ThickGreenLawn

They said almost exactly the same thing to me for my online consultation although I've been on fin for 15 years! I had 4700 grafts in the end and after nearly 6 months I appear to have a totally full head of hair so I'm well happy. If he gave you a graft quote and agreed to treat you my advice would be to stay on fin, book a date and get over to Istanbul ASAP!

You're definitely not quite there but I wouldn't be worried just yet. I've seen many Erdogan cases where it looks to be heading to a sub-par result but by a year every single case I've seen has reached a satisfactory result or better. I think improvements at this stage are probably less dramatic than the first 6 months so it's a longer waiting game.

Have to disagree with you there. Erdogans methods are justified by the consistently excellent results that are posted by the clinic and by patients across several diffent hair loss forums. If you don't like his approach then fair enough, go to another clinic. As far as having permanent shock loss, yes this can happen but it's considered that any lost hair was on it's way out anyway and the transplanted hair will be in place to replace it. Not that I think this is a problem with ASMED as I haven't seen any of their patients complain about permenent shock loss.

As an Asmed patient (review to follow), I would say that Dr. Erdogan places many more grafts than other surgeons in areas that are thinning but not bald. He seems to be able to do this without permanent shock loss to the thinning hair which comes back after a few months. His strategy therfore seems to be to provide transplanted hair to areas that he feels will need hair in the future. This approach suited me as I woud prefer not to have another transplant for quite some time if at all.

So your surgeon charges by the hair and not by the graft? Now I can see why he is aiming for 3000 hairs for your 1000 grafts. Did you discuss with him the need for single hairs in the hairline to produce a natural result? I said before that he would have to cherry pick the multiple grafts of 3's or more to get 3000 hairs but this should be to benefit your result not the pocket of the surgeon. Multiple hairs should be saved for the midscalp and crown, especially if further loss is likely. I really question the ethics of your surgeon in your case, particularly considering his price structure. Similar to what others in this thread have said I see several problems with this approach and in your best interests I would advise you to reconsider going ahead with this as there are way better options available to you.

Nice bit of early growth for 3 months. It should get better and better for you from this point. Enjoy!

Great videos but I'm not sure you reported on what happened after your nizoral shed. Did your hair grow back? Are the videos you posted from before or after your shed?

It's a totally valid point. For every single hair harvested then a five will then be needed to mainatain the promised average of 3 hairs per graft. How many procedures have you ever seen with an average of 3 hairs per graft anyway? A doctor who plans for the future should save as many multiples as possible for mid-scalp and vertex work and use singles for the hairline.

If you're having to sell things to pay for 1000 grafts then I hope you're well prepared for the future. It looks like you have some thinning in the NW5 area so you should seriously consider propecia or else you may need future transplants. Nothing looks less natural than losing hair behind a strong hairline. Another thing to consider is that if you are to receive 3000 hairs from 1000 grafts then your surgeon must plan to cherry pick the triple hairs. Whilst multiple hairs are great for coverage in the mid-scalp and vertex, they look un-natural in the hairline where singles should be used. 1000 grafts is also not a lot of grafts for the area needed so I hope you plan on a conservative hairline. "My donor area is good as you can see." - you did not provide photos of your donor area.

Strange that you decided to respond to an old thread with such false assertions. Any medical practice that has proper procedures will have no risk to future patients at all.

Great write up! I'm sure everything will be great for you when it all grows out. I might have missed it but I was wondering what caliber your hair was. This along with your hairs per graft will indicate how much coverage you might expect.

It looks like a great result and I will be happy if my results are on a par. It makes sense to wait the full 18 months before deciding to go again though, especially as Dr. Erdogan says you should expect your final result after 18 months. If you feel like going again and have the money then you should do as you please. It might be a relief just to get on with your life and forget about your hair for a bit though. Also I think you should bear in mind that as you wear your back and sides very short, another procedure might make the scars and lower density more visible. Anyway I still say congratulations are in order! And by the way thank you for the account of your experience!

