Rolandas

2 hours ago, NorwoodSix said:

@Rolandas  If you don't mind me asking, how old were you when you started treatment and how long had the hair been gone for at the time of treatment? I ask because I'm a NW6 and the hair has been gone for about 7-8 years now (I'm 34), so I'm curious if I can expect any regrowth at all in my current situation (I just started Fin, Min, DermaPen, etc.) last week.

1. I started this regiment a year ago, so I was 27.

2. I've been loosing hair since 20/21. The way I looked pre-treatment I was for about 2 years with slight worsening.

3. If you post your pictures that would be more clear. It depends . What I learned is Finasteride mostly stop FURTHER progression. Not many people are actually regrowing hair. Min + Derma Pen is mainly thickening existing hair, thus scalp looks fuller.

Don't give up! At beginning I was discouraged to use fin and anything else and it got me to NW5. When i finally started using it I couldn't believe what it can actually do. There are a lot of people that responding incredibly well, much better than me to the BIG 3. Search for a thread on this forum and you will see guy with NW 5-6 went down to 1-2.

 

Best of luck!

In the end of the day I think what's matters is the skill of the doctor and not who he is or where he is coming from. Nevertheless thank you both for confirming my thoughts on him!

3 minutes ago, CosmoKramer said:

Nice progress man! Definitely see progress and your existing hair looks thicker!

Whom did you choose for your HT and how many grafts?

Thanks man! I think biggest impact (so far...!!!) was from Finasteride. It really kick-started regrowth process. I've got so much new hairs on my hairline area (Zone 2-3). At this point pictures can't really show what I see in the mirror because they're new-borns  Minoxidil & Dermaroller obviously done fantastic job in terms of crown and mid scalp. At the beginning I had few long hairs in there and now it's long all the way to frontal area.

I think the best reference for your question would be:

11 hours ago, Portugal25 said:

Dear Roland,

I live in Portugal and I was also deciding between Dr. Bruno and Dr. Pekiner so congratulations on you choice because Dr. Bruno (Best patient evaluation I’ve ever received and he always replied fast and directly not through a patient advisor) is a rising star and the prices at his clinic in Porto are still affordable (even though 15% more expensive than Pekiner). 

I chose Dr. Pekiner because right now I’m in Ankara doing 2000 head grafts plus 1500 beard grafts and Dr. Pekiner has a lot of great results posted in the Italian forum from patients with 1000+ BHT sessions. 

If I was not doing 1500 BHT grafts I would have avoided the flight to Ankara and chosen Dr. Bruno. 

Reccomendations:

1. don’t take any clothes without  bottons because you can’t dress anything over your head.

2. Take a vanity mirror to apply spray and cream

3. Ask for a black surgical cap so you can feel more comfortable walking around in public

Wish you all the best and please post your results because Dr. Bruno Ferreira still has no patient results posted in any forum and he is truly one of the great ones to look out for. 

Hey man,

Thanks for advice! Didn't thought of one with the mirror. Top man!

As I wrote before that's ine of the reasons I chose Dr. Ferreira over Dr. Pekiner! I know they're both great surgeons and everyone has their preference.

8 minutes ago, Tbcruz said:

How much is he charging for the procedure ? 
@rolandas

Hi Tbcruz,

At the moment he's charging €2.5/graft. If you compare his work to other top surgeons it's top notch as well, so value for money is amazing. Fingers crossed for myself!

Hello gents,

It's time for update!

Month 11 of Dermarolling & Minoxidil + Month 5 of Finasteride.

To be honest right now I'm so happy with my gains that I dont think about my hair (unless it's very windy!!!). Putting my hair spray in the morning and I am good to go.

Comparing from where I started that's a huge success for me. 1 year ago when I did comb over it was so thin that you could see my scalp if all my hair strands doesn't lay down perfectly. Today when I do the same hairstyle it looks like I'm losing only in the temples a.k.a. receiding hairline. Many people are even surprised when I tell them that I'm losing my hair. That's how good I am at camouflaging it! 😁 I think there's is still more to get from Finasteride as it's just month 5 (month 3 on full 1mg dose), so looking forward to that!

