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Friday April 11, 2008 I’ve been following a lot of the forums over the past few months and I remember reading about a year ago that a professional basketball player had hair restoration surgery and it kind of surprised me because I am an avid sports fan and follow basketball and I can’t ever remember noticing that this guy has had any hair loss. Although the player is now on a west coast team that I really haven’t been able to see that often. Well, I happened to catch a game last night and just as I switched on the channel I noticed that the camera was focusing on this certain player. They were talking about him. I had the volume turned down so I’m not sure what they were saying. I’m sure the announcers were just talking about what an important player he is and the fact that he brings leadership. Well seconds after they had the camera right on the back of his head I noticed that he had a strange linear scar running across the back of his head. It was a scar that was obvious and would appear to look strange to the average person. It would look like the guy may have had some kind of brain surgery or something. It was obvious to me that it was a scar from a hair restoration surgery that I had heard about some time ago and now in my mind was confirmed. I noticed that the guy had a perfect hair line in the front however as the camera changed different angles I was able to get a quick look at the top of his head and his crown area appeared to be thin. I saw this and I felt bad because the player is probably only about 32 and I’m sure that he reacted impulsively and had this procedure. The other thing that came to my mind is that there are many other African-American players in basketball that are dealing with hair loss and they shave their head. If this player decided to shave his head at this point he’s going to have that linear scar stand out. I have a feeling that when this player had his procedure he may have assumed that his hair loss problems are going to go away. I received a phone call earlier in the week from a guy who said that he listens to the show regularly. He asked me if I knew if there was any new research going on in the United States or other countries to create a new product to stop or prevent hair loss. I am not aware of any new research that’s being funded by the government, however there is some research going on right now by some private corporations and of course these companies will eventually profit from the research. Now I do know that some of the drug companies are actively researching hair loss and I know that there are private corporations that are actively researching gene therapy for hair loss and hair multiplication. You have probably heard us mention several times on the hair loss show about the company in the United Kingdom called Intercytex that is actively researching this technology. So as soon as we hear the latest news we’ll be sure to report it right here at Regrow Now. Monday March 31, 2008 I had a meeting recently with Dr. Paul Rose and we discussed some common interests that we both have. I feel that one of the main reasons that he enjoys our program is because we give unbiased information regarding hair loss and the hair loss industry. He mentioned though that he would like for me to spend more time concentrating on some of the scams that are out there. One of the topics that we discussed are the hair transplantation centers that promote laser hair transplantation with the use of a carbon dioxide laser. In my opinion, if you hear of a clinic that’s using a carbon-dioxide laser for a hair transplant, please make sure that you stop and think about this for a second. I feel that you really should ask yourself- Are they really using the laser for the actual hair transplant? One of the major negatives that I’ve noticed about this industry since I’ve been in it is that there are many vulnerable hair loss sufferers that tend to get excited about nothing. In my opinion, that’s exactly what these centers that promote a hair transplant procedure with the use of a carbon-dioxide laser are doing. It appears to me that they are only creating a lot of hype. In my opinion, they get the patient in and really talk up the laser and the sad thing is that none of it seems to be really true. The laser is touching the surface a little bit with it. They are still doing a hair transplant procedure and in my opinion, the patient doesn’t really know how the laser is really being used. The way that I understand it is that a carbon-dioxide laser works by interacting with water. If it has water, it heats up and explodes it. So you couldn’t use it to take out the donor strip. In my opinion it would cause an enormous amount of thermal damage and you probably would kill a lot of hair follicles along the way. The other issue is that carbon-dioxide lasers have been shown not to enhance wound healing. You’re not going to get less bleeding. The bigger blood vessels are still going to get bleeding. I asked Dr. Rose about this and he said that with the technology we have today, the way that he does hair transplantation, bleeding is not really a big problem. In my opinion, I wouldn’t suggest to pursue a hair transplant procedure of this type until you can get clear, factual information of exactly what’s going on. I’m going to try and get over to Orlando on Thursday April 3rd for the Live Surgery Workshop. It sounds like there will be a lot of new and exciting topics to be discussed. Hope to see you there! Thursday, February 28, 2008 I remember as a kid in the early eighties of spending a lot of time around a friend of my dads who was a musician. I remember at the time that he used to play his music for us with a couple of other people. Even as a young boy I can remember how the one thing that I noticed and recognized is that the man’s hair was a lot different then the person that I could directly compare him to which was my dad. His hair was a lot thinner and appeared messier and he seemed to go with a different hair style that I couldn’t understand. I thought that he just preferred to comb it towards the side when in fact that was really the only option that he had. It seemed that many years went by & I didn’t see my dads friend until one day I remember him talking on the phone to my mom. I remember how my mom told us that he had been in Las Vegas trying to get his musical career off of the ground and he seemed to have volunteered that he had gotten hair transplants. At the time I assumed that it was that simple, if you lost your hair you just simply go to the hospital and get hair transplants. That’s how simple it sounded. I remember kind of thinking to myself, I knew something was weird with his hair style. A few more years went by and all of the sudden this guy was back in town. By this time I was a young man and I understood a little more clearly what was going on as I myself could already start to see that my own hair wasn’t quite cooperating with me. So when I met with him the first thing that I was interested in seeing was how his hair looked. It didn’t look great although it didn’t look bad. There were areas where you could see through and tell that something was going on. It kind of looked patchy. I would see the friend again from time to time over the next few years and I would notice that he was suffering from what I now refer to as ‘shock fallout’ The transplanted hairs were still there although they looked very thin and the hair that surrounded the transplanted hair that was gone. You could kind of tell that this guy was emotionally distressed over it and I just remember how bad it made me feel for him and realize that I myself could never let something like this happen to me. So be careful. Hair Restoration surgery is not for everybody. Don’t make any impulsive decisions because there are many horror stories out there when it comes to surgeries related to hair loss. Sunday December 23, 2007 Hey Friends, Make sure you check out the next edition of HairLossRemedy tv. We're going to talk about hair transplant surgery and things that you need to look out for. We get into some behind the scenes secrets that we've heard about here at Regrow Now such as technicians that have said things like "you meet a quota and if you didn't then you didn't have a job!" So some hair transplant technicians have found themselves working in an environment where people are just cutting and cutting and transecting. Many of the techs that we've spoken with have seen practices where there are workers that just do not give a damn about what kind of quality of work that they are doing. Many that have no business at all of being a Hair Transplantation technician. We've heard things such as "okay we've done enough" and then they would get rid of the the unused tissue. That is shocking to me. So tune in as hair loss can be very hard on people. There are many people in this industry that just are not qualified so stay in touch with us here at Regrow Now to get all of the latest information regarding your hair loss and the hair loss industry. Sunday June 10, 2007 Well I went out this weekend and even though I need a hair cut I did end up having a fairly good hair day last night. It had been bothering me most of yesterday as every once in awhile you go through periods where you think to yourself, 'it's time to make a change' I believe that is where many people go wrong. When you are taking treatments and fighting hair loss you just need to keep going. I was scouring the internet the other night and I was doing some research on hair transplantation as I'm constantly trying to stay as knowlegable as I can. I came across a popular site that showed many before and after pictures of many semi-celebrities. Many of these people were professional wrestlers. I found it amazing that these people were open to letting the world know that they have gotten hair transplant surgery. I don't mean to come across as if there is something to hide. I follow their sport as many of these wrestlers happen to live nearby in the Tampa Bay area. For years I have been able to 'clock' Norwoods and tell who is loosing their hair and of course when you watch these guys on TV it's never acknowleged and they use all kinds of editing and touching up to conceal it but I was amazed because I felt like every single one of these guys whose picture was on this site was somebody that I always thought