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Hey all, I haven't had the time to take photos and honestly have mostly stopped thinking about my hair but wanted to give an update. These aren't as well shot as the photos I uploaded before but here's a bunch of photos of me in the wild. I'm very happy with the results, I have a better hairline now than I did before I started losing hair 🤣 I'm 32 but people have commented that I look 28. Before my transplant, which I got at around age 30, people thought I was in my late 30s! I take 5mg of oral minoxidil and 0.5mg of oral dutasteride every day to maintain it. One thing that was interesting is that I took a break from minoxidil because I was worried it was giving me dark under eye circles. 3 months after I stopped I had lost what looked like 30% of my hair. It didn't look nearly as thick or nearly as good. I'd say the transplant alone is a solid foundation, but the medication definitely completes the look and without it I would not be entirely happy with the result.

I put the pricing up earlier in the thread but I think it was between 8 and 10k including flights

Haha man, what a ride that was. I am glad I didn't proceed with Dr Knudsen though to his credit, he did refund me the $2k deposit I paid despite having no legal obligation to do so. As for FUE into the scar, considering that too. Feels like it's best done as a final touch once you know you're not going to have any more surgeries. @Etownone pretty cool use for beard hair. My neck beard hairs do nothing but get razor burn, would be nice if they could pay me back for all the years of strife 🤣 @Hairdom good luck on your journey my dude, glad to hear my experience has made treating MPB more accessible to you. You probably know to get on finasteride or dutasteride asap so you lock in what you've got. Also, don't forget to share your experience with the forum!

Hey all 7 months & 1 week I am currently in Bangkok, working remotely (I'm in software). Dropped by Dr Path's office for a follow up and they took some photos. Scar They measured the scar and it was 4mm - which I believe is actually not great and on the larger size. I don't know what is normal here but that seems a bit large. Hasson & Wong and Feller & Bloxham cite their benchmark at a 1mm scar but I have seen that even they have some wider outcomes (saw 15mm by F&B on here). I think younger people are more likely to have wider scars due to having more flexible scalps. I'm a bit disappointed not to have a scar that would give me more flexibility to wear my hair shorter but in the end, I look so much better after the surgery - even if the scar is wider than I'd hoped. If it's super noticeable I might consider SMP or maybe a follow up surgery to fill in my crown a bit and fix up the scar. Results Other than a larger than desirable scar, the results are incredible so far. I still have 5 months until I hit the 12 month mark. I don't know for sure, but I assume things slow down in terms of gains from here - so I shouldn't expect much more. Here you can see a before/after And the full gallery

Hey all, will provide an update shortly Before committing to travelling abroad for the hair transplant I spent a lot of time researching local clinics. I had consultations with Gro, Clown Crown Clinic, Knudsen and Dr Chan. Crown Clinic was a complete joke, don't even bother. The nurses perform the surgical extractions. This is legal in Australia, that beauticians with a 2 year diploma can conduct surgical procedures. Knudsen has alright results on his website, not the best quality photos and ultimately didn't give me enough information to feel confident in the results. He quoted me 1500 grafts which might have been alright, Dr Path thought 2500 grafts would be better for the area covered (he uses a standard measurement based on area). Knudsen has a reputation for being more conservative with grafts. I can't comment on if I would have been just as happy with the results from Knudsen, his service also would have cost more. Dr Chan has some decent results on his website but there aren't a lot of his cases out there and some bad reviews on RealMe. He also only offers FUE. Gro put in more effort but they were not experts and yet were charging expert rates. They have a fairly active Instagram presence which I appreciate but when I consulted with them I wasn't able to speak to the surgeon (unlike other, more professional, clinics). Instead I spoke to a salesperson/representative who told me they performed all kinds of cosmetic procedures, including hair transplants. They fixated on the "DHI method" sales pitch, which is completely irrelevant as the graft insertion technique is only one part of the surgery also quoting me in "hairs transplanted" rather than grafts - which is a red flag. Further, surgical teams who can use tweezers to insert grafts are higher skilled and DHI pens tend to be a crutch for surgical teams with less experience. The idea is that it's a DHI pen has a cartridge that holds a graft. The pen is used to both create the insertion site and also deposit the graft. For contrast, Dr Path's process involved two passes. First pass he went over my head creating graft insertion sites (holes) with a pen. Second pass the technicians filled the holes with grafts via tweezers. Directionality is guaranteed in the first pass. Summary Overall I just felt there wasn't the visibly demonstrable skills within Australia to give me the confidence to commit to a life changing surgery. At the end of the day nobody has your back on this procedure. There are no warranties, there are no government regulations to protect you, the responsibility is on you to ensure that you are informed well enough to not come away looking terrible. I felt there just wasn't enough info, cases, videos, reports, reviews on Australian practices. I got to a point where I convinced myself there was enough info and gave into booking with Knudsen (later cancelling the procedure). Knudsen refunded the booking despite not having any legal obligation to do so - which I respected immensely. Just a quick search in other regions, USA, Europe, Asia and the top clinics have hundreds of cases with videos, photos, etc. Australian surgeons just don't post anywhere near the content we see overseas clinics post and it's a damn shame.

