Ian.

Many of us can get in a major funk where our situation feels hopeless. Whether it's about our hair, or the hair more of a metaphor for our life in its current state. But a successful hair transplant wouldn't necessarily alleviate your anxiety/depression. A bad one would only make things much, much worse. All is not lost my friend, you're not out of options for your hair yet. But Berba11 is right. If your depression is that crippling, before delving into strategies of keeping/improving your hair, try to find someone you are willing to talk to one on one about your situation in person if possible. I'm not trying to stop you from getting hair advice here or anything, because it's clearly bothering you. I'm sure we all can empathize as it bothers everyone on here to a degree, so I encourage members to chime in with suggestions. That said, depression can be a multifaceted problem where the root cause might not necessarily be what you think it is. Best, Ian

Personally, between the two, I don't think it's even close. Dr. Arocha is the way to go. But as long as you're in the stages of looking at doctors and can't go outside of Texas, I would get a consult with Dr. Yaker in Plano as well. It might sound harsh, but I honestly wouldn't go to Dr. Mcgrath if he gave me a hair transplant for free.

Hi Buddysdad, was the decision to go from topical minoxidil to oral Dr. Cooley’s suggestion or something you decided for yourself?

Hey, last update was looking great! I think this new hair will work in your favor to crush the NCLEX!

Thanks for the photos and write-up! You chose a great doc, I look forward to seeing your results!

No one on this forum should feel obligated to answer any of your questions when all you’re doing is going around trashing other people’s results.

Dr. Arocha, I am curious about PRP and how it is best utilized. I’m not exactly sure how to best phrase the question so I’ll try a couple of different ways and see if any make sense. Is PRP a time sensitive therapy in that it works best for patient’s in early stages of balding? Can PRP “wake up” follicles that have been inactive for long periods of time? Personally, I feel like my hair has stabilized with Propecia over the past two years and wonder when an optimal time to consider a PRP treatment might be. Could it be that the longer I wait, the chances I will see a noticeable improvement will diminish? Thanks, Ian

5 months post-op is usually when you have to start telling guys to be patient because it’s still early in the process…something tells me you don’t require any of this reassurance, haha! Happy to see a guy get rewarded for his patience by waiting until the right opportunity with the right clinic was found!

Wow, what a difference! Thanks and congrats!

Would love to see how the final results turned out if you get a chance.

Here is a repair case where Dr. Cooley used electrolysis: https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/51305-fut-repair-with-dr-cooley/

I am no authority on the subject, but I have seen commercials for a class action lawsuit regarding Just for Men for some kind of adverse reactions to phenylenediamine. Is this a substantial risk for the average user? Is this just a case of lawyers trying to make some money? I have no clue. Have you used the product in the past?

Well I hope they help. It's a sort of art that I have yet to master myself. But I have even used a combination of the two before. Dermmatch is makeup for the scalp (some guys can work magic with it, but I find it hard to pull off, possibly because I couldn't really get an identical shading), and the Hairatin seems to get the scalp and hold on to the hair a bit. Let us know how it works for you.

Have you tried Hairatin? It's a bit pricier, but I believe it is a better product. Regardless of which you use it's tough to pull off on the hairline.

I would suggest sticking with what has been working for you for the past decade. Quartering a pill is worth the minor inconvenience rather than going through a potential backslide in your hair retention.

Hell man, I thought you were from like Uzbekistan or somewhere you needed a travel visa or something lol. You're in NY, why not go get a consultation with Dr. Bernstein. From what I've heard the guy doesn't have an ounce of bullshit in him. Perhaps more importantly, I checked out the link. The 13th photo looked really familiar to me, and I remembered seeing it on Realself's website. Check it out. https://www.realself.com/photos/fue-hair-transplant?tags=9953#media-photo-1622205-1494008-1 Apparently it was done by someone by the name of Dr. Karadeniz... Tell me that's not the same photo just more zoomed in...

You’re the older brother, you have special license to pull rank on him. Especially if your paying for his trip/surgery. I don’t think you can let him go through a sketchy elective surgery with a clean conscience. You’ll hate yourself if it disfigures him for life. Besides, he owes it to himself to put in the time and do his own research. I did a cursory search on Smile. I couldn’t find much. As far as I could tell they’ve been open for about a year. I couldn’t find any actual before after photos. Not even on their website or facebook. I didn't spend a lot of time looking, maybe I missed them. Just people fresh after surgery or model photos of non-patients. I’m not necessarily saying this about you because I have no idea, but it is really easy to trick yourself into thinking that you’ve done a lot of research on this subject. “I’ve done a lot of research” and “I’ve really done my homework” have been said many times by people on forums before surgery and then you scroll down and see terrible results 12 months later. Those phrases are almost like the kiss of death lol. Where are you located?

