quote:

Originally posted by thanatopsis_awry:
Wow. So if your wife was a 10, but is now a 12...does that mean that existentially speaking, she is really an 11?

MISREAD ALERT!!!

Actually, I said "the girl I married in 1991 wasn't a 10 then but she's a by-God 12 now!" Interpretation: I feel like she has improved with time.

Anon Man,
Though I've never felt extremes such as you describe I won't say that my hair loss didn't bother me a great deal, it did and still does. I just had a transplant about 6-7 weeks back and I look like hell so I can't tell you a transplant is all blue bells n sunshine just yet.
I'm a fairly confident successful guy and have never had trouble with ladies but hair loss really upset me. For years I struggled with the weakness (to me) of my hair loss bothering me, after having a transplant done I still feel that way to a large extent.It's like I discovered a weakness in my character that pleased me not at all.
I despise vanity as we seem to live in a society that caters to the lowest common denominator etc. and I've always looked upon people who get vanity surgery done with a certain amount of disdain. I consider a HT vanity surgery but and it's a big but, we live in a society that judges us on appearance to a large degree and for the vast majority of men, hair loss is a very big issue no matter what they say. As I was one who went years saying it was no big deal yet having it bother me regularly to the point that I felt I needed to fix it I can attest to that. Is it the cause of your depression? No idea, that's a shrinks job. What I do know is that in my case when things aren't going great, my hair loss drives me nuts so it's an issue.
I wish you all the best and as you've already read, you aren't alone.
If it's any consolation, Julius Caeser started losing his hair in his 30's and it supposedly aggravated him a great deal so we all aren't in bad company. Look on the bright side, we can have a HT done as opposed to crucifying a bunch of people when we're having a bad no hair day. Caeser couldn't.

Hi there,

If you are feeling depressed by your hair loss, you are not alone. There are several researches on psychology of hair loss showing association of hair loss and depression and anxiety. Last year Dr. Rassman and I did a research on psychology of hair transplant. We asked 200 people who had their first hair transplant surgery over a year ago eight questions on the changes they felt after complete result of their hair transplant surgery.
The good news is you can reverse your depression with hair restoration and with available technology it is easily available.
I presented the result on the last annual meeting of international society of hair restoration surgery in Vegas. I also submitted an article to the journal of the society that was recently published as cover article.
Here is the abstract of the article that I put in my hair transplant weblog:




« US Hair Restoration Video ClipPsychology of Hair Transplant
I just received the last issue of the Hair Transplant Forum International, the Journal of International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS). Our article “Psychology of Hair Transplant” is published as the cover article on this issue of the journal. Here is an abstract:

--------------

Psychology of Hair Transplant
Parsa Mohebi, M.D., William Rassman, M.D.

Balding and its psychological impacts has been the subject of many studies in the past. The relationship between hair loss and stress is clear to all clinicians who practice in this field. Negative psychosocial impacts of hair loss in male patterned baldness and in women with generalized thinning have also been seen. Many of us (hair transplant surgeons) have seen the negative effects of hair loss on self esteem and self-image.

We know that hair loss impacts some men’s sex life and their stability with regard to career choices in men of different ages. Despite the solid evidences and published literature on psychological impact of hair loss, the corrective effect of medical and surgical hair restoration has never been studied. After observing the drastic changes in patient behavior and the high level of patient satisfaction in those who had hair transplant procedure, we were motivated to look into the psychological impact of hair restoration on different aspects of a patient’s life.

We came up with a series of criteria that could have been modified by having a hair restoration procedure; we used some indexes that were previously studied comparing bald and non bald men on different psychological variables. We initially performed a pilot study and asked patients about different aspects of their lives during their post op visits. We gave our patients open ended questionnaires and probed their psychological state after their hair restoration procedure was complete. Eventually we focused in on eight major criteria that have been reported and documented as variables associated with hair loss in the literature. We collected a subset of them in our pilot study. Included were questions on the general level of happiness, energy level, feeling of youthfulness, anxiety levels, self confidence, outlook on their future and impact on their sex life.

