thatoldchestnut

Good for you, Yaz. It's nice to know that Erdogan counselled against lowering the hairline excessively, the design you settled on looks superb and I'm sure once it all grows in you'll be thrilled. I think Erdogan gets an unjustified bad rap sometimes for being overly aggressive when, in reality, he often has patients with obscene amounts of donor/good characteristics (such as yourself ) with whom he can afford to be a little more aggressive (and inevitably, these will produce those "knockout" results that invite criticism). Here's hoping the eventual result will keep you happy for many years to come, all the best!

Gorgeous work. 48 and perfect hair, life is good!

I won't comment on your situation specifically because I think the sailent points have already been mentioned. Kudos on having the right attitude, though! Whatever you decide, having realistic expectations and being willing to commit to meds and a top doc will serve you immeasurably well. All the best

Obviously you were in a great position to start with, but this is superb. Utterly undetectable so far as I can tell and as others have noted, an excellent yield. Enjoy your perfect hair Congrats Spidey!

+1 Extremely frustrating that even some of the more reputable clinics provide post op pictures that don't adquately disclose the final result (admittedly this is sometimes down to patient submitted pics). Even someone with moderate hairloss can achieve a decent look styled! Nice work and an appropriately modest graft count

H&W if you're dead set on one of those two (Agree with Mav, they're simply HT juggernauts!). Anyone going FUT would be remiss not to consult with Konior though, imo.

I am not turning your hair white! The allegations that I am a witch are unsubstantiated! Best of luck with the rest of your growth, looks well on the way!

Take clearer pictures imo, these are basically useless for attempting to discern any differences. Expose the temples/hairline in good light, at a reasonable resolution

I've never tried it myself but based on what I've read/seen i bet a bit of toppik or similar concealer would make your hair look ridiculously good, if you're still feeling a bit self conscious. Have to say this looks well on the way to a great result!

This is a great restoration. Congratulations! You definitely had the whole minor loss/ideal characteristics in your favour but this is a great transformation none the less. Are you on finasteride presently? If yes, were you taking it prior to the op and for how long prior? Congrats again.

Really soft, natural looking result

Does this mean we'll have to temporarily revoke your membership of the long hair club? If so, fear not. We'll be ushering you back in with open arms post-op! All the best, Vox.

Dr. Rahal is frighteningly good at this type of case. That hairline is exquisite! Have to disagree with you that it was a fairly conservative number of grafts though, Win. It certainly wasn't over the top, but I wouldn't say conservative either, simply appropriate. Just semantics though I suppose, god-tier hair

I guess I split the difference to some extent having started fin at 29. I will leave categorical statements about it to actual scientific studies but my own personal feeling is that it depends more on your current loss state and physiology/propensity to be a good responder than your age per se. Some of the most impressive propecia success stories come in cases where the patient begins treatment with large quantities of miniaturised hair that makes a recovery, which is why anecdotally at least, diffuse thinners often (or more often) seem to have those "wow" results. If you don't have swathes of hair on its way out, i'd say it's likely that the best you can expect is some overall thickening and maintenance. It takes a long time though as you already note, so just be patient, stay positive and I'm sure you'll reap the rewards.

Just a stunning result. The hairline doesn't seem too aggressive either but is definitely a huge improvement, and as noted by the others the scar (assuming there is one ) is impeccable. This is the closest cut I've ever seen with a FUT scar and I'd wager it's the sort of thing that only a trained eye will see if they're specifically looking for it. Well done to the doctor and congrats to this patient!

Personally I am a much bigger fan of Rahal's hairlines than any other doctor, when it comes to hairline aesthetics he just "gets it" in a way no other surgeon does imo. That said, I agree with HTsoon that his FUE work is less consistently brilliant than his FUT results, based on what I've seen. I also wouldn't discount Erdogan personally, he's exclusively FUE and does some dynamite hairline work. You really can't go too far wrong with Konior/Diep either (though there are precious few Konior FUE results floating around afaik) and ultimately it comes down to personal preference.

Pretty much the best advice anyone can give you even though it's not really what anyone wants to hear. It might be the fin, but I've had an extended bout of ED in the past that was purely psychological (long before I was ever on fin). Try your best to rid your mind of negative thoughts about it, I dare say before long the old boy will be standing to attention again! All the best.

For the record i don't go to any special lengths to source my finasteride or minoxidil. GP prescribes me fin and i buy it over the counter from my local pharmacy. It's 5 pounds for 28 x 5mg tablets. (The doctor actually remarked to me that the price of 4 months supply is 1 pound 61 pence! The rest is the pharmacy's fee.) Minoxidil i buy from ebay where it's 25 pounds for 6 months supply of kirkland liquid, all legit and sealed packages just cheaper than buying direct from supplier. Surely the point is that the OP wants to retain his current hair if he's going to undergo a HT. Obviously i appreciate that i had a very different starting point but it seems foolhardy to suggest throwing in the towel on meds and undergoing a HT. I think he'd almost certainly save himself money in the long run by hanging onto the hair he has, just my opinion.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

You know when you've been Konior'd.

Super excited to see how this turns out, 3400 into 50cm2 is about as dense as it gets. Looks well on the way and if all grows as expected i'm sure it'll be a total knockout. All the best, Erkso!

Nailed it.

No disrespect Shera but that's crazy talk. It's never going to be a bad idea to commit to a regime of meds especially if the OP is considering undergoing a HT in the near or far-flung future. I'll agree with you on the notion that you're incredibly unlikely to regrow a full head of hair but to say that doing (a very inexpensive and non time consuming regime) what OP is doing could be a waste of time and effort is nonsense, imo. 12 months supply of generic finasteride + kirkland minoxidil costs me a grand total of 65 pounds, hardly pricey and takes a sum total of about 5 minutes every day. Well worth the time and effort imo.

Minoxidil and Finasteride, good to go. Everybody responds somewhat differently but I think it's generally accepted that Finasteride is very likely to maintain your hair's present appearance (or at least close to it) for a considerable time. You may see improvement, you may not. If the likely worst case scenario is your balding not progressing, that's still pretty good in my book! As an aside, while it's nowhere near as mentally taxing as undertaking a hair transplant; you should be ready to commit to the regime as there's a reasonable chance you'll undergo some kind of shedding if you take the fin/min combo. It's also possible that you'll think it's not doing anything for you because you don't see improvement but remember, no progression is likely to be an improvement in a relative sense.

Looking good David, glad everything worked out nicely