NN,

There is no reason to lower your hairline if you don't want to. Higher more "mature" hairlines can look great too.

For me, when I started surgery, I had the resemblance of an existing hairline that I asked the doctor to work within. So for the most part, my hairline is just about as it was when I was 24 (keeping i mind that my hairline was probably a little lower in high school).

Besides...

You can always decide to lower your hairline later after you are satisfied with the coverage and density with a more conservative hairline.

Falc

Nervous Nelly

Doctor Raul does minimal shaving. He also does minimal shaving in the donor area and the removal of the strip is hardly noticiable.. I am pretty much pain free and it's only been 3 days since my procedure. I stongly recommend him....

Good luck NN,

I think you will have good result with Dr. Shapiro. Please keep us posted!=)

Thanks guys.

Mp96 I have finally made my decision to go with Dr. Ron Shapiro and am scheduled for Aug. 13th so it's not far off at all.

Unfortunately due to my career and need to get back to the office relatively quickly, I can't shave my head for the procedure. What I think I will do however is allow them to shave part of the central core immediately behind the hairline so that they can do more dense work there. I don't have much density there anyways and when I comb hair back a lot will be disguised anyways. Moreover, this hair is some of the most miniturized that I have so likely it may jump ship anyways. I will give the doc my ideas and let him go from there with his expertise.

NN

Nice choice.

I also think Dr. Shapiro is also a great hair transplant doctor. He seems to have excellent turn outs and great hairlines from what I have seen in the past.
Good luck to you with your surgery and post when you can please.. Thanks and take care, Mp96

quote:

I have finally made my decision to go with Dr. Ron Shapiro

You mean your wife made that decision don't you NN? : )

NN...

congrats on making a decision. Start doing those scalp exercises...you don't have a lot of time! I can't wait to see your pictures and read about your experience.

Falc

congrats NN, good luck mate,from what i hear shapiro is an excellent choice!

Yes, good luck NN. I've always been impressed w/ Shapiro's work. Nice choice. Happy healing and growing!

Guys,

Only 1 week away now. Still up in the air as to the exact plan as I keep flip flopping about things. Ultimately I am leaving a lot up to Dr. Shapiro as I trust his artistic and technical skills. As I have stated several times before, my priority is my hairline and frontal area but can't shave entirely for ultimate results with maximum denstiy and fu.

My latest thought is this:

1. Shave an approx. 2 cm area behind hairline. I have very thin hair there anyways. (est. 15fu/cm2)
2. Keep hairline a certain length so that I can comb back after surgery to hide work.

I think that this will give the best of both worlds and allow for meeting my desires and make things easier for Dr. Shapiro to achieve the best possible results and therefore I can focus all/most FU in frontal region. My hair might look a little more funky than I'd like when I go back to work 10 days later, but I can use some toppik also to try and hide things.

Soon enough all this research and discussion will come to fruition.

NN

NN,

Your gameplan sounds good.

Discuss it with Dr. Shapiro and listen to what he suggests as well. I am sure you will come out a new man...or at least a hairy man .

Bill (Falc)

Falc,

I'm sure that things will again change when I show up to Shapiro's but this latest plan has been thought out and I believe will be pretty effective. We'll see. Sometimes having hair present is more of a pain than starting with a fresh canvas.

NN

NN,

Good luck with your procedure. It sounds like you know exactly what you want, & there's no doubt that you're in good hands.

Thanks guys for your wellwishes. I am taking off either Friday night or Saturday morning and will drive to Minneapolis from Michigan. I chose not to fly since I don't want to deal with all the bullshit of flying when not feeling the best and my wife and I can make a bit of a road trip out of it. If our schedules will allow I might try to meet up with Bspot.

I am scheduled for Monday morning and am getting more and more amped about things, especially as I see such awesome results recently from some forum members and Shapiros work posted.

