Rolandas

Sides usually have less density than occipital area, but it might be taken a bit more than should have.
I think you can try to shave it down to skin fade. From my experience and seeing couple more people it looks like if you have fair skin like myself, skin fade will not show scars that well (ofc skin fade should be low and slowly increasing in length when going up).
I think you can top up with another HT and it will overall look quite good. Ofc it looks like you're a bit on a slower grower side, so you will have more thickening to come. Don't do any decisions until at least 12 months.

3 hours ago, Raphael84 said:

As @ciaushas explained, a prescription from your doctor is necessary.

I have an independent study regarding it’s safety at low dosage over a longer period of time that I would have liked to have shared, but the file type is unsupported.

If anybody would like me to share it with them, I can send it via email. It is quite interesting.

Hi Raphael,

I would love to see aforementioned study. Would you be able to send it on mr.rolandas.ht@gmail.com please?

Thanks!

7.5 Months (32 weeks)

What's up gents! Here we are, 7.5 months. Length, 

In this video:
- Mini response to last video comments
- Hairline comb through under direct sunlight
- Hairline comb through indoors
- 3 weak spots of my HT
- Double graft in my hairline?!?
- Argan Oil Leave-in Conditioner

3 hours ago, Curious25 said:

Will look forward to following this. 

I'm not researched on Breezula at all - having just read through the article you have written, with reference to the following; 

''Clascaterone will keep DHT from binding to the androgen receptors on the scalp, without eliminating DHT in the body' 

Does this imply that Clascaterone essentially acts as a form of DHT shield around androgen receptors local to where it is applied, as opposed to inhibiting type I and II 5AR enzymes?



 

  

 

If I understand correctly about androgen receptors (and I might be wrong), It won't be a "DHT shield". Androgen receptors are binding with DHT thus producing adverse effects which is MPB. Androgen receptors are also binding with T, thus they're competing, thus some theories that high T increases hair loss too. Anyways, It supposedly works in a similar fashion like RU58841. CB-03-01 will be competing for androgen receptor binding with DHT & T, thus minimizing % of DHT binding, thus less miniaturisation. Not a complete cure, but definitely a huge help.

I'm just curious, if DHT won't be reduced systemically, where all of this extra DHT will go in the body if it will be unable to bind on the scalp androgen receptors.
Of course there will be other debates. Some people say scalp hair follicles in people with MPB are sensitive to DHT, meaning any other non balding men theoretically should have similar DHT levels in the body, but less sensitivity, thus less hair loss.

Interesting topic and definitely curious to see more info and results on it.

23 minutes ago, transplantedphil said:

pretty much the sign of a bad clinic if they allow donor depletion to occur (either in terms of scarring, extraction pattern or overharvesting). Given the donor can thin out quite quickly with FUE it only really suggests the clinic is unethical and the operation is not being monitored properly; i.e. they are just after your money.

grey hair is the combination of white and black hairs though so the SMP would presumably still look normal until the time someone's hair goes completely white. The prevalence of grey (and white) hairs on a white scalp would also likely minimise the colour contrast of hair to skin in the donor area, so SMP might not be necessary for some in the end.

Great observation on grey hair!

I agree it's an easy sign of bad clinic, but the problem is people don't know what to look for. Most of people on this forum are educated, but on other platforms are complete rookies and they're educating each other...!

Part 3

1 day FUE Mega session. Donor Management. SMP.

I've seen more and more people talking about getting SMP done BEFORE they even had their first surgery! It blows my mind that people are accepting overharvesting and treat it very casually.

4 minutes ago, elduterino said:

Here are two videos illustrating the two methods, notice how fast the docs can do the incisions at 0:47

At the bottom is DHI by another top worldwide doc, Dr Lorenzo.

In this video,  the doc is doing the implantation and each slit/graft stick is taking more time, plus he has to switch tools each time

It looks like the doc from the top video can easily do 3 incisions during the time it takes to do just 1 implanter pen graft placement, so multiply this by 2000 or 3000 and you can quickly see why a single doc will not be able to use DHI  as method  to operate on a multitude of patients in one afternoon.

