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Black Panther, glad to see you updated this thread, your case has been very intriguing, I think that improvement has been made, although, I think you'll need another 2-3 surgeries to really get the density you desire, if I were you I would most definitely consider BHT, tricopigmentation is something worth looking in to as well.

There will never be a cure, makers of minoxidil and propecia created a market, everything from this forum to regenepure shampoo are part of this market, livelihoods and a lot of money is at stake, the only things that will come on the scene are things you have to continually take for the rest of your life like minoxidil and propecia, this ensures that the market stays alive. Come back in another 20-30 years I gurantee you people will still be saying hair cloning is around the corner, they can artificially create salmon, you're telling me a hair follicle can not be cloned, cmon it's a joke, the only improvements well see in our lifetime is hair restoration refinement techniques, scar revisions and better graft survival, that's it. Maybe and that's a big maybe, they'll come out with a drug as effective as propecia without the side effects, but nevertheless you'll have to take it for life, meaning big pharma has their hands in your pocket forever.

The front third is looming really thick, even in the harsh light and combed forward you can tell, have your tried to comb your hair back? Another month and the growth will be even better, still got 7 months left too happy for you bro

Alopecia Areata is an autoimmune disorder that attacks the hair, if you had this, you would've known by now, you'd have bald spots through out your scalp, take a look at this link, the shock loss picture listed resembles your bald spot. Hair Restoration Blog » Blog Archive Mechanism of Shock Loss after Hair Transplant - Hair Restoration Blog

Dr. Umar and Dr. Bhatti both perform their own extractions. My personal opinion, is if Dr. Bloxham is going to perform my procedure, I would assume the price would change, I personally as a patient would not pay full price to have a doctor with less than a year experience work on my head. At this point, I believe what professor said to be true, based on the vague response by Dr. Feller I'm going to assume he only draws hairlines and leaves the rest to Dr. Bloxham, not saying that's a bad thing, a young doctor needs experience, but paying full price for that I wouldn't do.

Thanks man, yea the light skin and dark hair is a disadvantage, but it can still be managed, looking forward to your updates. Thanks, that means a lot considering your result is probably the top 3 best ive seen ever on this site, you bring up a good point, honestly the reason why I dont want to return to Dr. Diep is not cause I doubt his skill, he's a very skilled surgeon, its mostly cause I didnt have a good experience, the post op care was not very good and bedside manner was lacking, of course results is ultimately what matters, but with so many good surgeons out there, its not difficult to find good results and good post op care. But never say never, I am really impressed by his work. I actually consulted with Dr. Lorenzo, but he didn't want to operate on me cause im under 45 and dont take finasteride, even though finasteride in my case wouldn't be that beneficial, seeing as I lost most of my hair by 30, but still he didn't want to do it. I tried finasteride twice in my life and suffered side effects, at this point why suffer side effects and spend money every month to save a few whispy miniaturized strands of my native hair.

Thanks man, I actually cut my hair last weekend to make everything even. Willy Wonka would say, Illusion of density my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple” Thanks Romp, yes its been amazing, I cant wait to see your updates. Thanks for the nice comment.

Thanks for the kind words John Yea Spyk I use Redken Working Wax, its not heavy, its perfect because it doesn't weigh your hair down or stiffen it. Thanks Jon, now I really want to do my crown, im currently back to the drawing board in regards to researching doctors and going to consultations. I feel once I have my crown done, ill have a complete look, although not perfect, but complete.

I'm going to post the pictures full size, it gets annoying to have to click on the attachments and let them load, especially if you're viewing on your phone. Anyhow, subtle improvements have occurred particularly when taking pictures facing the sun, I have posted left side, right side views, facing the sun, under a light, and downview, my hair is far from perfect, but considering where I came from, I cant be more pleased, now its just time to do the crown and make things look uniform. sunlight rightside view leftside view downside view Under a light

