j1mmy

This was day 8 for me!

Yes but I was a little too eager as I said. They look like solid scabs, and might not be ready yet, so remember there is no rush really, you just don't want them to be there after two weeks. I was just aware of how secure the grafts really were after 7-8 days, it honestly feels like nothing except a knocked scab would dislodge them. I even had my arms tied to my legs when I slept for the first 6 or 7 days so I didn't scratch in the night, but not since then. The literature says 9 days you can't even pull them out, but 10+ days if you want to be sure. It is nicer wearing a cap for a walk to the shops without the scabs now at day 9, because the cap is not having the same friction it did putting it on/off than when my head was looking like yours So letting gentle water run over my head for 10 minutes was no problem, and softly rubbing with my fingers was doing a lot more to dissolve the scabs than shampooing seemed to ever be able to do.

I also tried conditioner on day 7, and it was stuck to my head for 20 minutes of washing. That however showed me that water was the best softener, so I used that to remove 80%, and then next day water again for several minutes to get the last. I assume it was too early for conditioner My head is less red than when I said, so looks good now. I think what I did was fine

Yes. Seeing some degree of stabilisation in hair loss is in your own best interest, even if you are not appreciating that. Potential improvement from medication will also make the procedure more successful. By the way, good doctors have long waiting lists (months-years), so this is not something you can or should rush into.

Looking good, it is starting now! Clear difference!

Yeah I was reflecting on it, and I think a poll here is unfortunately subject to a bias that can never be accurately reflective. It is the reason studies themself have to be blinded, and double blinded. That is to say, if you inform people that something has/had a percentage of side effects, especially something sensationalised as much as this, and THEN ask them how many people experienced side effects, it will come out skewed. I wish it was as easy as that, it but we as humans are not very logical That said, I think @Melvin-Moderator is right to speculate that the sexual side effects may be understated. Not because the original studies don't ask men about these specific things, but because men are not always honest or aware about what they are experiencing. I would perhaps answer "yes" to experiencing side effects. Not because it is a big deal. I have heard of numerous people agree that they noticed transient testicular pain upon starting treatment. I have noticed it when I have re-started, when I have increased dose, when I have lost ground on a generic and switched back to named brand. I thought I noticed a reduction in libido many years ago when I first started, and that was an accepted trade-off for me. Years later, it is not something I "notice". I don't think ejaculate volume change is a deal breaker, and *maybe* something I noticed 10 years ago, but not now. Fortunately I have never experienced ED issues, otherwise I understand for a lot of men that is a deal breaker. I understand breast tenderness (beginning gyno) would definitely be a deal breaker. I don't really understand brain fog reports, that must be the most "human" side effect from taking anything. I still have never heard of a real person, who can communicate with people in a normal way, that they have experienced permanent side effects. However if it were me, i'm sure it is nothing consulting an endocrinologist couldn't help. Many men and women, for many reasons, have hormones in the gutter.

Yeah that is very informative, thanks I hadn't seen that before! So 0.025-0.1(%) fin is really the only viable fin option for those hoping to alleviate sides from oral, and less efficacious than oral. Those poor suckers that are prescribed 0.25%. Seems a bit unfair that all these countries around the world have casual customs, and in Norway I am up there with the likes of Australia.

I think Dr. Wesley's contradicts himself in the source below, writing that his formulation uses less than 0.25%, and that 0.25% lowers serum DHT 19%. So you must be right, not sure what dose he uses though. https://www.drcarloswesley.com/medical-therapy-for-hair-loss/ *edit* I see you experienced side effects at 0.3% and 0.03% finasteride in your first page, so that is interesting.

https://fellermedical.com/hair-transplant-growth-timeline/#:~:text=Hair transplant “growth” and the,and naturalization of these hairs.

That's why I am curious, Dr. Wesley's graph does not illustrate that, though I don't know how many doses it was. This would also not be dissimilar for topical dutasteride. Given their very well documented half-lives, I would very much expect topical dutasteride to accumulate serum DHT, if topical finasteride does. Only with @mustang as the guinea pig do we know the answers.

Perfect Good to know you have it under control! Lots to look forward to in 6-12 months

10-14 days is fine for the scabs to come off. I was a little eager, and braver by the day by day 7, so I rubbed mine under a 10 minute luke-warm and gentle shower to eventually rub them off. They did not want to fall off you can say. My scalp is fairly pink, so it might have been premature is all I can reflect to you Are you taking any medication to prevent further loss?

Like someone said, try to get it as pure as possible, alcohol is not good. My post-op has me using it for 14 days, and I plan to continue for hopefully improved redness in the recipient. Yeah for me there is "burning" in the occipital area, which is heavily innervated with nerves that have been injured. I hope it is better by 14 days, but if that is something you experience, ibuprofen may be worth trying too, rather than paracetamol.

