JDEE0

1 hour ago, SLA said:

some people put hair gel in their hair to style and others might put fibers...that is the way I see it. If it is a cosmetic improvement to you and not harmful, then why not?

Yeah, I agree.

To OP: I mean, if hair transplants aren't 'cheating', but using fibres is, I don't really follow the logic. I can kind of understand it to some extent as, yes, the hair is permanent whilst your fibres will be washed away in the shower for example, but both are augmentations of your hair that you at one point didn't have. One just lasts longer than the other.

At the end of the day, I don't consider a woman wearing makeup to be cheating even when pretty much every girl I've been with has gone from being what I would consider a good looking girl to 'damn she looks really good' with a little bit of make up and some lipstick on. I know that that's not exactly how they look with just what nature provided, but it's not something my mind thinks is deceitful or anything, just a harmless way to look your best.

Maybe it would be different if I was say a diffuse thinner all over, I still wouldn't consider it cheating, but I could imagine feeling like a bit of a 'fraud' so to speak if all of my hair was essentially a big illusion that didn't really exist, but for most who are just adding a little bit here and there to cover up a thinning crown etc, it's no big deal and is no different than a woman using a touch of foundation or whatever to me.

I would really recommend just going outside of Malaga to De Freitas, Ximena Vila or Lorenzo even as they are all extremely talented Dr's and in the country who you can be sure of! 

Go and ask members on the Spanish forum and get their opinion

There is also Dr. Felicidad Espinosa at Medecap Malaga who seems to be doing pretty good work. 

I don't know too much about the clinic, but I see their results on the Spanish forums (both tu and el pelo) and they seem quite impressive to me.

You'd really be better off going to the (main) Spanish forum at https://www.recuperartupelo.com and asking users there for more insight - there are some very good surgeons in Spain, such as Ximena Vila, Dr Couto and De Freitas, but also some others like Espinosa who seem to be pretty good but are generally just completely unknown to us over here on this forum, even those of us who follow these other Spanish surgeons. I'm sure the Spanish users will have lots more info!

It's going to be hard to compare pics in pretty much any situation as lighting, angles etc are all different. Even when people take them in the same place with the same conditions, they often aren't directly comparable.

In your case here, the lighting is completely different, hair could be/is parted in a slightly different place etc, so you can't really even make any comparisons. With that said, they look similar enough to me, I don't think you're noticeably losing ground. 

1 minute ago, JohnAC71 said:

Real talk 👍🏽 This thread shouldn’t be on here in IMO.

I agree John. I think it's probably best if it's removed, leaves a bad impression for anyone coming across the forum and this is one of the few places where people can come for genuine advice/support without having to expose themselves to all of the insufferable 'woes is me' that fills other forums. Also fairly distasteful example to use for his point considering the circumstances!

Jesus, I really thought you were trolling with the usual incel tropes regarding "6ft plus, I'm the nice guy, forever alone" and so on, but looking at your profile it seems you are a genuine poster. You have an extremely pathetic outlook on life, which I am aware isn't a nice thing to say to you, but jeez, you need help. The reason you personally can't get any has nothing to do with your hair, I can assure you of that.

You clearly have no experience even talking to women, let alone any general level of confidence or sense of self assurance. Take some accountability for yourself in life and realise how pitiful it is to blame everyone and everything else for your own shortcomings. I feel sorry for you. I suggest you start acting like a grown man and taking steps to become whoever it is that you want/aspire to be instead of blaming the world for your issues.

I'm sure it's absolutely fine, but I would say just wait the two full weeks, it's not going to affect your physique at all is it at the end of the day and its best to be extra cautious. 2 or 3 weeks out of the gym will make no difference to your life overall, but (however unlikely it might be) negatively affecting your results will. I'll probably wait 2 full weeks when I have my HT and then do two weeks of low volume, low intensity training after that before lifting heavy or go back to my usual routine again.

You'll be fine - you should generally avoid touching the recipient at this stage apart from when you start cleaning the scabs off, which should be around now, but as long as you weren't aggressively scratching the area or something then I can't see any way it could damage things. At 8 days, it would take a surgical instrument to dislodge any grafts, but the area is still healing and you generally want to just leave it alone/not touch it with bacteria filled hands etc.

19 minutes ago, MachoVato said:

Oh, hell naw! LOL!

I mean, he's awesome and all but there are WAY too many exceptional alternatives for a 1/3 that price. 

Yeah, unless you earn 300k a year or something similar, I don't see how it's justifiable considering there are so many amazing options that you really can't even argue are particularly inferior to Konior for 1/3, even 1/4 of that price! 

I'm paying the equivalent of 3USD per graft - 17 is crazy!

3 minutes ago, BLE123 said:

Both good doctors, I've yet to see a bad Demirsoy case - not that I've seen bad results from Bicer, just trying to offer some balance.

I agree - whilst I think Bicer is also a good 'budget' option, I have always liked what I see from Demirsoy cases, from his donor management/extraction patterns to his hairlines, he's probably my favourite budget surgeon going off the results I've seen here and there. 

Saying that, OP, if you can stretch to 2.5 EUR per graft then I would go to HLC instead of Bicer or Demirsoy. 

