TEXAN35

That means the topical DUT went systematic for you. I read somewhere that since DHT has large molecular size it remains on scalp and doesn't go systematic but I guess thats unfounded.

I am also using this solution. No visible side affects yet. Though they have gone little bit overboard with menthol/mint aroma. Alcohol based minoxl gives me itching and headache so I choose this option. Not sure why on struts prescription it mentions to apply DUT daily. Does your prescription recommends daily topical application too ?

Great progress. I am trying topical DUT, if I dont see improvement I guess I will try Oral DUT too.

I thought that was true only in legends. Congrats for giving a nice beating to MPB.

Yes getting another procedure is a pain along with shaving the head for few months . The doctor could have done more graft but as others have mentioned that transplant provides an illusion of density and to maintain that illusion in extremely harsh light is very difficult to attain. So not sure if few more hundred graft would have given you complete satisfaction or rather a separate procedure. On the bright side you have come a long way from NW5 and your hair doesn't seem to put a negative impact on your appearance at least under not so harsh light.

I think you should wait for a couple of more months. Usually 12-15 months should be the final result. But yes probably you may be short of your desired density. I think the problem is not in the procedure but the surgeon overpromising and not getting the expectation right for 2600 grafts for NW5. Not sure how many grafts were wasted in your first failed procedure but if you still have 2000-3000 grafts remaining and you already are NW5 natively that means you are in a good position. Did you take any medication (prop+minox). Another problem might have been loosing more of your native hair during last one year which the doctor didnt take into account. Also as mentioned, its not unusual for people with finer hair to need more than one procedure for required density if that's your case. I am also in similar boat. One transplant and required density is around 75 % mark but I am ok with that and will consider another later.

Before pics will help but if you were norwood 5 and you only used 2600 the result is good . It may look like you have some hair loss but the outcome looks natural . You can always get more procedure to add density if your donor was not overharvested. Its difficult to move from NW5 to NW1 from single procedure. I think 2500 graft/session is a sweet spot. High graft sessions are riskier. Personally for me, how efficiently the grafts have been used is a very important criteria for a transplant success. If someone uses 3000-4000 graft in a small area and makes it dense I would not necessarily call it success. On the other hand if only 2600 graft can transform you from NW5 to current situation it is pretty ok. I would say wait for sometime let this stabilize and then may consider to make this even better.

Well it may have been that my crown hair was already thinning and the procedure trauma weekend them further. In some cases the hair lost in already miniaturized section may not even come back. Not sure if my stabilization is attributed to the use of Propecia/Minox which I started later out of concern or a natural recovery. I may have also lost some some of the thinning native hair at recipient area but difficult to gauge that because of transplanted hair growing up. I think I feel that surgery can make you loose hair which may have been lost anyway in 2-3 years. I think that is also one of the reason why doctors ask to take propecia if you have any kind of diffused thinning before surgery.

When people say its just the hair I think they are trivializing a real issue. I think only 10% of the guys carry on the shaved look very well, some are just ok with it for rest, it dents the appearance pretty badly specially after NW3. Should we not care about looks and how other perceive our appearance ? We would like to but in real world it matters. Women might say they don't care but till you are in dating business they do really care. Its unfair to expect them to not care because its part of inbuilt selection process. Men and women both have physiology inbuilt to care about appearance at least during initial phases. Apart from dating business in certain job industry also appearance matters. We dont want to look 10 years older than we are. Just like its good to keep our body in good shape, there is nothing wrong in improving your hair if you can. If there are options available why not. In future I hope solving this problem becomes much easier but getting a transplant for an individual male or female is not at all being in vain, its completely ok. Just have a real expectation. Now if you are barely Norwood one and you are worrying too much about hair , that may be signs of other problems which needs to be sorted first.

I had some shock loss starting 3 months after surgery. I only had a hairline restoration but my crown started shedding after transplant and became little worse than before. But for last one month I am starting to see some recovery (after month 6) and hope it gets back to normal in a couple of months.

Anyone who can hide their hair loss with just a little bit of effort shouldn't get a surgery. Stick to your regimen and reevaluate in few years

For detailed information there is a thread . I just started using struts topical dutasteride twice a week even though their prescription mentions to apply daily. I am just using Dutasteride+Bitotin since I apply a separate solution for minoxidil. Its seems few have had good success with using just topical Dut without oral fin. But again it also varies with individual. I think you can try just topical for 6 months and see the progress then reevaluate the need for oral fin. I stopped fin few months ago even though I didn't have any perceived side affects because I read about negative neurological impact because of long term use of fin. I will again reevaluate in 6 months. Fin has been good in slowing down hairloss initially but over time it seems to have become less affective for me.

