Stubble

11 hours ago, Berba11 said:

Fantastic result from one of the top surgeons in Europe. Pleased for you!

Thanks Berba. I'm definitely happy with the results. 

Hello!
I had a HT with Dr Lupanzula in Belgium, Jan 14th 2021. 1681 grafts in total and it was all done on my temples to restore my hairline. 

Bio: 
31 y/o male
Medications:
Min for many years and fin since jan 2020. My other thread on this forum documents my finasteride results if you want to check that out.

Back when I first wrote down Lupanzula as a potential surgeon, he was still recommended on this forum. I don't know why he was removed (or removed himself) but whatever the case might be, my experience was very professional. In my case, the doctor did almost everything. He did all extractions and incisions, and he did the graft placement on my left temples while an assistant did the right temple. 
The surgery was a breeze overall, it was only the local anesthesia that was sometimes a bit unpleasant, and I appreciated that all focus was on me during the surgery. That is to say, the doctor didn't come off as stressed or overworked. He was calm and attentive.

It's been 7 months since my HT and I've come to a point where I'm happy with how it turned out. It still doesn't blend perfectly on top but I have hopes that it will after 12-18 months. And if I want full coverage, a little bit of Toppik already makes it look perfect imo.

I'll include some photos as well as a timeline of my progress, starting with finasteride in 2020. 
I'll update this thread with new pictures at the 12 month mark and I hope you found this useful. 
Cheers.
 

I had the same question you had, and I got the same advice. So I took Finasteride for 1 year before I had a transplant. 
I'm very happy I did, because I got comfortable knowing I didn't experience any side effects, and I saw how much it helped my hair. For example, I thought I'd have to fill in my crown, but that turned out to be unnecessary due to Fin. 

See it as an insurance. If you don't get any side effects, it's a very good thing for your future hair loss.

Unbelievable result. He must be thrilled. Congratz

Looks amazing. Already way better than what you started with. 
Gonna be fun to see the end result

Incredible. Congrats

You lucky bastard. Did you even have a shedding phase? Almost doesn't look like it. I hope I'm half as lucky.
Looks great. 

I'm gonna chip in and say I also tied my hands the first few nights after my procedure Just like what Ciaus said. 
However, I think my solution was a bit simpler. I took a string that I tied around the side of my boxer shorts and then loosely around my wrists. (This doesn't work if you sleep naked. Or actually, if you manage to make it work naked, please don't let us know how...)

Anyway, it worked really well. It was long enough that I could sleep comfortably, but short enough that I could move my hands just about to the edge of my chin. 
It was worth it. The first few nights, I woke up because the string tightened when I tried to scratch the recipient area. 
 

28 minutes ago, Dello said:

One of the doctors i had a long conversation with, I mentioned finasteride, he replied to me with that it will a 100% have side effects if not right away but in a long term. So after we were done I said to myself yes I’m trying to get my hair back but I’m definitely not trying to ruin my other machine if you know what I mean! 

Hmm... I'm not a doctor so I can't comment on that, but it seems to go against a lot of the scientific studies. Also, I've been on it for a year without side effects (as far as I can tell, haven't done blood tests etc). 
Plus, the surgeon I've chosen for my own hair transplant, who's a respected surgeon, says he really wants me to take it. 
Maybe get a second opinion from another hair transplant surgeon? 

As others have said, please try Finasteride first. I did, didn't notice any side effects and got a lot of hair back. I posted about it in this forum if you want to have a look. In my opinion, if you're considering hair transplant, you owe it to yourself to try Finasteride first, because it's quite an invasive procedure and you will want to know your options. Gotta think long term.
Serious clinics will recommend the same thing, that's what they did to me anyway. 

22 hours ago, Shifty said:

In my defense he definitely had more hair than me before LOL I've been finesteride free for the past week because of a delivery issue.  My crown is still a sore point. even though I think I've made some slight gains in the front.  

 

This was taken in August with some fiber toward the back/crown area.

 

So, somehow the folder with all the photos I had taken previously disappeared from my computer, i tried a restore to a specific date didn't help. not sure what happened but my thread is now my only reference. 

 

Ill update the post soon to show progress or lack thereof 

 

Wow. Compared to your starting point that's almost too hard to believe. My temples don't look anywhere close to that. 
Congratz. I'll take the time to read through what you've done. 

21 hours ago, UnbaldEagle said:

Wow, I'm lost for words. Being such a hyper-responder it looks like you no longer need surgery. Congrats, man.

Thank you, I can do nothing else than bless my luck. 
It's hard to see on the pictures but my hairline is quite receded and unfortunately completely bald, so that's why I'm doing a hair transplant shortly. 
 

19 hours ago, Dr. Suhail Khokhar said:

Amazing results! Are you taking minoxidil too?

Thank you! Yes, I've taken Minixodil 5% 2 times/day since my early 20s. I can't say I ever noticed any difference to my hair on minox, but I've kept doing it just in case. 

Thanks for the support guys. I was positively surprised by the regrowth myself, I'm aware I'm one of the lucky ones. 
Time will tell if I have the same fortune with my hair transplant. We'll see

Hey there.
 
Short version:
Started taking Finasteride 1mg/day january 2020 for my hair loss. A lot of my hair grew back rather quickly, and I never experienced any side effects. 
The image uploaded documents the change from January to September 2020, with the same barber cutting my hair to the same length.
Since then, it's been pretty much unchanged. 


Longer version:
I noticed my hair thinning on the top of my head when I was around 26. Back then, I went to a doctor to get a prescription but I had a pretty bad encounter. He ridiculed me a little bit and kept asking if I have cancer and why I wanted a cancer drug. Then he said the side effects would completely mess me up, and that I should just accept baldness. 
Anyway, I got scared off so I didn't think about it for a while. 
Fast forward to age 29, I start researching hair transplants. After having been in contact with a few clinics, it became clear that I should try Finasteride before I do any further planning. So I decided to use it for a minimum of 6 months before I do anything else.

It's worth nothing, I think, that when I took the first pill I was definitely affected by what I had read online and what the first doctor had told me, so I was probably quite susceptible to negative placebo effects. However, after a few months I felt pretty certain that I really didn't notice any difference apart from more hair growth. 

Here's another thing worth noting. When I was scrolling through finasteride threads on another hair loss forum, I noticed a lot of comments about severe side effects. However, after looking through pages and pages of threads, I noticed that a lot of time it was the same users commenting over and over again. 
I don't mean to claim anything by pointing that out, but it made it clear to me that the most disappointed users are probably more prone to write about this stuff. 

So, a year has passed and I'm quite happy with the result. The vertex hasn't filled up completely, but it's at a stage that's totally acceptable right now. Soon I'll go through with my first hair transplant to repair the temples. But I'll create a different thread about that. 

I hope this was helpful to someone. 
Cheers