UnbaldEagle

I believe you're shedding miniaturized hairs from the crown. Of course it's rather hard to retrace where they came from, but if you have miniaturized hairs in your donor, you should be shedding some of your transplanted hair too now if that makes any sense. I had a massive shed at around 6 months when I first started taking fin and my hair took its sweet time to return. I started seeing huge improvements at around 16 months or so. I think you should be be optimistic, I reckon it's a good sign. You could update this thread with say bimonthly pics so you'd have more people eyeballing what's going on there.

No worries. But the same goes for FUE, really. Since minoxidil inhibits fibroplast proliferation, which play a crucial role in the early stages of wound healing it may not be a good idea to take it when your body is trying to heal severed tissue and capillaries from thousand of incisions. It's not a big deal if you're healing fast, I guess. (Not trying to disagree with you, I'm also an advocate of oral minoxidil otherwise.)

Oral minoxidil inhibits wound healing. Not very recommended.

It's very commendable you took your time and did your research so thoroughly, contacted so many top clinics. There's nothing wrong with your donor if someone like Pekiner accepted your case. Work looks very refined and you have a high avg. of hairs/graft. I think you'll be happy with the result. Good luck.

It's not unusual at all what you're experiencing. I remember the days when dut was a relatively novel drug and there was this first line of guinea pigs on Hairsite and Hairlosshelp who reported the exact same thing: improvement on the crown whilst the hairline was getting destroyed. Most people were incredulous so they speculated it's the initial shed but some of these guys never recovered although they stayed on the drug. Also from what I've seen from people who did their blood work dut nukes out almost ALL serum DHT. It's whole different class than fin. If dut alone is not working that great, adding RU or CB that competes with both T and DHT locally you're basically fully halting MPB.

I would have never had that first HT when I was maintaining on meds. Could have just added some more stuff to my regimen instead like topical dut, microneedling, PRP.

* puts his hands up * + oral fin and dut and spiro. Overkill much? Well, maybe, idk.

The 2 hair channels I follow, Kevin "The Man" Mann a.k.a. Our Godsent Hair Loss Mentor and More Plates More Dates (guy is more knowledgeable, knows his pharmacology) both talk about topical dut extensively and recommend it.

It wasn't easy to procure topical dut before some HT surgeons started compounding it. Right now there's 2 I know of who sell the stuff. It's safe because it won't go systemic, molecule is large and cannot penetrate deep, acts locally. @mustang had some great results with the stuff, check out his thread.

A topical antiandrogen, like dutasteride. No side effects.

Good luck with your dut journey, @Kraistoff. One thing about dut, I think this is the reason it works great for certain people, but not at all (or worse than fin - quite a statement, I know) for others: this drug significantly increases your T levels. I know DHT is the main culprit, but testosterone plays a role too, especially if you have a lot of it. For individuals with low to moderate T levels, dut will do wonders, if you have high T levels, I'm not too sure. DHT is 5x more potent than testosterone, however we have 10x more T than DHT, so it's quite easy to do the math --> T will also wreak havoc. Just my own 5 cents, nothing proven.

That's not true at all. Canada's top clinics, Hasson&Wong and Rahal both charge a lot less than most US clinics. In fact, they're more affordable than the top clinics in Europe. At H&W, FUT is around 3 EUR/graft, less if you get more than 2000. FUE is 5 EUR/graft under 2000 grafts, less if more. How is that the most expensive?

* Doc retreats to his ivory tower study. After 3 days of intensive chaos math and advanced formulas, he figures out where to get the grafts from. * Learn This 1 Trick to Figure it Out. Other HT Docs are Outraged by his Succe$$!!! (Sorry bud, I just read your post and I found this bit hilarious. )

Maras told me I have about 10K left after 3K taken out already. He didn't like my response. No idea why some top docs would exaggerate something so important.

Amazing result so far.

I think I've always been a topical minox non-responder, although I kept using it regardless. However I did see some huge initial improvements from oral minox. I know it works because the weak beard I have is kept alive thus. As soon as I stop taking it, it just starts falling out.

Your hair looks fantastic! And what a great result. We need testimonials like this after the recent onslaught of "all HTs will fail in a few years" posts. It gives us hope, seems like a good HT and consistent preventive treatment can be effective in the long run too. BTW, I read your e-book too, 'twas an interesting read. No disrespect to @JohnAC71's comparison, but I think you look more like Legolas. 😁 You even have that graceful mature hairline. I think it looks great, I wouldn't lower that at all. How's your crown currently, that you want to get sorted? Couldn't see any images of that. Also, you said you there's been some lingering redness, is that from the HT? And it didn't subside after 9 years? I can't see it, but obviously you know if best if it's really there.

Lovely result, Dr. Sethi made the most out of them 2500 grafts.

With that budget and with your level of hairloss, imo your only real option in North America is a Hasson&Wong FUT, they're the best with this procedure, 4 USD/graft first 2K, and then 2.3 USD anything above that. You could get about 3K and your donor would be preserved a lot better than with an FUE first. I don't think you could get the same amount and same quality in the US. (My own personal opinion, this is tough love here bro, but don't bother with a hair transplant if you're not willing to take finasteride. Or at least try it. Or at least a topical antiandrogen + minoxidil + dermarolling, anything that would at least stabilize your hair loss first. You basically still have hair everywhere, even if it's very diffuse, there's a REAL risk that transplanting through them without strengthening them first via an antiandrogen would permanently shock them out. Ask yourself this question: if that happens and your net gains therefore are not significant, and when you'd lose your remaining hair behind the transplant, would you be happy having 2-3K of transplanted hair and an island of baldness around it?)

One of the few studies that dealt with finasteride side effects long term, over the course of many years found quite the opposite, men who initially had side effects but for some reason choose to stay on the drug eventually stopped having sides. I'm curious, who was this doc who'd say claim that 100% will have sides on the long run? That's quite a statement.

Early stages maybe or some tellogen effluvium (I've often seen it in the crown region, mimicking MPB) which would grow back. Otherwise you have a great head of hair. 😍

NW6 here same as my dad at 64. Exact same pattern, although it's weird because his MPB really kicked in his 40s, had a full head of hair in his 30s.

Thanks, you're probably right. Well, I'm trying to remain calm and optimistic.

At least you're maintaining though, you've got a fair amount of native hair. Are you still using topical minoxidil too?

Oh, that's Dr. Brett Bolton, very notorious surgeon. Started dressing up in white and claiming he was Jesus. Imagine if he actually told that to his patients.. "I'm Jesus and I'm gonna perform this .. khm.. hair transplant miracle!" Oddly enough he's got the same approach as McGrath. Both surgeons have coined them as their own, as if they invented micro- and mini grafts. 😁 Dr. McGrath calls it UltraDensity and ex-Dr. Bolton the BoltonBundles™. Guy was quite full of himself: "While other doctors are transplanting grafts one hair at a time, we are loading up patients with a special mixture of one hair grafts in the frontal hairline, two and three hair grafts just behind the hairline and our special 4-8 hair slit grafts we call Bolton Bundles™ in the vertex and crown for density that will make your head spin!"