Sean

Just got an email with REPLICEL’s CEO message: ”We now have a well-capitalized, very motivated partner developing and commercializing products with us in greater China, we anticipate hearing sometime soon about the clinical results from the Shiseido-sponsored hair loss study in Japan, and we are now months away from having commercial-grade units of the dermal injector in our hands.”

If they no longer respond to him, then it is unlikely they will respond here anytime soon.

Jake, hope things are well and you are doing better.

Definitely, you can save so much money by cutting that 5mg pill into 4’s. It’s hard to get 5 pieces using a pill cutter. I feel generic or branded, its the same scientific formulation. Some people swear by brand names. I mean you can get childrens tylenol and cvs brand childrens tylenol, it is the same ingredient and same mg. No difference, but the only thing that is different is price. If you buy the generic from a known distributor, you should be ok. Unknown pharmacies may have quality control issues ;ex: expiry dates)

This is a unique case. Imo, probably the Best beard transplant. Doctor used actual beard donor from underneath chin to add to beard recipient sites on face. Usually most docs utilize scalp donor to add to beard hair and it may not look as robust and natural as beard hair has different textures. Aside from that, you would be wasting precious donor hair from scalp. This clearly is an amazing approach and looks very good. He used beard hair to the site where it was naturally intended. Outstanding work doc!

Hairline transitions well. Great work doc!

This is just amazing. You look great Luke. Looks so So so natural. You can’t tell you had anything done and that is what really matters. By looking at these pics id say you never ever had a transplant. No one in public will pick this up as one either. That is one goal most long for and man i am really happy for you. Man, this really hit a homerun. Gosh, it is the best bang for the buck right here.

Generics will definitely help save money. Walmart under their drug program offerred 5 mg finasteride generic 30 day supply for $9 bucks. If you cut that up, you can get like a 120-150 day supply. Kirkland helps save money on rogaine. Nizoral, if you can get a dermatologist to prescribe it, sometimes its covered by insurances. For itching/sebum and etc oily hair.

Id wait at least 3 months or more to minimize risk. If you get a buzz in public make sure they spray those clippers well to get rid of any ringworm, staph, folliculitus etc residue. Even if you do it yourself at home do the same thing. You do not want to inadvertently cut yourself by accident which sometimes happens when buzzing thus risking such a Huge investment. A cut can become a scar or can become infected. This isn't a common occurance but still it can happen and then put doubts in your mind. Healing is important but Incan understand trying to keep thins even. Some folks get closer crewcuts prior to transplant and that helps it blend more. Few folks comb longer hair towards the recipient zones to cover it up. Definitely weigh the pluses and minuses. Best of luck.

With only 2589 grafts, this is wow. Some folks do not even get this woth 4000 grafts. amazin

Ab, have you tried any other hairstyles or haircuts? Example- fades and hair slicked up from front? how do you feel about the result thus far overall? What was the intended goal? The hairline area/temporal area looks quite familiar. Were you asked to apply anything in the areas of lower density? Wishing you good growth.

Dutchie, if you are reading this, respond on a forum you are allowed to. I think if a clinic showcases certain results online, customers think that is what is achievable in that particular doctors hands. Otherwise, why does a customer pay for a particular doc. Expectations are clinic driven and derived from that. Hoping the best for Dutchie.

Squidward, you make a great point on saving money. If surgery fails and you paid 7000$ vs 30000$ then you obviously have more money. Not a lot of American docs offer refunds nor help, they may try to do repairs again and fail or etc. you are kind of held hostage. I can see your point here. But there are few docs with gaurantees. You just have to document really well though. A lot of docs prey on folks and do not fully inform, just so they can get you in the chair. I do not believe that I am out to help you storyline at all anymore by some folks in this industry. Some docs will even try to put words in your mouth when things seem to go downhill. Business is business. Be a good documenter and things will be easier. Best thing is to teach out to authentic repair patients. But try to find ones that are not biased. Payam is certainly doing his best here and hoping things change by the end of the year for him. At this stage, result is obviously not there yet. That is a fact. It is a waiting game and we’ll all see how his clinic responds.

