At 23 I started noticing my hairline beginning to recede.  It gradually receded back toward the crown over the next 35 years.  At about age 58 it had pretty much stabilized (at 5a) where it is today.  I cringe when I see recent photographs of me because of how old I look. One of these photos was with me and my mother who is 86 years old and I thought Oh my God, I look as old as my mother! Shortly after this I saw a show on TV discussing the FUT method and how good it can look.  I knew nothing about the procedure except that HairClub and Bosley performed the procedure. I interviewed them both. I was appalled at the schlocky presentation and selling pressure at the HairClub and walked out.  Bosley was much more professional but it was another salesman giving me the spiel with about 10 minutes with the doctor.  The doctor looked at my head and told me I would be a candidate for 2,500 grafts. I assumed this meant I would need another surgery with additional grafts at a later date. I gave Bosley a deposit, scheduled a surgery date and left the country for 5 weeks.  When I returned, one week before the scheduled surgery I went to my barber for a trim and told him what I planned on doing.  He told me about 3 of his customers who had transplants from Dr. Sharon Keene in Tucson, AZ and that it looked so natural you couldn't tell that they had a transplant. I went home looked up Dr. Keene and called her for an appointment/interview.  I cancelled the Bosley surgery (lost my deposit) and met with Dr. Keene.  She met with me for over an hour and patiently answered all my questions.  She measured my donor area and transplant area and suggested 4,000 +/- grafts in a 2 day mega-session.  I went home and did some research after finding sites like this one, and reviewed her credentials, which were impeccable. Dr. Keene's fee was very reasonable and much less than what I would have paid Bosley for fewer grafts with another surgery yet to come.

I have always been very insecure about my hair loss especially now that I'm a "senior" citizen and it makes me look really old. I know my friends and family don't mind and I even tell bald jokes to make it appear it doesn't bother me but it really does...a lot.

I have not tried any other hair loss treatments because I always assumed they were expensive and worthless.

At 6 months I am now able to say that I am happy thus far with the HT.  It's an expensive procedure and it was hard to tell prior to the 6 month photos.  The hair is still fairly "thin" on top but the doctor said it's a full year process before the final results are in.  At this point I'm very encouraged that the final results will approximate what I expected. It's still pretty sparse in the back and much of the hair growing in that area is gray but there were less grafts transplanted in the crown versus the front. Believe it or not the only thing I would change at this point is that I would have had the hairline recede a little more on the left side of my front hairline.  I'm an older guy and I think a little more mature hairline would suit me better.  But, this is getting really picky and I'm very grateful just to have a hairline at all.

This is a very personal decision but I would only do the FUT because it's permanent, doesn't require maintenance and if done correctly doesn't look that I've had anything cosmetically done.  That was the most important to me.

I'm retired so I had the ability to be a recluse for about 6 weeks until I was fully healed and the transplanted hairs had fallen out.  I won't hide the fact that I've had a transplant but I won't voluntarily tell anyone either.   

Do more research about the surgeon. Look at a lot of pictures and progress of patients with similar hair issues to yours so that you have a pretty good idea of what to expect but understand that the progress and results are different for everybody.  I'm participating in this site because I found it very helpful for me to be able to preview what other similar patients look like and went through during their procedure.  Understand that waiting, especially during the early months post HT will be difficult. I hope my experience will help others following me.