j1mmy

Everyone understands your frustration, but it is too early to jump to conclusions, and to defame your Dr. in the title is a not the most tactful thing. He is the one that is offering to follow you up at his expense, should the growth be poor in a few months. What is your hair loss and medication history before/after the surgery? Would be nice with a balanced write-up so we can follow your progress and support you.

I'm going to have to agree with what others have said, the truth can be a bitter pill to swallow. Other than the slight pluginess, which you don't seem to mind about, a person would have extremely unrealistic expectations to expect a greater density than you achieved in a one-pass. This appears to be a high yield result, with your hair characteristics mostly any man would appreciate that it is a very full head of hair. Quite honestly you had false expectations, and you clearly still do. Can more density be added in a second pass? Sure. Would 99,9% of people be satisfied with the result you have? Most probably. So have a think about that, when you are talking about how women see you and how you see yourself. Women are attracted to confidence, not to simply 100% dense hairlines. You can throw as many grafts as you want at it, but you would be well served to take a look at how you are seeing this, and throwing your self-image under the bus for no valid reason. Toughen up kid. They probably offered you the work for free because you seem greatly unsatisfied, which is good on their behalf, but I would personally not label it "repair" work. This is a touch-up.

Just follow your Dr's post-operative instructions. Top doc like Konior won't have bad instructions Body bath every day, showers have adjustable head heights, no need to be a caveman buddy Dr. K should have you covered, you picked him for a reason, so trust his instructions. Typical is washing the donor every day, avoiding the recipient, and after e.g. 4-7 days you are allowed to wash the recipient twice a day as Melvin demonstrates. You are ENCOURAGED at that point to gently massage the shampoo on the recipient area with the weight of your palm. The alternative is not having the scabs removed at a positive point of 10-15 days, and you don't want that.

Congratulations again, I'm sure it's going to be great. And decent hair/graft average helps :)! I imagine they split grafts to get enough single hairs at Eugenix?

Hehe cool, hands on action! Look forward to seeing the breakdown I agree, with two flights cancelled, 15 hour journey, "border" check three times, two corona tests (one was very expensive). This added to the anxiety because you don't know if you will make it to the surgery, or if you will test positive on something. It is enough to worry about the "surgery plan" and that you and the Doctor agree on your expectations. So now I am relieved and feeling good. Just have to make it home on Sunday It was Dr. Bruno Ferreira in portugal, just didn't want to mention in case I never made it there!

Greta, congrats! How did it go? Mine was Tuesday and Wednesday (in europe ) and went very well, I am excited and I will also wait for photos to share the journey!

Hey! How are you doing @HCH ?

I understand you are worrying about it, that is contributing. So try to relax about it, understand that stress is compounding any effects you may be feeling. The logical thing to do is to take 0,25mg every other day, instead of every day. If you feel the same after say, a month, take 0,25mg every 3 days. This way you may alleviate the negative things you are experiencing, or it may lead to slowly weaning off it. This is two birds with one stone. For the record people call it "sperm volume" inaccurately, this is not reduced. Seminal volume may be reduced, no evidence sperm is reduced. I have taken the drug for 10 years. For a few weeks or months I experienced lower libido, and occasional testicular pain. No ED issues personally. These were temporary and I live a normal life now

With good photos a Doctor can get a pretty decent "picture" of how your donor is. I had an in person consultation years ago, and the Dr said my donor was ok, probably average - maybe thinner parietal and temporal area (because you could see scalp on a grade 2/ 6mm haircut) around 60g/cm^2, but my occipital looked definitely better around 100cm^2. Hair caliber was average, there are enough 2's and 3's hair grafts. I went away from it thinking I was probably average, or slightly below average. In bad photos photos with another Dr this year, he said "your parietal and temporal areas look like they could be thinner, but occipital looks better, so hopefully this is confirmed in person". Met him in person before surgery, and he confirmed the original consultation, with solid average caliber (55microns), and hairs/graft were more like 2.5 - 2.9, and then I felt confident that I was at least an average candidate, definitely not under average. Peace of mind

Fine blonde hair isn't an "issue", and those with finer hair most likely have higher hairs/graft which makes up for the caliber somewhat. If your hair caliber is under average, it is true you need more grafts in the same area to achieve coverage. That said, fine blonde hair is the best fine hair to have - least contrast between hair and scalp. Contact some Doctors you like the results of that have had some patients with similar characteristics, they do exist.