Side profile looks fantastic! Looking forward to seeing your results over the coming months

I had my surgery with Dr Path in Thailand, he gave me a note to take back to Australia with me which described how to remove the stitches. I got my GP to remove the stitches and it all worked out. It was free for me, but bare in mind that Australia has free healthcare

5 Months I cannot believe how much better I look and feel with a decent hairline. Before getting the hair transplant, I would use hairspray to cement a forward comb-over - I even had a fear of wind 😅Whenever I would look in the mirror, the first place my eyes would fixate on is my temples. It's hard to put into words the feeling I get when I look in the mirror now. I go to gym and I am shocked every time I see myself. It feels like a decent hairline synergises so well with my efforts to improve aesthetics anywhere else. Can you believe that I was 27 on the left and 30 on the right? So here's my progress at 5 months, haven't had a haircut in a month Gallery Link And a side profile comparison from the week before the surgery against today

I'm really glad that before I went for the surgery I spent a year messing around with hair systems. Originally I didn't even know that temporal peaks were a thing. Obviously I could see them in other people but I never mentally registered them as a target for restoration. After trying lots of different hair systems and failing to understand why they never looked right, I eventually realised it was because my temporal peaks had receded and it wasn't possible to glue hair to the sides of my head. I actually made mock ups of my temporal peaks using cut-offs from hair systems to see what it would look like and that confirmed it for me - either I go bald or I get surgery. When speaking with Dr Path I emphasised asking for temporal point restoration. Yes, he offered me both and even combined. He said that sometimes with FUT alone, though you get high graft count yield, you might not get the individual grafts you need (like a hairline needs single grafts) so a combined extraction might be worthwhile to maximise the cosmetic outcome as the surgeon can pick graft follicle counts. I told him to do whatever he needed to do for the best outcome. 4.5 months Easter Update Got a few close ups under some directly overhead (piercing) lighting. It's pretty crazy how well it's blending in. The temporal peaks are a bit darker than my native hairs and I suspect the density of the peaks is actually higher than my native hair density. The scar is still red and you can see the colour with this length of hair, if you shine a flashlight on it. It's not visible in normal lighting conditions. Gallery Link

Haha nah nah, thank you for following along and sharing in my excitement 🙏

Month 4 Exactly 121 days since surgery I got an ambitiously short haircut today to see how short I can go before the scar is visible and I certainly found that point. I don't really mind it showing, it'll be hidden in a week or two as my hair grows out. I think with a slightly lower fade it wouldn't be visible at all. I discovered that my hair looks most natural when it's longer so I lost a few points of hair-confidence there but overall I am extremely pleased with the growth. A little bit bummed because it's been looking great longer and I wanted to share that but I'll do that in the next update. Apparently from month 4 things start ramping up. I cannot wait for my peaks to start filling out! Side profile. Temporal points are really starting to blend in. I'm really impressed by their density and naturalness Gallery of peaks Gallery of scar

Thanks everyone. Update coming in the next few days - I cannot believe how it looks. I have never felt so good about my hair in my entire life 🤣

Hey @cfmhc my thread was referenced above. Early on in my search for a surgeon I was really not keen to leave Australia, or even my state. I figured Australia is a developed country and there are skilled doctors here. I even pulled the trigger an booked with Knudsen before cancelling my booking - he was nice enough to refund my deposit though he was not obligated to. I have gone to every clinic in Sydney and dug up literally every bit of information on the internet about Dr Knudsen and Dr Vikram. Their published results range from average to really poor. The justification for the lack of published cases is that they say it's unethical to publish their results on the internet. Whether you'd have a good or bad experience with them is unclear - but it's not worth the risk. Dr Vikram is a better communicator and he has a couple of posts on this forum that don't look terrible - but it's not worth the risk. I ended up going against what I wanted to do and flew to Thailand for my surgery. I just booked it and did it. 8 hour flight, stayed a few days, went home (wish I'd stayed longer though). Yes it was a hassle but in the end you can't fake quality. It's frustrating but no amount of money you spend in Australia or New Zealand will guarantee you the result that you will get with surgeons who publish their work, have been in practice for over a decade and handle multiple clients a day. With Knudsen and co, there is no high quality imagery of their work and their communication is poor. Honestly, you might be fine but without being able to see what to expect, you're rolling the dice. Good resource: https://youtu.be/n9XjdqVg5bA?t=291 When I did my consultation with Knudsen, he rushed through showing me his previous cases - almost rolling his eyes and complaining that I didn't take him at his word.

