Savemyhairline

You do have a good head shape for the shaved head, plus your skin looks to be a bit on the darker side, which IMO is a big advantage for guys who shave their head. As someone who is fair skin, I believe only guys with darker skin can get away with a bald head and actually not have their looks impacted too much from it, if they have the right head shape. The cousins from breaking bad, the Rock, etc. then of course many men of African descent can also get away with it, still need to have the right head shape though. As mentioned, you are very young and need to try the meds, I’d say for at a minimum 2 years, and see where you are at age 24. Maybe you will respond well and ideally can wait until your late twenties or later for the HT.

One Month By week 3 I hadn’t noticed much shedding, so I started thinking “hmm maybe I will be one of the 5% that doesn’t shed” and then right on cue, BOOM heavy shedding. I believe at this point it’s mostly just my native hairs. This morning I did notice what looked like dark stubble around various places in the frontal third, possibly transplanted hair starting to grow already? not entirely sure. I have to say, I’ve asked the team at H&W a ton of questions, mostly just to alleviate anxiety, and they’ve been very responsive and helpful. For how much money I spent I would expect this, but still have to give credit where it’s due, my questions are always responded to very quickly and thoroughly. I’m an anxious person in general and as most of you know, this is a significant life event doing this procedure, so I’ve been trying to manage my anxiety and trust the process.

Yep. I always had longer hair as a kid so hard to tell exactly when I developed the widows peak (not sure if it’s when my hairline receded or it was always like that) but I’ve had it my entire adult life at the minimum. I even have one on my nape at the back lol

I think you’re in a good position. While you may not have the density you want now, your hair does look quite natural imo and probably better than your average 46 year old who isn’t on fin/hasn’t had a HT if I had to guess. Rahal did a good job a decade ago. With some quality crown/midscalp work I think you’ll be set 👍

So basically Pitella’s strategy is to use a very high graft count relative to the persons hair loss and not recommend finasteride? Bold strategy. I haven’t seen 10-20 year post surgery results from Pitella but that would be very interesting to see how well that strategy holds up in practice. Anyway, good luck Op and happy growing.

I have had bad anxiety too bro. Nothing about the procedure itself or my decision, just ensuring everything turns out as it’s supposed to. I literally emailed my clinic yesterday because I was paranoid about the tiny ventilation holes in my hat not blocking sun, to give you an idea of how paranoid I have been (like all hats ever have these holes and they are too small to allow sunburn, per my Doctor). Then I have seen a couple controversial reviews here recently from patients who went to the same clinic (H&W) and reading those is absolutely not helping my anxiety. anyway the only advice I, as someone who is also anxious, can give is just email the clinic on what you’ve done and have them tell you. I don’t think anything you did was bad/harmful, but having your clinic tell you that themselves will make you feel better. send them a pic of your recipient area to assess, again just for you to get peace of mind. On the masturbation thing, I personally waited a week because, like you, anxious, but I don’t see how this could harm you realistically day 2 or 3. My clinic never even mentioned sexual activity being off limits for any amount of time, and they mentioned plenty of things to avoid the first couple weeks.

Everyone here meant that as in you are responsible and not impulsive, nobody meant that to make you feel bad about yourself, on the contrary. on this other point, I would listen to a Doctor over a poster on a forum.

Are you assuming that weightlifting = increased Testosterone which in turn = increased DHT? Huh, I haven’t heard anyone attribute accelerated hairloss to just weightlifting before. Of course you hear about steroids doing that.

As someone who worries way too much myself, try not worry about it. You’re already on Dut, you’re basically doing the max you possibly can to prevent/delay balding. Not sure where you are in your journey but if you’re planning a first time HT just don’t go aggressive/too low with the hairline to save grafts. That’s probably a good idea for anyone honestly since MPB can be unpredictable for anyone.

I highly doubt anyone who isn’t well versed in HT would have any clue there’s even an abnormality. The worst I could maybe see is someone sitting behind you on a bus or something, looking at it from inches away, maybe thinking “huh look at those dots, I guess some people have dots on their head when they shave it down to skin and you look up close” or “this guy must have some minor skin irritation or something”

I was gonna ask you if you thought he was on meds, but I guess given his current age of 74 and the timeline of your pics of him at 40 vs 55, I guess not. I am a diffuse nw6 that can be seen when buzzed down but not noticeable if my hair is a couple inches or longer, hoping meds keep it that way for many many years. I guess in his case though, at least he wasn’t noticeably bald till his 50s, presumably without meds at all.

