starscream

IMO, taking finasteride gives you the biggest chance of keeping that crown. If your doctor advised against taking fin considering your medical condition, please stay away from it. If you haven't checked with your doctor yet, please do that asap. The worst mistake I did was not taking finasteride sooner. I have absolutely no side effects so far (8 months in).

Looks good !

You sir, have some big brass balls !

I would love to see an "after" pic where the combover is pulled back like the last "before" pic where they've used a comb to part the hair.

Today morning, before leaving Chandigarh, I went to the clinic one last time and got my scalp cleaned and bandage removed from the donor site. The clinic's driver dropped me at the airport. I was wearing the bandana provided by the clinic which would cover the whole of the recipient area and most of the donor area. I was a little conscious because I kept wondering whether my donor area was bleeding since it was the first day without a bandage, but nothing bad happened. Everything went smooth at the airport. Something interesting happened at the security check, though. While the security guy was scanning me with the metal detector, I asked him to be careful while scanning my bandana covered head and told him I got that I had gotten a surgery done. He immediately asked me if it was a hair surgery that I had done and went on to ask me a lot of questions - he was really curious to know how a hair transplant works! He finally stopped talking and let me through when people standing behind in the queue started to get impatient. Looks like he's seen a lot of similar looking bandanas flying out of Chandigarh

I went to the clinic today to wash my recipient site and change the dressing of the donor area. I also got some medications for the next 3 days and a kit containing all the things needed to care for the scalp in the upcoming weeks. Also received a nice booklet containing clear post-op instructions, i find this very useful. I was taught how to wash the recipient site and was given a bandana to wear, which IMO looks and feels much better than the loose fitting cap. Updates on the grafts - in just one day, the grafts have started to look different. The red bumps around each graft have now shrunk into dark dots - I think these are the beginning of crust formation ? Pic attached.

n00b, thanks. I have been taking finasteride 1mg for seven months, which I'll continue. I think I'll be prescribed a few more post-op meds once I go to the clinic today (1 day after the surgery). I don't think my hairloss has stabilized otherwise.

