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deeznuts

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Everything posted by deeznuts

  1. Your best hope is to get on meds. You have diffuse thinning all of which can be saved on meds. You might even see improvement
  2. Are there any special offers from this partnership? Like coupons or discounts or free trials?
  3. I agree with most of this but nothing stops a surgeon from training a tech to pick juicier grafts or manage donor better.
  4. Why is a doctor inherently skilled at hair extraction? Medical school trains doctors on a lot of things but extracting grafts using a manual punch or motorized punch isn't one of those. Being a medical doctor means you have a lot of knowledge and spent years studying in school. Some technician extracting grafts 8 hours a day for 5 year is going to be better than a doctor who in many ways becomes a jack of all trades dealing with consultations, prescriptions, checkups, managing the business, and implantations. Extracting grafts doesn't require any insane medical knowledge. You have cab drivers in Turkey essentially extracting grafts and working in hair mills. That's not to say they're good at what they do... Just that you got guys off the street essentially able to do surgery (but very crappily). Extracting grafts requires good manual dexterity and good processes (ideally set by the doctor based on medical literature). If the doctor ensures that they are up to date with best practices (i.e. motorized FUE/manual FUE, holding solution, proper preparation of the grafts, local anesthetic), then the tech is set up to succeed. The one issue with techs that people have noted is that when a doctor does the entire surgery, you know what you're going to get. i.e. You know if Dr. X shows up that you're going to get Dr. X the entire way. You don't have to worry about the technician leaving for greener pastures or anything Personally, I think the importance of the doctor (and just to emphasize, this is my opinion) is in the following 1. Establishing good and effective processes so the techs can succeed. 2. Keeping up with best practices and medical literature 3. Managing staff well (i.e. some doctors have techs working with them for a decade plus) 4. Following regulations and laws 5. They should have some involvement in the surgery. Probably during the implantation step Of course, if there a doctor working under another doctor, then they don't need to worry about most of the stuff on that list and they can just focus on doing the actual surgery to the best of their ability
  5. I mean everyone wonders if it's worth it. I ended up getting mine done a week ago. I'm still not sure if it's the right choice but i want to be able to style my hair like i used to and do things i couldn't do before. You're a really good candidate given that you're 39 and aren't losing it all too fast. You'll need to hop on meds either way so give it a go and save yourself the trouble of starting after surgery like me...
  6. My initial consult might have been from 2021... I don't know if he increased prices since then but it was 3.5 euro for first 1000 and then 2.5 euro afterwards.
  7. Yeah I think the communication wasn't a major issue. The reality is the nurses spoke quite good English but sometimes you have to clarify things a couple times. Though being able to speak natively with the doctor is a great benefit for sure. My bigger regret is not going into the hairline drawing phase with a checklist of questions. I think I was too graft conscious as well when I'm not really losing that much hair - I rejected temple peak work when I think I should have gone for it. Yeah I just thought I'd pay it forward... I didn't know I'd be stuck with the name deeznuts for 3 years though lol. I'd never have gone through with it if I didn't have a community of people who I could see doing the same thing. Also one thing that helped a massive amount is having a supportive girlfriend since she took care of a lot of the planning for everything. I'll also add that having someone with you, if they can remove stress, is a huge boon since you're stressed about the procedure, have a huge mental checklist, need someone to take care of you a bit, and plus you're in a foreign country so it's really great having someone who can be there.
  8. Yeah my worry is that if you do it in two goes you're building two hairlines. I.e. If you need 1 cm of density for a hairline and you do that twice, maybe that's 2cm of hairline. But maybe that's an inaccurate assumption Though with the swelling going down a bit i think having my hairline be about 4 fingers width above the glabella for me is good for me. Just as long as I can not have a 5 head 🤣. I remember feeling pretty good about my hair even 3 or 4 years ago (before COVID) so the 1cm should bring me back and a bit more
  9. Man i got a really round head 🤣. Pictures taken today so about 5 or 6 days post op. Post op reps haven't gotten my pics yet but I got some progress pics for now Donor looks a bit sparse, you can see where it looks like hair was removed but looks kinda clean to me at this point? Skin is reddish /white? Looks pretty okay to me thus far That looks like 2635 grafts right? Jw if my transection rate wasn't too high.
