baldlivesmatter

Funny story--took an Uber to my house from the airport and my driver mentioned that he had a HT with Dr. Erdogan in Turkey.

He seemed to bring it up out of the blue so not sure if my bandanna tipped him off.

Anyway, his procedure was like $10K less than mine to cover a full NW6 area.

Density was definitely lacking but did a nice job framing his face and, most importantly, he was quite happy with it.

Funny enough this was my 2nd Uber driver that's had a hair transplant (that I know of).

Yeah--didn't shave on my recent procedure and regret it.

In the immortal words of Joe Rogan: "Just shave it bitch".

2 hours ago, Gasthoerer said:

Jesus, why would someone do that? I had 400 grafts and even this few grafts were equally distributed. 

Yeah, seems like a strange strategy to me too.

I'm just glad the planting doesn't use the same strategy (i.e., start of the right and once the grafts are done they just stop planting lol).

Super responder! 

Glad it worked out!

To follow on to above contributors, don't get a HT.

Get on big 3 and reassess in a year or two.

Alright boyos, just got off the phone with the clinic.

Apparently the harvesting strategy is to start in the middle and go to one side and then do the other side as needed.

My ~1700 grafts didn't require full harvesting on both sides so the grafts were mainly taken from one side.

Seems strange to me to not spread the grafts evenly, but given Dr. Dieps well-documented results doing 2 procedures a day for years I'm thinking it's not worth too much worry.

4 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Also, you can always text Dr. Diep he does respond fairly quickly.

I was very impressed with Dr. Diep giving out his cell number.

He also mentioned multiple times that I could call him with questions so it seems he's really stepped it up with post-op care, as I know this has historically been a complaint about him.

Also, bad move on not shaving full head. Looks pretty silly.

Will gently cut it once after the two week necessary waiting period.

Ha, not worried about the hairline at all--think it will be solid.

I called the office to inquire about the harvesting on one side.

Will report back once they get back to me.

3 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

It seems that no Fap cures everything. I have read about cold showers as well. The mind is a powerful thing and I do think there is a slight placebo effect that takes place. However, to believe that hair loss can be cured with no masturbation or sex is ridiculous.

Cold showers, or cryotherapy, actually have a lot of anecdotal evidence of reducing inflammation--useful for those with arthritis.

I used to go to a crtyotherapy place when I lived in the Bay to recover from weekend warrior type activities and apparently a lot of the 49ers players used it to reduce body soreness.

Doubt it has any meaningful affect on hair loss, but less silly than nofap lol

I actually talked about this with a HT doc once and he said it was a scalp reduction surgery, and that it's public information from his divorce filing from his first wife.

From googling I found this article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trumps-hair-mystery-solved-he-had-scalp-reduction_us_58966965e4b061551b3dff8a

One gem from the article: "In a 1990 divorce deposition, under oath, Ivana Trump swore that in a fit of rage, Donald raped her because of the pain he was suffering resulting from his scalp reduction surgery in 1989. "

Seems like a bit of an overreaction...

31 minutes ago, Legend007 said:

What size punch did he used on u ?  And how many grafts did u get from ur previous surgery .. 

Ah Legend I forgot to ask on punch size. Blame it on the Xanax! lol

I got ~1800 grafts in my last procedure and 1,683 for this one with the breakdown as follows:

1's - 268

2's - 796

3's - 487

4's - 132

Total - 1,683

Dr. Diep said my grafts were of good quality (consistent with what my prior surgeon said) and also said that the average donor capacity is between 8K-10K grafts. So, realistically I think I can plan on having another 4K in the tank without too much worry. Provided this one turns out well that should be plenty as I don't mind using a small amount of concealer and/or having a thin crown if my hair loss continues to progress.

59 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Thanks for the detailed write-up. It seems your donor was fairly hyperpigmented previously. Maybe he felt that side was slightly less and wanted to balance it out. Overall I think you’re going to love your results. I find Dr. Diep to genuinely take pride in his work. That’s why I feel he excels in his hairline work.

Yes, I small talked with him a bit before and after the procedure and it was apparent he takes great pride in his work. Great quality to have in a surgeon.

Not particularly worried about the donor just seems unusual to me that they wouldn't aim for homogeneity on the graft removal.

As promised, here are post-wash pictures of the donor.

Dr. Diep only harvested grafts from the right side of my head (similar to in MikeNguyen's thread). Does anyone know the reasoning on this?

Back Donor

Right Donor

Left Donor

Lol'd at this one:

7 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I think also society view balding men differently with age. I can recall being 25 years old getting my haircut and the barber asking how old I was,  I replied "25" he said "wow and you're already losing your hair".  I didn't know what to say, but I replied back with "my grandma got alzheimers, maybe we should talk about that too". He didn't utter another word to me the whole time.

I can't help but think, if I would have been 50 years old he probably wouldn't have asked or even if he did I could've said "half a century" and joked about my hair not being how it was in my 20's. While I understand balding affects men at any age, men who don't lose their hair until their 50's and 60's have no idea how devastating it is to lose your hair when you're young. I always say old guys get hair transplants to look younger, while young men get hair transplants to look their age.

This X1000000.

I remember noticeably losing my hair in my early 20's and haircuts were the absolute worst! You'd go in there hoping they'd work their magic and make it look as nice as possible but they generally had no idea what to do. I even had one lady, as soon as I sat down say: "I guess my only option is to shave it". Yes, I came here to spend $20 bucks to have you shave it when I could do that at home. Bitch.

That and the overall feeling that the prime of your life was over before it ever really began was devastating. Hadn't started my career yet and assumed it would hold me back (even though it didn't really), wasn't married and assumed I would need to severely drop my standards to find someone, constant ragging on by friends saying things like: "Going bald already? Really letting yourself go". 

