MazAB

@Berba11 as long as you are using a plastic spacer and it's not direct razor metal to scalp, you can very lightly and gently buzz after about a month.

@BoldnotBald I’m happy to share more details around those topics for sure. As far as blood testing goes, I personally have it tested by my primary care physician because I’m able to have my insurance cover most of it, and can also have my doctor recommend dosage of some of the key supplements, based on what may be lacking in my diet. The main benefit of having your doctor work with you directly on this is you can track trends year over year and have input on how you can change your diet first and foremost to meet the deficiencies, and if diet alone can’t, then the use of supplements will nicely fill that gap. I use a combination of nutrition testing and vitamin panel testing to evaluate the levels of macronutrients and micronutrients in the blood. Here is the breakdown of what it covers. Nutritional Tests: Calcium Magnesium Iron Sodium Zinc Phosphorus Omega-3 / Omega-6 Folic Acid Beta Carotene Electrolytes Vitamin Panel Tests: Vitamin A Vitamin C Vitamin D Vitamin E Vitamin K Vitamin B1 (thiamine) Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) Vitamin B3 (niacin) Pantothenic acid Biotin Vitamin B6 Vitamin B12 Folate These are all good for the body and hair, so you would not want to be deficient in any of them. It's a great start to understanding where your diet needs to change and how to add in supplements to eliminate any deficiencies. My doctor is also a nutritionist so that certainly does help, but I would think that most general doctors can perform nutritional and vitamin panel testing. Best advice I can give anyone before doing this is to improve your diet, incorporate HIIT training in your workouts, and find a fasting schedule that fits your lifestyle. If you give your body positive changes and a more predictable lifestyle that it can adapt to metabolically, then the tests will satisfy a much bigger part of the equation for you. As it relates to the hair, I can definitely see a difference with some key supplements I’ve taken for years mentioned in my initial post. Intermittent fasting however, while it doesn’t have any proven benefits to promoting hair growth, if the diet is undertaken properly it can over time give you stronger, healthier hair. It’s important to ease into intermittent fasting. I started with a 12 hour fast and worked my way up. I now do 18 hours daily with a 6 hour eating window. If you don’t ease into it, it could cause stress as your body undergoes a major dietary transition which could actually lead to additional hair loss, so definitely ramp into it slowly! Month 1 - 12 hour, Month 2 - 14 hour, etc… The reason I do 18 hour is that I want my body to enter into Autophagy which is when all the repair at an intracellular level happens. It takes typically about 14 to 15 hours to burn thru your glucose stores before you enter into it, so the extra few hours in Autophagy daily really helps everything in the body, hair included. Another word of caution would be that when you are first making changes to your diet it can become easy to miss out on key nutrients and minerals your body needs to ensure your hair remains healthy and strong. Often the mistakes made for anyone starting to fast is that caloric restriction many times leads to the lack of key nutrients which many times leads to premature shedding and more hair loss over time. So be sure to eat what your normal calorie intake would be in that shorter window, and be sure to incorporate as many superfoods as possible during that window (lean meats, fish, leafy green vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, etc.). For my research in general health in addition to hair, I tend to lean more towards Cochrane reviews simply because they are the most established and have the most rigorous testing methods, typically perform double blind placebo controlled trials more often and with some of the most respected researchers across the world. They are most definitely at the top of the pyramid for anyone using high-quality information to make health decisions. You can search on their website as well for any trials performed related to hair treatments or drugs. There are countless amounts of them to sort thru. https://www.cochrane.org/ For my hair research I try to take from multiple sources, but I really like William Slator. He’s probably written a few hundred articles over the last decade or so on hair loss. Although he’s the founder of his own product called Biogaine, which I do not necessarily endorse, I do respect his knowledge and research around the biology of hair. I’ll point you to a must read article of his that discusses how Intermittent Fasting and Autophagy has a direct effect on the hair. https://www.hairguard.com/fasting/ Here is my Day 15 update: Seems to be that everything is progressing as normal. Donor looks and feels untouched. I’ve been applying natural aloe from my aloe plant several times a day. I’ve been keeping the grafts very well hydrated with daily washes and saline spray throughout the day. Hopefully that helps the crusting heal a little faster. It’s a slow going process with the healing of the crusts, but I know it’s just par for the course, so I will try not to focus on it and let nature do its thing. Redness is lingering a little, but noticeably getting better by the day. Right temple needed less work than the left, and you can clearly see a very natural look blending into the native hair on that side. I’m hoping that the left one, once fully mature, has the same natural appearance. In addition I’ve upped my doses of MSM, D3, C, E, and Niacin. In my opinion, Niacin is the perfect post hair transplant supplement. It improves blood circulation in the scalp, decreases inflammation in the scalp, and also rebuilds keratin in the anagen phase (growth phase). As hair is composed almost entirely of keratin, the lack of it will always lead to thinner, weaker hair. Once the grafts shed out, the telogen phase takes over, which as we all know takes about 3 to 4 months for the new hair follicles to come out of that resting phase, and enter back into an anagen growth phase. My goal is to try and take them out of that resting phase a little sooner with higher doses of D3 and MSM. While Niacin helps in the growth phase, D3 will help in the resting phase, both will promote more keratin proteins to form, and a higher dosage of MSM will help to fuel the keratin in every stage. I’m still well within the safe limits with my daily intake, but like I've already mentioned, but sure to talk with a doctor or nutritionist before deciding to fast or taking any additional supplements for yourself. MSM - 2 Grams daily D3 - 5000 IU daily Niacin - 200 mg daily C - 1500 mg daily @BoldnotBald the extractions taken behind my ears were used for my hairline on the second pass. They wanted, of course, lighter, finer, more natural looking hairs at the start of it. @Zoomster 007 will always be a 10 out of 10 as far as I’m concerned! Impossible to tell the difference between native hair and beard. Even in sunlight his hair looked 100% natural. Only difference is that it did not look like a dense, thick head of hair in high lighting situations, which of course, is now fully taken care of with the second procedure. All you need is 50 grafts per cm2 to achieve the illusion of full density, and between both procedures and his total graft count, he more than meets and/or exceeds that threshold. I’m really looking forward to his progress! The lines of communication are fully open with Eugenix as I’ve been hearing proactively from them quite often on my aftercare, the steps I’ve been taking at home, and also requesting for me to periodically upload pictures for them to review. India may be on the other side of the world for me, but they have made themselves feel a lot closer😉. Thanks all ~ Maz

