Fox243

If you're comfortable using finasteride, it will be good to use both as they work via different mechanisms of action, and as melvin said, you will get the best treatment. However, I think this would be good for people unwilling to use finasteride, as this will not alter your hormones, and should still be enough for you to hopefully stabilize and then get a HT. 

Wondering if you're expecting to post an update sometime soon.

The Reddit mod said he might reach out to the clinic to address this, so it's worth waiting to hear the other side of the story before making a decision. Would wait for the clinic to respond, as it feels weird they'd risk their reputation by having a tech do the incision.

On 4/6/2023 at 3:46 PM, Benz said:

I want to thank you, Hugo, for this topic. It helped me in my journey.
This month I will be having my second surgery with Dr Zarev.
The first procedure is, so far, a phenomenal result.
I just opened an account to thank you for sharing your results with the rest of the world.
 

Would you be willing to share your details of your first procedure?

Yes, given the limited time and resources, I think the highest return on investment is to do a larger FUE with better markings and techniques to know for sure if there’s a statistically significant difference.

Hair Transplants are a risk — not worth the chance of failure when you have this much hair imho. 

Looks really good -- are you on any meds? How many grafts do you have left in case?

18 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Yes, it will happen this weekend. Still trying to get the time down. 

Would love if you could get the Dr’s opinion on how it looks visually – like were the hairs regrown terminal or vellus hairs? Does this actually look like a cure? 

7 hours ago, Anon94 said:

Hey Guys!

As the title suggests I'm unsure if I'll want to remain on fin for life. 

I've been taking finasteride for about 3 years now. I'm very healthy overall, and I can still "perform" sexually. I have however noticed that my sex drive has slowly been going down, and I generally feel lower energy than I used to. 

That could of course just be aging, but I'm only 28. Bit early for that I fell. I have managed to get a reliable source of oral Minoxidil, which I seem to tolerate well. So I'd definitely stay on that. I'm currently Norwood 3-4 I'd say, but from many father's hair I can surely say I have a predisposition to NW6/7. My thought process is, that if I go somewhere decent for an FUE procedure I'd probably still be able to rock a shaved head if it comes to it.

My question really is if pursuing a hair transplant would still be a worthwhile idea despite maybe getting of fin at some point?

Surgeons like Pittella or Zarev make it seem not totally unreasonable, I guess?

 

Edit: Maybe I should add that I'm not looking to achieve a NW1 hairline. A good NW2.5 would be be plenty fine for me. I'd simply like my face to be better framed and to stop being so bothered by the slightest gust of wind.  

Generally, shouldn't be an issue if you're conservative with your approach, which it seems that you are.

5 hours ago, Rafael Manelli said:

What would you do differently? If you could go back to the start of your hair loss ‘journey’? A seemingly simple question but I think we all have regrets, whether it’s taking too long to act, trying a bunch of quack treatments, being in denial, taking too long to get on finasteride, going to the wrong doctor or getting a badly placed hairline…

I'd either go on finasteride while I had enough hair worth saving or would go for a hair system such that people wouldn't know that I transitioned.

1 hour ago, alopeciaphobia said:

@DrTBarghouthi Did the second trial happen on the 18th, or has it been planned on a another date?

Would also love to hear about possible ways to improve upon the first trial, i.e. higher dosage, more uniform injection, computer imaging/tattooing to better see potential regeneration, etc. I think it’d be especially interesting if you extracted ALL follicles in a small (say 5 mm) area so we can see if any follicles undoubtedly grow in that area after injecting Verteporfin.

8 minutes ago, Square1 said:

How is it possible that the control site has hair follicles? So it is fair to say that the test site has 5 new hairs, which would be the work of 0.32 verteporfin. Where we expect the results of the 0.4 test site to be even higher I assume.

It's not like the control site has every single hair follicle taken out from what I understand -- that would look weird.

5 hours ago, DrTBarghouthi said:

Hi guys, 

I received the biopsy results for both test and control areas as follow. Please be aware that the pathologist had very little insight at what the test area and control areas are and that he only knew that it is an area of an extraction site. He has no insight about the trial whatsoever. I also randomly assigned which areas to take the biopsy from and was taken from the 0.32 mg injection and control sites. 

Test: Sections show follicular hyperkeratosis, focal follicular plugging, No Lichenoid perifollicular lymphoid infiltrate, No dyskeratosis of the follicular epithelium, No perifollicular concentric fibrosis and minimal dermal fibrosis. 10 Hair follicles are seen. Three in anagen, 5 in catagen and 2 in telogen phase. 

Control : Sections show follicular hyperkeratosis, focal follicular plugging, focal lichenoid perifollicular lymphoid cell infiltrate, No dyskeratosis of the follicular epithelium. Perifollicular concentric fibrosis in some hair follicles and focal dermal fibrosis. 5 hair follicles are seen, 1 in anagen, 2 in catagen and 2 in telogen phase. 

 

I do think this is clearly a positive analysis on a cellular level. Ofcourse we do have limitations in that we couldn't biopsy all areas but I think it is a good result after all especially the variation in dermal fibrosis and hair counts. 

 

Based on this, what % of extracted hair follicles do you estimated potentially regrew?

I'm going to be a NW7, but don't want a super high hairline as it would look unnatural since I'm in my early 20s. Is it possible to use beard hair in my midscalp so that I can have a lower hairline?

Would love to hear if there’s any update or potential date for an update.

21 minutes ago, DrTBarghouthi said:

Hi guys,

Hope you’re all well. I took two biopsies today for our patient. I took them from one Test area and one Control area. Ideally I wanted to take from all sites but unfortunately these 4mm punch biopsies would need a stitch in each and felt a comparison between one control and one Test area could give us some indication for the time being about the scarring itself and the type of hair around the scarred area or within it. Will keep you posted once I get the pathology report back.

I’m looking at the 18th of March as a possible date for the second trial. I’m looking at either an FUE or at the possibility of injecting into the recipient area. 

I'm curious to see how it looked visually -- wondering if you have any photos, and how much you think it might've improved since the last update in November.. It's been a while since the last update, so I'd assume the healing process is basically complete.

11 hours ago, mr_peanutbutter said:

finasteride was basically also side free in studies, no more sideeffects then people who got a placebo

 

That is not true. Also, Sirnagen was approved as a cosmetic by the EU -- it's so safe that it didn't even have to go through trials. Sirnagen also knows people will not take the drug if there are any sides because people are only taking it b/c they don't wanna take finasteride.

I’m very excited for this – sides free and 80% efficacy as fin. 

8 hours ago, Arcturus9 said:

It saddens me that this is the most promising hair transplantation related treatment in decades (even if all it ends up doing is reduce scarring) and the site couldn't collectively muster 15kto help incentivize it along. This really has the potential to be a game changer in the hair loss world. Even if Longaker & Stanford get there eventually I'm sure Dr. Bharghouthi's experiments could serve to raise awareness among other surgeons and act as a starting point for future YAP inhibitors as adjunctive medications to hair transplants. As a small token of appreciation to the online hair loss community for saving my hair I think I will fill the remaining 14.7k Dr. Bharghouthi is asking for. 

I just saw the donation reach – this is insane. Stay tuned – we’ll have an update for you shortly about how we’re going to use your money. 

7 hours ago, DrTBarghouthi said:

Hi guys. I apologize for being out of the loop for the last while, but I had to cut down on my clinical duties temporarily and thankfully I’m back at it this month full time. I will be scheduling a biopsy of our patient and testing a full FUE case using adjusted doses that we worked out. Still some interest from some colleagues especially for FUT- so hopefully more on that soon. We are still dedicated to this research and in fact we have some interest from various funding entities that may be willing to further advance this and other projects. Will keep you updated. 

We’re glad to have you back  

This looks cool especially for the number of grafts used – interested in seeing how this turns out density-wise. Are you on meds? Did they recommend beard grafts? 

I’m curious if you have beard grafts as well

I’m curious on whether he thinks FUT is still the best way for NW7. Does he with today’s technology, almost anyone is a candidate if they’re using FUT + FUE + BHT (besides people with DUPA or something)?

Great result. Is this patient on meds? 

17 minutes ago, stephcurry30 said:

That is exactly why I am thinking about staying on it. I know you're NOT supposed to go get a surgery if you are hair shedding and stopping a medication 8 months prior my cause a massive shed. 

I'm having my hair transplant with Konior in the fall. I am looking forward to finally getting a straight/straighter hairline. I've ben saving money for years to visit the best and defiantly want to have this one and done procedure unless my hair loss continues which I doubt because of fin and dut. Might also add in topical finasteride/dutasitirde like xyon to destroy more DHT in the scalp. Also maybe increase my dutasitirde dosage from 0.5 mg to 2.5 mg to destroy as much DHT as possible. 

Curious if you had the dark circles/skin aging on topical min.