SLA

results look great!

Wow, what a great opportunity for you not only to have the chance to reconnect with Dr. Sethi and get reassurance, but to have him over for lunch to meet your family! This entire process is as much a spiritual/mental journey as it is cosmetic one in trusting the processes and letting go. The mental aspect of trust and letting go will serve you well throughout your life as you will always have this challenge to draw from. Sound like you are right on track!

That's where beard hairs come in.... He only used 2,800 scalp grafts to cover all but the crown. Even if he only has 1,500-2,000 scalp grafts left, that could also be combined with more beard hairs to get better crown coverage. Paddyirishman was told that he has 3,000 beard hairs left as he could probably use some of those to achieve higher density on top. I have seen plenty of examples on this forum and from videos Eugenix posted of NW6/7 in which someone had limited scalp donor which was combined with beard hairs to achieve full coverage with decent density. See video below for a good example of a NW7 in which ~4,000 scalp was combined with ~2,000 beard to get full coverage. The crown is a little light, however, in the write up of the video, they make the point that the patient was told that he could opt to add 2,000 more grafts to the crown which would bulk it up. Even if he doesn't have scalp grafts left, he could possibly go to the beard. @budhairis another example of weak and thin scalp donor who achieved full coverage with decent density. I think he had around 8,000 grafts of which only 4,000 came from scalp. I am not a paid company representative (lol), just an admirer of a clinic that is successfully pushing the bounds :). As for whether one could achieve more with FUT...although there are theories, it is the controversial mystery no one has quite solved, so it depends on who you ask. It is this that I am wrestling with as I try to make my decisions. Hope this helps!

You definitely will not have to do the entire scalp all at once as there have been NW6s on this forum that didn't do this. One example is PaddyIrishman who did all but the crown. @juanjs84just completed surgery with Eugenix- he is an NW 6 and only went for some grafts in crown in 1st sitting because he insisted he didn't want to keep in bare. I saw a recent interview of Dr. Sethi with Joe Tillman in which he said that they are trying no longer to do the entire head in one sitting; no explanation was given as to why.

I am curious if anyone has seen any reputable HT docs talk about the percentage more grafts/hairs that can be obtained by doing FUT 1st and stripping out versus doing only FUE. I have seen 1 ISHRS study related to this topic which did not answer the question- it even said that they couldn't conclude which technique would produce more lifetime grafts. I am surprised that this has not been more widely studied or is not more easily solved by basic mathematics such as knowing a patient's hairs per cm2 and surface area of safe donor zone, etc. I don't want to hijack this thread, but I think having an idea of the percentage difference may help @InTheSix(as well as myself-lol) with his decision. Are we talking a 5% difference or 50%- makes a huge difference.

Portugal gives good mainstream advice, however, I am so confused by the FUT 1st debate in expanding the # of lifetime grafts. While this seems to be the most popular opinion from reputable HT docs, there are other well known HT docs (Cole, Vories, Bhatti, Bansal) that say just the opposite with some even bold enough to say that you can get more lifetime hairs with FUE since you don't need extra hairs to cover an FUT scar, how some hairs are transected with cutting the strip and how some of the grafts in the strip are unusable since they are not in the right phase of growth. One might be skeptical being that these are FUE only practitioners, however, of the 4 I mentioned, 3 that I know of gave up their FUT practice to focus on FUE. I am not disputing what Portugal is saying at all, but rather expressing how I, myself am so confused by the difference in opinions. ....so perplexing!

As you have seen, Eugenix produces unbelievable results with FUE+BHT filling entire heads on those who have been turned away by other clinics. Given the evidence presented on the forum, in your situation, I would strongly consider opting for them if FUE is your choice. I have spoken with Abhinay, their representative and it didn't seem as if it was a year wait, more like a few months. Our world situation may change quickly with Moderna and Pfizer's vaccines.

