Thanks for the information, HairSite. I look forward to whatever changes can be made to make the forums better. It is a pity, though that you will not be able to re-establish threaded discussion view layout. In my opinion – and everyone should take this seriously as I and some others have been here since the beginning of HairSite in the 90s – that was the main “draw” for the HM crowd to come here, from the beginning. We enjoyed the heated discussions and we were able to follow the discussions in real time, by seeing each post in the thread, who made the post, and watch the discussion as it developed. It was easier and much more fun to participate in.
Other people have different reasons to visit HairSite. I understand that. There is the whole “HT community” who are closely followed and encouraged by their HT surgeons, like Dr. Cole and others. For that community, the close relationship between the doctors and patients is the most important part of their HairSite experience. I see that these doctors watch the HT forum very closely, and probably encourage their patients, on whom they’ve operated successfully, to share their experiences, as a form of “advertising” (I am not criticizing this; they have a right to do this and it is genuinely informative for HairSite’s HT community.)
However, HM and Research fans have a completely different reason for coming here. I can give my experience. In the 1980s, my father had a hair transplant and it was absolutely abominable. Most of his scalp – both the donor area and the recipient area – was destroyed so badly, he had to us a “Hair System” (hair piece) for the rest of his life. It was a bit of an unusual hair replacement system because it actually had to hide not just the front of his scalp, and the top, but also much of the rear portion which had been scarred badly by the HT surgery, and where he had lost considerable hair due to the bad surgery.
The experience of watching him has always “scarred” me, because it turned me off completely to the idea of hair transplants for myself. My hair loss is considerably less than his, but still I am about a Norwood 4.
Now, I realize that doctors like Dr. Cole and others will say that there have been so many advances in HT technique since the 80s, that I shouldn’t worry at all, that everything will be all right and I should go in and have a HT done on myself. But the emotional trauma of seeing part of my Dad’s life ruined by poor HT surgery, has completely turned me off to the idea.
That is why I am 100% interested in HM research, stem cells, and all cell-based solutions (like Replicel, Dr. Tsuji, etc. are working on), as well as the somewhat less likely prospect of some kind of chemical/drug solution (like PGD2 inhibitors from Dr. Cotsarelis or JAK inhibitors from Dr. Chiristiano.)
For a long while, HairSite was THE place to come for those people interested in Hair Multiplication, Stem Cells, and other cutting-edge research based cures. HairSite is still a great place to come for those discussions, but I would say now that these format changes have been made to the forums, and threaded discussions have been abolished, HairSite has less of an appeal as a discussion space.
My key point here is that for those in the HairSite HT community (doctors and patients), you have an overriding incentive to come to HairSite for your discussions which has nothing to do with the forum layout. The HT surgeons and clinics associated with HairSite are actively encouraging their patients to post here and share their results as a community. So the HT posters have that big outside impetus to keep posting on HairSite. The doctors are expecting their patients to post, and the patients want to keep open communications and relationships with their doctors. There is a huge cross-incentive at work. It’s like a marketplace of information for the HT community, and as we know HT surgeons are very competitive with one another. The natural competitiveness of the HT industry is a natural