  10. I had my intervention a couple days ago. Just posting this to get started. I don't have any photos just yet but I've requested them from the clinic. I'll take some later but I've kinda been avoiding taking them since I'm not really a fan of how I look at the moment lol. Patient (i.e. me) Characteristics Ethnicity: East Asian Age: 31 Hair type: Coarse black hair, good donor (average 2.37 hairs per graft which seems quite good) Meds: None yet Norwood level: 2, maybe 2.5? Doctor said 2, but online consults have doctors saying 2/3 Numbers look like this. 1 hair grafts - 276 2 hair grafts -1164 3 hair grafts - 1132 4 hair grafts - 252 Total: 2635 grafts Total hairs: 6252 Average hairs/grafts: 2.37 Punch size is 0.8mm. The clinic noted that I had a lot of 2's and 3's which is really nice. The average hairs per graft was 2.37 which is a blessing since I'm East Asian and I expected a significant number or 1's and 2's. Not 2's and 3's. My hairs are also quite coarse typical of Asian hair which is also nice. Compared to my girlfriend (who's mixed white), there's a stark difference between our hair. Dr. De Freitas noted I had a good donor (quick visual inspection, not microscope or anything). And given all the factors above, I think I have a very good hair for transplantation due to the coarseness and the number of hairs/FU. I think I have pretty good density too honestly but can't say for sure. Why I chose Dr. De Freitas 1. I was thoroughly impressed by his hairlines which seem to have fantastic density and look amazing when combing through the hair. As someone who's NW2 (as diagnosed by the doctor), it made sense to go to a hairline specialist 2. He had a couple "real" results on here with BjornBorg and Adam87. I was impressed by both of them since they both had fantastic yield and very aesthetic hairlines. They didn't look like shills either given that they had established post histories - though they still could be I guess lol. In my mind though, Dr De Freitas was 2/2 here and quite good on the Spanish forums as well. He had a couple hiccups in the spanish forums but he seemed to have fixed them in the second try. It was nice having real results to look at. Compare that to some posters here where they have 1 post and somehow document 12 months of their hair transplant journey in that 1 singular post... And of course these patients always have home run results in their 1 post 🤣. Of course, BB and Adam could be shills... But it takes a lot of effort to create an account like that as opposed to doing it shotgun style. 3. I thought I would be a good fit for the implanter pen given my thick straight hair which the implanter pen seems to have been designed for as it was initially created for East Asian hair anyway. 4. His rates are quite cheap while delivering top quality. He's able to offer lower rates because the cost of living in Spain is much lower. Obviously you don't want cost to be a factor but it's always a great perk. 5. I also consulted with Hasson and Wong but the rep quoted me 3k or 4k grafts which I felt was too much for what I needed. i.e. temple work. Initial consult I messaged the De Freitas clinic on here and set up a consultation. Took a month or two iirc to actually get the consultation. I was diagnosed as NW2 (or was it NW2/NW3?) by Dr De Freitas. All communication was handled by a rep since Dr. De Freitas is quite busy and is a popular guy. Might be a turn off for some people but the estimate ended up being more or less the number of grafts the clinic said was extracted. The clinic estimated 2600 grafts and I the clinic said I got 2635 so pretty on the mark here. Can't say I was counting though but I'll give the clinic the benefit of the doubt. I was able to talk to the pre-op team at any time which was really nice Travel to Valencia I churned a bunch of credit cards so the plane tickets were basically free. Got in on the AMEX platinum 150k point offer which more or less paid for my flight and lounge access the entire way. Definitely recommend churning a card here. But yeah the trip took 7 or 8 hours to Zurich, 10 hour layover, and then another 2 hour flight to Valencia. We spent the entire trip eating all you can eat food at airport lounges (thanks AMEX plat) making our lives a lot easier. Another 20 or 30 minutes by cab after to our hotel. All the buildings and houses here have metal grates or metal garage doors. And tons of graffiti everywhere giving the feel of a low trust society though given the issue that many european countries have with petty theft maybe its understandable. But everything here is super cheap and the city is extremely walkable. You never feel like you need a car here - in fact it's preferable to just walk. You really get a good feel for why Europeans are a bit slimmer than Americans 🤣. There's also a tax on junk food here I think... A 12 pack of