Can't wait to see your perfect, full head of hair come to fruition my friend! I'm personally invested in it!😉

@BoldnotBalddefinitely did not feel the pressure to move forward at all. I actually felt very comfortable with the initial design, but until I had hair there it was hard for me to image how it would ultimately look. I suppose I'm lucky in that it's always easier to add more graft and go lower than to go the other way. I'm fortunate to have the best of the best on my side if I'm going to make a change like this after the fact. I can't imagine that other clinics would have been as accommodating. Bottom line is Dr Arika nailed it with her last design and like I said, I could not be happier with how it looks. As for the p1 and p2, I was wondering what that was myself but completely forgot to ask the clinic. If I find out, I'll let you know. Thanks for the support man!

Your hair is progressing nicely. Plenty of months ahead to see it thickin up!

Hey guys, just performed a head wash and wanted to post an area that didn't look so good. Is this anything I should be alarmed about? I'm sure it's fine, just wanted to extra safe

@BoldnotBaldno, they do not incorporate photoshop into the session. But just as easy to just take photos of each version, then decide I suppose. Wouldn't be a bad suggestion for any clinic to have that ability, but thank God we are all good and loving the design instead of being stuck with one that's less appealing to me.

@Zoomster it was a pleasure to share and make life long memories in this journey with you. You were a huge support having gone thru a procedure once before and knowing exactly what to expect from Eugenix. And yes, I do take full credit for bending you're arm until you begged for mercy and finally said yes to a refresh on you temple peaks😁! It's going to be an epic final result brother!

