giegnosiganoe

I don't see any cornrows or pitting. To me it looks like potentially badly angled grafts, but I don't know that's just how you've styled the hair. The density seems like it could be better, but it's not bad. You've covered the hairline on the other side so it's impossible to compare.

15 hours ago, Repairpt said:

Honestly, worse than the cost of the procedure was the repair and that's just speaking on the financials. It was emotionally devastating to have an enflamed, soon to be cobblestoned scalp with what looked to be doll hairs-plenty of 3s placed in a frontal hairline that looked totally unnatural-in a profession where I can't where a hat. I was 30 years old at the time of  my procedure with Dr. Vories, and it was probably the most devastating decision of my life, which I'm paying for 5 years later. I would urge not to make the decision in haste, do your research. I checked out Joe Tillman's site searching for hope after I realized I'd be walking around getting strange looks for the rest of my life, and that's how I found Dr. Cooley-I'm in NC and I have no regrets with him, it was a total 180 from my first experience. 

Can you create a thread and share any photos?

Some of them stop updating their thread, but you can see they were "last online" recently. I'd say it's 50/50.

I think there's a great deal of embarrassment to admitting you had a bad HT result.

7 hours ago, jcs87 said:

I can tell you from personal experience that I did not get charged anywhere near these fees when I was first prescribed the medication. I can understand them charging you a fee for the doctor consultation, but a $100 fee on top of that for writing the prescription feels inappropriate to me. 

I agree with @ciaus, and that's why I was not surprised about the prescription fee. @jcs87, was your experience with a HT doctor, or some other doctor? If it was with a non-HT doctor, I think that would explain it.

9 hours ago, Russ said:

Have you noticed any improvement? Any side effects? Do you take anything else with it?

Too early to say. I still use foam minox in the morning (probably drop the foam once I go up to 2.5mg oral minox), and 0.5mg/day dut.

Insane result for only 2600 grafts, considering you were almost completely bald on top. Do you know what your hair/graft average was? Your hair characteristics and color contrast must be helping as well. In your next update, I'd love to see a picture of you parting the hair to show the true density - try to make it look as bad as possible  

1 minute ago, jcs87 said:

Ouch, yeah sort of sounds like they are taking advantage of you

Well, it is a business. I'm sure most HT clinics would charge similarly. Of course, if you were their HT patient, they'd likely prescribe it for free.

49 minutes ago, jcs87 said:

Thanks, can you explain the fee that the HT clinic is charging you? For example, did they require you to have an appointment with the doctor (and of course that would have a fee) or are you saying they are charging you a fee for actually writing the prescription?

I had a complimentary video appointment and they charged a ~$100 prescription fee. Then they want me to have an in-person appointment after 3 months for ~$300ish, followed by ~$100 for prescription refills (up to 1 year at a time, I believe). Hoping to avoid those charges before the 3 months, by finding another clinic who's covered by my insurance.

I've been doing the same recently. My regular PCP and derm were not comfortable prescribing it. I searched for nearby HT or dermatology clinics and sent out emails/called in asking if they have experience prescribing low-dose oral minoxidil for hair loss. A couple of them said yes. I ended up getting a prescription from the HT clinic, but they charge a fee. Been on 1.25mg/day for a month now. I have an appointment with a derm clinic this week who is covered by my insurance, and I'm hoping I can rely on them to prescribe it to me.

If I were you I'd at least contact doctor's office to see if they have any experience with this before scheduling an appointment.

I don't know about specific numbers, but I do feel like many people underestimate the possibility of slow thinning in the donor area over time (even while being on DHT blockers), as well as senile alopecia. I wonder how many extra grafts top docs leave in the donor to account for this (or if they can predict how many extra a patient will need, if at all)? I wonder if current patients who at time of their transplant seemed like they received good donor management, may end up with depleted-looking donors 20 years down the line. Especially for docs who push the bounds of the donor (for example Lorenzo).

Good to see another Pekiner patient, this time a slightly larger case. Everything looks great! I got mine done a month ago.

