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Astaldo

Regular Member
  • Posts

    47
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Basic Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Country
    Croatia
  • State
    AL

Hair Loss Overview

  • Describe Your Hair Loss Pattern
    Receding Hairline (Genetic Baldness)
    Thinning or Bald Spot in the Crown/Vertex
  • How long have you been losing your hair?
    In the last 10 years
  • Norwood Level if Known
    Norwood III Vertex
  • What Best Describes Your Goals?
    Maintain and Regrow Hair
    Considering Surgical Hair Restoration

Hair Loss Treatments

  • Have you ever had a hair transplant?
    Yes
  • Hair Transplant Surgeon
    Dr. Koray Erdogan
  • Current Non-Surgical Treatment Regime
    Propecia (Finasteride)
    Nanogen

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Astaldo's Achievements

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  1. Afterwards, I had 2 haircuts, and the second set of pics (taken today) is app 2 weeks since my last haircut. Since this set represents condition 18 months post my last surgery, I think this is going to be a last update for a while. Generally, I am happy with looks and density, but still have some second thoughts about the density in the crown. Condition is better than before, for sure, but it is still a bit see through in sunlight and artificial light (blame it on a crown as a black hole for grafts, or I had only partial growth of those 1000 transplanted grafts, I cannot tell), and I tried to present that through my photos, since I spend around half a day in such conditions. I am regularly applying a bit of fibers to mask this 'issue', but do not intend to do anything about it, because I am saving whatever donor I still have for the future. So greetings to all, and enjoy the summer!
  2. Two short updates, first one is from the end of April, and these pictures come with my hair at its longest before the haircut. It looked good after the washing, but became increasingly difficult to maintain and style properly. Also, when the wind was blowing, it constantly filled in my eyes 🤣.
  3. I wish you good luck with your future surgery then. You are of course aware that nobody can guarantee you won't have shock loss of the native hairs, especially if you're not taking any meds to strengthen them up. Maybe you should ask your doctor to determine the % of miniaturization in your recipient to assess how much of a risk would be to transplant between existing hairs and is there a serious possibility of permanent shock loss? Also, choosing a surgeon that consistently produces top quality work in cases such as yours (with no meds at all) could be a desirable option. Anyway, I really hope that in the end you'll get the desired result.
  4. Also, when I mentioned my high school glory hair days, I found one old pic from 2004 (I was 17 back then) just for a comparison with hair loss period (that started year later, when I was 18), and my post restoration current condition.
  5. @wheretogo, thank you very much. I'll try to answer your questions. Well I agree that my front and hairline looked quite as good before the last surgery, and there was no real need to add density. However, as you could see in the posts above, I wanted to be able to have longer hair that looks a bit fuller and more voluminous. With my previous result, I felt like I don't have enough of hair mass for such longer hair not to look thin on the sides when parted in the middle, with still relatively denser and more voluminous donor sides. So basically, shorter hair with fade cut and spiked up - indeed great, no problem whatsoever, could style it any way I wanted. Longer hair with side and middle parted style - not so much, it looked like I was really trying to hide some recession in my temples, as I was doing during the first few years of hair loss. You could notice the difference in hair density and volume when looking at my pre-op hairline wet pictures. That was my main issue. About shock loss... yes, I was worried a bit, however I decided to go for it and had confidence that Dr. Erdogan will make incisions without transecting surrounding grafts, as he did during my previous surgery (although the original density back then was indeed much lower). I was on finasteride, so risk of permanent shock loss of the native hairs was reduced to minimum. However I did experience permanent shock loss after my first surgery with another clinic, but back then I wasn't using any meds (I used minox up to few months before that first surgery, but it has lost its effect and my first doctor instructed me to abort the usage few weeks before the HT). You can clearly see in the pictures comparison in my last story line post that 12 months after 1st surgery my crown was almost identical to pre-op. Part of the transplanted grafts grew back, but I lost a lot of miniaturized native hairs (and ones that survived continued to miniaturize). About hair products... currently I am not using any on a daily basis. Sometimes I use small amount of fibers in top of my crown when I go to places with brutal artificial lighting. Except for that, I occasionally use some hair volume mousse when it is windy outside to hold my hairs in place as hair can get quite messy when longer and exposed to strong wind. I recently bought some Hanz de Fuko product like Claymation, but I am saving those for period when I cut my hair shorter. Here is the comparison of the hairline density before and after this last transplant (improvement is visible, but subtle I think), and picture with density issue with hair grown longer before last op (not that it looks bad, it just wasn't enough for me).
  6. @jonyny, thanks man, I am really pleased with the final outcome. Hope you'll get a great result too. @JeanLDD, you're absolutely right about the subject, when hair is shorter it is much easier to style it 'properly', and just let it go because even when a bit greasy, it will hold up to desired shape if you used some product. I sported classic spiked up with fade for some time, but I grew bored of it, as as you noticed, most of the guys around had similar or identical variation of the same haircut. I can't help myself, just like the longer hair on my head, and I am not very bothered with people commenting it. Much less now than before when they pointed at my hair and commented I am balding. Related to that last sentence, it is very interesting how people who know me for a longer time (and don't know that I had HT-s) somehow forget that i had pretty obvious hair loss just a few years back. Some minor amount (usually relatives) notice how my hair is looking better (although they cannot figure why), but friends who openly pointed to my hair loss problem now do not even notice, or at least never mentioned anything. I didn't even get a suspicious glance from some of them during all those years of slow, but steady improvement. It somehow amuses me. I am also following your thread. Seems you'll get great result from your 2nd ht yourself!
