Fox243

2 minutes ago, Gatchpt said:

But I saw something about him posting his final protocol for people in the discord to provide their feedback/comments.. does that mean that there might be changes to the protocol leading to postponement. I mean it would have made more sense to collect feedback then deciding on the date. Regardless, I hope this time it will happen and we know whether it works or not 🤞🏽lfgoooo

I'd assume that if there were major changes to the protocol, there could be a postponement, but Dr. Bloxham has been doing his homework for months, so I don't anticipate him needing many changes.

Dr. Bloxham’s FUT trial was just confirmed to be on Tuesday, July 11th. I’ll keep you all updated. 

17 minutes ago, Imotski said:

Exactly, I have the same thought. I was waiting till the point i really need a HT and I'm old enough (from 2015). I have reached the point to initiate the first steps for my first HT. The cure is far away, but i do not want to miss the opportunity to at least lessen the FUE scars. Also i do not want to wait 5 more years. Good point. I will try to contact my favorite surgeons and present the idea. Do you guys have a guess, how much Verteporfin is needed and how much the cost would be for a 2-3k graft session?

It wouldn’t be too expensive. A couple grand at most for the brand name visudyne. If you got the generic, probably under a thousand. 

2 hours ago, Imotski said:

So far I understand the risk is minimal to non-existent. Why more docs would not offer to use Vert if the patient is willing to pay for it? Also, I do not understand why not more HT docs are willing to at least try it.

I think it needs to come from the patients. Personally, when I go for a HT, I'm going to press the doctor to use it on me. Why not take the chance to expand my donor area? If I get a HT instead without verteporfin, the area which had grafts taken out may never be viable for regrowth again.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

On 6/30/2023 at 7:32 AM, Gasthoerer said:

We should be carefully with such assessments. Until last year Konior was the undisputed King, then Couto was the Wizard of hair, now the flavor of the day is zar zarev. The power of great numbers is very important in hair transplant industry. 

I am not saying zarev isn't great but let's see more results until we make final judgments. 

either way, these are definitely 3 of the top 10, probably even top 5 doctors in the world. Doesn't matter who is #1. Personally, I'd say Konior is the best for making use of limited grafts, Couto is best for his artistry, and Zarev is the best for NW7 surgeries.

Zarev is how every doctor should be like. He charges a fair price, does his work diligently, and ultimately leaves a happy patient.

I think all we can say at this point is there's probably a chance for irreversible side effects. Probably extremely unlikely to both 1) happen to you and 2) happen in a way that alters your life drastically (I'd say both of these combined make PFS -- each of these alone could be common). But there's been enough evidence that you should take the drug knowing that this could be the worst case, and if it happens to you, it's a risk-reward decision you took, and wasn't just something you weren't informed about. As a NW6, I don't think this risk-reward is worth it for me anymore, but if I were a NW1, it would be.

On 6/10/2023 at 2:02 PM, DrTBarghouthi said:

Hi guys,

I do apologize for the silence, but I have been out of my office as I’m currently doing all the regulatory paperwork for another clinic in the region and this meant I had to spend the last few weeks there. 
Nonetheless, now that this is almost sorted and I’m back home, I can hope to get the next trial done this month. I have few dates set aside for this month and early July. The reason being is that I do have Vert at clinic but I’m also waiting for a new vial in case the existing one I have is not enough. It has also been stored for few months so I do prefer using a fresh vial. I’m expecting it to arrive next week and then I can give the exact date for the next trial (June/early July). 
I was also planning to be present for Killian’s trial with Dr. Saifi, but we had a delay with the Vert that was ordered and then logistically that made things harder to coordinate as everyone had other set plans for the month with work/ schedule etc. 

I will be also talking to Dr. Bloxham hopefully this week as there are some protocol items that need to be discussed for his trial to also go through. 
 

Finally, I will arrange a follow up with the existing trial volunteer as he is now approaching the 1 year mark this month. 
 

I hope to have more news these coming few weeks for everyone and let’s hope for the best. 

Would love to hear an update.

48 minutes ago, asterix0 said:

You don't understand, Dr. Zarev will only over harvest the donor with the patients consent if he is a Norwood 7 with a below average donor area, if conventional wisdom to transplants is applied, to get adequate coverage.

He will never deliberately over harvest the donor. His surgical technique, surgical tools, and attention to detail allow him to obtain more grafts than other surgeons can. 