I have been doing scalp exercises although working 70+ hours a week lately it is a little challenging. Steering with a knee and doing scalp exercises is not recommended by the way. I have also been increasing my MSM and time on inversion table. I take Vit. A and Shen Min(realizing it might be useless) and ginko. I shampoo with Nizoral 1-2 times per week and use Vitalize shampoo. My motherinlaw asked what I was doing for my hair the other day because she thought it looked very healthy?? Who knows. Wait till she sees me with my new fro.

I am going to try and post some other pre photos in outdoor light and wet so that everyone has a better idea of what things really look like. I have the type of hair that can look much thicker when dry because it is waivy. Good for me I guess. Not sure when I will post apres photos but I will also allow Shapiro to do so if inclined.

This is it gentleman. Lots of time and learning invested in this and it now is only a few days away. You are all to be thanked for helping me in my decision and I promise to keep you posted along the recovery journey.

Take care


NN

all the very best of Irish luck to you NN
IH

NN,

Good luck my brother...you will be in good hands. I hope you get a chance to meet up with B Spot. I wish I could be there to offer my encouragement as well.

I look forward to reading a detailed report and seeing some post op photos.

I encourage you also to consider creating a hair loss weblog.

Falc

Hey Everyone,

Finally done. Had the surgery today with Dr. Ron Shapiro. Things went very well. We ended up getting appox. 2900 fu. Slighly less than planned for but he was also able to excise a lot of an old scar from previous work(with other doc 17 yrs ago) and this limited the graft count because it was a bad scar. Moreover, all grafts were placed in frontal zone which is what I wanted so I am stoked about that since it is quite dense packed and with my native hair should be super. So far I am extremely happy about the way things went and have nothing but good things to say about the staff. Special thanks to all that helped me out. I am going to have my wife snap a few photos and try to post shortly for you guys/gals. Also I will answer any questions that you might have. Hair count was given to me but I can't remember. Will get in future the exact breakdown but it was around 5800 I believe.

I do have to say that it is amazing what goes on there. Believe it or not there were 10 staff cutting the grafts and then had 3 placing and occasionally rotating. Far cry from some of the stories I have heard from other clinics. Even Matt Zupan their consultant came in to check on me several times. Finally did get a chance to meet Janna and she is super sweet and a real looker. I'm married but still can look and sorry guys she is married also.

If you have never met Dr. Shapiro you should. He is a very down to earth guy and quite interesting and willing to talk or show you anything you'd like along the process. It is very easy to tell that he has a true passion about what it is he is doing. He took a long time while figuring on the hairline and placement and several times stopped to keep checking it out. He spent a good deal of time at the end with the stick and place but he definitely is integrally apart of the entire process.

I don't currently have any pain but feel super tight everywhere. I expected that and know it is normal.

Kind of tired and need some sleep. Check out the new photos.

Take care all.

NN

Wow, you finally did it, NervousNelly. Looks great!

Why did you decide to shave only a certain part of the recipient? How long did your surgery take and do you know how long was your strip? Curious to know.

Anyways, Thanks for sharing. Heal well.

quote:

Originally posted by NervousNelly:
Finally did get a chance to meet Janna and she is super sweet and a real looker. I'm married but still can look and sorry guys she is married also.

rp1979,

Thanks for the comments. I chose to only shave a certain area of the recipient site because for the work that I needed, it was the most crucial and now I have a little hair to comb back and hide the work when I go back to the office in 10 days.(especially with the use of toppik or maderma.) Dr. Shapiro was very confident that he could easily do all that he wanted because of the high magnification loops that he wears. It is quite dense packed considering he left some native hair. The strip was 29 cm but as I said, approx 9 or so was old scar that he eliminated. I was stoked about that even though it lessened the hair count. He told me that had it not have been for the scar he would likely have gotten 3500fu.

NN

I just wanted to add that I have always thought of this as a likely 2 step process, so I can alsways add to the hairline as needed and then concentrate on the crown and mid scalp more. Dr. Shapiro was very confident that I definitely have another large session in me and possible a 3rd.

NN