plus

Just grow your hair longer and use toppik for a few more years. I think it would look great because that's one of the perks of diffuse thinning: you can create an illusion of density easily. If you grow it long enough you can even lower your hairline by letting the hair sleep onto the forehead.

After some more years you can revisit hair tranplant. You'd also be more sure about donor thinning then.

thank you! do any respectable doctors prescribe this?

It seems like India is the only place where this is manufacture by a reputable pharma company.

I do wonder why American giants like Merck aren't capitalizing on this if it's really efficacious and yet not prone to causing side effects. Capitalism knows no bounds.

Are there larger trials conducted in US?

topical finasteride is not even FDA approved and it seems like broscience how they explain if you apply it on the scalp the effects will be mostly restricted to just that area and it won't be systemically absorbed much.

are there any studies on this?

why hasn't topical finasteride been FDA approved?

if you're diffuse thinning and young and can't take finasteride then you have to set your expectations very low.

You can go get a great looking transplant right now with a lot of grafts but your hair loss will continue and your hair will look progressively worse. Some of the transplanted hair might also miniaturize. The transplanted hair that don't might create an "island" like appearance.

Can you predict these things?

- how much hair will you lose over time? which nw scale?
- how long will it take for that to happen?
- even the hair that will finally remain, how thick will they remain?

depending on this "final natural state" you reach, do you think there would be enough high quality donor hair to put all over your scalp? that's the question to answer.

some people have great beard and chest hair which they use a substitute for not having great donor area.

4 hours ago, Seniormido said:

The number of grafts used is high compared to the final result !

you'd think other HTs are dense because they grow it long and create an illusion. for a buzzed cut I think this is how much density you can get.

One more silver lining here is you can more freely use chest hair for this kind of buzzed cut because all the hair is kept short anyway.

1 hour ago, JohnBob said:

meh

I won't say I disagree with you, but I think SMP would change the story significantly. and even without it's better than clean shaven (for most people).

I just wonder why this style of buzzed + sparse hair style + SMP is not more frequently considered for people on higher nw scales.

I think in the videos the "before" seems better than "after", but the "after" is quite permanent and a long term look. The "before" state would not have aged well.

this is particularly for the bunch headed to nw6-7 and young and can't do much to prevent it by taking Finasteride.

obviously it doesn't look great, but if you can't pull off the clean shaven look then this might be better? at least this is very genuine and conservative.

This combined with SMP could yield solve the problem of "shiny scalp" and keep some contrast.

what do you think?

3 minutes ago, Seniormido said:

You can cover the donor scars with smp but the other problem is the receipt scars!

any images of this? I didn't even know this was an issue.

1 minute ago, JohnBob said:

What you did was smart. First you tried the shaved look. It didn't work for you then you went for the HTs. Sounds good. 

The vast majority of people lose the option to shave after getting a HT (specially if it's FUT), that must be clear. 

what about FUE? I haven't been able to find many photos of shaved heads after FUE. most pics are to show how WITH hair the scars are not visible.

34 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

There is no scarless surgery, if the thought of shaving is even in your mind, why not do it first and see if it’s a look you could live with? Doing nothing is not naive. 

oh I totally agree with shaving and seeing. I've done it too   But the vast majority of men would like you and me decide that shaving isn't for them. but then what do you do? you do everything under the sun to live a fulfilling life with some illusion of hair until at some point there is far too much miniaturisation and then you shave it off.

the scars - yes, but I think the whole point of this thread is how bad they will be.

The question is, is it worth dealing with those scars when you're 45 if it means you will be much happier from 25-40?

On 12/4/2020 at 12:29 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

If you’re considering shaving your head, just do it and forget surgery.

this is very naive.

life is not binary. maybe you can look better in a hair transplant until you are 40 (20-40 is when most men start a family, advance in career, party, etc) and when it's no longer manageable you shave it off.

Life happens in the very moment. So it's perfectly fine for someone to NOT want to shave their head right now, but throw in money and time into creating an illusion of hair through hair transplants and defer the act of shaving till it's completely necessary. That's when the question arises - "how does a shaved head look after FUE?"

Life is a journey, not a destination. It's not an equation where you say "oh if you are going to shave it at 40 anyway, you might as well do it now"

The guy in the other thread has long hair. The guy in this thread has buzzed his hair. How do you definitively know one has thicker hair?

The other guy definitely has a much lower crown than this guy in this thread. Whatever names you call it (NW6 or 7), the other guy is much worse than this guy.

I don't know why everybody is so dismissive of him. See this thread of a NW7 patient

He is obviously not expecting Elvis Presley hair. For a lot of people having some hair on top that makes it seem like you are at an earlier stage of balding makes a big difference compared to being horse-shoe bald. Also he has beard hair.

lol thanks. I'll come with a more groundbreaking idea next time.

- For people who are blessed to reach higher norwood scales donor area is very tiny. It becomes hard to get full coverage.

- After hair transplant, a lot of people are left with a big bald patch on and below the crown, often unnatural looking. 

- A lot of people are left with extremely thin and less dense hair on top that needs to be combed over and made to "sleep".

- Both of these give you an older person's look. It becomes arguable whether clean shaven looks better than that for younger guys.

- But why not take all the donor hair and put it on top of the scalp, get a decent hairline and buzz off whatever is left at the back and the sides. If you want some tint, get an SMP on the sides and back. But you're left with some reasonable dense hair on top. You don't even need have any hair on the lower side of the crown.

see this man for example. why don't we see more of this style?

@JohnBobwhere did the 12000 grafts come from? Is there a thread for that case?

@Melvin-Moderatorwow dude that is some amazing work. Are there any videos of them showing how dense his hair is?

Nevertheless it's much better that island of hair he had. I wish I could follow up and see how his hair looks over the years.

Thanks @JohnBob that looks pretty good. But then every norwood level is exponentially more difficult. You have to cover more with lesser and worse donor hair. 😅 

Any more examples people? 

Hi everyone,

Are there any examples of hair transplant procedures done on a REAL norwood 7 case. I get a bit upset by how many clinics on Youtube advertise their cases as norwood 7 when they are really just norwood 5 or 6 AND still have thin hair left on the top AND are on Finasteride.

For someone blessed to be a REAL norwood 7, hair gets thin above the ears on the sides, a LOT of hair *below* the crown is also gone as is some hair above the nape, leaving behind a pretty thin band of hair at the back.

I just want to know what kind of results are possible if you have are a multimillionaire and have a pretty good beard, chest (and pubic?) hair.

Also I am very aware that a head full of hair on a real norwood 7 who can't take Finasteride is impossible. I want to see some artistic attempts at creating an illusion of "some" hair that would also fit well with the persona of someone in the age of 30-40 - like a business man who works hard and has faced some wrath of male pattern baldness.

Are there any examples you know of?

Thank you!