Hey all, 3 Months and 1.5 Weeks (time moves so slowly) Finally got a haircut almost 2 weeks after I planned to get one, haha but here is a few photos straight after the barber. Gallery Link Side profile look so much better, what the heck

Vibe check - how's this coming along. Anyone on the pulse got something interesting to share?

Hey all Month 3! I've been inside most of this month because of the enormous amount of rain pouring down on Sydney for what feels like the entire month. Excuse the lighting on the photos, I blame the clouds. I hear things start to pick up after 4 months, so I have a month until I get to that milestone but as things are; I am feeling really great about the results. Before my transplant I actually wore two small partial hair piece cut outs on my temples and they were about as dense as the transplanted hair is now, excluding the temporal points. They looked pretty good by themselves but the temporal points always let me down. Before/after side profile It's growing much faster than I expected, honestly. I do feel the hairline on the temporal points are a bit too pronounced but I think that's near impossible to avoid given the nature of the area and the fact that I mostly yielded double grafts from my donor area. Hopefully things will blend in a bit better in a years time. Once again, I am late on a haircut so I'll post another update after that but for now here are some photos of the progress so far Gallery Link I have found oral minoxidil has improved my hair quality and the biggest side effect is relentless hair growth everywhere. I have hair growing on the backs of my fingers, coming out my ears, even my eyebrows are filling out, haha. Hope everyone is well. Flights to Thailand are resuming now if anyone was considering

Thanks @ANDYMAL, in my pre-op consultation Dr Path asked me a bunch of questions including if I wanted FUE, FUT or combination and if I was okay with them shaving hair if they required it. I told him that my only objective was achieving the best cosmetic outcome possible, didn't mind FUT/FUE/combo, and didn't care how I looked for the first few months immediately post op so shave away and pick whatever technique was most appropriate. Though most people are happy with a single pass, I expect to have at least another 1 surgery in a year or two to really complete the look which might have factored into his decision making process (though he shrugged it off and said it's unlikely I'll be unhappy). In the end they went with just FUT, no FUE and minimal shaving (they shaved a little of my hairline so they could thicken up the hairline perimeter) but it wasn't noticeable. I think they offer stealthy no shave operations but you'd have to ask him directly

Yeah no regrets at all with FUT. It's a little red but that's been gradually reducing. No creams or management at all, it's been entirely hands off for the most part since the surgery. Early on I was diligent about washing the stitches in the shower. It was a little uncomfortable but I figured it's good to keep it clean. I don't know if lifestyle and age play a factor. I'm 29, gym a few times a week - weight training and high intensity road cycling (starting from week 4)

2 Months After Surgery (exactly) I'm a bit late to the party with this but happy new year everyone, merry Christmas and also happy lunar new year! I actually caught covid on Christmas eve which is about 3 weeks post my surgery - so for those with questions on if covid has any effect on a HT we'll soon find out 🤣 I had 2 AstraZeneca doses at that point. So far so good! Lots of the hairs have fallen out but a few held in there and continued to grow - mostly in my temporal points which actually means I have a pretty immediate change in appearance. Before photo on the left and after (2 months) photo on the right There are a few pimples rolling around in my temples. I try to ignore them but there have been a few occasions where I couldn't resist popping them. I have been using hydrocortisone cream to keep the pimples to a minimum and it's not really a big deal thus far. I hear month 4 is when things really take off so looking forward to that. I got a haircut today, first haircut since the surgery. No reason for waiting 2ish months to do it, I am just lazy. I took some before photos and some after photos. Before Hair Cut Gallery Link After Hair Cut I was curious how short I could cut my hair before the scar was noticeable so I asked my barber to push the limits a bit but I don't think he was too keen, haha. I got a mid-fade where the bottom is a 1 and everything else is done with scissors Gallery Link Overall really happy, can't wait to see how things progress! My 30th birthday is in April so I am hoping to kick off my 30s with more hair than I had in my 20s 😆

Love this post Gatsby - beautifully detailed and it looks like you had so much fun with the team! Subbed, can't wait to see how this works out!

