ciaus

One more here in case you use minoxidil too

Dermarolling doesn't cause hair loss. And if your hair transplant doc was trying to convince you of that I'd be thinking conflict of interest opinion; ie the better dermarolling works, the less hair he can transplant, the less money he makes. And you dermaroll once or twice a week.

The best place to ask would be in your doctor's office. I wouldn't trust replies from any internet forum, even this one, when it comes to interpreting lab results and making medication decisions based on them. And I would stress that even more if you have any pre-existing medical conditions.

You need to slow down, I'm thinking you may have more than hair troubles. You joined the forum yesterday with this account and you're already up to 27 posts. Take a breather, especially if you post under other accounts. What you've seen is online, and good luck with that, trying to use the internet to find piece of mind or certainty. Along with the legitimate people having a problem, you have to try to sift out all the hypochondriacs, trolls, and mentally deranged and ill people who aren't telling you the whole story, or a complete BS story. I've been taking finasteride for about 15 yrs with no problems, and there are millions of other guys that have been doing the same. The lawyers would have bankrupted Merck years ago if the side effects were anywhere near as bad and widespread as your behavior on this thread would suggest. Don't take finasteride, and based on the questions you've recently asked about minoxidil, I'd encourage you not to take that either to help with your piece of mind. Use the forum search function in the top right and the approved doctor list, and try to narrow your choices and ask questions about those. And preferably on a new topic. Others seeing this overly dramatic title, "Terrified of Fin, the side effects, and the serious implications it has," is pretty much only helping to potentially spread your paranoia to others.

I'm pretty sure Melvin was directing that to everyone. Its important to have the right expectation and appreciation when reaching out to these doctors. Because it requires relatively little effort on the part of the doctor to issue the prescription, some guys will expect there to be a corresponding little or no cost they have to pay. But the doctor's extensive training, experience, and limited valuable time, when considered together, are what justify paying the price of a doctor's visit to get the prescription.

I agree, a HT doctor couldn't draw these hairline borders better, and if he tried to bring them down and forward it wouldn't look natural. Not sure what you mean when you said Dr Ferreira "suggests 1500-2000 grafts to reimplement my hair line" -does he mean add density to your hairline? Like others have said, you still have enough hair all over that you risk losing some of it from shockloss caused by the surgery. There is some diffuse thinning on the top, but its harder to gauge how much because you are combing your hair back and upwards, and using some styling product it looks like. Both of those factors are going to expose more of your scalp. You could use a little concealer, like toppik and/or dermmatch, and look great for years until your actual loss progresses enough to where you can have a really impactful transplant that won't risk your existing hair.

No, minoxidil doesn't address DHT. It thickens hairs and extends their growth cycles until the DHT completely renders the hair follicles unable to produce visible hair. Just taking minoxidil alone is not a long term solution. You want to combine it with finasteride, or at least just take finasteride. And oral minoxidil will work better than the topical minoxidil for more guys, and possibly better, because its processed in the liver instead of up at the scalp where not everyone is able to process it as efficiently. I take the oral minoxidil because the topical irritates my scalp conditions, and I've also been on finasteride for about 15 yrs.

If you want to maximize your results and have the discipline to apply the minoxidil in the morning and evening, or even once a day, go ahead and start the minoxidil. They work best together. Finasteride helps protect the hair from DHT and minoxidil thickens the hairs and extends their growth cycles so you have more hairs growing at the same time, giving you the fullest look. Some guys have an initial shed on finasteride too. You still have alot of hair, and not everyone sheds when starting finasteride and minoxidil. And you have so much hair, even if you have some shedding it's not going to be the big deal it is for guys who waited too long, after they've already lost alot of hair. If you want to be extra careful get some Toppik hair fibers, for any thin areas sprinkle some on, and comb it through, then style as usual. A number of us on this forum have used it to help delay getting hair transplants for years because it works so well. https://www.amazon.com/Toppik-Building-Fibers-Medium-Brown/dp/B000CBRMYE/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3DSAPJE9MZNHA&dchild=1&keywords=topika+hair+fibers&qid=1616468891&s=beauty&sprefix=topik%2Cbeauty%2C201&sr=1-5\]

About half of the 4% of guys that reported side effects during the clinical trials were not taking the finasteride, they were in the the placebo group. There are guys that get paranoid about the possibility of side effects and actually psyche themselves out into having sexual performance issues. Reading your posts you sound like one of those guys, and based on that I don't think you should bother with finasteride, you probably torture yourself with worry down the road with what-if(s) even if you don't have immediate side effects. And even if 20 or 50 forum members replied to this thread that they experienced side effects, it would be a bad basis for making a decision for yourself. Millions of guys have taken the drug over the decades. Delay getting a hair transplant as long as possible so you and the doctor can best estimate whether you'll have enough hair in the long run. Or become philosophical and stop caring about superficial stuff like hair.

I'd start with just the transplanted areas for 1-2 weeks, give your body a little time to adjust and see how sensitive you are in terms of getting any side effects. If you handle it fine go ahead and apply it to your thinning areas too. An initial shed is possible when you start minoxidil, but its just temporary to the extent that it happens, as the follicles prepare to start their new longer growth cycles. If you're working from home now and can wear a hat wherever you do go, its the perfect time to start.