Sure, I don’t think I properly clarified. Dr. Zarev is one of the few doctors who is willing to overharvest for a NW7 to get good coverage. My question is whether you could get more grafts as a nw7 via FUT + FUE and leaving hair long  or only FUE and overharvesting such that you have to leave your hair short.

I’ve been doing some deep dive analysis with FUT vs FUE for NW7s and I’ve come to a crossroads.
 

Traditional wisdom said max out via FUT then do FUE in areas FUT can’t reach. You need to keep your hair long. At the same time, we’ve seen doctors like Zarev basically over harvest the donor such that you’re forced to keep your hair extremely short.
 

Ideally, we could combine the two but unfortunately, one will require you to keep your hair long and the other short.

Which technique will end up getting more grafts? 

4 hours ago, HAIR5588 said:

Unfortunately, I feel that a lack of interest among the majority of skilled artists in the hair transplant industry is because Many people in the general public will go for the cheaper, less skilled hair technician reliant hair mills if their donor sites can regenerate and the risk of scars is reduced to almost nil and even the old robots can be dust off and perhaps even be reprogrammed for a second job to automate fue scar hair regeneration as well .

 

We will have to see the more industrialized nameless doctor big hair transplant clinics come to realise just how much money this discovery can make with so little extra cost to them and with so many many more customers and a new ability to just offer a free do-over with the dissatisfied clients now donors zone are possibly no longer exhaustible with this possible hair regeneration now seemingly available via verteporfin .

 

or this could all be quietly forgotten and we can all go back to five more years of scalp massages and minoxidil waiting for a cure ( shout out to 2028 people reading this just 5 more years to go )

 

That doesn't make sense. Verteporfin is here, and at some point, somebody will use it to attract the most clients if they can provide them with more donor hair. There's no way every single reputable surgeon in the world would form a coalition against verteporfin, especially the most ethical surgeons. It's game theory optimal to use verteporfin as fast as possible and become the best at it because if you don't, then someone else will. If you master it, people trust you using verteporfin and you can charge a large premium for your knowledge. It's not something simple to inject.

Seems like the first three transplants had almost non existent growth. Do you know why this happened? Hopefully this one gives you a much fuller head of hair. 

58 minutes ago, Recession1 said:

Does anybody know how to get a hold of Juan Couto? I know he has a waiting list but am willing to wait until 2024. Thanks 

I'm pretty sure his waiting list goes on for a lot longer than that.

wanted to bump this thread because I didn't give enough context the first time and think this could be big.

On 6/14/2023 at 1:46 PM, 12345 said:

is it available on amazon in the US yet? or anyone know when it will launch?

You can ship it from Amazon EU to the US

3 hours ago, general-etwan said:

All back home in the USA. Trip went by in a flash. Back to life. I really hope to be able to do some actual tourist traveling to this part of the world in the future, but for now it's all work and no play for me

2nd HT: 
Areas to be addressed, in order of importance: 1) Lateral humps and lower crown, 2) hairline and temples (if enough donor supply)

Thursday June 8th ended up being entirely dedicated to planning and slit-creation and Friday June 9th was the transplant. Dr. Sethi personally invested time and input into the design and strategy alongside Dr. Das. He talked to me extensively about my situation, our plan, life, and all kinds of things. It was a fun time. We talked a lot about the situation of the progressive ring around the sides and back of my head and how to address it as best as possible. For those who understand, as hair loss continues to progress, the individual hairs continue to thin and decrease in diameter. If a hair has not yet decreased approximately 50% of its original diameter, it is still decently strong and can be maintained or recovered though proper medication and topical treatment, and donor hair cannot be transplanted too heavily into this area because it can damage the native hair too much. For hairs that have lost over 50% of their original diameter, they essentially cannot be rejuvenated, and these areas are the areas that can be transplanted into without hesitation. This is why, as we know, hair transplants cannot always go full-on straight up to the final/ultimate predicted edge of all future hair loss. They have to be done carefully and safely in respect to existing hair. The edge of the ring of hair loss, in advanced cases like mine, can also continue to lower over the years.

So, priority was filling all the areas where the hairs have lost enough diameter and density that they can never be recovered. Areas that still contain decent amounts of hairs and decent hair thickness were filled with less density of transplanted hair, creating a proper gradient. Lateral humps and lower crown were addressed in this manner.

