davidn

Just now, Melvin- Moderator said:

The research is only as good as the surgeon. That’s my point, while one surgeon may only get 29% another may get 80-85%. 

Is there an actual reason why it is lower in the first place? Is it because the grafts are harder to extract and thus more frequently damaged under a bad surgeon?

I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Statistically, yes it is far more common to be bald in your 40s/50s/60s than early 20s, this is just the reality and implicitly implied each time someone says "hair loss is progressive". I think it is a valid thing to say that many young men feel like being bald is a significant disadvantage for them in the romantic market or even in the job market if you consider things like the halo effect etc. Chances are being bald makes you less attractive. This doesnt mean that every bald man is unattractive obviously. But there are studies in which >20% of men admit feeling depressed by losing their hair. This is in self-reports which are usually skewed as men are embarassed by admitting depression over vanity. I am all for bald positivity and think for many men it is the most sustainable option, but I think we are not entirely honest with ourselves telling people that there is an easy solution which is shaving their head and embracing it, as we wouldn't need coping mechanisms and support communities if it wasn't a big deal for many men. The hair transplant market wouldn't be projected to grow so much in the next years if it was true. However, it is a valid thing to say for people in their 40s/50s/60s as well that they absolutely care how they look and want to look good and feel good about themselves even when older. This is what young men often neglect when they don't do smart planning with hair transplants. Of course you don't wanna look ridiculous at 50 when you have children and a wife and be constantly made fun of by colleagues and such having big ass scars all over your head.

These results are ridiculously good. It is a really game-changing hair transplant and high Norwoods will point at this when their doctors say a hair transplant is not feasible as they are too far gone.

Top Five HT Doctor

Obviously I am biased towards the work I see more frequently and the content the clinics create. I didnt see many independent reviews from Zarev or Couto. Moreover, for example, bhr made a recent video about their donor Evaluation process. Other clinics may do that as well, I am just not so familiar with that.

1) Dr Bisanga. What convinces me is his data-driven evaluation of donor. Experience is nice, but I think it is really beneficial to supplement experience with data.

2) Hattingen. Not only are they amazing in the surgery, but Dr Muresanu is very ethical and does not follow industry trends. He is excellent with Fut and Fue so that is a bonus.

3) Dr Pinto. Everything I have seen from him so far looked like amazing work.

4) Dr Ferreira. Same as Dr Pinto.

5) Eugenix. What I like is that they are good at supplementing with body hair to save donor and give coverage to high Norwoods.

Bottom Three HT Doctors

To be honest I don't have much interest in the bottom, as their work will never play a role in my life. But 3 which 

1) Hair of Istanbul 

2) Asli Tarsan

3) Elithair?

Hair of Istanbul 

Dr Ferreira (just very clean work imo), Dr Muresanu (very ethical and FUT/FUE specialist), Dr Shapiro (pioneer doing valuable research, his lifetime graft study is cited all the time in fut/fue debates) 

I think the best option (I am not a doctor, just a layperson) is to go with a multi-facet approach in your case. Place beard into the donor to break the pattern, extract some grafts which can be reused and place it into the donor as well, search for some amazing laser studio, laser off the rest, search for excellent smp, do smp all over and then go buy your mum a house. But that is just my opinion. You found excellent repair docs already. I think Bisanga is one of the most ethical in the business. He will guide you right I hope. 

12 minutes ago, JC71 said:

If you go back and look at the first images you can see a 5 type pattern, that’s is not to say your there yet at all. But it’s clear to see how your loss is developing. What you do have is a appropriate hairline and what appears to be a excellent donor area still. 4K was a lot of grafts to do at a early age. Most clinics would not have even considered you as a patient at that age. But it’s done and it looks fine, and I get it, who wants to be balding at 21. 

thanks. yeah, I also have a lot of beard growth under my chin. Perhaps that helps too?

4 minutes ago, JC71 said:

It’s the unknown, you could stay where your currently at, or it may progress. Nobody would be able to say for sure. I would be speaking to your Dr regarding your issue and see erm what comes up (pun intended) 

thanks man. But you think it would alright if it progresses, aka no too obvious weird pattern?

4 minutes ago, JC71 said:

Yes your pattern looks around the 5a and your father could be anything up to 6. What’s important here is the MPB is strong in your family. As you started to lose hair young then of course your more likely to keep losing it. However none of us can be totally assured where we are going to end up. We don’t all end up 6/7 thankfully 😂

thanks for your estimate. I am not in a good situation then without finasteride..

10 minutes ago, digi23 said:

Well NW6 dips lower, well below the horseshoe.

I would say Norwood 5A, it is the pattern I see in you in one of your pics aswell.

honestly I would say 5V is a good estimate.

1 minute ago, digi23 said:

Hmm your dad does NOT look like Norwood 6? He does have hair on top still, not sure what Norwood this is because the photo is not extremely clear but he seem to have receeded alot on the temples. 

I think @JC71 the master can say what Norwood he is.

yes, but it is a typical comb-over tbh. he doesnt have much hair outside of the classical horseshoe.

2 minutes ago, digi23 said:

Well to be able to answer if you need meds in the first place, if you are just going norwood 5 you might be able to have good hair without finasteride. You should not take finasteride with these sides, so just trying to help you.

