Monday, November 10, 2014

Tips for pate Amelioration: (AKA Hair Transplant)


If you are interested after you read this very honest review please contact us:

NewMan@xpectworld.net
http://www.HairTransplantUKCheap.co.uk


June 2015 - Update :

It is now 6 months post surgery...., as Freddie sang "Was it all worth it?"



Yes, it was.  The superman curl is just for this photo, jocose (and because I can now...) too...



October 2014 - Back story:

Sooo...I have been losing my hair since I was a manly 12 year old...
I've decided to sort it out finally and I'm going for a hair transplant on the 21st November 2014.

The neg'ers will say that if you put good at the front the top and back will go in time:

A la Stem Cell hairless mouse...


And maybe when I'm 70...but I'm still a young bloke!

What amazes me is the laughter and disbelief in ladies I tell this to, I always try to put them in the frame of mind by saying that if their hair went they would be crying all the way to the docs office.  It's so true!

I do now sympathise with my brother, who, at 18 got a bald spot on the back of his head.

I do feel differently about it and I calculated that HAD I been a smoker/drinker even a single bottle if wine a week would pay for this in 5 years....so I don't feel bad about the cost either.

I hate to shave my hair off, my ego won't let me think I look ugly (obviously) but my Super Ego does,
it feels like a cop-out and definitely unattractive, lazy even (from a grooming perspective).

Yes I liked having longer hair and my newly renewed passport photo shrinks painfully as it is popped in with my 10 year old passport.  The virile photo seemingly mockingly laughing at them from his pretty solid mane....dam....I should have kept up with the dutasteride these last 3 years!

What am I doing to keep what I have once I get the front filled back in?

I am not a doctor!! so consult yours first...

But here is the prescription and UK purchase links:
This is three proven ways to stop your hair falling out or make it thicker.

I have been on and off these for years and I think that is why mine is still OK at my age.

I have been ‘off’ the pills for 3 years while in USA and mine started to go again!


Dutagen (Dutasteride) - 0.5mg (10 Capsules)     X       20 = £90.00
(take one every other day)
bulk buying is cheaper:

I am mixing with:

Saw Palmetto (natural herb) – cheap on ebay 55 pounds ‘per year’
(take 3 every other day – the days you dont take dutasteride)


You can try the above as directed (one a day) or mix them like I am trying right now.

Optional:
Minoxidil (4 pounds a month=cheap on ebay, it’s like baby-gro for your hair – makes it thicker)
(twice a day drops, i have used it once a day but it doesn't stop it falling out, just thicker hairs.  Might help your new hair come through faster, post transplant!)


HTH!


Hair Transplant

Before photos:

Not really bad from the back and this is where the follicle donor area will be
they say 3000 to 3500 grafts (FUE method is the latest technique).



Cough Cough!



Getting sparse...





21st November 2014 - 'Full Coverage' Hair Transplant with PRP

Single day operation

10:00 am Taxi to hospital
10:30 am consult w doc
11:00 am start anesthetic
11:30 am Donor hair extraction
3:00 pm ready for destination
Back seems painless again
Front anesthetic 3:10 pm (not nice but ok)
3:45 pm holes punched (in my case for 'full coverage')
5:00 pm end holes (whew)
Food! Break! (20 mins)
5:30 follicles In holes process
Intravenous painkiller, antibiotic and analgesic
Fell asleep...finally.
Woken and told 2 more hours at 8:00 pm
9:45 pm Finished.


This seems like an ordeal and as this is a no BS review - it is.
But it is just one day and you then have hair for life!
It's like anything worthwhile, a short term sacrifice for a long term gain.


Notes:

This is a long process and a lot of it horizontal.
You certainly have room and time to play on a phone or watch a movie on Phone
and sometimes you are at the right angle to read a book.
But only really at the end when they do the back.
You can listen to music at any time.


Concerns:

I certainly felt that because it is cheaper than the UK that something would be missing.
Less than the promised extractions or such like.
But instead they took ages extracting loads of follicles.

I was bored of it in the end.

They on the other hand remained professional and committed to the quality.
Your case maybe different, but 3500 follicles was the estimate, and 4000 was the final total.

I was expecting them to fill in between my sparse bits to thicken those areas.
In fact I was expecting them to only fill in the front which was the main part that was fully receeded(bald).

I expected to have to request a fill in on the crown.
They had a plan for my type of hair loss.