coke is like 10 euro iirc. Also, water isn't free at restaurants 😡. I got 3 waters my first night and got robbed 4.50 euro Hotel Room The doctor books you 4 nights stay at the Silken Puerta Valencia. It's a decent enough hotel - it's not the Four Season but the doctor pays for your buffet breakfast (for 2 people/4 days in my case) and it made the transplantation process A LOT better not having to worry about getting some food to eat. It's low stress because you can just go down and eat. Food is pretty good, but the Spanish have a crazy obsession with pork which manifested itself in half the breakfast dishes. They had Jamon, bacon, scrambled eggs with ham, sausages, more sausages, sliced sausages in a deli meat style, and probably more varieties that I forgot. Overall though I can't understate how nice it is to not have to worry about eating. It was also a 5 euro cab ride to the clinic. Clinic I'm sure it's been noted by everyone else but it's very clean, very fancy looking. Lots of marble (?) or at the very least some sort of very polished stone. It looked luxurious and expensive. Especially since Valencia isn't like a North American with the city having lots of graffiti everywhere and many buildings being less modern/a bit more beat than the 40 story all glass buildings you see in a city like Toronto. The city does look a bit poorer... On the flip side though the clinic puts many Toronto buildings to shame. You can tell the doctor takes pride in his place of work. I went to a consultation with a Toronto doctor and he had a dingy kinda office by comparison. Staff All of them are super friendly ladies. No one was rude or unpleasant. One or two of them spoke English Pre-transplant consultation (in-person) I don't think I spent too much time talking to the doctor and I really regret how I handled this part of the process. I rushed through it and I wonder if I should go back some time and get more work done or if I'll be happy. I wonder if I wasn't "greedy" enough though I wouldn't say I was very greedy at all since I just remember this forum always talking about being conservative. Though with my limited level of loss and decent donor, I wonder if I should have been greedier. On the flip side though, maybe I'll think I made the right decision down the line... Regardless, I feel like an absolute idiot not asking the doctor the tradeoffs of each hairline that was drawn. i.e. How many grafts it would take, if I had a lot of donor to support it, what would have to happen if I wanted to get this done later down the line etc. The language barrier made it a bit harder here too. The doctor doesn't speak English aside from a couple phrases here and there so everything was done through a translator. I just remember filling out some forms, getting into scrubs, and then going to meet the doctor. He took some pictures, diagnosed me with dermatitis, and then noted I had a good donor and was "level 2" which I presume is Norwood II. He drew a hairline which I thought was very low. My original hairline is maybe ~8cm above my glabella? His proposed hairline was maybe 5.5 or 6 cm above the middle of my glabella by my estimation. I asked him to move it higher. He moved it halfway between my hairline and his original line which maybe is 6-6.5cm. I asked him to move it higher again since this forum keeps telling people to be conservative and I just remember thinking maybe I should be conservative here to save grafts. I also remember being happy with my hairline at age 27 so I figured lowering my hairline by a mere ~1cm or so to 7-7.25 cm would be ideal. I don't actually have a ruler so I'm using my samsung galaxy as a reference point. He offered to do some temple peak work which I asked if it would have consequences later as I lost more hair. I think I turned him down since I figured I could always get it done later. Again, I regret this since I should have asked the tradeoffs and inquired more. I took ~5 minutes during this process when I wish I took ~15 mins or even ~30 mins. At the end of the day though, I settled with lowering my hairline by about 1cm and filling in my temples. The hairline drawn was a bit diagonal which bothered me but the doctor assured me that it would be resolved when the transplant happened. I think it got better but it's hard to tell with the swelling at the moment. Extraction Not much to say here. Local anesthetic. Didn't hurt much aside from the anesthetic injections. There was 1 tech extracting, and 2 on the side cleaning the grafts from what I assume. They were storing my grafts in some sort of holding solution that they poured out of a plastic container. The tech extracting was friendly but didn't speak English much. She was operating a motorized punch from what I could see since she had her foot on a pedal. I kinda just lay face down on the gurney (not sure if that's the