la la land, you should also look at dr. alexander in arizona. he has tons of results from guys who didn't shave their heads and gets fantastic results. very natural. he also does mature hairlines which i think would work great in your case. if you go to hlh he has a bunch of results posted there too. best of luck!

Hi La La,

Your answers as to not choosing to do a mega session with H&W are dead on. I also did not want to and could not shave down due to work reasons. Since that is your case as well then you'll be able to accomplish an incredible complete (crown and all) results in probably 2 sessions of about 2800 or so. Most surgeons who don't require shave down won't do anything above 3000 in one session due to time constraints. Not sure what your preferrences are for your hairline but if you're not looking to lower it too much your post op concealing efforts will be alot easier. Especially with your Toppik artistry .

For your case Dr. Shapiro would be an excellent choice. As hairthere said Dr. Alexander also does amazing work and does not require shave down. With the two of them it's like comparing a BMW to a Mercedes. Both are awesome it just depends on your individual preference and who you gel best with. I had my procedure with Dr. Alexander on 12/5/07 2739 grafts and I've been extremely pleased so far. I had my procedure on a Wed, Stayed in Scottsdale AZ til Friday and was back at work on Monday. Nobody ever knew I had the procedure done.

The reasons I'm not going to shave this area are this. I'd keep 85-95% of what I have now in that area intact without shaving. You will see the little hairs form the transplant behind these for the first month but with Toppik it can be hidden (for the most part.) Then from 1-2 months I'll look much like I did before surgery. After that the hairs grow in randomly at a gradual rate.

On the other hand- if I shave all of the hairs I have in the front area now it will take 3-4 months for them to grow back to my current state. (by then the others will be outpacing them.) The reason for this is that they are mostly miniaturized or in some state of miniaturization. They grow much slower and are in a state of telegin much longer.

So I don't think it will be as obvious as if I shaved the recipient area. You can see what I'm referring to on many of the blogs (various doctors) I'll see if I can post some.

don't know if this link will work but here's a guy with similar hair and exactly what I'm talking about. There are many more around this website:
http://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/blog/home-page.asp?WebID=312

quote:

there is much less chance of permanent shock loss if you shave

There are no studies to back this up. I've checked thoroughly. And no cases support this either. I was told by 1 doctor this same thing and his explanation made no sense and when I asked other doctors and qouted his explanation they did not support it. S there you go. Sounds like a myth created to try and get more patients to shave...

The shaving topic has been discussed many many times on here. Both Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Alexander perform HT's without requiring shaving and they both achieve some of the best results you'll find anywhere. Shaving does make their job easier and for mega sessions (3000 +) they pretty much all require it. As I've stated before, Shapiro and Alexander would not put their reputations at risk if they thought transplanting without shaving would not achieve their typical superiour results.

Hat's off (or should I say on ) to those who are cool with shaving down but for my situation it wasn't even an option and at 5+ months out I'm completely happy in my decision.

Everyone's different but I had absolutely no shock loss at all and I had a pretty decent amount of native hair. I was back to work without a hat an my existing hair hid recipient area and the donar are superbly.

This pic is 5 days after and if I had shaved there's no way I could have pulled off going back to work a week later without anyone noticing.

I'm sure every patients situation is unique but Dr. Shaprio definitely does. Here's a quote from Janna on another thread regarding this same topic that was posted in 3/08

"We generally don't require shaving unless the session sizes are going to be more than 2500 grafts. We try to work with each patient's ht goals. Like any doctor who does not require shaving, the session size may be a little smaller to accommodate the challenges associated with long hairs as it's somewhat like working with the lights dimmed. Our doctors eliminate as much of the negatives by utilizing very high magnification loopes to make incisions and have polarized/unpolarized lighting with magnification to avoid the glare on the scalp from the overhead surgery lights. We've been performing procedures without shaving since the beginning of my time with Dr. Shapiro so we have plenty of experience."

