Justin77

Lipogaine was the only product that ever caused scalp irritation for me. After a couple weeks of using it I started getting really bad flaking and dandruff, and this was after having used Rogaine Foam for many years prior. Once I stopped the Lipogaine my scalp went back to normal. It's a good product, and I think it's more effective than Rogaine, but I personally couldn't handle the side effects.

Absolutely brilliant results, congrats Arminius! You must be thrilled.

Thanks for the encouraging words Matt! I forgot to include you in my initial post but your thread was actually part of the reason I felt confident choosing Dr. Konior for FUE, your results were amazing.

3 Month Update Today is the 3 month anniversary of my transplant and I'm excited to report that I'm definitely starting to see some growth! It's sparse right now and doesn't make a big difference in terms of my actual appearance yet, but it's nice to finally feel like I'm out of the ugly duckling stage and moving into the fun part of the transplant experience: watching it grow. In the photo it might look like I'm still in the ugly duckling phase because I still have the stronger area on my right side, but head-on this now mostly unnoticeable and it just looks like I have a thin frontal hairline. The pinkness is now mostly gone, and numbness is only noticeable in the front center where I had the most grafts placed, and even in that area it's declining. Starting to see more and more new little hairs pop up in various areas and hoping to see more noticeable growth over the next month.

Congrats OzzieO! I had my procedure done with Dr. Konior as well about 3 months ago. Was a similarly great experience as you described, and I was also very impressed with how long Dr. Konior spent drawing and perfecting the hairline. Looking forward to seeing your result develop.

I'll hit 3 months on January 19, so just over a week away. I'm starting to notice a bunch of little sprouts along the hairline, particularly on the right side. Not doing anything for me visually yet, but nice to know something is happening. I had a bit of a scare on Sunday morning when I woke up to a line of red blood on my scalp in the recipient area. It looked like a cut or a scratch, but I have absolutely no idea how it happened, and it wasn't there when I went to bed. I sent pics to Dr. Konior and he suspected it was a fingernail scratch, and that the follicles are likely OK. By Sunday night it was much less visible and today it seems almost fully healed, so I think it was a superficial surface injury and hopefully I didn't do any damage to the transplant. Still very curious about how it happened as I've never scratched myself in my sleep before. I did have some pimples popping up right where the scratch was so I think they may have been irritating the skin and maybe it caused me to scratch my head in my sleep.

I had my FUE with Dr. Konior back at the end of October, so I'm about 2.5 months post-op. Can't recommend him highly enough.

Looks great JeanLDD!

I did get some scabbing but it was minimal. Hard to see in the photos, and they all washed out completely by the end of the second week when I was able to start shampooing my hair normally.

Hey Matty, looking good so far! Try not to worry too much about shock loss. I think permanent shock loss is pretty rare, but temporary shock loss is quite common. I had a bit myself from my surgery in the middle of October. Best thing you can do is try to put those types of concerns out of your mind and just let the process happen. I look worse now at 2.5 months than I did prior to surgery, but that seems to be totally normal. You went to a fantastic doctor so nothing to be concerned about on that front. I'm in NYC and I hear you about the freezing cold weather we've been experiencing. I'm so happy I decided to get my transplant going into the winter because there are no worries about sun exposure, and I'm happy to be less social in the winter months anyway. Summer should be fun for both of us!

My opinion is to address the hairline first because that's going to make the biggest difference in your appearance. Your hair is in good shape overall and you don't need many grafts. If you can afford to address the crown as well, I would do it conservatively. Enough to make a visual difference, but not going crazy with density in order to keep the grafts in reserve for potential future loss. I wouldn't try dutasteride just because I think it would be unpredictable and could potentially make things worse. Fin is doing it's job right now by slowing down your loss so I personally wouldn't risk any big hormonal changes by taking dut.

Will do! You made a great decision by choosing Dr. Konior. Part of the reason I haven't been obsessing too much at this point is because I'm very confident in Dr. Konior's work, and I could tell that he was extremely meticulous when conducting the surgery. Also, because my hair is longer now, I'm not looking as lopsided as I did in the Month 2 photo, so I look a lot more normal and nobody would ever suspect I had anything done. Just a guy with a weak hairline, which I'm used to haha, although it's thinner at this point than it was prior to the surgery. Very much looking forward to when the real growth starts. Will definitely keep this thread updated as I'm using it as a journal to keep track of my progress. It always frustrated me when people disappeared without continuing to post their results, so I plan on keeping this going until I reach the final result. I'll be back with a new photo at the Month 3 mark.