I feel pretty darn safe with finasteride in the long term if I’m being honest. If a new breakthrough cure comes out, that would be great, but I’d want to see a similar level of testing/long term studies done with this new cure as finasteride. Fin has been used by literally millions of men and has been heavily studied for multiple decades. While FUE scars are not perfect, they are pretty tame if you do decide to shave it all off one day down the line, especially if you leave your hair not shaved down to skin. I hope it doesn’t come to that for me but if I’m like 60 and just don’t want to be bothered by it anymore, it’s an option. I know I know, men care about hair when they are older, believe me I know, my grandpa still cared about his hair when he was almost 90. But men have to accept, even those without MPB, hair will thin as you get older it happens to everyone. So expecting to maintain good density when you’re 75 is unrealistic, unless some new crazy cure comes along. im gonna be 28 years old in 2 months. Im recently single so my hair is objectively important for me, women care about a man’s hair quite a bit, especially the ages that I’d want to date. Now if I’m happily married with kids in 20 years, I’m sure I still will care about my hair, but it won’t be as important assuming my wife actually loves me for me. I just got a densely packed HT for my frontal third, which is by far the most important as it frames your face. Nobody wants a thin crown or midscalp but they don’t frame your face as a hairline does. By the way you worded your question, I’m assuming you are also a younger guy. If you think it’s very likely you’ll want to shave your head down the line, you shouldn’t get a HT. If you think it’s possible you may want to shave your head down the line but you would STRONGLY prefer hair now and for the next couple decades, and are willing to take meds, I’d get an FUE procedure. At the end of the day there’s no flawless course of action. You just gotta decide what is right for you and keep the long term in mind.

IMO topical minoxidil won’t do much at this point as you’re basically a clean NW6, but you’re welcome to try it for 6 months and see if you think it does anything significant. I’d try and up the finasteride to 1mg/day if you can so you can hold off NW7. The good news is that your lateral humps appear strong from these pics and you might have a good donor area but hard to tell from these pics. I think if you got an appointment with Dr. Zarev the magician you could get full coverage, but iirc his wait list is 2 years currently. Dr Sethi may also be a good choice, especially being that you have beard hair to work with. I think with some patience you can get it done. As I mentioned Zarev is like a magician and somehow does high Norwoods in one session with great coverage, he’d be a top choice for your case if you can wait

I think what Melvin is saying makes sense and I genuinely hope he’s right, he very well may be. I still think Dr. Hasson is one of the best in the world for sure. Nothing to me about the actual work looks bad, just the strength of the hairs at this time. There’s another thread with a Dr. Konior (who’s also regarded as one of the best ) patient with people concerned due to the patient requiring a free touch up after 6 months. His case is of course not the same as yours, but my point is a top tier surgeon making an error shouldn’t remove all confidence in their ability. Actually in the Dr. K instance I think, while the work also is not bad, he made a judgement error in that he tried to cover a very large area with only 2k grafts. Dr. K does amazing work but math is still math and 2k for what he was trying to cover was unrealistic imo. I think at this point 3 more months will give you a better understanding just based on you being a slow grower. At least you should be able to use fibers now, as you mentioned.

Can they speak to any possible reasons why your yield seems low? I think before doing any additional surgery you should have an in-person consult with a Dr. Closely examining your scalp with a microscope.

Density looks great man, incredible for 4 months. This should be awesome to see what the final result is with you already looking like this

So essentially H&W will give you a 100% refund? I am a big fan of Dr. Hasson’s work but I understand where you’re coming from on choosing a different doc after all this. Especially if you’re getting refunded. If they were to not refund you and you had to start over financially, I’d maybe have a different opinion. I’d say at 9 months that is disappointing and you are right to not be happy. My advice emotionally would be to try and look at guys like Melvin and Gatsby who did not have a successful first go around but with perseverance and patience, look great today. You’re a very young guy and you have a great beard, so you should have options as far as grafts down the line. It seems you did all your research beforehand and you did choose a world class clinic, so nobody can fault you, you did nothing wrong, try to remind yourself of that. Any doctor can and has had less than satisfactory results. Them refunding you fully is nice, though of course you can’t be refunded on all the time, energy, and emotion you’ve inevitably put into this. Try to keep your head held high man, don’t quit. I think Bisanga and Rahal could both do you well, I feel like I’ve seen multiple impressive repair cases from Bisanga.