Not to mention looking in the mirror everyday and seeing an old man staring back at you. Realizing that you've already peaked from a physical attractiveness standpoint and you still have 50 years left on earth.

Fuck baldness. 

Here it is boyos--surgery day recap time!

Overall things went very smoothly.

I know Dr. Diep has gotten some flack for bad post-op attention but I found him to be awesome. Super engaging--talked to me about family, hobbies, sports, etc. Overall seems like a good dude. Further, the techs were all very friendly and helped calm my pre-op nerves (valium helped too lol).

Regarding the procedure--when I first got there Dr. Diep's immediate statement was that I really needed 2000 grafts, rather than the initially quoted 1300, as the hair loss extended further back than he had initially expected. He also suggested that we didn't lower my hairline as this was going to require even more grafts for adequate density. After some back and forth I agreed to up my procedure to 1600 grafts, to which Dr. Diep kindly planted 1683 (with the additional 83 at no additional charge).

Further, Dr. Diep was very low pressure on me getting Acell though I decided to get it anyway, in hopes that it will speed up my recovery for an upcoming business networking event.

I am writing this as I'm still bandaged up prior to my post-op cleaning at the clinic, but below are some pics I took today to help chronicle the process. Will plan to upload more post-cleaning pics tomorrow, including donor area pics.

Love to hear your questions/comments.

Front Hairline

OH Hairline #1

Overhead Hairline #2

Left Donor--Pre-op

Right Donor Pre-op #2

Back Donor Pre-op

OH post-op

Left Post-Op

Right Post-Op

8 hours ago, Legend007 said:

Hey all ., just to let y’all know I’m not going to be too active on my own thread  it’s already stressful worrying about future hairloss n now have to worry about if the transplant hair will grow or not .. so I’m just going to let the process take care of itself .. I hardly look in the mirror to check if new hairs are growing n stuff .. so far things are going fine .. I’m fortunate to have enough hair to cover up the transplant . So no one knows I got anything done .. been wearing a hat at work n stuff however . Thank goodness I look good in a hat .. so the ugly duckling stage hasn’t been difficult .. I should be able to tough it out. It’s been no big deal .. I’ve been through more difficult things in life , so this is no big deal to me ..

The hairs have just started to shed .. I’ve been brushing it the last few days to get the transplanted hairs to fall out, to prepare for new growth .. some of my native hairs have started to grow also , so hopefully that is a good sign .. the redness isn’t too bad , skin texture is okay .. still needs more time to heal .. hopefully things turn out well .. 

Pics are at one month .. 

You have such thick hair i'm expecting a home run result.

Happy growing!

If you do go ahead with surgery I'd recommend not putting grafts into the crown (at least at first) as they are much better served in the front.

You have a decent sized area to cover and possible donor limitations so a solid strategy is vital.

3 hours ago, Legend007 said:

U a good patient for Dr. Diep .. he be able to fix ur hairline .. just one advice .. make sure u don’t let him use 1mm punch size on u .. request for .9mm n lower .. there’s no reason u would require a big punch size considering ur hair caliber .. 

That's an interesting thought Legend. 

I was originally worried about Dr. Diep's punch size (which was a big reason why I didn't go to him for my first procedure, even though he was local) but having seen a lot of success stories where the donor ends up healing fine I'm not sure it's something I'm going to stress about. For example, Melvin's donor looked pretty rough in some pics for a few months post-op but now it looks untouched despite a large number of grafts. I'm also opting for the Acell with the hope that this helps with donor area healing.

That being said I'm guessing he'll use .9mm anyway.

On 3/28/2012 at 9:51 PM, kaliber said:

First of all, no one has sex with me so I don't care about erection difficulties. 

Lol I died at this line. 

I'm gonna ask my HT doc about dutasteride--will report back!

Just to solicit any last minute suggestions I'm planning on the below strategy. I will be traveling tomorrow and having surgery Thursday so any advice/suggestions before then would be much appreciated:

1. Planning to get Acell ($500) but not Amniofill ($500)--Acell seems to have scientific evidence supporting quicker wound healing so even if it doesn't help growth it will help me look normal faster for returning to work.

2. Medium tight hairline--Dr. Diep is a hairline expert so I'm assuming this will be his choice as well but I need to be clear on this so that I don't get too aggressive of a hairline given potential future loss. To me, this looks like it will drop my current hairline about .5 -.75 CM. I have a few straggler hairs in the middle of my scalp which I plan to use as landmarks in the drawing of the hairline (see little red box in pic below). This is the lowest I will plan to go on the hairline as the primary goal of the procedure is for density, rather than hairline lowering.

3. Dr. Diep has a form where you can allow up to a certain amount of additional grants to be harvested at the physician's discretion. Although I'd prefer to hit 1300 on the dot I'm thinking of giving 100 grafts as leeway. Anyone have insight on this?

4. I've read that shaving the recipient site is optional. I'm leaning towards shaving it all to make it uniform but this makes it difficult to use toppik for quite a while, and I have a big networking event for work at the end of the month so I'm wondering if it makes sense to keep the top long and try to style it strategically with concealer. Is this a feasible idea or is it going to look silly half shaved?

5. What time should I expect my surgery to begin? The clinic said they would call me to let me know the time a few days before but haven't received a call yet. I left a VM and emailed but no response yet. Assuming pretty early in the AM (e.g., 7 AM). Planning to call them again tomorrow to lock this down.

6. Planning to ask Dr. Diep for prescriptions for Nizoral 2% and Dutasteride. Not sure I will get the Dutasteride (or even for sure use it if I get it) but figured it's worth asking for.

Nah I'm US based.

Don't think you can legally get it here for hair loss unfortunately.

Was thinking of adding it once a week once my next HT has grown in.

Solid! Bet he's happy with that result!

Damn, really nice result!