deeznuts

8 minutes ago, dtap said:

Once again, vaccines are still not 100% effective as high on the scale of effectiveness as pharmas claim they are. My best advice is to wait it out either just enough time has passed or until the virus is cleared from the environment. As mentioned previously in one of my comments, after my friend received the pfizer vaccine he developed strong symptoms from the coronavirus which according to him was anything but pleasant as he complained of inability to fall asleep since he had suffered from uncontrollable shortness of breath rendering him insomniac apart from other intolerable symptoms. It almost killed him to the point that he has to stay at the hospital for a month. Would you seriously risk your health over some hair? Is risking to acquire one of the most deadliest diseases that you can pass on to your loved ones and friends worth your life and theirs worth it over a handful of follicles? You stated that you "doubt there's much more you can do to be safe without severely compromising your quality of life." I already explained that you can by staying put until this rolls over. The op can do whatever he pleases and I wish him the very best. But I'm looking out for him and people around him so he can be spared of the devastating effects I've first hand seen myself what this deadly virus does to people. Its no joke, especially when traveling to foreign lands if thats your destination for a transplant.

And once again, the risks are minimal as a healthy vaccinated adult male. Your anecdote doesn't change anything. It's just fearmongering with 0 numbers or facts.

By your logic, you shouldn't drive a car since you are statistically more likely to die in a car crash than to die from COVID as a healthy 30 year old vaccinated adult male with no pre-existing medical conditions (including obesity). Would you risk a case of severe injury or death on the off chance you get into an accident? Might as well never drive again lol. Statistically, you are more likely to die in a car crash as someone who healthy than you are to COVID. If your friend got in a car crash, would that mean you wouldn't drive ever again?

I'll believe your COVID rhetoric if you're willing to never drive a car again (assuming you own/drive/ride a car at the moment). If you won't give up driving a car then I really have to question if there's any logical consistency to the way you do things. I mean, if you're willing to not leave your house for something with a less likelihood of killing you, then surely, you would give up driving/riding cars which have a higher likelihood of killing you for a smaller sacrifice. 

Also anecdotal evidence isn't facts. It's a shame your friend caught it but that's not a statistic, that's an anecdote. The numbers just don't support COVID as that deadly the 30-39 age group where you have to live in abject fear of dying. And if you're worried about loved ones, the 2 week travel quarantine is a thing... Which you should probably do if you were traveling overseas.

Quick google search says 6837 people have died to COVID in the US in the 30-39 age group. Using a quick google search there's roughly 40-45 million 30-39 year old adults in the USA. But OP is 30 so you have to assume he's slightly less likely to die from COVID. And of those in that age group that have died, you have to assume they have pre-existing medical conditions for the most part. 

At the end of the day, some people have to really take a long hard look at compromising their quality of life as if they can just give everything up without a second thought. People act like they can just stay cooped up in their house forever and that the tradeoffs are somehow acceptable for what the numbers look like. Being alive entails risks to your life and health. That's kinda how it is. I honestly wonder if you're more likely to lose years of your life/die from the side effects of quarantine/lockdown as a healthy 30 year old than to die from COVID itself. Lack of exercise, mental health issues, unhealthy eating, stress from WFH/unemployment... 

It's usually variable when you see results as some are late growers and some are early growers. For sure at 9 months though, you probably should have the majority of your hairs sprouted and you'll be waiting for them to mature. I've heard that 12 months is roughly when you'll see the full result, but I've also heard up to 18 months. At 9 months, I think for sure you'll have a fair amount of growth but you might not be at full density. You could probably use some sort of hair fibers or toppik to take care of the density. So in all likelihood, you'll see a partial result which can then be concealed with hair fibers to give the illusion of a full head of hair.

Funny enough, I'm also going to a wedding late next year as well...

@TorontoMan had a really great result from Dr. Rahal. You should check his thread out.

12 hours ago, soloo said:

Interestingly enough, I decided not to do hair transplant.