Hi leeda, I've had a chance to review your photos and you're a Norwood 6 not 7, your parietal or lateral hunps have not dropped, since your hair is short I can't really tell if it's miniaturized but it does not appear to be in the photos you've posted. Nevertheless, I've said this quite a few times especially to high Norwood like myself, managing expectations is a huge part of the success of hair restoration, you will never have a teenage hairline or Brad Pitt density, there will always be situations where your hair may look thin, whether it's swimming or under harsh lights. Another thing to consider is cost, there is no "one and done" with hair restoration typically you'll have to do several to achieve the desired look, this could become costly, something to consider before committing to surgery. Now that that's outta the way, you can still do FUE, I was basically just as bald as you and I've had 4,000 grafts, I consulted with Dr. Umar yesterday, he looked at my donor and advised I still got another 2-3000 grafts left in my donor, plus I have plenty of beard hair that could be used. Currently I just have my crown to address, he advised 3,000 grafts should suffice, that would be a total of about 7,000 grafts, now mind you I could always have more touch ups just to add density, I've had only FUE. I will say this though, you would be able to get more grafts in one sitting with FUT than you could with FUE thus it would be more cost efficient, but it's not necessary it's not as if FUE is not within the realm of possibility, it's just more expensive and takes more sessions. Feel free to browse my profile and read my thread it'll give you an idea of what's a possibility with Norwood 6 guys, mind you my hair is not perfect and shows weaknesses when wet or under extreme down lighting.

Dr. Feller what role do you play in surgery? Do you only draw the hairlines, do you create recipient sites? We know graft placement is almost always solely done by technicians, but recipient incisions are done typically by the surgeon, so you and Blake do half and half, or do you just supervise Blake?

Yea he did extract pretty high up, the good new is that Norwood 7 is quite rare, I highly doubt you'll become a Norwood 7, with that being said, it is shock loss, best way to conceal it is fading up to the bald spot, keep the sides short and do a high fade to blend in to the bald spot, it should grow back within a few months, but nevertheless reach out to your surgeon and show him the pictures and get his opinion. Applying minoxidil on the affected area could stimulate the growth I did that to my donor for the first 3 months.

John, do you have any post op pictures of your donor area that would show where the extractions were taken from? the reason I ask is that typically extractions are not taken that high up your sides, just in case your sides would ever drop that area is not always permanent if you're destined to be norwood 7. With that being said, just based on the picture you provided, and the size and look, im gonna say that's more than likely shock loss, over harvesting has a distinct patchiness, yours look like a small bald spot, so this leads me to assume that it is shock loss, typically shock loss grows back within a few months, my shockloss took about 3 months to start growing back, but now at 6 months it all came back, my donor looks better today then it did at 3 months.

You have a lot of hair left thankfully, I would say 2,500 just to the hairline would be a bit of overkill, I would say 2,000 grafts is enough to give you a good result, however, you do have some minor thinning in the crown, its not much, but it is definitely thinning, im not sure if you were going to do 2,000 to the hairline and 500 to the crown. Also, I definitely recommend FUE for your case, I would not do FUT for the amount of grafts you need. Since you're 35 years old and your hairloss has been pretty stable and you take meds, i'd say its safer for you to be aggressive, I really just recommend to be conservative for guys 30 and under, because if you're destined to be really bald most of the time you'll get there by 30.

You're just a peanut in a peanut gallery, there can only be one chef, never forget that, in fellers practice you pay top dollar for 20+years experience and a proven track record, and if you so happen to get practiced on by a surgeon with less than a year experience and 0 track record well than I say to you "that's just the way things get done here period. signed The Chef"

Id say your result should come out really good, I wouldn't preoccupy myself too much on the crown, remember the crown is a graft black hole, it takes double the amount of grafts to appear dense as the midscalp and hairline do. Can't wait to see your progress, I think I commented on your blog like two years ago.

Typically, conservative doctors will quote less because MPB is progressive, they want to ensure you have enough grafts in the future should you progress to a higher norwood, for example, if you're 21 years old norwood III, sure you could dense pack a hairline with 3,500 grafts and your result would look good, but what if you lose the rest of your hair behind that? then you only have a limited amount of grafts to work back, you may not have enough to give you a natural looking result. We would need to see some pictures to really give you a better assessment, there's a lot of things that need to be considered, whether you are on any meds like Finasteride and Minoxidil, how old you are and what level of baldness you are currently at, I would say if you're relatively young like in your 20's its better to be conservative, if you're in your 40's and your hair loss has been stable for years, then you may be able to get away with being a little more aggressive.

I would go to Dr. Erdogan, a second choice would be Dr. Kardeniz.

