New_Barnet_Please

Just agreeing with you that that’s everything you don’t want to hear 🙂

As others have said at the start of this thread, in my opinion there are much much better ht doctors outside the UK in Europe for usually less money. I’m from the UK and so glad I used this forum and did not stay there for my ht.

Good stuff, I agree with most, I would take issue with the idea that you can’t grow new follicles with minoxidil though - that’s what it does! See the Reddit link in my previous post on this thread for a huge amount of evidence of that. Although it’s true if there’s no hair there at all there’s less chance of getting a good result on the beard with minox.

Great results and improvement already, congratulations you deserve it after all the careful research and planning 👍🏼

You’ve done research and chosen a great surgeon, no reason to feel “guilty” - it’ll look way better after surgery so why not go for it! Only consideration is long term med use and probably needing another surgery in the future, if it bothers you and you’re ok with these 2 things then sure you’ll feel much better with your new look - I do for sure 🙂. After seeing your temples in the above picture they look ok to me but discuss in your planning with your in person consultation.

It’s quite a major trauma to the scalp so I’m afraid there’s not much way to hide it other than a hat. At 2.5 weeks you’ll just about be over the worst of it for scabs coming off etc so that’s good. Your donor will quickly not be obvious with FUE as hair grows around it to cover it. The recipient area however will be red for likely quite some time and only really start to look better at around 3 months (everyone is different though). So unfortunately it will most likely be visible, but we often overestimate how much anyone actually cares! You’re investing in yourself and will hopefully have a great result by the end so putting up with some redness and maybe having to tell people is a small price to pay. Be confident in yourself and try not to worry about what anyone might think :0) Check my thread if you’re interested to see how it might look at 1 month. If anyone asks you could say you are recovering from a skin condition if you really don’t want to say you had a ht. Most people won’t pry and as I say how much people care is mostly in our heads!

I have no cobblestoning, it looks the same as pre-surgery, now just waiting for growth. Recipient area is a little red still after 2 months, donor area of the neck and below chin heals so well - no scarring there at all already! From my research I think scalp hair to beard is actually a very different procedure to beard to beard as the hair can be quite different. In that case it seems to have more chance of looking unnatural and more complications. For me personally I don’t think I would do scalp hair to beard, but I am fortunate to have enough donor on the neck and under the chin for the cheeks. Also the risk is less in my case as I don’t want a very thick beard so the density isn’t that great, just to have something there on the cheeks to have a consistent beard. I don’t want to go into it much as I’d rather just create a thread in a few months with all the details but good luck with your research 👍🏼

If it’s for yourself you could try topical minoxidil on the beard, it takes a year of daily application but if you are a responder the results are permanent (unlike with the scalp). See Reddit.com/minoxbeards for others that have achieved it. Unfortunately I was an apparently rare non-responder for this, so I did have a beard to beard FUE surgery a few months ago. I won’t comment on it yet as for this one I’m just going to create a thread when the result is in at 8-9 months 🙂

While it’s fair to point out risks (as with anything in life) this thread is pretty negative!! The best of the best surgeons often discussed on the forum have a very very high success rate - and they are often so confident from that consistency that they offer a guarantee of a high % growth or they would do something about it to fix it! Like any big decision it’s just important to take time to research (more than “days” 😛), avoid deliberate misinformation from bad sources (such as hair mill Instagram pages) and make a good choice of surgeon.

I don’t know about that, but there’s a big difference between someone who has zero knowledge and may come to the forum asking for advice about a first ht and someone who has carefully researched all about how ht works and has been living hair loss for years researching to find a solution in a ht, with all the physical experience that entails as well. So the latter can generally give a lot of helpful advice and help “newbies” avoid the many traps and deliberate misinformation, that’s why this forum is so valuable to many.

No I would not. Just spend a few hours looking in detail at the results from the names mentioned as the best in the EU and the average result of this doctor and you can easily see for yourself. You are absolutely not overthinking it, it’s a serious procedure and it’s very very important to do a lot of research to understand it all as much as possible before going ahead with your chosen doctor.