Good decision. I really feel like you had too many doubts and weren't ready to pull the trigger. Maybe you'd be interested in trying a hair system instead?

5 hours ago, dtap said:

Youre missing the point which is its to stay as safe as possible without risking your health by waiting until the virus rolls over. Then after the smoke clears do whatever your heart desires.

He's already incredibly safe. He's a vaccinated (presumably) healthy 30 year old adult male. You couldn't be any safer unless maybe you were a vaccinated healthy mid 20's adult male.  The mortality rate for healthy 30 year old males is at most a hair above 0%. I have no doubt that you are more likely to die in a car crash than to die at COVID at age 30. As safe as possible is really not feasible and there is always a risk to doing anything including locking yourself up in your home with how depression/social isolation/mental health can have an impact on your body. You know car crashes/accidents are more likely to kill you in your teens/20's than anything else? Would you give up driving because of the risks with automobiles? It's OPs health and he's free to what he wants with his life but I really doubt there's much more you can do to be safe without severely compromising your quality of life.

Where does ass hair rank on the transplantable scale? Seems like no one ever mentions it.

Do you have any more before pics? I don't see any botching in the pics on the left. It looks kinda like a NW3

You really can't generalize. It depends on a lot of factors. The average scalp has 6000-8000 grafts, the density you might aim for is really calculated by a few factors such as the amount of expected future hair loss, your current level of hair loss, your age, patient/doctor expectations and a few other factors. 

It also depends where in the scalp you're looking at. The midscalp, you can get away with low density. The hairline, is where you want the most density. 

A NW2 at age 40 can aim for near native density in the hairline if they really wanted to while a NW7 might not even be a candidate for surgery. 

I think the general rule is that 50% of native density is enough as it presents the illusion of density. Though really, it's not about the density so much as it is about the illusion of density. So as long as the transplant looks good, the actual density is immaterial. Also, density isn't the only thing as density only calculates how many grafts per cm2. It does nothing to calculate the actual thickness of the hairs. If you plant 2 trees it'll be thicker than 20 blades of grass for example.

I read an article that said that implanter pens tend to be more effective for Asian patients due to their naturally coarse straight hair. Does it still hold true that implanter pens work better with those specific hair characteristics? The reason I'm asking is because I was looking at some results from the top Spanish doctors and I was really impressed by the work they were putting out. It turns out that most of them if not all of them are using an implanter pen. 

Obviously, the better doctor will generally produce better results but it also does seem like certain doctors work better with certain hair characteristics (such as afro hair). If all other factors are equal, would an implanter pen give better results for patients like me with straight coarse hair? Does the implanter pen make a significant difference in graft survival rate in patients that are well suited for it? Seems like there are so many great Spanish docs right now all using the implanter pen and I have to wonder if part of it is the technique.

So my question is does the implanter pen make a statistically significant difference when dealing with patients with coarse straight hair? Should I put any weight to the tool at all if even to serve as a tie breaker between clinics?

Yeah it's actually a thing. Here's an example

Transplanted hair should just be like normal hair from what I understand. So you would just style it like normal

Just whenever you get your hair cut, ask the stylist to try some product out in your hair. And feel free to experiment with a variety of hair products. I'm personally a big fan of clays and waxes so any of them are good. I go for the very strong hold ones because my hair is thick and doesn't angle backwards that well. I think L'oreal poker was really nice from what I remember. I'm planning on going for ATS style muse next since I really liked it when I used it the one time at a salon. For real though, just experiment. That's part of the fun of having hair

Isnt Melvin a good example? I think he's diffuse NW5 or NW6 and he mentioned in previous posts that he can't take fin

What about Kongkiat Laorwong? He's in Thailand which is SEA. I saw one of his results the other day and was thoroughly impressed

42 minutes ago, soloo said:

I got vaccinated but still a bit worried about all these weird variants of COVID-19 that are being evolving outside the US.

I mean, you're a (presumably) healthy 30 year old male... I wouldn't worry that much. That said, if you don't feel comfortable, you can always try to wait out COVID. 

