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Before |
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Before Farrell |
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3) Before Farrell |
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Farrell Ultra - now |
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TESTIMONIALS
April 13, 2002 |
I've been in my
new Farrell systems for two months now. For the seven years
before that, I had a "Foligraft" hair replacement
system provided by another company (a Hair Club clone), and for
more than a decade before that I had a transplant. So with all
that experience I've chosen the handle "Oldhand" as my
online name.
Anyway, the Farrell systems are far more satisfactory than
either of the other two. I'd score my Farrell experience thus
far as an "8" out of 10 -- and I take some of the
blame for it not being higher. There was variation in quality
with the other system I had, but it was usually below
"5" on the same scale and sometimes way below. The
transplants were ok as a means of delaying the effects of
baldness. I got them when the thinning was becoming noticeable,
and it worked ok until all the hair originally growing on my
head was gone. My hair is very fine and was never extremely
thick, which means there wasn't enough donor area to continue
the process indefinitely. I'm sorry now that I have the plugs
because they mean I couldn't have a respectable bald head, even
if I went that route.
I can provide additional images if you wish, but these seem to
be pretty illustrative:
Picture # 4 above -- This is what I look like today!
Picture # 1 above -- Here's proof that I need something
up there. This shows the transplant. I presume more realistic
patterns are available these days but am not curious about them.
Picture # 2 & 3 above -- These two images show me in
the "Foligraft" system I had before going to Farrell.
As you can see, the hairline has to be covered up. Farrell's
realistic hairline was the factor that led me to switch, but
even aside from that the hair of the old system looks cheap and
false. These images were taken on the same day I had been in for
my monthly service, so this was as good as that system ever
looked.
The issues that have kept my Farrell experience from being
perfect center around maintenance. Part of the problem is that
in my current living situation I have very little privacy and am
not able to work with the systems and primp as much as some guys
no doubt do. But a bigger part is that even when I create
opportunities to work in peace on my systems, I don't know how
to take care of them properly. The first big mistake I made was
putting too much adhesive on my scalp and letting it come up
through the mesh and get matted in the hair. After trying to
clean it for over a week I had to send it back to Farrell for
help -- this after less than a week of total wearing time. I had
to wear the next unit for a total of almost a month before the
first one came back. When it finally came off and I began trying
to refurbish it, I found a great deal of "backwash"
(hair that had come through on the wrong side of the mesh). My
theory is that I contributed to that when trying to clean away
the dried adhesive. As I worked with it the hair became more and
more tangled, and when I tried to fix that I started pulling a
lot of hair out of the system. Finally, disgusted, I sent that
one back as well, and am still waiting for it. I sure hope, the
next time I trade off, that I can handle matters myself. But I'm
not confident of that.
One of the attractions of Farrell's arrangement was being freed
from the requirement of going back to a salon for service every
month. It meant I can now take an extended trip out of town, or
even out of the country, if circumstances lead to that. However,
for this arrangement to work I need to be more competent. I
half-jokingly told Dylan at Farrell's office that I'd like to
see them offer a "Farrell University" -- in which
clients could be trained to do the same kind of work done by
people in their shop. (I wonder where one COULD go for that?)
The fact is that I had a very, very sketchy summary of what to
do at the time of my cut-in. At the time I thought I had enough
info, and I figured any questions that arose could be answered
on the Internet. I now see that it isn't that easy.
But again, the Farrell system is a distinct improvement. Even on
the worst days it looks better than the old system ever did. And
if I continue to learn from my mistakes I will eventually be
happy with it every day.
All the best!
Oldhand
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