Dumbo

On 4/17/2021 at 1:48 AM, BaldingBogger said:

Wouldn't panic just yet as it could be shedding for the transplant hair anyway. I had a huge shed at 18 months post op in transplanted area which freaked me out but it slowly grew back in.

I've read it can be common for transplants to dip and shed around this time before 'resynchronization occurs and hair grows back at maximum calibre and thickness

Interesting! Never heard that before. I hope it's the same case with me. Thanks for sharing

3 hours ago, Raphael84 said:

Specific to Dumbo´s case, until the last few days we had not been in contact and as I was not his advisor, I personally had no knowledge of his case or its specifics other than reading this thread. 
In Dumbo´s case, miniaturisation in the donor area fell within the acceptable range, although it was higher than average and therefore as Dumbo has said, medication was recommended.

As the onset of thinning appears to have occurred reasonably quickly based on what Dumbo has said, and based on the photos provided, it would appear as though there is decline in both native and transplanted hair and therefore the concern may not be due to miniaturisation in the donor, as it is not only transplanted hair that has thinned.
Seasonal shedding could be responsible and by diligently applying minoxidil and increasing vascularity, this may achieve improvement/return of these follicles. 
As we know, due to the increase in vascularity that minoxidil presents, individuals may experience initial hair shedding. While this might sound like cause for alarm, it's actually a normal process as the minoxidil starts to alter the way that the scalp produces hair. As the healthy new hairs grow, the hair follicles can be pushed from the telogen (resting) phase into the anagen (growing) phase, which results in a temporary increase in shedding.

It will be a case of applying and committing to minoxidil and remaining patient to see how you may respond. At the very least, the minoxidil if applied throughout can help with other miniaturised follicles and knowing the elevated levels of miniaturisation in your donor area, can only be a positive step in terms of your hair.

Thank you! As always, you are well informed and you provide comfort in your knowledge. I will start the regimen today and hope for the best. I will update in due time.

12 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I would definitely get on meds, it does look like it may have been some native hair that thinned.

Hey Melvin!

When you say meds, which do you mean? I've seen your video where you said you don't take Finasteride anymore, and I remember it actually inspired me back then. Your hairline looks amazing. Do you use minoxidil? Do you have a video explaining your hair regimen and treatment now after your hair transplants?

15 hours ago, bald-and-bearded said:

Hi @Dumbo,

I think it has thinned out because there was still some native hair where you had the transplant which have now miniaturised.

I agree with your retrospection that someone who doesn't take Finasteride should (especially) not get a frontal hairline hair transplant done.

I really doubt Minoxidi will do anything for you except for maybe buy some more time.

A bunch of people on Reddit have posted good results with topical Finasteride. Now the research on this is really questionable, but it might be worth a shot. At least I mentally feel like if the side effects are nocebo, I would get them lesser if on a topical product rather than a pill. YMMV. So far I've found that it's made by one place in Europe and two places in India. The Indian one is more popular and called morr-f and you can search on reddit for posts about it.

Good luck

Thanks!

I actually just rather go bald than taking finasteride (oral or topical) and if I'd known I'll have to take it eventually to keep the transplanted hair, I wouldn't have gone through the procedure. 

The area that is thinning now didn't have much native hair from the start, so it's mostly transplanted hair that is thinning now. I guess I should have done my homework beforehand. Oh well, at least it's just hair

On 3/23/2021 at 1:43 AM, Hairtroubles said:

The more I am starting to learn more about a Hair Transplant, the more I am realizing that you can't seem to have a successful one unless you are on Fin? Is this true?

I went to the Belgravia center in the UK once and took Minoxidil with Finasteride and it terrified me. The side effects were very real and I felt anxious, faint, and super light headed.  If you research the side effects, people are saying they had irreversible side effects of erectile dysfunction and there is a whole subreddit group on it, so any of you who say, this is 2-3%, go look at the group and read the stories, they are terrifying.  People have been off Fin for 5+ years and still cannot get a boner...

 

I thought the whole point of a Hair Transplant was to avoid medication like this, and now you are telling me I need Fin!? Seriously? What are my options, nothing?

I wish this post existed before my HT. I didn't know you just have to be on meds to keep the newly transplanted hair, unless you're a lucky bastard I guess. You can see what happens when you don't take your meds in my HT post. I will start taking topical minoxidil soon. Not into finasteride either. I hope my example helps your decision.

