HTHope

54 minutes ago, Guy73 said:

I always had my hair buzzed. Doctor said it is easier for them. I had major shockloss 1st,2nd, 3rd procedure. Even on second and third the transplanted  hairs from previous procedures shed! But my hair alway grew back starting in the 4th month. It sucks and I am sure this depends on the person because a friend of mine went to the same doctor and he never experienced shockloss to existing hairs. I might be a prime example it can be done because I don’t think I could get anymore hair to fit in my front even if I wanted. 😂 

did you ever experience donor shock loss?

amazing for 3000 grafts!

Keep the updates coming ! Do you know what punch size was used by your doctor?

The hair spread apart really shows not much difference between the transplanted zone and your crown which is great. A small top up of the hairline will get you in a very good spot. To be frank, not many people would probably notice the front so its more of a personal goal to improve those areas. 

In my opinion, based on these pictures, the risk far outweighs the reward in your case. I would not be going down the surgical route in your case. Instead, I'd focus on the medical route for now. I know you said you had sides with finasteride but maybe you can try a topical version such as the liposomal version sold out of italy which does not go systemic. Minoxidil (which youre already on) and even dermarolling can help you as well.  Your hair looks perfectly normal to me. The improvement you may get with surgery will likely not be noticed by anyone except yourself.

@Niko1 makes some great points. Try to find healthy distractions for now. Gym, meditation, self development, etc. You'll likely see your hair is not a sole source of happiness.

Your loss looks like its limited to the frontal area and temples. If you can afford it, and are willing to wait, I would look at dr de freitas in spain. From what I've seen he makes some of the most aesthetic hairlines in in the world. You are relatively young and I advise you to be on treatment such as finasteride to maintain the rest of your hair. Dr de freitas is not cheap by any means when compared to other doctors or hair mills in turkey but in my opinion hair transplants are not something you want to cheap out on. Personally, I'd X out asmed and hair of instanbul. If you're stuck on turkey, then the only option I would look at is HLC and maybe keser for just limited hairline work.

As to OP's question. This is all my suggestion but this is how I would approach your case: I would split it into two surgeries (front/mid) for the first and crown for the second. With the second being 10-18 months after the first surgery to allow more than enough time for your donor to heal up and the front area to heal in case any small touch ups should be made there.  In my opinion, doing a 5000 graft procedure in one go is very taxing on the body and your donor supply. It looks like you have good donor so if you go to a decent doctor they can likely get you a very acceptable result.

If you were stuck on turkey, personally I would go somewhere like HLC as @Portugal25 recommended. They seem very ethical and seem to be getting good results from the limited cases ive seen. Only doctors do the work and they take a slow and steady approach. Their prices are very reasonable when compared to countries such as north america and even europe (2.7 euros/graft).

From my limited experience, frontal work is something many doctors can excel at but crown work is very tricky. In my opinion, if you want the BEST crown work possible there are only a few doctors that can deliver. In my opinion those are Wong and Lorenzo. If you would be satisfied with coverage in the crown vs the best result then I think other clinics including HLC can deliver on that as well.

Good luck, ask as many questions as you can and browse the patient posted results here and elsewhere

8 hours ago, Portugal25 said:

@Nugget you must do more research here at HRN because there are many threads informing that Asmed is a turkish hairmill with technicians doing surgery on 8 patients per day so your results will depend on the tech you get when you check-in at the hairmill.

A technician at a hairmill could have been washing dishes at a restaurant 2 months before doing your surgery.

Turkey is the world capital of botched hair transplants and there’s only 1 option in Turkey where you are almost certain to get a good result - HLC Ankara (2.7€/graft). They do manual FUE which is limited to 1500 grafts per day with a technique called stick&place which means they extract the grafts and then make 1 hole/slit and immediately implant the graft so that the hole has no time to start closing or accumulate fat or blood (this technique provides a quicker recovery time). 

If you are on a budget then you won’t find any other doctor with the skills Dr. Arika (Eugenix) has charging 1.8€/graft w/tax. 
They do a technique called DHT which reduces the time the grafts stay out of body because they make all the holes/slits first and then proceed to extracting the grafts and immediately implanting them so they don’t stay out of the body for more than 30m. 

If you want a closer option then Dr.Laorwong in Bangkok is highly recommended and charges 2.6€/graft.  
Dr. Laorwong does the most recent technique DHI which is similar to stick&place. First he extracts the grafts then he uses implators pens that are loaded with the grafts, these pens make the slit/hole and implant the grafts at the same time. This reduces the handling of the graft and the doctor can make smaller holes that provide quicker recovery times.

