Balding Bad

Wow, that story sounds almost like a Family Guy episode. 😂 Although getting back on the topic of pricing, I know my previous post advocated paying top dollar for the best doc, but I do feel that there is some validity in voicing criticism when it comes to wanton overpricing being charged by some doctors. For instance I saw on another thread@g4designs was more or less balking at the the sticker shock of being quoted $25,000 for his procedure (3,000 grafts) with Dr. Konior. My hair loss is relatively similar to g4designs' and I reached out to Dr. Konior recently for a consultation as well and he quoted me at $28,000! He may be one of the top docs, but that extra $3,000 kinda seems absurd to me on top of the elevated premium he already charges. Please note I am by no means knocking him. He is free to charge whatever he feels is commensurate with his experience and skillset, but it does ultimately seem a bit arbitrary... Moreover, I just learned from a friend of mine recently that a friend of his got a HT in LA a few years ago for a whopping $40,000! At a certain point I think these prices do become unreasonable. Anyways, I guess my main point is be prepared to pay top dollar for quality work, but make sure to shop around and do your homework!

Thank you, sir. But I dunno man, your username is def a front runner for best username as well... 🤣

It's wild that anyone would ever base their hair transplant decision solely on cost. Yes, I get it, not everyone has the same financial freedom or luxury, but you gotta look at it this way: You are deciding to undergo this completely elective procedure because you are unsatisfied with how you currently look and want to improve yourself cosmetically. You are essentially investing in yourself, so why wouldn't you want to spend a premium/top dollar to ensure (or as close as possible to guaranteeing) outstanding results? Because the only other alternative to that is getting poor results, in which case you are worse off than when you first started. Not only are you thinning or bald, but now you're thinning or bald with a SCAR! 🤕🥵 It's bewildering that people are willing to gamble on their looks just to save a few bucks. It's counterintuitive and contradictory to getting a cosmetic procedure to begin with! But, hey, we all have our reasons and we are free to do as we choose I guess...

Howdy gang -- it's been just almost a week since I started this topic, but wanted to do a follow up now that my hair is 1 week longer. My main question is about my donor area. We rarely see the back of our heads and because of that I recently only discovered this weird shape in the back. 1.) Wanted to get some insight on whether or not my donor area would make me a suitable/ideal candidate for an FUE HT and if this "pattern" is of any concern? 2.) Any thoughts on my crown? Does it look okay or is it thinning out? The image below highlights what I'm referring to. Not too sure if this particular photo best illustrates it, but I've got kind of a Nightwing logo going on (or I guess it looks like a thong based on how I highlighted it 🤣). The hairs in that area just seem notably thinner... It seems more notable in the photo where I tilt my head down. For reference, all these photos were taken with no flash under natural lighting and the overhead bulb in the bathroom. I had just woken up so my hair is technically in "bed head" mode. I didn't style it or anything. So first batch is dry hair and then 2nd batch is immediately after I showered, so it's wet. **THIS IMAGE BELOW WAS TAKEN WITH PARTIAL NATURAL LIGHTING COMING IN FROM THE LEFTHAND SIDE. **THE REST OF THE IMAGES BELOW ARE TAKEN WITH NATURAL LIGHTING DIRECTLY ON THE BACK OF MY HEAD. **THESE PHOTOS BELOW ARE TAKEN AFTER SHOWER, SO HAIR IS WET.

Hey @hybonix, @PluggedIn, or anyone else for that matter that has had their procedure with SMG. I'm just wondering if you guys had an in-person consultation prior to making your decision or was it all just over-the-phone consults for you?

Hey @Style22I'm planning on going to SMG for my own FUE HT so I'm glad I caught this thread and will be able to follow your month-to-month updates! So far your progress looks great and your donor area looks incredible! Doesn't look like it's been touched at all. That being said, I'm curious about one thing. Was it your choice to completely shave your head for the operation or was this something SMG wanted?

Nice! Those are some solid results. Glad to hear you've got no side effects!

Yeah to be completely honest, even though my front hairline is clearly in bad shape I am still overall grateful I have as much hair as I do and that I'm able to use the existing hair that I have for a nice concealer effect. Part of me feels like it's a mixture of having slightly better genes and minoxidil doing it's thing. The two together are providing a good synergy in at least slowing down my hair loss. The goal is to rebuild the current hairline. I would not dare try to lower it or try to fill in the temples. I'm very realistic and I don't want to exhaust my precious donor area when there's no telling where I'll be in 10 years from now. Yeah, the photos of my donor area were kinda hard to take since I'm taking them by myself. It's been kinda muggy where I live recently, but I'd like to try to take photos again of my donor area when I have some pretty solid lighting. Anyways appreciate your insight/feedback @Curious25! 😎

Appreciate the prompt reply. I'll definitely look into this. Thanks Doc!