14 hours ago, yesplease said:

I would also add that wavy donor hair augments the illusion of density. 

As does a favourable hair colour to skin/scalp colour contrast, i.e. blonde hair on fair skin as opposed to very dark hair on fair skin.

1 minute ago, Der3k7 said:

Do you know how long Freitas wait list is? I just sent him an email too 

when I last spoke to his rep in march of this yearwhen I was considering him, I was offered a slot in Sep 2022, so a bit of a wait unfortunately. I think Vila was a similar wait.

Pinto had a couple of cancellations the following week that I was offered, but I couldn't take and then the next available was November of this year, so around a 7-8 month wait in the end for him. But he was busy too as his e-mail initially sent me an auto reply saying that they weren't accepting new consultation appointments until Jan 2022 - I thought I would chance it and reply back to see if there was anything they could do and it turns out there was. I imagine my date in Nov was also a cancellation offered to me that I ended up taking. 

7 minutes ago, Der3k7 said:

I'll set up a Cobsult with Freitas too. I look duo round trip flights to Belgium from Phoenix and it said like $350 which is crazy cheap. Are you sure Freitas is as Consistent and well regarded with same results as konior? 

Well, Konior has been around for a long long time and is very highly regarded, so on reputation alone, he's hard to match in terms of how highly he's regarded. 

However, in saying that, I think his results are just as good if not better in a lot of cases, and he's certainly regarded as one of the top picks in the world today; easily in the top 5 or 10 of many informed people. 

Have a look here on the Spanish forum for his results and also look into Bruno Pinto and Ximena Vila too: https://foro.recuperarelpelo.com/viewforum.php?f=16

Hi all, i'll be heading over to Portugal in a few months to have my HT, but I need to get a blood test to screen for the following diseases beforehand: 

- Complete blood count (including platelet count)

- Serology (HIV1, HIV2, VHC, VHB)

- Coagulation (PTT, INR)

- Electrolytes (Sodium, Potassium)

I'm in the UK, so this is one for anyone over this side of the pond really, but any ideas what the best route is to get these tests completed? I imagine it's going to be ridiculously expensive to test for all of these, something that is confirmed by @Rolandas (who went to a different but nearby Dr in the same country) when I saw him say it would've cost him over £500 or something around that mark in one of his videos if I remember correctly?

Can it potentially be done on the NHS, or if not, any idea of the cheapest way to go about it? I'll obviously just cough up whatever it is in the end, but I'd rather not pay a stupid amount for some blood tests if I can help it.

Thanks!

4 minutes ago, Der3k7 said:

I'm setting up a Consultation with konior now. Also, was browsing and saw a very impressive 1600 graft fue result posted recently by a patient from him. Will keep browsing  

Can't go wrong with the likes of Konior - he's just very very expensive and for the price I personally would go elsewhere as he's probably in the region of 3x a solid European option such as De Freitas for example, but he's one of the best there is and I would go to him in a heartbeat otherwise. 

With him, or someone similar like Hasson, you can be rest assured you're not going to run into the same issue as you did with ASMED where business models were shifting. They've been the same for decades and it's not going to change.

Just now, Raymond92 said:

@JDEE0 @Melvin- Moderator Thanks for the answers 

I understand, thank you for your reply. The medicine is effective, I can see the improvement. But anyway, it's really shocking how much information there is about it on the internet, perhaps a doctor's help is best in such cases. Now I am reassured that it has no effect on the baby through the sperm.

Yeah, it's always best to speak to a professional, ideally someone who has knowledge with the drug as your average GP probably doesn't know much of anything and will probably just refer back to their medical guide for information and be about as useful as us forum members who have looked at studies online. 

I agree with Melvin - the amount of misinformation around such a heavily researched and commonly prescribed drug on the internet astounds me. No offence to you OP, not having a dig at you, I just often wonder how it came to this point with peoples perceptions of fin. 

Number 1 - why are you afraid to tell whoever you're seeing that you're taking fin? I can understand not being comfortable enough to let someone essentially know that you have this insecurity around hair loss right away, but if you're getting anywhere near the point that having kids is potentially entering the picture, then it shouldn't be a big deal for her to know you take fin. Not that it's some big taboo issue in the first place...

Secondly, there is no risk. There is no real evidence that conceiving on finasteride causes any issues to the baby, but if you're planning on having one and you want to be extra cautious, then most people just stop until they get their partner pregnant, this is fine of course to do, but it's by no means necessary at all.

3 months is nowhere near enough - I myself have been taking it for 2 years and have seen no real change; no sheds ever and no noticeable improvements, but I've got temple recession in a NW3ish pattern where the hair was too far gone in these areas with the rest of my scalp being absoltely fine, so it was to be expected. I am happy to just maintain and these were always my expectations, so I never felt 'what's the point'. 