Last week started tapering off minoxidil slowly. Started doing every other day just once a day. This week I will do every day just once a day. I will have another 2 weeks to completely stop using it before my surgery in end January, so I guess my last update will be in mid January.

Up!

Still looking forward for suggestions from who had the surgery done.

I really want to get it as smooth as possible so any tips and tricks are welcome!

26 minutes ago, clerksband said:

I think this is what I'll do. If someone mentions my hair offhand, I'll just say that it's Rogaine. But if I see real curiosity due to the other person suffering from alopecia, then I'll be totally straight and explain the procedure.

Don't give false hopes for people! They will start rubbing rogaine with big hopes...

20 minutes ago, clerksband said:

I appreciate all the answers so far. I want to clarify a bit more about my situation. My worry is not about being ashamed or trying to hide my HT, as I had absolutely no problem in explaining it during the weeks after the procedure when I had my scabs in display. The issue here is that I'm in some kind of grey area in where I have no idea on whether people will notice it or not. Could it be that friends see something "different" but can't point out if I got in shape, or is that I dress differently or what. Or it also could be that it's very evident that I got a lot more hair. So if someone says anything about my appearance just to make conversation and I immediately start rambling about my HT, it could be a case of "too much information". But on the opposite, I really don't want to lie or deny that I had anything done. 

It's a weird in-between.

Wasn't the purpose of HT in the first place to stop worrying and forget about your hairloss and what others think? Just move on with your day, be happy to see your friend and family and if someone says something that's when you can say "yeah I have this done".

8 hours ago, clerksband said:

Just to clarify, I am NOT talking about going back to work 3 days after HT surgery with all your scabs showing. No, I’m talking about people seeing you for the first time post-HT when it you’ve already grown a full set of hair.

A bit of context, I had my HT around a year ago. I was living abroad due to work, and only now I’ll be coming back home and hang again all my old friends. The thing is, the bulk of them haven’t seen me post HT and I’m a bit nervous on whether they’ll notice something or not and how to react. My case is a bit tricky because it’s not like before I was half bald, it was mostly thinning (hairline has stayed intact). Obviously, there’s a difference but it’s not super-evident at first sight. I don’t know if it’s best to be totally straight and talk about my HT or try to defuse the conversation and say that I started applying Rogaine snd it worked wonders on me or something.

Did any of you had a similar experience? How did you handled it? Any tips?

I wouldn't start conversation with this for sure, but if someone says something is different I would be straight forward "yeah I've done hair transplant, looks good isn't it?". Be proud of it. You had an issue and you dealt with it. That's what men do. Solving problems. 👍

Hi guys,

So I am just "another dude" with a hair loss problem like all of you here haha. I am 28, diffuse NW5 pattern. Been losing my hair since 21 years old. Once I lost my hairline completely (except forelock) i became self conscious about it and started growing out hair to cover that spot and for the last 3 years I've been doing it quite well (thanks to hair spray!).

Medical Treatment

This year in January I started using Minoxidil 5% with dermaroller with some good results. I felt like I'm not loosing any more hair, but actually regaining it back. You can check out my separate thread for that.

After long debates I also decided to get on board with Finasteride, but started with super low dosage of 0.25 mg twice a week to check how my body will react to that. Looked like it was all good, so I increased dosage to 0.5 mg 3 times a week and eventually 1 mg/day. Been on a full dose for the last 3-4 months now and looks like it works great for me. Don't see any hairs falling out for quite some time already, so I feel my MPB is stable. At this point I believe medical therapy will keep improving my crown and mid scalp, so I just need to get the front done via HT. Today, in day to day life I'm not thinking too much about my hair, unless it's windy and it blows away my comb over and gives a great view for people of my bald front lol! That's the worst thing that's happening in my day haha. Well, anyway.. Moving on..

Hunt for a surgeon

After a year of intense research, long debates and countless before & after's I finally decided to book in a surgery! Super excited to finally get it done.

Originally I started looking at Turkey for it's affordability. Checked pretty much every clinic out there where Doctor is involved in surgery at some point (bypassing all these hair mills!). Learned a lot of things a long the way so it made my list much smaller. Got tons of proposals from different clinics starting from "one and done" types of clinic, to more expensive ones like Asmed. Most of doc's are doing incisions only and leaving the rest for techs and since we all have limited donor supply and truly just 1 shot to make it or brake it, I have decided for myself that I want Dr. himself to do most crucial parts of surgery.