Update on my hair transplant a year & a half later:

I was pretty happy about my hair regrowth, till now. The hairline was full and looked very natural. No one can ever tell I had hair transplanted in that area and I kinda enjoyed it. It was perfect for the last 6 months, but this week I noticed some thinning areas in the front of my head. Ugh, I felt like I'm living in a bad sequel. If you read my story, you know by now that I decided not to take any medications, although my doctor advised it. I honestly thought that the transplanted hair will stick there for much longer and I would only need to worry about the rest of the native hair which I'd fix at some point in the future when it got bad.

So I was advised by the clinic to start taking meds again. I really don't see any way around it anymore. To be honest, if I understood this prior to the HT, I would have opted out. But I already started this journey, so I better go through it properly. I won't take Finasteride, been there, done that, it's not for me. But I will start applying topical Minoxidil and hope for the best.

On 8/20/2020 at 2:40 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

Wow looking like a home run already  ⚾️ 

Thanks! I sure am happy about it.

On 8/7/2020 at 8:45 AM, giegnosiganoe said:

Looking at the pics in your initial post, is it just me or were grafts extracted from the back and right sides of your head, but none from the left?

Oh, and the results look good. I'd be super happy.

Sorry for the late reply, let's blame it on corona times.

Anyway, yes, you're right. The grafts were extracted from the back and right side of my head only. It was enough I guess. You can't really see the difference in volume when comparing the sides, but when I run my fingers through both sides, I can feel that the right side is thinner than the left. No biggy though, one can't really notice it.

On 8/5/2020 at 2:27 PM, Raphael84 said:

@Dumbo

Thank you for the update and photos. I for one have been waiting for this one.

1845 grafts is a reasonably conservative graft count considering the area that was covered in your recipient that can be seen in your first post. This shows that despite not having excessive loss, there were signs of decline and miniaturisation a little deeper into your frontal area that was taken into account and addressed.

Still further months of maturation and settling. Congratulations.

I have added some side by side images to better be able to appreciate your improvement.

Thanks Raphael, I was too lazy to do this myself. But yeah, when you put the before & after pics together, you can see that the change, though small, is pretty noticeable. I'm pretty happy about it. Feels like traveling back in time.

On 8/3/2020 at 7:05 PM, ADuckwithNoHair said:

Thank you for the update! You're right, the results look incredibly natural. How is your donor? Hoping you get even more growth as you approach 1 year. Congrats and enjoy

Thank you! My donor area is fine I think. When I asked my barber about it, he said that he can hardly notice that hair was taken from there, and only when he really gets close and looks for it, he'll notice the little scars, but they're really minimal.

Hey,

Finally an update! (I know, I said I'll do it monthly, but hey, covid-19)
It's been 9 months since the transplant and here are some pics to show how it looks now, after a fresh haircut. I'm pretty happy about it so far. I'm not taking any meds or using any topical creams to help it grow faster. The only thing i was taking was 1000mg biotin daily and I stopped that a month ago after it gave me a bit of acne on my forehead.

I admit, there are some areas that could be improved more, like that left side temple, but it's really hard to complain when I finally have an actual visible hairline in the front of my head. People don't even notice that it's a transplant. Dr Bisanga is truly a magician. It looks and feels so natural. I guess I'll post more photos when I hit the 1 year mark. Cheers!

On 4/12/2020 at 9:15 AM, Pyrat said:

Understood, thank you for the quick response.

 

One more question, did you experience any shock loss of native hair since I see that some of your transplanted hair is in between existing hair.

Hey Pyrat,

sorry for the late reply, but I think I missed this one at the time. To answer your question, no, I didn't experience any shock loss of native hair, or at least it didn't seem like I did.

@Pyrat

It's my first transplant. Not on any medication.

Hey @Pyrat,

Well, so far so good. At 4 months I noticed my hairline is getting fuller and clearer. Now at 5 months it's pretty clear I got a new hairline, not so full yet, but looks like it's getting there. It's pretty exciting to see it in progress. Kinda feels like magic, lol. 

Anyway, with no barbers around, I can't have a haircut and take a normal picture of myself. My hair is a mess. I will try to see if I can sort it out somehow and upload a picture soon. But I'm happy so far.