Anyway, if you have experienced a shed, then this is a result of your hairs being pushed into a telgoen state and as such they will be dormant for the next 3 months or so. You're not going to see any difference for a while until they come back in. Check out the data from the 10 year Japanese study, where everyone NW4 and above essentially saw some improvement from baseline up until year 7 or so, with any noticeable difference only really being obvious after the first year (an MGPA score of +1 roughly).

https://www.oatext.com/Long-term-(10-year)-efficacy-of-finasteride-in-523-Japanese-men-with-androgenetic-alopecia.php

27 minutes ago, Der3k7 said:

Well I went to asmed and got 5000 grafts with low yield and Erdogan did my incisions. Maybe my techs were just not good. It's hard to tell though. 

Yeah, I would say that Erdogan himself is still probably one of the most skilled HT doctors around, well, who knows now as it seems he's not really hands on anymore so I don't know if he's as sharp these days/has lost his game a bit, but to put things simply: going to ASMED is not in any way shape or form the same as going to Erdogan for a transplant. Rather, it means you're being performed on by any random members of his large team of technicians, many of whom I'm sure are good at what they do, but there's a difference between good and world class. Like comparing that guy you know who is really, really good at football/basketball and could probably play semi-proffesionally to say Messi or Lebron. No comparison.

There's nothing wrong with being performed on by a small team of long standing technicians of a clinic along with the doctors close involvement, as is the case with someone like Feriduni, as they have been trained expertly and are consistent, day in, day out. If Erdogan was running a small clinic with the same team in this manner then it would be a different story, but his clinic is huge now and has been for ages, who knows who's going to be operating on you. 

So, I understand its bothersome/confusing and it's hard to know who/what to believe as you thought you'd done research in the past and may feel like it didn't really matter, but the key is just to pick a world class clinic who are comprised of a small team at the end of the day. 

4 minutes ago, Der3k7 said:

I was Considering H&w for awhile too but felt like I saw more higher yield results from diep 🤔

I remember 6 months ago there weren't many patient posted results of couto, just his YouTube videos. Have we been seeing more patient posted results from couto? 

Also, what have you noticed about dieps results that makes you think these other surgeons are getting better results? 

At the end of the day, if you really like Diep's results then go for him, just make sure you look into what was said before you make any decisions and decide if you agree or not.

As far as Couto's results, there aren't many on here, but there are some on the Spanish forum; same deal for De Freitas and Pinto really.

3 minutes ago, Der3k7 said:

Okay I will look. What are the best surgeons you have found that I should take a look at as well?

As I say, I'm mostly in tune with European surgeons, but in the U.S./Canada, H&W, Konior, Cooley, Rahal and Shapiro are probably my favourite long standing surgeons. 

You should look into Bisanga, Feriduni, De Freitas, Pinto (I'm booked with him), Ximena Vila, Ferreira and HLC. They're who I all strongly considered and are my favourites. 

3 minutes ago, MachoVato said:

I agree with you on this. Some of Diep's work looks great. But others, not so much. Not sure if it's his cornrow approach. I see that from other clinics, too, but in the hairline it looks odd to me.

I have a total man crush on Dr. De Freita's hairlines. Just so damn nice! And Dr. Ferreira's hairlines are really impressive. (like this!)

Yeah, De Freitas is one of my favourites too. Him and Couto have the hairline formula. 

I'm also a big Ferreira fan!

Zig-zag pattern usually refers to an up and down sort of pattern at the hairline so its not a solid straight line on the first row and is broken up a little - I mean that he seems to place in lines in general rather than a completely random pattern.

Search the forum and read through some reviews of his patients, I'm sure you'll come across the same threads that I'm talking about. As I say, no shade at Diep, I'm in the UK so I've never deeply looked into him, but have seen enough results of his and this would just be something I would want to have been aware of if I was considering him for a procedure. 

I've seen some really impressive results from Diep, especially the ones he has posted on his own YouTube channel, so I'm not trying to talk badly about him, but I have also seen a fair few where the results have come out looking somewhat... artificial to me, seemingly due to the implantation pattern of straight rows he often uses. 

As always, patient posted reviews from start to finish where the poster had no idea how things would turn out in the end are the most valuable, so have a look for yourself of any surgeons you're considering and decide who you like the results of the most, who you don't, note any things that stand out to you as good/bad etc.

Don't rely too much on clinic posted results (be that on their YouTube channel or website - no matter who the clinic is) and once you've seen enough patient reviews with consistent results that you think are great then contact the clinic and see if you like them and their approach to you as a patient/customer. 

You can just order from an online pharmacy - you fill out a basic 30 second questionnaire and a dr. writes you a prescription which allows you to purchase there and then. 

Well, at least this is the case in the UK, I assume it's the same in the states. 

9 minutes ago, Rick_ said:

I've requested for a consult with the doctors mentioned in the https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/Consult-a-Physician/hair-transplant-surgeons.asp?sr=HRN-MOB in the US and Europe. Some of them have got back stating that I'm not eligible for an HT given my progression and suggested me to start on finasteride and check back after a year on finasteride. I've decided to give it a try, but, you need a prescription for it in the US. I've been trying to meet Dr Dorin to get the prescription for it and also get an analysis done on my donor area.

Could you guys suggest on how to reach Dr Dorin and also some reputable sources for finasteride(I've heard quality issues about finasteride from different suppliers)?