AB2000

Here's an example of the problem - this fellow's crown has very visible SMP dots. I think this inking option is ideal when you use it for density, and not for filling in a bald area:

My objective when restoring from a high norwood was to have a fallback position if I had to buzz down. Melvin might be more unique in how much frontal packing he had done. It works great when you grow out your hair, with the framing at the front view of the face showing strong density, but it's limiting in the case where you get rid of it for whatever reason. The way out of showing a horseshoe - where the donor band is noticeably more dense than where the hairs got moved to is either overharvest your donor with the FUE method so that the two zones look closely equal in density; or buzz down with no trim guard and keep it short every few days and don't let it grow out much longer than stubble. Letting it go out for a week will reveal the MPB. Something which might help is SMP into the crown, but even then, someone would need to keep on top of the buzzing regimen.

It appears there are a number of good options abroad that are more affordable, with good results, than who you went with before. When I began my research over ten years ago one of the places I wanted to consult with was H&W, but they had a certain rep who was then working for them which turned me off. In my case I knew I would need to include beard hair, which was newer, but got a stiff blow off. Check out the "Gatsby Unplugged" thread for a thorough documentation of a forum dweller's journey from high norwood and scarring to looking like he has minimal hair loss.

Run while you can.

Have you experimented with hair concealers such as Toppik or Dermmatch? You appear to be at a a stage of hairloss where it would be useful. Excessive balding doesn't allow concealers to work - and you still have coverage.

The Turkish hair mills get advertising money from their government. We've seen obvious fake reviews going on. If you are looking for affordable FUE now's a good time compared to 15 years ago when you joined the forum.

You have great scalp coverage.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5447335/ This a reference to an Indian dematology journal:

In Dr. Umar's case he's had custom designs made for his FUE tools to accommodate his patients who have been coming in for HT repairs and have run out of normal donor. In more recent years he has also advertised for patients with afro hair, meaning that like chest hairs, they grow out from the skin at sharper angles and are time consuming and hard to remove safely. I haven't had surgery there with the newest FUE tool but it is supposed to be relatively fast and effective at extracting a wide variety of graft types.

When using hair from the chest, the problem is that it is harder to extract safely and avoid transection. From what I understand these have a sharp angle when growing out from the surface of the skin. Normal tools might damage them without taking ample time and care. At that point is it worth it to the surgeon to go for these? If they need to perform at a certain rate to obtain a good return on their services, then you can see why many won't bother. Another reason why it's hard to find places that will do these BHT's it that the result might not look good. Even if it's possible, will the patient's air grow out like a Brillo Pad? Why have your work put there the like that? It's a fine balance mixing in body hairs. Moral of the story - don't push for it if they are not comfortable, and shop elsewhere.

Hi BBOW, I don't think you will find people here wanting to beat you up with words on the outcome of a surgery. Getting your appearance botched is worse than having zero results, but I think that as you get feedback and do research on these forums which go back over 20 years you should find information that will eventually help you turn things around. At this point you might not want to consider further surgery, but there are some specialists who work with patients specifically for repair jobs. Also, with the skill set of some clinics like Men's Ink SMP in Milan, there are options for places that can help hide scarring. If ever there was a time bounce back from what you describe, we are in the era where it is possible. The same cannot be said over 15 years ago.

It's bizarre how basically the same question is asked every day on the forum. None of the people coming in will do any searching to quickly find the answer.

I would consider the last three as the Before, but if you mean what I looked like before any surgery, I had a couple on my progress thread, plus how it changed through the years -

The advice I received when undergoing my restoration from NW6 was to shave the back and sides and let the top grow out, the area with the transplanted hair. These are from about 10m out from my last surgery. As you can see, this style looks better than from the same time period, but without a haircut, where the longer hair revealed the lack of density:

See what they have to say during the consultation. Either having SMP before they do their work will not negatively affect it, or it will. Best to find out their thoughts.

Some of my photos at the link below. For each surgery I'd have the hair shaved down, and after two of them grew the hair out long.

Even if he wanted to go see Pittella the wait list is several months long.

How true 🙂

SMP would improve it further.

When do you plan to start going bald?

What affect does it have on heart health?

Have you used Toppik before?

Do consider getting on oral minoxidil pills to aid with your post surg results. The side effects are usually minimal and not as bad as finasteride. The latter can help you hold onto existing hairs effectively, but some people forgo it. The minox will help bring out a strong yield of the transplanted ones and is a good investment.

You should get a fair amount of your hairline back in that case. If you go through with it, please do share your results.

How many grafts is he offering for the $3300? And whatever that number is, will it be enough to achieve your goals? Let's say he can do $1/graft, so 3,000 in total. How much of a difference do you think that many hairs are going to make? It can help add density to the frontal area. Probably nothing will be left over for your crown. If you are not taking any meds then your male pattern baldness will continue. The transplanted hairs will stay but the native ones will continue to fall out, and you might get angry thinking the surgery didn't work, when in fact the issue is your aggressive hair loss and the limitation of 3,300 grafts to counter it.