From your photos your hair looks pretty good and I would be satisfied with your progress after 7 months. By 18 months your transplanted hair should look much more similar to your native hair so I think it's just a waiting game. The worst part is over for you so you should be pretty happy!

It's a bit disappointing that Dr. Erdogan won't do a Skype conversation with you. I understand that he's a very busy man and his organisation must deal with a huge amount of correspondence but as a prior patient with concerns about your result I would expect you to be a high priority. Are they offering to retouch your hairline free of charge? If so it should be worth it as there's no doubt about the skill of his team. On the other hand, having viewed your past pictures it seems that your result is very good. Perhaps your expectations as to how natural a result you should expect were somewhat unrealistic.

I would have thought wispy and wiry are two words that have almost the opposite meaning with wiry indicating coarse and wispy indicating fine hair. Do you have any pictures so we can get an idea of what you mean?

I think other patients should learn an important lesson from your experience. Do all of your research about medications and your suitability for a hair transplant and thoroughly research your surgeon BEFORE you pay your deposit and book a date. You should be entirely happy that you've made the right decision before booking because if you cancel you shouldn't expect to have your deposit returned without good reason.

Although I expressed my concerns I think this thread could be helpful to people so please don't delete it. Perhaps it might be an idea to contact people whos photos you'd like to use to make sure they don't mind. The problem with relying on submissions is you're unlikely to get any of the worst examples of scarring so it might give people a false impression. Sorry to be a pain!

I would like to post pictures of my recent surgery with updates in the coming months. However I might reconsider this if my photos could be used in a thread such as this. I hope all the individuals patients who you have linked to are happy for their photos to be used to highlight their scarring.

Furthermore, patients presenting themselves to transplant Doctors will be far more likely to be part of the group of the population who are poorer responders to finasteride. This should be self evident as people who do better with the drug are less likely to consider surgery. The sample witnessed by Dr. Bloxham would therefore have a large degree of selection bias and would not be representative of the population as a whole. I think in his post he failed to emphasise how effective the treatment can be for many patients, indeed a considerable percentage of patients according to the Rossi study you mentioned.

Jjsrader I think your viewpoint is overly pessimistic. It's true that not everyone will be a good candidate for a transplant and ethical Doctors will rightfully reject those. Competent research from a prospective patient should also indicate to them if they're a good candidate. However, people are different and countless men, many of whom exist outside of the USA, can have a meaningful improvements to their lives from transplants. Anyway isn't the USA one of the most ethnically diverse places in the world? There should be a whole array of men with all sorts of different hair characteristics. Don't forget that women can also improve their lives with surgery. Instead of thinking that transplants should never have been invented, why not have the view that surgery is already improving people's lives and with new innovations, they can only improve in the future. I think there have been a few overly negative posts about transplants in general, different methods and treatments recently. It should be realised that both FUT and FUE can be great for suitable candidates and treatments like finasteride can help a huge percentage of hair loss sufferers. It's true that some people have it in their genes that it will be difficult for them but places like this forum are a great place to educate people about what their best options are. People with knowledge and experience are in a position to help others in the best way they can.

Tofur, you have claimed that finasteride stops working over time. I don't think there is any evidence that shows that this is the case. By all accounts if it works for you in the first year it will continue to work for you long term. Hair counts may decrease slowly over time but it's still working as you will have more hair than if you never took finasteride.

I had a feeling resurrecting this thread was a bad idea.

Very interesting - thanks Gasthoerer. I've no idea who any of the 'extremists' might be! I was however hoping that this thread might have expired...

Have you been washing the recepient area at all? It looks quite dry and scabby. It's often recommended to try to be scab free by 10 days if possible to speed up the healing process and minimise redness.

Could any of you guys who stayed at the hotel tell me if the Wifi is decent in the rooms? I'm staying for an extra week to relax and recover and might have to take a few extra books if Netflix isn't an option.