SD1984

Wow, decent donor not that I can see the full scope with it grown out.

I like your mindset in that the crown is a luxury and all you want back is a framed face. It's good you are thinking this way bc truthfully covering your entire bald area is probably out of the question. As far as the frontal third goes I think it can be pulled off in a conservative approach. 2500 grafts or so. But don't forget you will have to grow your sides and back a bit longer to hide the FUE scars.

Looks great. I can see the loss of more native hair behind the transplanted hairline but honestly it still looks fine. For 2100 grafts you have a nice foundation up there in the frontal third area.

I should have been more clear in my original post which I now edited. I absolutely tried Finasteride in the past, but I had bad sides. Brain fog to be exact. It was a huge disappointment that I have since made peace about and moved on with. There was no getting away from not trying Fin when I began seeing how much my hair loss was progressing. Yes I would be happy with that kind of mediocre density if it in fact filled out most of my frontal third. I've already accepted the fact that concealers will be a part of my life for a long long time, but the goal now is to just have some hair to work with.

Any update? I think the donor looks fine and is normal. How close the extractions are all depend on how wide your donor range is amongst other factors. You also have the thing shaved down to nearly a zero there. Has there been any update on whether or not you will be getting a free touch up or are you going to push for a refund?

I would rather not say at this moment but in time I will definitely be making my own thread going over what the entire process was like. No doubts on the doctor at all, but that said part of my anxiety is definitely me feeling that I may have booked Eugenix if I could do it all over again. This is considering just how successful they appear to be in treating more difficult cases and/or higher norwoods, etc. The clinic I chose has been very well spoken about on these forums and elsewhere.

Yes my beard is insane. Ultimately I know I'd have enough extra grafts after this first surgery, probably just from beard alone, to take care of things down the road. But I guess my anxiety is coming from knowing that I'm about to go through this entire first surgery and journey and all the emotions that will come with it, only to more than likely have to get ready for round 2 sooner than later once healed up with the result. Thank you for your response.

I didn't want to make another thread until after my surgery, but things change I guess. I'm now a few months away from my HT, and while I'm not having second thoughts necessarily, I'm definitely feeling the anxiety of my overall situation. I love all the stories and journeys on this forum, but since so many are not very comparable to me, I end up feeling quite alone in all of this and I guess I am just looking for some support. The deal is, in a nutshell, is that I am not on Finasteride or really any other medication except for minox (Rogaine) that in my opinion is possibly keeping my already very thinned out crown alive and with enough whispy hairs to take on Dermatch well. My standards are super low and ALL I really want again is a nice frontal third and ever so slightly dropped humps repaired and my face reframed what what I'm estimating will be approximately 2000 grafts. (I still have a semi decent 50% thinned out forelock already in place) The problem is simple though.... My hair loss is not stabilized(tried Fin, had rather serious brain fog), my donor is very limited (4000 grafts max according to two HT surgeons in NYC who did an in person assessment, and there are two Norwood 7's in my family. That being said, my Dad is a Norwood 6 with some super thick sides and humps and my mothers side of the family all have phenomenal hair. Whether or not the positives will help me out in the long run I don't know, but at only 37 years old, in my brutal honest opinion, things don't exactly look good. The thing that has concerned me the most with norwood 7 fears are the slight dropping of my lateral humps as you will see below. At the same time I know some wild things can be done these days with hair transplants for people who's hair loss isn't stabilized and progresses far. If it ever came to it, I'm more than willing to go with beard, chest, etc hair to help my impending doom. @Gatsby's week long story from Eugenix has really given me hope, and also made me somewhat regret not booking my HT with them. But make no mistake I am happy with where I'm going and would rather not deal with two 15 hour flights seeing as how I'm coming from NY. There is also a 2 surgery plan in place in my head. First surgery would be to reframe my face with a frontal third and dropped hump reconstruction around the forelock(very high conservative hairline too btw) and the second however many years down the road to go back and cover the forelock should it thin out too far. As far as the crown goes I am comfortable either doing SMP or even a partial hairpiece. To me it really is all about my frontal third, but if I ever do start progressing to Norwood 7, I'll be in a world of trouble, even if I can somehow fix it one day. Below are the most raw and harsh lighting pics possible, with ZERO combover effect or concealers in my hair, and with the top of my hair cut very short to show just how thin it is. One thing to take note of with regards to my outlines for the recipient area is that my scalp range is also smaller than it appears in the photos. What most people might think needs 3000 grafts to fill out a frontal third I could probably get away with 2500 if I were slick bald. Strong density is not important to me. Just general coverage. I'd appreciate some honest thoughts, advice, support, etc. Thank you.

One word.... Eugenix

And I thought getting quoted $8,000 for 1000 grafts in NYC was insane...

Looks very solid for 3 months. Hopefully the rest of the grafts sprout by month 4.

Wow it's been two months already. Your hair looks to grow back very quickly from the buzzcut. Hopefully thats a good thing for the transplanted hair as well. I have a feeling that by month 3 you will already have some nice growth.

Amazing result but correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't he be considered a Norwood 5V, not 6?

Even if the donor is ok the scalp will still likely be red and somewhat inflamed. You'd have to cover that up with some sort of makeup and I wouldn't even do that so soon after surgery to be honest.

Some people just take an extra few days for the donor to ease up. I'm sure it will be looking much better in another 2 days. The recipient does look quite red though, but maybe that's just the camera bringing out more of the color? In any event your experience sounds like it was great. You picked a great surgeon.

Was your donor hair a bit thin or fine to begin with? I too was surprised at just how "little" you had up top after 3 surgeries. Glad you had a good experience at Eugenix.

While I think DeFreitas does great hairlines, I also feel they are a little bit aggressive or unique in the sense that not every patient might be 100% happy with that particular hairline on their head. I prefer more conservative style hairlines that Ferreira and Wesley produce.

Just curious if anyone has any experience with this or can give some thoughts on it. Seems like this new compounded spray is being advertised all over by them. I'm a little nervous to give any Finasteride another try as I have a rather bad experience when trying regular oral fin, but I do think a spray with a miniscule amount of Fin in it seems pretty innocent.

I think you are way overshooting things. 3500 grafts would be plenty for the frontal third and maybe even some midscalp alone, not just "the hairline". Then you would need one more surgery for the rest of the midscalp and crown which you could probably get away with doing 2500 if not less if you don't care about density.

How did the post-op sleeping go?

Wow, he really is good. Doesn't get any denser and clean than that. Good luck in your journey.

Looks like you are right at that point where some really good growth is going to begin

Are you not happy with the result? To be honest I think it’s very good at this stage. Maybe not perfect/home run, but good. And there is still PLENTY of time left. Usually around the 8-9 month mark is when it all comes together. You were basically slick bald in front aside from a very small thin forelock remaining. If I were you I’d be pumped.

Jon Hamm has been discussed on here before. That must have been a hairpiece (behind his natural hairline) on Mad Men. Concealers can be great but there's no way they were resposible for that hair of his all the years on that show. I'm actually not even convinced the 2021 photos are with fibers. That looks like a lot of hair compared to what he's really got. Could just be a big hairpiece wearer. Look at this interview.... 6 minute mark

Update?