JDEE0

Dr Lorenzo is a good shout I would think - he has lots of experience in the area. Beyond that, I've seen numerous cases from Dr. Pinto repairing really bad work in the hairline, might be worth checking those cases out. The Belgian doctors already mentioned are also great choices!

It's just the flash from the camera, it's not thinning. And nah, unless you are allergic to whatever you're putting on your head or something very unusual like that, any product you apply isn't going to cause hair-loss. This is a hormonal issue related to androgens, whilst certain products may be bad for overall 'hair health', they're not going to lead to balding.

Yeah, for sure. I would put him in the same category and level of calibre as any world renowned surgeon, he's of an elite level and does some of the best work around and on cases of all types; NW2/3 or hairline improvements, NW5/6 restorations, amazing repairs of awful outcomes from Turkish hair mills with little donor, and so on. He has lot's of cases on the Spanish forum too - you should look at those. I see you DM'd me, so I'll reply in that with a link.

Looks really good man, I'm sure it's gonna be another amazing result added to the list for De Freitas! I'll be keeping an eye out for your progress. Pinto has lots of patient reviews, around 60 or so, on the Spanish forums (just as an FYI for anyone).

Hi, Yeah, I had surgery with Bruno back in November - you can check my thread on my profile. Anything you wanted to know in particular?

You're just straight up fear-mongering here with baseless claims and ridiculous comparisons; why? No, every doctor certainly will not tell you to avoid taking finasteride. Sure, 'if you can', the vast would say it's better to do nothing than take a hormone altering drug indefinitely, but the whole purpose of the drug is to help those experiencing negative consequences to quality of life from hairloss by stopping or slowing it down drastically. For most losing their hair who are bothered about it, it's the only real option, and without fin, this problem will worsen and continue. As such, it is recommended by many doctors across the world to those it can help, without any issue at all... there are quite literally tens of millions of prescriptions written and renewed for fin every year for the drug, so I'm not sure why you're claiming this. You also have absolutely no right to claim that 'side effects are tremendous in the long run' - according to what and who exactly? Side effects are definitely real and definitely do happen in a low percentage of overall users, and they need to be considered and known of before deciding to use the drug. But, as I say, all of the actual literature published in respectable, peer reviewed journals consistently concludes the same thing time and time again: that finasteride is a very safe well tolerated drug in the majority of people. More than this, it shows that side effects go away completely upon stopping the drug if they do appear in the first place. Apart from the fact it's just completely ridiculous to compare smoking to finasteride, you're insinuating that side effects accumulate or build up over a long long time and then rear their head later on down the line. Again, all the literature shows the opposite in that side effects usually show up fairly quickly and then get better with time. In terms of the usual side effects related to low libido/sex drive and neurological issues such as brain fog, why would it even make sense for these issues to commonly arise years and years down the line when the downstream effects of blocking 5ar happen pretty much instantly? Your DHT will be fully crashed in weeks, any potential inhibition of neurosteroids and the like as a result will also consequently take place in the same time frame. So, pretty much, in a matter of months, your body will already have been operating in this altered state for quite some time and have been deprived of X, Y and Z during this period - it really makes no logical sense that the effects of such things would build up slowly. If I blocked Testosterone, Estrogen or any other hormone in my body, the effects would be noticed very quickly, not slowly and gradually. This is obviously very well documented. Now, as far as could there be any potential implications way, way down the line that we don't know of, or currently unknown issues that could slowly develop such as what OP is asking about here? Sure. Who really knows, the drug has only been around for less than 30 years. That's still a really long time with hundreds of millions of long term users and lots of resulting data, so whilst we do have a pretty good idea that it is safe in the long term, maybe using it for 40 or 50 years straight could cause some issues, I admit we don't know the answer to this for certain. But you're going on as if this is a documented thing that's going to happen, when the exact opposite is true. Your comparisons are just silly and do nothing but provoke fear in people looking to sort their hair loss out. It's not a gamble to trust in modern medicine and scientific data from robust clinical trials and studies. I understand its not for everyone and I wish we had a better non systemic option of course, but posts like yours are just straight up pointless as there is no substance to what you say. None of it is backed up by anything other than whatever anecdotes you've read online.

European docs (the good ones) range from about 2 EUR per graft on the low side up to around 5 EUR per graft on the high side, but most generally fall between 3-4 EUR per graft.

Thanks for the encouragement mate - things are definitely heading in the right direction, we shall see if it continues to pop in the coming weeks! Yeah I have been, well, kind of.Everything has gone very smoothly and I've had no issues/I already knew everything that was coming my way, so I've not really had much to ask of the clinic as a result to be honest. I'm mostly just in contact to give periodic updates of my progress to the doc and then I also send them to Emilio the patient advisor sometimes too as he is always there to answer any questions and is always interested in what's going on as well.

Looks good - you'll most likely have all the scabs off in the next couple of days and then it's smooth sailing and you're pretty much back to normal for the most part.

Thanks! someone else actually just asked the same question above, but in short, it was only a few days to hear back from the patient advisor initially, and then I think it was around a week or so (maybe 10 days) to hear back and be told that I am suitable candidate for surgery after my case had been passed over to Dr. Pinto directly to look at.

The orange/yellow stuff just looks like fibrin to me, which is harmless and normal in and of itself, but the redder areas within those zones (along with the isolated instances of fibrin only in these areas) seems to indicate some sort of slight wound or unhealed area of skin that is open/bleeding/leaking out fluids. Maybe a slight infection, probably just an area of skin that went through a bit more trauma and hasn't fully healed up yet. Who was your doc?

Doesn't look like ink to me, and I wouldn't think that it would even be possible for it to be at 3 months in, although I'm not qualified to say that with certainty. To my eyes, it looks to be some sort of marking left over by the (I'm assuming?) implanter pens... I've never seen it before, but it looks to be discoloured 'dots' so to speak, each located where the punctures from the pen would have been. Maybe some sort of physiological issue with healing/the clinics technique (hopefully not, but perhaps they went too deep in places for example which has resulted in some pitting type scarring forming under the skin?) Or maybe it's just the grafts about to poke through the surface of the skin and so so the roots are becoming transparent though it which is leaving those black dots. Really I'm just throwing ideas around here - I don't think anyone here is going to be able to give you an answer unless this has happened to them also. I'd advise to reach out to some renowned hair transplant doctors and get their opinion, I'd give Dr. Bisanga a shout personally, even if I had to pay for a consult with him or something.

Just a quick update (last one before 3 months) at 8.5 weeks to demonstrate how things might look when hairs just begin to sprout and how this looks over the course of a few weeks... I see a lot of reviews with monthly updates where a lot has happened say between month 2 and 3, or 3 and 4, so maybe someone will find a glimpse of the in-between useful. Pictures are similar to previous ones posted (to be honest I forgot I posted a similar comparison last week at my 8 week update and have just realised looking back at my thread, but a bit more time has passed to show a little more of a difference in any case so I'll just leave up as my final posting before 3 months). First is 2 weeks ago exactly I believe, and the second is today:

I don't mean this to be abrasive or anything, just for your own sanity, but you really need to chill out my man. You're a few days out from surgery and are panicking about every aspect of things; surely you saw some Diep cases on here before you pulled the trigger with him? You really look no different to the majority of his patients I have seen at the same stage as you are now, so why the sudden panic? In any case, there's no point in working yourself up into such a state at the very beginning of your HT journey, it's done now and there is no going back. It's tough enough at the best of times waiting anxiously to see how things will turn out, or even just waiting the first 3 or 4 months to see if you will start sprouting according to schedule, and so on. It will be hell if you convince yourself now that everything is doomed and you'll go crazy, why do that to yourself when you really have 0 idea of what the outcome is going to be like?

Thanks man. I think it was only a number of days to a week or so after I responded back to their automated e-mail that said they weren't taking consultations, I know for sure the clinic are super busy and booked up, but you should still get a reply fairly quick. I was told I can shave my donor area with clippers at month 1, not sure about the recipient exactly as I can't remember, but it was a number of months as opposed to just the one. Hats were allowed (carefully, loosely and sparingly) at day 5 I think, but I wore one at day 3 to travel home and had no issues.

Yeah it's good to shave it high and tight at least once for a good idea of what you can get away with in the future. Angles look pretty good to me, they seem to flow into your native hair pretty seamlessly - you still look a little bit red under the hairs in the recipient which is also probably making it stand out more, so it will look a bit more homogenous in the future once your skin is fully back to normal too I think. Just got to be patient mate, I get it though, I'm already getting impatient and expecting to see some sort of explosion of growth and I'm only 8 and a half weeks in! I think once you're into the 6 month closing in on 7, things will be much more improved and you'll see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking good man - I think a fade into a 3 guard or so when you start getting a cm or 2 above ear level height will allow the new temple peak hair to blend in much better. Hair is coming in though, keep letting that top grow out and I think you'll be able to style it nicely in another 4-8 weeks!

Haha, thanks John - I'll keep on munching my fin anyways to stave off the need for as long as I can!

Damn, if you're natty you got some crazy good genetics... out of interest, and without sounding weird haha, what do you weigh and what's your arm size? I'm 6 foot, about 82kg at currently just under 15 percent bf, 16.5 inch arms cold, and you look like an absolute monster in comparison to me! Granted, I've only been lifting for a fraction of the amount you have....around a quarter of it, but jeez, props to you. Anyways, nah the working out has very little to do with AGA, yeah it raises T levels a little, but you would've gone as bald as you did at a very similar if not the exact same speed whether you ever stepped into a gym or not. Just genetics!

Managed to take some better pics - hair is a little bit wet as I just washed it and got out of the shower right before I took them, and I'm sat with the main light in my room on which is above me but not directly.

Yeah, I really can't tell the difference in the mirror, even when its a 0.5-1 guard, I have to take pictures and zoom in to see any discrepancies. I guess I'm lucky in this aspect as my density was up to and over 100 grafts cm/2 around the occipital (depending on the exact area), but it is evened out by my fine hair calibre and lower density of 60-70 above the ears, so overall my donor is just decent rather than amazing.

Forgot to add a pic, sorry it's pretty bad quality... it's hard to take a photo of the donor in focus when you don't use the flash and after about 10 attempts I gave up and just used this one. I'll upload some better ones in the future and get some sort of selfie stick or something to help me do it easier, but for now it still shows generally how my hair looks about 2 weeks after a fade as shown in previous pics of my donor:

I think your donor looks decent enough at the back, but the sides/above your ears look to be quite thin and it will probably be impossible to harvest grafts from there. Combine this with your advanced level of loss and it makes you a not so good candidate, with that said, if you go to the right doctor and have reasonable expectations, I think you can have work done. You'll need to use beard, which luckily looks very strong, and to be honest I would just go straight to Eugenix for a consultation.

Looking good man - I can see the little sprouts you're talking about in between the longer hair that didn't shed. Nearly over the top of the hill now and you should be seeing some more noticeable change beginning in the next 4-6 weeks. And I think you should just add your pre surgery pics into this thread and keep it going!