I can confirm it takes much longer to implant with implanter pen having it done first hand. Although I must admit it depends on the skill of the surgeon. Dr. Lorenzo is quite fast at this point.

8 minutes ago, Curious25 said:

You're welcome. I'm an FUE patient myself, so always interested in hearing the justifications from other well researched FUE patients for starting out with FUE as opposed to FUT. 

Maybe its a geographical thing - from what I see across forums and youtube, most of the advocates for starting out with FUT, and then tweak with FUE later, seem to be american based or had their surgeries in america - where most of the legendary and accredited north american clinics are still in favour of FUT, as opposed to Europe, which seems to be predominantly FUE now. 

The general rule of thumb suggests you should only ever get an answer from an ethical surgeon who can perform both types of surgeries, in which Dr Bisanga certainly can do - so interesting to hear what his reasoning was to advise against FUT for your particular case. 

I had this conversation with some other chaps few days ago about the whole FUT thing in US. Because of strict rules in here (as other guy in the forum today mentioned) only surgeon can cut you. Now when you look at FUT, surgeon would need to cut a piece of meat in 15-20 min and toss it to his technician team who will do the hard work and dissect them under microscopes. Afterwards surgeon would need to do some slits and he can go home (I've heard this actually happening in best clinics!) leaving tech's the rest of placement work.

It's very easy for a surgeon to work this way. Also another aspect would be learning new skill. FUE is a very different extraction technique. Even if a surgeon is the best in the world in cutting a strip, he can suck at FUE big time. It requires lots of time and dedication to learn the craft. Surgeons are not in their 20's to be enthusiastic about learning new skills and prefer "comfort zone", thus they don't bother learning it.

Also the whole surgery should be changed. In FUT surgeon is cutting a strip and then tech's are dissecting it. In FUE Surgeon has to spend 3-4 hours to extract lots of grafts and techs are there just to supplement the surgery. FUE surgery would require smaller team compared to FUT.

There's lots of finer details why. I'm not trying to say all surgeons are lazy, but I'm 100% sure such factors takes their place. It's human psychology.

In the end HT is highly unregulated industry. There is equal amount of opinions vs doctors.

6 minutes ago, Curious25 said:

Looking fantastic @Rolandasand once again, the most honest and high quality documentation out there. Months 5-7 there has been a great increase in visual density, and I am sure you will still have more of this to come over the next few months. 

Out of interest, 3 questions:

1) What are the next steps, ie what are your plans/goals for the future in terms of your restoration journey - and was this discussed during your initial consultation/procedure?

2) What were your thought processes in deciding to proceed with FUE over FUT? 

2) Why do Dr's Lorenzo and BF extract 10% with manual, 90% motorized - I've noticed this a lot from the Injertocapilar youtube vids.  

It's good to see a real patients review and journey with Dr BF, as I am sure he will be one of the stars of the future after learning his trade underneath Lorenzo. 

Keep up the good work, and continue to grow well 👍

Appreciate that man!

1) All my plans.
In short - get second HT (hopefully 2021) to cover mid scalp and crown (should be roughly 2500 grafts).
Yes it was discussed as a long term plan, hence why I had only front done in the first go. Meds and all of that jazz more in the video. Probably will try oral minoxidil.