The tag line here seems to be 'full coverage', so similar to a plough,
they literally mowed over the hair that was likely to fall out over the next few decades anyway.
(My hair has been going for some 25+ years now)

Just don't drink much water after breakfast!
It's a pain to have to move and you get the small drip mid-way through anyway.


This will now be in reverse order so that you see the difference from the above 'Before' photos.
I am doing this mainly because the operation photos and videos are quite gruesome to some.
I will update it each month.

5th December 2014 Media (10 days post-op)




20th November 2014 Media

In-Flight food.




21st November 2014 Media


Breakfast at the hotel.



Ready (head shaved) post consultation with the physician.



The equipment.




 The hairline is drawn and you are fully consulted about it.



Immediately post-op.





This is given by the hospital and is a life safer the first few nights.



Would you trust this man you just met in the elevator?
The hat is given to cover things very gently post-op.




Have you read my weekly "Friday Thought" blog?



Saturday, October 11, 2014

Tips for non-professional piano tuning...

No bikes in sight....
I have been tuning the 'inherited' piano...most keys were at least a tone out.
(sounding like 70's Les; youtube search:  Les Dawson piano badly)

It was easy enough once i got the tools right and refined the process...

It maybe sacrilege to the piano aficionado but to me it's the same as tuning a guitar, just a bit more complex to get to the tuning bits...
...and mixed in with a dollop of Masochism
...and the desire to save 100++ on the tuning guy.

So let's go...I'm doing an octave a day to stem any grey matter bleeding and breaking the ennui of life!

Tools:

The piano tuning heads (metal pins with strings around)


Can be turned by using any small socket set. But. You use the 'B' side not the variable size side.  The square side.


A hefty mention to the mobile device app 'pano tuner' this would be far harder without it.



Prep:

Take the piano to pieces enough to get access to front dampeners panel.


Undo that with the central 'screw'.  Put the screw back and rest the dampener back on the pin.  You can now get your fingers in more easily to pluck the strings.

Process:

Pluck each individual string with pano tuner running.

It will show you the current tone. E.g., B (see image)

Turn the pin to the right (tighter) to take the note higher.  If you want C and it is on B.

Top embedded tip:
The pins do not need much turning. You will go multiple tones up with the slightest tighter movement.

Final thought:

The biggest pain is that there are up to 3 strings per piano key and your fat fingers will touch more than one.  (Sorry to lipid-insult your digits!)

Writing the master note near the tuning heads (as per pic above) helps you to not go cross eyed.

Cheery Poem of the week:
========================
So I've been tuning a piano...
..in my way
Been doing an octave a day
It's been hurting my brain
and I can't say it's fun
But playing out of tune
is a pain in the bum!

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Finalised cycling blog - Read first! (Cycle trip France September 2014)

Cycle trip Intro:

This is for friends-fun, map geeks (like my dad) and cyclists who want to do this(final section),
again mainly fun so bear-through the facts and figures; they are short.


To move in date order click the links to the right -> as you read.
next one up is next post in date order.

or click the 'Newer Post' link at the bottom of each page.

First post:
http://mentalphysicalactivity.blogspot.com/2014/08/across-france-in-7-days-ok-so-i-could.html

also...
Have you read my weekly "Friday Thought" blog?

Enjoy!

Craig

Funny pics I took along the way - (While aching and sweating like a Baboons Donkey)

Pretty spooky to ride past on your own...



I'm feeling 2.5 after all these peanuts.

Engage Number One!

No sense of humour in Paris?



Tuesday, September 16, 2014

French animals...(literal; not a metaphor)

Escapee...


Trapped!

MontPellier Babies
Mother?
You lookin' at me?
Foxy steals a sausage


2 Bull Headed Chaps

Open for 'professionally dressed' surgery!


bike tips: (I'm a novice so....)

Tips may be UK / France specific.

Travel with a bike:
Bus and air you should be prepared to minimise and pack or flatten the bike. Pedals off and 90o the handlebars.  Bus needs to wrap wheels but frame is not compulsory (national express).

Cycling pace strategy...

If flat take easy
If hill use weight on pedals(alternate legs)
If down hill Keep low use t bar front to rest upper body.
  If not duck down low as pos. practise firstly!

You can get super faster with straight bars by getting as low as possible.  It is worth it but dangerous!