Thanks for the pics.

Just to clarify. I'm not saying the good "coalition" doctors are creating the myth and I'm also not saying it isn't neccessary to shave when doing the mega mega sessions. I'm just saying I've seen nothing to support the statement that shaving somehow saves you from any kind of permanent (or other) shockloss.

In fact the coalition doctors I've spoken to all say that the mega mega sessions (3000
+) where they require shaving often cause MORE shockloss (not permanent but still) due to the density in which they pack the grafts and the trauma this causes the scalp and surrounding hair.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm misquoting any good doctors. (that's for the doctors)

Cheers, J

Shapiro quoted me 2500-3000 with NO SHAVING.

I had 1900 from him and he did shave me.
He asked if he could and I said go ahead.
They dont have to but does make the process quicker .

oh yeah let me clarify they didnt shave just cut short. left it about a 1/2 inch long

Sorry that the quality of the pics aren't that great, but they were taken with a camera phone at the office. I was a pretty fast healer with very little redness and no swelling, obviously everyone's not the same. All of my interactions at the office are typical casual encounters and it's not like people were standing above me under a bright light closely inspecting my melon. Both Shapiro and Alexander do super clean refined work with custom cut blades so the trauma is kept to a minimum.

Your assesment about shock loss due to large mega sessions is very good. I'm sure Hasson & Wong experience less trauma than other less experienced Dr's doing mega sessions but it's still more trauma.

HT55. In a perfect world I think most of the top Coalition doctors would probably rather have the patient shave down if their situation would alow for it. If I was a student, had a job where I could wear a hat or could take 2-3 months off and not worry about it then shaving may have but an option for me. But the fact of my situation was that I run my own business with employees and customers and taking more that a week off or wearing a hat just wasn't an option. Showing up to work with a shaved head and a nice donar scar also wasn't an option especially since I have chosen to keep my HT private.

As with anything there's always differing opinions and I think what is important is that each doctor follow what they feel works best for them and that they are most comfortable with. I totally respect a doctor choosing not to do an HT without the patient shaving if that's what they're most comfortable with.

Just saw your pic HT55. They probably wanted you to shave down because your hairs already pretty damn thick . Propecia's done wonder for you. Nice work. Every patients characteristics are different any maybe with yours they felt it was something they needed to do.

I went to SMG for 1662 grafts in the hairline and while I was glad to not have to shave down fully, they definitely trimmed the hair down quite a bit to make it easier to transplant and also, I think, to avoid shockloss. It was a pretty fair trade off in my opinion. I suffered through a bit of an 'awkward' hairline for a while (by having to style it forward a bit), but otherwise, I was back to work in 10 days.

If I had to estimate, I'd say it was about 50 - 67% (1/2 to 2/3) in front of my existing hairline as it was required to thicken and camouflage the existing Bosley work.

Honestly, I think I need about another 1,000 in the hairline to get the density I desire and truly hide the mini and micro grafts. Plus, I'd like a little into my temples to get my 'triangle points' above my side burns. In all, I'd say another 1,500 plus a bit of a scar revision is what I desire for my next procedure. The truly difficult part is fitting it into the schedule - 10 days+ off work, 4+ months of awkwardness and minimal working out. Just brutal.

If I didn't have to lower the hairline to hide/mask the prior work, considerably less grafts would be required.

Thanks! I hope I can get away with only 700 or so, but I want to try for 'one final HT' once and for all. You know, more than just the "illusion of density" but some actual density. But no lowering of my hairline, unless necessary to better hide the prior Bosley work.

I could definitely style my hair to hide the pluggy grafts but as soon as the wind picked up or I wanted to be a bit more 'stylish' with my hairstyle, I had to reveal a very unnatural hairline.

It was thin, pluggy and not natural looking. But it was good work as far as Bosley goes

Here's a good comparison of before Shapiro (Post Bosley):



And After Shapiro:



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