Dutchie at his age in preop pics has higher tufts. I do not think he is a norwood 6. His hair caliber looks stronger than most. His head doesn’t seem too big. 4200 grafts could have done a better job. He had a patch of native hair in front that he retained at this age. The placement was all over. There are lower areas of density seen in those post ops. Was his scalp a virgin scalp? At the end of the day, im hoping an agreement was reached by the two parties of some sort. This is clearly why every patient should research more and more and get multiple consults. To go through this krap, it is a terrible feeling.

How does it look today?

Have you tried any other concealer other than toppik? Couvre? Nanogen? The spray applicatir reallyvhelps get inbetween some hairs in low density areas, but i agree. The sink is a mess and the it sometimes get in your nose. So much fucken effort just to apply this krap. Youblose like 40 min to an hour. The best you can hope is you do not sweat, there isnt a windy day, or it does not rain. Such a time consuming hassle that really frustrates folks. Worst feeling is to use these products when you actually had a transplant to remedy that zone where you are now again applying that fucken product.

Payam, hang in there man. Hope your goals are addressed when this is all done.

If chest, beard, body hair is used, you can’t take finasteride at all. Those hairs behave differently to it and shed or may never come back. It just reacts differently to it. Definitely ask this question to body hair docs. Theyll tell you to stop taking finasteride.

Hope things work out for you. When you cut hair short, it is very hard to guage density. If you grow it, then you can see if it lacks adequate density. What kind of doc takes money and shoots for a 17% density goal when the objective is to have hair that looks normal after paying thousands of dollars. If the doc couldn’t help plan this properly from the beginning, then he should have never touched your scalp IMO. Why take someones money only to leave them in a half ass limbo? What was the ultimate goal here? Why the conservative approach and why did he fail to inform the nitty gritty details that you need 50% density after he took your money? What is that all about? Surgery is not a joke and doctors need to fully inform pagients and avoid FAILING to inform any detail or hide shit.

Payam, hope it gets better as the timeline progresses to the one year mark. That is not high density yet but as time goes on I hope it fills in with newly grown grafts more. If toppik is needed, it is not where you want it to be yet. If eyes glare at your scalp in various lighting, it is not where you want it to be yet. Could everyhing change at 1 year mark, we will have to see if it meets the goals you discussed with the doctor. Best wishes and good luck.

Accountability is important. Some Other sites/owners may claim to help, but don’t seem to respond when there is a concern etc. it seems for some folks. Whether a forum is public or private, if a doctor screws a patient and the owner of the site projected and praised the doctor and didnt have a patients back (as they claim they would hold doctors accountable or not), and is pocketing money from that doctor, is locking/deleting threads related to that mofucken discussion, then that owner is liable for marketing fraud as it is a business entity nevertheless. The more folks report these conducts to the ftc the more eyes are sent that way and things are archived. Whether it is text, audio, video, you can report anything. Yes, you can report anonymously and you can provide screenshots. And screenshots of ever changing disclaimers without your knowledge etc etc. Especially, if some of these business entities work as consultants to big pharma or medical devices and etc too, you can provide anything to the ftc. As a business entity or organization, folks have a responsibility to be honest and promote ethics and honesty vs censorship and protection to paying docs. It becomes an online hit squad against a worried patient and it screws more patients over if the same recognized doc screws them too when nothing was done to prevent that doctor from any online list or organization in the first place. You have to understand how FTC and government entities work too. They are smart entities with very intelligent folks. They gather a lot of info over the years and drop the hammer when time is right. They amass so much info (factual complaints and evidence) that a businesses attorney or attorneys cant even respond to all the crazy motions and provide enough counter defenses and are forced to settle. Even big corps like ATT and others had no choice but to pay multi millions in fines for tethering unlimited data and could not fight it. This is exactly what can happen to folks in this industry and some folks may be playing with fire. The more you complain (anonymously or not) the more you can have a very ethical or safer industry in the long run. Now back to this, This is actually a first time I heard where a recommendation has been rejected publically and an explanation has been given. Crazy part is there is another forum where the owner said we are out here to make money and no bashing of doctors is tolerated etc., they are complicit in malpractice and marketing fraud. As a business, you have a responsibility. Business laws protect folks and some businesses fail to understand this. Success lies in transparency and transparency is key to an ethical business model. Well done.