I think it’s great that you’re looking out for your younger brother. Actually, I’m about your age and have brothers around your brothers age as well (hair loss runs in our family too😊). I bet that we’re also similar in that the last thing that we would is for one to be harmed by imitating decisions that we make ourselves. Whether we like it or not, we have a lot of influence on their behavior. What about you? Do you feel good about going through a hair transplant, or are you reconsidering? I don't want you to be a lab rat for your brother, but at the very least, can’t he wait to see how your results turn out before making that decision? Like others have stated, in that time span he can try medication to see how his body responds. Why is the clinic recommending medication after the transplant and not before? To make their potentially mediocre results look better? By the way, we haven’t even gone into who would be performing you and your brother’s surgery.. Regardless of expectations, I think that his age does play a role in this. Twenty-three is an awfully young age to make a life-long decision like that. What style of hair does he plan on having? If he likes it short, a less drastic move would be to do what your 26-year-old brother does and rock the shaved head look. He does have a great shaped head for it, and he won’t be able to go with his current length with surgery.

You're right, it is very early in the process. Having said that, I think you put your trust in the right guy because Dr. Panine does great work, and in a few months your results should be evidence of that!

Well I think that you're going to find it difficult for anyone on this forum to agree with you. So far everyone has told you that it's a bad idea, but it sounds like you already have your mind made up.

Yeah, that would make me nervous too. I'm not sure if there's anything sadder on forums than seeing a guy who got overharvested at a young age and left with no options. I happen to be more of a fan of stripping out, but every case is different. And maybe 3,000 grafts isn't overharvesting. Maybe it's the perfect amount. But what if not all of the grafts in the recipient area take? It happens. Will you have enough grafts for a supplemental surgery? I'm glad that you're going to get more consultations as I am no expert. I don't know all the ins and outs of surgery. Like you, I've never had a hair transplant. That's why I really try not to "give advice." Just giving you things to consider.

Well once you have a transplant, you basically forfeit the head shaving option. If you would seriously be cool with being a head shaver within the next few years, I would think that going through all the stress of a hair transplant wouldn’t be worth it. Personally, I think that if you are unsure which surgical procedure to get, unsure how many grafts should be used, unsure of which doctor to go with, and unsure if you should even have a hair transplant, then there is no harm in holding off for a while. Best, Ian

I think that everyone was clear in what you meant. Your hair looks great! Don't fly too close to the sun!

Look, I think that you starting this conversation shows that you have a certain level of restraint instead of diving head-first into surgery which is good. That said, you need to get the idea of having surgery within the next year out of your head. I believe that Lennney is right, it’s not just about your age at this point. You simply haven’t done enough quality research, and emotionally your ripe for the taking of any doctor that is willing to tell you what you want to hear just to put you through a living hell in exchange for money. I personally don’t feel comfortable telling people to get on medication because I do not feel qualified. That said, the people who are telling you that the side effects are inevitable and irreversible are probably mainly people like you. As in they have never even tried it, just repeat what they hear and discourage others from giving it a shot. No offense, but if you have been doing as much research into finasteride as you have into doctors, you need to start back from square 1. Because someone you might call “credible” or “ethical” probably wouldn’t line up with how others would define those words. Just because Turkey is the one of the rare countries that you can visit, doesn’t mean that you couldn't have a Skype consultation with doctors from other countries just to pick their brain about your options. I find it off-putting that your doctor tells you that they have a system in place where if things don’t go according to plan, they offer a complimentary surgery. It’s already putting you in a mind frame of expecting and accepting a bad result like it’s no big deal. If someone botches the first procedure, potentially wasting or underutilizing 3K grafts, why would you ever let them touch you again and do the same with another 2K or so? Because it’s free? If you have trouble receiving any further guidance here, I would recommend that you youtube Joe Tillman and the Bald Truth. You’ll find hours and hours of hair transplant, medication discussion, etc. I think it’s a great place for you to start for easily accessible, quality information. Best of luck!

A couple of things I’d like to add: I wouldn’t bet on a baldness cure anytime soon. Having a hair transplant based on a baldness cure that hasn’t been invented is unwise and you cannot add that to the list of reasons to through with a transplant. I don’t know anything about the doctor you’ve consulted with, and maybe he’ll be a rock star in the hair transplant world. Something makes me think otherwise. Right there your making a high-risk wager on two unknowns. Your concern for your mental health is paramount. Perhaps that’s another reason that your concerned to take medication that could interfere with that. If so, that’s understandable. I don’t want to get to personal (but hell this is an anonymous forum) but how much of that ties into your concern about your hair? Spending 2 hours getting ready to leave the house from what your hair looks like in your pictures seems excessive. Maybe on a day when you don’t have to leave the house, set a timer for 30 minutes. Tell yourself that’s all the time your giving yourself and see if the end result makes that much of a difference. While we’re on the topic of mental health. How would you psychologically deal with a surgery that depleted you donor hair and worsened your recipient area? I believe that you’re probably a smart guy. You’re about to graduate from college, and it sounds like your setting high goals for yourself professionally. That’s awesome! But here’s something to think about: Could you accomplish your career goals while wearing a hat? My guess is no. Because if you have a bad transplant result, that might be what your stuck under before you have the chance to save up for a high-quality surgeon that charges you for a difficult repair job. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer. These are just things to consider. I know you are in a tough spot and your being honest about being unhappy about your appearance. Make no mistake, it sucks! But you have to be honest with yourself about the potential outcome. I don’t know everything about you, but from what I’ve gathered, personally, I don’t think that you are prepared for surgery. That being said, I am just a guy online. If you do end up going the route of surgery, like jj51702 I hope that you get a surgeon that has your best interest in mind.