Its more the camera angle than the lighting. For each time you take progress pictures, take a pair from these angles below, same room and same lighting. This will help you track your loss better by helping you take into account how the lighting reflects off the curvatures of your head.

Looked back over them, loss looks about the same. But hair loss is like the stock market, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Going forward when you're taking progress pictures use the same angle and lighting, preferably in the same room, so you have a good reference history.

Here's a recent topic, guy in the same situation as you. You can read both sides. The guys that stop taking the meds are doing it out of the understandable desire to be extra careful, but there is no evidence that finasteride or minoxidil causes birth defects from the father's semen. Just don't let the mother take the finasteride pills, handle the pills, or use the minoxidil. https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/finasteride-oral-route/description/drg-20063819

Yea you're thinnning. The minoxidil with thicken and strengthen your hairs while you have them, but it won't stop the reason they are thinning, which is DHT. For that you'll need to see a doctor about starting finasteride.

In the clinical trials for finasteride about 4% reported side effects, and about half of them were taking the placebo. So the placebo effect and the side effects are both real. Dutasteride is more powerful and the long term effects are the big question mark. There will probably be better treatments that come along, if not a cure, before it will get official approval to treat hairloss. For anyone considering it, I would think hard about sticking with the studied drugs (fin + min) to slow the loss as much as possible, and just get additional hair transplants as needed. Especially if you have a pretty strong donor and your loss is not very aggressive. Nobody wants to be kicking themselves 20 years from now staring down the barrel of some serious health condition because they rolled the dice on an experimental drug trying to hang on to some extra hairs.

So you got some work on your crown too. Go ahead and try putting the minoxidil in each of your transplanted areas. I would use the liquid minoxidil instead of the foam so you can measure it better. Its easy to get carried away and apply too much because you are worried about making sure you apply enough.

I wouldn't try applying it over your whole head, at least at first. You have a pretty big transplanted area, I'd focus it there. Too much minoxidil can cause side effects like lightheadness, dizziness, headaches. There's a full list of rare and more common side effects at the link below. There may be other members here that do apply it to their full head (not their donor side areas, just all over the top), it depends on how sensitive your body is to it. 6-8 months after your procedure most of the hairs should be sprouting. How much longer you keep applying it to the front is up to you. It works better on the crown area in the back. Long term, if you aren't taking finasteride already you should look into it, works great with minoxidil to help limit or at least delay how many more hair transplants you'll need in the future. https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/minoxidil-topical-route/side-effects/drg-20068750

At 35 days after the transplant you are in the 'ugly duckling' phase, where the hairs have shed. If you aren't taking minoxidil currently, that could potentially help kickstart some of your hairs back into the growth phase a little quicker. But the main thing is you need to be patient, everyone has to go through this part, and try not to obsess each day. The hair will start coming back in about 2 to 3 months from now.

His 2 month photos look like his donor was recovering pretty good, as expected with temporary shockloss. I expect its recovered fully and he hasn't posted back because he has no reason to continue complaining. Its a shame the Doctor had to be dragged through the mud in the meantime.

When you stopped taking the finasteride your DHT levels went back up, no one can say how much additional damage that did to your hairs during this time, it comes down to genetic and hormonal factors that are unique to your physiology. Hopefully it was just a degree of miniaturization that the meds can reverse. That's why in my first post I said to get back on them for a year to see if you can recover anything and then re-evaluate whether to do another HT.

Just don't let your mother-to-be take or handle the pills. Note: Women who are pregnant or may become pregnant should not use finasteride or handle the crushed or broken tablets. Finasteride can cause birth defects in male babies. https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/finasteride-oral-route/description/drg-20063819

Like others have said, unless you were having side effect issues, you should get back on the meds. They help to maximize your donor zone and hang on to even the vulnerable hairs longer so you can delay additional hair transplants as much as possible. The doctor may not have transplanted as much hair to your front because the meds were still helping some of the front hairs hang on. The hair transplant journey is rarely 'one and done', unless the guy waits until their older years 50s/60s etc, when they've lost most of what they'll ever lose, to get a HT. While pretty much everybody has a donor area that is the most resistant to hair loss factors, nobody can predict it with certainly. Time is the key factor, and it becomes easier to estimate the area the older you get. That's why there's so much caution about guys getting hair transplants when they are young, particularly if the loss is aggressive. Doctors that operate on younger guys, or guys that haven't stabilized their loss with meds, run a higher risk of taking hairs from an area that is actually outside their "safe" zone. Get back on the meds for a year and see what you can recover, then re-evaluate for a 2nd HT. Wouldn't bother with prp, etc. if you do need more density.

Assuming you're talking about redness from the hair transplant. Usually the lighter your skin the longer it takes for the redness to fade. If you have fair skin it can take up to several months, some outliers can still have some pinkness as far out as 5 months. Try not to apply styling products that dry out your skin, keep the areas moisturized. Applying some aloe daily can help with the fading too.

Yea if its been 3 days enjoy the weekend, a glass or two of beer is fine. Later tonight...