Dr. Sethi also consulted with me that my preexisting hairline was acceptable at about 8-8.5 cm (above glabella) but that he really tries to get patients to around 7 cm and it's especially a big benefit to young guys to have strong framing of the face. He recommended a hairline and temple design alongside Dr. Das that we would try to tackle after the lateral humps and lower crown, if donor supply was good enough. Dr. Bansal also counseled me on the perspectives of the temple and hairline plan, all making clear that it was completely my decision to make if I wanted to do the hairline and temple work after the sides and back. I decided that I wanted to do it, if we had solid enough donor for it not to be unwise. Dr. Das did end up feeling confident enough in all my donor to continue and tackle the hairline and temples. The temples were of course addressed in a gradient as well, with lighter hair starting at the fronts and then progressively thicker hair toward the back sections.

 

In summary

• 2977 grafts total
  • 2,020 on lateral humps and lower crown
  • 305 on right temple
  • 310 on left temple
  • 192 on new hairline
  • 150 behind hairline
• Donor:
  • 2650 from back/side scalp
  • 162 from right side locks
  • 165 from left side locks

Dr. Das performed all of the slits; Dr. Somesh also sat in on some of the procedure and talked to me a lot, and Dr. Sethi dropped in a few times.

 

  

 

 

As always, I am extremely thankful to and appreciative of the entire team, to every single member including those who greeted me, took my vitals, prepared my medication, took all the photos, counseled me on the design, administered the local anesthesia, extracted, separated, and implanted my grafts, cleaned me up, comforted me, conducted post-care, and all my chauffeurs and all the staff who made the visit and transportation possible. I feel excellent about the way this one is going to turn out. Another handful of long months ahead for growing  

No need for any beard grafts?

On 6/6/2023 at 3:06 AM, mr_peanutbutter said:

still not on amazon

 

It's here now! https://www.amazon.co.uk/COSMERNA-Breakthrough-Healthier-Tech-based-Conditioning/dp/B0C1JLFLXP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=24IJHCWF51THE&keywords=cosmerna&qid=1686619242&sprefix=cosmer%2Caps%2C305&sr=8-1

9 hours ago, Killian said:

The vial of Verteporfin is being saved because I personally own it, infact, I own two vials which are now sitting safely in refrigeration. Case dependency is a factor here and the call we made is to revise and wait. Please be patient and we'll have some interesting data in the near future. Which, I will provide at my own expense for the benefit of this community. 

 

Your welcome,

Best regards

Killian

fwiw, I'm not sure how long it'd be safe to hold verteporfin, so it might be better to sell it to another one of Dr. Saifi's patients.

There’s a brand new paper recently released about vert and scarless healing btw: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39129-6

27 minutes ago, sunsurfhair said:

https://www.maximustribe.com/warrior

wow this is expensive

On 2/6/2023 at 6:53 PM, sunsurfhair said:

Anyone use or using Latanoprost with success? I came across this formulation and thought it looked quite interesting. I would prefer to not have the topical minox in it since I’m already on oral minox, but was curious what others thought.

 

Where did you find this? It looks interesting. 

Anybody buy this yet? It's available on cosmerna.com and you can buy it from almost anywhere in the world.

13 hours ago, hairman22 said:

I dont agree you cant wait

Actually patience was what got @HugoX and @mtb go a great surgeon.

4 years as a diffuse thinner i was turned down by the top surgeons because i cant take fin. Im glad i was.

you can wear a system possibly.

its best to actually wait for example no one knew about Pittella and Zarev 3 years ago. Eugenix too really have some great cases. The longer you wait better chance of a great result and increase your funds and clearly hair transplantation is improving others will hopefully catch up and improve their extraction of the donor area

I'm missing valuable years of my life as I wait though. I don't want to build my life around my hair transplant.

5 minutes ago, HairEnthusiast101 said:

Interesting. So there was still scarring. It isn’t full proof. Which would make fut even more interesting because scarring on fut is usually more pronounced/common. I wonder if verteporfin treatments injected into scar every week or month after the procedure would benefit it at all? Would be interesting. I assume it would be expensive for a patient to get verteporfin use after their procedure 

based on the studies, a one time application is best. Yes, it isn't foolproof the way it is now at least, but we hope to first fully establish that it helps, and upon establishing that, get it to as close as foolproof as possible.