I would doubt you reached your limit, especially if you have a dense donor. There are others who have limited donor that went to Eugenix and were given a lifetime graft estimate of close to 5,000. Mind you, they were not all used in one session. One example is PaddyIrishman, who had a close to 3,600 grafts procedure with Eugenix last November (you can check out his thread). They only used around 2,800 scalp grafts and the rest from the beard. PaddyIrishman has fine limited donor hair and was told he would have between 4,300-4,800 lifetime scalp grafts available. Now that he has used 2,800, he would have 1,500-2,000 scalps grafts left for another procedure (They did not do the crown in his 1st sitting). ...so I would guess you would have quite a few more in the bank....hopefully :)!

That is a good point and you are lucky to have dense donor. Did Dr. Bansal give you an estimate for how many total lifetime grafts they could extract from your scalp donor?

So true,...lots of positive vaccine results in the past week here in the US with Moderna and Pfizer so I am optimistic! As a NW6, did you have concerns about using FUE over FUT in maximizing your lifetime donor supply? I know there is heated debate around this in the HT community with most (although not all) reputable doctors advocating for FUT 1st for higher norwoods.

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this! Congratulations on your HT and PLEASE keep us posted as you progress through the months so we can see your progress. Given the results I have seen from Eugenix, I am very optimistic for an outstanding result.

DHT is the FUE method done in reverse. What is done in DHT is the slits are made 1st and then the graft extractions so the out of body time for the grafts are minimal- I think not more than a few minutes. Eugenix claims with this method, graft survival is near 100%. Since Dr. Sethi and Bansal, pioneered this technique in 2013 (I think) some other FUE surgeons have adapted this method. Hope this helps!

Thanks for putting this together, Melvin and Zoomster. Seeing real results by HT patients on this forum is super valuable. Zoomster- you actually looked good bald, but definitely better with hair. Enjoy it!

What beautiful results using only 2,600 grafts!

Unbelievable! You look great.

Any updates?

Was this all scalp grafts or was it combined with beard? What was the ratio? Also, can he come back for a 2nd sitting to get the crown covered?

I would agree with Zoomster. The results are simply remarkable for a NW 6/7. Zoomster explained he has average donor characteristics and fine hair and has achieved results in one sitting in which someone, maybe, just maybe might say that if they looked closely that his hair has ever so slightly began thinning. It is a testament to how far this industry has come in two decades and how innovators such as Dr. Bansal and Sethi have managed to push the bounds to achieve remarkable results otherwise thought unachievable. I'm sure in a decade or two when technology advances to hopefully include hair cloning and/or you can take a pill or have a procedure that would revive dormant follicle, that we will look back at these days as the 'stone ages' when we took finasteride, performed FUTs and had to add beard hairs to increase density :). Too me it is unbelievable to think that if you were bald only 25-30 years ago that there was nothing you could do except get a doll like hair plugs or wear a very bad looking hair piece as compared with today when you can have natural undetectable results. Cheers to that!

Hi Tony- There are lots of great stuff with Eugenix on this forum using beard hair specifically.

spectacular!

Definite improvements...keep giving it time

It does look thicker!

As Gatsby said, definitely check out Eugenix and their results infusing beard hairs into scalp grafts.

Funny- I see no touch up necessary. Looks fantastic and as dense as native hair

On another note, to Fluffhead- I think your HT looks amazing! You mentioned in another post that you have been losing hair since your 20s and that you suspect you had been holding steady at a NW3 due to finasteride. Given your mentioned family history of NW6 and 7, I personally would save the grafts. While finasteride could (fingers crossed) hold you steady for the rest of your life, I would be thinking worst case such as what if you stop becoming a responder, or what if they determine that long term use of the drug has detrimental effects (hopefully not). We all hope that there is a cure to all of this in due time in which we have hair cloning available or they figure out how to safely revive all the dormant hair follicles, but I am one to plan for the worst. Be well and enjoy your amazing new look!