BLE123

Hi guys, not been on here for a while but just wanted to share something that I found helped by hair so may be of benefit to others.

So my hair situation isn't too bad, I'm early 30s and about an NW2-2.5. About a year ago however I noticed a pretty drastic decrease in the overall health and quality of my hair. Over the course of a few months my hair went from looking just fine, albeit slightly receded, to now looking really quite bad. My hair was weak, thin, dry etc and especially the sides of my head were looking extremely sparse. I almost looked like I'd had an overharvested FUE despite never having a transplant. I also remember when I shaved the sides short, my scalp had scaly red marks and it frankly just looked flat out awful.

I remember looking online and everything just seemed to point to good old MBP but my situation just didn't seem to fit with everything I was seeing. I came across a post on reddit where a guy said taking vitamin D helped him so I thought I may as well give it a try. Although I've never had my levels tested, I live in the UK so it wouldn't be much of a surprise if they were a little low.

So I bought a year's supply of Vitamin D(4000 IU). I didn't expect much but at one month in I already noticed an improvement, my hair was looking a little better and I already started to worry less about it. Two months in and my hair was noticeably thicker and healthier, my hair no longer felt dry and lifeless. By three months my hair was probably back to 95% of how it was beforehand and in the months that followed my hair has stabilised and remained thick and healthy.

Obviously this will only help if you have a vitamin D deficiency and isn't a cure for MPB but if you've noticed a steep decline in the overall quality of your hair then maybe it's something worth trying. The Vitamin D I bought has Vitamin K2 combined with it as Google told me you need to pair the two together or something. I also started taking a generic multivitamin at the same time but I'm pretty sure it's the Vitamin D that did all the work.

Anyway, I hope that helps someone.

33 minutes ago, zenmu said:

this is what i’m saying exactly. like if you get a decent hairline, that is like say normal matured hairline i don’t see the problem because if im getting a transplant in the future, even if im norwood 5 then im going to want that hairline. and if my hair is stable for the next 10 or so years i can lower it a bit more if i really want to

Yeah. I think where this aversion to young guys getting a transplant comes from is people immediately thinking of a naive kid blowing all of his grafts on a super low Zayn Malik type hairline at some Istanbul kebab house and then having nothing left in the future. Sure there are also cases where young guys have extremely aggressive hairloss all over(donor included) and they should definitely not seek a transplant but if your hair loss appears to be stable then I don't see what the massive issue is as long as you consult with a good doctor and plan well.

Here's a good example of a recent 20-year-old case, sure he may lose ground in the future but then he can just address that if/when the time comes:

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that it's not too young.

Let's just assume the worst and say you are headed for NW5-6. Well, plenty of NW5/6s get transplants and the process is still the same. You build a conservative hairline and gradually reduce the density throughout the mid-scalp whilst leaving the crown with some coverage but ultimately one that has a degree of thinning. If a 19 year old is receding, he will get the hairline fixed, in time if he loses more ground he will get the mid-scalp seen to and so on, so really the process is the same, just spread out over the years. 

What is the point of spending all of your 20s unhappy before doing something? Now of course this is working on the proviso that meds have stabilised the loss and you don't go and get a 4000 graft NW0 hairline but then no good doctor would do that anyway so it's kind of irrelevant. So for me, as long as you respond to the meds and you aren't losing hair hand over fist still then I see no reason to wait until some arbitrary age point.

Pekiner bangs out incredible results but has a bad rep on here for some pretty frivolous reasons. 

Is this real life? 🤯

Incredible.

3 hours ago, Mike10 said:

To me Bisanga is one of the very best HT Drs in the world, in that includes every aspect from consultation to surgery. But the unshaven looks downright stupid, acknowledging that most Drs now proceed this way for time saving. That is the only reason I did not go with Dr Bisanga. 

It's patient choice isn't it? Not shaving fully probably saves like two minutes so I doubt it's that.

41 minutes ago, Mike10 said:

You may disagree but in my opinion it is best to not have a HT under the age of 40. Because then you're in a much better position. I could have had a HT in my early 30s but I wisely choose to wait until my early 40s. 

What happened in those 10 years?

This is a great result. Your hair before really wasn't doing you any favours(no offence), some guys can pull it off but on others it's a killer. It's amazing how much difference a hairline can make to your appearance. 

Don't really agree with most of the replies.

Whilst it's true that your loss is mild and you otherwise have very good hair, the hairline itself is weak, of course there's still hair there but I wouldn't call it a hairline as such. Unless you go to some back alley clinic then the chances of looking worse after a transplant are slim, taking hormone-altering medication is a bigger risk which you've already done. If you feel like your hairline is an issue to you and you can afford it then go do it, preferably with as good a surgeon as you can afford. 