We have chosen the patients who had their first hair transplant surgery between one to three years from the time of our study, so they had seen the final result of their hair restoration procedure. We limited the study to male patients with male pattern baldness and the ones who had surgeries less than three years ago so they still had a fresh memory of the changes they experienced. Each patient had exclusively follicular unit transplants that reflected our standard of care for that period. We sent a questionnaire with a brief description on the nature of this scientific study. We did not collect any patient identifiers and the response was totally voluntary. We sent the two hundred questionnaires with stamped return envelope.

The response rate to our questionnaire was 37 (18%). Each patient was used as his own control since we asked about the changes that they experienced after surgery in comparison to those variables before the surgery. We used T-test to compare patient’s responses. Table 1 shows the mean and standard error in eight different criteria that were asked. Patients had significant improvements in all eight criteria regardless of their stage of baldness and their ages.

In another attempt to compare psychological changes that patients experienced in different stages of baldness, we divided patients into two groups: (1) those who had Norwood IV patterns or less and (2) the ones with Norwood V patterns and above. We observed the most significant difference in two categories, (a) sex life and (b) career experience. Patients with less balding had a greater impact on their sex life and career when compared to patients who had more advanced stages of hair loss. These changes were not age related.

Hair restoration surgery can affect many aspects of a patient’s life. Hair transplant can potentially reverse psycho-social problems associated with hair loss. The positive impact of hair restoration surgery is more visible among patients who suffer from those undesirable effects the most. In early stages of hair loss, patients may have more awareness of their condition and they might be more affected than men in the later stages of hair loss.

Patients who experienced hair loss at an early age while involved in an active social life were more prone to the negative side effects of balding. That could explain why younger people with hair loss appeared more benefited by hair restoration procedures. Also it could be assumed that hair loss can have a negative impact on a patient’s outlook which seems to reverse after receiving a hair restoration procedure which improved their outlook.

Low response rate from a blind mailing has always been a drawback in questionnaire studies. We received 37 out of 200 of the questionnaires that we sent out (response rate was 18.5%). Giving incentives to responders may be a good way of increasing the participation rate of any questionnaire studies. We presented the result of this study at the annual scientific meeting of ISHRS and have been contacted by many of our colleagues who expressed interest in collaborating in a larger scale study. We are currently trying to rise funding for repeating this study to optimize our response rate and the statistical value of the study.

-----

This attached graph can say more than anything on the changes that you can experience after hair transplant surgery.


Good luck.

Best,
Dr. Parsa Mohebi

psychology-of-hair-transplant.jpg (78 Kb, 15 downloads)

Yeah .. im losing hope again... you know.. seeing a horseshoe on ur head at 19 is fucking horrible.

I hear ya. 22 for me & It was not a holiday.
There is hope though .. meds & concealers

Parsa,

Thanks for providing your insight into this. It's good to see you on our forum. Since we've been in touch privately, I look forward to seeing the results of the immediately postoperative photos you sent me a month ago.

As you can see, I modified your post to include the article you referenced in the actual forum thread rather than linking back to your site. I also attached the graph you referred to at the bottom of your post.

Please feel free to contribute on our forum, but displaying contact and website information is reserved for only those who are recommended.

I look forward to seeing more of you on our forum.

Best wishes,

Falc

I saw this on Dr. Rassman's Balding Blog and thought it was relevant to this topic. It's a great interview with Patrick Stewart (New Star Trek) discussing baldness in his early years. Just goes to show that even though balding can be depressing it's definitely not the end of the world and life can still turn out great.
Here's a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXOK-ZVJMaU

He's the epitimy of a NW7 so HT wouldn't have even been a good option for him at all. I also think he looks great.

