HappyMan2021

Dermatologists are generally useless when it comes to hair transplants. All of their money comes from preventing/treating skin cancer and non-hairloss related cosmetic treatments such as botox, acne, etc. Only go to a dermatologist for hairloss if for some reason that is your only option for getting a Finasteride prescription. And even then, don't expect the dermatologist to give you any sort of input or comprehensive evaluation into your hairloss. Essentially, a virtual or in-person assessment with an actual hair transplant doctor or trichologist is pretty much better in every way.

Nice! What made you choose Dr. Gabel in the first place? What other doctors were on your list and what made you ultimately go with Dr. Gabel?

Patients should have ZERO expectation for any growth before the 4 month mark. True, a few outlier cases will get growth before this period, and that is what most of internet and hairloss forums pay attention too, so patients have their expectations skewed and not true to reality. And yes, having native or pre-existing transplant hair in a region will absolutely make it a bit harder to tell growth from this current round.

if your trichologist definitively cannot tell you you do or do not have DUPA you should fire him/her and find a new one. That seems like a basic job requirement. A dermatologist "should" in theory also be able to definitively give you a proper DUPA diagnosis. But dermatologists in general are pretty clueless when it comes to MPB and hair transplants.

just be really cautious man. assume Mwamba gave his A+ 10/10 effort the first time around, what will be different this time and how will the result be different? I feel like HT doctors get stuck - for better or for worse - in whatever surgical methodologies they were taught themselves and have seen success from in the past. So Mwamba very well may be do the exact same thing as before and just hoping for a better result. Also is Mwamba giving you a discount for this follow-up surgery?

you certainly did not get botched, but this really should have been a layup one and done case No excuse for the really poor denity its also bizarre to me that your 1500 grafts took 2 days to complete. I feel like almost any other doctor would have done that in 1 day... I assume Dr. Mwamba goes super slow for some sort of perceived surgical benefit, but it clearly was not effective here.

as a botched repair patient I can tell you its absolutely possible to spend all your time and waking hours worrying about your hair My advice is to invest and try to focus on all non-hair related aspects of your life - whether it be work, school, dating, other hobbies I honestly don't think your hair affects your actual life. Even with dating I don't think your hair situation will have any effect While your hair concerns are legitimate, you just need to focus on other areas of your life. I know its hard, but your options are A) spend all your hours thinking about your hair and letting it advesely affect your life and mental health or B) focus on other areas of your life and realize - while your hair is definitely a work-in-progress, it honestly has zero impact on your actual life. Ex. if a girl rejects you, I can pretty much guarantee its not because of your hair By getting your 1st HT you have signed up for a multi-year journey. You are in control of how you spend these years.

its completely unpredictable. Also consider that some people respond extremely well to Fin/Dut while it may not be effective for other people. So you may have someone who has aggressive hairloss but halts hairloss in their tracks with Fin. And then you might have someone with fairly moderate hairloss who for one reason or another doesnt take Fin or its ineffective - and in the long-run the guy with the aggressive hairloss will have more hair. Ultimately i'd say age of hairloss onset and one's NW level are the best non-scientific indicators of what their hairloss will look like in the future. A NW5 in their early 20s has a pretty dire prognosis...whereas if someone makes it to age 40 and they are only a NW2, they probably never ever have to worry about being fully bald.

I can't imagine thinking about a HT for 7 YEARS before taking the plunge 🤣 Was there a specific reason you were waiting? Also, how old are you and what is your NW? You seem to have a fairly mild case of hairloss.

1st of all what country are you referring to? In Belgium there is a 25% VAT tax. Out of all the Belgian doctors, i am only.aware of Bisanga who gets it waived Other countries have taxes as well but the only country i know that is above 20% is Belgium

window seat is the obvious answer. Middle and especially aisle increase the chances of you bumping into something. All in all the dangers of traveling post HT are overblown as long as you use common sense and be cautious. Be cautious, be aware of your surroundings, make sure not to bump into the overhead compartments. If you can I would get the best seat you can (1st class, business, economy plus, etc). not only will the increased space act as extra protection, but I'm sure you will want to be as comfortable as possible while going home.

trust me, finasteride DOES NOT make you stop drinking 😂

I am a bad angle repair patient myself and am looking at repair #4 soon Bad angles is universally a multiple surgery job When bad grafts are extracted, there is alot of trauma to the skin and new, correct grafts CANNOT be added into this same location You must wait for this area to heal and then have another surgery to implant Depending how many bad angles you have, this absolutely can turn into 3 or 4 surgeries Depending if you have a generous donor and your overall gameplan, i think it makea sense to laser/kill off all the bad grafts and then you (hopefully) only need 1 surgery to implant the new grafts If you for some reason must conserve all your grafts including the badly placed ones, then sorry man you are looking at multiple surgeries

I am no expert but i do not think tonsillitis had an effect on outcome I had a HT when I was symptomatic and testing positive for covid, and there was no effect. You keep emphasizing how much research you did, while research reduces risk it does not guarantee a good result Alot of it is random unfortunately. There are a lot of uneducated ppl out there who blindly follow ht influencer advice, go to turkey and get a cheap ht, and actually get good results. There is always an element of chance/risk with hair transplants I would actually say all your emotions are completely normal. The hair transplant industry does not have a good reputation, and one of the significant factors in that is that there are NO guarantees Im also surprised ppl are noticing your hair in its current state. I wonder how it looks buzzed down. If a buzz cut or shorter style is acceptable to you at least until your next HT, maybe do that and it will alleviate a lot of your distress My advice to you is to be patient and keep doing consults with other doctors. This journey is a marathon, not a sprint. You were really young to get a HT in the first place. I think you were always destined for multiple HTs, and this is just how it plays out

As long as they look like normal pimples and aren't a symptom of an infection, then yes pimples are a great sign. Pimples indicate there is activity going on and the follicles will pop through. If I am a few months post-op, I would take a pimpled out scalp over a barren but clean scalp any day of the week.

The follicles are located under the skin. Nothing above the skin will cause any effect. That being said I definitely understand your anxiety. If you are still worried about this just dont get razor shaves anymore 🤷‍♂️

I too would be interested in an update

the US has bad healthcare in general and a lower life expectancy than many European countries. there is no reason you should inherently assume the US has the best hair transplant docs, unless there is some blind 'USA #1' attitude going on

I have read nothing saying Dr. K is referral only. Don't get me wrong, Dr. K is definitely an exclusive doctor, but only because he charges a flat rate of $35k and not a lot of people can afford that price. But he will work with anyone as long as he wants to take on your case and you can pay. I am not a Dr. K patient myself but I have emailed back and forth with him. In my experience he was extremely responsive and very in-depth with his replies. Contact his clinic via his website and you should be able to get his email address. You are potentially paying a very large sum of money for his services, and in-turn Dr. K does provide high-quality 1:1 personalized consults via email (at least in my experience)

I understand the massive massive inconvenience of staying somewhere a few weeks or even a week longer than originally planned. Most of us have busy lives, and all we want to do after a HT is go home. But I am still a bit unsure specifically why you couldn't just wait a few days or even a week to see Dr. K so he could touch up that area. It's like you are saying it is worth it to you to be stressed and obsessed about temple point for a whole year, as opposed to just dealing with a few days/week longer of hanging out near the clinic I have absolutely zero insight into how much Dr. K charges for 2nd time patients, or fine-tuning, etc. But since you paid $35k for 1542 grafts (a massive premium of $22/graft...) I would hope he gives you a discount or something. Especially if you truly are only working with 100 grafts on the temple point

i wish people would really just bugger off about Fin sides. Either you don't get sides and are able to reap the rewards (99% of guys) or you experience side effects (1% of guys) and should stop taking it. I've never seen more hysteria and vilification of an objectively safe medication. Fin really is as safe as it can get....no medication in the world will ever have 0% side effects for 100% of the population Unpopular opinion but I wager the majority of guys experiencing 'Fin sides' really have ED, depression, etc. due to other causes. It's just really easy to blame Fin. Many guys start taking Fin at a stage in life when libido and sexual performance naturally starts to decline. I know its a newsflash to many out there but libido and erectile strength naturally declines with life's aging process. The finasteride is simply a red herring!!!

Why would Hasson offer a follow up procedure free of charge in this scenario? Im not seeing any aspects of this surgery where the surgeon or techs made any technical errors nor is the transplant design weird or anything like that. If a free touch up is offered to OP, then great more power to him. But i just think a free touch up in this specific situation is akin to H&W saying "we couldnt deliver a one and done homerun 10/10 result, therefore your next surgery is free" Since the overwhelming majority of patients are not one and done cases, im not sure why Hasson would offer a free touch up unless OP had a really compelling argument or red-handed evidence that his result was negatively affected specifically due to the surgical team. I have to imagine in H&W's pre-op consent paperwork there is some language touching upon this, how most patients need multiple surgeries, how a one and done surgery is not guaranteed, etc. It would be an incredibly foolish business model for any HT clinic to guarantee a one and done result.

I don't think there will be much change from now (9 months) to the 1 year mark. Sure the grafts might thicken some, but nothing that will move the needle or improve the remaining pain points. You should be consulting with docs for your next surgery now. Waiting until the 1 yr mark is just wasting and needlessly adding an additional 3 months onto your journey.

James Harris is arguably the best hair transplant doctor in Colorado. But that is not saying much at all as there are no good HT doctors in Colorado. I am honestly not sure if he can diagnose DUPA correctly, but he is your best option in-state.... What ever you do don't have surgery with him or his gynecologist assistant Shelly Lovitt. I was botched by them.

Seems like a costly trip just for a consult. Especially since this 1st trip can also be considered a consult in a way What country do you live in? You can still have surgery with Mwamba if you want, but I wonder if there is a local HT doctor near you who can do the follow up consult portion Any ht doctor who is halfway decent should be able to diagnose DUPA, examine your donor, etc. If Mwamba trusts your local HT doctor to do the follow up aspect, it could save you a lot of money and time