Following that mindset I found couple of surgeons:

Dr. Demirsoy

• Does 1 patient a day
• Does extractions & incisions himself
• Lots of great reviews on forums
• Fits my budget

One thing bothering me he wanted to do 4000-4500 grafts over 1 day. After some debates I decided not to go for it. I am a proponent of smaller amounts over few days to preserve grafts, donor and doc could focus more on procedure itself, especially extractions and not waste any precious grafts.

Dr. Pekiner

• Lots of positive feedback
• Does extractions & incisions himself
• Does 1 patient a day
• Charging almost twice more

At this point I decided not to focus on money (thanks for my research!) and be open for more expensive options. Now, here is a things that was bothering me. He suggested 3000 grafts for the frontal part, from which 2500 would be extracted from scalp and 500 from beard. I really don't feel like using beard grafts for my first procedure! Just doesn't sounds right. Also patient adviser said that Dr. Pekiner will not change his mind and that's the only thing he would do. No negotiations. Obviously I didn't feel nice about it, so I decided to keep looking.

I decided to get out of Turkish market and start looking from across the world. I had 2 live consultations with Dr. Bisanga and Dr. Lupanzula where both confirmed my great donor. Both suggested to be conservative and everything looks great, but the amount of money they are charging was sadly out of my reach.

At some point I been watching so many videos on YouTube from Dr. Jose Lorenzo and always been amazed of his work. Obviously he was charging a big buck for his stellar job, but one thing that got my attention was he started working with Dr. Bruno Ferreira at some point over the last few years. I was "mhm.. If this guy is good enough for Dr. Lorenzo, he must be good". So I looked him up.

Turns out Dr. Ferreira has a lot of experience in HT. He was mainly working for other clinics and now for Dr. Lorenzo in Madrid. He has also his own clinic in Portugal where he is based. The problem I found is he has very, very limited exposure online of his own work, only because most of his time he was working for someone else, meaning, someone else owns the rights for before/after. Despite this fact, every case he presented for me was a "wow" case. Recently I spoke with Joe Tillman & Spencer Kobren on their show and asked what's their opinion on this young doctor and was pleasantly surprised that they know this guy very well and in their opinion his job is stellar.

So here we are. I send him my standard email and I've got the best online assessment I've ever seen! It was a great surprise of his attention to detail from his initial impression, to medical treatment, to prognosis, to HT plan consisting of two separate surgeries to achieve full recovery. Not a typical "copy - paste" type of response. He even convinced me to jump on Finasteride full dose 1mg/day, which I'm glad I did!

Dr. Ferreira proposed 3000-3500 grafts (will decide on live consultation after he "gets his hands on my scalp")  Surgery will be done in 2 consecutive days. At this point we decided to go for frontal restoration first, which is my main concern.

After almost 40 emails back and forth and ~45 min video chat (Yes, with Dr. himself!) I finally decided - this is it, this is my Dr! Booked my surgery with him on January 28-29, 2020. Fingers crossed!

P.S. Dr. Ferreira is quite OCD/perfectionist. I guess that's the best thing a patient could hear about his doctor!

What I'm looking for right now is I need advise from you guys. I booked my hotel in Porto (30 seconds away from clinic hahaha ) from 27th of Jan to 2nd of Feb, so transplanted grafts will have 4 days to "settle down" and will less likely to be dislodged and whatnot.

What shall I buy before surgery so I stay as comfortable as possible? Any special travel pillow? Aloe Vera gel for donor post-op? Any special hat for post-op? Tie my hands to bed for the first 7 nights, so I don't scratch recipient area while sleeping?

Any help is appreciated!

Super excited to get this finally done!

Many thanks.

Rolandas

12 minutes ago, Szotz_257 said:

I think I know which surgeon you are talking about, hehe.

And yes, logically there’s no upside to motorized for the patient. All else equal, the graft will have a lower chance of surviving, much lower in some cases. Hair loss is progressive and grafts are finite, meaning graft survival should be one of your highest priorities. This was a bitter and hard-earned lesson for myself personally.

