OtherSyde

Steven Gabel, M.D.

coalition member Elite Coalition Member
Hair transplant patient

OtherSyde

OtherSyde

About

I first noticed my impending hair loss around 11 years ago at age 22
when I had just left the Midwest for the first time
to live on the west coast and start a new life, and one of the first
things that happened was that someone commented on a little tiny bald
spot at my vertex and my obviously-receded hairline that I had somehow
been blind to. I was like, "Nope, this is not happening." I've been researching ways to fix it ever since.

I've been on generic Finasteride on and off for several years; it has helped
stave off the thinning in the frontal scalp area that started in late
2008. Used Dutasteride briefly, but read about some side-effects, and
decided to just stick with good ol' Finasteride.

Won't try Rogaine, since I get the distinctive impression that it
is notorious for making your hair fall out first, and then (but only
sometimes) making some hair grow back, and that hair is thin and
wispy, and dependent on your continued use of Rogaine. I don't want to
risk that; Rogaine is an obsolete two-decade-old hair loss treatment of
generations past. I'll stick with Finasteride and good hair transplants.

I'm convinced that you get what you pay for, and that homeopathic
remedies, herbal pills, and stupid goop/foam that you put on your head
aren't going to fix anything. So I saved up some cash and got a moderate
(1,775 grafts - about $7,300 but would be much cheaper these days) hair transplant with Dr. Steven
Gabel (December 30, 2010), complete with frontal hairline restoration
(via FUT), and thickening-up of the thinned areas, namely the
2-inch-diameter circle of super-thinness at my vertex and the inch-wide
stripe of thinning hair right down the center of my scalp.

I was happy with a moderately-sized procedure at the time, since it
alleviated my immediate emergency by rebuilding my hairline and restoring
uniform thickness, which is awesome; no more obvious,?scraggly
baldness. It also let me get my feet wet and test the waters to see if Hair Transplant? technology pioneered by the scandal-ridden
Bosley Medical nearly two decades ago had truly matured enough to hold its own - and it most definitely can.
Some guys go in for mega-sessions of three to four thousand grafts at a time; I think I will go more gradually and stick with a few more transplants of 1,200 to 2,000 grafts at a time as I need them over the years, saving my donor regions for times of need.


My Surgical Treatments to Date

December 30, 2010, Age 27: Flew to Portland, Oregon and met Dr. Steven Gabel, who?graced me with a moderately-sized transplant of 1,775 grafts. I don't remember the specifics at the moment, but I think most of them were doubles.

March 27, 2013, Age 29: Flew back to Portland, Oregon, this time from Hawaii, to meet Dr. Gabel again for a second go-round - this time with 1,552 grafts total, mostly dedicated to my frontal hairline area; see the blog sections to your left for the details.

My Non Surgical Treatments

I tried Dutasteride for a few months, ran out and did not re-order based on some advice regarding possible side-effects and/or dependency issues.

I've been on Finasteride for years now. I believe it has certainly helped slow my MPB progression; given how fast it was going around the ages of 20-24 (before I started Fin), I would have been mostly bald at this point.

Bald Class

Bald class 4

Norwood class 4

Characterized by further frontal hair loss and enlargement of vertex, but there is still a solid band of hair across the top (mid-scalp) separating front and vertex.

Pretty much made me into a hermit. Being bald/balding made me look unattractive because I don't have a head shape that can work well being bald... Plus I'm naturally an introvert anyway, and since people don't generally like to talk to unattractive people and I was unlikely to talk to them, these two things worked in tandem to pretty much eliminate my social life. Not really the way I wanted to live.

Finasteride.

Absolutely.

Finasteride and a good HT. Possibly Dutasteride if it works for you.

I look in the mirror and see myself again, instead of some prematurely old guy. I can style my hair and head into a club or bar and not feel like the creepy old guy, and people respond to me better in general -probably partly because of more confidence, but largely because I just look younger and better.

Finasteride and Dr. Gabel. And also, once you start Fin, do NOT stop! You'll lose hair like twice as fast.

Back to patient reviews

My Latest journal entries

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 3

Third Rodeo! This procedure was mainly undertaken with the intention of bringing down my hairline on either side of my widow's peak point (so as to minimize the intense sort of "Dracula" effect), as well as to bring forward my temples a bit to frame my face better.

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 2

HT #2 9 Months Well there's not a lot of development since the 6-month mark, I think that milestone was the crowning achievement for this procedure's timeline, which is fine, really. Here are some update photo at 9 months... Overall, my second procedure was very much worth it, lending much-needed density in the front and making styling much easier and more enjoyabe; wind and water are no longer cause for alarm in everyday life either, since they no longer carry the threat of messing up carefully-styled hair or exposing carefully-hidden thinness.

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 2

HT #2 9 Months [Normal Lighting] I just snapped a souple quick shots to show how it looks in more "normal" lighting situations...