Demirsoy is cheap and only does 1 patient per day but he uses a older technique in which first they extract all the gratfs then make all slits/hole at once and after the technicians are in charge of implanting all the grafts.
Demirsoy can do up to 4000 grafts per day with this technique the reason why he can charge just 1.25€/graft. This is the same technique used at ASMED but here the doctor has zero to little involvement so like @Abi28 said you are better choosing Demirsoy that only delegates implanting to techs and charges half the price of ASMED.

Dr. Konior is considered the best in the world and does manual FUE with stick&place. 
Dr. Juan Couto is considered the Doctor with the most amazing results and does DHI (like all Spanish doctors). 

Technique is not as important as the Doctor because a bad doctor using a great technique will still get you a bad result.

I advise you to chose a great doctor with a great technique and with real patients posting their amazing results. 

This is not like buying a car that you can change after a few years, this is a permanent medical surgery and you have a limited donor area so every graft is precious and should be used the best way by a highly skilled Doctor.

I know you have good intentions and you make some decent recommendations but I dont think some of the stuff you say is correct. I've seen you state over and over that stick and place is a superior method because there are no pre made slits that accumulate "fat and blood." Where are you getting this information that fat accumulates into these slits? Are you referring to serous fluid? If so, thats not fat and its a natural part of healing for many. Stick and place can theoretically provide higher densities since pre made slits need to be made larger because skin is elastic and the sites shrink with time so less grafts can be put in a given area. However, many top doctors are still able to create more than sufficient densities even at the hairline using pre made slits.

Secondly, you kind of contradict your recommendation between HLC and Eugenix. HLC does stick and place which is the best method according to you. But Eugenix uses DHT where all the slits are created at the beginning of surgery even before extractions begin. Yes, grafts are out of the body very short, but there is still a lot of time for these slits to accumulate "fat and blood" according to your reasoning which is the worst procedure type.

If pre made slits are really that bad, why does H&W still perform them and still outperform 95%+ of clinics out there? They even utilize pre made slits and implant grafts using implanter pens.

I totally agree with you that patients should not be choosing doctors on their tools/methods but rather their portfolio of work with a big emphasis on patient posted results.

Guys, I know it's getting a bit heated (rightfully so) but lets give Melvin the benefit of the doubt. He has stated why he needs some more time to look into things further. He has left this thread open even after Dr Bhatti has responded which is def more than what the previous mod would have likely done. This has allowed for further discussion and it has helped as another patient come forward with similar issues.

This is way more than what any of the other forums allow. For example, on the bald truth forum, all my posts are moderated for who knows what reason, everything is censored. If a patient complains there, the mod allows the doctor to provide a public response once then locks the thread.

@Badresults and @sunnybadhair, I'm truly very sorry for what has happened to both of you. I hope justice will be served. Going through surgery is already so anxiety provoking, but to have issues like this haunt you after you put your trust into a doctor/clinic is just absurd. I hope you both get the closure and results you desire. Good on both of you for standing up to this outrageous bullying. Patience is key I believe but I think there's light at the end of the tunnel for all cases.

On 4/20/2020 at 1:33 AM, Tentpole91 said:

Honestly there is really nothing to report right now. I have some light hairs growing in but I’m only at 2 months 1 week out from surgery. I expect to provide an update around the 3 month mark. 
 

Right now, the main thing I am watching is the donor area and whether the shock loss grows back. Not sure what the timeline is for that piece. 

I saw your post in another thread where you mentioned your donor area and not going below a 4. Do you have pictures showing the status of the donor?

2 hours ago, yesplease said:

Man, I’m not trying to be mean, but the scarring is pretty apparent ... recipient looks good, though. 

personally, I dont think it looks bad at all. All hair transplants, even FUE, leave scarring. It's more apparent with people that have light skin and dark hair as OP (I should know, I have the same issue). I bet you at a 2 guard not anyone would notice scarring. He did a 0 at the bottom so its def going to show. With that said, I bet most people on the street wouldnt even notice

@Guano, what size punch did pekiner use?

6 minutes ago, gillenator said:

Transplanted hair does not shock out as readily as diffused native hair providing the transplants were truly terminal hair (non DHT receptive)….even if the transplanted hair shocks out, it will grow back...there are no guarantees that weak diffused terminal hair will grow back.

