starscream

Getting an erection has a lot to do with your mind and if in a corner of your mind you think that taking finasteride will cause ED, it probably will - it's a psychological thing, that's what I think. But please do your research and depend on scientific evidence instead of anecdotal As for me, I've been taking finasteride 1 mg everyday for a little less than a year, and so far I've had no problems. All the best!

You can lose a LOT of hair between your early 20s and your late 20s. It's a huge risk to do an HT in your early 20s without taking finasteride. Minoxidil cannot stabilize your hair loss condition - do we even know for sure how it works ?

Planted area: Doesn't look very different compared to last week. I've been mentally preparing myself for the "ugly duckling" phase. It's like I'm willing it to hit me sooner than later! I may have lost some 50 or so small hair strands during the last week while washing, but the rest is still hanging in there. Donor area: There is still some minor redness. No pain, but some parts are sensitive to touch. There is some itching at times - the source of this itching, i think, are some small hair coming out through the skin. Whenever I run my fingers through the hair that's growing in the donor area, I can feel some stubble here and there. So yesterday, I asked my wife to take a closer look. She said she could see some really tiny hair poking through the skin. I am wondering why these hairs feel like stubble - the kind of hair that remains after shaving, and not like the regular hair that's soft when they start to grow. Anyway, the more new hair I see the better, so I'm not complaining Looking back, post-op care was more time consuming and required more care in the first 2 weeks because the crusts were still attached to the hair, but after the second week, I didn't have to worry about the hair at all. I had a lot of questions about whether I've been doing things properly and I'm happy that Dr. Bhatti has been replying to all my naive questions promptly.

How's it going, has the shedding stopped ?

I'm 29 years old and I've been taking finasteride 1mg everyday for the past 10 months. I was also very scared like you when I started. The first two days, I felt weird - it was as if my thoughts were a bit clouded. Because I had read so much about the side effects, from time to time I would get worried if I was starting to face any sides. But after a week or so, taking the pill became a routine and I suddenly stopped thinking about it. I've been fine since. Sides - none. Libido - perfectly fine (I have a feeling my libido has increased!). Hairloss condition - Honestly, I don't know if it has had any effect on the hair loss yet, but I haven't had any "wow, I've suddenly lost so much hair" moments for a while.

Amazing results ! Has the patient come again after 6 years for a touch up ?

I said no to PRP because from my research I found no evidence that PRP works. The same reason I stay away from other hairloss treatments like laser comb etc - there's a ton of anecdotal evidence out there, but none have been proved to work in a scientific method. For a technique that has been applied in the medical field for more than 20 years, it's a shame that no scientific evidence has been recorded for the efficacy of PRP.

After taking a look at your before pics on the other thread, looks to me like most of the shedding happened to transplanted hair at mid-scalp. Since these follicles don't become miniaturized, you should be safe, my friend. When I got my HT done, I said no to PRP so I have no experience in this department. But from my research I don't think PRP has any permanent effect - neither good, nor bad.

There's no reason for this to be permanent since PRP won't have any permanent effect on the grafts as far as i know.

Even though the grafts are permanent, pulling out hair when they are not ready to fall out is not a great idea. I imagine this would cause some trauma to the freshly planted grafts - probably that's the reason why the doctors instruct us to gently rub and not to pick the crusts. IMO, you should be fine if the hair that you pulled out came out very easily without causing any tension or bleeding because it's normal for the hair to fall out with the crust attached to it.

After 14th day, all post-op care stops and now I can go under the shower. Today (15th day), I washed my head with Johnson&Johnson shampoo that was provided by the clinic and slowly removed all the crusts on the planted area. Here's how the planted area looks right after the cleaning: I had quite a lot of crusts remaining so it took a while to gently remove all of them from the scalp. I noticed that they come off more easily when they're soaked with shampoo. Here's a picture of the fallen crusts. You can see hair in some of them, which is normal as I was told :

That hairline looks pretty good in the pic. I wouldn't do anything to it if I were you.

Do you have before pictures ?

Lots of new hair popping How do you feel ?

Good density

From the front, you look pretty good to me. I agree that from the top it looks bald. If I were you, I wouldn't remove the hair you already got because: 1. It may expose more irregularities on the skin if you have them. Right now, even after zooming in on your pic, I can't notice anything wrong with the skin. 2. It removes the possibility of going to a good doctor who can make the appearance of mid scalp much better using your beard hair or existing scalp grafts depending on what's left. 3. Removes the possibilities of all other options unknown to me right now but can only be known if I talk to good doctors and hear their ideas instead of fixating on getting the hair removed. I have been reading your posts on the forum and I can see that you are very much worried about how your hair looks to others. Listen, man. You know that so much work has been done on your hairline because you went through an expensive cosmetic surgery. But the people around you don't know this and they don't look at your hairline thinking critically of the hair transplant you got done. Has anyone ever told you personally that your hair looks ridiculous? I guess not, because it doesn't look that bad - I've seen so many guys who bald naturally and have a pretty solid hairline, but nothing behind that! You can definitely make this better if you wish. If you talk to good doctors over here and listen to their approaches and what they have to say instead of telling them "I want to get my hair removed", I am sure you will have a list of valid options to consider. It's always better to have options, man.

Agree with Mikey1970. There are always options, man. Do not be depressed. Can you post some pics of your head?

redchickenleg, this is how my baldness started. You should catch this early by getting on meds after seeing a doc.

After 1 week, the recipient looks pretty much the same. The donor area has had a remarkable change though. Everyday, while cleaning the donor area, small scabs would fall off and now it looks pretty okay compared to the surrounding skin barring the slight redness, which should go away with time. I was worried about discomfort while sleeping during this initial period, but fortunately I've had no problems sleeping. I still use a travel pillow to ensure the head doesn't move around in sleep. Pic of donor area attached.

Drchaudhry, can you point out the area in the pic you are talking about (the 1cm area)? Also, when you say work of other surgeons in the forum, can you show me a pic of similar work with higher density so that I and others on this forum can have a better idea? Thanks What is not a matter of my happiness ?

Do you have before and post-op pics ?

Great work. Looks really good for 6 months. I can see the crown looks much better. What meds is he on ?

ontop, I totally get what you're feeling. We cover up our imperfections so much that hiding them becomes a part of our life. Getting a haircut was tough for me because everytime I tried a new barber, he would screw up my comb over because he wouldn't understand how "my combover" worked. I finally found someone who would listen to how I wanted my hair cut and sticked with this guy for 4 years. I moved a few kilometers away from this place and still, I'd call him up, make sure the guys around and head out to get a haircut, in my car. This was a big red flag for me because a few years ago, I used to go to the nearest barber shop, get a haircut and walk out happy and mind my own business. Getting a haircut had suddenly become a PITA. Even with this regular barber, getting a haircut would make me nervous wondering if I would look like a fool the next day. Last week, I took the plunge and got an HT done so I have a shaved head now. No more barber shops for a while. Such a relief.

Drchaudhry, thanks for your thoughts. I am quite happy with the density for now and waiting to see how this turns out in the end

Interesting. Can you post some before and after pictures ?