Rootz

I think degree to which you need to take medication is correlated with how aggressive your hair loss is. Obviously, it would be ideal to be on it no matter what. But, if your hair loss is progressing slowly then substituting Minoxidil and Nizoral could very well be enough to get you by for a long time. Either way, I think anyone who gets a HT should expect to need work done in the future. It may be 30 years, or 1 year, but with near certainty the hairloss will progress to a point where you're going to have issues again. I guess the only exception is if you're a NW8 and can't really lose much more... but in that case you can't expect much from a HT to begin with.

Samar, decided between FUT or FUE based on differences in initial shaving of your head is a bad idea. I would advice you think more long term, as it is a life long commitment. With that said, if you shave the sides and back of your head down a month or two prior to surgery, people will get used to you looking like that before you get surgery done and it becomes a non issue... people might think you have a bad taste in hair cuts for a while, but oh well! Also whether you can keep some of the top of your head unshaven is probably more dependent on the doctor than whether it's FUT or FUE. I think most doctors will allow it. Your recipient area will likely be the biggest indicator that you had surgery. Your recipient area will be noticeably pink/red for at least a month or two... for most people it's several months and it can extend over a year especially if proper care is not taken. Because you're a high NW it's unlikely you'll be able to hide the recipient with a comb over. For hiding the recipient area you can try 1) tanning as much visible area a week before the surgery (pale skin contrasts with red more), 2) keeping it out of the sun and applying witch hazel / aloe vera, and 3) using a concealing method like makeup or possibly even a spray on tan (check with your doctor first).

I think it's mainly because concealers are temporary and not completely reliable. What I mean is you can't say with certainty you'll be able to apply concealer perfectly every single day. You might miss a day. You might mess it up a little. It might rain and mess up your look, or you could rub your head unintentionally on something. It's not entirely reliable. It's a commitment that is accompanied with more worry and uncertainty. So to some it can seem like a pointless charade. And all it takes is one day without concealer and people will "know" :eek: (we're all a little paranoid).

Looking forward to seeing your growth over the next few months!

I can't really comment on which low price clinic is the best, because price has been irrelevant in my research. But Dave had some good advice and I will echo the sentiment about trying to stabilize your hair loss first before proceeding with any type of hair transplant. If you're a NW5 at 25, it's pretty much guaranteed you will lose thousands of more hair and progress to a NW7+ without treatment. On the flip side, with meds you could possibly regrow a lot of hair, especially since you're young... you may have had a lot of follicles inhibited recently. Not saying it will happen, but I've seen cases of NW5-6 guys who basically turn back into NW3-4 just by taking Finasteride for several months.

Is this FUE? There is no scar picture so it would seem to be, but wasn't stated. I think his head might be tilted in the 5th pic, but even still it looks like the left side of the new hairline is quite a bit lower than the right, by like 1cm or more. Was this intentional? I also gotta say, it's a bit hard to assess the result with these pictures. The closeups of the hair pulled back look pretty good at a glance, but upon more thorough inspection it seems the density right at the hairline itself is fairly low. The hairs being swept back together sort of conceal this. But I think this is why in the 7th pic the hairline looks undefined. When I saw the 7th pic at first I honestly was not sure if it was pre-op or post-op.

Wow... flipping through his pictures is both fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Crazy stuff.

If you're serious about entering the field of HT with your friend, then the obvious answer is... yes, this could work and makes sense. After years of experience and training, if you trust your friend and like his results, why not. If you're talking about bypassing years of training and experience to just knock out some steller FUE result right off the bat using your friend, I'd say you're... crazy and please god tell me you're joking. While you seem to speak highly of yourself, you didn't say much about your friend. He would be the one actually doing the magic. Is he also a master toppik applier? This is very important!

This is a controversial topic, but one way to look at it... which do you want to avoid more? The possibility of a little less yield (risk of FUE), or the possibility of a large scar on the back of your head (risk of FUT)? I think with most good FUT outcomes the scar is still pretty noticeable with short hair, while with FUE the scarring is almost undetectable. Personally I think in the hands of a world class FUE surgeon there is very little to no difference in yield.

I think this figure actually understates hairloss, but sort of depends on your definition of hairloss and noticeable. If recession/temporal thinning is classified as hairloss, I would say about 95% experience hairloss by 35 and if you looked at before/after pictures from when they were a teenager I doubt only 40% would have noticeably less hair... but again depends how closely you're looking I guess. Well that settles that, I'm trading in my 2,000 Facebook friends for 2,000 more hair follicles! I KNEW Facebook friends were worth something!

That was one of my suspicions, sun definitely will not help. Curious if there's any other factors, or maybe ways to get rid of the redness faster. I wonder how early after a HT you can start putting sunblock on the recipient area?

It seems in most HT cases the redness in the recipient area is either gone or unnoticeable by the time the transplanted hairs are in full blossom, sort of speak. But I see a few cases here and there where long after post op, when doctors are taking final result pictures, there is still a lot of redness. In hair lines this creates a red line effect, and looks pretty odd. A good example I saw recently is a FUE result on Dr. Lorenzo's website where the entire hairline was redone. I've attached pictures, these are his 8 month post op pics. What causes this? Can it be permanent or does it always eventually fade? What makes someone predisposed to this prolonged redness?

