Hey man, 22 is too young. Also when you prefer Pekiner, it is better to wait. What are some years compared to your next 60? Did Pekiner accept you?

Hello All, I am a couple of days late with this post and the guilt of dragging my feet with this finally kicked in an hour ago. As the subject of this post suggests, I just got 1st hair transplant done by Dr Arika Bansal at Eugenix in Mumbai (India). This is a first time for me. Prior to this, I had never used Minoxidil or Finasteride. I plan on using Minoxidil after my post-transplant head wash is done next Tuesday. So before I do a deep dive into the surgery, I should provide some background. I am 42 years of age and I live in New York City. My first signs of hair loss started when I was around 26. By the time I was 28, I could not leave the house with using Toppik on my crown (one container of Toppik per month). My hairline seemed fine though. I did take some homeopathic meds to slow down my hair loss. It is unclear what that did for me but all I know is that it took years for my hairline to start receding compared to friends of mine that were at the same place as I was from a balding progression perspective. There is correlation here but I cannot positively attribute the homeopathic meds' effect on slowing hair loss. By the time I was 36, wind became my enemy and would render Toppik quite useless on my crown. My hairline also started to recede a fair bit. Last year, after doing two consultations - one with Dr Pittella in Brazil and one with Dr Arika Bansal while visiting Mumbai over Christmas 2023, I decided on the latter even though I really like Dr Pittella. The plan was to do 4200 grafts over two days for my hairline and crown. Around 500 beard grafts were used. They were pulled from my neck area. Oddly enough, one of my sideburns were used as a follicle donor source. Here are the photos taken a day before the surgery: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/411ef2i2jeoiir1ekf8mn/ANpqIA33jWG5BzM1Xlt9U1c?rlkey=rl3x2on1n5nznaeh6s0yfvajp&st=ogvtmv1s&dl=0 Here are the photos taken 30 minutes after the surgery was completed two days ago: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/vzxorz0vwxitixx8jwsv7/AIXHSKjAF3j6FylrqjhjVt0?rlkey=sdvczjhheg93z5upwzxerjcyb&st=c5cwztz2&dl=0 Day 1 was quite a breeze. I got to the clinic at around 11 am and only got out around 8 pm or so. Dr Bansal did the incisions herself while the techs did the rest. There were momentary instances of pain while I was getting local anesthesia.  Day 2 was a little harder since there were far more isolated moments of pain but overall, it was fine. Since the crown was done on Day 2, I actually got to sit and binge-watch a show on HBO Max on my phone. I have been returning to the clinic every day for my donor area cleaning and the head-wash will happen this upcoming Tuesday. I can barely wait! Between the antibiotic, probiotic, and pain killer protocol that I've been put on for about a week, I have NOT experienced any pain or other health issues - which is odd since I have been batting a stomach condition for the last 3 years and even that hasn't been rearing its ugly head these last few days. I will start posting monthly updates here starting next month. Please feel free to reach out with any questions that you have. I promise I'll update this post to reflect the split between single-hair grafts, double-hair grafts, and triple-hair grafts. Last, but not least, I cannot thank this community for the amount of support and information being shared. I am the beneficiary of your collective hindsight. Now to brace myself for the emotional turbulence of the shedding phase next month - I am dreading it!               

This will be interesting. Personal opinion is maybe, but I’d also try to tell anyone new to research that no they aren’t. Have the worst case scenario in mind and work from that.  Age obviously is a massive factor. If you are 30 rather 50 the expectations for it to last permanently narrow. Be prepared for it to at least thin over time. The other big factor is your natural balding pattern. If 10 years after a transplant you start aggressively balding from a NW 3 to a NW6/7 into the donor then chances are the transplanted hair will thin too. Medication can help this but it’s not always effective. Dr Reddy for example says expect a 20 year shelf life from a transplant, anything above is a bonus   

@baldingbosnian I wonder if the situation has improved?

Friends, After how long the intense sweating is absolutely safe and not a problem for the grafts because I live in a warm country and currently the temperatures are very high at night also and I sweat a lot and for a long time