as far as long term goes, you rest assure that i will keep you guys up to date, the biggest problem i had when doing research into was finding people who had transplants(other than ones on surgeons sites) and produced enough photos to give a good idea of what i was getting into. that being said, i also want to show everyone that it's not that extreme of a surgery and all the negativity that people show towards it is not very warranted. basically, i want to share my experience so the thought of a hair transplant is not thrown out of the window immediately
right now my hair is at a 3 gaurd, the photos i took of the scar were when i wetted my hair and moved it aside to show the actual scar, when it's dry, it's hard to see but you can see a little black line (keep in mind that's only been 5 days and the stitches are still in), the doctor told me at mininum, 1/4 to 1/2 inch hair is needed to cover it, from what i can tell, that sounds about accurate, but it's something ill definitely keep everyone posted on
plastic surgery to remove the scar is really not needed, unless you plan on shaving your head completely (military style) i think the scar will be pretty unnoticable, however, it's a case by case thing, some people heal well some don't, some have been elasticity in their scalp and some don't, what it boils down to is how well the surgeon removes the strip and how well he stitches it, i believe my surgeon did a good job in that regard because the amount of blood was VERY minimal
the number of hair transplant's is also another case by case thing. if you have 2-3 hair transplant's by removing donor tissue, then your scalp will start to stretch a lot, my personal opinion about this issue is that i will get one more hair transplant with a donor strip removed (depending on results of course) and then possibly one more by FUE (follicular unit extraction), the difference in FUE is, instead of cutting tissue away and then dissecting the follicles out, they remove the follicles directly from the back of your head and place them right back in (meaning no stitches and no "storage time"), however, this is a fairly new process and it's still kind of iffy to me, i think for most people though (NW3 and below)1 large procedure (1000+ grafts) should take care of what you need, if you are diffuse like me, you may need another 500-1500 grafts to completely fill in your head
i did ask him about long term hairloss, his response was simple, propecia has been clinically proven to prevent further hairloss for 5 years, most likely i won't lose more hair for the next 5 years and possibly more, and 5 years is along time for new better medications come out. he did however say, tht because im young and my future is hard to determine, he would not do major hairline repair or crown repair just incase my hairloss doesnt stop, i'll still have a natural looking pattern and will not be forced into another procedure due to abnormal looks
basically, he told me to be conservative the first time, just to be on the safe side, give it a year or two and then start considering filling in the crown and/or hairline, he also said, while he couldn't legally recommend avodart, that if he were in my shoes, he'd give it a shot. he did say that he has had some patient on it and they complained about the side effects (mass shedding in the first month and the of course the huge half life)