Thanks for this, will watch it. I believe you can buy Clascoterone cream now to DIY Breezula though I think it's questionable in potency when compared to other anti-androgens (Topilutamide, etc). Topical finasteride (and dutasteride when combined with microneedling) have been shown to be effective in studies - but they aren't technically anti-androgens and instead block 5AR reduction at the follicle (without significant systemic absorption) which is great for minimising systemic effects in those not interested in taking it orally. For those who tolerate 5AR inhibitors well and are looking to stack a topical anti-androgen alongside their daily finasteride or dutasteride, either temporarily (PED users) or long term (people who want fin/dut to work for a longer time), such application is likely redundant and offers no additional benefits.

When looking at topical anti-androgens to either stack alongside a 5AR inhibitor or run by themselves, the "mide" family seems to be very interesting. Wondering what people's thoughts are on these compounds, experiences and so on. RU-58841 Abandoned Structurally related to the below compounds Pyrilutamide Unreleased Currently in Phase 3 trials for AGA Flutamide Eulexin Used for female hair loss Off-label topical for AGA Topilutamide Fluridil Eucapil Used for female hair loss Off-label topical for AGA Clascoterone Winlevi Breezula With Flutamide being the cheapest and most easily attainable (I could be wrong), has anyone tried home-brewed formulations of it as a topical? What have been the effects/side effects for you?

Haha well it's not cut and dry. I assumed that with our advances in science and capacity to create compounds with highly selective receptor targeting, we could have PEDs that target muscles receptors preferentially and avoid binding to follicle receptors (as we see with Turinabol). It's a shame that the legality of PEDs interferes with research to improve their safety, purity and side effect profiles. Imagine where we could have taken something like tbol, considering it's the only PED designed exclusively for performance enhancement and that was in the 70s. EDIT: Looks like adding a topical anti-androgen could offer some follicle protective effects assuming it out-competes your PED stack for follicle receptors. Given a cycle is relatively short lived (12 weeks), it might be worthwhile stacking RU-58841 with it to out compete the addition of extra test. Given it's a research chemical offered by shady labs, I wouldn't be keen on longer term usage - but then again the same could be said for the contents of an entire PED cycle.

I checked out the videos MPMD had on the subject and he doesn't really cover how to minimise the loss particularly when already using a 5AR inhibitor (like Dutasteride). It's apparent that no steroid use is safe for your body or your hair but to limit the damage to your hair, my assumption is running a low dose cycle of Test-E per week + a low dose of a mildly androgenic compound like turinabol would be a good approach. Something like: .5mg Dutasteride started at least 5 weeks prior and used daily. Week 1 | 250mg Test E Week 2 | 250mg Test E Week 3 | 250mg Test E Week 4 | 250mg Test E Week 6 | 250mg Test E, 25mg Turinabol Week 7 | 250mg Test E, 25mg Turinabol Week 8 | 250mg Test E, 25mg Turinabol Week 9 | 250mg Test E, 25mg Turinabol Week 10 | 250mg Test E, 25mg Turinabol Week 11 | 250mg Test E, 25mg Turinabol Week 12 | 250mg Test E, 25mg Turinabol Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | 20mg Nolva Week 16 | 20mg Nolva Week 17 | 20mg Nolva Week 18 | 20mg Nolva A topical anti androgen like RU55841 might be something worth considering during the cycle, given its relatively short exposure duration. Perhaps in the future Pyrilutamide, which is a topical anti androgen that is related to RU55841 and is in Phase 3 trials, might be a great way to mitigate the damage from steroid abuse.

For those of us actively treating genetic AGA/male hair loss with Finasteride or Dutasteride and are interested in improving our physiques with the addition of PEDs - are there any PED protocols that are relatively hair safe? Not talking about becoming a mass monster, but more of a low end men's-physique level, Kumail Nanjiani type deal. What can we reasonably take? People have referenced Nandrolone, but it appears not to be a safe compound to run when in conjunction with a 5AR inhibitor. One suggested approach is just running a low dose T cycle and ramping up slowly, adjusting the dutasteride dose or adding in finasteride, then making adjustments based on your observations. e.g. Starting at something like 200mg Test-Propionate and increasing slowly over the the course of a few weeks to see what's tolerable. Keeping in mind a cycle is usually relatively short (6 - 12 weeks) Anyone have experience here running anything without yeeting their follicles into the stratosphere?