I have to make this post a bit long, to pay it forward to those looking for details. First, some background (Skip if you don’t care about me) ============================================ I am a 29 years old Indian male. I’ve always had a fairly high hairline growing up and I started losing hair at my hairline around 8 years ago. I never did anything about it because I always thought I would be able to pull it off somehow and “embrace it” if I fail. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to pull off the “balding, but covering it up” look for long and decided to shave it off. Honestly it wasn’t so bad because most people said it suited me well ( a few said i looked horrible ). But everytime I looked into the mirror, I would be looking at a stranger and never came to terms with that look so I grew my hair back. As days passed, I realized I won’t be able to live my life the way I want as long as my brain sees my hairline as an obstacle to everything. This had to be fixed, and I started looking for solutions. One google search led to the other and finally I was on this website. I started following a bunch of HT progress updates regularly, even poking OPs asking for updates . I came to realize that science had progressed quite a lot over the years and an HT could actually be done in India from a top doctor and still be able to afford it. I didn’t like the idea of cutting a long strip of scalp off my head so zeroed in on FUE as a possible solution for my problems. After lurking around this forum and doing a lot of research for more than a year, I finally got my HT done today by Dr. Bhatti at Darling Buds, Chandigarh, India. Everything that happened pre-op ============================================ Part 1 : Three months of Emails I dropped a mail to Dr. Bhatti around 3 months ago. He promptly responded asking for some pics of my head and after seeing them, he estimated that I’d need around 2800 - 3000 grafts for a hairline that would look dense. For the next three months, I bombarded him with questions and he patiently and promptly responded to every single one of them. When things got serious, I requested for a Skype call to clearly communicate my goals to the doctor and get some important questions cleared regarding hairline design, graft placements et al. During the call we discussed how the grafts would be placed, whether the hairline will be a zig-zag vs a straight line (I wanted zig-zag) and many other questions I had in my mind. I got the answers I was looking for and I only had one more thing to know - how my hairline would look like. Dr. Bhatti mailed me a pic with the hairline he had designed for me and I was sold! The hairline was exactly what I had in my mind. Part 2: Booking, travelling and stay After I expressed my interest in getting the procedure done at Darling Buds, they offered me a date and I made an advance payment to block the date. I booked the travel tickets on my own and the clinic reserved a room for me in their preferred hotel “ABs” which is 5 minutes walk from the clinic. The food at the hotel is overpriced, but they have room service which is a good thing for HT patients. The clinic had arranged for the airport pickup and the driver was waiting for me as soon as I landed at the airport. I’ve read good things about Darling Buds’ drivers and this guy was no exception. Part 3: Pre-op Counseling and hairline design After I reached the clinic, Dr. Bhatti drew a hairline on my forehead after taking the measurement of my facial features and asked me if I was okay with it. From the forums I had read that Dr Bhatti prefers conservative hairlines, so it was always my worry if I would end up with a higher hairline than i had expected. But he drew the same hairline that he had mailed me and I was really happy with it. I guess it would be a high hairline for many people out there, but having lived with a high hairline all my life, this looked pretty low to me. I even asked the doctor if we should stick to a conservative hairline to save the grafts and he said this *was* a conservative hairline . My blood sample was collected for some tests and I was given 3 medicines which were to be taken that night. I was asked to have a light breakfast and be ready at 6:50 AM for the pickup from the hotel. Surgery day ============================================ Part 1: Preparation Once I reached the clinic, I was given “surgery clothes” and an intravenous cannula was fixed on my hand. I was about to be given an injection but I got a bit tensed at this point because I hadn’t met the guy who was holding the syringe before and the doctor wasn’t around at the moment. The tension built up and my mind wandered and I started imagining all the horrible things that could happen to me if I took this unknown injection from someone I had never met! I felt a bit weak in my knees so I waited till I saw the doctor and I got a green flag for the injection. I got a chance to review the hairline again and then my hair was trimmed and washed. I was strictly prohibited from touching my scalp or even lifting my hand towards the scalp from this point on. Part 2: Harvesting The doctor briefed me about all the steps involved in the surgery and proceeded to harvest my grafts from the donor area. Anesthesia injections were made on the donor area of the scalp which were slightly painful, but didn’t bother me much. The punch drilled into my numb scalp and the doctor extracted the grafts - almost painless. He explained all the things that he was doing and this really helped relax during the extraction. I had to lie face down for this part which was a bit uncomfortable for me, barring which, harvesting went fine. I was told that I had good quality grafts. Part 3: Slit making The doctor injected anesthesia into the recipient area of the scalp and started making slits where the harvested grafts would be planted later. This part was easy and we got through this without any trouble at all. Part 4: Planting the grafts The grafts were planted one by one into the slits by two technicians. There was another technician who was sorting the grafts and spraying my scalp with saline solution time to time. This was the longest part of the procedure (took around 2.5 hours). Due to a previous injury I had, I am prone to body pain when lying in certain positions for a long time so this was a very painful part for me. Shalini, the technician who was planting the grafts was really helpful and understanding. I got frequent breaks and was allowed to change to a more comfortable position to ease my body pain. When her colleagues let her know that it’s lunch time, she continued with the work so she could relieve me sooner. Her commitment to work is praiseworthy. Once planting was done, my head was wrapped in a bandage and I was taken to the waiting area. I changed into my own clothes, had my lunch (my lunch preference was noted before the surgery started) and waited for around 3 hours in the waiting area for the post-op consultation and dressing that would be done by the doctor. I went and looked in the mirror to see an outline of the hairline, but it was behind the bandage. I was hoping it would not be higher or be different from the outline that the doctor had drawn before. Part 5: The grand unveiling The doctor finally called me in to dress the donor area and give me post-op instructions. Now the part I had been waiting for - seeing the final work on my hairline. The doctor removed the bandage and I finally saw the hairline that I’ve always wanted. The doctor explained that they had achieved dense packing using good quality grafts. I hope it all works out well in the end! He went on to demonstrate how to use the items in the post-op care kit and explained the dos and donts for post-op evening. I wish the post-op instructions were given sooner, probably right after plantation so that while you are waiting to see the doc, you won’t make stupid mistakes like bending forward, biting strongly into your food etc. Luckily, I was careful because I had read about these from some other posts here. Some tips if you are planning an HT with Dr Bhatti: Make sure you have sufficient debit limit in your card or make sure you have added Dr. Bhatti’s account number as a beneficiary in your netbanking early enough so there are no hassles to make all payments before the procedure. Dr. Bhatti will want the whole money to be transferred before the procedure. So if you are in India like me, it’s best to be ready with an account with sufficient balance and IMPS facility. Before checking in at the ABs hotel, telling the receptionist that you are coming from Darling Buds will get you a discount. If you are staying at the ABs hotel, don’t get the room next to the reception like I did. They get a lot of calls in the night and you’ll probably lose your sleep. Don’t look down at your phone after the surgery. Instead, keep the phone at eye level if possible. The key to avoid swelling of the face is to always keep your head tilted back a little, or so I was told. I can confirm this in a few days Attaching pics: pre-op and immediately after the surgery. I’ll continue to post updates regularly. Feel free to ping me if you need more info. What do you folks think about the pics ? As for me, I’m extremely pleased with the work done by Dr. Bhatti and the team.

