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Hold off on transplants for your beard, you owe it to yourself to try using minoxidil first. And unlike with scalp hair, the results are permanent if you do the minoxidil for long enough, anywhere from 6 months up to a few years.

The most important thing to remember about the medications is that no change or further loss is also a victory. Particularly when it comes to finasteride, since that is the only one actually attacking the underlying main cause of the hair loss. Its the lucky guys that jump on it early at the first signs that have the best chance to regain some. But even a slower loss rate can make the difference allowing you to get up to a few hair transplants over your lifetime to maintain decent coverage in the worse case scenario.

Minoxidil doesn't address the underlying reason you're losing your hair, whether you try the oral or topical versions, all its doing is thickening your hairs and extending the growth cycles until the DHT finishes off your hair follicles. As for starting a DHT blocker like finasteride or dutasteride, most guys that do respond just maintain what they currently have or the loss rate slows down. Not many guys gain back much of what they've already loss. I wouldn't risk hair transplants, nobody can see into the future and guarantee you results. The only guarantee is that you'll get some scarring in the donor area where they take the hair. And then you'll have to worry about trying to keep the scars concealed so people don't stare at your head. Your best options are to 1) just shave it 2) SMP 3) don't even bother shaving it 4) hair system

Very impressive work and great write up. Remember asking you about the likelihood of getting those temple points recovered. Fantastic to see you were able to get them fully addressed! How open are you to using SMP for a density effect at some point in the future? Or would you just continue with temporary concealers if needed?

I have no hair system experience myself, occasionally check in this section when a new post comes up out of curiosity. If the guy is actually being honest about never using a system or anything else on his scalp, maybe accumulated damage from long term repeated sun burns? Seems fairly young for that though. A few laser treatments or maybe an exfoliator brush routine will buff it out or improve it? And he could probably get the skin professionally bleached. Coming back to those pics, that really looks suspicious the way it rounds off along where his hairline would be in the front. If it were some natural disorder you would expect the area to be more randomly shaped. My personal opinion, there's all kinds of crazy products out there with god-knows-what ingredients to help conceal hair loss and this guy has been doing some experimenting he's probably embarrassed about. Whether it be a hair system or just something he's sprinkled or sprayed on for years.

Interesting to see the first "foundational" session. Assuming the patient follows the correct after care procedures, when they come back in for the 2nd session is there a typical/average % of additional density you apply after seeing how their skin takes to the ink? Just thinking if I were to be in your shoes, I wouldn't want to create all the dots in the first session and have to re-touch or even completely re-do the ones that don't take at all.

I really like the natural irregularities along the hairline.

Hi welcome, here are some good topics below with video and pics to help learn about temple point design and restoration. And there's alot more to be found using the forum search in the top right of the page. Start with something like "temple restoration", "temple points". And you can do refinements from there on the first results page, searching by keywords, phrases, dates, images etc.

Found this stuff searching by 'magic shave' Says its a chemical hair remover for the body, nothing about the head. Is this what you used? Apparently its some pretty powerful stuff you have to mix carefully and wait 24hrs between applications. Here's some excerpts from an article linked below. Though this product is only meant to be used on the face (its packaging and labels clearly indicate this), TikTok users have been raving about its abilities to cut through body hair and leave soft, smooth skin in its wake – especially on the legs. If you do patch tests on your legs and arms and have no negative reaction, proceed with caution and follow the product's instructions exactly when mixing and applying the Magic Shaving Powder to your face or body. "Repeated applications in a short period of time increase the risk of sensitivity, so it is important to wait at least 24 hours between applications," https://www.allure.com/story/tiktok-magic-fragrant-shaving-powder-safety

That's an awesome mature hairline, frames the head and face perfectly. And the density matches all over, this is a portfolio piece. Looks like one of those lucky guys that has all the hair in the world but doesn't want to bother doing anything with it. Got your sig in the bottom right, the only thing missing is the frame to hang it on the wall!

