1978matt

I bet he will look just like the 'Beer Guy' in 30 years time! There is certainly no one more level headed than Spanker and it was a pleasure meeting him last week.

The last pic looks looks like post procedure 1 before the second grafts to add density. looks good to me.

That's brilliant mate. The side on shots look really good an no one would think you are thinning unless they viewed from above!

I thought I'd post a picture of the Doctor's impressively well hidden sutures. No sign of any shockloss in this area although it's still early days.

I saw the 1% version in Walmart if that helps.

Bump. I have one of these. Useful info!

If I were to put money on it I'd say you would be a slick NW6 by the time you are 30. That's the way you need to think, i.e. what's the worst that can happen? A good example of the way to go would be Nick153452's approach: Hair Restoration Journal for Nick153452 - 2 week post op

Looks super clean already and I'll watch with interest as we had our procedures on the same day.

Seven days on and I can now start to shampoo the grafted area properly. A few grafts have shed and I have some dry skin near the front which explains the bump like appearance (I think the swelling contributed to the skin cracking). It's not sore but very similar to post-sunburn 'peeling'.

As requested. The crown and top look far worse under spotlights.

We spoke about that back at the March consultation. 4,000 grafts would restore about 50% density to 100cm2, so I should get an average of about 40 fu/cm2 (less at the back and more at the front). I measured and is indeed about 50 fu/cm2 at the front. We covered more than 100cm2, no doubt about that, but he did manage to squeeze a few more grafts out of the strip. The work on the temples is low density anyway and I think he used 300 on them. No worries. Questions from all (Forum or Private Message) welcome!

The DHT inhibitation lasts for several days though. See the link in my signature. His techs did the clean ups each day. No idea what they used but Saline and ointment (on the scar) featured heavily. I did my own shampooing from the 3rd day with a light shower mist and baby shampoo. I didn't touch the grafts but they looked so secure I didn't worry about them. They give you detailed post op instuctions.

Very nice outcome Mick for the modest amount of grafts. Sensible hairline design too based on the lifetime potential for future hairloss.

We didn't discuss it. Uusally I take it and it gives me a minor headache for about 12hrs and then subsides away but can occasionally linger for a day and a half. So I take it at night. I just believe that something is better than nothing and it is reducing DHT levels to a certain degree.

Whoa! 7,000 would be way too many. Hairloss is a bummer but you're giving youself the best chance by being on finasteride and minixoidil. I don't think you should get a transplant now for a few reasons: 1)You're still young and only in the early stages of your hairloss. You could end up a NW6 in under 10 years. 2)I don't think you have lost enough hair yet. Adding hair to that area could just shock out adjacent weaker hair and you're back to square one. 3)The crown area is the 'black hole' of transplantation because it thins in all directions. If you put hair in there, over time you could be left with an 'island'. 4)From a positive perspective you still appear to have a hairline. Trust me if I had to have one or the other I'd take crown loss over frontal loss any day of the week. If you stick to the meds you can see how things pan out for the next 5 years and then maybe consider some moderate work in the crown and mid section. A shorter hairstyle and some concealers may make your hair look better. Good luck

No problems with the heat but it was good to be in an airconditioned hotel. It had been very humid in the UK in the lead up but much fresher in Chicago despite the slightly higher temperatures.

I had a procedure at Dr Konior's office (Chicago) barely a week ago and can highly recommend it. My head barely has a scab in either the recipient or donor area and I don't even need the painkillers during the day. He also oversaw the planting of every single graft.

Never heard of the first one but the other 2 clinics are sh*te! You're going to have to travel at least as far as the UK. In terms of cost (excluding travel) it is approximately this order: Highest 1. UK 2. USA/Europe/Canada 3. Turkey/Thailand 4. India Lowest Definately take JD's advice and spend a lot of time researching the various Drs, looking at their results and contacting them directly. Most people spend at least 6 months researching. I spent over 18 months and I know others on here have for much longer. Good luck and if you post some photos we all enjoy chiming in on what we think is achievable...

Yes this is good. Perfectly age-appropriate.

I think you are being overly critical of Dr Radha's hairlines. Of those examples on the website a number of them clearly have severe hairloss. It would be impossible to give them a 'film star' hairline. You then post a youtube link showing mostly men with limited hairloss undergoing relatively small FUE sessions where a dense and thick result is possible. This is not a like-for-like comparison.

Very nice improvement despite the donor limitations.

Thanks Eman. I think you and I had similar procedures. He said due to everyones individual characteristics you never quite know how it is going to pan out until you get started. Some people can be a breeze and the grafts just stay in place and there is not much blood. Others require only one shot of anestesia which lasts virtually the entire procedure, whereas I think I needed a few top ups which slows things down. The following day he did a 2,500 graft case and was done by about 1pm.

I didn't ask but I know he probably wouldn't answer that question. He doesn't like to give arbitrary numbers. The Airport Arrivals: Chicago O'Hare is about the worst airport I've ever visited in the US and maybe in the world! It's got 5 terminals and I think T5 is where most international flights arrive/depart. It's the second time I've arrived there and it took 50 minutes to get through security. That was a big improvement on the 2hrs 20 minutes I experienced a few years ago. If you have to get a connecting flight from another city, e.g. NY then this is no bad thing as you would arrive via the domestic (1,2,3) terminals. There's an elevated level outside all terminals which is for departures while arrivals are on the ground floor. Exiting from the ground floor you can get the complementary buses to the car rental firms or taxis. I took the Hertz bus which as you come outside of T5 is at the far left end of the drop off area. You will see all the AVIS, Europcar rental buses coming and going. I didn't care what car I hired so long as it was an auto with Satnav. When entering the hotel address you enter it as '17W445 Roosevelt' and once that's set it will be contained within the 'recent destinations' tab on the Satnav. I think you have to input the city as 'Villa Park, IL' first, then 'Roosevelt Road' followed by '17W445'. Departures: The Satnav has a 'Hertz Airport Return' button so you just select that to be directed back to O'Hare (make sure you don't select Midway Airport - that's the other main airport in Chicago) and is about 20 minutes from the Hotel. I have a lot of frequent flyer miles saved and used these to get a Business Class seat home. Unfortunately when I changed my flight to the next day I had to forfeit about 60,000 miles but the tax payment was refunded. I then used 40,000 + new tax charge for the new ticket. I wore my loosest baseball cap back and the check-in desk did not ask me to remove it. The airport appears to be undertaking improvements to the security section which at the time was about 150 people deep with holidaymakers. There were a lot of irate first class ticket holders wondering where the fast track was. I looked to see what all the other people with hats were doing. Some took theirs off while going through the detectors while some didn't. The ones that didn't were asked to take it off and show the inside of the hat afterwards. You won't be surprised to read that I took the second option. I actually said to the female guard (who was actually young and good looking): "excuse the appearance of my hair!" and it was all done in about 5 seconds. The BA business class lounge had a huge ice tray so I was able to do a bit of icing with a couple of ziplock bags. On the plane I picked a rear facing window seat which was nice and secluded once they dimmed the lights. Just watch your head on the luggage compartments. It was a 7.5hr overnight flight departing 5:15pm and landing 645am London Heathrow. I did a bit more icing mid-flight thanks to the stewardesses. I kept all the meds in hand luggage with a small spray bottle with Saline - although I didnt bother using it during the flight.

I've added a couple of photos under normal and harsh lighting.

Nice write up mate which I'm sure will be invaluable for those considering Dr Bisanga. Looking forward to the photos. Did you see any more of how they get the PRP? I believe the blood is spun in a centrifuge or something to extract the plasma(?)