It is in your best interest is why a period of 6-12 months is often recommended by ethical doctors, you have to stabilise your hair loss to know for yourself whether you are a good candidate. Finasteride results can be finalised after 12-18 months. You don't know if it is a medication that agrees with you enough to take it for life. Minoxidil *starts* to show results after 3-4 months, and 12 months is a different story. There is a consistency question with that, can you do that for many years? You have to realise hair is slow, it happens in cycles, nothing is going to happen for potentially months, or the first few months at least. The point is to allow your donor and recipient as good as they can be, and stabilise your loss, so less hair has to be moved in your lifetime. It is a finite resource. If you have limited donor, and limited recipient, no number of transplants is going to give you the result you may be looking for. Other doctors are ok for patients to start medication on day 1. Other doctors are ok with no medication, if your hair loss is stabilised. If you are interested in the doctor you have contacted, then you should be aligned with his ethics. Tell us a bit about yourself, your hair loss situation, and where you are at now.

Will be great! Tuesday and Wednesday for me, if travel plans work out! So I will follow you closely hehe

What date are you "going under the knife"? Those factors are true! Given being roughly average in all those "factors" myself, I am aiming close to 55g/cm towards the hairline, and 45ish mid-scalp (total including native), which as I will explain are based on allowing for a safety margin. That said, the numbers mean very little, they all equate to coverage - an illusive intangible thing that can only be understood in the experience in our Dr's. I do believe we have an influence, by suggesting our expectations so they try to meet them. Expectations may be the biggest factor in how satisfied someone is. Some people given average everything, are never satisfied with 60g/cm, when their native was 80g/cm. Others have been bald so long than 40g/cm is life changing. From the cases I've seen, my "impression" is that for the hairline good results often start at around 45g/cm in the hairline, and results improve up to 55, 60 if people have further procedures and touch ups to increase density. Of course the Dr. can only judge a range before they start, and see after what resulted.

Almost too late now, but I know Ron Shapiro recommends that if the scabs are not off after a week, you can lie in a warm bath for 45 minutes, and the scabs will fall off themselves.

@HCH I saw this and thought of you

Nobody is saying that they know such a thing "doesn't" exist. Rather, it is no different than the various birth control pills. A minority of women suffer side effects, and some experience no doubt long-lasting side effects. Drugs are approved based on clinical trials, and their safety profiles. Dutasteride is in fact the most prescribed hair loss drug in Asia, over finasteride. Dutasteride doesn't show more side effects, despite blocking 90% of DHT rather than 70%, and takes 4-6 months to be eliminated based on its half-life. Where are the millions of complaints there? Let me ask you this, have you thought about how many people you are essentially giving side effects, potentially permanently, by spreading scare media? You are going about it in the wrong way, and you are harming people, Mark.

Perfect, well done . Take comfort in the fact that you have found the only two FDA-approved medications for the treatment of hair loss. No onion juice here Mature to start cautiously, I respect that. If I could start my journey all over again, over 10 years back, I would personally start by taking fin twice initially, but minoxidil daily (before bed means you don't have to have it on during the day). So if I was getting them combined, twice a week initially seems slow but steady. I have no experience taking them combined, so perhaps others have experience there. I am sure you have read around this a lot, but remember that when you start taking these effective treatments, it is possible to see your hair loss become slightly worse for 1-2 months before the improvement starts. The hairs in the resting phase, that have been miniaturizing (thinning and shrinking) and contributing to your impression of losing hair, will be forced to shed, in order to come back stronger. Everyone goes through it, it is perfectly normal . Please check in and let us know how you get on!