Maybe I missed it, but how much bigger or smaller was this recent procedure than the one before? And having your hairline lowered this time means the doctor was working in an area that was bare, without even thinning hairs. I would expect building up an area from nothing like that to possibly require more grafts per cm2, meaning more incisions that would cause more trauma, leading to more redness during the healing process.

Agree this is a major improvement, excellent work. Other than filling the horseshoe shadow pattern with transplanted hair, the only improvement options for a consistent look are SMP or doing repeated hair laser removal sessions until all the follicles are nuked out of hair producing existence.

It looks perfectly blended with his existing hair. I couldn't tell where the SMP starts without the before picture, very impressive!

Have you read any of the replies on this topic or did you just look at the pictures? What we have here is the SMP equivalent of going to a hair mill in Turkey and getting a bad transplant. Like has already been said, do your research people, like you would for a hair transplant. As the thread develops I'm beginning to get suspicious that the person who started the topic and then bumped it with new accounts is trying to 'poison the well,' so to speak on SMP. Maybe one of these hair transplant clinic reps that doesn't want SMP to get too popular.

Looking good, keep it up. Generic finasteride should be fine. Proscar is going to be alot more expensive especially if you don't have insurance. And you'll have to cut up the pills which can be annoying. Personally I've been on finasteride for about 15 yrs. From back when it was still on patent as 1mg Propecia, to generic 1mg, to about a year I did do generic finasteride at 5mg cutting the pills into quarters. I'm back to taking the 1mg generic finasteride using the Keeps subscription service. They have options that range in cost from about $20 to $25/month. I went with the lowest cost plan in the long run, but you have to pay the full about $235 up front for that, and they ship all the bottles for the year in 1 shipment. Never had any shedding problems in all those years of switching around. Technically I could save quite a bit relatively speaking by going with generic finasteride 5mg pills cutting into quarters, but I hate bothering with cutting each pill in quarters when I start a new pill. I'd recommend going with an online service like Keeps too, because they are major buyers of finasteride. Which means if one of their suppliers start providing bad or less effective batches, its more likely to be addressed effectively because they have so many customers that would complain. There's other competing services that do similar offerings. You can check them out at the links below. https://www.keeps.com/ https://www.getroman.com/drugs/finasteride/ https://www.forhims.com/hair-loss/finasteride

Hi I understand you're really stressing, just be very careful at this point. There's not much wiggle room for mistakes if your long term goal is keeping your head buzzed. I've seen some very impressive results concealing hair transplant scars with SMP, but no one is going to be able to guarantee you a result like that. You should reach out to some ethical SMP artists and get their input as well. We have two top tier SMP artists that are forum members here and they post their results over in the SMP section too: @hairthere and @EnhancedScalp I'm linking some recent topics below relating to addressing scars and high norwood loss with SMP. In case you don't want to click on the topic links, I'm copy/pasting this great reply from @hairthere about guys wanting to do hair transplants and SMP together and the potential downsides: I've had quite a few people ask me about this very approach lately, but there are some issues you should consider. Firstly, you will be PERMANENTLY scarring your scalp. And not just the donor zone. You will create scar tissue in the recipient area too, which can sometimes cause issues with the pigment (retention mostly). I know FUE is being aggressively marketed as "scar-free" or "scar-less" surgery--this is simply not true--as is evidenced here on this forum. The followup I get is, "Well you can then fix the scars." But why create a problem that needs fixing? SMP can definitely help conceal the scars, but it's not perfect. Secondly, while current transplant technology/methods (FUT and FUE) do produce ultra-refined grafts, they will NEVER be as natural as your native hair. And what I most commonly see is ridging along the hairline when the grafts are shaved down. Like everything else in life, you must weigh the risk versus the reward of this approach. In my opinion, if you're going for a shaved/buzzed look (zero guard), forgo the surgery and just do SMP.

Great result, really like the more natural hairline.

