Gatsby

I always like to think about the future especially if you are young. If you are in your 20's then remember your hair and your face is going to look different as you get older. You need to factor this into the equation. Also I would be guided by your surgeon.

TRT will elevate your DHT levels unfortunately. If you can't tolerate finasteride (like I can't) I would really think about this. If it means your health over your hair I would focus on your health every day of the week. This is just my opinion. All the best.

Speak with your doctor but 1mg a day is the standard for finasteride. IMO regular PRP sessions are a waste of money. Put it towards your surgery a year of so from now. All the best!

@Patrick_Joyce 😂 I'm not sure if I have anything left in the bank as I didn't ask Dr Sethi. But when I get to around 6 months and my donor starts to bounce back 🤞I'll ask him.

@YodaHead the oral minoxidil will benefit the beard hair in the transplant as well as the beard itself. This is going to be a great result. 👌💯

There are plenty of great results from using finasteride and in fact if caught early, MPB has been halted and hair loss has been reversed. Finasteride treats MOB at the source by blocking the enzyme 5ar which causes hair loss. Minoxidil work’s in a completely different way improving blood flow to the follicle. Certainly oral minoxidil definitely helps the hair to be thicker and to stay in the anagen phase longer. But Finasteride will help stabilize further hair loss. Taking both medications would be an optimal approach.

@Big Rome would you be able to see a dermatologist and have him/her prescribe the dose you require?

Amazing results! 🤩👌

How many months post op from the second hair transplant are you at now? Are you still taking dutasteride and minoxidil consistently?

@Will_the_way your hair looks incredible and you look like you have the body and naturalness of a teenager's mop of hair! 👌

This ^

It can be a minefield trying to find an excellent and ethical doctor when you commence researching for a hair transplant if you are a guy. It's even harder if you are a female. I would look at female result that are from females that have posted on this forum (granted they are few). I realise that surgery is expensive. But you are better off doing nothing if you are looking at Turkey because of the cost unless it's because you are happy with patient results from there. If you get a bad result from any surgeon then you will be begging for the balding area that you began with. Because balding, while not something anyone wants, does look natural and is something that we see in people both men and women. Keep researching. Like @Berba11 I have seen excellent results from Eugenix but I'm going to be called a schill if I keep mentioning them. There have been results that look excellent posted here before but they have been from a couple of clinics in the States and Europe. All the best.

@mtb your hair is insane!! 🤩👌

I found coloring my hair every 5 weeks makes a huge visual difference. This would help I'm sure.

@azza786 are you taking oral minoxidil?

Thanks @Shadman. Firstly I am a huge fan of Dr Pittella and I follow his work closely on instagram and on here. I think if Dr Sethi wasn't around then Dr Pittella would be my pick if he accepted me as a patient. With Dr Sethi I find that regardless of how big a mega session he perfoms, he always leaves 'something in the bank' and chooses exactly where he wants grafts harvested from that need to go where. For example, the temple hair has to be light colored, slow growing and fine hair. Also compared to all other surgeons he gets around Norwood 7 patients by being able to master the art of using beard hair mixed in with scalp hair in numbers that are higher than any other surgeon I'm aware of. This last surgery for the crown has pushed me to now having had over '8k beard grafts' harvested in total!!! That goes a long way in adding density where it counts and takes the pressure off using pure scalp hair alone. Dr Sethi will push it right to the edge without going over it. He knows how and where to use chest hair and when farming into donor scars he didn't want to waste even beard grafts initially so he used pubic hair grafts. So even after my first surgery of 8,728 grafts, he still left enough scalp donor (and beard, etc) in the interests of donor management for the future. At the end of twelve months then if there is scope for improvement then the patient can look at going for further improvement which has been my experience. Again, even after the second surgery he repeated the aim of leaving some in the bank again hence last weeks final crown top up. I find Dr Pradeep to not only be an extremely talented and hard working surgeon, but also a creative one and someone who always wants to improve on each surgery than the one before. I hope that best explains my experience.

@Al - formerly BeHappy those repair pics on the right look incredible. Very natural results! 👌

@Woody1 for only four months you are rocking it! 😎👌

I would definitely commence finsteride now through your GP. You have so much hair to keep! Conversely you also have so much hair to lose by not being on meds. I would give finasteride six months at a bare minimum to see if you can stabalize your loss. Then you can plan surgery accordingly. All the best!

Unless your barber also performed your hair transplant then you're fine! 👌

Scalp grafts alone would be over 7K now. Also I lost 2k from my first two punch graft procedures.

Looking good @DomTransplant. Still more months for further maturing and subtle growth. 👍

Meeting Stewie again and finally the great Norwood 7 slayer, John, was a highlight of the trip also (can’t find our pic Stewie?).

The crown before and after 1,200 scalp and beard grafts were used to increase the density.

Call it hair greed, impatience or call it what you will. December last year I was feeling that my crown was still not as full as I would have liked it. It looked great styled back and if my results had have ended there then I would have been done and dusted with a big, fat smile on my face. I spoke with Dr Pradeep around Xmas time last year and he assured me that I still had scope for more improvement in the crown if I wished. So seeing that @Bandit90 and @Stewie would be at Eugenix in February I decided that this would be a great time to add some density in the crown while catching up with two great blokes on my way home from the Philippines. Initially I was thinking of 500-600 grafts in the crown (and it is a big, fat Norwood 7 crown). However after Dr Pradeep looked at my scalp it was decided that he would transplant 800 scalp grafts and another 400 beard grafts into the crown (1,200 grafts in total). When I heard those figures I was delighted!! Today was only day six but I will be posting updates on this third and final surgery. My stay was short at Eugenix, due to when I was leaving Manila, a doozy of a migraine came on and I threw up at the airport with blinding light and a jack hammer going off in my head! I managed to fly to Delhi and I was forced to stay in bed for a day when I arrived until the migraine would pass. The great thing however was meeting John and Stewie though meeting great people is never long enough. I'm still waiting on the photo from the clinic so I will put up a few that I took.