forest

Hey @JohnAC71, thanks for checking in! 

I don't have good photos at the moment - I feel that clicking good ones is a two person job 😅

Sharing a couple of recent selfies. Clicked after a shower + shampoo, after drying the hair. Natural light.

On 7/29/2021 at 11:29 AM, ADil said:

4th Month Update

Looks good @ADil!
Good luck for the coming months 

Thanks @Melvin- Moderator! Least I could do for the forum 🙂

@ADil Looks on track! The growth will surely pick up in the 3 to 5 month window 🙂

@Alejandro Essentially supplements but taken in a "cyclic" fashion - perhaps this helps the body metabolize them efficiently. 
For instance, I take these nutritional supplements in a weekly cycle. Calcium and vitamin D on Monday and Thursday, iron + others on Tuesday and Thursday, etc etc. 
 

10 minutes ago, Alejandro said:

You've made me even more determined to have a 'top up' procedure with Dr Arika eventually! 

Go for it man 😁

Hang in there, @Naveenkumar. Only going to get better from here 

Amazing! Thanks for sharing, @Abhinay Singh

Update at 5 months / 157 days / 22 weeks

I've seen good growth in the last 2 months. Overall happy with how things have turned out so far 
Also feel that crown and back half of the mid-scalp have responded favourably to minoxydil + finasteride. 

I am a little concerned about hair fall since the last 3-4 weeks - mostly existing hair from sides and back, but some transplanted hair as well. Perhaps its just regular, expected hair fall. I'll keep an eye on this for another month and check-in with Dr Arika at the 6 month mark.

Medication (same as last time) -

1. Oral Finasteride 1mg daily
2. Topical Minoxydil 5% solution. 1ml twice a day (brand: regaine)
3. Multivitamins, including biotin 5mg. Cyclic.
4. Shampoo on alternate days. I use a regular mild shampoo (brand: dove) and ketoconazole 2% shampoo (brand: arcolane) alternately
5. Aloe-vera and amla juice daily

I also started working out 2 month mark onwards (moderate weights, jogging / running). Switched to vegan protein supplement (used to take whey based earlier).

Photos -
(I've marked "L" to indicate my left side - since the photos are taken from both selfie and primary camera)

The difference is night and day, in just 4 months! Congratulations @Wandererind 

Rooting for you, @MNIK 🙂

Looks good @ADil. The photos at day 10 were very promising.
It's a waiting game now. The fact that you had the HT done at a good clinic should keep you assured of the results (as opposed to waiting anxiously for the 6th / 8th / 10th  month mark to see if your HT would yield good results).
 

Top-class! Congratulations @Naveenkumar
Also huge credit to you for making the correct choice with Eugenix. There are so many HT clinics in India, each one promising 100% satisfaction, at such cheap prices. It's really difficult to not fall into trap of picking a cheap, next door clinic! So kudos on picking Eugenix.
Wish you the very best, and happy growing 🙂

On 4/19/2021 at 7:41 PM, Alejandro said:

I think it's looking very good, it's exactly where it should be for this timeframe and the crown area is looking particularly good, I'm jealous, my crown area needs another procedure to get it anywhere as near as good as yours!! Wishing you continued progress!! Be patient!! 

Fortunately the baldness has not progresssed deeply into the crown yet. Hope I'm able to save what's left with medication. Thanks for the good wishes, appreciate it

Update at 3 months / 92 days / 13 weeks

So far so good!
The transplanted hair are "pre-mature" right now, because of which their contribution to density is little. This is expected to improve as they mature over the course of next few months.

Current medication / therapy - 
1. Oral Finasteride 1mg daily
2. Topical Minoxydil 5% solution. 1ml twice a day (brand: regaine)
3. Multivitamins, including biotin 5mg. Cyclic.
4. Shampoo on alternate days. I use a regular mild shampoo (brand: dove) and ketoconazole 2% shampoo (brand: arcolane) alternately
5. Aloe-vera and amla juice daily

I also started working out 2 month mark onwards (moderate weights, jogging / running). Switched to vegan protein supplement (used to take whey based earlier).

Photos -
(I've marked "L" to indicate my left side - since the photos are taken from both selfie and primary camera)



































 

This is amazing, well exceeding expectation 👏

* Deleted duplicate comment. Ignore 

12 hours ago, JohnAC71 said:

Your grafts are very well secured under the surface, nothing else you can do. It won’t have affected any growth. 

Okay! I also thought that this would not affect growth since its been 50+ days since the HT now. But had to check with you guys to be sure. Thanks for the response @JohnAC71 @Abhinay Singh

Day 53

Bumped my head today while putting some stuff in the car. Such frustration! 😐
It was a "mild" bump. No bleeding or swelling. There is some redness though. No pain.
I just dabbed the area with water. Anything else I can do here? @Melvin-Moderator@Abhinay Singh

On 2/28/2021 at 8:46 AM, anotherhairlosssufferer said:

That's interesting - did those hairs in the front not shed yet? 