Yeah, I’m leaning towards not going and making up some excuse. I don’t see why I should be uncomfortable the entire weekend, it’s a 10 hour drive too it’s not like it’s 5 minutes away. Plus emotions aside, it is outdoor and I am supposed to avoid sun exposure for 6 months. If this were 1925 sure a hat would look great with a suit but today that’ll just draw even more attention and questioning.

I’m US based and decided Canada has the best doctors for me. Canada is similar enough to the US to where I think you’d feel more at ease getting your procedure there, between H&W and Rahal. Neither are cheap but not as expensive as Konior. I’m thinking all the top end USA based surgeons aren’t really available to the public and only do celebrities, high profile people, etc but that’s just speculation. A lot of people, even who have money, have the mindset of go to Turkey it’s cheaper. Find a handful of surgeons you like and then do more due diligence on their particular countries if you are concerned about health regulations or anything else like that. That was another reason I felt comfortable with Canada.

Normally I’d agree with you but you’ve never met these people lol. They’re gonna bring it up at every turn and ask me all these condescending questions and just be annoying about it. I’m assuming the shed is gonna happen before the wedding but I guess only one way to find out

I’m actually just getting over covid, that I probably caught while traveling internationally for my HT. I might just make something up for work and say my company needs me at our office that’s 20+ hours away from the wedding venue.

Thanks all. here’s where I was pre surgery: and here’s where I am a little under 2 weeks out as you can see I essentially had my entire frontal third rebuilt. Pre HT I could’ve hidden my thinning fairly easily just with styling and maybe fibers but I have no clue how much shock loss I’ll have if any, plus my hair will be shorter at the 2 month mark than in that before picture, I believe my hair grows at around an average rate. honestly thinking if just not going to the wedding, my parents/cousins will be disappointed but this is kind of seeming like too much

Have you looked into SMP at all OP? Admittedly I’m no expert on SMP but it does seem to accomplish, or try to accomplish, what you seem to want; a buzzed look that covers bald spots. I have read that SMP artists/techniques have gotten a lot better in the last 5 years. I believe you’d have to have your hair shorter than a 2 guard for the illusion to work for your temples, but it may be worth looking into based on what you’ve described your goals as.

So I have a wedding I’m supposed to attend, it is for a distant cousin and that whole family has made fun of my hairline for as long as I can remember. They are good people but very rough around the edges and just kinda being a-holes to everyone and even each other is their sense of humor. Anyway, of course this wedding will be right at the worst possible ugly duckling stage. I really do not want them to know I got a HT, I’m not ashamed of it but I frankly just don’t feel like being grilled by them forever on it. I see them all like once or twice a year, the next time after this would be 6 months post op where I’ll hopefully be looking a lot better. By this same token though, they are gonna know something is up with my hair seeing it at the 2 month then 6 month mark. They are the type of people who notice everything especially with hair. I’m honestly thinking of just making an excuse to not go to this wedding, it sucks but I don’t want to be extremely uncomfortable the whole weekend. Plus I’d need to wear a hat for the outdoor bits anyway, and a hat with a suit in 2023 isn’t really in fashion and will draw even more unwanted attention and questions. My HT was in my frontal third so im guessing fibers and other concealers aren’t gonna do much, but if someone has had a similar situation at the height of their ugly duckling stage and found a way to make it look presentable, please let me know!

Day 11 Think I got most of the scabs out yesterday, redness is coming down. So far quite happy I must say. Emotionally I think I’m ready for the shed phase, I’ve been a hat wearer for so many years now, what’s another 6 months. Video calls/meetings at work where I can’t wear a hat will be interesting since now they’ve all seen me with a hairline when buzzed, if anyone has any decent tips for concealing that let me know, otherwise I’ll just say oh well, they are gonna see my hairline shape-shift and can use their imagination.