JerryCornelius

It's so true about the crown - that's the thing that makes me feel "balding" more than any thing else.

Thanks for the replies, guys. The libido actually did return, thankfully. Although it's true it has waned a bit since I turned 40. Seems like FUE is the way to go. Does it produce better results than FUT? Or is it more that it's a less intrusive procedure?

The finasteride lowered my libido - it happened very slowly, though. I was on it for around 2 and half years so I didn't notice the process. At some point I just realised that things were not as they used to be and it seemed the finasteride was the culprit. I went off it and the libido returned to normal after about three weeks, thankfully! I was fully expecting to go quite bald once I stopped the meds, but to my extreme relief it my hair loss seemed to be stable.

Hi all, I had a hair transplant performed 16 months ago in October 2015 by Dr Martinick in Sydney. It was a FUT procedure of 2500 grafts to fill in the crown and the temples and I'd love to get some reactions from the folks here before I make any further decisions. I'll put a few photos in this post but there's more in the photo album. I'm 43 now and my hair loss started at least 10 years ago. I was on finasteride for several years but stopped due to side effects. My hair loss seems stable - I quit the finasteride 4 years ago and because I didn't really notice any more thinning during that time I decided to opt for a transplant. However after 16 months I don't feel that the outcome has been as successful as it should have been. While it's certainly an improvment there's still a lot of scalp showing through in any kind of normal lighting situation. The Dr explained that the thinness in the scalp was due to several factors - the fact that my hair is quite fine, the fact that there is a high degree of contract between the hair and the scalp and also because of the way the hair had to be placed to re-create the swirl on the crown. (You can see in the first of my pictures the red dot on my scalp where the swirl begins.) The temples also have a somewhat see-through appearance which doesn't seem right to me. The Dr offered to thicken the scalp with a further 800 grafts at half price. So I guess my questions are: Is the amount of growth reasonable for 2500 grafts after 16 months? Was I expecting too much from one procedure or am I right to have expected more growth? Would another 800 grafts thicken the crown up? Would you take that offer based on the results in the photos? Half price is a significant saving, of course but it seems from looking through this site that the general recommendation for Australians is to have the procedure done somewhere else. Maybe this would be a better use of my money and my donor hair! On the other hand the actual surgery with Dr Martinick was a very professional, pain-free and straight forward process. I'm having trouble deciding my next move. Any opinions would be welcome!