Are you taking any medication like finasteride or minoxidil?

Looks like the extraction pattern was quite conservative, and careful not to go anywhere near the crown. Your crown does look a bit more beige compared to the rest of your scalp, not sure if that's just lighting though. I think it's great they started off this way, and in the future you can expand the extraction pattern once your final Norwood pattern becomes more evident.

For me the anesthesia was a lot better than I expected, maybe 3/10. A bit more painful down toward the neck and toward the temple points, I agree.

33 minutes ago, Charlii said:

Oh yes, they were really long. Especially the first session was horrible. When you have to stay with the facedown on the extraction bed. My face was hurting as hell! I Think Dr. Umut was hating me, because i moves allways my head.

But i am happy, that its over now! In 2 hours they will take my bandage off, i am curious how it looks 😁

Lol I went with Dr. Pekiner a month ago and I can totally relate to your first extraction. The pressure on my face was intense and almost giving me a headache. I had to adjust a few times but couldn't quite get into a comfortable position. I thought it was just me but it seems like everyone that goes to Ankara experiences this 😅 so don't worry, you're not alone. I only had to do ~500 grafts per extraction though so it wasn't too bad. It does make me wonder why they haven't found a solution to this lol. Maybe the first extraction is so uncomfortable that everything afterwards feels like a piece of cake.

Work looks great. Densely packed and you seem to have good hair characteristics so I have no doubt this will be a wonderful result.

Sounds like it was quite the long day - I'm curious what was the time breakdown (especially since I'm less familiar with FUT)? How long did it take to cut out the strip, and did they dissect all the grafts at once or did they start implanting them as soon as possible? And did they use the stick and place technique? Thanks!

Work looks great.

You have so many multi grafts, I'm sure the density will be amazing  

Glad I could help, and I'm happy you decided to join the community!

Donor seems to be recovering well. Looking forward to your updates  

Only 3 and a half months and already that much growth? That's insane.

Whatever you do, I would recommend an in person evaluation before scheduling surgery. As far as I know, Dr. Zarev would require that for extensive balding cases like yourself.

Congrats man, it looks amazing! Great to hear how it has changed your life.

I got mine done a month ago and am looking forward to the rest of this journey.

Would you mind sharing some pics of the hairline during your next update?

Thanks for the info. That company looks very interesting. I don't think minoxidil has done much for me (though it's hard to tell with my diffuse thinning), so I would love to use their test kit to confirm whether I have low sulfotransferase levels.

Curious why you don't think it's good to take oral min twice a day? Wouldn't you fix the issue with half-life along with similar rates of side effects?

This was very informative, thanks for doing these Melvin. I need to watch some of the previous ones I've missed.

Dr. Reddy strikes me as a very ethical and honest surgeon, and I quite like the results I've seen from him.

Wow that's terribly unlucky! Glad your symptoms were mild and you're back home safe and sound. How long did you have to wait after the 10 days when the PCR test still came back positive?

Post-op looks great as expected. I'm very jealous of your native hair quality. I'm sure you will have a wonderful result.

Curious what made you want to get the temple closing touched up? It's great that they still managed to work you in for that.

Good that you're prepared for the shed. I personally am fully at peace with it

I also just recently got a prescription for 1.25mg/day, at 3 weeks post op of my HT. The (no-name HT) doctor who prescribed it suggested 2.5mg due to my size, but I wanted to play it safe with 1.25mg for the first 3 months. He suggested to take it at night, I believe because of potential dizziness. Been on it for about a week now. The first night I felt tingling in my feet while in bed. Second night it wasn't as noticeable, and by the third night I haven't noticed it anymore.

Thanks for bringing up the half-life. I knew that it's short, and that for the topical it's quite long, but I should have thought more about the implications of that. I didn't notice much benefit from topical min in the past, so I felt like I could simply take oral min in exchange for it, especially given its recently popularity and rave reviews. At what dosage do you think topical won't be necessary? And what about taking oral min twice a day? How does 1.25mg morning/night compare with 1.25mg morning and topical at night?