Hi Dr. Khokhar -- appreciate the suggestion. Where would I be able to find some alcohol and propylene glycol free minoxidil? I am currently using the generic Kirkland brand.

I'm sorry, I should have clarified. My consultation is going to be over the phone since I am located on the East Coast of the US... 😞

I would like to have a family one day and don't want to risk any potential complications with Fin. I would probably be open to the idea of Fin once I have my kids though...but in the meantime it's simply not a viable option for me. I have a colleague who is currently on topical Fin and he says he's got some mild sexual side effects, so that's kinda scary to me... That's great that you think 2-2.5k grafts would be sufficient for my front. That's what I was thinking myself. 😁 Strongly considering Dr. Ron Shapiro with Shapiro Medical Group in Minnesota since they've got a stellar reputation with natural looking frontal hairlines. My consultation is scheduled for next month. I'm kinda pumped and that's honestly why I have these pics. So I figured it'd be a good opportunity to get some additional feedback from this forum! 😎

Hi all -- I'm relatively new to this specific forum, but I've been on another forum since 2013. So just want to put out a disclaimer that I'm not a complete newb when it comes to this stuff. 😄 As the title suggests I'm a 34 year old Asian-American male and if I had to diagnose my balding I'd say I'm probably a NW3A or NW4A. My front hairline is thinning pretty bad and I recently just noticed that my crown seems to be going too. (ugh!) CURRENT HAIR LOSS PREVENTION REGIMENT: I've been only on Minoxidil for nearly 6 years (started on January 2016 when I was 28 years old). I only apply it once per day as opposed to the recommended twice daily. The reason is because it's just too much of a hassle for me to apply it every morning so it's only a night time routine. Moreover I've never had dry scalp/dandruff before and ever since I've been on Minoxidil I've been flakey AF. I contemplated taking Finasteride and in fact got a prescription for it and even picked up the bottle from the pharmacy, but I ultimately decided it wasn't worth it due to the potential sexual side effects. So it'll only ever be Minoxidil for me in terms of medical intervention. MY HAIR LOSS / FAMILY HAIR LOSS HISTORY: I started noticing my hair was thinning back in college when I was 20. At the time I wore a lot of hats so the precise age of when I started balding is unknown, but it's possible I started thinning out when I was 18 or 19, but 20 was when I definitively noticed it for the first time. My father is pretty much completely bald now. He's a NW7, but then again he's also 70 years old, so that's not much of a surprise. I did peruse some of our old family photos recently and it seems to me by the time he was 31 years old he was essentially at the same balding pattern as where I am now (if not worse). My father has about 4 other brothers and unfortunately he's the only that's bald... 🙄 My older brother (39 years old) is bald too and based on old family photos it seems he started thinning out really aggressively at around 19/20. Compared to my brother, his balding was definitely wayyyyy worse than mine. It was so bad that he started shaving his head by the time he was 23 or 24. Even though he continues to keep it shaved, based on his stubble pattern I would say he's also a firm NW7 now. MY CURRENT HAIR SITUATION: Luckily for me, I've been able to style my hair in a way that conceals my balding/thinning in the front hairline for all these years. Everyone I've ever confessed that I'm balding to are always genuinely surprised and shocked to hear that and claim they can't even tell.. That usually makes me feel good about my hair loss situation, but there's really no way of telling if they are being genuine or not. I always wonder if they actually CAN TELL but just choose not to tell me in order to make me feel better... 🤔 The idea of a hair transplant was already on my mind back in my early 20s, but I always felt that I was too young to go down that path. For me, surgery was a very extreme measure and it should only an absolute last resort. In my opinion, as long as I could continue to conceal the thinning/balding then I was winning. However recently I started to notice that it has been becoming more difficult to style my hair to conceal my frontal thinning/balding. Now that I'm upon my mid-30s I feel like now is the right time to seriously explore the hair transplant route. Moreover my company is still allowing us to "Work For Home" so it'd be a wasted opportunity if I didn't take advantage of this time to get it done. Anyways, sorry for the rambling...back on topic! Just wanted to get some opinion and insight on what you fine folks think of my hair situation. MY QUESTIONS TO ALL OF YOU: 1. How would you rate my current hair loss and what do you think my future outlook is? 2. How many grafts do you think it would take to restore my front hairline? (I'm pretty realistic and not trying to restore it to my teenage years, ideally looking to retain a mature/proper hairline for my age. Ideally I'd like to be able to slick my front back.) 3. How is my donor area? Am I an ideal candidate for a hair transplant? I'm only considering FUE. (I never noticed, but I've kinda got a weird Nightwing logo (the DC Comics character) on the back of my head, which kinda worries me...) PHOTOS BELOW: (They were all taken WITHOUT flash, except the final 3 on the bottom. These photos were also taken the day after I just got a haircut.) Here is a baseline photo of myself. This was back in May 2021. As you can see, to the untrained eye my hair seems fine. (By the way, I grow the top part of my hair out pretty long in order to use it for the 'ol snazzy Trump combover effect. 😅) But here is the reality of my hairline... THESE PHOTOS BELOW ARE TAKEN WITH FLASH***

