mikeyhwk

Stop guessing what you need and go see a doctor for a consult. Find out where your hair loss pattern will progress to, find out what your available donors are, find out your surgical options, come up with a plan. Conventional wisdom is work your way backwards...so hairline and frontal third then mid scalp then crown in order of importance...for somebody not using fin, trying to implant to a crown that still may continue to open up is asking for trouble. It'll eat up grafts and you may end up with a halo effect as natives fall out around implanted hair. You can look into possibly smp/trico and that can reduce the contrast of scalp and hair helping to give the crown a fuller appearance without investing any donors and that helps in the short term along with fibers to provide coverage until you're given the okay by your doctor to think about crown work down the line when your hair loss is steadier or your crown region isn't full of minaturized hairs. and stop preferring not to, try fin. It may make a big difference in your hair loss and the odds are it will have no side effects for you. If it does walk away from it. This forums got thousands upon thousands of members, never seen one complain about sides that never went away. Some did get sides, but they stopped and that was it. This irrational fear is hurting only you.

Erdogan or Keser only. There are no others to consider. They are not cheap by Turkey standards but by hair transplant standards, a bargain and world class.

smp is scalp micropigmentation, on a bald head it gives you the illusion of a hairline and hair shaved down, that 5'oclock shadow look so to everyone it looks like you're not bald just shaving it down. It can provide an illusion of density to people like us who diffuse thin as well as it reduces the color contrast between skin and hair. http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/scalp-micropigmentation-smp/ check out this forum for examples I will take your word on your donor, I'm just going off the picture, you should get in front of a doc and let them see it, they'll be the definitive word. I've had 2 fue procedures and I skin fade my hair from the bottom up to a number 1 at the top and as it grows in it doesn't show the gaps I'm seeing in your donor, that is what concerns me. A linear scar would for sure show thru that but even fue dots would be evident as it is now and most .8mm punches shouldn't be seen with a number 1 unless the hair is depleted.

Your donor looks to be suffering from diffusion as well, I don't think you have multiple procedures in your donor if any at all. Your scarring would be hugely evident. If all you want is to be able to buzz it down and not look slick bald, why not look into smp...at your age and level of diffusion with no meds no ethical doctor would touch you for a transplant.

Some guys get good results from it, others like myself not so much, created a lot of inflammation on my scalp. I had a couple prominent transplant docs tell me they were not huge fans of it but it is worth a shot to see if it can help you.

it is a big decision and one you need to weigh carefully because once you're down transplant road, you've obligated yourself to it. It is a large investment of time, money and factor in the annoyance of having to take and stay on meds, it can be not worth it to some. I wish I had shaved my head prior and seen if i could live with it but I was convinced I would look terrible, turns out I looked great which I found out while they were shaving my head right before my fue procedure If you can live with a shaved head and it suits you, then strongly consider it. I can tell you for me, despite looking good with a shaved head, I don't regret for a day that I did my procedures. I was in Mexico over new years not wearing a hat, not worried about coming out of the pool and exposing my thinning spot, I'm dating hotter and younger women, it's taken years off me, I'm more confident, it's changed my life. So I can understand why someone would get it and why they wouldn't want to as well but you need to weigh what doing the transplant would mean for your life, would it change anything and if that cost and lifetime investment are worth what you'd get out of it.

Arochahair said it all perfectly. Read that and take it in.

Looks fantastic Hasselt, Feriduni is a master

I don't know how we can be clearer about this. You are not supposed to be expecting growth at the beginning of the 3rd month, there is NO weak at 3 months, you can be weak at 9 months as by then you should be seeing something but at 3 months there is nothing to see unless you're an outlier in your results. Hairs are popping most of them are just breaking the scalp and won't even be noticeable to you yet...give it a little time...the surgery is the easy part, the wait is the part that sucks...hair just takes its sweet time to grow and there is 0 benefit to stressing about that cause there is nothing you can do to change that fact. Trust those of us who have gone thru the process and seen countless others go thru the process, you're fine. If there was something we saw to worry about we'd tell you so you could address it with your doc. Still reach out to your doc if you're concerned but he'll just tell you to wait cause it's so early but for peace of mind talk to the clinic and get reassurance.