I can't answer all your questions as for the most part, it seems like the clinic should be answering those questions. I'd make sure communication is clear between you and the clinic because you dont want to have trouble communicating with the clinic if something goes wrong and you get necrosis (as an example) or something else happens.

Doctors recommended here I think have to stand by their results which means if it goes wrong, they fix it for you at the very least. As for the exact details of what the clinic will do if it goes wrong... That's something you need to talk to the clinic about.

Hair Transplants are a leap of faith and they're totally out of your control. You really just need to gather all the knowledge that you can, decide if you're comfortable with the Dr. and their body of work, and then pull the trigger. There will always be an unknown and you can't do anything about it.

For what it's worth 10k, 20k, that's a drop in the bucket for something life changing like a hair transplant. You can earn that back even with minimum wage in like a year or so. It's really nothing in the grand scheme of things

2 hours ago, De Freitas Clinic said:

 

This picture killed me lol. De Freitas can't resist taking the hair styled up hairline shot even in women 

Hard to blame him though, that's a crazy good hairline. 

9 minutes ago, lowk said:

Tbh its just way too suspicious for a serious clinic to be lacking. It just doesnt look right. Come on, Its like saying microsoft corp not having a website. Its highly fishy.

 

Microsoft is a trillion dollar corporation who can afford to have a dedicated team of developers maintain a website.

Couto is a small business owner running a practice of possibly even less than 10 employees. It makes literally 0 sense for him to have a web developer on the payroll just to create one website. So in Couto's case it makes an extreme amount of sense to pay someone to create a website and be done with it as a one time cost instead of a recurring cost like a web developer might be. I don't know what world you live in, but small businesses don't always have websites, and they 100% definitely don't keep a web developer on the payroll just to maintain a single website. 

It's ridiculous to even compare the two. 

Throughout my hair transplant journey, I have had one rule and that's to not take any unnecessary risks with my hair... Or my dick. So in my opinion, I would never compromise by going to Turkey. But I understand some people do have to and there are some pretty good doctors there. I think Dr. Bicer is one that gets suggested a lot

I think they're both great choices. Once you've narrowed down the doctors you're comfortable going with, maybe the difference will end up being how the doctor communicates, their "style", and what their plan is for you.

For example, De Freitas's hairlines have a quite distinct look to them (very straight) that you might like or dislike and maybe that influences whether you prefer a hairline from him or Bisanga

4 hours ago, TorontoMan said:

Growing up I always thought your hair went grey before you lost it.. life showed me otherwise. 

 

Does anyone have a good source for notes on the things David Sinclair talks about? Podcastnotes.org does a pretty good job but they charge a subscription, might be worth it anyway to get info from the likes of him and Dr. Rhonda Patrick who I found stays very current on everything health 

I think the two big things that he pushes is reveratrol (the chemical from red wine) and NMN. There's also a diabetes medication he talked about I can't remember the name off the top of my head

It's not even a contest lol. Lorenzo/Couto/H & W. 

Sometimes, you hire people to do work, and they underdeliver. For all we know, they hired some third party who promised April and couldn't deliver. I'd be more concerned if it was actual reps or employees from Couto's clinic. A web design company is probably just some third party with no real stake in the business

David Sinclair is really interesting in general. Watch some of his presentations on youtube. They're super cool and discuss aging and possibly reversing aging.... So it doesn't even just extend to hair

Insane result wow

On 6/19/2021 at 5:09 PM, Bam said:

What is the maximum density that can realistically be achieved via HT in temples, hairline, etc (assuming donor  is not a concern)?

I've seen a few surgeons mention being able to transplant 80 grafts/cm2. They can probably do more but 80 is even above native density for some people

Biggest thing I like to see is just having a post history and being a genuine part of the community.

You can fake a ton of things, but it takes time and effort over a period of several months to fake the post history of someone who is an active participant in the community in a way that looks natural. And for all that work, they get 1 review out of it. Not that it isn't possible but it does take work