"Before & After" Photos Can Lie... Videos?

Posted by Sarah Sweetz Akhza On 4:54 PM 0 comments
As someone who marketed to men with male-pattern hairloss (Propecia/Merck), I saw many of the advertisements for lotions, potions, medications and transplants. I know the usual tricks of before and after shots. Just like the "before and after" diet photos, lighting can be an easy way to expose balding hair or hide it quite well. I hope this week to get Joe Shields, who took the photos for my Nalts Consulting page and my book, "Beyond Viral," to do a similar shoot to see how the past orbit around the Earth has changed me. For those of you unfamiliar with my experience, here's the video that documented my procedure.

Today I received an e-mail from someone considering Dr. Alan Bauman's FUE process, and I showed him a few videos I grabbed without much thought. These show some progress, and I have spent almost no time picking these few.

Here's a video I did immediately after the hair transplant... you'll see my hairline quite visibly when I play the marketer. Of course my role as the attorney involved shaving the head and producing a faux "comb over."




Now.... me yesterday:



DURING
I shot this about 9 months ago... in the interim period between the transplant and the 1-year milestone where much of the new hair is visible.

BEFORE:
1) Check me out appearing on "iChannel," which shows my shaved head- this makes my hairline very visible
2) Here's me on HBOLab's "Hooking Up," where I had the benefit of makeup and lighting to hide the hairline.
Unfortunately most of my pre-transplant videos have me conveniently covering my head with a hat, or carefully cropping out the head (like this one).

What do you think?

I knew that I wore the hat, in part, to hide the hairline. But I'm now noticing the most significant change...

Before the hair transplant, my hat was like my wallet and keys. I didn't leave home without them. Now my hat is like my sunglasses... an optional accessory. This change hasn't been a conscious one, but has become obvious to me on reflection and by reviewing my many recent hatless videos.

In summary, a few key takeaways:
  1. The results, I think, speak for themselves... and these videos weren't selected carefully... I just grabbed a few random ones.
  2. It's quite nice not to need the hat, but wear it when I wish. I didn't realize I was that insecure... I told myself the hat was something I liked wearing, and part of my "brand."
  3. An FUE isn't an FUE. FUE stands for "follicular unit extraction," which requires no incision, meaning it's less painful and produces no scar (learn about it in this instructional video I shot with Dr. Bauman). It's still relatively new, so you'll want to know how many procedures your physician has done. Historically, FUE was reserved for "touch up" procedures, but both myself and Greg Benson (Mediocrefilms) are really happy with the mass amounts of hair Dr. Bauman transplanted in one session. In fact Benson had additional treatments, and it's really helped repair his Bosley transplant from years ago.
  4. Remember it takes time to see the results.
  5. My biggest concern now is not the newly transplanted hair, but the area behind them. I've been trying to keep up with the Propecia and Rogaine to avoid having a weak area behind the sturdy new "front line" Dr. B gave me.



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