about in my mind about how they were losing their hair. I guess because they came across as if they weren't losing their hair on television is why I was in such amazement. If you are in the industry you obviously have to look your best and stay as marketable as possible in order to have success because let's face it, the sport of wrestling is about entertainment and televison is there source of exposure and the idea is to portray a character that a younger person that follows the soap opera or televison show or whatever you want to call it may want to imitate and act like. I personally would never want to imitate a person who is losing their hair. I just kind of found it strange to see all of these familiar looking people on this site because the company that they were dealing with may not be their best option. Not that I feel that there is something wrong with the company itself but I guess what I mean is that some of these people are only Norwood 2's or 3's and I feel that hair transplantion itself is probably not the best option for most of these people. They appeared to come across as if they are acting out of desperation. There is one guy on there who I am very familiar with and he is a very young man. He's probably not even twenty-five yet. He is in a situation where is career is about to take off however because of his incredibly looking adonis type of physique he is rapidly losing his hair. It became so obvious that he was losing his hair on top that the company started switching around the camera angles so it wasn't so noticable and then all of the sudden the guy just disappeared completely. What I remember noticing was that before is disappearing, he had a widely-exposed crown area. The guy did come back about three months later and looked like a completely different person. He looked like somebody who had no sign of hair loss whatsoever. These wrestlers, former baseball players and other semi-celebrities possibly knew someone that referred them to this company and probably didn't do much research on exactly what they are getting involved with. All that I can tell you is that if you are thinking about getting a hair transplant be very careful and read this web site and listen to The Regrow Now Hair loss show for at least one year before making a decision. I'm not going to talk you out of it but I will tell you that at least you will know that you have done your homework and you will have been able to pick up a tremendous amount of knowledge from a guy who is in the same boat as you and has had the same thoughts as you. March 25, 2007 Losing your hair can be really devastating to a person. There is nothing more dramatic to a person’s appearance then losing their hair. Losing your hair involves such a huge change in your appearance. Your hair is the frame of your face and once you lose that you are a different looking person. Now there are some cases where a person can shave their head and be ok with it. However, that’s not the case in most situations as the person becomes less attractive. That’s just the reality. When most men lose their hair, they also lose their self-esteem and it affects every aspect of their life. Many people including myself allow hair loss to control there lives. They make decisions based on the look of their hair. They may not go to a special party or event because they don’t feel comfortable with the way that they look and that is missing a big part of living and getting the most out of life. I went to a spring training baseball game this afternoon and I kept thinking about it this morning because it’s not something where I can just get up, get dressed and go like just a regular event. I know that I’m probably going to need to wear a baseball cap to the game as if I don’t my hair will get wind-blown and my scalp will get burned from the sun. I hate wearing hats though as I just don’t feel comfortable wearing one. Well, I’m really glad that I wore the hat as it worked out perfect. I was able to protect my scalp from the sun and when I even took my hat off after the game my hair actually looked great. Of course I had the typical hat head but there was no areas where the thinning was visible. I prepared myself and I had a little luck and things worked out in my favor. I really felt bad though for many of the folk that were at this game though and I’m not just talking about the men. It’s amazing how an 80 degree, sunny afternoon in Tampa Bay, FL at the end of March can expose so many people thin hair and balding scalps. I was amazed of all the NW 3-4’s that didn’t protect their head’s and within an hour of being in the direct sun light there crown area’s just seemed to get red and more and more exposed looking. There was almost just as many women that had similar situations. I felt so bad as I must have noticed at least four or five women who had very noticeably looking thin hair. I have a feeling that there are many people that have very burnt scalps today and are now wishing that they would have worn a hat this afternoon. I did wear a hat and I also got smart as I noticed a shady area after sitting in the hot sun for about an hour and made sure to move to that area if I had any chance of lasting it out. Sunday, February 25, 2007 So what in the world is up with Britney Spears? She’s a beautiful woman and she decides to just shave her head. Well one thing is for sure and that is that you can bet that her hair will grow back within 90 days and people will forget all about it. She seems to be going through a confusing time in her life and apparently she thought that by shaving her head would be a good move. Well it did get her a lot of media coverage. I was watching Smokey and The Bandit Two earlier as they have been replaying it all this week on CMT and I noticed that there was a scene where he took his hat off. The very first thing that I noticed was how fake his hair looked. The other thing that I realized was that he didn’t seem to have his hat off at all in the original Smokey and The Bandit movie. Isn’t it funny how when you’re a young kid, you don’t realize how much hairloss can really affect someone. I was probably 13 years old the first time that I saw that movie and at the time I probably thought, “man, that Burt Reynolds is one cool looking guy” Now, being a hair loss sufferer you can identify with some of the things that these role models have to go through. I can only imagine that Burt Reynolds must have been a little embarrassed when he was making that film. I’m getting a lot of feedback from my loyal followers and many people are wanting to know about the Hairmax laser comb. Well as I mentioned earlier on the Regrow Now Hairloss Show that I will will endorsing the product as well as purchase one myself. Some of the email that I’ve been receiving in response to the FDA approval of the Laser Comb is quite entertaining. Many of the readers seem to be as positive as I am about the fact that we can now add something to our arsenal. The idea that it’s something that along with The Big Three can actually contribute to regrowth is very exciting. Of course, I will be sure to keep everybody posted on any progress that I make from the Laser hair comb. I’ve also been sticking to drinking green tea about three times a week and I must say that I do believe that it has contributed to the good texture of my hair. I was at the movies last week and I went to see a movie with the actor Nicolas Cage. The name of the movie was Ghost Rider and I thought it was really amazing how Nicolas cage grew so much hair. I thought that he was just recently in the movie 911 about a year ago and looked like he was on his was to becoming a NW 3. If you watched Ghost Rider you would wonder if he had any hair loss at all. February 18, 2007 I was reading an article recently on one of my favorite websites and it was discussing a topic on the correlation between sleeping and hair loss. It was asking if folks if they feel that by not getting enough sleep can affect the slow down of hair loss. I personally feel from my experiences that when I don’t get enough sleep my hair just doesn’t look good. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that when people don’t get enough sleep that they could lose more hair. I’m saying that people with androgenic alopecia that don’t get enough sleep will lose more hair. I believe that the needed rest causes the follicle to weaken and as a result can lead to more shedding. I also remember getting an email from a long time Regrow Now subscriber asking if it matters how you lay your head on the pillow when sleeping. I don’t really know tha true answer to this although I have been very careful as I try to avoid laying flat on my back with the back of my head laying on a pillow. I have always been nervous about my crown area and because of that I don’t want to do anything that would cause in extra tugging of that area that could contribute to fall out. So for the past fifteen years I have always placed my hand under my head and although it is uncomfortable, I have become used to it and in my mind feel that I have salvaged some hair due to this habit. I always like to go out on Saturday night and enjoy myself with a good dinner and some drinks with some friends at a local establishment. For the past couple of months though my days have been busy and I haven’t really been able to stick to my normal Saturday afternoon routine. I would do al of my daily running around and errands and then by 5pm I would try and rest and relax for abou an hour and tale a “power nap” When I don’t do this I just seem to drag on Saturday evening. However, yesterday I found the time to be able to take one of my “power nap’s” and I felt great last night. My hair ended up looking thick and full and I just really ended up having fun and enjoying myself. So proper rest is probably not only good for the condition of your hair, it’s also good for your body & mind. I’ve been going to a local bar frequently over the past couple of months and last weekend I was sitting at a table with an old high school buddy drinking a beer and I noticed a guy walk in who is a little older then I am. The very first thing that I couldn’t help but notice was how damaged his hair looked. I could tell from a distance that the guy’s hair just seemed disproportioned. As the guy walked in it just so happened that he would walk over to our table as he knew the friend that I was with. My friend introduced me to the