  7. SUMMA SUMMARUM, if I hadn't pursued the HT/meds route, I would've been Norwood 4-5 with recognizable 6 pattern in my thirties, as I have almost identical hair loss as my father did. My brother is NW 3V going to NW4 at his 30. And he has had less aggressive hair loss than me in the beginning. I was a diffusing 3V at age 26 when I first pursued HT. Now at 32 years old I have almost full head of hair (with some recession) and NW 1.5-2 hairline. In total, I had around 7500 in 3 FUE HT-s, out of which first one (cca 2500 grafts) was semi-successful and yielded less than 60-70%. According to dr. Erdogan, I still have some donor supply (cca 2000-2500 grafts), if my crown loss progresses. I will certainly keep them for the future use. I've been very lucky that I've recognised my initial mistakes in time, informed myself about the HT industry, chose a good clinic (for my case at least), and had good response to meds. It's all about the sinergy of various factors, not just one of those. Final picture in this set is evolution of hair loss and restoration in my crown during the last 6 years. If you had patience to read all of my posts, and still have some questions, feel free to ask. The only thing I am asking potential commentators is that you do not please wage war on Erdogan practices (either pro or contra) on my thread because I want to stay objective as much as I can, and I won't participate in fruitless discussions. Thanks in advance.
  8. SOME FINAL IMPRESSIONS... In the last 3 months, I must notice that I had good hair and bad hair days, days when I wanted to get a haircut because it looked ridiculous, and it was getting harder and harder to maintain. I forgot how greasy my hair is becoming after just 2 days when grown longer. Also, since nowadays longer but very 'usual' hairstyle isn't that popular or common, I get conflicting comments about my hairstyle. Family suggests that I look better with shorter hair, some others say it is great and makes me look younger. Anyway, I decided not to listen anyone's suggestions, and grow it out a bit more. Objectively, I know that shorter hairstyle with pompadour or spiked up or whatever probably makes me more masculine or trendy, or commonly better looking (especially for the ladies), but how to explain to people that this shit is something that I figuratively cried for for the last 12 years of my life, since my receding and diffusion made any attempt at sporting longer hair left me looking ridiculous and dissapointed. So I want to see where can I go from here until it gets to the point of 'too long, too much' (no way there is such thing as too much hair, especially for us former baldies and our not so fortunate, still balding brethren). I am continuing with finasteride rigorously, and am aware that someday my hairloss might come back at me, the reason more for me to enjoy this comeback of abruptly halted youth (I literally lost 6-7 years of my life obsessing with hair. It is of course, only my own fault, nobody else is responsible. But I also learned so much during my fight back). While it lasts, it lasts. I did almost everything I could to reverse the 'curse' that was really bothering me. Although not a perfect overall result (because we all aspire for the perfection, and perfection is not achievable in this industry due to the limitations of donor, we all know), this is the densest and best hair that I had literally since I was 19 years old, and it is all just my hair. And I am really pleased with it. Ofc there are some minor gaps I would like to fill in some more, but I think I've come to the point that anything more would be just waste of the remaining resources. If I want to thicken the crown I just have to put minimal amount of fibres and it looks great.
  9. Third set is dry hair, unstyled and little bit combed, but with no products. I tried to expose weak spots under realistic everyday light.
  10. DAY 355_12 MONTHS Well, almost 12 months have passed since the procedure, and I haven't been taking any photos in the last 3 months. Hair grew substantially longer, and it was the time to evaluate the result. First set of pictures is related to hairline at 12 months:
  11. DAY 258_9 MONTHS Saw additional improvement in hair quality, especially in the hairline. Crown was better, but still lacking behind in comparison to hairline regrowth. At this point I decided to let my hair grow until I can assess the possibility of sporting a longer hairstyle without looking ridiculous or somewhat thin/receding.
  12. DAY 207_7 MONTHS So I skipped month 5 and 6, as I was very busy at the time, and my hair kept getting longer. At month 7 I got a haircut to assess the condition. The overall thickness improved, especially in the hairline, but the crown was still very see through in my opinion, and I must admit that, although there was constant improvement, I was somewhat dissapointed that it wasn't fully covered with dense hairs by the time. It was not visible enough to track it day by day. Even the 'HT veterans' aren't immune to reckless hair greed.
  13. DAY 117_4 MONTHS Finally I could say that I was seeing visible improvement. Although it was an early phase, the growth in the hairline (and in the crown, but on a lower rate) was visible, and overall hair grew enough that I could properly style it, but without products. I only used blow drier at this point. The feeling was optimistic, to say the least.
  14. DAY 92_3 MONTHS I had some regrowth in my hairline and mid scalp, and noticed some new growth of the transplanted hairs in treated areas. Hair was looking very much like the pre-op. Crown was lacking, as before, so I still covered it with fibers.
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