Update on Day 5: Wow, a lot has changed from my initial post after the procedure. I had a chance absorb the work done, then re-asses after speaking with Dr Predeep and Dr Arika on the potential of changing the initial design. Although conservative was my original choice, I felt strongly that the conservative approach was not framing my face appropriately to bring out my best look. Dr Arika 100% agreed and immediately drew out a design that was one step more aggressive filling and rounding off the end temples better, and also slightly coming down in the center point. For me it was tough to fully picture how to frame my face to make it the best version of what I can be in the design phase, but this change was exactly me in every way hitting the sweet spot of not being too aggressive or conservative with more distinctive lines stylistically. Dr Arika’s original design suggestion was about as aggressive as this, but the modified version of the new hairline in my opinion, looks a lot better than the original. Friday September 3rd – 277 grafts implanted across the hairline: My main concern heading back into this would be that hairlines are never designed with many rows of singles. After 3 to 4 lines of singles, doubles and triples are placed for density sake, but because the hairline is essentially a do-over, we would have anywhere from 8 to 10 lines of singles making the hairline more see thru, especially in direct sunlight. To avoid this, Dr Arika added triples to the back part of the new hairline to help aid in establishing a visual barrier between original and modified hairline as well as added density. Saturday September 4th – Dr Pradeep wanted me to head to the clinic early so he could specifically assess that last row of triple hair grafts. He too was concerned that multiple rows of singles may expose transparency if the triples were not enough to provide cover and create that visual wall. Under the highest magnification he was able to find adequate spacing between grafts. He also felt that I was a good candidate to handle more densely packed grafts, and thought better safe than sorry. Dr Pradeep wanted to be sure that the visual barrier of triples would be randomly scattered between the singles alternating from the 3rd and 4th rows, as well as squeezing in a new row with multiple triples where the original hairline ends and the new one begins. All in all, 128 triple hair grafts were extracted and strategically placed across the hairline. I could not believe that he was able to find the room to fit as many grafts as he did, but I must say the uneasy feeling that I may have put myself in tough spot modifying the original hairline completely vanished. Dr Pradeep and his magical hands set my mind at ease with a no loss everything gained scenario. Can’t thank him enough for his thoughtfulness and caring for my outcome just as much, if not more than me. His response to me after thanking him endlessly, “I do the same for you as my own son or brother. You are in my heart and your result needs to reflect that.” I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be going over the top with waving the Eugenix pompoms, but seriously, what hair transplant surgeon would ever say anything like that to his clients. Forget about being a great surgeon, this guy is such an amazing person. Both Dr Arika and Pradeep care for their clients with every ounce of their being. The most spiritually and ethically grounded people you could ever want to meet. In hind sight, I could have avoiding this happening altogether if I was more decisive on how aggressive/conservative I wanted to be before the design with Dr Arika. Also, I would recommended to have several options drawn out with completely different shapes and arcs so you can see what works framed to your face. Trust me, when you see the one that truly works you will definitely know it right away, but without seeing it drawn on your head it could be easy to just move forward the first option and think it’s good enough. So be sure to take more time than I did in the design room. Here are the updated shots taken at day 5:

@MachoVato you brought up a good point on the disparity between the number of grafts on each temple, so if you go back up to the post op shots, I just uploaded a different angle that shows exactly how her design created the balance necessary on both sides. My corner temples down to the points had way more recession on one side vs the other and it's clear as day why she needed to build it up the way she did. Again, thank you for taking note of that!

Good catch @MachoVato! 😉 I was waiting for someone to notice that very thing. Yes, that is correct, less grafts were placed in the upper right temple. If you zoom in on the image you'll see that I have shaved down native hairs in front of the grafts to support it and according to Dr Arika, when those native hairs grow back it will fill that voided area and have visual symmetry on both sides.

@GaryStruthers thanks man! I thought I would be going thru a ton of revisions as I can be a picky SOB when it comes certain things, hair transplants being one of them. She drew two versions of same design. One conservative and the other aggressive. I went with the more conservative approach, but did have her redraw the left temple so it was more symmetrical with the right, as well as having her give me a small center point in the middle part of the hairline. Not sure if you can see it or not in the photos, but wanted it to be subtle and less prominent.

I feel great! Dr Arika called on WhatsApp the day I checked in and assured me I was in safe hands which really put me at ease since this is my first procedure. On top of being a great surgeon, she's also very a caring compassionate person. Could have easily traveled back, but just played it ultra conservative since it's all the unknown for me. Glad I did, as they have exceptional after care. A driver picks me up, takes me to the clinic every day for cleaning the donor, assessing the recipient area, and addressing any questions or concerns. Sunday will be the first head wash, then I fly out. Honestly, it worked out perfectly for me for the after care and they have been interviewing me as well on my experience. Gave HRN some plugs, hopefully they don't edit that part out.😉

@Berba11 they set me up at the Westin for 2 nights and I just extended it. It's easier for me and Eugenix as their drivers make the daily trips to and from the facility to accommodate out of country patients. After the 2 complimentary nights, I'm paying $70 US dollars per night.

Hi @Berba11 , I'll be staying a total of 7 nights. Arrived 2 days early to settle in, get bloodwork done, have procedure, and 5 days of healing with head wash before departing.

Congrats @mphair! Looking forward to the months ahead and seeing it all progress. Sorry I missed you at the clinic. My session was Tuesday.

