Hi Jean/Dan/John,
Sorry if I came across as projecting spite, I didn't mean to disrespect the knowledge of the people on this forum, and I did appreciate the fact you wanted to help me make the best decision. What I wanted to do when I started this thread was simply report on my experience, like others do, and I was also curious about people's possible experiences with folliculitis or shock loss.
I'm not really into throwing money out the window either and I had done some research. So far it had seemed I could indeed get a better graft for money ratio in some other countries, but there were too many warnings about the surgeons' authenticity. Maybe I should have started a topic on this forum earlier, and I may have got better bang for my buck. To be fair though, as I Iive in south east England and have been given free accomodation in London for a week, that offset the overall cost a bit. I will also be able to pay follow up evaluation visits at 3, 6 and 9 months with just a train and tube ride.
Now, you may hate the next part, or just have a laugh with it, but as you may already have guessed, I'm now post-op. This is day 5, and so far so good.
No graft loss, no pain, no swelling. I managed to get on a course of antibiotics before the procedure, and together with those taken from op day, I am folliculitis-free. I still have enough antibiotics to last until day 10, when scabs should all have fallen.
Attaching the 2 pictures I took yesterday, the transplanted and donor areas of course (sorry about the second one not being very well framed, SLR selfies from the back!). Nice red triangle at the front, a couple of bigger scabs as there was some scar tissue, which was a bit more painful to implant in.
To answer your question Jean, what I was looking for was something subtle that I knew I would notice and simply be more confident about (probably the same kind of motive that makes wealthier people choose unshaven FUE). And you're definitely right about this, between a noticeable improvement and discretion, something's got to give.
After the first session of graft harvesting, we discussed the hairline again and I chose a tighter one than suggested. This may be a Norwood 2, and the middle isn't lower than before. Even so, I love the way my hairline now frames my face, and I think I have a good compromise here. Even the trimmed look with my current coverage is pretty great now, and I feel more comfortable with it than when I was letting the hair grow, trying to cover the forehead.
Now looking forward to the next 12 months.