I am interested of course, if the science holds up to be true. However, living in Norway, which does not allow importation of "prescription medicines", good luck this becoming universally accessible. According to Dr. Wesley, low once/day multiple-dose 0.25% topical fin also only caused a 19% reduction in serum DHT, with 70% scalp DHT reduction. So how does this align with your @mustang and others experiences reporting the same side-effects with topical fin? Were you using the same dose, and still experienced sides?

Do it! All useful information in your arsenal of how best to move forward should you want a second pass

Hair caliber accounts for coverage. It is the reason hair transplants are an "illusion of density". Moving hairs from the donor area and placing them in the recipient area requires a lot less hairs to be moved than you would otherwise expect simply looking at the recipient area. Hairs in the recipient area during hair loss are often naturally lower caliber, minituarised, and have lost pigment due to this. "Hair Caliber: Mathematically speaking, hairs with larger shaft diameter provide exponentially more surface area coverage; therefore, patients with thicker-caliber hair can expect to obtain much denser coverage (better aesthetic results) versus patients with thin-caliber hair (when controlled for the number of follicular units transplanted)." An average hair caliber for caucasians might be .55 microns. If one patient has .45 microns, and another .65 microns, that is a huge difference in how many grafts they would require to achieve coverage. It will almost certainly be one factor your Dr. took into account. But it can add to explaining why you saw results that were "full" with the same number of grafts. This in addition to hair curl vs straight, hair colour vs scalp colour, hairs/graft count. Do you know the breakdown of your 2000 grafts?

Interesting topic, and one I will have to address myself soon. It is obviously a tragic story, though n=1. 1 in 25 babies are born with undescended testicles, so it is a very common defect, if that is what he is describing. Ironically, according to his own research, he avoided finasteride 3 months prior, and during the development of the foetus up until 13 weeks. His conclusion would presumably be to not use finasteride at all, or resume finasteride after conception but use a condom. I do think we would have heard about this more often if it was a thing, though it certainly induces doubts in my mind.

Do you remember your hair caliber in microns? I see what you are talking about. Looks like they might mature a little more, and that will help. Though it is contrasted with the higher density with your native forelock. I think in some cases 2000 grafts could have done the job, though I think to be a homerun here, I would certainly discuss a touch-up with your doctor for a second pass. Depending on what was the original plan of the surgery, and if you handle it well that you are not fully satisfied, he may be willing to offer this to you. I would definitely strongly consider all medication options if I were you. *edit* and I haven't experienced this personally, but my understanding from seeing other patients is that the "maturing" that happens after 12 months, and closer to 18 months, is often a "softening" of hairs, i.e. that they appear less thick. But for now they seemed thicker from your previous photos, so potentially some improvement to go.

Of course refer to your clinic to ask them. But, I have aloe vera twice daily in my post-op for anti-inflammatory/redness/soothing benefits. I have felt dry because of twice daily shampoo, some coconut oil which I already had has been recommended before. The wounds may be superficially healed, but you want to keep it "simple" what you are using as moisturiser, so I wouldn't go for a daily moisturiser at this point, you never know when you will get an ingrown hair or irritated skin. You might also be feeling "itching" in relation to nerve supply coming back on board, and that gives an irritated feeling. I have had trouble sleeping the past week.

Shouldn't be contra-indicated physiologically, just that you are not a good candidate for things based on your fragile thought processes. Anti-depressants have significant documented side-effects, including sexual side effects, hair loss. Just to put it in perspective that you are blowing this out of proportion. My side-effect from fin was feeling my testicles a few times. For all I know, that was from the upregulated testosterone that occurs on fin.

1. Just your ability to use it consistently, like once per day. Don't worry 2. Not sure. https://www.amazon.com/Nizoral-Anti-Dandruff-Shampoo-Ketoconazole-Dandruff/dp/B00AINMFAC You can get 2% without prescription outside the US, but with 1% it is not too drying that you can probably use it every other day, unlike 2% 3. Nothing to worry about, use clean needles. Worst I would worry about is a spot or skin irritation. Starting slow is a safe idea. 4. Go back to the previous dose, so you ween yourself up or down. 5. Based on how stressed you are, there is no need to even start with every other day. I would buy a pill cutter from the pharmacy, they all have them, and cut the 1mg propecia into 4 pieces (brand name Propecia from Merck if you can, not a generic finasteride). Take this 0,25mg once OR twice per week for several weeks. I like to take it before bed so you can take it and forget about all this crap I am exposing my psyche to, but timing doesn't matter. Takes two weeks for the drug to be out of your system, so it makes sense to just start slow and steady. If one small pill drops your DHT perhaps 50-60%, then slowly DHT goes up again over two weeks, that was good enough to monitor in my opinion rather than 1mg every day dropping it 70%. 6. Get blood work if you want