2.1 I had live consultation with Dr. Bisanga. He checked my donor, measured my head and when I asked if he thinks FUT would be better for me he said I won't get big amount of grafts with 1 strip as my head is small. The scar would be wider, thus increasing all the nasty things related to FUT. Of course he does only FUE, so might be bias. Also I wasn't a big fan of potential downsides like permanent nerve damage living you with numb donor. Of course this is quite rare, so I guess It's just excuses and I'm a bigger fan of FUE as most of us naive guys

2.2 During my surgery I was quite surprised that Dr. Ferreira started extracting with Manual. I didn't see him doing it, just felt differently, so I asked him "is that a manual punch?"  Wasn't expecting that. He said he likes to use it in certain areas if he thinks he needs. Also I believe it might be due to different mechanical movement needed in Manual. Imagine extracting for 3-4 hours straight with no brake. I guess some manual movement can "move around the blood"?  (just speculating).
In short, I don't have exact reason, but it's great to see surgeon knowing how to do both. Imagine motorized punch got out of order in the middle of surgery. He can easily pull off manual and finish the surgery.

Once again appreciate kind words!

49 minutes ago, JohnAC71 said:

Man I love your updates. This is no exception! Your presentation is amazing.

Your result is already amazing, and it’s getting better every month. 

Appreciate that John!

I'm 100% stoked with my result so far. To be honest I wouldn't mind having this as a end result.

Month 7

What's up friends! Hope everyone is well.

Apologies for such delay with my 7 month update. I've decided to make this video in a different style as it's a good enough progress to compare! It took me 2 days just to find a suitable song, went through hundreds of songs (maybe 500? Not even kidding!).

In short, I'm absolutely amazed how it turn out in 7 months. Even with wet hair I think it looks amazing comparing to where I started.

Some people still think that I've reached my end result, but if you look closer in the "parting wet hair" part you will see quite a few hairs than just recently sprouted and still growing. Also lots of hair are still very thin, so they should thicken up until 12 month or so. Can't wait!

For those of you who is asking if I'm planning to get a second one - YES. Hopefully some time next year (due to current situation worldwide it completely messed up my timeline and finances.

Fire those questions if you have got any!

So this is going to be a second part of our conversation. I understand for most of educated guys like we are in here it might sound like a common sense, but I've been contacted so many times and I've seen this happening way too often to neglect going back to basics. Especially It's interesting to hear from other's perspective!

10 minutes ago, Curious25 said:

Maybe you misunderstood, but I was alluding to my interest surrounding the same doctor (Pekiner) reportedly giving conflicting advice to @duchaine and @Portugal25 with regards to this matter. 

 

Anyway, I don’t think it’d be a productive use of my time arranging consultations to discuss the impacts of 5AR inhibition on BHT grafts, considering; 

 

a) the doctor seems to be a little unclear himself 

b) the fact I don’t use 5AR blockers, or have transplanted BHT grafts 

c) I am lucky enough to have access to a global forum consisting of a wealth of information, threads and knowledgable contributions, that usually provide sufficient enough input to answer these types of questions 

🙂
 

 

I completely understand where you're coming from and I know you mean well and everything, but just creating such drama on this post where patient had clearly given the same suggestions of 2 medical professionals in my opinion is not right. @Portugal25 is listening to what his doctor is saying and following his advice. He might not feel comfortable with such allegations spit over in his case. In the end of the day it's 2 surgeons opinion vs 1 stranger online.
I'm not saying one is right and the other is not. You don't know full situation. Usually people disagree on facts, because they don't see the full picture. I believe there's a good enough reason for Dr. Pekiner to suggest for his patient hop on Finasteride even with having BHT.

6 minutes ago, Curious25 said:

Interesting to see reports of conflicting advice from the same doctor. 
 

I guess you can take comfort in the fact that you have had a second opinion from Dr BF confirming the advice to start finasteride. 
 

I’d be interested to understand why or how surgeons are confident that the levels of DHT inhibition from propecia/finasteride, aren’t significant enough to adversely affect BHT grafts, however significant enough to reduce miniaturisation of scalp grafts - are there studies and research surrounding this? I would imagine it is ultimately very dependent on dosage and the individual. 
 

Another bemusing observation is the seemingly lack of regard towards the coverage the BHT grafts are providing in this case - the crown area. Balding on the crown is usually one of the more sensitive areas that men face, so to prioritise lateral humps from potentially miniaturising (which can be covered from combing over hair from the top if needs be) , at the expense of the crown BHT grafts - with the outlook that, oh well at least the donor will be strong enough to re-transplant later down the line if needed .. sounds a little bit counter intuitive, 1 step forward, 1 step back, if you like? 