The end result may not be as great as you may expect but it surely is too early and it will improve. Not sure which channels do you watch but not everything on internet is truth. its very common to have uneven growth at 4 months. Infact your 4 months growth is probably better than the average . The reason you find a lots of great 4 months result online is probably either marketing or people who get early growth are more excited than slow growers to show the results online. My main growth started at 5 months and is still improving at 7 months and hope it keeps improving for a couple of more months.

Your results are great but since you are using so many options not sure which one/two is doing the most wonders. probably its tropical DUT as many others have seen great results with that. This is the first time I am seeing someone use stemoxydine and alfatradiol along with DUT and minox as they are similar combo. I would be little careful with all these medicines together and maybe shortlist to the two /three which is doing the most wonder for you just to minimize any long term unknown impacts.

Thanks I did that. They will be sending one months supply for 69 dollars and will automatically do so every month. It says .1ml everyday. But since I will be using it twice a week, I guess I don't need monthly supply of the solution. Hopefully they will be flexible to let me order once in three months.

I would like to try that too. Can I just order just dutasteride solution without Minoxidil. Minoxidil (alcohol based) sometimes gives me headaches and itchy scalp.

This seems shock loss because a part of it seems to be above the area from which donor would have been harvested. If you can send more pic from the behind the scalp where majority of the hair would have been taken out , will give better idea. I personally didn't have much shock loss but I think it can take 6-10 months to reverse from shock loss. Others who have experienced shock loss can chime in.

Your donor area looks decent even after 3 FUTs. I think FUE + BHT will be good for you since with FUE you can get hair follicles from sides also which are not harvested in FUT. How many grafts did you totally extract until now using FUTs ?

The risk on doing transplant on area which already has lot of original hair follicle is that there maybe shock loss and also the hair follicles which are in the process of miniaturization may be lost permanently hence the result may not be a lot better than what you started with even though the new hair follicles will be DHT proof. Hence the diffused baldness is really tricky to work with. Its better to try to stabilize the hair loss using medicine and wait for few more years to check the progress.

2.6 Euro per graft 🙂 . Now I want to move to Europe probably right next to Dr Bisangas clinic. Then I will not have to worry about breaking the bank.

Even with FUT you will not be missing a strip of hair. These days with good closure techniques your strip transplant will not even be noticeable specially if you are planning to have your hair long. But yes FUT takes a little longer to recover but as far as keeping your transplant low profile FUT will work just fine too. I am not recommending FUT just letting you know that when you say "missing a strip for a year " , you will not be visibly missing a strip, it will be sutured properly. Again there are some great surgeons who specialize in FUT.

They may start selling minoxidil shots in the bars. That will be fun. I know the tropical solution are alcohol based but not sure if that's edible form of alcohol. You know there are some types of alcohol which can cause poisoning if ingested orally.

Its about demand and supply. High cost leads to quality to a certain point but after that limit, the price is purely driven by demand and and not necessarily increases quality. If a surgeon asking for 10 dollars/graft and is still getting request for 2 surgeries a day and has to turn down one of two he can choose from two options 1) Increase the charge to 12 dollars/graft so automatically he will get less request for transplant matching his/her availability. 2) He/she can keep the cost to 10dollars/hr and decline the patients he/she cannot accommodate. We would prefer them to choose the 2nd option but its not our call. Normal business model curve will point to option 1 . Not sure if we can call it unethical. That's why we are not here to push for monopolistic market for few doctors. Meaning if we do not know about a surgeon we should restrain from being extremely negative about that surgeon. All we should do is mention that the surgeon is not screened and then recommend the patient , the screened doctors.

And as people might have said we are our own worst critics. To me your hair doesn't look that unnatural or that you had a transplant, not at least from pics. Not sure if people who are close you notice that.. If its not that bad I would say do not rush into corrective procedure so quickly and wait for some time. It will give you a better idea of any possible progression of your hair loss and maybe a different perspective from now. Extremely localized transplant is not great idea in early 20s unless you are sure that you do not have progressive MPB in your genes. Personally I feel its better to ward off procedures to later years if possible.

You can definitely get a conservative hairline built and get help using BHT/SMP for crown if FUE supply is not enough.