right word) and she went to work. She liked to listen to music. Once she started working, she seemed like she focused on her job which was nice. Also she used microscope glasses which is a plus. The nurses gave me valium but honestly I'm not an anxious person so didn't need it. Break time They fed me a ham and cheese sandwich lol. Everything in this country is just ham and cheese. Implantation The doctor was watching youtube videos (or was it TV?) while implanting. Maybe for background noise or passive listening. Every once in a while he would grab the remote and switch the channel. There were two techs loading his implanter pens for him. Every so often he would examine the work and gauge what needed to be done. I didn't think he was careless or anything... I imagine the act of transplantation is just kinda boring. He'd grab an implanter, pick a location and angle and just put it in. I don't know if there's much to say. Didn't hurt much... Started to hurt a tiny bit near the end but it was whatever. I'm pretty good with pain apparently. I was able to pick his brain a bit here and ask about topical dut (he doesn't believe in it and thinks it doesn't work). He strongly encouraged oral minoxidil as well. I mentioned that I read studies about minox lowering collagen but he didn't agree with that either. He likes formula 1 apparently, but given that he's brazilian, it makes sense. He talked about driving a 2.5 million dollar ferrari lol. I interpreted it as him being a driven person who is an overachiever type. Lunch I ordered a light meal which was free. Grilled chicken (pretty juicy), cheesecake (absolutely delicious), and a salad. Doctor came in after I finished lunch and saw my used scrubs and threw them in the trash. It's not a lot on the surface but it seemed like he cared enough to do something like that rather than leaving it to his staff to clean the room. i.e. He owned the process and was willing to do things himself. Went home after lunch. Day started at 9 and ended at maybe 2 each day. With breaks in between for lunch and a ham and cheese sandwich snack. Day 2 Same as day 1 honestly. Just no lunch 😡. In total, about 2600 grafts over 2 days. I noticed one other patient each day. Post transplant I was able to have a brief ~5 minute conversation with the doctor before leaving. I asked him how many grafts it would be for one of the lower hairlines he drew. He said 2800... I kinda kicked myself for not going for a lower one and not asking. Will be going in for my first wash on the 5th of April. Aftercare The clinic has a post-op care number which is really nice being able to communicate with them if there are issues. I've got no pain, no discomfort. Head is a bit swollen. Have to sleep with a cervical pillow. The back of my head was oozing the first couple nights. But after that it's been great. I have to spray some solution (saline?) on my recipient area every hour. Scalp itches like hell because I can't wash it and my dermatitis is itching like hell. I usually use shampoo and wash my hair with hot water at the very least. Not being able to wash my scalp is miserable. I kinda compromised by rubbing shampoo and water on the non-transplant areas to relieve the itching. The scabs are kinda itching a bit now too. I also need to pick up oral minox (5mg), fin (5 days a week), dut (2 days a week) according to the doctor. Also ketoconaczole for my dermatitis. Seems like the clinic is trying to nuke my DHT levels to that of a prepubescent girls. I'm not sure I want to take oral minox though but the doctor strongly recommended it. Some final thoughts Doctor seemed very busy. I would have liked to be able to spend more time with him and discuss tradeoffs Doctor was friendly and a nice guy. Only knew a couple things in English though so most of the time he would just say "Let's go". Some things were lost in translation but you can always ask the question again. There is a nurse who speaks English quite well. It takes a bit longer to ask some questions but communication was pretty decent for the most part. Never had an issue where we didn't know what was going on The clinic was very impressive and clean... Sterile maybe even. Especially in contrast to Valencia The staff were friendly and nice. Seemed like they cared about you The processes seemed very up to date. Implanter pens, holding solutions, motorized punch, microscope extractions, up to date prescriptions (oral minox). It's clear that the doctor attempts to implement best practices and do what's best The clinic removes all the stress with the hotel booking with free buffet breakfast I'll probably write more details later and add pictures
  11. My libido is lower than it was 3-4 years ago and I'm not on any drugs... Just happens with things like activity level, sleep, stress, and just getting older. I think I'm the same age as you as well.