guy and he seemed like a real nice guy but the very first thing that I noticed was that the guy had a perfect hair line and the top of his head had diffuse thinning. His hair was gray and as I observed him I could easily see that the guy had a transplant probably sometime within the past few years and although the hairline looked perfectly straight it looked obvious that it wasn’t real. As I talked to this guy throughout the evening I could see how he was mentally distraught and probably had a real hard time socially with the state of his hair. I saw the guy again last night as I was sitting at the bar with a woman friend of mine and I noticed that the guy walked in and sat on the other side of her. I had to keep checking the guy out and on this night you could really see how exposed his hair loss was on the top and crown of his head. It looked gray and combed over and even though the lighting was dim you could really see that this guy probably would have been a NW 5 had he done nothing to his head. It’s really a tough situation as I really felt for this guy and I was just wondering if this guy knew that had he been meant to be a NW 5 or 6 that it’s almost crazy to have any kind of surgery done. It’s like your head looks like a dartboard where the new hair looks too perfect and the baldness pattern is still there and noticeable. I guess though if we all knew that we were going to be a NW 4,5 or 6 then we would know how to plan for our future. January 28, 2007 Hey loyal followers: I haven’t been on in awhile as we are in the process of revamping the web site. I am happy that my hair has been looking great and from what I’m hearing there are some promising new products that are going to be released soon that will be good news for all hair loss sufferers. Today was my nizoral day but I actually decided to skip it as I seem to get irritation sometimes on my scalp and I believe that it may just be from the combination of using all three products. I’ve been taking a break from one product or the other more often. For instance, last month I probably only took propecia 25 out of 31 days in the month. I feel that this is a good idea and probably good for the body to mix it up a bit. As many of you know I decided to cut back my minoxidol use down to 1 dose a day from my 10-12 doses of 1 ML per week and although I did feel that I did have a little bit of shedding about 2 months ago I feel that my hair looks fine now and is back to normal. The main reason that I decided to cut down on the minoxidol use, as I’ve mentioned here before many times is that my face was getting very fat and retaining a lot of water. I have noticed that my face is looking a lot tighter now especially in my chin area so I think that it was a good idea to cut down on the minoxidol. I have also been drinking a lot of green tea over the past two months and I do feel that has helped quite a bit as well as far as getting rid of the water retention. I heard that one of the best ways to stop retaining water is to actually start drinking more water. Believe it or not, that seems to be true as I do drink a lot of water. I have also been exercising again the way that I was a couple of years ago where I’m spending a lot of time on the treadmill and I feel that the bouncing up and down from running is penetrating my face and that is how the muscles get stronger and make my face tighter. Don’t you ever notice how hard core bodybuilders have such tight, muscular faces? Thursday, December 14, 2006 I received a call today from one of my regular listeners and he was asking me if I recommend Scalp Med and he wanted to know what I thought about it. Let me just make something clear. Anything that you see on an infomercial, late at night that is not FDA approved or approved by us here at RegrowNow.com probably won't help you. Now as far as ScamMed is concerned, ScamMed is just simply a concoction of Minoxidol and Retin-A, which is a vitamin A derivative. There’s really no evidence that Retin-A is going to help expedite the hair growth process with Minoxidol or help the process along at all. In fact, there have been some studies that have determined that the combination of Minoxidol and Retin-A can actually cause something known as follicular fibrosis which is kind of a hardening of the hair follicle. So we hear at RegrowNow.com don't recommend using a combination of any vitamin A derivatives or Retin-A with Minoxidol. As far as this ScamMed product goes. You can go to your local drugstore and get a bottle of Minoxidol for $15 compared to the $50 - 60 that they are charging for the ScalpMed. So ScalpMed may claim that it is FDA approved, because there actually is an FDA approved ingredient in the product. However, you can get the same thing in my opinion (generic minoxidol) for a quarter of the price at your local drug store. There is another product out there that you need to be weary of hearing about as well and it's called Procede. Supposedly, it's one of these products that’s to be taken once every 90 days. Now let's use common sense here for a second. What in the world is any kind of product supposed to do for you if you only take it once every 90 days? The side of the label basically says that after one application you begin to immediately see results. It goes on and talks about how it's such a revolutionary product and no where on the label does it actually say how it works or how it's supposed to grow hair or even why it works. They don't even tell you what’s in it. Think about it? You only need to take it once every 90 days. Doesn't that sound a little too good to be true? From my experiences in life, I have come to the conclusion, that if it sounds too good to be true it normally is 95% of the time. Procede is a product that has been aggressively marketed and advertised on television, the radio and in the back of magazines. This is not something that is being publicized by the media and in my opinion if it really worked I'm sure that somebody would be talking about it. I had a friend come into town last week and he's a guy that I haven't seen in about a year and the guy was persistently calling me and wanted to go to lunch. So I told him where my office was and then all of the sudden he calls me from his cell phone and he's out front waiting. Now this is a guy that has been suffering from hair loss for many years and even though I hadn't seen him in about a year, I knew that he must be around a Norwood 5 or 6 by now. The last time I saw him he had been around a Norwood 4 and it seemed like his hair loss was progressing rapidly. So I just assumed that with him being in a worse situation then me that I wouldn't need to be concerned about anything or need to prepare for anything. So I go outside of my office building thinking that I'm going to let him in the office and perhaps show him around the building and take him for a tour. Well, I step outside and he's not there. I walk out about 10 more feet only to see a convertible rental car facing the other direction waiting to get out of the parking lot with a guy talking on the phone. It was my friend and he was wearing a baseball cap. Instead of him coming in and wanting me to show him around he just wanted to go right to lunch and he didn't have the common courtesy to think that maybe having a convertible and with me being at work and wearing business attire that I probably wouldn't have a hat handy. I guess I probably should have just told him that I'll follow him but since he had the car already pointed in the direction to go he kind of just made me feel like he was saying "come on, let's go, jump in" Knowing that I was asking for trouble, I went ahead and tried not to worry about it and I must say that it was probably the most uncomfortable lunch that I have had in a long time. I knew that my hair was looking all wind-blown and I just couldn’t stop thinking about that I still had to ride back with that top down. I was very annoyed that the friend didn't have the respect to say “hey I'm outside in a convertible and I have a hat on in case you want to take your car or if you just want to meet me there. He could have given me 5 minutes to think about what I wanted to do instead of needing to make a quick 20 second decision. I got back to my office and first thing that I did was head straight for the bathroom and of course my hair was shot! The back was all separated looking and my hair was now sticking together from the wind blowing it all over. It also probably shed some hair with the high pressure air coming straight at me. It made me realize that I’m never going in somebody else’s car to lunch while at work and what an idiot that guy is to not think of others beforehand. I had a guy from New York call me today and he was asking me why I harp on The Big Three so much and why do I never mention anything about dutasteride? He then started raving about dutasteride and he kept saying to me that " this stuff works and that it's great" He said that he takes it a couple of times a week and that he is a little hesitant because he understands that it hasn't been out for long. He's still a little concerned about the long term effects. I asked him if he's had any adverse side affects and he said "no" he even said that he had a blood test done last year and that it was absolutely fine. I explained to him that dutasteride is actually approved for Benign Prostate and he said that he was aware of that. He said that since taken it, he has actually grown hair back and his hair loss, which had been rapidly progressing had totally stopped since he started taken it. I told him, “don’t go crazy with it because we don't know what it could possibly be doing” ( to him internally ) I said that if it's working just taking it twice a week, that sounds good and why not stick to it, but that I wouldn't recommend taking it any more than that and that I am not a Doctor. I am just somebody who has a lot of knowledge about hair loss. I told him that I love the idea that it's in our arsenal and that if all else fails that it's something to possibly fall back. But for right now, I'm sticking with The Big Three. Sunday December 11, 2006 I’ve been seeing many commercials lately promoting the new Rocky movie and I was actually watching Monday Night Football last week and Sylvester Stallone was a special guest in the booth. The game was in Philadelphia and of course Philadelphia is the hometown of the Rocky character. I was watching