Just due to the level of loss and your age, I think fut first is a necessity. If budget is not a concern and you're prepared to wait for the best fut doc on the planet. Then Dr Konior in Chicago in the US should be at the top of your list for a consult. There are other great fut options like Hasson or Wong in Vancouver, Rahal in Ottawa, Feriduni in Belgium that all have great aesthetic eyes and deliver top end results, you would be in amazing hands with any of them but if you said give me one name who does fut just a bit better than everyone else, it's Konior.

I think that advice holds even more true for Turkey. Turkey is the wild west of hair transplants, there are no real rules. So many of these tech mill operations barely have doctor input it at all and just flood sites posting fake reviews and drawing customers in and they're doing piss poor jobs. Come to a site like this one or a few of the other major hair forums and read the real patient experiences, where guys show their day 1 op, and month 1 update, and month 2 update, and all the way to finished product a year later...those are the reviews you can trust...read those and see if any of those clinics at that price have have those excellent results and reports...you don't see them...the clinics getting top results out of Turkey are 2 ...Erdogan...Keser....I personally wouldn't trust my hair to anybody else in Turkey so I won't tell you to trust your hair to them either. I don't know how many grafts you need but Erdogan is world class and 2.5 euros per graft. If you're willing to look into India which I understand isn't Europe, Dr Bhatti can be had for cheaper than that and is also a respected surgeon...these are the best bang for the buck options in the world. If you want to save and still get high quality results these are the starting point and prices just go up from these guys.

I'm going to give you advice you may not want to hear but save up for better, your budget isn't enough to get a transplant with a good euro doc. With places like those mentioned you may end up with a decent hair transplant, or you could end up spending 4 and 5 times your initial budget on top of what you spent the first time out trying to fix what they screwed up and losing donors to boot, total crap shoot. Get it done right the first time, don't take any risks with this and if it means putting it off for a year or 2 to save up for that then so be it. I have talked to too many patients who went cheap and ended up miserable, depressed, with shit hair to suggest anything but what I am.

Dr Feriduni and Dr DeVroye out of Beligum both do excellent FUT work. Dr Ball in the UK is very good as well Those would be my starting points in Europe for fut

do share the pics they will help us get an idea of your hair loss... but also some further information would help...are you on meds of any kind...what is the progression in the males of your family, your dad siblings etc. 28 is on the young side but it's also not so young that a transplant couldn't be done but you have a long road ahead of you in this life...follow up procedures are almost always a given but especially at your age you can expect multiple procedures during your life as progression will continue. If you want the least costly least stressful road shave your head and if it looks good and you can live with it, do that...but if you want hair then by all means share more info and get in to see the top docs, and get more consultations so you can get a clearer picture of what your options are what your future could look like. Diep is a great choice, his track record and results are top notch, he's got lots of patient reports on this forum, cost wise it's higher than what you were quoted for 2500 grafts, think more 7-10 us per graft for fue, it used to be 7 when I talked to him but recent reports say he may have bumped his pricing so not 100% sure what it is today. I say that with the caveat that you're thinking fue...if you're thinking fut then you might want to look at some other options. Even if you're not considering fut it would be a good idea to meet with some docs who do both surgeries well and see if they think you may be better suited to one surgery vs the other. I don't know much of Rosenelli other than he had an unhappy patient on these forums, don't be locked down by location, Diep being in your backyard is a bonus but limiting your options because of proximity is usually one of the ways guys end up with hacks, go to where the best are and talk to them.

yes, Dr Hassons clinic i believe has had positive results with it. Maybe one of their reps would chime in or you could reach out to one of them via pm and ask their thoughts. I haven't used it personally so I don't know how it compares to oral fin but it would definitely be a huge step up from nothing.

well they are the experts but I would get it checked in person cause it looks very thin to me and pulling hairs from it is just going to deplete it further and allow scarring to be evident. Yes, 3-4k wouldn't go very far on your scalp, so it depends on what you're willing to accept. If you're willing to accept just minor coverage or possibly a solid hairline only they might be able to make that work if indeed there is 3-4k grafts there.

