JohnArbuckle

Well put. A shitty recipient area can be as visually disconcerting as a linear donor scar.

Bumping this old thread to note that this is an incredibly insightful post.

Shampoo, can I ask, are you on meds (fin/dut, keto, minox) as well?

I read somewhere on here that your hairline should start after the part of your forehead that wrinkles when you raise your eyebrows, so as long as your surgeon does that you should be good.

Great thread topic. I haven't had surgery yet, but outside of that would have started taking dutasteride sooner. I wasted years being scared away by internet fear mongering.

This is really fascinating. It almost seems like the vascular system underneath the scalp is like a large interconnected highway, such that when you close off one exit, traffic throughout the entire state slows down. Appreciate the insightful explanation. If possible, could you kindly give the specific citations for the articles if you know any off hand? Perhaps I could dig something out of google scholar or pubmed.

Thank you for the update. Happy growing.

I've seen worse but obviously could have been better, especially considering it was a strip. It seems like you have thin native hair. Thats a lot of acreage for 3500. Get back on meds if you can.

Hi Bill, Yes, I meant getting injections of PRP alone; I have some mild diffuse thinning that I wanted to work on. I just watched this video on PRP: One thing that really stood out is how many individual variables there were, from needle size to whether or not they used lidocaine to how fast they spin your blood. It seems like the two docs here who have shown the most results are Cooley and Wesley, was just wondering if there were others who have taken a special interest in the procedure, particularly on the west coast.

I can't understand why anyone would let a surgeon carve up their scalp, then ruin it by stopping a cheap medication with minimal to no side effects. I take Avodart b/c of the better DHT suppression and I am one of two in my entire extended family with any reasonable hair. Don't tempt fate brosef.

It seems like the majority opinion amongst surgeons for getting the most grafts over your life is to strip yourself out first, then to FUE separate areas once FUT is exhausted. Also stands to reason that you'll get higher yield just by virtue of using the higher yield technique first as much as possible. FUE seems like it damages a lot of dormant hair follicles with each punch resulting in this ratty 'chewed out' appearance at the donor area (though you could say the same for the strip, the overall density just *seems* a lot better in the strip cases I've seen). Ostensibly you could strip someone that has been FUE'd, though with the greater (qualitative) density loss, you would reach your breaking point/graft ceiling sooner. I know the argument has been put forward before that strip also "stretches" the remainder of the donor area, so you are getting some density loss with either technique, but aesthetically it just doesn't seem as obvious to me. Perhaps it's because lot of small holes just look more obvious than passive stretch. Also, seems like you can FUE different areas of the scalp that are not near the scar and buy yourself some real estate that way. I don't know if there are any formal studies on this subject, just what I've seen Wesley make references to, but if anyone has seen any actual data about this would love to see it. Otherwise, any explanation seems a bit 'hand-waving' to me. Still, would be interested in the thoughts of others on this fine site.

I have seen a lot of results from Cooley and Wesley about PRP, but was wondering if folks here were aware of any docs that specifically specialized in this on the west coast. Umar and Diep I assume would do it, but was wondering if anyone had made it their "thing".

Are you talking fin or dut? How long are you out from surgery?

Thanks for the interesting paper. It seems reasonable that you would damage the follicle, in addition to dormant follicles around it, with the individual punches. Are there any other recent studies comparing the two techniques head-to-head that anyone is aware of? Obviously as has been pointed out, specific surgeon experience with the two approaches is key, so was wondering if other surgeons had been as forthcoming with their data.

Briefly looking through pubmed, there are some 'in vitro' studies that show definite tumor promoting properties by increasing the blood supply to tumors through a growth factor called VEGF. No actual 'in vivo' trials that I could find. In particular, who knows if the PRP gets into your systemic circulation at a reasonable level, and if its effects are only local, then you would presumably have to have cancerous/pre-cancerous cells already on your scalp, skull or brain (ie. skin, bone or brain cancer), which are relatively rare in younger folk. It seems, however, that no one knows for sure.

That's a good point for Erdogan, but Lorenzo is in Spain, right?

Nice dude, you are going through a real transformation. Keep us updated!

Thank you! If you get a chance, please show us some pics of how things turn out, always nice to see.

Comforting to hear some consistency in the responses. Cuoto is a new name, and though their clinic reps have posted nice results, does he have any results submitted by patients? I will do some digging through the Spanish forums (Recuperar el pelo) as I am fairly fluent. If any one is aware of specific threads there or elsewhere that stand out, would love to hear them. Also, 3.5 years is kind of crazy, either he operates very slowly or has the greenest thumbs in Europe. I was surprised to see less mention of names like Lorenzo, Erdogan, etc. and it seems that the clinics themselves are not posting results that much anymore. Is this just a change in their advertising market or has the hype about the European 'FUE gods' faded with time? I am in the US, so I would prefer an American doc just because I feel they are more accountable just by virtue of being in the United States, but money is not an issue if someone is the right guy. I am also wiling to be patient as far as waiting list (ie. a year out is not a problem), though within reason (3-5 years out is just silly).

It seems from searching the old posts that this is a topic on which opinion has evolved over years, as older docs retire and new guys show up, but I was wondering, regardless of FUT or FUE, who are your top 3 as of 2017? There are a large number of excellent guys on this site, but some of the names I am not used to seeing. I was wondering if folks on here had a consensus opinion about who their favorites were..

Awesome buddy. You've got quite a journey of recovery ahead of you. Please keep us updated!

This is amazing.

Wow what a journey. Really interesting to see how they did your facial hair and congrats on making it this far. Please keep us updated.

There are a couple of comments like this in the thread from people who have had successful transplants, and it has been something in the back of my mind quite a bit as well. I'm curious as to what your experiences have been. Are you guys saying that your normal hair fell out behind the transplants (as would be expected) and now you're running into issues with coverage because of insufficient donor supply? It is a good point though, there isn't much info out there about long term planning. I guess a lot of people on the virgin end of of the knife are not interested in the 'later on', and it seems like most of the posts are at most up to a few years after the transplant. Might be a good idea for a subforum or dedicated thread.. a collection of long term experiences after the 10 year mark.

Does it though? Konior trained Gabel right? I don't see a big difference in how natural Gabel's hairlines look relative to the big K. Maybe they all do it to some extent, just Gabel actually marks it out.. This is another one of his more recent ones.. I assume they put more narrow caliber follicles along the front so it doesn't look as abrupt.