the game in a sports bar and what amazed me was how the entire time that the camera’s kept cutting over to Sylvester Stallone that everybody in the sports bar had made comments on how incredible Stallone looks. They were all in amazement that he is 60 years old. Many of the people kept commenting about the plastic surgery that he’s had done with his face and neck but not one person said anything about his hair. His hair looked as good as it did twenty years ago and everybody in the bar assumed that his hair is the same. In my opinion, Sylvester Stallone has definitely done something to his hair. Whether he’s wearing some kind of system or whether he had transplants there is no doubt in my mind that he has done something. His hair looks too perfect for a 60 year old when I can remember seeing him about 10 years ago and I could see that he was losing it. I went out this weekend to a local night club and I saw a guy there that I’ve known for a few years but I haven’t seen him in a few months. He was on a date with a nice looking chick and they were there with another couple that I knew. For some reason this guy that I’m referring to just didn’t seem happy. I teased with him for a second and he wasn’t playing along and then I looked over about twenty minutes later and noticed him out on the dance floor with his date. His crown area had really thinned quite a bit. He’s somebody that I noticed had hair loss about two years ago and he’s a guy that’s exactly my age. One thing that I vividly remember though about this person is that when I first met him three years ago is when I was just beginning my early stages of the road to recovery and I had obvious looking thinning hair at the time and this guy actually insulted me indirectly about my hair loss. He tried to make a joke of it. I firmly believe that there is such a thing as bad karma and that the one thing you should never, ever do in life is to make fun of somebody that is losing their hair. It always seems to come back one day. I’m amazed though that today my hair looks much better then it did three years ago and this guy is having some problems. I felt that this guy was feeling a little depressed because he knows that his crown is thinning and it seems to be progressing. Sunday, December 03, 2006 Hello Folks- Happy Sunday to you all. I’ve been in a great mood lately as my hair has been looking unbelievably great! I am fairly sure that I called it correctly & I had been experiencing a shed and now have without a doubt made it pass that. If was telling everybody how I decided about 6 weeks ago to reduce my minoxidol intake down to just once a day as I felt that I had been taking way too much and it was working well but causing me to have a “fat face” I figured that I didn’t want to cut it completely but reducing the amount of minoxidol could probably still work for me. Well I noticed that a couple of weeks after I stopped I started having bad hair days. I figured that I must be going through a “shocl shed” and I’m pretty sure that I was right as it seemed to last that way for about 10 days. I then predicted that after the 10 days I would then come to a halt and then I would begin the cycling stage again where my hair would actually start coming back in ( the hair that was lost from the shed ) and I feel that it has. I’m not saying the hair that I lost 10 days ago has already grew back but the hair that was at a short length about a month or two ago is starting to cycle back in which gives my hair the appearance of thicker hair. As long as I don’t experience another shed then I should be back to normal and that is exactly where I feel that I am today. I just got back from the gym and did my 3.5 miles on the treadmill and sweated out about two quarts of fluids. I don’t say water because I think that I sweated out all of the sediment buildup from the minoxidol as well as all of the bad toxins and preservatives from bad foods and drinking beer. I eat healthy but we are only human and I must admit that I have had some chicken wings and pizza a few times this past week. This is why I feel that this new workout has been working so well for me. I am flushing out my system and I am positive that because I’m doing this it is making the products that I take more effective and giving my hair great texture. I do not look like a guy who was very depressed four years ago and a guy that had a thin crown and miniaturized temples and was probably a NW 3.5 and on my way to being a NW 4 if I didn’t turn things around and get on this Big Three regiment. I saw a guy today who I have known for a long time and I remember seeing him at the gym about 5 years ago and he was going thru the exact same thing that I was and I remember because he had just cut his hair short that day where it wasn’t quite shaved to the skin bald but he left about an eight of in inch. I remember how he described his hair cut to his trainer that day as the trainer has a full head of thick hair. He kind of made it sound like he just cut it that short for a different style so he would feel better and not have all of that hair to mess with. He was kind of in denial. I could tell just by the way he said it as he was very careful about letting the thought of male pattern baldness come up. I knew he had it but never saw him again for four years. I just started seeing him again a couple of months ago since I started back at this gym and every time I saw him he was completely shaved where it looked like he shaved with a razor every single day. So I just assumed that he was definitely a NW 4 or 5 and now at the point where he’s just shaving it clean. Well today I saw him and it looked like he hadn’t shaved his head in a couple of days and as he walked away I could clearly see his horseshoe pattern as this guy is now a NW 5 or 6. This guy is exactly the same age as me and he was probably fairly close to where I was 5 years ago when he cut his hair real short and tried to play it off in front of the trainer. It reminded me of how fortunate that I am that I didn’t just “give up” and that I decided to control my hair loss. Sunday Novemeber, 12 2006 Well I've been three weeks now on my new routine which is that I cut down quite a bit on the usage of minoxidol. So far I think that I have turned the corner although I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. I just went to the gym and today was my "cardio-only" day. I take one day a week now and all that I do in the gym is run on the treadmill for about an hour and a half. Of course I stop four or five times and walk to catch my breath. i'm not in the best shape yet as far as my stamina goes. I started this new routine at the exact same time that I decided to cut my minoxidol intake down which was about three weeks ago. The main reason being that I decided that it's more important to me to have a tight and sculptured face as well as a good looking, healthy head of hair. Since I've been taking the minoxidol religiously for the past three and a half years I decided that I do want to contine to take it because I still think that it does a lot but only want to take it once per day and that's at night before I go to bed. I knew though that anytime you change something up that it will cause a kind of shock to your system as your body & mind are saying , "hey, what's going on here? We're used to 2 ML per day and we're only getting 1?" Anytime you change your routine you can expect some side effects such as a shed and I think that I've been dealing with one but luckiliy only a slight one. I think that I passed the true test as I got a hair cut last week and it seems that anytime that I think that my hair is not performing well or if I'm slipping that I usually really notice it after getting a cut. Well luckily it looked good after the cut. I think that it may have even helped as my hair had been getting long and usually when it's long it tends to wear your hair down a bit which may cause some pulling and tugging. This pulling and tugging isn't a good thing for those of us suffering from androgenetic alopecia. I went to the gym today and sweated out the 10 beers that I drank last night and ususally when I come home after a heavy sweat my hair doesn't look so good. Well, luckily it looked great today as there were no thin and exposed areas. It looked like I had complete coverage and I haven't even taken my Nizoral yet today. The Nizoral makes the texture of my hair look even better but since I knew that I was going to the gym and would be sweating I decided not to take it until later. And before I forget I have to mention this as there is this guy who is completely bald down to the skin and he goes to my gym and he's probably on 28 years old and I kind of do feel sorry for him because I can see just by observing him how hair loss has affected his life. He seems like the kind of guy who probably doesn't have a lot going for him and the hair loss at such an early age probably has his mental state of mind in a frenzy. Wll, he's one of these guys that is always at the gym and remember that I've stated on prior posts at my web site www.ReGrowNow.com that I don't go to a "normal" gym right now. I go to a gym that seems to attract many young guys with androgenetic alopecia. More on that on a later post. This guy is doing a chest workout and he comes in wearing a body builder type of half cut shirt with some other kind of shirt underneath it and wearing blue jeans. That's right I said blue jeans and working out in a gym. He's a short guy who may look big from a distance but I don't stare at people and make it obvious that I'm noticing them but the more that I glanced over at this guy I could see that he really wasn't muscular at all. He had an ok chest but no defination at all in his legs, his shoulders were ok and he had big legs but only becaus he's so short that it is easier for him to appear stocky. Obviously, he knows that when you wear jeans and you do work out that the jeans will make your whole body look bigger. But come on, you work out in the gym hard so you can reward yourself later by wearing jeans and a nice fitted shirt for when you go out somewhere. That's when you hear the compliments. This guy decided that he would wear jeans to the gym and probably when he goes out? ( if he goes out ) I just thought that he looked ridiculous as wearing long sweat pants or workout pants would have made him look much more real and normal and still a guy that works out