I think at this point you're speculating with every comment, just because you disagree with decision of 2 surgeons.

Perhaps worth get a consultation with both surgeons and ask for their opinion if it's really that interesting for you? This would give more insight I think.

4 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Nice, good conversation, hopefully they join in here 😎

It's just a little part of it. I will post more, I think little bites is easier to digest. Nevertheless I hope it's eye opening in a way for certain individuals.

2 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Are these gents forum members?

Both - yes. But I didn't "fetch" them from here

I had a chat with couple of gents and it got quite interesting. What today's patients are looking for and what are their expectations?

He is just a regular HT patient like you and I, but with fair bit of research under his belt than most of average patients. Very interesting take on the future.

Anyone is welcome to chime in into this discussion.

35 minutes ago, miko said:

@Melvin-ModeratorPlease, did you find out where is the problem at ASMED and Dr. Erdogan? Why more and more results are bad and more and more patients complaining about ASMED? Does ASMED cheat with number of grafts? Or they changed technic of HT? Or they use non skillful nurses? 

They're expanding more and more, hiring new tech teams who needs to get experience to get better, so lots of people are a guinea pigs in there.

Now i know who was commenting on my YT videos for a while now!

I'm really impressed the length you went to record your donor area.

Sorry this doesn't help your case I guess. I would personally trust Dr. Lorenzo the most as he has extensive experience with it.

On 8/30/2020 at 5:37 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

The forum will be down for about half an hour for an update to our system. Just an FYI for you guys.

Looks neat!

8 minutes ago, Portugal25 said:

He has very few patients posting their results and only result at the Spanish forum shows overharvesting (this clinic has techs do the extraction so risk of overharvesting will be higher) along with poor growth...

https://foro.recuperarelpelo.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=81903&start=75

Demirsoy is the truly the most affordable option for a having a HT with good Doctor.

Agree, I've seen quite a few donors that are less than great, but to be fair Dr. Demirsoy does as well if he does more than 4k grafts per session as he does it over 1 day.

That's why I said they're not on the same level.

Considering your budget you might look into Fue Capilar clinic in Turkey, more specifically Dr. Turan. He does 2 patients a day, uses DHI, his tech is extracting grafts. Charges something like €2500 for whatever amount of grafts you need and they can extract safely.

I've seen some decent results, although I must admit they're not world class. I think for their price you cant find better quality.

Although to be honest I would look into FUT if you want max possible grafts in 1 session ti achieve biggest impact. AEK in Turkey think still doing FUT.

1 hour ago, Drugs110 said:

Young, between 18-25 years of age. Yeah ofc they're not but remember, women are the choosers when it comes to sex and relationships. If I don't look good enough to her, I won't be able to bang her hahaha. 

Lol

Don't be a slave. If you think woman chooses you, this will happen. Flip it around. You can choose as much as women does, in fact, I'm sure many girls wants to sleep with you right now, but you "blocked" them because they're not good enough for you. More confidence in yourself mate!

6 hours ago, Mike_2020 said:

What's interesting is that we're all aware of men (online) who are relatively young, say under 30, who go to a hair mill have what they perceive as a nice restoration of the frontal hair line.

However, with their donor area depleted and as they go into their 30s, 40s, 50s, they are presumably going to continue to have a nice frontal hair line but as their balding continues through life, are they not going to look somewhat odd with a lovely thick front hairline but bald crown and retograde balding through the depleted donor area?

 

 

This is unfortunately the biggest problem I see with today's HT. Even if it's done properly, some clinics are unethical and will give max density possible without taking into account future hair loss.

I'm pretty sure it will be ok. AC will ""dry out" air, but it doesn't mean your HT will not receive any nutrients its needed (via blood).