Wow complete reversal! I don't think I've ever seen someone with that much loss get SMP done. Looks like he's even thinning pretty bad in his donor. How much longer did this take over more 'typical' cases? Did you have to spread each session over more than one day?

I agree huge improvement already. Have you ever had any clients where it was just a one-and-done session? Or do you always leave some work to do beyond what will need to be touched up? Occasionally a guy will come on the forum, usually with a botched job, and the way they describe getting the SMP sometimes it sounds like they just had one session. Thanks for sharing and I hope you'll post after the final session, would be very interesting to compare with the first video. Usually we just see the final session.

Absolutely not, there's already a close association with traditional tattooing and SMP and that's a major problem in terms of people getting bad SMP done. SMP uses different ink formulations and tooling to deposit the ink at a higher level in the skin layering. There are a lot of traditional tattoo artists out there that have haphazardly expanded their existing businesses to cash in on SMP without getting the proper training, ink formulations, and tooling. ** That's why you have to do careful research for SMP like you would for a HT doctor. ** No need to mess around with existing definitions.

The permanent ink fades, but if it changes colors/'discolors' you went to one of the wrong places to get it done. This is a 3 year old topic started by someone that only posted once using an account, and now its been resurrected today by another new account, probably the same guy. Where was this SMP done? Help others to avoid them as well. And did you just have one session done, or the standard 2 or 3 sessions over several weeks?

Keep a sharp eye on that thinning, even better would be to take pictures a few times a year at the same hair length and camera angle/distance, and lighting. Particularly of the top and crown areas. Once hair loss starts it usually progresses for at least a few decades, the rate varies depending on your unique genetics, before your final loss pattern fully reveals itself. Its not very common to regain hair that's no longer visible due to DHT. Most guys will do no more than maintain what they currently have when they start on a DHT blocker like Finasteride. Regarding your current regimen, DHT-blocking shampoos are just topically applied to your scalp skin for a few minutes, which means they do relatively little against the total DHT that's flowing around your body in your blood. A biotin supplement may help on the margins as well, especially if you tend to eat alot of junk/fast food. The minoxidil will be the primary cause for any improvement you see from here. And just be aware that all the minoxidil is doing is thickening the hairs and increasing their growth cycle lengths so that more of them are growing at the same time. It's not actually giving you any extra time when it comes to fighting the DHT. Eventually the minoxidil will not be enough to produce visible hair as the DHT continues to attack the hairs on your head that are vulnerable to it.

Glad to help and here's the link to the forum recommended list of doctors with contact information, etc. https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/Consult-a-Physician/hair-transplant-surgeons.asp?sr=HRN

Based on discussions in the SMP section of the forum with SMP artists, its generally considered better to go one way or the other when it comes to hair transplants or SMP, not to eventually end up doing both. Primarily because of the scarring from hair transplants, no way around getting the scars, and you won't know how well you heal, how good they'll look until its too late to go back. @hairthere and @EnhancedScalp are two top SMP artists that post on this forum over in the SMP section. I'd definitely consult with them before pulling the trigger on any hair transplant. There first topic link below is for a guy that is struggling with getting his hair transplant scar fixed after trying hair transplants, worth checking out. The rest are some topics that come up from the forum search function from guys asking the same question so you can get some top doctor names. Best of luck!

Finasteride helps any hair that's vulnerable to DHT by lowering DHT up to 70%. If your doctor took hair outside your safe zone then those hairs are going to continue thinning regardless of where you put them on your head. And there are some unlucky guys that ultimately don't have much of a 'safe zone.' Any guy getting a hair transplant should try finasteride for at least a year before getting it done. To make sure you don't get side effects, to strengthen existing hairs, and confirm whether its going to help stabilize your overall loss rate. Otherwise you increase the risk of running out of donor hair in the long run. If you've only been on finasteride and minoxidil for the past two months, better late than never, and you're still in the 'potential initial temporary shed phase.' Not every guy gets a noticeable shed, but it sounds like you may be one that does. Give it a full year to see the full results and for the shed to recover, and document it with pictures for reference.