regularly. The jeans was his way of saying to himself, "look at me, I'm huge!" But that's not even what cracked me up about this guy. He has the young girl who works behind the counter giving him a spot. I thought ok you bother her for maybe one or two spot's right? Wrong! This idiot keps bothering this girl ( who is just trying to be nice ) and you could tell that he was doing his best job of trying to make this girl thnk , "man this guy is real strong and he has a nice body!" I can almost guarantee you that this girl was laughing her ass off to herself watching and listening to this idiot. Then about half way thru his workout he decided to take off his body-building shirt and what does he have on now? That's right. A wife beater. Yes, he was wearing a very tight Haines underwear white tank top. And you could just see how he was walking exactly what he was thinking, "Man, I've got this chick's attention now. She's going to really think that I'm huge!" This little story is in no way trying to disgrace a bald, short guy from the gym. It's to say that there is such a thing as public ettiquette as well as gym ettiquette and if you are a NW 5 ( like this guy is ) and have a completely shaved head. It's not a good idea to wear white wife-beaters to the gym because that makes you look like a real bonehead. If you are going to ask somebody for a spot, act like you have class and intelligence. Just because you are geting gains from that spot, think about the other person involved for a second. They may not be interested in following a short, bald guy with a wife-beater around the gym all afternoon. The girl probably makes $8 an hour so she shouldn't have to work that hard. By the way. Regrow Now radio show is now available also at Podcast News! be sure to check them out as there are about 20 other health related shows on the page so you need to scroll down a bit as ReGrow now is about the 17th or 18th show on the list. As soon as people find us I'm sure we'll move up a bit. http://www.podcastingnews.com/forum/links.php?sid=&id=420 Sunday, November 05, 2006 I cut back on my Minoxidol application about three weeks ago and I’m now starting to hear it from people that it looks like I’m losing my hair. I had been in a sort of a panic at first as I haven’t heard anybody mention anything like this in quite some time. I thought about it for a second and I’m realizing that I’m just experiencing a slight shed and that it’s perfectly normal. I had been taking minoxidol about 12 applications at 1 ML per application for the past three years. I had been religious about taking it. I then realized about three weeks ago that it has to be the fact that I’ve been taking too much minoxidol which is affecting my bloated face. I’m tired of the bloated face as it’s giving me an unattractive look. I decided to compromise. I am now taking minoxidol once a day ( at night ) along with Propecia and Nizoral and even though I’m going to experience a slight shed I think that I will be ok in the end. I personally haven’t noticed the recent thinning too much ( maybe slightly ) but I have heard something now from two different people within about a weeks time which is usually a good indication that something is going on. This is one of the true tests that we must put ourselves through as some people may have this happen to them and they just assume that it’s all over and that they have run out of time. I don’t think that I have experienced any kind of shed in a couple of years so if this is all that it is I think that I will be ok and I strongly believe that taking the minimal amount of minoxidol with the other two members of The Big Three that I will continue to fight off the progression of my hair loss. Remember, sometimes if you have had luck over a significant period of time it’s necessary to make a slight change as long as you’re sticking to the basic fundamentals of what works. Other than that I have been running a lot more in the gym and I have changed my diet and I am feeling like my bloated face has definitely tightened up a bit. So I feel that my plan is working and I’m just going to stick to it. Tuesday, October 17, 2006 I went out last night to watch the Monday Night Football game and I saw a familiar looking guy with a clean bald look. He is a tall guy around 36 with a dark goatee and had a clean shaven head. The guy actually looked like the type of guy that could pull off the clean-shaven bald look. I have seen the same guy come into the same Sports Bar over the past few weeks and before he had his dark hair grown out to about an inch long and had a real good hairline. If you looked straight at this guy face to face he would appear to be a good looking successful guy. The reason that I’m talking about this is because when the guy turns his head, he has a well noticed shiny and slick bald spot directly on the top of his head. It’s about as big as a tennis ball and that appears to be the only place where the guy has hair loss as he appears to have a real good hairline. Obviously I am an expert in this field and I do the ReGrow Now podcast so I am a person that is always very observant of Norwood 3 and 4’s or greater and I try to study their behavior patterns. I could see that this guy’s confidence was affected by the fact that he is a NW 3 and I could also see how his friend’s that are near him seem to be a little on the nerdy side and seem to treat this guy like he is a second class citizen due to the fact that he has a very visible bald spot. I could see how these people were treating him like a nerd. It’s really sad because if the guy had a completely full head of hair he would appear to be somebody who is very confident with women all over him and probably not even giving the nerdy acquaintances the time of day. The last time I saw this guy before he shaved his head was about a week ago and I noticed that one of his friends was trying to be funny and the friend put his hand on top of the guy’s head and was acting like he was rubbing the guy’s bald area like it was going to give him good luck. Doesn’t it make you sick how people can actually think that this is funny when it’s probably destroying the guy inside. That’s why I’m talking about this is because hair loss really can affect a person’s life and the very first thing that I thought of when I saw him walk in last night with a shaved head was the five days prior when the friends were trying to make him look like an idiot. Personally, I think that if I was this guy I would stick with the clean shaven look. As far as my routine goes I have officially decided to cut back on the minoxidil to 1 ML application per day and I’m going to do that at night. I’m convinced that the minoxidil is contributing to my double-chin problem that I have been having and I feel that I’ve had a good run with the Big Three over the past few years but I always knew that after about 3 or 4 years there would probably come a time that it either would stop working or that I would want to stop taking it. I’m still not ready to stop taking it completely but I’m hoping that if I can still take it once per day along with the propecia and the nizoral that I’ll only shed a little and I’ll still be able to maintain. I’m not only reducing my minoxidil applications but I’m also making some diet changes and weight training changes that I think will help me overall. I’m going back to chewing gum on a regular basis as it’s been about a year since I was chewing gum on a regular basis and I believe that by chewing gum you can exercise your jaw and facial muscles. I was chewing gum regularly a year ago and it was working and then I took a break from it and then you wake up a year later and realize that there are 3 or 4 things that I was doing then and I’m not doing anymore. Then you think back and realize that things were working well a year ago and there not working so well right now. The other thing that I’m going to do is exercise on the treadmill for at least a mile after each work out and one day a week of the treadmill only. This is the same situation as a year ago I was doing the treadmill for a mile a workout while running most of the way and I would end up sweating out a bunch of the impurities that I have been putting into my body with the heavy minoxidil use and drinking three nights per week. Well, I’m convinced that all of these bad things have been just settling down to the bottom of my face. I feel that I need to flush it out of my system, the other thing that I’ve decided that I need to do is to start taking green tea again. I was taking green tea about four months ago and felt that it was working well for me. I hope that many of you that are reading this will get out of it that the problem in life sometimes is that sometimes you can just get caught up in the moment and think that everything is going a certain way but it’s always a good idea to take a good look at your self and you don’t want to do this by just looking in the mirror. Looking in a mirror is not taking a long and good look at your self. You need to take a digital picture and just study it for about 15 minutes and you should be able to see what you haven’t been seeing. So that’s what I did last weekend and now I have a plan and I feel real good and excited that with these changes my hair should look good and more importantly my face looks tight and my body still looks built. Tuesday, October 10, 2006 I was out last night at a local sports bar watching the Monday Night football game and I noticed something that I thought was very odd. I usually start watching the Monday Night coverage early in the evening around 6pm and like to hear the sports talk and the thoughts of Chris Berman, Michael Irvin, Tom Jackson and Steve Young. Well, I’ve noticed over the past few weeks of how strange Chris Berman’s hair has looked. I noticed a couple of years ago that he appears to have major hair loss as it’s very easy to see through his scalp as well as his crown. Some how though the network must have him use Toppik or some kind of concealer because he appeared to have somewhat of a descent and dark hair line a couple of weeks ago and then the very next time you see him it doesn’t look as filled in as the last time and then you see him and his hair has an orange appearance. Last night is when I noticed that his hair appeared kind of orange looking and that was the first thing that came to my mind was that the network must have put some kind of concealer