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 2

HT #2 6 Months! Alright. Things are not at peak growth yet obviously, but the 6-month mark is looking good! First some dry pics, and then some wet pics to show true density. So yeah - Amazing progress! Rock-solid hairline. Dr. Gabel's artistry and precision are once again clearly evident in the density and patterning. Loving it. And it will only get better! :)

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 2

HT #2 3 and 4 Months Post Op Alright. Here are some pics from the 3 and 4 Month marks. The first three are from the 3-Month mark, and the last 3 are from yesterday, at the 4-Month mark... [I didn't post any scar pics, because it's essentially invisible using a 3 or 4-grade shave at this point] Well, the "ugly duckling" waiting period is over! Now the fun part starts! Stay tuned for much better pics, coming soon!

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 2

HT #2 One Day Post Op Here we are, the next day. I got back to my hotel the night before and ate a couple of Valium and pain pills to get to sleep, then destroyed one of my hotel's pillows by smearing bloody drainage from my incision all over it while I slept (oops... They didn't seem to mind too much :) ___________________________________________________________ Just to be specific, here is my final graft count: 1's -394 2's - 906 3's - 247 4's - 5 Total: 1552 grafts ___________________________________________________________ I will start with three pics from the night before in the hotel room, just to display the excellent and clean graft placement...

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 2

HT #2 Preparation [NOTE] - Despite the date indicated, this actually happened on the 27th of March, NOT the 26th; this blog's format just won't let me make two postings on the same date, and I needed to elaborate a lot more on this date, so I simply changed this blog entry's date to the 26th since it's sort of a precursory blog post anyway. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEE FULL THREAD WITH BIGGER PICTURE AND MORE INFORMATION, AS IT DEVELOPED LIVE FROM MY SMART-PHONE DURING SURGERY IN DR. GABEL'S OFFICE RIGHT HERE So I'd been deliberating for a bit, and realized that although my hairline wasn't really low for a guy about to turn 30, a fair amount of my native hairs right along my hairline had fallen out (since Propecia doesn't stop frontal recession much) since my first HT, leaving only the grafted hairs which were fairly sparse. Now mind you, they're a great density for frontal scalp coverage - just not thick enough to comprise a good, strong hairline. So I began planning my next HT... In a nutshell, I started planning it in late February, and within a month I was back at Dr. Gabel's office drawing lines on my head and getting stuck with anesthetic needles in search of better hair :) So my goal this tim was a bit different; since we'd essentially totally filled in my frontal third region and since I'd scarcely lost any hair in my crown area (Yay Propecia!), my main focus was to greatly strengthen and thicken up my hairline and the area directly behind it, for the purpose of easy styling and for framing my face. We'll take a brief look through my previous timeline, just to reiterate and contrast against the intended changes:

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 2

HT #2 The Procedure In the warm, sensual afterglow of a passionate hetero-love affair with Prince Valium that kept me nice and mellow for the duration, Dr. Gabel poked the back of my head a couple times with the anesthetic needle and we got moving I laid in face-down in the chair that reclined to basically become like a massage table where the head-rest became the attached round face-pillow thing with the center cut out, and he extracted my strip - including my entire scar from the previous procedure, and sutured me all up. He passed off my pound of flesh (more like half an ounce..) to his skilled assistants who promptly began dicing it up to extract the individual follicles - which would soon be placed in the holes Dr. Gabel had already begun poking in my head in the recipient site (after more anesthetic of course; I didn't feel a thing).

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 1

3 Months Post Op Well, here are some pics from the 3 month mark. Not anything spectacular, I was really about at the point where I would have been if I hadn't gone for an HT. I've been on Finasteride for several months at this point, and I suspect it helps any newly-transplanted hair to grow in more quickly due to not having to deal with crippling DHT in your system during its initial growth phase. Also, see a much more elaborate discussion (and full-sized pics with more detail) on both my two and three month marks in this thread right here.

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 1

7 Months Post Op I got deployed in March, and spent the next couple of months floating around the southern Pacific and Asian regions on a Frigate out of Washington. I was kept pretty busy during this time, and didn't pay all that much attention to my hair for a couple months; then one day, after a haircut, I noticed that my hair looked way better than it had in years. I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple pics... Again, I made a more elaborate thread with a lot more info, bigger pictures, and discussion right here.

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 1

8 Months Post Op Alright, still on the ship at this point (you can tell by the shiny, industrial environment around me). Let it grow out a bit and styled just a little, but in a way that still lets you see the hairline well. This wasn't an all-inclusive photo shoot, I just got in a couple shots during some free time. Please forgive the awful fluorescent lighting, it made me look even more pale than I really was at the time :) Bigger pics and better comparisons in this thread.

...
OtherSyde
Bald class: 4
Procedure 1

Before and Until Surgery... Here are some pics from the various states before I got any surgery...