Steve's Story

Here's the story of a veteran hair loss victim and first time poster. It's a long story as I first noticed my hair loss at 18 and I'm
now close to 37. My search for some sort of magic "cure" has covered the three major alternatives available to us; toupee or
hair system for those of you who cringe at the word, transplants and most recently the combination of minoxidil and proscar.

It all started back in 1980 when I went to a quasi military school after high school. I received the mandatory crew cut like
everyone else. As time went on I noticed that my hair wasn't growing in as well or as fast as others. This was very devastating
for a guy who was always pretty decent looking and had little trouble picking up women. One thing lead to another and I only
stayed at the "military" school for one semester.

Toupee:

The receding hairline, overall thinning and slow growth really began to get to me. So at the age of 19 (1981) I went to the Hair
Club for Men (HCM) which was located about 180 miles from where I lived. During my initial consultation everyone looked
great! At that point I was pretty naive and had no idea how they made these people look so good from their before and after
photos? But I knew it was for me. I went though the measurement process and left not knowing just how they did it? When I
went for my next visit I was quite taken back when they stitched a toupee to my existing hair. I still had a good amount of hair
on my head which they had assured me that would be "blended" with the new hair. Wrong. I was wearing a toupee. Here are
the problems as I found with them. The toupees are very very expensive. You need to have them reattached every four to six
weeks (real pain in the ass if you don't live near). If you go out in the sun they get a red tint that doesn't blend in with existing
hair. Finally, you can't hide it in a relationship; impossible. The whole experience was negative! In approximately 1986 I was in
a car accident with a friend. He ended up rear ending another car while going about 30 m.p.h. I was in the passenger seat
without a seatbelt. Upon impact my head hit the windshield near my hairline (widows peak). To make a long story short, I took
the toupee off that day never to replace it.

Hair Transplants:

I used the accident to justify a crew cut and to my amazement my hair didn't look that bad. When I first went to HCM I was
certain that I would be a cue ball within two years, not so. I now feel that I LOST THOSE YEARS… To this day I don't
know who knew I had worn a Toupee and who didn't? I'm sure more than I realize! The scar from the accident healed nicely
and that was the end of that. Between 1986 and 1992 my receding hairline was getting to the point where I wanted to again do
something about it. Between 1992 and 1994 I had four transplant sessions costing over $15,000. For my first session I flew to
LA, the next three I had done in NY City. My transplants did fill in the frontal recession. I can say to this day that I'm happy
with the results. However, the top of my head continued to thin.

Minoxidil and Proscar:

In November of 1997 I saw an article on CNN describing Proscar and hair loss. That's when I found www.regrowth.com and
Dr. Lee. Wasting no time I ordered Dr. Lee's day and night minoxidil formula and his 1mg Proscar which I began in Late
November '97. The first month was pretty bad as far as shedding goes. I CLEARLY had the horse shoe look. Having read
that initial shedding was "ok" I continued. Now the good news; by the end of March remarkable things were taking place! I
was growing hair!?!?! I couldn't believe it! The regrowth continued till month seven when I went into a shedding phase. The
shedding was not as sever as when I initially started the treatment but seemed to last two or three months. I was pretty
concerned as for a while there I never wore a hat, even playing golf. As far as I was concerned I had a full head of hair. The
shedding never came close to how I looked prior to the treatment though. When the seven month shedding stopped the hair
began to fill in again. I now have what would be considered a full head of hair. I'm not sure exactly how the front would look
without the transplants but I couldn't be happier with the combination! I now order Proscar from overseas and split a 5mg pill
into six pieces so the cost is minimal. I am also taking Dr. Lee's new formula.

I have scanned two pictures together. One shows the top of my head just before starting the minoxidil and proscar (with
transplants) and another that shows me about a month ago.

Side View                            Top View



I think that the moral to the story is that there is hope out there. I must say that I was in the category, age and length of time
shedding, where little results were expected. In my opinion the minoxidil and proscar are worth a try.

Steve  steves@greatpond.com

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