Chest hair will also be very sparse and in different angles. If you use Propecia and even certain supplements, it can limit the growth of such hairs on yourscalp. Trust me on this one, beard, nape, chest hairs look terrible and are not usually how they are portrayed by some docs. If you are fixing a strip scar and have limited grafts then these hairs may slightly help cover the scar, but they barely give enough yield. It is a fucken waste of money it seems. They may even cause shockloss to your previously transplanted hairs. They can ruin the aesthetics of your hairline and the naturalness of your hairline. Do you want to see such hairs on someones scalp in person?

According to previous FDA filings, there were changes to machine/parts of machine. It is known to extract darker color hair, am I correct on that? Punch sizes have been changed? If it successfully extracts almost every graft, then how there doesn’t seem to be distinct results, in comparison, to say manual extraction? Are all artas patients those with physiological differences? Is it something else? Compare similar caliber hair yield with manual FUE versus ARTAS vs Motorized punches vs suction based punches (saline or air) vs implanter pens. Which route has shown most hair yielding results and why? These are questions often asked. I know Dr Rahal also gave it up a while back and it was collecting dust. Was there a reason why? If this patient is happy then he sees something hair gurus may not. Cosmetic surgery should give a cosmetic improvement where one can see a distinct cosmetic change with an easy to guage before and after. In the future, things may change but I think it is imperative folks see more distinct changes/cases from Artas at a higher degree. I am glad this forum at least gives some open discussion and no deletion of posts on this topic. We all want whats best yielding and satisfactory for one another. After all, thousands are spent and that is a distinct change in our bank accounts, thus it should be the same on our scalps. I thank the doctor for sharing, responding, and forum members from sharing concerns and comments. To thos participating, What do you think, percentage wise, the yield looks like at this stage? I can say one thing, the patient is in better shape then some repair patients.

Trust me on this one, body hair (including chest hair), beard hair, nape hair should be a very last resort. Even when spending over 50,000 with this type of hair, I do not think it looks natural at all and in fact is less dense then other hairs. Beard hair can be dense but it will look off next to less caliber hair. Angulation may be different too and again, these other hairs are not normall found in 2, 3, 4, hair groupings to create a natural dense result. Right now, id avoid it unless you have tons of money and nothing on your scalp and want just a stubble look (if that) with a crewcut shaved head. Scalp hair is the best hair and that too if you have the right characterstics and if it is strong to withstand some of the harsher extraction devices. It isnt fun at all and definitely can be detrimental to a good looking hairline and design. Be very very weary of putting any hair into existing hair. Surgery can be a risk but this act can make it much more risky. I hope you are able to stabilize it, but be thankful your scalp isnt scarred. Wish you the best and I hope you get what you seek.

Big Mike, there are careful considerations when trying to get repaired. Scar tissue can cause even more issues. You have to look for expert repair surgeon who can safely implant with skill to prevent ridging and cobblestoning. At this point, i would definitely let the area heal as much as it can for at least 12 months. This is hopefully to reduce further detrimental scar tissue and to let the area heal before if you do anything again. Has the doctor who did the procedure give any feedback or assurance? Tools do matter too, so definitely think about that. Definitely something to think about and feel free to PM if you’d like. I really hope you get things sorted and hope you still have more growth. It is definitely not easy and I hope the doctor who did the procedure stands by your side by the 12 month mark and does not drag this on beyond 18 months. Best wishes.