cg90

Hi all, I was going to wait until month 18 for the "final" update, as at month 12 nothing had improved. I wanted to see if I'm one of the weird people that continues getting improvements from month 12-18. That way I'm not concluding my happiness with the results prematurely. I'm not at home at the moment, so I can't take a pic with the same lighting/location, so consider this a mini 15 months update. Unfortunately the right side is still very weak, I still have that "oh he's starting to lose his hair" look, instead of the slick bald look I had before, I'm not sure what's better to be honest. Take today for example, I went for a run with a hat on, took it off and it looks like there are only a few hundred wispy hairs there max. I understand that a transplant is an illusion, and when less sweaty and combed it looks more like the last pic of the right side I posted here. But the left side does not have this problem at all. I want to stress that this isn't the final review, it may thicken up, or maybe I'm catching the right side during a shed. I know month 12-18 is when the hair is supposed to be more native-like in texture, which tells me a shed is expected during that window. But as of right now, I would be lying if I said I'm "happy" with the result. Considering that Bisanga typically uses 300-500 more grafts than others for similar procedures, which I saw as a selling point because it meant more density, I was hoping that meant the worst case is "good" and the best case is "great", but what I have is great on the left side and not good on the right side. It's very likely nothing will improve from now until may, so my plan is to just work with this. Whenever I lose more hair over the years, enough to justify a second procedure, I'll ask whatever doctor I go with then to patch up the right side. Month 18 update I'll make sure to include pics to match the others here for better comparison.

I wouldn't say it's bad, it's still better than what I had, it's just currently not what I was hoping based on the years of research and extra cost. But it could just be the right side is going through a cycle that leaves it in a not ideal spot for a few months. It looked a little denser in the six months pics, though my hair was longer so not sure if that's why. I'll wait until month 12 before I make a final assessment, as we all know this is a 12 months process. To answer your question, in more natural light, the right side looks more like I'm losing my hairline, whereas before it was slick bald and could just be perceived as "he's got a naturally high hairline". Don't know if that makes sense? The left side looks good though, hopefully the right side finally catches up.

Hi all, Back for the nine months update. Got to be honest, not feeling positive about the results at the moment. You can see that the right side is quite sparse, which is more disappointing due to very carefully picking a doctor that uses more grafts than others. Which means I paid more and used up more of my graft budget for results that don't seem to compare with results using less grafts. Maybe I'm one of the few that don't get the stellar results you see all over this forum. Or maybe months 9-12 will turn things around. But it doesn't look as dense as 2259 grafts should look, based on the many many threads I've seen over the last four years. Anyway, I'll report back for the twelve months update. Hopefully it'll be a more positive report.

Hi all, Tomorrow will be six months, but I figured I'd do the update now before I forget. Month 4-5 was not much different to the month 3 update, probably a little bit better, but not noticeable. It was when I hit the 5 months mark that I started to get concerned. In my previous updates, I expressed a lack of urgency for results because I was able to style my hair as before, so no rush. 4 weeks ago I had a look underneath the curtain and was hoping I'd have that Bisanga trademark early growth that would allow me to start styling my hair differently. But nope, very patchy and unusable. One of the main reasons I picked Bisanga was because most of his patients here had great results within 3-5 months, so when I went past that date range I was starting to worry. Fortunately I recalled a case (or two) here where the results didn't happen, then in month 6 it exploded. I think that is happening to me now, as in the last two weeks there has been significantly more growth occurring, it's close to being usable. If I'm at 50% now, then double of this density won't be perfect, but usable, which is the goal for me. A perfect hairline is unrealistic, and even if achieved, it'd look weird in a way. Guys I see with great hair don't have perfect hairlines, so if mine turned out so, it'd be sus. Anyway, next update will be in 3 months (month 9), so maybe by then I can be a bit more adventurous with my style. I'm aiming for something maturer (for when I get older and greyer), but also isn't impacted by the wind\rain, even if the exposed hairline is no longer a problem. For now, or for the next couple of months, I'll do some experimenting behind the scenes, but in public do what I've always done.

Had the same experience with the value stay hotel with the added pain of the shower not working. Fortunately I was only there for two nights.

3 months update. Not much to say that I haven't already said, just carrying on as before while waiting for everything under the curtains to cook up nicely. Still haven't got my hair cut by my usual barber, I'm curious to know whether she notices anything when I do go some time in the next month. Oh one thing that's different is that the slight tenderness I mentioned in my last post disappeared a couple of days afterwards. Now everything feels 100% back to normal. Edit: Anyone know why the orientation of the uploaded pics are always wrong?

Um, probably a little thinner on the side donor based on some pics I posted here in one of the early updates. But 1) it's far better than a temporary bald spot that some guys get 2) it's not noticeable unless intentionally comparing like I am now and 3) it might just be the lighting in my bathroom. I've had this hairstyle since I was 22 (currently 32) so who knows how long I've had this receded hairline, could have been longer than the six years I'm mentioned in the initial post. If you can, definitely go partial shave, as it's a massive weight off the mind to know you've done something about this without having to see it. Also knowing that I went with one of the best doctors in the world that has a ton of very good results on this site helps a lot. At this current moment, yeah I'm glad I finally did it. But ask me again in 3.5 months when I'm at month 6 and we'll see if that answer changes 😄

I paid the standard price, which I think is Bisanga does extractions and recipient prep, the rest of the time was the placements by two ladies. I think there is the "Bisanga does everything" package which is a lot more, but seems kinda pointless when everyone is trained by him. Dr Kostis was with another patient at the time, so I only saw him when signing forms and when I was leaving. I'm just over two months in and basically 80-90% of the hair fell out a couple of days after my one month update. All that's there at the moment is the native hair that was shaved into a little, which is awkwardly 1/3 the length of the untouched native hair. Still very easy to hide and I rarely think about the procedure, I'm basically where I was pre-procedure which is "I really hate my hairline but everyone thinks I'm NW1". So I'm just going to continue to forget about this and only assess what's cooking underneath when I do the month 3, 6, 9, 12 updates here. I will say there is a tiny bit of tenderness about an inch above the recipient area that I notice when washing my hair sometimes, but that could be the minor nerve damage that can take 3-6 months to fully heal. The donor area was very tender during the first week, but no problems since and I'm amazed at how untouched it looked within a couple of days. Ian has sent me some pics taken immediately after the procedure, posting those here for the curious. I didn't experience the really bad swelling until day 2, but looking at these pics, it looks like it started immediately. I'll post some current pics for the month 3 update in 3.5 weeks time.

Month 1 update. Got my partner to trim my hair last week, which has mostly blended in the native I kept and the area shaved, so I'm one step closer to being where I was pre-procedure. Not really stressed or even thinking about this due to being able to easily hide it, I also added a pic of how i currently style it at the moment. <Edit> I don't know why some of the pics are orientated wrong, the source pics are correct. Don't know how to correct them in the post.

Oh I forgot the graft numbers. 445 ones 1245 twos 569 threes 2259 total No fours used, probably saved for the NW4-7 region in the future.

Yep, thought it'd be something weird like that. The new email went to my spam, I've marked it as not spam and will ping you a reply soon-ish 👍

Here are some pics I sent to Ian before booking. And a pic taken of me with how I usually styled it.

Me right now, not done anything to it, just to give others an idea of how you can use your native hair to hide (I wish more threads did this as it was a big thing for me).

Day 10 (yesterday)

Day 7