Rake, you didn't read my post very closely.
Basically, what I said in a nutshell is that BOTH rugs AND hair transplants (hair transplant's)are a direct indication of how insecure and vain a guy is about his hairloss. hair transplant's are NOT something that regular people (guys or girls) will respect. Neither are guys with rugs respected - they are laughed at. You think I'm joking? I'm NOT KIDDING!
Guys with rugs AND guys with BAD hair transplant's are laughing stocks and the BUTT of people's jokes.
I say "BAD" hair transplants becuase "GOOD" ones are pretty much undetectable.
However, I would say most hair transplants ARE detectable or somewhat detectable to a degree - especially to a trained eye, and most women (some men) are GOOD at spotting them.
The reason why most hair transplant's are detectable is that low density is always a problem. hair transplant's are simply a numbers game, and a guy with a more advanced stage of male pattern baldness (NW5-7, and even some NW4's) can only hope to achieve 50% density at best (on the average); which will leave him wearing a "glorified combover" the rest of his life - which will show major scalp right through his thin strip of hair, no matter how long the hair is. And that is with the "best of the best" surgeons.
So, in reality, most hair transplant's don't fool hardly anybody. This is my honest, down to Earth opinion on this. Neither do rugs.
IMO, even a lot of guys with "good" hair transplant's are laughing stocks as well, because of the low density that cannot be overcome in most cases - even after ALL donor hair is exhausted and used up to the max. For a lot guys who get hair transplant's, the low density makes their hair transplant's "detectable" regardless of who the surgeon is that does it. After all, even the BEST hair transplant surgeons can only achieve marginal results in a lot of patients (probably more than half). It isn't that they don't have skills, it's just that they can only achieve so much with the amount of donor they have to work with. For a lot of guys, especially with more advanced male pattern baldness, the donor supply is never nearly adequate to even reach 50% density.
Using Rogaine and Finasteride make no difference - they are only drugs. I have used them for 10+ years. There is nothing "vain" about using drugs to preserve your hair, IMO. However, other people (for example, normal people who don't have male pattern baldness, or "bald and proud" guys) may not see it the same way.