Great thread and great progress so far. I, too, am curious to see how you're progressing! Please keep us updated if you can. 😁

Awesome, thanks for sharing. I'll be sure to comb through your thread! (pun intended) 😜 EDIT: Oh, you know what? I've actually gone through your thread already. Haha, how 'bout that! Your progress is looking great by the way!

Congrats on getting married and best of luck with your upcoming procedure @Melvin- Moderator! 😎

When did you get your operation and how many grafts did you get? Aside from the communication snafu, how was the overall experience for you?

Oh wow, sorry to hear about your lack of better customer service...but I guess ultimately in the end, the hairline results is what matters most!

Love hearing that. That instills great confidence in my selection! 🤩 Although, wait a second...how much is SMG paying you to say this?! 🤔

Wow, #6?! 😳 Good luck dude! I'm only planning on having 1 procedure for now...possibly 2 down the road should my crown start to go... Yeah, I'm actually really grateful I came upon SMG during my research. What really drew me to them was their acclaim for constructing natural frontal hairlines! I haven't been able to slick back or do the front flip with my hair for over a decade now...always have to do the combover...it's gonna be bittersweet if I can ever accomplish the slicked back look again! I miss that look so much! 😭

I feel ya. Well, hopefully you're at a better place now! 😎

Haha appreciate the lack of recommendation...but yeah, this place was never on my consideration list despite its close proximity to me. May I ask why you don't recommend them though? Were you not happy with your results from your initial FUT procedure?

He went to Dr. Rae Lynne Kinler at Ziering Medical in Greenwich, Connecticut and recommended her to me, however I haven't seen her listed on IAHRS or enough reviews to make me feel comfortable enough to consider her. I dunno, does anyone have any knowledge or prior experience with her?

You are 100% correct...but it's just human nature for us to want something immediately! 😆

Oh man, I AM TAKING THIS WRONG WAY!!! 😡 Haha, just kidding...but all joking aside you are not incorrect in your assumption. I do feel like I need this procedure ASAP, but I think it's mainly just the excitement/adrenaline of me actually starting to put thoughts into action. I've been contemplating having this procedure for over a decade now and I'm finally at the point where I've let Mother Nature run its course on my hairline and I've done enough research during this time frame and it's finally time to put up or shut up. Moreover a colleague of mine recently had undergone the procedure himself (back in January of this year) and the fact that he got it done and guided me through the process has me even more amped up. I'm also feeling a bit of FOMO because he took full advantage of the Work From Home situation, meanwhile I'm kind of stressing that our company might start making us go back in 2022, which means I squandered an amazing opportunity to have gotten this procedure without drawing any attention to myself. Currently I am able to conceal my thinning to a certain extent based on how I style my hair and NO ONE has ever suspected I am suffering hair loss...perhaps people are being kind and don't want to offend me but everyone always seems genuinely surprised when I confess I am actually losing my hair. That being said, I would hate to get the operation and then have to be thrusted back into the office setting only for me to look visibly thin/balding after the procedure. There would be this major disconnect from how people remembered me looking. I dunno, it just psyches me out. Anyways, don't get me wrong I totally understand that the waiting process is a huge component of this journey and that's why I feel like if I let the WFH perk slip by and not utilize it to my advantage then I really f'd up here! That's just where my head's at right now...but I appreciate your concern and cautioning me to take my time with this.