No one can make the choice for you and for all I know it might turn out well with Demirsoy anyway. But you at least have my two cents here.

Edit: the reasons given for motorized being superior sound pretty weak to me. Of course, expertise and experience are important in order to compensate for fatigue and control things like rotational angle when performing manual FUE. None of this changes the fact that the graft is exposed to more heat, torque and force with motorized than with manual, and that this lowers graft survival.

Keep in mind, motorized is very good for docs. They therefore have a powerful motivation to use it, and to convince you that it’s no different from manual, or even superior. 

Find a doctor, who does motorised extractions but not doing 3000-4000 a day and can focus on extractions and you are good to go 👌

27 minutes ago, Szotz_257 said:

If he is using motorized now I would strongly suggest you reconsider your choice, or at least think deeply about your decision. The average rates of graft survival between manual and motorized are not comparable. If you do a comparison of docs doing manual FUE and motorized, you will be shocked by how inconsistent and often outright poor the motorized results are.

That's not how you compare "survival rate". Take one doctor and make him master manual and motorised punches and then ask to perform extractions with both tools one after another. That's how you can compare and know for sure if it's true or not.

So many doctors are using micro motor with excellent results and vise versa.

Don't focus on tool, focus on result. After 20 years you will not care what tool doc used, you will care how you look.

12 hours ago, Fred88 said:

I have finally made a decision and currently on the process of booking with Dr Demirsoy. 

I extended my research a bit more and found out:

He'd been doing FUT in the past, so extended experience in HT. Many HT surgeries over years, so you are at safe hands.

Joe Tilman has named him as a recommended surgeon in the UK forum.

He'd been doing manual extraction in the past but motorized now. Extractions are done by himself so no fear of damaging hair follicles or scaring.

To be honest, the hairline in his cases look way more natural. I personally don't like doll-shape round hairline. 

He has recommend me 3500-4000 for all areas including Frontline, top and the crown area, all in one go (as Dr Pekiner told me the same, that crown can be covered in one go or after 6 months, and I'm eligible for both options). What do you guys say? Any possibility of permanent hair shock? I have no idea about that.

Please tell me what you think with my choice overall (honest comments) as I still have time to review back my decision.

I remember having Demirsoy on my list and he really looks like a solid choice, however what I decided to go for is not having a megasession in one day as you can get over harvested as well as grafts survival rate drops.

I would chose Pekiner as he does smaller session a day, which means he has more time to think and do a better job overall.

I've tried to book with him as well, but his comment that he wants to use beard grafts on me (estimated 3000 grafts. 2500 scalp and 500 beard) on a virgin scalp just didn't sound good to me... I believe body hair should be used as a last resort as it's completely different texture hair.

Best of luck!

Month 10.

On the photos doesn't look like much improvement, but I see more and more tiny hairs sprouting all over my scalp (finasteride!).

If I would shave my head it would be super obvious NW5 pattern, but the way I'm combing my hair it looks like i just receided on the temples (haha thanks God for hair spray!).

Btw crown has the best improvement.

Still hoping all these little hairs will mature and grow longer and thicker.

Btw pictures taken with and without flash for comparatives.

1 hour ago, Fred88 said:

I agree. So let's say the most important or the first in one's research is to consider how much of the process is done by the Dr himself.

I would agree for myself, but I know few people that dont bother who's doing procedure.

In my perspective, you have 1 shot to get it done. Either successfully or screw it up.

Good luck with your research. I feel you will make a great choice for yourself.

24 minutes ago, Fred88 said:

Joe's also mentioned if considering any association, then ABHRS is the best of all since it's the only one that needs Dr to give a real test. However, you're right and that's why I still have surgeons who are not a member of ABHRS in my list.

Today my list has changed to:

Dr. Pekiner (still there, one of the few who is doing all the process himself). 
Further thinking: 
1. The case here who did not have a good result and it was claimed to be the consequence of not following post-op instructions (I'd like to believe it was DUPA because I can't convince myself not having Finasteride can cause that!). 
2. He's neither in ABHRS nor in IAHRS (need to convince e myself they're not that important but good to have).

