Melvin- Admin

Good riddance!

I'm all for support and helping those in need David, but this gentlemen is in need of psychological help, he lashed out at me because I didn't want to research a doctor for him that's ridiculous. If he's interested in the physician he should do the research himself. His behavior has been childish and his homophobic slurs shouldn't be tolerated. I'm here to provide support and give advice I'm not here to be insulted or to do anyone's research for them. Just take a look at his post history and it's quite alarming, I'm not sure if this is a troll account but I'm fairly certain it is.

Show me a picture of a guy that's completely bald with 3,900 grafts with better density then, I'm at 4 months pot op in my avatar lmao the results not fully matured. By your childish behavior maybe you should go cry in the corner you broken record. Seriously David, this guy is a nuisance and has already insulted several members,

Looking great man, I'm 4 months post op from Dr. Diep, I have seen awesome growth this past month, you should really grow the top out man.

I still don't think you get it, how could you expect more density from 3,900 grafts, especially on a patient who's almost completely bald, I'm not going to take time to research this doctor for you, there is a search function on this forum it's not difficult to use. I noticed a majority of your posts have been regarding rahal, if he hadn't convinced you in the past years. Why don't you just choose another physician? You do realize there is no perfect doctor and even the best doctors have failures, I sense you're one of those prospective patients that never actually have surgery.

Where were the grafts placed? Was it at the hairline where there wasn't any hair? Was it imbetween follicles scattered around your head? Also, if the doctor was so adamant about getting on propecia he shouldn't have operated on you period. It may be true what he says, personally I think you made a mistake getting the HT first with out first stabilizing your hairloss, you could've ended up looking worse with permanent shock loss, getting on propecia doesn't mean you'll have regrowth, actually the majority of men see no change, so essentially they don't lose as much hair but hair remains the same, it's highly unlikely you would have had a hair transplant whilst taking propecia and had so much regrowth that it would equal a hair transplant or cancel it out, not sure where you got that thinking from. Proper protocol is stabilize hairloss, wait a year and go from there, if you're one of the few lucky guys who do actually get regrowth why spend money on a procedure? Of course this doesn't apply if you're already significantly bald Norwood 5-6 cause then there's basically no hair left to stabilize.

What exactly do you expect from 3,900 grafts on a bald head? He got good coverage with descent density, that's your opinion and you're entitled to it, but my opinion is that you don't have a clear understanding on the limitations of surgery, my opinion is that you have unrealistic expectations for 3,900 grafts. In order to restore a Norwood 5-6 completely you're going to need 6-8000 grafts depending on hair characteristics.

You raise a valid point, whilst MPB can not be predicted to a science, I think the majority of men who are Norwood 7, can see the thinning miniaturization pattern before the age of 30, I'm a Norwood 6 if I were to base my hairloss off of family, my dads 60 Norwood 2 brothers 39 Norwood 1, grandfather on dads side died Norwood 3 V at 80 and grandfather on my moms side died with a full head of hair not even a Norwood 1, however my grandfathers brother my great uncle was Norwood 6. So it just goes to show its hard to discern or predict where you'll end up, but the odds of becoming Norwood 7 in your 40's are not high, generally those guys are that bald by 30. My hairloss was basically like yours I even had some nape thinning as well.

Fantastic topic, I've seen pretty recently some individuals discuss their "disastrous" situation, but when looking at pictures it's hard to gauge what they're actually talking about, it's absolutely vital to screen patients and educate them properly on how or what thins may look like for the next several months. Far too often you'll see surgeons say you can return to work with no hat after a few days. Whattt are you kidding, scabs don't start coming off until 2 weeks, and if you have sensitive skin it may be reddish for upwards to 6 months, physicians and patients need to really sit down prior to having surgery and go over everything, including why they want to have the surgery, if it's a guy having a midlife crisis or young really bald guy wanting that bieber hairline, these guys may not be suitable candidates due to expectation and or state of mind. What happens is that these guys now have the procedure and regret having it because they were either in a bad state of mind or did not have realistic expectations. They were not properly assessed and unfortunately, they are not educated until after its too late, now they're left with regret, and mentally perhaps they are not fixable, even if you were to give them the most natural looking result, perhaps it's either not enough for the young guy, or too unnatural and weird looking for the older guy. When doing something cosmetic that will alter yourself, there's a certain degree of normality that goes along with it, much like we felt when we started going bald, we felt like our identity was being taken, now it's the same except opposite, now these guys feel like they can't recognize themselves. It's a bad situation to be in, and I feel for those guys, this could've been avoided with proper research and assessment.

Looks good man, fellow Californian myself, from the pictures it looks like the hairs still need to mature, I reckon once they mature the density will look way better.

Absolutely insane, do you mind posting some beforehand after pics for your surgeries?

I'm very interested in doing this myself, yes this would affect future transplants, body hair should be used last resort once you've completely depleted scalp hair, as for surgeons who are doing this, there's one surgeon in Atlanta who can't be mentioned here who calls this procedure "donor recharging" I've asked Dr. Umar, and he prefers to transplant body hair to the recipient area. In my opinion body hair would best used in the donor area just to add density to a depleted donor, if doctors performed this procedure more there would be less fear of over harvesting or depleting the donor which I wouldn't mind if I could use body hair and smp to disguise it.

Why don't you just choose FUT?

