Greetings my follicular fight friends, forum followers. Long rant and some questions follow, so please be patient
I have been around here for some time now, reading, learning...lurking
If you are reading this, chances are you hate your predicament as much as I do, and I don't have to tell you how much it sucks to be bald, especially at age 30, when you're still on top of your game. So I'll just skip that part and introduce myself.
30 year old male from Portugal, been balding for around 8 years now, during which I made the painful trip from a NW0 to a full blown NW 4.(like a thinner Varoufakis) You'll recognize the pattern, I'm sure: first, wish the problem away, then the undue placing of hope on the min/fin/niz combo, then the part when you realize you don't know what you hate more:the fact you're balding or the fact you have to do something about it. We are complex beings and sometimes just have to do things or we'll be stuck forever in indecision. Hence I've decided to take the plunge in a not too distant future. Of course, given the magnitude of this decision, there are some things I'd like to know, which is the reason I turn to your collective wisdom for some first-hand enlightenment. Some of the answers to these questions may be in the forum in dispersed form, others I'm not sure about...
1) Why does it seem as though HT clinics are a dime a dozen in Turkey, yet places from Germany, France etc are hardly represented on this website? Even here in Portugal there are about 4 places, one of which operates on our pseudo-famous and their prices are competitive wrt the turkish clinics. BTWI haveno problem with Turkey, but some of their clinics have suspiciously low prices, plus the latest goings-on, coupled with the fact that you have a lot of security checks and have to walk around with a swollen, red head like a tomato is not appealing at all.
2) The threads seem to be focussed by more than 95% on FUT (now outdated) and FUE. What about other procedures? E.g I know of a clinic in Switzerland that uses something called FENDI. It seems quite revolutionary if it lives up to their propaganda (but then I guess it's always like this when you blow your own horn...) anyone heard about that? And more generally why do other approaches receive so little attention?
3) time off after a fue if you are a gym goer. Say you do weightlifting and your objective is to minimize the loss of gainz. How long away from the gym ? And what is the risk?
4) Blood tests. Apparently it's standard procedure to submit one before your surgery. According to your experience, do most places do those in-clinic? It doesn't seem very practical to do a test in your home country and then takeit with you due to differences in requirements, language, and so on.
5) wearing a cap. How long do you have to wear a cap in public until you look normal again? And conversely, does not wearing a hat damage your recovery?
6) if you still have some hair (say you held the line with fina) do they work around it? If so, then of course the rest of your hair will miniaturize and you'll be kept with only the transplanted hair...what then? Do you need to bite the bullet and accept you need another procedure? Of course money and donor area limits are issues...
7) how painful is the anaesthesia?