on him. Well I was wondering how it would pan out throughout the evening as the game was in Denver and the network sets up there mini stage outside and it happened to be horrible weather as it was rainy and cold. The other three guys all have nice and neat looking hair and you can kind of just see the expression on Chris Berman’s face of how uncomfortable he appeared as he probably had this on his mind. His hair just didn’t seem like it was lying right as it seemed as the rainy weather was making it flat and fine. So this was something that was on my mind during all of the pre game commentary. Well obviously as the night went on the weather must have gotten much colder and it looked like the rain was getting heavier. I’m then watching the game and then at half time they go back to the analysts for half time commentary and I notice that they have Berman in a weird looking wicker type of hat. It was the strangest thing that I have ever seen as it didn’t look appropriate at all. It looked like the hat that Juan Valdez would wear while smoking a cigar. At first, I thought that he was just trying to be funny and they had some kind of theme going but then when the camera panned back and showed the other three guys you could kind of see the weird look on there faces as they all still looked neat with there suits on and here is Berman with a suit on as the head anchor of the broadcast and this strange straw hat. It almost appeared as the network noticed how bad his hair had looked throughout the night and probably told him to wear the hat. I just picked up from the expression on the other analysts faces how something must have gone down before they went on camera and how they all seemed to feel sorry for Berman who was dealing with the horrible affects of male pattern baldness. October 3, 2006 I am watching the American League Baseball playoffs as the New York Yankees are playing the Detroit Tigers. I couldn’t help to notice that the announcer is a guy named Joe Buck and I’ve noticed over the past couple of years that he has been a hair loss sufferer. They just showed him talking to the other announcer ( Tim McCarver ) as they were both looking directly at the camera. Joe’s hair looks perfect. It looks like he has a perfect hairline. I’m wondering how that could be as I’m almost positive I remember seeing him at certain side angles and you could clearly see that he had bald spots near the back of his head. How can somebody that is definitely suffering from male pattern baldness have such a straight hair line in the front? Do you think that he may have had follicular transplantation? In my opinion, I would think that he must have. I just hope that he’s done his research and doesn’t just think that all that he needs to do is replace the missing hair and everything will be fine. I hope that he understands that there is a reason that his hair fell out and that it was not just due to stress. I hope that he is on Propecia because if he isn’t his head is going to end up looking like a dart board in two years as more hair will definitely fall out. As far as my own situation, I’ve been having some good hair days and I’ve actually been trying some different things. For one thing I believe that my face gets swollen or puffy and I’m not sure exactly if it’s from Minoxidol, Propecia or Nizoral but what I’ve done is cut my routine down a bit as I think that I may have been a little too aggressive on taking everything. I mean I have been applying 10+ applications of Minoxidol religiously for the past year and I decided to skip it a couple of times a week as well as skip a propecia dose from time to time. I probably have been taking 30 propecia pills a month for the past consecutive months and now I’m thinking that it may be good to take a day off from time to time. I’m thinking that may help my puffiness a little. The other thing that I need to start back on is taking green tea. I had been taking that pretty consistently around four months ago and then I ran out and never bought anymore. I seem to feel like that helped the puffiness a little. I’m in a good mood today because I worked from home today and for some reason when I work at home I seem to have a harder time of keeping my hair neat opposed to when I work at the office. I guess it’s because at the office it’s a little colder and I’m not constantly running around and getting up and moving. I pretty much just stay in the office for the most part. I went to the gym around 6pm and usually around that time of day my hair usually starts parting a little in the back and my thin crown starts looking a little exposed. Well, the crown area stayed well and I went to the gym and then as soon as I got home around 7:30pm I went into the bathroom and checked my hair and it looked neat and full. I was so happy. The better news is that I wasn’t real worried about it as I felt pretty confident that it looked ok but sometimes you can never tell. You can be at the gym and have that thought on your mind that your hair might be looking weak in the back. I have to say that over the past year things have been pretty good opposed to what I was dealing with three years ago. I’m going to just keep doing what I’m doing and keep my fingers crossed that my success continues to improve. Sunday, September 17, 2006 Hi folks! I haven't been posting much to the site as of late but the good news is that my hair has been looking great! It's kind of like when you regularly scour the forums and you start reading about somebody that has been having some success and then all of the sudden you don't hear from them anymore. I guess when you're having success you don't think about hair loss much. After awhile though I start to feel guilty and then realize then just because I'm having luck then I need to give back. The main thing that I've been doing is just sticking to what works- The Big Three. I actually ran out of Propecia about three days ago but I plan on getting a reorder in a few days. I have been taking propecia so consistently for the past 4 years that I just don't feel bad missing a week. It actually may do my body good. Actually, I was running low about 4 days ago so I've been going like every two days by just taking one so I can kind of stretch out the remainder of this bottle before I have to dish out another $60. But I do think it may be a good idea to miss a few days. I actually do the same thing with Minoxidol as sometimes I'll go a couple of days without taking that although I have been pretty consistent with it the past few weeks. I also have been sticking to my twice a week dose of Nizoral 2% and it's amazing how much that affects me when I run out of that. I was mentioning a few weeks ago on this web site that I had run out of Nizoral and hadn't taken it for almost a month. It really affected the texture of my hair as the condition of my scalp became very oily. I'm sure that the oily scalp exacerbated DHT production. I'm pretty convinced that's the deal. I went out today to watch the Tampa Bay Bucs football game at a local sports bar and before I went out, I did my usual routine with allowing my hair to dry after I got out of the shower. I allowed it about 30 minutes to air dry and I've also noticed that it dries much better when under a ceiling fan. I headed out to the bar to watch the game but of course you always wonder if the crown area is holding up. Remember, you can't see the crown area when your out and you can see the front of your hair. So just because your front hair looks good, the crown may not. Three hours later, the first thing that I did was looked at the back of my hair and sure enough it was completely fool and the crown looked completely covered. I have been so fortunate as I have been able to come home and get this kind of situation for quite awhile now to where it's not like a surprize. So all that I can say is stick with a routine and give it time and you should be happy and get the succesful results that I have been getting. Sunday, August 20, 2006 Hello Friends- Sorry that I haven’t been updating in awhile. There has been a lot going on in the past two months with some other projects that I have been working on. I do plan to get back to a regular routine of posting in the very near future. The good news is that my hair has been looking very healthy and thick lately. I was actually getting worried because I wasn’t able to keep up with my regular routine of taking the Big Three. About a month ago I ran out of Nizoral and I just never got around to ordering it as I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to take a break from it for awhile. I knew that even when I did order it that it would take about a week to even get it. So I just procrastinated. Well I have to admit that after not taking it for two weeks I noticed a difference. My scalp seemed to become more oily and by not having the Nizoral in my routine it seemed that when I would go a long time without washing my hair that my scalp would have more oil build up. It actually brought back memories because I can remember many lazy Sunday mornings way before I ever even heard of Nizoral where I would go until 12 noon or 1 pm before I would even jump in the shower. I remember back then how oily my scalp would become and back then I wouldn’t realize how that was actually bad for my hair loss. I thought back in those days that maybe it was good to allow the vitamins and nutrients settle in your hair. Well unfortantely, that’s not what was happening. What was happening was that by allowing my hair to stay in that oily state it was exacerbating DHT build up which was actually attacking my hair follicles. I got back on the Nizoral 2% about a week ago and I’ve applied it three times so far and my hair is looking better then normal. Maybe it was good to actually lay off it for a couple of weeks, but I definitely noticed a difference. Sunday, June 25, 2006 I was out in the sun all day yesterday and got a lot of sun on my head and on my body & my hair looked real good and healthy last night as I’m sure that the sunlight must bring out the vitamins in your hair and as a result gives it a healthy texture and look. Usually when I go out at night I wait and make sure that my hair had dried just right so I have the front of my hair looking good and the hair dries without my hair parting to the side and I always need to make sure that the crown is not too exposed or “flapped down” to where you can see a lot of