I'm not a fan of topical minoxidil myself but it works for some. There is oral minoxidil which some forum members I've talked to have used to good effects but it's not a med without it's own risks and should be used under a doctors guidance so that could be one avenue to discuss with a transplant doc or dermatologist. Propecia is hands down the number 1 medicine in your hair loss battle, the side effects are overstated. A small percentage of users have sides, while the overwhelming get results. It should be at least attempted, if the sides affect you, then stop. There is no guarantee that even fin or oral minox will strengthen your donor enough to make you viable but without them no respectable surgeon would see you as a candidate. Sorry Everybody is different, a guy with advanced hair loss and a healthy strong donor can get coverage without great density all over but you're hit with the double whammy of being an advanced progressing nw and having a weak donor. If you're going to be going thru a transplant you can only survive one negative. If your donor isn't great you better not have a lot of loss but unfortunately that isn't the case here.

sorry to hear that, the forum is for the most part supportive. Dr Dogonay has burnt a few people in the past so there may be some hurt feelings out there still which is understandable but any animosity that exists should be towards the doctor not patients, nothing but best hopes for patients. The doctor has since those days made a concerted effort to turn his practice back into the top notch facility it was in years past and his results have reflected that and I am sure your result will reflect that as well. Your hairline does indeed look great enjoy it for the next few days cause the ugly duckling is coming for you, like it did for us all lol. Keep us updated!

3 months is nothing, you're mired in the middle of the ugly duckling, months 2 and 3 are the worst and from 4 on is when most start seeing progression. Some will be ahead of the curve and some behind but where you're at currently is not abnormal at all. Right on sched.

I would not suggest fue, I don't think you're a strong candidate for a hair transplant period. You have significant loss with what looks like retrograde alopecia and the hair loss pattern is significant at a young age. Your best bet is to get in front of a hair transplant surgeon, and who knows maybe some time on meds will strengthen your donor enough that you may down the road be viable for a procedure or some sort but even then you're not going to be looking at full coverage so you'll have to weigh if that road is going to be worth it to you.. at the moment your best course imo is to not look at transplants but possibly shaving it down, smp, or a hair system. Regarding the red dots, that would be best for a dermatologist to assess, it could be inflammation it could be scalp dermatitis, ingrown hair follicles, any number of things.

it's coming down to subjective placement when ranking doctors so whether someone has Dr Hasson 1, 2, or 5, doesn't matter as much as how you rank him in your mind based on the research you've done. By any measure he's in the top echelon of hair surgeons worldwide.

this.

It's the right decision for the long term best interest of your hair. Stop stressing, you made the right call. You are better off trying it, if you're one of the small percentage that get sides then at least you know but odds are well in your favor that you'll benefit.

just 2500ish? your donor seems far denser than that.

glad it worked out for you but go on various sites and you'll see negative reviews for the same place. Don't think you are typical of all the cases that come out of that clinic or that people should be avoiding the top surgeons in the field cause you got lucky. Look no members here get a cut from any docs, we're not wanting fellow sufferers to pay more, we have 0 incentive to talk down anybody, a lot of us have just seen what people who have had bad work have gone thru, and don't wish it on anybody so our advice is always in the best interest of fellow baldies. So again I'm happy for you and maybe over time more and more patients will come on here and share their patient reports and this clinic will be properly vetted but until those days... if somebody comes on the forum today and says I want to go to Turkey and found this clinic what do you think I'd say avoid it, go to Erdogan or Keser and that is it cause I know that advice is golden. Congrats your hair looks good!