I feel that a lot of them have shed. The marginal extra density on one side at the front is because of already existing hair.
My understanding is that the extent of initial shedding varies from person to person.

Sharing a quick update at 43 days / 6 weeks / 1.5 months.

A lot of hair have shed off, which is expected I guess. I felt that around day 30 mark the shedding was especially visible. A lot of hair came off during shampoo or when applying minoxydil. 
Donar area has healed well.

Current medication - 

• Finasteride 1mg daily.
• 1ml minoxidil 5% solution, twice a day.
• Multivitamins, biotin. 
• Shampoo on alternate days. I use Ketoconazole 2% and a mild shampoo alternately.
• Aloe vera and amla juice daily.

Apart form this I have refrained from exercise / jogging / running / weightlifting. Will start with light exercise from day 50, and ease into weightlifting and running 5k in the next 2 weeks.

Photos -

I had heard of finasteride before, but did not have sufficient information on it. So I thought that it was "just another hair loss medicine". Now that I know about finasteride, I regret not starting it 5 years back. This is actually more common that you'd think. Lots of anecdotes on this thread: https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/59032-if-you-could-redo-anything-in-your-hair-loss-journey-what-would-it-be
Side effects are certainly a risk, but it's observed in only a minority of patients. Moreover, the side effects go away within 5-10 days of stopping the medicine. So that's a relief. I feel confident so far, but would certainly stop finasteride if I see side effects. At this point, I'll explore other therapies to sustain non transplanted hair (PRP perhaps).

 So if in the future you reach nw 7 or 8 you would also need to cover the crown and back of the head too. Then you can't use beard hair there. You would have to use scalp hair but you already used up some precious scalp hair already. Is this something you discussed with the doc?
I did not discuss this with the doctor explicitly. I also did not find any precedence for what you are suggesting.
Perhaps other folks can help here @JohnAC71  @SLA

On 2/13/2021 at 12:05 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

I love, love the hairline shape and design. Definitely eager to see your results flourish

That makes two of us! 
100% credit to Dr Arika Bansal. I had zero inputs and defaulted to whatever she recommended. I only realised the fine work couple of days after the HT 😬

Here you go @plus- 

1. how did you style your pre transplant hair? I'm really curious to know this
I kept long hair. After shampooing + drying, I did a "comb-over" to cover the bald area. 
The hairstyle did not work with non-shampooed hair. Plus wind or pretty much any jerky motion of the head exposed the bald spot, so I had to be mindful of this. I used a cap outdoors. 
Attaching a few pictures at the end.

2. You still have some thinned out hair on top. Do you expect them to survive? Or was the transplant planned assuming they will not survive?
Most of the hair in the front, mid are super thin and are unlikely to survive. My HT (and in fact most HTs) are done assuming that thin hair would fall out. Some hair at the back might survive with medication. Time will tell.

3. Do you have to allow them to use your photos in their videos and social media?
It's your choice. Personally, I won't consent to using my face.

4. How do you think you will go bald in the coming years? Which norwood scale will you reach? Did you start taking finasteride only after this procedure? Is it oral finasteride?
Right now this would be a total guess. Note that HTs at my age (30 years) are done assuming that the patient would reach NW6 / 7.
I was not taking any medicine before the HT. After the procedure, I am taking finasteride 1mg daily, and using minoxydil 5% twice a day. If this stops or slows balding - great! If not, I might need to get another HT down the line.
Yes, it is oral finasteride.

5. Why didnt you use beard hair? Euginex is known to use that well. So you could have kept donor hair for future tranplants.
As per my understanding, the rule of thumb is to prioritise use of scalp hair. If scalp hair is not sufficient to cover your baldness, body hair is used.
Ex. for 3000 grafts FUE, scalp donar would generally be sufficient.
For a 4500 grafts FUE, perhaps 3000 grafts from scalp and 1500 from beard. Only because it's not possible (or very difficult) to extract more than a certain number of grafts FUE (typically 3000-4000) from scalp in a single session. Hence beard hair must be used.
Think of it this way - scalp hair are your best shot for a satisfactory HT. So they should be used first. If a future HT is needed, you may use rest of your scalp donar + beard hair.

Some pre HT photos from 2019 and 2020 - 

























 

Appreciate your inputs gentlemen @SLA @Captain Haddock @MazAB @Gatsby
@MazAB I see a bunch of hair coming off when I shampoo. So there is some shedding. But yes, looks limited at the moment. Month 2 will give a better picture. Also, will start minoxidil from tomorrow.

6 minutes ago, ADil said:

Congratulations on the excellent choice of @Eugenix Hair Science..my procedure is set for feb 25..

 

Wish you the very best. Rest assured, you are in good hands