Dr. Keser (pictures and hairlines look very natural (the best I've seen so far); apparently does all the process himself)
Further thinking:
1. I don't know how to contact him!
2. He's neither in ABHRS nor in IAHRS.

Dr. Karandeniz (suggested by Joe Tilman but not directly in his videos, member of ABHRS).  
Further thinking: 
1. He just does the incisions. 4 surgeries per day are considered to be a bulky size for me and together with the low price tag resembles cheap clinics.
2. I saw a negative experience on a forum.

Dr. Demisroy (don't know him enough yet, but his results don't look bad)
Further thinking: 
1. He's neither in ABHRS nor in IAHRS.

That's a great and fast research. Well done.

Dont forget things like IAHRS is a good thing, but not every surgeon wants to get on board for various reasons, and one of them can be they're already busy and dont need further exposure neither they want to pay monthly dues.

I would suggest look up on all Joe's classes, learn how good transplant looks like and start looking for yourself. You dont need to rely on any "stamps" on websites. Once you know what a good work looks like, it will be easier to determine good surgeon.

Also keep in mind what work you want to be done. If its hairline, looks who's creating natural hairline that you like. If you have limited donor/large area to cover - look who's doing great work with least amount fo grafts and doing big cases.

As far as I know Dr. Pekiner has great work and I'm considering him myself.

Demirsoy would be my choice if I would have small budget.

Karadeniz was great in my opinion few years back when he was doing job himself, but since he switched to "Turkish style", I wouldn't trust techs. He was working with Joe some time ago, but mutually agreed to stop as he was running his clinic in western way, which is not profitable in Turkey.

I would suggest not to focus on abhrs and especially ishrs as it doesnt really tell if surgeons work is good.

Search on youtube Joe Tillman's hair transplant class about hair transplant associations and what they mean to understand more about it.

I would suggest to contact surgeon you're interested in and ask for quite tailored for you. That's the best way to find out what they propose for your case.

It's a decision for you to make as to whom you trust more as Raphael84 mentioned. Take your time and don't rush into it. I'm not saying postpone your planned surgery date, but just spend more time on research. A good 2-3 hours of research and you can get a lot of your questions answered.

Good luck!

Hi guys,

Another update. Month 9.

I'm thrilled with progress so far.

Started finasteride full dose 1mg/day (propecia brand) a little over 1 month ago. Seems like it really kicks in some new regrowth all over scalp, especially in the front 1/3 where I didn't expect it at all in the beginning! A shit load of vellus hairs coming out. Still hoping those will mature fully.

What are your opinions on that? Will they become terminal hairs or not?

Would love to hear feedback from Dr. Pekiner or his advisor about this! To untrained eye his donor looks alright.

1 hour ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Ok got it. Any other questions? 

I think that's the most important question. Why.

Maybe just out of curiosity, what happens to freezed follicles if person donated them passes away?

Just now, Melvin-Moderator said:

I’m not sure what you mean, are you asking if the reason why men are freezing their hair is because donor dominance is debunked?

Yeah. I mean that would be the question for them.

Donor dominance theory? Is it debunked?

I would suggest to not look into Clinics, but Surgeons. Don't trust too much their websites and social media as they present absolute best cases. You want to look what's average. If you will be one of those "best" then good for you, but manage your expectations to stay safe.

What people don't realise about Clinics results, that the have 5-20 people a day. Its 100-400 patients a month. If there's only 1-5 results posted by clinic each month out of 100-400 think for yourself how did others look if they didn't made to clinics website catalogue.

Obviously nobody is perfect, but that's just one more thing to consider.

Also think of who is actually performing surgery and which parts of it. Is it dr or technician. Don't forget your HT will be for life time, so you might as well research well to not screw up! Choose wisely.

After you learned about what I just mentioned, did you due diligence, you will see there is actually only few places to go in Turkey.

Best of luck on your research and don't rush it!

6 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Wow that is really good pricing. Are you sure that is correct? Sounds too good to be true.

That's what he told me. I see i shouldn't be talking about price in the first place

Also It can be too good to be true, but lack of results is putting it down.