Transection is always one of the risks if the recipient area is already fairly dense...but as was already mentioned, the surgeon utilizes a scope headset with light that allows a very magnified view of the existing hair shafts and the current angulation of those hair shafts as they protrude from the scalp....in addition the instrumentation has improved over the years so the surgeon can make the recipient incisions more safely with less invasiveness.

Scar tissue can potentially disrupt blood flow to the grafts if considerable work was already done to the area from previous procedures....this is why the overall yield can decrease attributable to the build-up of scar tissue from previous procedures.

Hi gill 

if a hair is in the telogen phase, and not seen since it is under the skin, can it end up being crushed/transected during the second surgery where density is added? 

Looks great. Congrats. Please keep us updated on your crown journey as well

12 minutes ago, Badresults said:

@Panamera13 the reason he contacted my employer was to warn them that if I don't stop posting about my procedure here, he would go ahead and tarnish the company image and reputation together with mine. As I was the head of company in my country, I did not want to further drag the matter in. This is why I went missing for almost a year from this site. 

In a simple word, he was blackmailing my employer to get them to stop me from further writing here and sharing my results. 

Honestly, this is horrible....imagine if this happened in the US. For example, a woman gets a cosmetic procedure and it turns out bad. She shares her results on a forum only to have the clinic contact her company/boss and not only let them openly know about a procedure the woman had but to threathen that if she continues to post about the failed procedure that the clinic will tarnish the patients employers name. The clinic would be hung out to dry in the US. On top of that getting ignored or short responses from the doctor. Unreal, on all counts. I’m very sorry @Badresults

So, just like how we vote as a community to let physicians be a part of this site, can we also vote during times like these to remove a physician? How does that work?

Very curious about your questions as well. I’d also like to know if the scar tissue from the previous surgery can hinder growth of future surgeries 

3 hours ago, Denny said:

I think I need a hair cut! 🤣
Thank you, Dr. Erdogan and great team! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Seriously, what’s the secret to staying so young looking? 15 hours of sleep?

21 hours ago, BEL8 said:

So it’s been over a year and one month since I got my operation and I have to say I am so happy with how my result has turned out. Best decision I’ve made for myself and I feel so good because of it. Taking risks are worth it for me most certainly!! I’ve also now been on Fin for 4 months and I have no side effects what so ever, so that is something else I am very happy about.   Thank God!!!

Looks good even buzzed. How does your left side look since it was weaker in your previous update?

7 hours ago, Pangloss said:

I hope that the Sikhs will stop tying those knots in their hair. Has anyone talked to them about the problem?

Isn’t it part of their tradition to not cut their hair? So as a way to keep the hair manageable they tie it.

@HisHairness you have a lot of native hair. Did hasson mention any possibility of shock loss?

@Badresults

I am very sorry you had to face such crap circumstances. To get bad results is one thing but to have the clinic not support you AND go to that length to contact your employer as a means of intimidation is beyond me.

i hope you get the repair work you deserve and end up happy after this nightmare. 
 

great job @Melvin-Moderator for stepping up so quickly to get this resolved and to back the patient up. This forum is one of the rare places where you’ll see something like this. Bravo 

3 hours ago, LaserCap said:

LaserCap

Who would have thought? Haha

13 hours ago, Badresults said:

Hi Melvin, thanks. However don't you think it is strange that it's being more than 24 hours I posted my last post and no one from Dr.Bhatti or his representative tried to refuse the allegation? If this was a false allegation towards a Doctor who's reputation at massive risk he should be brave enough to deny, don't everyone think so? I don't have anything to gain from making a false allegation especially after posting more than 1 year.

I think if you are able to provide proof of what you claim (which is a huge deal if true) then it would put everything to bed. In my opinion, if its true, there should be big consequences.

wow hasson and wong are really upping their FUE game and pushing limits. Thats awesome. The work looks very clean. Did he mention how many grafts you have total? Any pics of the donor after surgery? That must have been cost a pretty penny

4 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

Hi HTHope,

SMP is commonly used to cover FUE and FUT scars after a hair transplant. It's also used to add density on top of the scalp where recipient donor hair grows to give the illusion of greater density. SMP tends to work much better for FUE scars than FUT/Strip scars, although even with FUT scars there still will be a marked improvement from SMP. Everybody is different and some protect their SMP better (by wearing caps in the sun as harsh sunlight can increase the break down of SMP and the liver is also how the SMP breaks down) on average it could be around 2-5 years before a top up is required. On average about three years is close to the money. Just like with looking for a good HT surgeon I would also do your homework on choosing an SMP artist.

Cheers!

Thanks for the info!