Yeah I thought that was cool too, hes a cool guy, just sucks 90% ofbald men aren't patrick stewart. Its a good way to think of it like that and I would give the same advice to any of my balding friends but its alot harder to think like that for yourself, atleast for me.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJobi:
I hear ya. 22 for me & It was not a holiday.
There is hope though .. meds & concealers

Jobi, do concealers work pretty good? I really don't like how my hair is looking the more I grow it out like it use to be since it has thinned, I really wanna go back to buzzing my head but my baldness has progressed to where its more emberassing, I still have hair up there so i feel like concealers might mask it perfectly, but when people touch your head or rub it will it come off on there hands like paint, and smear?

Jupiter, concealers have literally saved my life and kept me from being a total hermit without a hat. Especially in the time period where I became real conscious about my MPB, to when I finally got a HT, I don't know what I'd have done without them, and how I'd have bridged that time period.

A combo of dermmatch and nanogen = miracle. Even now, I'm less freaked out about my loss because I have a HT growing in, but I still won't go into a serious social setting without putting them to work. And they work ridiculously well when you get the right color and master the application.

Looking at your pics, they could completely restore your crown -- at least give the illusion -- and also bolster the thinning areas of your hairline.

Depression is a serious issue which can a dramatic effect on our quality of life.

Those of us who have found this site realise the importance of getting the right person to do our restoration, so If you are suffering debilitating depression, such as we have seen described in this thread, it is vital that you find the best possible help you can in your area.

In Australia we have a wonderful organisation called "beyond blue" which provides great support and information about depression, bipolar, etc. It would be great if people in other countries could provide information on support networks in their country.

I have just undergone my first hair transplant (03/20/08) and I am already very happy with my decision. I entered into the hair transplant with a stable state of mind, stable work situation, strong support networks, etc. In a depressed (or manic) state you are not able to make rational decisions, so it is absolutely the wrong time to go racing into a hair transplant.

quote:

Originally posted by thanatopsis_awry:
Jupiter, concealers have literally saved my life and kept me from being a total hermit without a hat. Especially in the time period where I became real conscious about my MPB, to when I finally got a HT, I don't know what I'd have done without them, and how I'd have bridged that time period.

A combo of dermmatch and nanogen = miracle. Even now, I'm less freaked out about my loss because I have a HT growing in, but I still won't go into a serious social setting without putting them to work. And they work ridiculously well when you get the right color and master the application.

Looking at your pics, they could completely restore your crown -- at least give the illusion -- and also bolster the thinning areas of your hairline.

Thana, thanks for posting on just about all my boards and answering my questions man seriosuly. The one thing however you didnt answer for me was like when its on if someone rubs your head(say if your with a girl) does it rub off on there hand like makeup or soemthing

No prob....as for a chic (or anyone) rubbing your head....you should be fine -- in my experience I have no issue with this, and another big concealer guy a while back posted about having a first date and at one point the girl ran her fingers through his hair and he was OK. However, if your hair is really wet; or you apply the concealer to very damp hair or apply the concealer with a lot of water, it definitely can run if you touch it. It's key to make sure it is dry by the time you leave the house or are ready for action or w/e. But it really shouldn't rub off on someone's hand like makeup..I mean, I am sure SOME type of residue from it is present, but it not visible to the naked eye and could not be felt.

To safeguard yourself further, you can: blowdry your hair, work a comb through your hair after application to make sure it is evenly spread and very set in place, and/or just make sure when you apply it to your head it is pretty dry.

In my experience, the dermmatch can leave a mark more than nanogen; like if you go to bed with it on, you may very well see markings on your pillow casing depending on how you sleep....one thing to do for sure, though, is to spray some of the "holder" (it's not called this, but they sell it @ the nanogen website) on your hair once you finish applocation. This *really* holds it in place -- so harsh wind, rain, etc, won't displace it or anything....e.g., this morning I did a test to get the nanogen out of my hair...I rubbed a soaked towel through my hair and not only did VERY little come off onto the towel, but my hair looked totally find, save for losing some of the look along the first 1/2 inch of my hairline. And I attribute that to using the least amount of nano and "holding" spray on that area. Btw, I think it is called a "locking mist".

