Hair transplants? What the doctors don’t tell you!

A letter of personal experience from Carl from Lahaina, Hawaii.

Guys if you are thinking about getting a hair transplant, think long and hard about it! The things most of these doctors don’t tell you is that your hair is going to keep receding behind the transplant area and that you never know how far back it is going to go. You will wind up taking the Propecia and Rogaine cocktail for the rest of your life unless you are willing to let nature takes its course. When you let nature take over you wind up loosing a lot of the hair behind your implants, which can make your head look pretty strange. You will become a prisoner to your implants and actually go through loosing your hair twice: once, before the implants, and then later, as your hairline recedes behind the implants.

When I got my procedure done I was in my late 20’s and had started loosing my hair at about age 21. Of course, with all the great advertisements on implants, I started my search, and after about 7 years I found someone in my price range and decided to go through with the procedure. What I didn’t know was that one procedure was going to follow another and another and another since they didn’t do the thousands of graphs that they do today. They put larger Plugs in which were rather obvious, so over a period of four years they had to go back and make the plugs smaller which resulted in more scarring and greater sensitivity on the top of my head. Not to mention the fact that every time they take from the donor area it winds up getting larger as well.

I had shaved my head numerous times before I got the implants and got quite a few compliments about how good it looked. This was about ten years ago and bald wasn’t quite in and at 28 I had thought I could attain a youthful head of hair via implants…I would give anything to be able to shave my head again and have my freedom and natural appearance! Even though my implants look pretty natural I get tired of having to cut my hair certain ways in order for them to not be obvious. The thing is, under bright lights or the sunshine it is hard for implants not to be seen and you always wonder if its obvious or
not.

What happens a lot of times is that we get implants to be more attractive and confident and then nature pulls its tricks on us and we wind up loosing our confidence and feel like a vain and foolish person in the process. Think about it, if you’re a single guy and get serious with a lady, you will eventually have tell her that you had implants and are on Rogaine etc…how will you feel about that? You may find people looking at you out of the corner of your eye and wonder if they are checking out your implants… Many people say, “Who cares what other people think?” Well, if you are thinking about getting implants, you must be somewhat concerned about what people think? So, please think long and hard about it before you do something that can’t be reversed.

Carl

Thought of suicide

I just read on your comments page, "The worst mistake of my life". How true his statement is! I started going bald in my mid 20's and had a "procedure" done. God, if there is one thing I could go back and not do would be a hair transplant. What I would give just to have the luxury of shaving or buzzing my head. I hate these doctors and these companies that pray on a people's insecurities of losing their hair. What it really comes down to is accepting ones self for who one is. Due to my hair transplant, I too have thought of suicide as did my counterpart who wrote those comments. I feel like a fool for letting someone cut into the back of my scalp and then punch little holes into my head. It doesn't look the same. Quite frankly I think it looks like crap. Confidence, which this procedure was to give me, is out the window until I get it done again and again and again.... Something should be done to stop this procedure or to make people aware of the repercussions of it, like never having a buzz cut again or being able to shave your head. Shine on, brothers!

Robert

Hello Tony,
I'm another one of those people that got a hair transplant "procedure" done and wish that it never happened. Gee, how could I be so stupid? But unlike a lot of your other writers, I decided to try shaving my head in spite of the scarring in the back of my head. It's been two days now and I must say.....I like it. Sure there's a scar; but the continual anxiety about my hair loss has been lifted. And as you know, that can be quite a burden, especially if you're only in your twenties. The fact is, I've decided to embrace who I am rather that be ashamed of it. Your family and true friends will love you no matter what you look like. Thanks for your time and I hope this helps some people out.
Jim -- the guy whose head has "character".

Dear Tony,
I had hair transplants and scalp reduction from 1987-1989 and in the mid 90's.
The transplants were a disaster. Not only did I have less hair on my head when the process was over, I had Lumps, bumps and white scars all over my head, and I had
a nasty long scalp reduction scar, very ugly, and visible in the back of my head.
The doctor who did the transplants lied about the results and lied to me on every question I asked him. He had doctored videos, doctored up brochures, and was a total fraud. His work gave me a scarred up scraggly ugly 75 years old comb-over head that a man in his mid 20 should never have. He locked me into this look because the entire scalp was scarred in the donor area and the recipient area.
If I shaved the head the thousands of scars would be exposed even more.
New transplant technology couldn't help my look either because the butcher doctor who deformed me, used up my entire donor area.
After 14 years of walking around with this butchers work, I finally found a plastic surgeon to smooth the scalp with dermabrasion and lasers. The surgeon however could not do anything about the white punch scars in the back of my head or the white scars on top. However this surgery allowed me to shave my entire head, and with a little high quality makeup in the back, to cover the white scars, I look like a champ. Even with the white scars I look 1000 times better than the transplant scraggly, old man, scarred up, unclean look. Yes I would have looked even better if I never did anything, but in life you do the best you can with what your situation is.
It is not even close. A shaved head with some exposed scars is miles ahead of the fake, unclean, scraggly transplanted look. The response is amazing. I am 39, and 23 year old women think I am 25 and hot. 4 months ago the same aged women thought I was 39 and a dufus, with a loser comb over. This is not an exaggeration.
My life will always be affected by the transplant industry that butchered me.
Every time I put make up in the back of my head I will think of them. However the shaving of my head has finally freed me from their lock on my life. I look and feel so much better it is not even a comparison. I recommend for every one with old and new, unsatisfied transplants to just shave it and look and feel so much better about yourself. Not only will others think you look better, but you will feel and look better to yourself.

Sincerely, Eric