1978matt

Nice one Mick. Good that guys like yourself still stress the importance of at least trying to maintain your hair through medication. Without conversations with yourself and a couple of others in 2012 I might not have even tried!

Ball is good and jana shafer (spelling) is his lead technician who learnt her craft with Ron Shapiro. Met her once along with David Anderson, another of the good guys in the industry.

Yeah I think I would go with more of a dip in the centre which gives less of a flatter hairline. Easy for me to say though, as I don't know what level of baldness you could reach in the future. Sometimes you have to accept a flatter and higher hairline if theres a risk of running out of donor. Anyway a lot to think about with the doc on your surgery day.

Looks better. You might want to consider if the central portion can be dropped a little, but it is hard to say without seeing a side on photo. Ideally you want the line to cross the point where your forhead transitions from vertical to horizontal. That will give an optimal illusion of a 'low' hairline.

"Donor density 80+" well it could be 100 for all we know. It certainly looks dense. The patient has a slightly egg shaped head which is advantageous since the bald area to be treated will be smaller. The lighting where these videos are taken is always favourable. I havent checked for a while but there wasn't more than about 100 couto results posted like this over the last 10 years. If he's doing at least 250 a year then these are the top 5% result. A good reality check is when walking around, observe the donor areas of people in their 50s, 60s, 70s...

A line midway between existing and proposed would be better. What you have drawn would be abnormally low and could look weird, or like a hairpiece if done badly.

I think 12 months between FUTs, the reason being that you need the scalp tension to dissipate over time, otherwise you're effectively increasing the tension of the first strip even further before it has had a chance to heal. A greater chance then of it stretching. I think 4-6 months between FUE is feasible if the recipient areas are separate. FUT would be better first as you get to access the best portion of donor while it is untouched. Best being the hair least prone to thinning.

You should definately stick with FUT as there's a lot of real estate to cover, unless there is a contra-indication like a tight scalp.

It's hard to say without some side on photos but 1500 FUE, 2000 tops seems reasonable. Problem with FUE is there's only 5 or 6 doctors in the world I might trust, as most delegate extractions to some unknown assistant.

Marwan Saifi in Poland or Demirsoy in Turkey seem ethical and don't cost a huge amount.

Four days is too early to start rubbing the grafts. At this stage you should only be spraying or using a cup to rinse the grafts with luke warm water, and non medicated shampoo suds. Check with the doc. Everying looks normal to me but 0-7 days is the critical period for graft anchoring.

Yes I did it for a while, while I still had 1mg propecia tablets. I'm now using Proscar which is far cheaper but no real option to split lower than 1.25mg. I had good results with both, although it is always unknown as to whether my loss has simply plateaued. I seem to shed a lot of body hair which is said to be a side effect, but very little head hair.

Yes, go for FUT again as you look like you may end up a NW6. Save the FUE for later. I think it would be ok to put some grafts in the crown.

3A sounds reasonable. The crown is not advanced enough to make it worthwhile trying to fill it in. The front doesnt look too bad either but you could HT it. Just make sure you don't go to some clown who puts really thick pluggy hairs in there. I'm not sure it is worth the risk but maybe up to 1000 grafts. Problem is, once you hit it you're committed for life in chasing that hairline (with other procedures), should you have to stop fin for any reason or it stops working. Not sure about oral minox as I'm unaware of it's efficacy or availablity where I live (UK). I'm on fin 3 x a week only.

Unless I'm mistaken, the doctor here is Dr Reddy(?) It appears the consultant is not great at drawing hairlines but then again he/she is not the doctor. I really dislike the way the temples swoop down like that - you see a lot of that coming out of Turkey with a few exceptions of course. timcfc, I think you just need to weigh up the following, which you may have already done so: You have thinning throughout the top, so be prepared to embark on another 1 or 2 HTs in the next 5-10 years. On the hairline area, you almost have to accept that the first 1.5cm of existing hairs will be permanently lost. So the doctor should recreate the entire area rather than trying to work new hairs inbetween weak hairs. I would suggest a hairline that follows a similar path to what you have now, with some slight recession into the temples. Fortunately you aren't really more than a NW2 at the moment so it is a good 'age appropriate' look. The hairline might be able to be dropped slightly but hard to say without viewing your facial proportions and profile. It looks like you have a good 'wave to your hair' which provides better coverage than for the average person. Good luck.

I would try to persuade Dr N around to this thinking. If it's not going to take more than a few hundred grafts you may get some joy, who knows. If you want second, third, fourth opnions, I'd look at Gabel, Shapiros (& /Josephitis), Cooley. They are of a handful who do the extractions themselves. I've never seen a mangled donor from them.

I like the idea of a consultation before booking, especially if there is any doubts about donor quality etc. Not many are prepared to ship out $1000+ on a flight/hotel just for a visit but I think it's worth it.

I think my guidelines were 3 weeks on the recipient area. Provided your scabs have gone and it is all healed I can't see any issue. Just wash it off at night.

I think I was given anti-hitamines during some of my surgeries, but not sure if that was for the sedatory effects, anti inflammatory or perhaps both. I also take them for seasonal allergies. I doubt there is anything to be concerned there. High blood pressure is not great for surgeries, so as long as you're in a reasonable range I can't see a big issue. I'm no doctor though.

Given your budget I would suggest carrying on saving and trying fin. You still have a lot of hair to save and it may not be the best idea to tinker with it at this stage. Try a reduced fin protocol such as 3 x week, 0.5mg or 1.25mg (splitting either 1mg or 5mg Proscar tabs - I do the latter as it's really cheap). If you absolutely had to do a surgery it would only be on the front hairline, 1500 grafts maximum, maybe even less. But on your budget I'm not sure you would get an ethical enough doctor.

You don't have much of a beard and the arrowed area is the neck which would be avoided. You don't want scars in a highly visible location. As for the underside of the chin, i don't know but maybe only 200 at best. Avoid shaving for a couple of weeks and take some more pics.

This may be what you're looking for:

Looks like a solid result. Are you looking for something more like this:

5 Months: