SamV7

Dr. Bicer does all the extraction by herself too, not sure if that's the case with Dr. Yaman. I think in addition to comparing these details, you have to search for both doctors' result here and check their results and go with the one you like the most. 

Hey all, this is my 5 months update with a few days delay. I noticed a major change in texture and thickness but not a lot of new growth compare to month 4. Overall I am happy, and Dr. Bicer is very happy with the progress for 5 months. I think my hair already looks better compare to pre-op. I hope to see more growth in next few months, I still wish for slightly more density  The front left side is slowly catching up with right side. Donor is healing, but still a little bit sparse. I shaved/trimmed the sides with guard #2. These pictures are taken in front of a very large frosted window at day light, so lighting is a little bit harsh but soft. Still blows my mind how fast she responds to messages, and calls you right away. So far moral support from Dr. Bicer has been excellent. 

Sorry but this doesn't make a lot of sense. You mentioned you had a HT 5 months ago, and they started falling out 3 months ago? That means you're saying that you had a nice growth at 2 months after HT, and now at 5 months your hair is thinning and whatever grew at 2 months mark is falling? It's very unlikely that you had so much growth at 2 months mark, it's way too early and 99% of the people are in their ugly duckling phase at 2 months. It's been 5 months since your HT and even that is considered "too early" to judge by many surgeons.  I am at my 5 months mark now and I am still waiting for my transplanted hair to grow more. I don't understand which hair you are losing now. Maybe the native hair before the HT? But based on your picture the thinning is not that much considering you are at 5 months post op, it actually looks very good to me. Do you have any picture from when your hair was good? (3 months ago)

Sorry this is very confusing to me. It's possible that some of your hair are in their telogen/rest phase. 

what are we looking at here? looks like a full head of hair

22 hours ago, civic said:

Your donor was great , i am surprised that some doctor in NY told you its thinning, i now question if that doctor is experienced & what does he consider good hair texture?  

Thanks! To be fair he is a great surgeon and is recommended by this forum, and I've seen great results from him. My donor was in worse shape than what you see in the first pictures when I consulted with him. I changed the Propecia pills that I was taking and it made a huge difference in hair quality. He advised against FUE for me and wanted to go with FUT in a few years depending on my hair quality in the future.      

Thanks @Gatsby! My donor does look better but still a bit sparse, but I feel much better reading your comment! Dr. Bicer told me to expect 6 months for donor area to look good again. Same here, and I look forward to your updates and happy growing!

Here's a 4 months update in case anyone is interested. A big difference compare to last month. I took all these photos with camera's flash on. It seems more dense in person.

Frontal left side is not as dense as right side yet, and overall slightly less dense pre op, but other areas are looking better pre-op. I hope I see more grow in next 1-2 months.

On 1/13/2022 at 3:11 PM, Davy773 said:

Any updates? 

Hi, It's been exactly 3 months since the surgery. Not a lot of change to report in regards to HT, but a lot of my native hair grew back, and I see some small hair growing mostly on the right side frontal area (and some of them are surprisingly thick). Here's a 2 months vs 3 months picture. I'd say 60% of my native hair grew back, still in ugly duckling phase if you ask me, and waiting for the transplanted hair to start growing in the next month or so.

28 minutes ago, louisianatransplant said:

This is how I am feeling. Perhaps it is due to the above poster -- I am just one of many, many prospective person and it would be impractical to dedicate all that time to all prospective people. This makes me feel better.

That definitely is one the main reasons. But aftercare has been pretty good so far, I appreciate the fact that she calls and do a 5 min video call to check up on you. 

If it's Dr. Bicer, my experience is reverse! It was difficult to get a hold of her assistant before surgery, and the response time was usually 1-2 days, and you would usually get really short answers back. I had a bad feeling as a result of that, but post operation care has been really good so far. Dr. Bicer usually calls me within 15 min when I message her. Her Assistant Ozen is also very responsive.

Not that you asked about this, but did you try liquid Minoxidil or foam? The liquid contains alcohol that can dry out the scalp and causes flakes. Foam version causes no/less flake, but honestly being in the same hair loss situation as yourself Minoxidil does very little at this stage. I don't think it did anything for me other than the psychological/placebo effect that I am applying a drug to stop baldness. Grow your hair for 2-3 weeks and post your pictures again? 