Bill I will agree that amileen should accept some responsibility for having such a terrible plan, but I feel that Dr. Griffin as a professional should have counseled him against such a plan, particularly with diffuse thinners who are at more risk for permanent shock loss, in my opinion he should've refused to do the surgery, why perform a surgery that could turn out to be unsuccessful, in my opinion the results are not very good, I feel this is not only bad for the patient but bad for Dr. Griffins business. I personally don't take finasteride, I take everything else though, minoxidil, regenpure shampoo, I use a dermaroller etc. In addition, I was already very bald with whispy hair on its way out, so both of my surgeries have made a huge cosmetic impact, but in a case where the patient has a lot of native hair that is miniaturized, proceeding with surgery with no stabilization is asking for a poor result, in many cases patients could end up looking worse, I don't think it's ethical to proceed with surgery, even if the patient is made aware, it's not in their best interest, and why would a clinic want to tarnish their reputation with a poor result that is unnecessary and could be avoided.

I don't think apprenticing a new eager doctor such as Dr. Bloxham in to your practice is a bad thing, however creating the recipient sites is one of the most important aspects of hair restoration, this is what separates a skillful surgeon creating a hairline that flows naturally with the appropriate angles, to a hair mill that simply dumps grafts on the head, the fact that certain facets of the surgery are not discussed with the patient beforehand is extremely disturbing to me. I can understand that technicians as well as new apprentice doctors play a role in today's hair restoration and rightfully so, however, the patient should be sat down and explained thoroughly what role the technicians and the apprentice physicians will play in their surgery. We demand this from FUE physicians, we demand that the doctor at the very least create the recipient sites, why should this be any different for FUT? I think the practice that Dr. Bloxham gets should be with the full understanding and consent of the patient beforehand. I also think that including this in a consent form rather than explain it verbally is somewhat misleading for the patients, with the excitement and everything going on, I would bet that more than half of all HT patients don't fully read the forms they sign or they don't fully comprehend them.

That would help in asses your donor area, it all depends on how dense your donor is, also tricopigmentation helps lessen the contrast of skin, if your head is small that only helps you, you will have to accept that the crown will be left thin, there's some tricks you could do to make it look good, like fade in to the bald spot and use concealers like toppik and dermmatch. Choose a surgeon wisely, that's important, there are not many legitimate clinics in turkey, there's Dr. Erdogan, Dr. Kardeniz, Dr. Demirsoy, if you want affordable there's Dr. Bhatti in India, he does body hair as well which you will likely need for additional density.

You appear to be a Norwood 6/7 it's hard to tell, the side fringes appear to be intact, but because you shave it's hard to see if there is any miniaturization. You are slick bald though, this would be a difficult case, and not many surgeons would be equipped to handle such a case, it'll be expensive and you'll more than likely have to explore alternative routes to help with density like beard hair and Tricopigmentation, it all depends on your expectations, as another guy who is also a Norwood 6, typically 8/10 people will advise against surgery, because perhaps in their mind it's not worth it. Managing expectations is crucial in the success of hair restoration, if you expect to have a full head of hair you could go swimming with and see no signs of thinning, or if you expect to get that teenage hairline again, than I would say surgery is not for you, however, if you have realistic expectations, and you're willing to invest time and money than surgery may be suitable, check out my profile and thread you'll see where I was and where I am today, my hair is still thin in harsh lights or when it's wet, my crown hasn't been worked on and so far I've gotten 4,000 grafts, I reckon another 2,000 grafts should address the crown and lateral humps, now mind you the crown will look thin and I'll need to be clever to make it work and look good. Another thing not to many people mention is head size, I have a really small head, which sucks when your bald and looking for hats, but is actually beneficial for getting a hair transplant because the cm2 that needs to be covered is not a lot, by looking at your photos your head appears somewhat large but I could be wrong, I would imagine you need at least 8,000 grafts to achieve full coverage with good density in the front third and sparse coverage as you move back towards the crown hope this helps.

My question and main concern Dr. Griffin is why would you perform surgery on a patient who's hairloss is not stable and refuses to take meds? I would assume that the best thing to do is advice the patient that they're not suitable for surgery and refuse to perform the surgery as it is in the best interest of the patient and clinic, why was this not done? I don't think just letting a patient know of what "may" occur if they don't take meds is enough or suitable. This would be equivalent to selling a product with no warranty and telling the buyer that the product may break and its best to buy a warranty, obviously everyone is going to be hoping the product does not break and if or when a problem arises I think it is highly unethical to simply say "well you should've bought the warranty".

RIP to both

Wow dude, looks amazing, your donor looks good I'd imagine you could probably take another 1,000-1,500 grafts before you see any sign of depletion. It's amazing to see these cases for FUE, looking forward to your updates.