I knew Gabriel was receding but not to that degree, must've been putting boot polish on his head for games as he was often rocking a perfectly straight, albeit high, hairline. Also it's crazy that he's gone to Cinik of all places, he could've gone to one of the elites for the cost of two day's salary. 

The problem with the Portugal/Spain clinics is that they're so booked up you'd be lucky if they even reply to your email.

With the results you see from the top docs nowadays, I think illusion of density is becoming a bit of an outdated concept - and one which is often used to explain subpar growth.

Your hair looks best here IMO. Not that it doesn't look good at the length you have it now but here it just looks sharp as heck 😁

I've not seen all Eugenix cases but on the ones I have it was the angulation of the grafts that I wasn't a fan of, rather than the shape of the temple point itself. Hairs in that area should be angled down and slightly back, like 5 o'clock or 7 o'clock. What I saw though were grafts angled almost horizontally and that resulted in those hairs fighting against the natural ones around them. It might be less obvious when grown out but at shorter lengths it really stood out.

On 1/11/2022 at 7:48 AM, Whipaway said:

As I’ve mentioned sadly we have seen a fair amount of poor results from this particular clinic. You mention they don’t all get every procedure spot on- you can only research and I’ve personally not seen a run of so many bad results from the other clinics you in this country that you mention. 

I'm becoming increasingly suspicious of these after-the-event Arshad patients. 

A few times now a topic like this one has conveniently popped up when Dr Arshad is getting heat in another topic where the result/growth is sub-par. Does it not seem strange to anyone that Arshad patients who have posted their journey from start to finish seem to have a much lower success rate than those posting after the fact? If this was a new poster telling us all about his great experience with [insert generic Turkish doctor] then I'm sure most would be dubious. 

Honestly, this is the best result I've seen. If anyone was to watch that video with no context as to what it was about, no one would ever think that you had a hair transplant or had any hair loss issues at all. 

54 minutes ago, Samuelg said:

I see! 
The results I've shared are all from the same clinic that's why it made me wonder if it's a must to have that "hairmill"
I'm not sure why the attached image was delete from the topic, can I re-attach it if I hide people's faces?

Can you be sure that they are actually the clinic's results? There are a lot of shady clinics out there who will use someone else's results and present them as their own, some will even use pics of guys who don't even have any hair loss. 

It's a combination of factors.

The main one is what you mentioned, it's the multiple hair grafts that creates the fake look. Only fine singles should be used at the very front of the hairline. Secondly, the placement of the grafts is also crucial in creating a natural hairline. Even if they use the correct grafts(fine singles) it still won't look natural if they're all perfectly aligned, the hairs need to be staggered and placed in a "random" pattern. Density is also very important, if there are big gaps or not enough hair behind the hairline then again it's not going to look right. The shape itself also plays a part, too straight is too straight even if all the above factors are adhered to so it's important to get the right shape for your face.

Ultimately, the reason you see some natural results and some fake looking results is down to the quality of the surgeon. Go to a good one and you won't have to worry about whether they're going to give you a natural looking result or not.

You're NW2-2.5, forehead size and hairline height aren't really relevant when gauging norwood level.

Work looks great(as expected from Dr Ferreira) and that "wide V" hairline shape with slightly rounded temple closures is my personal favourite. Very nice.

Keser only does small procedures so he's out already and I would avoid Arshad personally. Asmed(with Dr Koray) is the best option, I would consider Demirsoy and Bicer also.

Demirsoy and Bicer are both good choices, sure they might not be the elite of the elite but they're more than likely to deliver a very satisfactory result. Forget the Magic Roundabout clinic.

11 minutes ago, ConnorCrosby said:

Thanks guys.

The drawn line by @BLE123 is absolutely close to what I'm looking for. It might be that I'm focusing too much on the clinic basically getting back to me with the verdict: don't do it.

I'm aware that surgical restoration should be the last go-to-solution. I'm very interested in hearing opinions about the whole thing possibly being a bad idea or not.

Also @Melvin- Moderator, if you don't mind - could you please elaborate on why Keser is not on the same level as the others in your opinion?

In my view, you're almost the perfect candidate. Not too young, only a relatively small amount of loss, on fin, good donor from what I can see. Only slight concern is you appear to have some thinning throughout the top but nothing too bad and fin should keep it from going any further, at least for a long time anyway. I've seen patients with less recession get surgery so it is a bit surprising that one of them advised against it - maybe they're just so booked up and don't see you as a more "urgent" case. 

Keser delivers quality results imo, there was just some controversy over whether he uses microscopes or not and one poster kept telling everyone Keser gave him a pluggy hairline but I don't think he ever actually posted any pics. I imagine the varying graft numbers are more down to where they're placing the hairline, if you sent them a pic with exactly what you're looking for then the numbers will probably be a lot more similar.

I echo what others are saying but I'm not sure you have the donor for it, best to get an in person evaluation first though and then go from there.

I love how soft the hairline looks, makes me want to touch it 😄