Yeah, my doctor just confirmed the same thing. Thanks

On 12/7/2019 at 1:41 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

I remember the first time I tried minoxidil back in 2008. I started my hair literally falling out in clumps. I got scared and stopped using it. My hair never recovered and actually got a lot worse afterwards. I still wonder how much hair I could have save had I kept up with it.

Hey Melvin, have you ever start using it again after that? If so, do you still use it?

Hey,

I'm 6 weeks post a frontal hair transplant and was wondering if anyone got any idea if it's safe to put on a ps4 VR headset on? It's kinda tight on the forehead. I miss beat saber badly. Would appreciate any input.

Thanks @Raphael84!
Just 1 year to go, hehe..

Yeah, agreed, he is
I believe it's solely his now, but who knows. I just hope he doesn't disappear from there too. It's convenient having him close by.

Hey! I started my hair transplant journey this week and I'm going to share it here. I'm 37 years old from Jerusalem. I believe I'm Norwood 2-3. I noticed my hair started receding when I was 25. I started taking propecia (finasteride) and kept at it for 5 long years. At the age of 30 I realized that I'd rather go bald than suffer from one of the nasty finasteride side effects.

Now at 37 I realize I was losing my hair at a very slow pace. I had quite a nice hairline 5 years after stopping finasteride and didn't lose everything right after as I was supposed to. I actually think that if I didn't take finasteride, I still would have had a better hairline today. But never mind that now and thank god for hair transplants.

After a few months searching all over the web, I decided to do my hair transplant with the famous Dr. Bisanga. At first I was planning to do it at his main clinic in Brussels, Belgium. Then I found out that he opened a clinic in Athens, Greece, last year with Dr. C form the states. The procedure was cheaper there too (operation, travel and lodging wise). The only worry I had was a week prior to the operation when I heard that his partner, Dr. C, left the clinic to open another one in Turkey. I didn't understand why he left, but I chose Dr. Bisanga from the start and trusted I was in good hands.

Not long after, I set a date with the clinic for the 1st of November. I booked an airbnb near the clinic. My partner and I stayed there for 2 more days after the operation, just to be close in case of well, anything. The clinic arranged for us a cab from and to the airport.

My day started with Maria, who was kind and explained the procedure for me. I signed some documents, payed some money and was led straight away to the operation room where I met the doctor himself and his staff. Everyone was nice, everything was clean and sterile (the clinic is brand new). Dr. Bisanga drew the new hairline, and I guess like everyone here, I tried to convince him to lower it. But with no success. He's the doctor and I guess he knows what he's doing, so I trusted him on this. We agreed on 2000 grafts, but only 1845 were needed.

Immediately after I agreed to this, they shaved my head and started the operation. Dr. Bisanga extracted half or most of the grafts and his technicians continued and then transplanted them in the designated area. I gotta admit, I mostly dosed off through the operation. The team was cheery, but worked hard all along. So hard that the whole thing was done in a matter of 8-9 hours.

In the next room there was another guy overgoing another operation. I believe Dr. Bisanga was overseeing both of the operations. At the end of the day, Andrea, the head technician, gave us all the post instructions needed to take care of the new transplanted hair and the donor area. She was really sweet. In fact, the whole staff was, which made the procedure much easier to go through.

The next day I came back for the first wash and final goodbye. Dr. Bisanga insisted I use some product to help maintain the rest of my natural hair from receding. If not finasteride, at least minoxidil. I thought about it for a while and decided against it. If I wanted to keep on using chemicals, I wouldn't be here in the first place. I made my peace with it and am willing to deal with the consequences, until my second hair transplant of course

I took it easy for the next 2 days and enjoyed my trip in Athens. It was pretty sunny, so I kept my cap on. They gave me a bandana at the clinic and I was advised to wear it while I'm out. I tried to avoid the sun as much as possible while wearing it. My head was pretty swollen on the 2nd day, so I kept massaging my forehead and put an ice patch on it carefully. I was out 2-3 hours at a time, didn't sweat at all, and kept spraying my head with the solution the clinic provided me. Overall, I took good care of it while trying to enjoy my trip a little, as advised by the team.

Tips from a pharmacist (me): the antibiotic I was given (doxycycline) gave me a bad heartburn and diarrhea. I advise you to come prepared and travel with antacids and probiotics to relieve these side effects.

So here are my pics from before and 1 day after the operation. I'll keep updating this post every month to share this hairy journey hoping it helps someone else with their decision. Cheers!