Hi everyone... I just turned 29 and I am thinking about jumping into the hair replacement scene. I had an appointment set up with Dr. Rahal for hair transplants, but I really didn't want to have a huge scar on the back of my head for life. No going back from that, and it removes the possibility of shaving my head one day. He recommended 3000 grafts at an FUT cost of $10,500, with FUE costing double that. I'd also need to go back on finasteride, which is something I told myself I'd never do again. I think I'm still recovering from the side effects I had on that drug. I think hair transplants are a good way to go once they figure out how to multiply/clone hairs, and they are apparently getting closer (but it's always 5-10 years away, of course).

Anyway, I saw some really impressive videos on Farrell's site, and I came here after learning how expensive Farrell's systems are. I simply can't afford $4800 + monthly maintenance costs. From what I gather, toplace is just as good, if not better. What concerns me though is that I have to do all of this myself. No salons or places to go for the first time to make sure everything goes well. That's why I'm tempted to go to Farrell first for my first system, but I think if I stay around here long enough, I'll learn how to do it.

Below are my pictures. Some of these are stepping right out of the shower, and one of them is when my hair is dried and styled the way I want. I'm down to one hairstyle.... anything else just makes me look like I'm balding.

I just got divorced so I need my hair at this point in my life. I've gone on a few dates and when I eventually tell the girl my hairline has receded they tell me "I can't even tell, it looks good". Maybe they are just being nice, maybe my hair loss isn't noticeable to someone not looking for it yet, I don't know. The one thing I do know is I am sick of dealing with this. I'm tired of having my hair flying up on a windy day, I'm tired of not going swimming or going out when it's raining because I'm afraid of my hair getting wet. I'm tired of the hairstyle I'm forced to wear. I'm just tired of dealing with this. I don't think I can pull off a shaved head look, so being bald is not really an option. What do you guys suggest?

Here's me about 5-6 years ago. I was still concerned about hair loss here. In fact, I think I was already on finasteride (will never go back on this again, one of the reasons I'm not looking into hair transplants). However, looking back now, I'd kill to have this much hair again.

















Here's what it looks like dried and styled. I don't have a top of the head pic when it's not wet, but I still have enough hair to hide the bald spots. That will probably change very soon.





Edit: I guess external hosting is disabled, so here are a few pics...