If you had another FUT would they take out a strip from a different area, or use the same area as before? If it's the same area as before, it sounds like the only risk is the scar possibly healing worse the second time around (then again it could also heal better). If a whole new area was used for the strip, I would be hesitant to have two different FUT scars and would favor having FUE with a renown doctor (and save up more money if needed).

I agree with everything you said, but on the flip side looks are also most important when you're younger. I think the age range 25-35 is sort of the gray area for getting a HT... if you can get away with a HT at 25, you may enjoy excellent results and get to do so while still quite young. Waiting til 35+ is safer, but you also probably had to live with hair you didn't like for maybe 10+ years when looks were even more important. It can be a tough balancing act to negotiate.

I think any single person male or female who gets a HT and claims the opposite sex was not a factor in the decision is probably kidding themselves. At the same time hopefully it's not the main reason as that shows out of whack priorities.

Looking at the photos I think you have a nice shaped head for going full shaved, so that's a plus. Maybe work on losing the weight for now and just do as much homework as possible regarding a HT in the meantime. A big factor in determining what do will depend on how much donor you have available. And who knows, when you lose the weight and shave your head again you might be OK with your look. If you do get a HT, you'll probably not want to use donor on your crown area as it will consume grafts (and money) quickly. Maybe focus on just doing the front hairline, that also might give you a better appearance shaved as well. In my opinion do not let anyone talk you into FUT, definitely go FUE. You will then not have to worry about a scar, which you seem to be concerned about. If you have wait and save longer to pay the difference, do it.

That's right. I have no life

I agree with one of the first posters that the density is not great. This is the main reason I don't understand the Lorenzo hype, his density is not "the best" out there... it's close to the top, but not the best. I personally place highest value on density at the hairline, because that seems to be the hardest and most elusive result to obtain. While the Lorenzo hype is confusing, I don't particularly mind it because I'm sure it frees up the schedule of the doctor I'm trying to get a session with. So with that said... omg Lorenzo did it again, he's amazing!!!1!

It's receding a bit (as can be seen by the standard U shape), but the good news is that's pretty normal and you have an enviable amount of hair. Your hairline seems to be on the high side and there are some straggler hairs a few centimeters down. Has the front of your hairline receded back much, or is it just naturally on the high side? Although you hair currently looks good, it doesn't sound like you have very good grip on your hairloss/recession as your pictures 2-3 years ago don't sound very reliable. And you're pretty young... so with that said I think if you want to pursue HT you need to wait a good year and just very closely monitor what your hair is doing. You can also use that time to really reflect on what you want. If you elect for a HT, you need to be absolutely open to needing additional work in the future. If you find no difference after like a year then maybe a conservative number of grafts (i.e. maybe fill in the temples modestly) would be a good idea. Either way going on or at least tryring meds would probably be good, especially Minoxidil as that has no major side effects.

I gotta say I really like the design of the hairline. Happy growing and hope you get a fantastic result.

Looks very good, but it must have been a little frustrating having to come back for 2 more procedures... was this expected? Also, does he need to trim the eyebrows or is that their natural maximum length?

I agree your hair already looks great, but I diagree that you should have to wait and do nothing to improve your hair. Although you are only 25, based on your pictures it's pretty unlikely you will go past NW4 anytime soon and you likely have a lot of donor hair available. There's always a risk, but if you go about it the right way, filling in the temples sounds like a good idea to me. Not because you NEED to... but because you want to, you can, and YOLO

Sorry to hear about your misfortune with the first HT. My 2 cents, don't expect to get a full looking head of hair. While technically with a ridiculous amount of body hair, a lot of luck, and a skilled surgeon that might be possible to do NOW... I don't think it's a reasonable goal, and in the future you will probably lose a lot more hair. I wouldn't worry about the crown too much. But if I was you, before anything else I think my biggest priority would be to try to conceal the FUT scar as best as possible. You might benefit from a better surgeon redoing the scar, and then transplanting body hairs into it. Scalp pigmentation might be a good idea too. By the way, what are those dark spots inside your FUT scar? Next I would focus on using regular hair to frame just the front portion of your face with a conservative, but stronger, hairline. Maybe have the first 1-2 centimeters of the hairline transplanted at relative high density, then taper off dramatically. I would use only body hair for your crown, even if you have spare regular donor hair... or maybe don't even touch your crown for now. The regular donor hair can come in handy again in your future for use up front. About the doctors wanting you to go on meds... I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as you plan and expect to lose more hair. If a doc refuses to operate unless you're on meds, I'd just say "Ok sure" then just continue to use minoxidil. The doc who wanted you to go on procepia for just 6 months then resume with minoxidil doesn't seem to really know what he's talking about... as that doesn't make much sense.

Interesting, the redness of the recipient area is quite visible even 12 months post op. I'm inclined to think this is partly because the density is on the low side (you can see several centimeters into his scalp over the hairline when the hair is pulled up) and maybe skin properties?

Can you provide a link to maybe a few of his cases you like best? I've seen various results from members posted here and elsewhere and from what I've seen I'm not impressed. I realize the results are subjective but I just don't understand.