makes what hair you have appear thinner; try a wax or paste, perhaps, to boost the "illusions of density" (no doubt a phrase you will hear again). As for an HT, it is impossible to say not knowing your level of hair loss, and how many grafts you require; but, also keep in mind that most likely you will require more than one procedure throughout your lifetime. Not a certainty, but a distinct possiblity. All this aside, we all commiserate with you; and it reeks to be getting through one hurdle to only battle another. But, just remember "what doesn' kill you only makes you stronger", and focus on what you can to better yourself while not succumbing to excessive self-pity, deression, angst over your hairloss, which happens more than it should to too many people (myself included).

Chucky had no comeback, per say; just an elucidation on his commitment towards keeping the aforementioned "big , lean, and drug free" gent happy and nice by feeding him skinless, cooked chicken breasts. Personally, I would require my meat to be already seasoned upon delivery; but, to each his own, I suppose.

4.5 months out is rough time to make a judgement, it's really *very* early. I don't think I've ever seen someone show appreciable change at <5months. You are really just coming out of the worst time period where many look worse; I think in the next two months you will see some nice cosmetic changes and from there on out it will pour on like gravy. Hang tight!

The healing process is very much gradual and it is easy to pinpoint some remnant of your HT for quite some time; redness in your recipient area and the donor region being the primary areas of concern...but it is also worth mentioning that if your head gets partially buzzed for your op you will look a bit lik a klingon (w/o a hat) up until you get your staples/sutures out and buzz your head to even things out. This is aesthetics -- pain is often resolved rather quickly after a couple weeks from what I understand. For me personally, I am 1week out and besides some minor itching/pain in my donor when I sleep I am totally fine. As well, fyi, my recipient area looks surprisingly normal already, like a decent buzzcut. I am still, however, sporting a wacky looking "haircut", and without a hat or in the company of a select few I will lay low for another week or so. I think you have to define "healed", though, to really determine your specific answers: lack of moderate pain, absolutely no pain; look fairly normal, look totally normal; etc. If you don't want to go home before you are "heaed", I would think you'd have to turn your HT trip into a lowkey vacation of sorts.

A realistic O/U seems to be 10 years for a product that will revolutionize hair restoration -- most likely this being "hair multiplcation", which is getting deeper and deeper in testing n' trials. Certaintly, the possibility of an uber-propecia kinda drug that halts hairloss is also a possibility. Either way, will also be exceedingly expensive when it first arrives, I would have to think. I don't think, though, that there is a clear enough timetable where you can start making huge gambles on how you currently approach HTs.

I understand how it can be frustrating to try out a "hair loss drug" that doesn't actually provide you with robust, tangible results (i.e. regrowth), especially when your options are limited, as far as I know, to one "FDA" approved treatment; at the same time, if you plan on possibly going the route of a HT, merely halting hairloss is a truly advantageous benefit. Sorry of to hear of your endocrine dilemmma -- is it possible to get that resolved, and be able to reverse or stop some of your loss? Also, have you considered the route of a HT? I've seen some very impressive results on female patients.

I beleive it is available in the U.S. as some U.S-based users on a forum I once read were talking about buying it and using it in tandem with finasteride/rogaine. I'm not sure whether a prescription is necessary, though. What other treatments have you tried or are you on?

Hmm, never heard of using a spray bottle for application before, sounds like a good idea; I did read some customer reviews of rogaine foam as it still being easy to apply even on long hair compared to the regular liquid application because of a lack of dripping and ability to target. Based off of customer reviews it seems that different people prefer different methods.

First, I would strongly recommend trying propecia; but if you are too lazy to pop a miniscule pill once a day.....well, I could totally understand as I am very lazy too about various things. But could you at least consider using a shampoo like Revita!? Is it typical to use propecia/rogaine(foam 5%)? Yes, very. Is it necessary? No. Is it adviseable? Absolutely. Treatments may very well give you regrowth, particularly in the crown; which, in turn, may very well alter your desire and/or plans for a given HT. Also, donor supply is really the name of the game -- aside from choosing an elite clinic. In order to give yourself the best shot of getting the best restoration you need to have the most minimal loss; the way to get the most minimal loss for the longest period of time is by being on the proven treatmens.

Great advice and words in this thread, and also some meaningful perspective as well (i.e. time is actually on your side, no problems currently with women). So don't allow yourself to become too depressed, or it will feed upon itself. I would 2nd posting some pics of your mop if you can; can't say for sure, of course, but a legit chance exists that your hairloss isn't "that" bad, and at the very least you could get some objective thoughts...but, even if it is, you really aren't screwed. Plenty of options for you, especially for your crown, and you have caught the beast early -- so capitalize upon that very important fact. The possibility of halting your loss, regrowth, future HTs, and whatever new treatments come out will help make sure you don't have to live your years with wretched hair. I too would consider hacking it off if it is really bugging you, and especially if you think you'd be OK with the look. "Out of sight, out of mind".

Happy; regrowth is difficult to ascertain because I didn't document it, but I am pretty sure I had minor regrowth after 12 months. Either way, like many people, it has done it's main job and halted any loss in my vertex/crown. For the first month I experienced some of the "common" sexual side effects, but after three months they dissipated. Don't expect magical regrowth with propecia alone, or even when combined with rogaine 5% foam; growth is always a potential, and it has been documented, but it's primary efficacy is in halting your MPB in the crown. And that is no small feat. Not anything close to a panacea, but it is the single greatest (non-surgical) measure you can take towards combating hairloss and setting yourself up for HT procedures. The crown is a blackhole for grafts, and if it is the only place you are losing hair propecia (and rogaine) alone may be good enough; or, at the very least, afford you the chance to expend much less grafts. Also, at 6months on propecia it hasn't reached full potency, so regrowth or even halting of hairloss is even less common. As well, being "drunk" might fuel your lust (it does for me), but still wreck your performance in the same fell swoop. Maybe you were experiencing sexual side effects after 6 months, in which case if you have to make a judgement call; but, I would make sure your test environment was more stable (i.e. are you still getting shafted even when not drunk and on propecia) before you give up.

