ciaus

Agree, that's the first time I've seen the top hair look thicker than the donor (without any previous HTs), maybe some of that is the lighting/angle. Its like he had a hair transplant from the almighty while he was still in the womb! Great job God, need to work on your scarring though big guy.

I agree disappointing that your doc is pushing products that are really not necessary. A first hair transplant is kind of like a first child, the parents splurge on all kinds of unnecessary things and the most expensive brands and then by the second or third one they know better. I think you are near or past 10 days right? Just stick to the foundational stuff -good food, enough sleep, stress management, ease yourself into moderate exercise. Its a shame people can't make a fortune telling that truth.

Never heard of Mr Bump, so I had to image search him of course. I can just picture the next @Rossybop inspired book in the series.... And if you keep bumping your head the bandaged look is another way to conceal your hair loss!

That might be a good thing depending on the hair characteristics, then have @DrTBarghouthi transplant them up to your head. Same goes for those unwanted ear hairs.

I haven't read all or probably even most of his posts, but thinking about it now I've read enough to agree with you. And I think when you compare his posts with his chosen forum name you can come to some other conclusions about him.

That's a small price in money and time to pay for something that is going to have a dramatic effect on how you are going to look for the rest of your life. If that kind of effort is beyond what you are willing to do then its probably a good thing that you don't do SMP in the first place.

Those versed in video editing software probably have plenty of tricks up their sleeves making it less difficult then the rest of us would think. Anyway, I didn't put much effort into my searches, here's two more with shaved heads in different lightings. Ultimately seeing someone in person is going to be much more accurate and helpful than looking at pictures or even videos. You should narrow down a list of reputable clinics and ask for patients nearest to you willing to meet in person, see if they'll play a game of racquetball or wrestling so you can inspect their sweaty domes. Would be a better use of time than complaining on hair loss forums and searching through online videos for 20 years.

Here's some indoor/outdoor, after a year

Here's different lightings, indoor, outdoor

Video can be manipulated too with lighting, distance etc, and is usually going to be 'optimized' if we are talking about advertising purposes. And think about the ratio of pictures to videos out on the internet when it comes to hair transplants -pictures are much more common because hair loss is a sensitive topic for guys and videos make it alot more easy to identify the person. Have you tried searching on youtube? I just did using "scalp micropigmentation results" and one of the first results is here:

That's not my scar, its part of the screenshot I took of a web page describing what trichophytic closure was in case anybody didn't know. But I agree that's an amazing scar, optimal outcome.

Something to think about when paying with credit cards is any processing fee the doctor/clinic charges, while its only a couple percentage points usually, depending on how expensive/large of a procedure you are doing that could cost you hundreds, maybe an extra thousand or two.

I agree your FUT scar looks good, looks like the doc used the 'trichophytic' closure method so hair grows through your scar? My doc tried that on my 2nd procedure, and even though the scar is pretty thin unfortunately the hairs didn't grow through the scar. You have some pretty thick bands of hair above and below your scar too, how long do you plan on wearing your hair on the sides? For longer hair styles that top band of extra hair is good to help cover the scar, but if you go for buzz length range like in this pic it brings more attention to your scar. I like side buzz length cuts so if it were me coming back for a follow up procedure I would have asked the doc to use some of my hairs from those bands to even out the density so that it better matches the rest of the donor, drawing less attention to the scar. ======================

Its possible, 'typical' timeline is the initial shed of the transplanted hairs within the first few weeks, then ugly duckling phase until about month 3-4, then the transplanted hair growth cycles start. Depending on whether you are thickening a thinning area, or completing restoring a bald area, there are options to get your hair to be presentable. Concealers like Dermmatch and Toppik can help alot giving the illusion of thicker hair too, along with targeted hair styling/hair cuts.

Thats interesting, so if you have a very white scar and transplant some hairs into it, if the hairs take root the new blood delivery will effect the skin color to some extent. How dramatic is that? There should also be a colorizing effect from the individual hairs just under the skin too.

Darn it, why does it seem all the fun things in life are bad for you.

About the gym, don't go too crazy, like buffing out with supplements/steriods/etc, ultimately hair loss comes down to the DHT sensitivity of your hair follicles. The higher your testosterone the more of it gets converted to DHT, and then circulates in your blood and latches on to your hair follicle receptors.

You are pretty pessimistic when it comes to everything hair restoration, meds are too risky and transplanted hair falls out within a few years. I can understand how having a bad personal experience and reading about some similar situations from some others could lead someone down that road. But if the meds and transplants were really that bad I would expect to be reading alot more about it here on the forum and elsewhere. And I don't see how clinics could stay in business promising permanent solutions when their work is being nullified within a few years. My own personal experience is the opposite of yours, and probably more representative of the general patient population. I've had two transplants, the most recent about 10 years ago and I still have the hair from those procedures in my frontal region. And I've been on finasteride too without side effects to help maintain my mid and crown areas. If there are many forum members here that have had your experience I would need to see a thread started with picture documentation to start to change my mind. Anybody that's been on this forum for a while knows how hair loss in general can play tricks on the mind, all the first time posters with pictures and paranoid stories asking for someone to confirm their suspicion that they are actually losing their hair, etc.

yea if you are going to use less than the standard dosage get the pills and cut. The only possible way to get less than the 1mg or 5mg standard dosage in the capsule form would be to go to a compounding pharmacy and have them custom made, which I would expect to be more expensive too.

I agree. During my procedures I didn't pay much attention when the doc was making the incisions, and they numb you of course, so can't recall if there was that kind of rapid fire rate. But then when you think about it, doing that movement again and again thousands of times on each patient it has to become almost instinctual.

About the dizziness and headaches, those can be a sign you are putting on too much as well. Its tempting to want to apply extra to make sure you aren't missing or under-covering any areas.

No not always, but for more guys the frontal hairs are genetically more DHT sensitive than the middle and crown areas, and don't respond as well to the meds. Its interesting to consider the evolutionary origins and patterns of hair loss. -I think part of the reason we lose the hair and thus become less attractive is why we become less attractive in other ways as we age, like wrinkled skin, etc, and that's to help maintain the fitness of the gene pool and ensure the next generation is cared for, because birth defects are more likely with aging sperm, eggs and older men/women are less likely to be around to raise and protect their kids. -and the other is for body temperature regulation, to help trap heat. With all the blood vessels around the scalp, maybe its more important that hair around the sides/donor remain to help maintain body temp, and maybe the top areas in the front/mid/crown are not as densely packed with essential blood vessels so the hairs are more expendable, less important that they survived throughout the person's life, so they tend to be less resilient, more genetically susceptible to DHT?

Just to further clarify my question, I know each hair follicle has a genetic programming of DHT sensitivity, but why have we evolved to where on average the hair in the front is usually more sensitive to DHT? -like are there less blood vessels in the frontal areas so not as much of a potential for heat loss, so less of a need for hair?

Of course its genetics, but the underlying pattern, while it does start in the crown plenty as well, more often it seems to start in the front. And the front is less resilient than the crown, finasteride/minox work better keeping the crown hairs around.

While we're looking at our hair in terms of appearance its primary function is body temperature regulation, keeping warm. Would be curious to know if male pattern baldness follows blood vessel density patterns on the head.