  12. Same but everyone with worse hair than me makes me feel better too
  13. Wouldn't do it for 3k. Cause you gotta remember that 3k budget doesn't include flights, meals and miscellaneous other fees I think 27 28 isn't a bad age to do a hair transplant but a dollar per graft is borderline hair mill territory once you factor in other costs
  14. I've always thought Dr. Hasson's philosophy was that he'd rather give you the grafts you want in one go rather than have you somewhat disappointed and have to come back for a round two. A lot of people talk about hair greed, where they basically get a transplant and find out they want a bit more density or they want their hairline a bit lower or they want some better temple peaks... Hasson just gives it to you in one surgery rather than doing it in 2 or 3 surgeries. The reality imo is that you can give the illusion of density but there's only so much you can do at the hairline to give an illusion. There's no shingling happening at the hairline. If you're styling it up the only thing that's going to save you is density or toppik. Though maybe doctor's have some secret sauce to give you a good illusion of density that I don't know about.
  15. FUE is probably the "gold standard" these days but you might value different things such as cost... Do a search for FUT verse FUE.
  16. I've only heard discussion in passing. Minoxidil never interested me given that it's a "bandaid" measure of sorts in that it doesn't address the root cause so I can't say more than that. Though maybe oral minox is different in that regard idk. Try google?
  17. Every drug has risks associated with them. It's up to you to accept the risk profile or not. I've heard discussion about minoxidil and it's effects on collagen production for example and maybe that's not worth it to you The inverse is also true where you develop say... Wrinkles and you think maybe i shouldn't have taken oral minox.
  18. Personally I wouldn't get one because I don't have one naturally
  19. Zero sides is good, do you normally get sides from anti-androgens? Have you been getting your DHT levels checked? Are you running it with anything else? Definitely $100 is a bit steep. I wish they'd drop it to like $80 to be more competitive with other telemedicine companies and their topical fin formulations. Though given that Xyon health is the only option for topical dut that I'm aware of outside of Dr. Mwamba and Minox Max, I feel more comfortable with other Dr. Mwamba's or Dr. Hasson's formulations. Mwamba's customer service with topical dut sounds horrible though... I have no idea if he can guarantee that he gets out your prescription with any regularity with how people seem to complain about their orders taking forever But I'd pay $100 if it worked really well and was everything as advertised especially in regards to getting some hairline regrowth. But it can't be worse than joining group buy's to get chemicals from Chinese labs and self-medicating. At least with $100/mo you get peace of mind that you know what you're getting So the question is 1) does topical dut make a big difference compared to plain old topical fin and 2) if the proprietary technology is a gamechanger like they claim - especially on the hairline where other meds don't have a big impact.
  20. I used Wise as well. I figure if you're gonna eat the fee, you should use it to churn a credit card and get some good bonuses from it. You could probably hit 6k spend and instantly get all the bonuses from a premium card like the amex plat
  21. obviously not a perfect result but I think you're better than where you started. thinness is a concern but your hair styled looks fantastic. the fact that you can even execute that hairstyle should be something that makes you happy i don't know if i would "regret" your transplant, you made progress compared to before though I can imagine going through two transplants is a bit taxing mentally.
  22. It's coming along really nicely and the donor looks really thick too. We might have to kick you off this website soon.
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