Thanks guys. Ya I'm looking worse than I thought I would, but I'm very optimistic about the final result. Can't wait for my post-op hairline to return!

Hello everyone, Today is the 2 month anniversary of my 1700 FUE with Dr. Konior on October 19th. I've been a long time lurker of these forums and not much of a participant, but I've been researching hair transplants for years ever since I started to lose my hair back when I was about 20 years old. This year, I finally decided to pull the trigger. Background I first started losing my hair at age 20. This was very stressful and a huge hit to my self confidence, and I started doing everything I could to combat the loss. Unfortunately I had read far too much about negative side effects from Propecia and did not start it right away (huge mistake that I still regret). Instead, I used methods with very low effectiveness such as the laser comb and Nioxin. 4 years later, with my hair loss getting worse, I finally decided to see a dermatologist to talk about Propecia and he greatly eased my concerns about the drug. Told me that the vast majority of his patients have zero side effects, and that I should start immediately. I ordered generic finasteride online and started it right away along with Rogaine foam and 2x / week Nizoral. Within just a month, I noticed tons of new hairs coming back. A year later, I recovered more than 50% of what I lost, and at the time I was ecstatic. Since then, my hair loss has remained mostly stable, and I honestly can't tell if I've lost any more hair over the past 10 years. But I was still very much bothered by having a see-through hairline, and because of a bald spot in the front center of my head that never recovered, I always had to comb my hair to the center as a mini combover to cover the loss (pic below). Choosing Dr. Konior Like I said, I've been on this forum for years, and I have not seen a single bad result from Dr. Konior, or any unhappy patients. Also, I had emailed Dr. Konior 4 years ago for a virtual consultation, and he was by far the most communicative and thorough in his responses to me. I had also considered Dr. Erdogan, Dr. Bisanga, Dr. Dorin, and Dr. Wesley. This year, I decided it was time book a procedure. I had the money saved up and I was completely ready to go. Dr. Konior had been concerned about the quality of my donor area in the initial consultation via email. I had taken photos in very bright light and in the photos my donor area looked sparse. To make sure this wasn't an issue, I took a day trip to Chicago just to meet with Dr. Konior and have a proper in-person consultation earlier this summer. I was told that I was a good candidate and that I would need somewhere between 1000-2000 grafts to recreate the hairline and densify the frontal region. During this consultation, my decision to go with Dr. Konior was solidified. He was direct, upfront, extremely knowledgeable, and very detail-oriented. If I had to choose one word to describe him, I would say "perfectionist". I was originally booked for May 2019, but luckily a cancelation came up and I was able to get a spot for much earlier. The Day Of The Operation Long story short, having an operation with Dr. Konior and his staff was honestly the best medical experience I've ever had. Everyone was so professional, meticulous, and kind throughout the whole day - and for the 2 days of follow-up - that I was completely blown away. I won't get into all of the details (unless anybody has specific questions) but one thing that immediately impressed me was that Dr. Konior must have spent an hour just drawing and redesigning my hairline until he thought it was absolutely perfect. Like I said, perfectionist. I sat there still and quiet just letting the master do his work. When I finally got a mirror and was able to see the line he drew, I was thrilled. It was EXACTLY what I wanted, a slightly lower hairline, drawn naturally, with a bit filled in at the temples. It was a very, very long day. I arrived at the office at 6am and I didn't get back to the Comfort Suites hotel until around 10:30pm. It was virtually pain free and even the numbing injections didn't really bother me. The hardest part was having to sit still for long periods of time, as it was tough to find a comfortable position. After some trial and error, I figured out what worked for me and the rest was pretty easy. The First 2 Months Aside from the embarrassment of walking through the airport looking like a mutant, and constantly worrying about hitting my head on something, the first couple weeks of post-op care was pretty easy overall. Dr. Konior's instructions were very well laid out and I didn't really have any issues aside from some general anxiety about losing / damaging grafts. The one thing that is more difficult than I anticipated, even after being a member of this forum for years, is the ugly duckling phase. Most of the grafts shed by Week 3 and I also had some shock loss in the recipient area, leaving me with a very awkward, uneven look which you can see in my photos. I've been in hiding from most of my friends for the last couple months and only now starting to feel more confident going out to social events, even though my hair looks worse than ever. Other than that, I'm patiently waiting for the growth to start. I think I've already seen some sprouts here and there, but nothing substantial at all, and of course it's far too early for that anyway. I'm just happy that at this point, since my native hair is getting longer each week, I'm looking less like a freak and more like a guy with bad frontal loss. Photos This is what I know most people want to see, and I've been taking photos regularly since the operation to keep track of my progress. The photos are presented in the following order: - Pre-op dry - Pre-op wet - Pre-op in sunlight - Pre-op at an angle - Pre-op combover - Night of operation - Day 1 - Day 1 donor area - Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 (notice the shedding!) - Week 4 - Week 4 donor (very happy with how undetectable this looks at this length) - Month 2 In my last pic, the one from today, the whole top of my head was trimmed by my barber to try to even it out and match it with the thinness in the front of my head. Normally that area looks a lot thicker. Well, that's all for now! Special thanks to everyone on this forum, but particularly guys like Spanker, 1978matt, and Reyes1 who posted extensively about their experiences with Dr. Konior. I'm sure I am missing other Dr. Konior patients who have posted on here, and thanks to you as well, but I can't remember all the usernames. Will try to keep this thread regularly updated, and also happy to answer any questions if you have them.