Yea 4 months is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of growth, it's a huge improvement to how I looked 2 months ago already, I try and take all type of lighting photos to give a clear understanding of how photos and lighting can change your results. Also, for high Norwood guys like myself I wanna give a realistic expectation of what can be achieved surgically, obviously more hair you have to start with, the better your result.

I can see the growth you're talking about, it's gonna be small changes, from month 3-4 hopefully that's when things really start picking up. After hair transplants is the only time goes by so slow lol.

I have to agre with paleo, not to mention the worst case of all xkos48, who's left with 10% (being generous) growth after over 6,000 grafts, I see the clinic gave no explanation for that case. After so many grafts what is a patient left to do the donor source has been depleted. After such a catastrophic case, and a string of recent bad cases excuses and putting blame on the patient is unacceptable. Especially the case in which the patient stopped taking finasteride, the implanted hair was moved to an area that was completely void of any hair, so the only explanation for the hair thinning after 21 months is that it was taken outside of the safe zone.

Thanks romp, yea had thanksgiving dinner yesterday and a lot of friends and family who haven't seen me in months were surprised to see me with more hair, very happy considering I'm at 4 months. How's everything coming along for you? It's been 2 months now right the waiting is the toughest part.

Donor/crown

Outside in the sun

It's been a month since my last update, I've seen some good growth in this past month, I still got 8 months of growth left so hopefully things stay on track like they have been, I took several different lighting pictures, one outside in the sun which exposes your hair, one inside the office day to day lighting, and one in bathroom lighting, also put a picture of the crown and donor area, donor is looking ok for 4,000 grafts obviously a bit thinner but not bad considering how short I cut it.

I guess my question to you bill is would you trust Dr. Doganay to do your transplant? I sure wouldn't.

If you keep the hairline you already have and don't try to lower it, and you only use the grafts you need now, I think you'll be fine, but I'm not a doctor, and of course nothing can be guaranteed, but it would be lets say "uncommon" if you were to go Norwood 7 in your 40's, generally the pattern would be visible by now late 20's. But of course, that's not guaranteed. Having a good plan makes all the difference, set up a consultation with a reputable doctor in your area, have the doctor check your donor, and discuss a "master plan" even if you have to pay for the consult it's worth it.

It's hard to say I'm not sure what your expectations are, full coverage, that depends on other things besides just grafts, hair characteristics i.e coarseness,thickness. What's rarely mentioned is head size, if you have a really big head and you're a Norwood 6-7 now you're talking about covering a large area with adequate density. I know your searching for assurance and peace of mind. I'm not sure anyone can provide that to you, as you know you're advanced in hairloss at a young age, getting surgery is going to be somewhat of a gamble, I can only share with you my own experience, it's a gamble I took, if you're satisfied shaving your head I don't see a reason in even considering hair restoration. Your concerns are valid, but no one can with 100% certainty predict the future of your hairloss, the best you can do is take preventive hairloss meds like fin and minoxidil. Sorry man I wish I could provide the assurance you desire but it wouldn't be true.

Maybe it was a bit disrespectful I apologize to the doctor if I hurt his feelings but the truth is the truth, the only thing a study performed by one (1) surgeon proves is how good that surgeon is at both procedures. Nobody said FUE grows the same as FUT on a *consistent basis key word there, a nearly 50% difference that's ridiculous and you know it, if FUE yields were so poor why would respected FUT surgeons like Shapiro have any interest in performing the procedure? Why would he attend FUE seminars hosted by Dr. Lorenzo and Erdogan? No disrespect to beehner or Bernstein, they were pioneers in their time with FUT but experience does not equate to skill, correct me if I'm wrong but Bernstein uses robotic FUE that should tell you everything. (Link removed by moderator) I believe what Dr. Shapiro says to be more reflective of FUE results today, in just the past 10 years the procedure has grown from 500 grafts to 5,000 grafts, would this be the case if yield was nearly 50% less than FUT? I don't think so. Notice he says a good "FUE transplanter" should be able to get *close to the same yield at least 80% of the time, a surgeon who only performs FUE in to strip scars etc. I don't think could be considered an FUE specialist or a good "FUE transplanter."

manderson that is the million dollar question, I think from looking at your pictures, your norwood 6 pattern is clear, but a miniaturization test of the donor area is your best bet. From what i've read most men who are destined to be norwood 6 or 7 can see the pattern by the age of 30, so I think if you were to be norwood 7 you'd be able to see a pattern that shows miniaturization in a norwood 7 pattern. Of course there is no guarantee, and I don't think any doctor can or will guarantee you anything. It's a gamble I took and so far ill be turning 31 and my pattern hasn't changed since I first noticed it at 28. That's why I think it's best to be conservative right now, use the grafts only necessary to address your current hair loss, and save your donor hair in case you may need more transplant down the line, that way you'll have a clearer understanding of how or where you need to transplant grafts. Like I said, I wouildn't use more than 4-5,000 grafts right now. Try and maintain your hair with lipogaine and some form of Ketocanozole shampoo, incorporate microneedling (dermaroller) as well. It should be noted also that the norwood chart, is not a progression chart, it is basically a chart in which you fit in with your pattern according to Dr. Rassman. Dr. Rassman quoute " "We can try to make an intelligent guess with miniaturization studies and our clinical medical experience, but it is not a science and there are no guarantees in predicting hair loss. Generally, the worst balding patterns hit men before they are 30 years old and I find that most balding patterns can be predicted by ages 26-30 based upon early signs of thinning evidenced by miniaturization studies. On occasion I have seen men start balding in their 40s and 50s, although very rare.