UnbaldEagle

I once ditched fin for dutasteride and 200 mg spironolactone, took both for about 8-9 months I believe. It did wonders for my hair, first time I experienced any quantifiable regrowth. Sadly, I have no way of knowing whether it was dut or both acting together. But from what I've seen anecdotally throughout the years on a treatment based forum is that dut works a lot better, for obvious reasons.

Wow, that's a great head of hair you've got now! 😮 I'm seeing some minor density issues in the midscalp, but that might thicken with treatment, 10% minox with fin is sure a good regimen! Don't see why/where you'd need a 2nd HT just now, frankly..

You've got a large forehead so make sure you put some ice on it before swelling occurs! I look like an ogre right now, hence the reason why I haven't posted my own with HDC.

Really like the hairline design, quite conservative but suits your face, will serve you great! Wow, I'm excited, keep us updated. 😍

Wow, Rossybop, so happy for you, looks great, man!!! The temple points were absolutely necessary, don't doubt that, I admire Saifi for recreating them. Without them, a HT is quite obvious from the sides, check out this dude:

Man, I'm sorry you're going through this. That was a great result. Well, good news is hair loss due to scalp psoraisis is not permanent, there's coal tar and steroid creams to alleviate the condition, also check out the ones Louisjams listed, and go see a good trichologist. BTW, it appears to me that the transplanted hairline remained more or less intact, whilst you lost hair in areas where you were not fully bald. Are you sure it's not MPB doing its thing too? 6 years is a lot of time. Are you on any preventive medication?

Good luck today, Rossybop. 🙏✌️

What I did during my first HT was dropping topical minoxidil, and upping on oral a little bit (from 5 mg to 10). I think it worked equally well, in fact, I was one of those rare non-shedders (well, around 60-70% of my transplanted hair never fell out and kept growing - albeit a lot slower than native hair).

And then maybe if treatment works, you could get a HT to fill in the temples (in a mindful and conservative manner), create some temple points as they seem to have completely vanished, perhaps add a bit of density here and there. Going for a megasession at age 24 without even trying to save your native hair, relying on transplanted hair solely (and not even knowing for sure if you have DPA and not DUPA) is kinda haphazard imo.

I hope I'm not disrespectful, but OP has a fairly large head (= more area to cover with transplanted hair only, if we go with JayLDD's suggestions I don't think 5-6K grafts would suffice), however it seems to me that the crown area at least could very well be salvaged with a combination of fin + minox w/dermarolling. Btw OP, I don't quite get it, if you experienced side effects, why would you consider taking it after HT? And why for only 6-9 months? Surely that can only be detrimental. Or what you meant is you're afraid of potential sides but you never took it yet? Anyway, there's topical fin which according to a recent study, has a slightly smaller efficacy albeit almost no incidence of side effects. Topical dutasteride is even safer as it is a larger molecule and thus unable to get past the subcutaneous layer and won't go systemic (there was a topical dut w/ microneedling study a few years ago with very promising results). But really, why not try to thicken up your existing hair with treatment, see if works, I reckon you have a good chance at that as you don't yet have a full bald spot around your crown, just lots of minituarized hair that could still be brought back to terminal as you're young and your hair loss started 3 years ago.

Anyway, good luck to you on Thursday, Rossybop. You shouldn't worry, man, you've chosen a good surgeon and trust me, having more hair is a great feeling on its own. My first HT didn't yield the coverage I wanted except in the left temporal region but I was happy I could finally have a hairstyle I haven't had in maybe 10 years, even if it wasn't perfect as there was some see-throughness. I just had my second HT at HDC yesterday (I know, should have been a week ago, but it got delayed) and again, what I'm expecting is more hair and a natural result, not perfection, not going back to pre-AGA times. Please don't be disheartened IF it won't be a perfect result, you've got a lot of area to cover and I don't think Saifi's quote will be enough. So be honest with him, tell him what you expect and perhaps he will either suggest a higher number of grafts or (preferably, and this is my advice too) a more conservative hairline. You're on fin and minox, so you're on the right track, be optimistic. Really, really rooting for you.

Every extra inch you lower your hairline means more area to cover behind it and consequentially less donor. I think it's very important to be realistic and desiring to be a NW1 again is anything but that, except for people with a very slow progression of AGA, and a family history of the same.

