How many patients forget just how bald they were pre op

[bullitnut]

Another post on another thread got me thinking about this and i think it would be interesting to see just how many people forget exactly how bald they used to be.

I don't take for granted my new hair and i feel lucky to have it but i do sometimes forget just how bald i used to be when i see pictures etc.

Does anyone else find themselves forgetting?

 

[garageland]

Hi Bullit,

Speaking from experience of dealing with many guys I would say the percentage would be quite high. With transplants you are waiting for a year to see your full results so that time alone is long enough to forgot how bald your were before, add to that the fact that most patients are shaved down before surgery, have new hair grafts then they shed it is not surprising that people forgot.

One of the most constant things I see is how that most of us are in denial as to how bald we are in the first place. You tend to observe yourself face on in mirrors and if you have some hair in the front you consider yourself as not bald, it is difficult to really see how bald you are unless you start using two mirrors and most guys just don't want to see this and have no idea that they might have lost most of the hair behind. I was so like this and I hated when the barber showed me my head from the back in the mirror that I told him to stop doing it.

So after the transplant grows in they see improvement in the front but they still don't see how much improvement there is behind that. This is why taking photos are so important and it is only when they come back for a follow up they can appreciate the difference.

 

[close]

I actually forget how bald I was, but my participation in forums and the usual update of my photo album reminds me my previous condition. Since you mentioned it, there were times in my life that I covered the problem with concealers (what a hassle) but in some point there were no hairs left for the consealers and then I began to show queer and freakish... It was then that I decided to go for my second HT and never looked back again!!!

 

[topccat29]

Yes absolutely I am astounded at how little hair I had...........I mean practically no hair. Yet I was able to use a concealer go to parties and gatherings and my work required me to be with hundreds of customers face to face on a daily basis while engaging in light conversation.

One does learn to adapt and in my opinion confidence does not come from hair. Hair can help make you feel good about yourself but it has it's limits.

When I had that first horrific procedure with Puig my girlfriend was cutting my hair at the time. It was never an issue for me in that area just an issue of trying to get it fixed. Same thing as time passed someone else I was dating traveled with me on a couple of occasions when I ended up at Brandys, never an issue. They knew me as a person and the hair didn't mean jack shit. Of course they always wished me well in my hopes of trying to get it fixed.

Same thing with my wife. She has offered me her hair on several occasions, which of course is nice as she has really thick hair but I had to explain to her it doesn't work that way.

Do I forget about where I was and how I got here today, one would think so by some of my postings but I don't forget.
Mostly what is not forgotten is that this forum helped me get started on my repair along with Philip Bell and of course Dr. Bisanga. I knew I wanted to go there but it would have taken me a few more years as I needed to see it happening in my head because that is just the way it works for me. The only thing that was holding me back was how I was going to do this, it seemed almost impossible to travel so far.

I also never forgot one particular post that goes back 8-9 years ago where Dr. Bisanga convinced a severely distraught patient and those were the patient €™s own words in his posting to come back to the clinic where he had just had a procedure performed by another doctor. He persuaded him to let him fix what just didn €™t look right.

I have been working for many years close to 40 now as I started when I was 12 and in my opinion most people simply do not care enough about their work. Don €™t ask me why as I don €™t know why they put forth such little effort but they simply try to get through the day. Most other doctors would not have been concerned about a patient their colleague had just worked on and to do something that actually went against that colleague just doesn €™t not happen in most professions. It told me a lot in just a few words and I never forgot that either.

 

[Bigmac]

Good topic, I look at my crown now and wish for that little more hair but in reality it's already so much better than it was some years ago. Looking back at old pictures I realise how far I have come in achieving my goals.

 

[bullitnut]

Thats another reason why forums are good for HT patients, because if they create a thread about their journey or a gallery then they can look back and see their progress whenever they like.

I would also like to bet that some people who don't keep their own online gallerys actually go to clinics for a follow up procedure a little unhappy with their growth, that is until they actually see photos taken by the clinic showing their before and after pictures and just how far they have come.

 

[close]

Totally agree with that bullitnut

 

[don1966]

Bigmac,
Your crown is fantastic,you wouldn't think you had any loss the last time I seen you,it's called hair greed,we all know about that!

 

[Modenese]

In my case, not a chance.







In our living room, we have an electronic screen that is loaded with hundreds of photos that document mine and my wife's lives over our 24 years together.







Pictures of places we've been and liked, pictures of us individually, pictures of us together...







So, you can almost judge the year by the amount of hair I have left! In the final few years it's bad, then all of a sudden I've got smart clothes on all the time and relatively big hair. The device shuffles the photos, so you can get 'bald Modenese, hairstyle Modenese' which would be normal for a man, except that there is an age inversion with the hairstyle one later in time.







If any of my wife's friends see some of those they will understand what's been going on.

 

[Modenese]

Layout!

 

[bullitnut]

Wow Modenese that screen sounds like a great device and must be lovely to see all your memories....apart from the hair obviously. Do people ask questions though when they visit and see this photo screen

 

[Bigmac]

don1966 wrote:

Bigmac,
Your crown is fantastic,you wouldn't think you had any loss the last time I seen you,it's called hair greed,we all know about that!

Hi Don, you got me, I'll try and call down tmw to see you.