Concealer can realy help but it depends on your hairloss situation.. If you are a N6 then it most likely wont but if you are a N4 & above it can especially if you are a bit diffuse..

The best one as far as staying put is dermatch.. The other tend to smear a bit more and leave a trail.. Dont be suprised though if you sleep over a chicks house that you leave a blotch on her white pillow case. This cannot be avoided..

This is an excellent thread and one that hits close to home. Being 19, hairloss has absolutely devastated me. Like many others I used to feel outgoing and attractive. Now I must admit that without a hat I feel as if everyone is looking at me. It's scary because having it start so young probably means there is really no hope for me in the future since it's possible I could progress to a Norwood 7. It's hard to accept things you cannot change that influence all parts of your life (girlfriends, job interviews, social situations...).

I too experience great depression and anxiety attacks out of nowhere and I'm certain they are both linked to losing my hair.

The only things that keep me going are baseball caps and optimism about the future of hair transplants. Very few people can relate to me at this age which makes the problem even tougher. I guess it's good to know that there are other people on forums like these that feel the same way.

Thanks.

It's ok Grommit you can spend more time on the balding blog w/us balding bozos, we can relate to you!
Im currently confined to Hair Purgatory so there is not much else to do, so we can hang out on here a lot together...

quote:

Originally posted by Grommit:
This is an excellent thread and one that hits close to home. Being 19, hairloss has absolutely devastated me. Like many others I used to feel outgoing and attractive. Now I must admit that without a hat I feel as if everyone is looking at me. It's scary because having it start so young probably means there is really no hope for me in the future since it's possible I could progress to a Norwood 7. It's hard to accept things you cannot change that influence all parts of your life (girlfriends, job interviews, social situations...).

I too experience great depression and anxiety attacks out of nowhere and I'm certain they are both linked to losing my hair.

The only things that keep me going are baseball caps and optimism about the future of hair transplants. Very few people can relate to me at this age which makes the problem even tougher. I guess it's good to know that there are other people on forums like these that feel the same way.
Thanks.

I've written it plenty of times, but man you've got to find some way to come to grips with this and live your life. I for one think a thinning / bald guy who shaves his head daily looks very professional; if a few other things are in place: nicely shaped head, physically fit, sharply dressed.

There are plenty of men who've overcome being completely bald to do great things, and that hat is limiting you more than no hair will. I remember being in my early 20's and wearing hats out to bars. I wish I would've shaved mine and not thought another thing about it. Plenty of professionals I know are bald and look fine. Take a look at coalition doc Bernstein - he's a NW7 and looks great, imo.
http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/

anon,
would you be willing to submit some photos of your hair? Perhaps you just need to begin propecia or avodart to prevent further thinning? You should consider it regardless. I don't think it will cure your depression, but it will probably make you feel like you're taking control of your hair loss instead of it taking control of you..

I'm man enough to admit that when my hairloss kicked in at 23 i was reduced to tears and thought to myself if go completely bald i might as well kill myself i'd be so fukin' ugly sad but true

quote:

Originally posted by Grommit:
This is an excellent thread and one that hits close to home. Being 19, hairloss has absolutely devastated me. Like many others I used to feel outgoing and attractive. Now I must admit that without a hat I feel as if everyone is looking at me. It's scary because having it start so young probably means there is really no hope for me in the future since it's possible I could progress to a Norwood 7. It's hard to accept things you cannot change that influence all parts of your life (girlfriends, job interviews, social situations...).

I too experience great depression and anxiety attacks out of nowhere and I'm certain they are both linked to losing my hair.

The only things that keep me going are baseball caps and optimism about the future of hair transplants. Very few people can relate to me at this age which makes the problem even tougher. I guess it's good to know that there are other people on forums like these that feel the same way.

Thanks.

im here too man....