Either way, happy growing and keep us updated. Hope you'll be happy. 🤞

It's a shame you went to a hairmill though. 😕 This Youtube guy called Sam Modlinsky went to the same clinic and his hairline looks abhorrently unnatural. Good luck to you, hope you got luckier than him. Just pls don't recommend this clinic to other pool souls on your channel, looks like a lot of people are asking that question without even seeing your final result. 😕

OP, your hair loss is very, very similar to mine, I've got the same not fully receded, but patchy and thin temples and similar crown situation. The difference is maybe my crown area is a little bit thicker, however you've got better overall density. I'm 34 and I've been on meds for like 11 years or so (1 mg finasteride and 100 mg spironolactone daily with 0.5 mg dutasteride weekly, minox with dermarolling) and just had my 2nd HT so I hope you'll find my example somewhat useful. I wouldn't say finasteride is required to ensure long term HT success, I'd rephrase that question in the first place. What I think is absolutely crucial is to halt or slow down the loss of native hair. Getting a hair transplant kind of always signs you up for more, it's just a question of when and how many (..will your donor support). That first HT is embarking you on a journey of playing catch up with your hair loss. I know you probably heard this many times. But you also said you don't want to have multiple HTs, and frankly, that's hardly possible even if you're on medication. 😕 At least try some topical antiandrogens if you're worried about side effects. Topical finasteride or dutasteride (you can get the latter from a very reliable source, Dr. Lupanzula), RU58841, oh, and clascoterone 1% has just been approved by the FDA and will be out sometime next year - I'd start with these, minox too, perhaps a PRP or exosome therapy. There's a lot of other options apart from taking oral fin, but imho you absolutely need to make sure you're at least slowing down your hair loss before even thinking of surgery!

What makes you "think" Dr. Saifi recommends it? €300 for a small supply??? Nahh. Baby shampoo is what most surgeons recommend after HT.

This is just amazing, that's an incredibly good looking hairline. 😍

I heard Keser is not using microscopes, if that's true, I believe what Clark.Ethan said is true, of course he ended up with a few multi grafts in his hairline. So that makes me think Keser is not quite an elite surgeon. OP, I think you have a perfect hairline now, you should be very happy with it. I wouldn't touch it.

Hello mate, I've used a laser comb 6-7 years ago back when I tried pretty much all experimental treatments besides the proven ones: fin, min, dut. So I used it for like 8 months religiously every day, sadly no improvements whatsoever. What worked for me was topical flutamide, mixed in minoxidil. Insane regrowth, at one point it seemed I'll pretty much regain most of my lost hair. Of course, I ended up having some nasty side effects so I wouldn't recommend it at all. Also, spironolactone at 200 mg did wonders, but again, sides like gyno, zero libido, etc. Topical eptoin was great at increasing density everywhere apart from the temples. I tried RU58841 too, didn't work for me. Same for stemoxydine 5%. Never tried alfatradiol, but some people swear it's better than minox, there's a couple of limited, but promising studies on it. These are the treatments that come to my mind, but yeah, to answer your question, I don't think it's worth bothering with a laser comb. You'll probably get better results from a few sessions of PRP though.

Thank you. It will be Dr. Maras. Will update this thread soon.

Sorry to hear that. Did they give you a definite no? I mean a few days ago I was pretty much in the same shoes so they asked me to come to Cyprus for a personal assessment of my situation, with no surgery booked. Then Dr. Maras decided he could do it after a new batch of higher quality pictures. Have you been in touch with them via Doron? Oh and thank you for your kind words, I really hope so too.

As for the redness, I think it's important to determine whether it's inflammation before you even consider another procedure. I myself have a bit of redness lingering after my HT over a year ago so I've seen a dermatologist recently and he told me it's not inflammation, it's just that I've got very fair and sensitive skin (this seems to apply in your case too), it takes longer to settle but it will in due time. There's vascular laser treatment that removes the redness if it's not inflammation, however this could hurt your hair too. Also, my dermatologist prescribed protopic 0.03%, which acts the same way as steroid creams but without thinning your skin. Go see a good dermatologist imo.

Honestly, it's not so bad. Yes, you've got rather poor density and a hairline that's too straight, therefore a bit unnatural looking, but at least your hairline is not riddled with multi grafts and your widow's peak (which seems to be your native hair) compensates a lot. You just need a follow-up surgery with a good surgeon.

Hey cnkp21! Sorry for not updating this thread, in the end HDC accepted me and I'll have the procedure done on Monday 30th November. Well, they said they need to lower the hairline to create the zigzags and were unsure if I have enough space, they also needed more pictures of the thin areas to make sure it's possible to transplant through them. Sorry to hear you're in a similar position. So you contacted a clinic and they turned you down?

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with Turkish clinics, there's only a few arguably safe choices there and even them might pressure you into using too many grafts (like Asmed), thereby leaving you with a near depleted donor. You've got 8K saved and you have so many better options with that budget (even some of the recommended ones by HRN) than cheap Turkish clinics.