I wouldn't even call it NW2, your are your own worst self critic. You have caught it incredibly early, with finasteride you will very likely keep at least what you have for many many years to come. You have a 96% chance of no side effects, and 98% with placebo. Don't waste your time on products that don't work. Minoxidil/laser cap/needling will work to a lesser extent, but require a lot of maintenance and bypass the route cause. Good luck!

I'm sure this guy is a little special, but humour me, I was curious. I looked at his posting history, his first threads on the same day in 2010 were about taking saw palmetto, taking finasteride, taking some other non-FDA item, and then a couple of weeks later asking whether his swollen lips were caused by finasteride. Inferring the issue but don't get me started. He returned 5 years later, to just make regular threads quoting scare media about propecia, not seemingly interacting with posters. This is why people don't take you seriously @Mark2010, If you want to be taken seriously, you should interact with people and share your feelings, if you want to help people. Right now you just seem like the crazy drunk guy people avoid.

Well that's good, just wanted to make sure, but it sounds like you know what you want and that is where you want to be. I reflect on things I write, as a "non-expert", and have to stress that I respect the Dr's opinion when they look at your personal case, especially one as high level as Dr. Arika. Her and her husband seem to be great at what they do, and they are very well-informed, so you are in some of the best hands. Will follow how you get on :)! Best of luck!!

Somewhere else, but I will create a thread about my journey the days afterwards As a European myself, it is challenging enough to travel to another country in Europe - my flight has been cancelled twice already, so I will be disappointed if it will not work out. Is your concern of permanent shock loss information you got during your consultation? I have a little more density than you I would guess, and the plan is for around 3500 grafts into the frontal 70%, with a focus on dense packing hairline. This all depends on my consultation on the day in person, and my donor capacity. To my knowledge, I have only seen cases of "temporary" shock loss on patients without finasteride, and not sure how many permanent shock loss cases I have seen except around an FUT scar. And believe me, I must have looked at a thousand cases here and other forums. The shock loss as I understand is that the damage to the surrounding area scares the weaker/miniaturized hairs into fully miniaturizing, as they were arguably on their way out anyway, like a dying flower. Permanent shock loss in my head would have to be caused by direct transection, or a blood supply issue. Transection is minimised by experienced and good doctors, as they can see with their microscope if they are transecting during extractions/implantation. They may even intentionally place terminal hairs over very miniaturized hairs - an art I can only imagine. Blood supply seems to be less substantiated. It has been demonstrated that you can transplant very high densities in dense packing (70-80g/cm) with nearly 100% survival. Whilst impressive and possible, it however carries a risk of necrosis, so the risk is not worth it. Many however choose to dense pack up to 50-60g safely, and on a second procedure "touch-up" 10% for more density if needed. I think it is also not substantiated if you can dense pack a large area, without compromising blood supply. I have heard Eugenix mention they are comfortable placing grafts if the space is "2mm or more" between hairs, i.e. 25g/cm native density, which could be around where you are. The point is that they WILL be able to feather in grafts into the mid scalp if you wanted to, I have seen many cases of theirs where they have. I have seen hundreds of cases by Dr. Lorenzo on youtube, where he fully restores NW7's back from the grave with 10000 grafts over multiple procedures. It is all based on transplanting between hairs, and between native hairs. You would be surprised what is possible. I think Eugenix often surprises people when they meet them in person, they seem to like to "surprise" you what with is possible. If you want density further back than just the hair line, it is something you should go into the consultation exploring, I would say!

The best is obviously to know a clinic, and have witnessed patients. It won't be for everybody, but pretty clever for some. Pretty smart for the guy in the picture, because he has a natural hairline and diffuse, but obviously it will only work if he buzzed his head, or SMP + toppik perhaps?

Maybe i'll make a separate page for this, rather than just a subsection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin#Adverse_effects

And by the way, it may seem like a small difference you achieved so far with your medications, but that area of crown you filled in must be around 1000 grafts. That is exactly the beauty of what a long-term strategy can offer people, and most likely more of that if you can find a viable fin/dust option.