Travel with bike TGV France:
The lady said each train company charges 10e for a bike. So for two trains to paris that totals 20e.
Montpellier to paris is 150 euros basically booked last minute as I didn't know when I would finish.
I just did. At any cost really as so tired!

Researching: Flights were cheap 30 euros from Montpellier but 50 for the bike!
So I thought train would be best.
Especially that another night in Montpellier would cost 65 to 75 minimum. So I got a sleep over/slow train @150

It's all expensive, basically.

But if I did it again maybe I would rent the bike there. Or such like.  Then fly cheaply home. Travel with the bike has been a pain.

I'm hoping to get a national express from paris home but I need to wrap up the wheels.(had to get train last time as didn't know about wrapping and missed it) it is not the frame apparently mainly the wheels.

National express/eurolines from paris doesn't run on Sunday! (Edit:I could book on the websiteon Sunday BUT there were euroline coaches moving to/from ferry so I was shocked(and annoyed).

So making my way to Gare du Nord to do calais then ferry to Dover then train home.  I've given up trying to do it cheaply. Late is never cheap. Maybe if I had a friend in paris I could have done 2 days here and factored that in as a set-achievable-date planned return journey (I have made a few French friend now BTW) but 2 days is 2 more nights stay so increases cost especially paris! I knew I would want to just be heading home ASAP also after that ordeal!

BTW, I pre-bought food and kept it with me so I had breakfast on the train into paris instead of buying in paris. (In fact while waiting for mc Donald's to open for free wifi -blocked during closing hours!- I chatted to two highly hung over guys who also just met. I charged one of their phones with my solar and got a free burger out of the deal.
Both happy there!

Train to calais booked:
70euros
10 for the bike so that's 30 for the bike so far so plane would have been a better option really but I would have to have wrapped it up. Or bike bag@50 to buy for maybe a one off.

The Couchettes! 6 man rooms, biker aroma and everything...great...




Even with no working SIM you can use a GPS app to help on your smart phone.
(true for a USA iphone, USA SIM card and a App called Donnees IGN Outdoors with french maps)
I had no roaming and it did not cost me a penny.



Helpful Resources:

The address of the Montpellier Airport is:

Aéroport Montpellier Méditerranée
34130 MAUGUIO
France
33 (0)4 67 20 85 00

9th day - 12th sep 2014 - The Grape Thief and The Beach!

9th day - 12th Sep 2014

6 Am wake-up shout!

When you camp and it is traffic-quiet it is sometimes/often different in the light.
Unfortunately I found a spot and realised too late that there was visibility to the road.
So I just got woken up. Sounded like he said 'brole' which means fire? (Campsite? No fires?)
I guess I look all pink and body-like and a concerned citizen would come and look.

Better than a wild dog eating your feet wake-up call!
Back to freezing sleep...


Morning View:
   Canal du Rhone a Sete & Z.A.E. la Tour - Vic-la-Gardiole, Montarnaud.



So due to 3 hours of puncture hell yesterday I'm cheating and pinching that time today if I can get to the south beach before mid day I've done it in 8 days. (It's my trip and I'll cheat of I want to!).

8:30 Am off again.

D619/3? Brieflyoop
D27 to coast
So hungry..only stinky water left!
Fresh grapes! Wow!! I can still taste them. Hang on I am tasting them.


How do you say in French:
"That guys got pockets full of yummy grapes!"
I think the old folk's I passed just said that.

Irish, Policeman, abstinence?

D185

@11pm Plage (beach)



Another wet shirt to keep me cool and I ran into two amazing Brits who are north to south of Europe!
(details footer)

But I got another flat back tire, my fault for going over bad ground. (Two puncture areas also which worrying when you think you fix it put the wheel back on then it still doesn't pump up.

Dark reminders from yesterday, but this time I'm on a peninsula in the middle of nowhere.
Not a busy town a walk to the bike shop! (but met nice German/Estonian couple who met in the USA) then fixed and continued on to the south beach.

Fin!



Interactive bit of blog:
Go to YouTube
Type: Morten Harket ready to go home
Enjoy it for me..."I'm ready now to sleep".


Next:getting home research
First: hotel,shower,sleep - hopefully in that order....but?!


The British guys who were cycling Europe, please visit and support them:


8th day - 11th sep 2014 - Puncture Hell and 4 Wild Dogs!