Hello All, I wanted to thank you all for your support on this thread and for those of you that took the time to message me privately to wish me good fortune on my day of surgery. I was going to take pictures of my scalp in my hotel room, but knowing my clumsy self, I would have been likely to drop the phone on top of my head, so I waited for Eugenix to release the MUCH better quality pre and post op photos😁 The Eugenix team came as advertised and Dr. Arika is truly amazing at what she does. I'm thrilled with the design and the overall clean work from extraction to implantation. I met with Dr Arika the day before surgery and we had our design session. The first thing I learned quickly is to just let her lead you down the path of customizing the right design based on the shape of your face and how the hair line should be framed. It turns out the v-shape design was not the right way to frame it, and she talked me thru how she envisions my hairline so it's customized to match me. She drew out the first design, I loved it, and committed to it. The following day I arrived at Eugenix by 7am, got my hair cut, pre-op photos taken, had breakfast, then began surgery by 8am. The surgery lasted about 10.5 hours ending at around 6:30. On my initial video consultation with Dr. Arika she told me that I would need about 2300 grafts. It turns out that exactly 2300 grafts were implanted in the hairline and temple points. She got it down to the last graft for those areas. I did request for her to do some crown work as well. She assessed it and told me that the hair loss is stable in the crown and that I would only need 50 grafts for that region. Normally if I keep my hair slightly longer I don't have any noticeable hair loss in the crown, but I do like to sport different hair styles and go slim and trim from time to time. When it is too short, you can definitely spot small thinning areas, and it's nice to just get the full coverage front to back. Quite honestly it felt great to indulge in some hair greed as you don’t have many of those opportunities in your lifetime. Dr Arika told me she was able to densely pack the hairline with 40 grafts per sq cm. She mentioned that the scalp condition and donor health was optimal for her to push it to 40. I get nervous when it comes to pushing the limits on density, but I know she only slightly went above the average density of her patients, so I am very comfortable with it. I included pre-op and post-op shots, and one other that breaks down the graft count. My only concern coming out of the procedure is that I had barely any singles. They needed to split doubles to obtain all the singles necessary for the hairline and temples. They did assure me that it was standard practice and that the techs perform graft splitting daily, but it’s just one more moving part in the procedure that gets me very nervous. I’d love for anyone to comment with any experience in graft survivability after splitting. @Looking for HT, if I'm not mistaken, I believe you may have dealt with this very issue of graft splitting in your first procedure. All in all though, a successful textbook procedure by Eugenix. I’m overwhelmed with anticipation of what the final result will be, but fully aware that this will be a painstakingly long process with no shortage of emotional highs and lows. I’ll be updating monthly. Thanks again for the support guys! ~ Maz

@JohnAC71 it's so close that I'm already starting to hallucinate and see more hair on my head when I look in the mirror 🤣! Seriously though I feel great. Red carpet treatment from the moment I arrived. A couple of hours ago Dr Arika called me on WhatsApp to see how I was, and to assure me that I'm in the safest of hands, and that it is her mission to orchestrate the perfect procedure tomorrow. How's that for assurance? Can't wait 👍

All good. No problems with the number. It is Eugenix and coming from there call center team.

Hi Issac, I was working with Abhinay at the beginning of the process. When he went on leave, a gentleman named Mudit took over and I've been working with him up to this point. Yes, you are correct, once you request to book an appointment they send a link to pay a deposit via Credit Card. Although my deposit fee was definitely higher than yours. I paid $500 USD. However, I do not recognize that number. Don't pay anything yet. Let me confirm with my contacts if that number is legitimate before you do anything. -Maz

Thanks SLA! I will definitely go that route. Here is the more conservative design that I'll probably be closer to. Temples are too hard to draw so I'll revisit that in the planning session.

I'm sure it's big difference from a month ago. Would love to see the progress @ADil

Thanks @GaryStruthers! My flight is scheduled for tomorrow evening. Getting a little nervous, but have the confidence that it'll all fall into place.

Thanks Parasol, your opinion I hold in high regard, and do also believe a more conservative approach is the way to go. I think the important thing is to let Dr. Arika work her magic and artistry and let her lead me instead of the other way around.

@GasthoererI agree with you on being too aggressive with the center point of the hairline. I'm likely to keep the side endpoints where they are and bring up just the center point slightly. I also agree that I could probably come in a little on the temple points. Not too much, but even a little will make a difference. Solid advice, thanks man!