I've also heard from a few others that they shed more hair during a particular "season". I am not sure if there is really such a thing as "seasonal shedding" in humans, but google it and you'll see similar stories from many people. I too have been noticing some extra shedding in June compared to other months, my hair quality is also worst during this time. It slowly gets better. I don't know if it's my mind tricking me or if there's really some science behind this

lazypirate316, Got updates ?

bablu, got updates ?

http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/chennai-hair-transplant-tragedy-parents-speak-out-after-son-dies-due-procedure-44491

@sdurgia, are these your results or Bhushan88's results ?

jamesaus, got updates ?

If reps from other clinics are doing that, it sounds like an unethical thing to do and sounds like a serious offense on a forum that's dedicated to share knowledge about hairloss. If other clinics are trying to spread wrong info so that their business blooms, they need to be exposed for the benefit of users like you and me. Please contact the mods !

Looks like this video is "private" now ? Btw, really great work with the videos. I've been following along your progress and I hope you get a killer result. Thanks for all the effort you've taken to share your experience.

Regarding the haircut that looks like a mushroom, check out these posts: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/182426-hair-transplant-dr-tejinder-bhatti-1500-grafts-fue-restore-hairline-3.html#post2461765 http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/182967-11th-march-2016-dr-tejinder-bhatti-1-836-fue.html#post2466975

I have been considering the no-shave technique at Dr. Bhatti's, but I've been reading others' experiences on the forum and it looks like a few are not happy with the "mushroom" look that the no-shave results in. Is it not possible to get a crew cut hairstyle prior to the procedure so that the hair won't look as uneven as it otherwise would after the no-shave procedure ? Even if the no-shave technique can be carried out without making your head look too weird, are these valid reasons to avoid the no-shave technique ? : 1. Doctors say high density at recipient area is going to be tough. 2. More dirt gets accumulated in the hair over time can potentially cause infections. 3. Styling surrounding hair to cover up recipient are during the early days may be harmful to the grafts. I would like to hear first hand experiences from those who have already gone through this. Would you recommend the no-shave technique to others ?

@srm73, I think it looks great. If the gaps were smaller, it could look obvious that you got a job done. The way it is now, it looks very natural. This is how hairlines usually are, I suppose. I'll be following your updates, looks like you'll have good results !

It's said that those who don't face any side effects do not comment on such threads, so here I am to give you some reassurance. I've been taking Fin (1 mg) everyday for the past 6 months. No sides whatsoever. The first 2 days felt a bit weird, mostly out of anxiety/placebo effect. Soon, the activity of popping the pill faded into a routine, and I stopped worrying about whether or not I'd get an erection etc (because there's no problem getting erections). As far as hair regrowth goes - I think it has helped stop the progression of hair loss, but I don't see much regrowth yet. Good luck to you!

@jamesaus Got updates ?

I've tried Giovanni Root 66 Volumizing Shampoo, and liked it.

Congrats for your new hair, David! Any updates since the last one (at 7 months, I guess) ?

I think the density is pretty good and you'll have a good hairline. Of course it will not be as thick as the hairline you had when you were 18, but if the doctor has done a good job with placing the grafts, it should blend well with the rest of your hair. Did you and the doc discuss this during consultation ? By the way, Are you able to carry your pre-op hairstyle after the no-shave technique?

The pics looks really good ! I think you are in for some great results, good luck. Looks like these docs are not recommended here. Where can I find pictures of Dr Arika's previous cases ?