Use the 5% foam, if you aren't already.

Re: ethics. I personally find Armani's ethics to be still important, even for Graff's case, though the landscape has changed. In the past, with strip, it was an "ethical" question centering around being too aggressive w/ younger patients -- which would be irrelevent, e.g., for Graff. Results themselves really were not truly in question, and if someone wanted to roll the dice on future loss while receiving 100% great results in line for their procedure...fine. Now, however, with FUE, I think the primary "ethical" questions surround fraudulent claims regarding the efficacy of FUE -- yield, donor supply, graft estimates, which trouble me much more than just being overly aggressive...combine this with specious marketing -- highlighting strip results under an apparent guise of FUE -- and I think the FUE procedures that Armani is doing wade in very murky water. If Armani has somehow surrepticiously revolutioned FUE all by himself, resolving fundamental problems with FUE megasessions I would be among the first in line....I have seen a lack of clear evidence, however, be it in the form of tangible results or logical argumentation. I hope my suspicions are incorrect, and in the coming months Armani *finally* produces a host of credible documentation...though, I won't be holding my breath this time.

Amen. His current, tangible work w/ FUE is questionable to say the least; to say nothing of his "ethics". That you can't find half-way clear examples of grown out Armani patients (FUE) is of prime importance. Also, keep in mind that the central concern (fact....) is the yield % of grafts in brute force FUE megasessions has yet to be resolvd. This, however, can be (somewhat) masked if, say, you went about (squandering) 4k grafts for a person who needs maybe half-that....the yield could be horrific and sub-50% yet the end results would still look "good", even "great"....of course, the procedure was a total sham and to your absolute detriment compare to what you could have done otherwise. Speaking from someone who almost went to Armani, I would *strongly* caution against it. You really don't want to be rolling dice in any way when you go about such a pivotal procedure. Find the threads/articles were FUE megasessions get lucidly dissected -- I'll try to drag them up quickly if I can find them and post them here for you.

Rassman. But, tough for me to say for sure who is the best for you; if you haven't already, I would consult with each of them. Compare n' contrast their prognoses, look at their work which comes the closest to mimicing what you will get done....pay close attention to immediate post-op photos if you can. If you were to post some clear photos here, and include a doc's prognosis, I am sure various members could give you a "better" guess as to who may be the best for your situation.

Ya, if you really want and expect "density", then 3500 spread throughout such a large area won't achieve it; HOWEVER, it could provide you with very good "coverage", which could set you up nicely for a 2nd procedure later on where you beef up the density. A very important thing is your donor, btw -- how dense, vast, and how lax...this will determine how many grafts you have in the tank.

First, Dr. Rahal is great. Could say he is among the best of the best. I would strongly second looking into propecia, and perhaps placing a premium this go around on the frontal regions, which I'll explain more later....also, your level of balding looks like a diffuse NW5 to me, but I can't really tell how thinned, or dense, your hairline is -- though you say Rahal recommended working on it so I assume it has thinned as well. With 3500 grafts I don't think your end-goals of "full head of hair restored" and good density will be accomplished...at least not THIS go around alone. The crown can be like a blackhole for grafts; if, say, you took 2k grafts to fix up your frontal 1/3rd, or even but 1500, that would leave 2k to work on your crown...this seems a bit light to me given your state. Personally, I would rather see if a synergistic combo of propecia and rogaine can work some magic on my specific crown (which it very well could), and focus work elsewhere and strive for density...with 3500 grafts, for instance, I think you need to determine where and what type of premium you place on density and coverage. It is tough to say with greater confidence, however, given just one pic -- though it shows your crown/vertex quite well.

Mrjb, a good point -- it really isn't worth breaking a sweat over the minutae of these products. Wylie, that's exactly what I was doing and will go back to doing: revita for my home showers and before I go out, niz at the gym.

Seemingly a combination of shedding, shockloss -- and that my head looks like a klingon's. Need to buzz my mop or get cryo frozen, whichever can soundly happen first.

Janna' post at the end of the comment section is toptop; really lays on the line, and systematically explains a number of very interesting -- and logical -- points. Is it a combination of willingness (as opposed to siding with the concerns/points that Janna mentions) and having an extra large (and efficient) staff to be able to perform 5k, 6k+ in a single session? Perhaps having a series of unique patients? Or is there something else that allows them the ability to perform such behemoth sessions where it seems other elite clinics top out at around ~4500?

Holy.......did I read it right that you have a min of like 3500 left in the tank, and possibly ~5k.....unreal! That is by far the most vast donor I have ever heard of -- is it in good part due to the fact that you have a massive head? Your other charachteristics are, of course, good as well.

I've heard some contradicting things about propecia being a huge thing to have before a HT to mitigate shockloss; but, I've always been under the assumption that it takes some time either way before propecia would have any chance of making any appreciable impact via the strengthening of your follicles (i.e. longer than 4weeks). Who is your doctor, btw? I would prolly side w/ him unless someone presents damning proof otherwise.

You look at your cocker spaniel, gaze at his mop, and the first emotion that registers is jealousy, and the first thought that springs to mind is how many cool styling options he has.

Hmmm, my first thought was to wait till after, but I'm curious as to others' opinions. Getting on propecia now, or any time pre-HT at this point, I don't think would aid you in any way regarding the procedure (strenghtening of hairs, minimizing shockloss); however, it could cause shedding, which while I don't think would effect you in a really averse way, might not be ideal. I wouldn't think it to be a big deal either way, though.