Density clearly can be a big issue with Dr Arshad, just from posts here it seems like a large number of patients that have posted have had to go back for a second procedure for a “top up” - which is just that the job wasn’t done right the first time. “Top up” sounds friendly but it’s 2 years of your life waiting for a result instead of 1 and 2 rounds of quite unpleasant and stressful surgery experience instead of 1 - and as I said it should not be necessary. Never seen an elite doctor on this forum needing to go over the whole area again because the density is unacceptable to the patient because so many grafts didn’t take. So yeah, Dr Arshad is definitely not where I’d want to go to add density to a ht.

You may not get the thickness to have it look good at all when shaved right down you know. If I’m honest it sounds like you could do with doing quite a bit more research. A HT is a serious procedure that can have life changing consequences, and not necessarily in a good way. I’m a bit concerned that the clinic doesn’t seem to have talked over the hairline or if your expectations are possible. What surgeon will you have and which branch? Have you researched the surgeon in detail on this and other forums?

I would absolutely say don't stay in the UK or go to Dr Arshad, there are much better options in Europe.

Hi, no sorry I don’t - my hair has never naturally grown in a way that a slicked back style would work for my face, so for the ht design we actually specifically designed it to not fall in that way to keep a natural look for me.

Awesome, not quite so long to wait then - cheers!

Hmm weird, my head was shaved at the clinic the day before surgery and when the lines for the HT plan were put on my head the day before surgery by Dr Bisanga they were done in some kind of marker pen that definetely wasn't going to fade away or go anywhere.

Thanks for the video @Melvin- Moderator! You mentioned the difference in hair growth cycles for beard hair. I was wondering if you know, in a beard (neck) to beard (instead of to scalp) transplant if that means that the result comes in faster? Or is it still around the 4 months to see some growth and around 12 months for the final result?

I had quite bad dandruff which seemed to get worse 3-4 years ago, even Nizoral didn’t make a difference. I noticed when at the hairdresser it seemed to be worst in one area, when the hairdresser would run the comb through that area it would be embarrassing as a lot of visible big flakes would fall down but I never really knew what to do about it. When I had my HT over a year ago my head was shaved all the way down for the first time in my life, I noticed there was an area of my scalp above the left ear which was red and flaky. This was where the worst area was for the dandruff. I researched online and found someone recommending Clobex for psoriasis, the pictures of psoriasis look extreme in many cases but I did wonder if I had a mild case/patch of it so wanted to give it a try. I’ve actually only recently got around to trying it even though I’ve had the bottle a long time - the results were incredible, it totally cleared up the bad dandruff coming from that area in just one use! No need to even use it again so far. Couldn’t believe a medication worked so well, or that I’d been dealing with this embarrassing dandruff for many years when there was such an instant fix!! I wanted to share this in case it might help someone else discover the same thing, I expect it wouldn’t be the case for all over the scalp but if you find you have heavy dandruff which seems worse in one area this could be worth asking a dermatologist to check for mild psoriasis and exploring Clobex. I still have a bit of normal light dandruff from the rest of the scalp but this is normal now like anyone might have. I’ve been using T/Gel shampoo which I’ve seen recommended and has been ok but do drop a comment if you’ve found a better regular use shampoo for this :0)

Since getting my HT about a year and a half ago, I noticed periodically from 1 year onwards sometimes patches of it look a little thinner than the result that I had before. It always made me concerned but the patches always grew back to the previous thickness 1-2 months later and I breathed a sign of relief. In the end I stopped worrying about it and thought it must be because all the hair grew at the same time. I just came across this great video by @Rolandas which explains the phenomenon perfectly and I really think not many people seem aware of it and not many doctors mention it to their patients. Maybe people aren't thinking over 1 year ahead at that point but it's useful to be aware of to avoid worrying over nothing

I’m surprised more people don’t do at least a minor version of this. All the time I see a ht around the small patch of hair they have when it’s obvious that will also go. I requested some overlap on mine and Dr Bisanga agreed, for the reasons you state - I wanted it to last as long as possible without requiring another procedure.

Straight up results more than anything, I talk about it in the last post on my thread in detail if you’re interested, cheers

Please link to the studies you refer to

2 months is too early to see proper results, good luck for the coming months :0)

No, the oral version works great for me without messing around with the topical. In fact I’m a non-responder to the topical version.