scalp. I combed it ok and went out around 8pm and then got home about 2 am in the morning and the first thing that I did was look at how the back of my hair looked and luckily everything held up just fine and the hair looked full all the way through. That to me is an amazing accomplishment as it looked good for a whole six hours. Do you ever notice how people that tend to be dealing with hair loss will have some kind of facial hair as in the form of a goatee or a light beard. I went to Dunkin Donuts earlier today and I always notice some younger guy there around maybe 25 or 26 and he’s a tough looking guy and pretty stocky looking and it’s quite noticeable that he has a very thin crown as well as receding hair line and the guy has a fu Manchu type of beard. Kind of like the kind of beard that the guys from the group ZZ Top used to where. Don’t you think as an outsider but someone who can relate to Male Pattern baldness that the guy has that long beard to divert people from noticing his hair loss. The guy would look so much better if he just shaved his head and beard cleanly and just hit the gym and work out as hard as he can. I receive many emails from people who let hair loss affect there lifestyles. Many people won’t go out without wearing a hat or unless there hair is looking absolutely combed perfectly. I have founds myself to be one of those people at times. Does anybody notice that when you watch certain older shows such as The Dukes of Hazzard or The Rockford Files that every time there is a bad guy who is out to steal or hurt somebody for his own gain that the guy is usually bald? Even in many of today’s movies and television shows it still seems as if they always make the bald guy out to be the loser or the phsycopath, child molester or depressed character. Look at the new Superman movie and the bad guy Lex Luther is a bald guy. Do you ever hear the commercial by Merck with Terry and Perry? The two male twins who were losing there hair and one of the twins went on Propecia. Wouldn’t you think that Merck could have a new commercial on by now? You would think that a big company like Merck could come up with something a little more appealing then Terry and Perry who sound like to dumb hillbillies from Tennessee? I get a lot of emails from people who ask me questions about what they should do about there hair loss and many of the emails are signed with names of people such as John Jones , Mike Davis, Jim Smith. I wonder why so many people are afraid to talk about there hair loss and why they feel that they need to stay anonymous? June 18, 2006 Today is Father’s Day Sunday June 18th, 2006 and my hair has been looking real good as of late although I desperately need it cut as it’s been around 6 weeks. My hair seems to look the best when I keep it cut every thirty days as it seems to look cleaner. I like to go as long as I can without cutting it as it’s still a nice feeling being able to grow a lot of hair. It’s just that as it gets longer it gets heavier and seems to be a little harder to manage. I have been getting many emails as of late and some of the emails are real depressing as there are many unfortunate people out there who have been screwed over by bad hair transplant doctors. There is one guy who I really feel for as his life has been in major disarray. One email is from a guy who noticed his hair starting to thin out at the age of 22 as this was about 20 years ago. He was a guy who was popular in high school and played sports and had many friends and went on to college and was on the right track as everything in his life had been going great for him. When he noticed that he was starting to lose his hair, he had a very hard time dealing with this mentally. His teammates and friends started to tease him about it. He got so paranoid about losing his hair that he started to do more things buy himself as he didn’t want to be in too many situations where he would have to deal with wind or sunlight and have his thinning crown exposed to his friends. He would tell his friends that he would just meet them somewhere. This email touched me so much because I myself can relate to how you can change your lifestyle because of your hair loss although I am lucky that I didn’t have anything compared to what this guy has gone through. So this guy spent just about all of his money at the time on “quick-fix” remedies such as Biotin and snake oils hoping to get his hair back. He then came across a hair transplant doctor who had been doing a lot of advertisements in his local area and this victim thought that his prayers were going to be answered and that this doctor would be able to get his hair back to where it had been during his high school and college years. The guy who at this point was very vulnerable and naïve and hadn’t really done his homework on the surgery and didn’t know about “shock fallout” the Doctor of course never bothered to mention that this is something that is very common with this type of surgery. So this guy ended up getting graphs put into his head when he already had a significant amount of hair and after a few months he realized that these graphs just weren’t growing. All that the patient was wanting was just a lower hairline as the rest of his hair was fine. All that I can tell anyone who has been victimized by a bad doctor to just hang in there and hopefully soon we will have a way to get our hair back to the way it should be and feel comfortable about it and to be able to go on and live a healthy and enjoyable life. Friday, May 26, 2006 So many people are losing there hair more and more. So many people have no clue as to why they are losing there hair. So many people don't understand what to do about losing there hair or have any idea as to what they think they can do to overcome the problem. Please do not ever think about getting a hair transplant without doing your homework. Please do months of research before even considering it. I am seeing way too many people that have shaved, bald heads with a stitched-pattern scar across the back of there head. These people thought that they could get a hair transplant and then just shave there heads. It doesn't work that way and it is my belief that if these people would have just taken the time to educate themselves before making this life altering decision, they could have nice clean shaved heads without that odd looking scar. I would think that if somebody noticed that another person had this odd looking scar running across the back of there head they would probably at first think, "maybe this person had some kind of motorcycle accident or maybe they were involved in a bar room brawl?" After they would see that same kind of scar in the exact same place on a completely different person, they would have to know that the person had some kind of hair transpalnt surgery that went bad. I just seems that too many people "jump the gun" and figure they can get a transplant and that there is a 90% chance that there problem would be over. If they did there homework they would probably realize that it's probably 90% towards the hair transplants not working and the 10% that had great work done were done by the pro's like John Cole, ( Can't mention the next doctors real name because I didn't pay off anybody but it sounds like McAndrews ) or Bernstein. If you're going to do it at least make sure that you talk to the best surgeons in the world. Isn't that a no-brainer? Tuesday, May 16, 2006 Hey folks! Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve been on. I plan on getting back to a normal schedule real soon. I am in the Mortgage industry and the housing market has really started to cool off so I should have more time here soon to start doing the show. I really appreciate all of the kind comments and emails. Keep them coming! I was watching the NBA game earlier- The Miami Heat vs. The NJ Nets and I’m amazed of all of the bald guys that are on both of these teams. Didn’t you used to think that these guys were just regular guys that shaved their heads because that was the style? Well believe me, that is not why they are shaving their heads. These guys are Norwood 4’s and 5’s. I was just watching Vince Carter and he apparently didn’t shave his head toda & you can clearly see that he is a Norwood 4 or 5. I always thought that Vince Carter just shaved his head to look cool. I also noticed that Richard Jefferson has to be at least a Norwood 4 or 5? You can see the shadow of the horseshoe pattern as these guys perspire and the camera gets close ups. When you really think about it there must be 4 or 5 guys between both teams that have guys that are dealing with Androgenic Alopecia. I have also noticed that I am starting to see more and more people that have the scars and the stitch pattern on the lower backs of there head. These are guys that apparently attempted a transplant and either it didn’t work out or maybe they had tremendous shock fall out or didn’t take propecia. You need to remember that when considering getting a transplant that you really need to think it thru. I talk to so many people that have the attitude that they can give transplants a try and if it doesn’t work out they can just shave there head. Well let me just tell you, you can do that but please don’t be ignorant as there will be a scar on the lower back of your head and it will be noticeable. As more and more people have these similar scars at that strange area on the lower part of the back of your head most people know exactly what that kind of scar is for. Monday, April 10th, 2006 What's up with the old tapes? Ok. I hear ya. I have been getting bombarded with calls and emails of people asking why Live 365 is just playing the same old tapes of The ReGrow Now radio show? Well to be quite honest with you, it has nothing to do with Live 365. It's just that I have been extremely busy over the past month and I haven't had any time what so ever to do the show. I do apologize though and I promise to do a new show hopefully this weekend. Many of you know that I also am the owner of a very big Mortgage company and we had been very slow since January but things have really picked up and it's forced me to devote much of my extra time to that business. I have though been keeping up to date on all of the latest in the hairloss world and have quite a lot to talk about. I am also putting the finishing touches together so that ReGrow Now will soon be available in the following markets: Orlando, Tallahassee, Atlanta, Savannah, Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville and Memphis. So please keep listening and I promise to answer all of your emails real soon. Talk to you all soon. Mark B Sunday, March 26, 2006 I’ve been taking my green tea now for almost 30 days and I really think that it’s working. I’m having many people tell me that I look like I lost weight. The funny thing is that I am always wearing heavy clothes due to the cold weather so they really can’t tell if I lost weight. They are seeing it in my face. I’m really thinking that the anti-oxidants are sucking up the extra weight in my face from the minoxidil use. I still have somewhat of a double chin but I don’t think it’s as bad as it had been. I also just got my order of Nizoral yesterday. I really think that I’m addicted to that stuff. I just applied a heavy lather and let it soak into my scalp for 5+ minutes. That’s the way to do it and get the most effectiveness from it. I’m telling you, I really think that this is a key part to making the Big Three work. If it wasn’t for the Nizoral, I know that I wouldn’t have gotten the great results that I did. Nizoral plays a big part and it’s amazing how good it makes my hair look. I think that I’m probably a better responder to the Nizoral because I have naturally brown-oily hair so I think that the Nizoral keeps the oils and sebum levels in check. But remember, you only need to use it twice a week. I personally use it on Wednesday’s and Sunday’s. So just to give any new ReGrowNow followers an update on my routine. I’m taking the Big Three- Propecia, Minoxidil and Nizoral. I take an L-Lysine vitamin with lunch about 4 days per week and on the other three days I take a Flax seed oil pill. I also drink Green Tea now about 5 days per week and I personally feel that my hair is looking better then ever and my face is looking curvy again where you can see the bone structure in my cheeks instead of puffiness like it has been over the past two years. Tues March 14, 2006 Something strange happened today. I saw a guy that I haven't seen in 2 years and he is two years younger then me and he has a significant amount of hair loss. He's probably about a NW 4 going on a 5 and when I used to see this guy a lot around 5 years ago he was only around a Norwood 2- 2 1/2. The reason that I am so shocked at this is that I knew this was coming and a lesson should be learned from it. The lesson would be to never, ever make fun of people. If somebody is over-weight or has a handicap or is suffering from hair loss, it is not a good idea to make fun of them. The reason that I say this is because there is an old metaphor that says, "what comes around goes around" and this guy used to verbally assault me about my hair loss. At the time which was about 5 years ago I was going through an emotionally distressed time due to my hair loss and I would hear something from this guy just about every single time that I saw him with things like, "man! you're losing your hair!" and "you're going bald!" This was at the time when my hairloss was at it's lowest point and that is something that a hair loss sufferer doesn't need to hear. The one thing that I noticed at that time as a hair loss sufferer is that this guy was on his way to losing his hair and I just knew that either he didn't realize it or that he wasn't educating himself on how to control his hair loss from progressing. You could just tell that his mind wasn't there. I actually even remember telling him five years ago to "never make fun of somebody because it will come back to you eventually" and sure enough this guy now looks about 5 years older then me instead of the two years younger that he actually is. I do feel for him inside as I wouldn't wish hair loss on anybody but I am a firm believer that you just should not make fun of anybody who has any kind of handicap. Wed March 01, 2006 I have been taking my Flaxseed Oil regularly now for about a week. I'm rotating it with L-Lysine as I take L-Lysine every other day and then take the Flaxseed oil ( tablets ) on the days that I don't take the L-Lysine. I'm very fortunate to say that my hair has been looking very healthy lately. I'm still thinking that it's too early to see any benefits from the flaxseed but I strongly do believe that the L-Lysine seems to make my hair stronger and it gives it good texture. I'm do for a haircut though as I haven't had my hair cut for over a month. My hair has gotten very wavy and wild looking in the back and on the sides so getting a hair cut will do it good as it will take some weight off. Though the first think that I always do as soon as I get it cut is look at the back ( crown area ) with a hand mirror. When it's longer it seems to fill in the crown area a little better as it covers it up. I still do have a weak crown area although it looks 10 times better then it did four years ago. I'm always a little concerned with the appearance of the crown area after getting a cut. As I'm writing this blog update I just so happen to be listening to a radio commercial for Folic Hair. Doesn't there radio ad sound so fake? This is why I strongly advise to stay away from anything that you hear advertised on a late night TV infomercial or a radio commercial. They have a guy that is giving a testimonial and he sounds like he's on the phone and he's saying how he feels like he's 18 again with all of this hair on his head and the he kind of laughs it off like, "gee, how lucky am I to find out about this new product" The announcer says how it's the only topical solution approved by the FDA to grow hair. This is called a "play on words" it's kind of like reading the fine print. Oh yeah, by the way, that FDA approved topical solution that they are referring to is Minoxidil and the last time I checked I was able to purchase a bottle of the generic stuff at my local drug store for only $15. Do yourself a favor and do your homework before you throw your money away. Sunday Feb 19, 2006 I went out the other night to see a friends band play at a local bar. The guys band plays at gigs around the town and I had attempted to meet all of these people out several times over the past year and just never made it. My friend who is always letting me know when these gigs come up kind of expressed his disapointment to me for not ever showing up. So this time I decided that I would go. The guy in the band is a "rock n roll" type who I remember meeting several years ago and I remember him being about my age or a little older. The last time I remember seeing him was at my friends wedding. I remember him at the time resembling the lead singer of the fab rock band Cinderella from the late 80's. My freind always implied that this band plays covers like Cinderella, Motley Crue, Poison, etc... The band comes on and this skinny, old looking and completely bald guy comes up on the microphone and the band starts jamming. I ask my friend "which one is Tim?" thinking he's the drummer or guitar player. My friend tells me that he's the lead singer. It's amazing what hairloss cab do to a musical career. The guy looked really aged, had a double chin, completely bald. It just didn't seem to fit the look of the band and wasn't really what I was expecting. The band was fairly good and they seemed to be having fun but it's ashame that the lead singer looked like a popular rocker about ten years ago and now looked like an old man dancing around and trying to entertain and it just didn't seem to get over. Saturday Feb 11, 2006 I took my L-Lysine tablet today at lunch and my hair looks amazing right now ( which is three hours later ) I used to take a multi vitamin years ago and noticed that my hair texture would always look good hours after taking it and I assumed that it was the Biotin in the vitamins. I am convinced now that L-Lysine definitely affects the way your hair looks as it seems to expand the hair follicle. It looks very full and thick and there is no doubt in my mind that the L-Lysine is very good for the health of your hair. I just came back from the healyth food store today and I purchase some chinese Green Tea. I need to start taking this hoping that it will reduce the puffiness in my face. I believe that the colder weather and taking the minoxidil must be making me retain more water in my head-literally. I know that I don't sweat as much this time of year as I do in the summer time so I'm sure that is playing a part in it. I'm just going thru a real strange time as I know that my hair looks good and I'm working out and my body looks good as far as toned, muscular and even thick. I just seem to have a fat face. My nose and cheeks aren't as tight as they usually are and I'm attributing it to too much Minoxidil use. I'm probably going to cut my minoxidil use down to 7 applications per week from my normal 10-12. This will be much easier on me and hopefully I can hit the cardio a little harder and sweat along with the green tea. The only thing is that the green tea is an anti-oxidant but I'm not so sure if it will help with the puffiness? I'll keep you posted. Thursday Feb. 9, 2006 I am a little bummed out today as I am realizing that even though I have been taking The Big Three and am still having success there is a side effect that I realized that I have. It's nothing major but I am convinced that I have a puffy face and I'm sure that it is due to minoxidil use. Sometimes we can get so consumed on what's working that we can have tunnel vision and not realize that their is an issue and I think that's the situation that I'm in? I also have had a double chin for quite awhile. I'm in to working out consistently and I have been sticking to a solid routine. I probably have been slacking a little on my cardio and I cut milk out of my diet about two thinks ago thinking that would eliminate the double chin but's even though it's not as bad as it had been, it's still there. I've been on the minoxidil for about three straight years and I really don't want to discontinue it although I may just stick to only night time applications. I've been reading on the forums that it is possible that taking too much minoxidil could be causing me to retain more water. I'm also going to probably start drinking green tea. I'm hoping that I'll see a difference. Well other then that keep sending in the emails and I'll be reading some of your questions with answers to your questions this Sunday night on my hair loss talk show. Mark B