On 10/9/2021 at 11:34 AM, Melvin- Moderator said:

There’s been a lot of posts about him not responding, glad you got through congratulations 👏🏼

I was considering him, and after emailing his office, then he started communicating with me and he was very responsive. He'd usually reply back to emails within 2-3 days. 

11 minutes ago, TorontoMan said:

Yeah a bit alarming, I typically tend to buy all my products from whole food stores, they're like only ever $2-3 more and I feel better supporting smaller stores too. 

Just to clarify, Amazon's whole food? small store? 🧐

But yeah natural/organic products all the way! Purad'or shampoos are chemical free and natural until proven otherwise. 

This is interesting! you had your first HT 33 years ago, may I ask how old you are now? and was your first HT done using FUT?

Your donor looks great after 5000+ extractions! You can probably do another smaller session if you ever need to. 

Can you share any pictures? 

3 hours ago, hairman22 said:

are you using propecia?

Not Propecia as a brand, but I am on generic Finasteride for a few years now. 

Not sure if this helps, but when I had my surgery with Dr. Bicer, the next day I went to remove my bandages, there was one patient filling out forms for the next week's surgery. Dr. Bicer's assistant was going over dos and don'ts with me, and when she said no weed for 6 months, the other guy panicked ... so did I to some extend 😂 We both started questioning the logic, and she said it'll thin the blood and affect the outcome of HT. After she left, me and other patient chatted for a little bit and he told me "Dude, I just smoked like last week". To my knowledge he went through the surgery in the next few days anyway, and so far he had no issue. We're still in touch. The only thing he mentioned was that he had clotted quite heavily in a couple of places, and Dr. Bicer wasn't overly worried about that. I am not saying the bleeding was due to using marijuana. I am just stating that he smoked 1-2 weeks before surgery and had no major issue. 

18 minutes ago, cr1mson said:

 

Yes, they still need the negative test! I will try to sort that out the day that I land. I will be in Istanbul a full three days after my surgery, then leaving saturday morning ( Christmas day) so hoping the flights are not too packed. If I end up not wearing the surgical or baseball cap, should I spray the saline solution in intervals while I am on the plane? I also usually wear a baseball cap backwords and it doesnt touch the top of my scalp, would this be an option as well?

Dr. Bicer doesn't recommend saline spray as she does the lotion approach. I asked her about spraying saline and she said just use the lotion (keep for one hour and then shampoo twice). I was instructed to apply the lotion before my flight, and then as soon as I arrive home. I'm from US and it's pretty much the same duration as Canada. 

That was a massive wall of text 😂 I went through the same experience, but still enjoyed reading your summary, so thanks!

Your skin didn't even turn pink, nice! Interesting what she did with your hairline! Good luck man and will follow your thread! 

Hi Everyone! I am posting this question here again hoping to get an answer. I am not worried about this at all, and want to educate myself, but I found a few grafts (maybe up to 10) during my shedding phase that looks like a curled up hair follicles. It appears to me that they were implanted incorrectly into the channels, and the root curled up and wasn't inserted straight in. They didn't anchor to blood vessels and eventually die out and shed. Does what I explain happen at all during the implantation, or the curled up shape is misleading? Maybe it's due to the technique used? You can kinda see the papilla. 

Again, I'm not worried, just want to know what causes this

21 hours ago, digi23 said:

I am pretty sure you will be pleased with both. Dr Bruno Pinto is doing all steps himself which is huge respect, and you will pay a premium for it. Dr Bicer is great aswell, she have some more help from nurses, but is also doing one patient a day with great post op care.

That's right. At lease my experience with Dr. Bicer was that she did the extraction all by her self, as well as opening the channels. The two nurses did the implantation, but she would come in and check every 45 min or so. 

5 minutes ago, JC71 said:

A lost graft you would have noticed the first few days, you can’t miss the blood loss (trickle/stream) anything after this are going to be normal shedding. A actual whole graft coming out you would have noticed already. Blood loss + pain. 

@JC71, theoretically, is it possibles for grafts to be damaged during insertion and die out a few weeks later and come out without bleeding? I've read that there's a small percentage of the grafts that don't make it. I'm just asking this to increase my knowledge and not saying this is the case for @yacine.drose. He is absolutely fine and nothing to be worry about. 

Would it be possible for some grafts that were not fully inserted into the channels and didn't anchor properly, or were damaged during insertion, and then those come up as dead grafts eventually? 

Try the topical dutasteride. That is supposed to have very minimal side effects. Can you talk to a dermatologist about this?