I'm 7 weeks post-op from my FUE with Dr. Konior and I'm experiencing the same thing. Little stubby hairs that seem to have grown in just a bit, and at a different rate than the surrounding native hairs. I attached a photo, there are a bunch of these stubby hairs in the temple that you can see. I'm not worried about it, I think it's normal for grafts to grow in at different paces and thickness. And I've seen plenty of photos of "early growers" showing these types of hairs sprouting through.

Aside from the skin condition, I think your donor area looks remarkable considering you had 5000 grafts taken AND it's shaved down to a 0-1 guard. I think once the redness disappears, however long that takes, and the growth begins you're going to have an incredible result.

Really nice result Dr. Vories, great coverage especially for 2000 grafts.

This looks great to me, very natural looking result and I love the hairline. Actually just tried calling to make an appointment to see Dr. Wesley for a consultation but unfortunately he's booked out until late October just for consultations. Hoping for a cancelation to come up so I can see him before that.

Thanks so much for your detailed reply Dr. Bloxham, that was very informative and super helpful. I believe I have a strong donor area and crown so I don't believe I fit the category of hair loss you describe. I appreciate you offering to review my photos, but I've done several online consultations and have received graft estimates anywhere from 500-3000 grafts, so I get the sense that my photos don't really provide a very accurate depiction of my loss (probably due to bad hair lighting). I'm seeing Dr. Konior next week for an in-person consultation which is where I hope to get a much better idea of my candidacy for a hair transplant operation, and will also discuss FUT vs FUE with him. Thanks again!

Hi Dr. Bloxham. First of all, amazing job on the transplant, the hairline is perfect and the results look incredibly natural. You mentioned that because this patient is a diffuse thinner, FUE was seriously considered. Would you mind elaborating on that, and why diffuse thinners should consider FUE over FUT? Asking because I'm a diffuse thinner myself and still haven't completely decided yet between FUT and FUE. Thanks!

Can you please post a link to the Merck study you're referring to? I Googled it but cannot find the information about the peak hair count declining. Which year did it peak, and which year did it start to decline? I'm more familiar with the Rossi 10-year study of finasteride users which concluded: http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/downloads/Rossi_Finasteride_10Yr_%202011.pdf

Dr. Feller, I need a relatively small procedure of about 1000-1500 grafts and I greatly prefer keeping my donor area shaved to a grade 1-2 (or whatever the lowest is that I can go without showing scarring). In my case, is FUE not a good option considering the low number of grafts and the desire to wear my hair at a shorter length? I read this entire thread and essentially I would be making the decision to sacrifice a percentage of grafts (likely <10% if going to a top-rated surgeon) in order to achieve my goals of restoring density and being able to wear hair cut shorter on the sides. Is that correct?

I did a consultation with Dr. Bisanga online (through one of his reps) and I have to say their communication was fantastic - quick and comprehensive responses. Maybe they're not receiving your messages for some reason?

Any updates on this case Carbolic?

Konior is one of the greatest. Pricey, but if you can afford him and you're in the Chicago area, to me it's a no brainer.