I'm glad you took some time to reflect on it. It is a logical fallacy to cherry pick the negative experiences that prove you will therefore have a negative experience. Why don't you cherry pick the 96% of people that had a positive experience in the same manner? You can then see you are setting yourself up to fail, faulty thinking my friend. I understand that you realise this, and that is why you wonder if there is any point for you at this stage you are at now. You know, plenty of the long-term finasteride users don't want to waste their time with minoxidil and/or dermapen, because it is hassle and can't beat hormones and genetics decades from now. That said, I really do think a majority of people would see significant results from using these things consistently, and there is no evidence to suggest they stop working several years later. So I am quite confident that it will work for you. If you can relax about finasteride, in micro quantities, you will be set up for life. We all have the gene for DHT to damage our hair follicles, but what we don't all have is the same DHT levels. Some of us might have very high DHT levels, and reducing this with finasteride is a fine thing like reducing blood pressure. Others may have very low levels, and reducing it gave them a symptom. Everyone is different man. The good thing about symptoms is that they are merely signals from the body. If you are smart to start slow, or stop slow, there is no reason to suggest your body will not appreciate that. But that is how I think. You are hypervigilant, and your protection mechanism is working on overdrive. You are a guy paralysed, afraid to cross the street because there is traffic posing a risk to your survival. You have to choose whether it is more important for you to get to the other side of the street, or worry aimlessly about the traffic.

Good for you 1. Minoxidil definitely once/day. Twice/day shouldn't provide extra benefit based on my pharmacological understanding of it, other than that you would be using a greater dose (2ml instead of 1ml), and conformance becomes an issue in the long run. For the top of the scalp I use a liberal amount, probably around 2ml if not more. Dermapen I own after doing all the research with the intention of using, but due to having a transplant, I cannot use it until around 12 months post. Dermapen is stimulus-adaptation dependent, like training is for the body. You train to create a "stimulus", you let the body repair which creates the "adaptation", and then you are ready to present a new stimulus again. We don't know for sure, but up to 1,5mm needles penetrate deeply enough to create a strong stimulus, create redness in the area (and therefore bloodflow), but recovery is individual and therefore people talk about once per week. If you used 0,5mm needles or a dermaroller, then you could use it potentially daily. I was going to start with 1mm a little less than once a week and assess the redness etc before going to 1,5mm once per week. Some people use smaller needles (0,5mm) as a pre-stimulus before applying minoxidil to aid absorption. I wouldn't personally use smaller needles because they aren't doing much if anything, and with larger needles where microtrauma is actually occuring, this is going to assist in making minoxidil go systemic which is not necessarily what we want. 2. I use it before going to bed since it is by far the most convenient in my opinion. Once it is dry, I towel off some from the hair to reduce how much goes on your pillow. You don't really want it on your face because I have experienced negative skin changes when I did not take precautions with this. It is a good idea not to wash it off for at least a few hours. I believe after 10 or 12 hours it is 95% absorbed. In the morning when I always have a shower, then i can wash my hair like normal and not have any greasy minoxidil on my head. Others use it to style their hair, but that's not for me. I just replied to someone about shampoo: https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/59706-how-bad-is-the-hair-density-at-my-scalp-im-only-22/?tab=comments#comment-584646 3. Sure, just start out easy with needle size and frequency. It is obviously best for scar breakdown and skin uniformity, so I would only use it on my face if there was something to gain, like improving old acne scars. My girlfriend has wanted me to try it on her stretch marks, and with 1,5mm needle she is red for days. I am very fascinated to see how well it works. On her face we tried 1mm. This wasn't "red" but she said it was warm for a day or two. It's your blood, no harm going from one place to another.

Agree, sadly none of these products have been shown to do anything. A staple for a large number of people, worth considering in my opinion, is an anti-dandruff/anti-fungal shampoo once or twice a week - ketokonazole (1% or 2%) or piroctone olamine (1%) containing shampoo. Over using it makes your scalp dry, so less is more. Other than that, any shampoo and/or conditioner you like is a green light! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18498517/ https://www.hgspecialist.com/ingredients/the-effect-of-ketoconazole-and-piroctone-olamine-on-hair-growth

You found the two things that WORK, finasteride and to a lesser extend minoxidil. You have done well to be in front of this at 22 I was still trying different shampoos 20-24, so lost time had I been as wise as you. 10 years later, I am no worse off than 24 at least