8th day - 11th sep 2014
********************
It occurred to me yesterday that I would be cycling on the D911 and I thought I would wait and see when that would be.  Somewhat serendipitously it is on 9/11.  September 11th 2014.

I think it is fair to say that the world did not turn the right way due to events that day.
We need to still try to get along as a species and that did not help.

I am very sorry for people who lost someone.  Including a new friend of mine.
**************************

Morning View:
    Millau & Saint-Beauzely - Midi-Pyrenees



7:30am Freezing night. While it is sunny in the day and 5 days out of 7 a blue sky I'm very disappointed in the southern evening temperature.  However, for cycling it is perfect. No humidity (less sweating) and sunshine if you want it or cover up if not.  Any hotter and it would make the water consumption/availability become a problem.  So I have 'Great Ambivalence' about the temperature, then...

(Yellow route near st beauzely = short route).

930 start 3 raw eggs breakfast, erp..Scuse-Me!

First sign post:


D911
I named this "Sheep Mountain" (click/zoom in).
In French "Mouton Montagne" pron. 'mooton mootanya'.



Millau - expensive looking people!
(Looks all downhill, great, but only different, as dangerous lorries wear the nerves, holding on tight and freezing as not warmed up yet).

D809

The thing I keep remember-forgetting to type here is about the smells. A real range from pine-ish in forests, freshly cut grass on a small lorry, road-kill mixed with freshly baked bread, musty trees and the unforgettably unique aroma of a babies nappy heat-rotting in a discarded Le clercx shopping bag.  Each Unmistakable!

Arf...Flat back tire!!!!! Shouldn't have spent all that time above BSing!
But really good going to not get one so far.

Ok nearly 2 hours later still mending, lesson: bring a spare, these are brand new so....I didn't. Hope this glue is ok, feels ok. Erm, also ensure you have the yellow crayon. I just fixed this then it went again as I got the plaster right on the edge of the damage.

Fingers...

Ok, Luckily it went, again, just before I got on the main route.
Local shop is...local thank goodness...
A very nice man helped me and supplied new glue.

Arcuri Cycles


3pm! 50 miles to go!!  6 hours till dark.



The positives: less strong sun! Icecream and yop! (But don't tell anyone)

Leaving Millau - up a serious incline..




Bike issues:fixed at least two sticking links in chain that is causing clicks as you pedal which is an alarming sound you don't need with lorries next to you.  Upshot? it's flat road again.

D809

More links clicking and fixed. Not funny anymore. Seems everything went wrong after I first saw the Montpellier sign. Hufz...6pm.

Ok epiphany. Hint: at 550+ miles even a brand new chain may need more greese, so bring some!
If none you 'could' use laughing cow soft cheese but I didn't say that....enjoy licking your fingers afterwards.

(Le Caylar, La Cavalerie & La Couverto - Midi-Pyrenees & Languedoc)



7pm Couple of old guys say it's 4 hours on bike to MontPellier.
"And" I won't do it tonight.
Ok wrong thing to say to 'me' right?
As now I have to!

Le Caylar - Not into Lodève - D9 @8pm (close but not into clairmont l h)

This morning I happened to grab 2 emergency sugars from the hotel room,
a long shot, but yum for energy. (I may take off as not used to it).

Clear, star-y night.
Finally, Warm wind yay!

Huge huge downhill, nice lights below. Bad road surface.
Arboras @10pm beach town feel.
Montpeyroux (another smell) of beer or wine at brewery.

Gignac - really nice big town square - turns can be misleading!
D619

@2330 MontPellier within minutes now (3 miles)
Very sharp pain in knees and very sore bum from speedy downhills.
Great fun!?
Aawwwww

Finding a place to sleep has always been noisy as next to the road so - can sleep instantly and resume cycling instantly also.

Anyway this time... I disturbed 4 wild dogs or wolves, small ish like a house dog. Looked well fed really. Not scrawny anyway.

Glad they were running towards, but to my right, as obviously best they are scared of you!

Dinner is one raw egg and hosepipe water. Great aroma there.

You can't take anything away from a man who has lived under these conditions.
Everything is a luxury from now!
Sad I missed my pizza. I'll have it tomorrow instead! (edit: I didn't!)


1:30 Am in - Warm-er night in the south, but not 'warm'. I must remember that my beardy-stubble makes a sound against the sides as it's pretty scary hearing something sound so close in the night!