adonix

Not bad, but very see-thru from most angles. It needs at least 3000 more to look ok.

Are you on finasteride?

Exactly. I did 4000 in my first pass. The doctor said normally he would advise 3500, but would see how it goes with extractions and donor. I wanted to do ‘as much as possible’ in one go thinking it was a long trip and did not want to go back for the second pass soon. It went well, and I would say the yield was >95%. Now that I went through and know more - I would limit the surgeries to 3500. There is simply no reason to risk the yield, and none of us will ever be ok after only one surgery and will eventually have to go back.

If you dont get why two surgeries of 3500+1500 are much safer and less risky than one 5000 surgery, I cant help you. Keep looking at the mirror, read ‘scientific’ papers and wonder.

So is it scientific or artistry? Those two are almost diagonally opposite. The problem is not in dense packing. Like I said it is a game of protocols and probabilities. One body can take 20 hours of a surgery over 2 days, or 10000 incisions and holes, etc. Other body might not. One hair graft might be fine after being kept for 5 hours in a solution and waiting for placement, other graft might not. One scalp has enough circulation to accept 5000 new grafts and quickly create all necessary bloodlines, other scalp might not. Why risk 5000 grafts, when you can do the first pass of say 3500, and do 1500 later, if needed. That approach will always yield better results, and will be better for your donor management as well.

Scientific? What about hair surgery is scientific? Its a game of protocols and probabilities. You are right about one thing - you would hope the surgeon would advise accordingly. And guess what - some do.

Your yield looks like 30%. I would strongly advise anyone considering a FUE not to do more than 3500 grafts in one surgery. It is an unnecessary risk and the probability of lower yield is much higher when you go for 4500 or 5000.

That is a cynical response to an honest account. Nothing is really anonymous. As a forum mod you would know that. All of those fake reviews of ‘recommended surgeons’ are very easy to trace..

1/ thee months is when it (slowly) starts; six months is when you will be able tell if you are on a good track; 10 months is when you will be able to see about 80% of the outcome. 2/ ‘fast responders’ get best results - not true. Mine kept improving even after 12 months. Hope that helps Below are my pics from my first surgery (about 2k in frontal 1/3), after 5 months and after 8 months.

Melvin, some of these forum members mentioned that Rahal spends 30 minutes in the room. If true, that is disturbing. FYi - Lorenzo does most of the work on his patients. His techs do extractions, but he keeps an eye on it. He does the placement with the implanter tool.

Did you get an estimate how many grafts you have left? Looking at your pattern, in about 3-4 years you may need another 4000 to fill in mid scalp and crown.

Here is a picture of back with a bit longer hair

It all depends. There are many examples where guys had more than 8-9k extracted. It comes down to the size of safe area, density, hair color/contrast, etc. lorenzo estimated my donor having about 5k left. But im not sure if I would want to extract that much. I will go for a smaller surgery (1-1.5k) to fix some weaker spots. And hopefully that will keep me good for some time. I am 43 and on finasteride, forgot to add that.

I had 4000 FUE surgery in Sep 2015 and 2000 in Dec 2017. Here are my current photos and my situation pre-first surgery. First photo is in almost direct light - back and sides cut to #1.5 2nd photo is room light of front hair combed straight 3rd photo is under strong light 4th and on are various photos with my natural hair (slightly curly), and one straightened hair. last two photos are pre any surgery i still have some week spots in the mid scalp and might add another 1000 grafts in right back-middle area. Lorenzo said i have another 5k grafts left.