These photos are not so good so I cant really say, I guess you can check up the norwood scale yourself, atleast I tried.

yo I am totally sorry! This was misunderstood, thanks for trying. Makes sense. I just dont have good quality pictures from before the transplant. I am a Norwood 5, my dad is a norwood 6. However, I have found a pic of my dad as I am pretty much resembling his hair loss. He is 60 now.

2 minutes ago, digi23 said:

Its not really a good photo to see but donor looks good on that.

Need photos of all areas, the area with loss aswell to asess which Norwood level

yeah sry. Why do you need these photos? I am heavily balding in the crown right now, that's it.

3 minutes ago, Berba11 said:

He looks totally normal. Here he is again with a very, very short buzz: https://www.alamy.com/munich-germany-27th-july-2021-benedikt-hwedes-commentator-takes-part-in-a-press-conference-of-amazon-prime-video-amazon-will-show-champions-league-matches-from-the-202122-season-on-its-paid-streaming-service-the-online-giant-will-show-the-respective-top-match-on-tuesday-evening-credit-sven-hoppedpaalamy-live-news-image436298817.html

 

Look, you went under the knife. There's ALWAYS going to be some level of compromise somewhere along the journey. You're not going to look like a freak by any means though!

Your best bet moving forward is a DHT blocker, but obviously you need to find a way to circumvent the [possible] side effects. You mentioned you tried lower dosage/topical. Can you explain in more detail what you were doing exactly?

thanks man. I think I am seeing everything too dramatic right now, I basically think that my life is destroyed right now and I feel a bit stuck between looking freakish and risking my health.. Yeah he looks decent, but I still see a difference to a normal buzzcut. Maybe I am too harsh. Regarding the DHT: First I have tried oral Finasteride 0.25mg, then I have ordered 0.2% topical Finasteride solution from Minoxidilmaxx and applied 0.025 ml of it.

5 minutes ago, digi23 said:

You looked to be heading towards Norwood 5? Do you have some photos before transplant and on donor area. Usually if you got a decent enough donor, and norwood 5 you dont need to take meds and still get away with decent hair. Norwood 6+ its a little more difficult, then you would need a really good donor.

.

4 minutes ago, Berba11 said:

For three years?? I get that you weren't sexually active (with a partner), but had you really gone all that time without noticing this?

A friend of mine (and I actually do mean a mate - I'm not talking about me here!) struggles to get wood with his partner(s) but has no problem by himself. It's clearly some sort of psychological barrier as there's nothing wrong with the plumbing. Gets by fine on viagra and has done since his early 20's (which sounds mad to me, but needs must and all that...).

You may well be completely correct, but it does somewhat seem like the issue might be misdiagnosed here?

nah man. I guess I was just in denial to be honest. I consider taking something like Vialis now, but I am not sure what to do to be honest, looking for advice.

6 minutes ago, JC71 said:

You can always look in to SMP if you want to enhance your hair ? But you won’t look “freakish” regardless. The 4K worth of grafts is going to be ok. Just the rest of your native hair may continue to go down the MPB route. Maybe consider another ht somewhere down the line ? 

for instance lok at this guy: https://www.google.com/search?q=benedikt+höwedes&sxsrf=AOaemvIM9-fb-sis01rWu7II72Z36G_SYA:1636560582867&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwigp8ehl470AhX6g_0HHRS6AX0Q_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=2304&bih=1130&dpr=0.83#imgrc=vPqFPiYXKtY0BM

I think he looks a bit odd. Something is not right. I do not think that the average person would immediately think that it is a failed hair transplant, but I do not think it looks like a normal buzzed head too. You know what I mean? I think that the hair line comes out too much. Do you think it would look approximately like that for me?

3 minutes ago, JC71 said:

You can always look in to SMP if you want to enhance your hair ? But you won’t look “freakish” regardless. The 4K worth of grafts is going to be ok. Just the rest of your native hair may continue to go down the MPB route. Maybe consider another ht somewhere down the line ? 

yeah exactly, but would it look super unnatural if there is hair growing at the front and the second third of the head, but no hair at all at the crown and the mid scalp? Like a sudden stoppage of hair? Anyway, thanks a lot for your answers man. Really appreciate it. 

5 minutes ago, JDEE0 said:

I don't mean this in a rude way or anything, more out of curiosity, but you never noticed for years on end that you couldn't get hard enough to even have sex? I could understand if someone felt that maybe they were 5-10% less than they used to be or something, but how do you not notice you can only achieve a semi for such a long time?Surely when you began using fin, at some point you realised you were flying essentially at half mast?

Anyways, if you've tried *low dose* topical and you're still having trouble, then yeah just quit. You won't look freakish if the work was good, no. You might look like you're just balding mostly in the crown and midscalp or you might look like you have a bit of a weird balding pattern, but it shouldn't look weird really if you went to a good surgeon.

Either way, if you can't get it up then you should obviously just stop and worry about the rest later, that's most important here. There's always SMP, further transplants without meds if viable, keeping what you have for now and seeing how you get on, or just shaving it short and leaving it alone.

I know what you mean. Seems odd. The thing is that I didnt really get what erectile dysfunction actually is, I mean I could still do it to myself and come, you do not have to be fully hard to do that. So I was basically at 70% or something. I basically thought "if I can get him up, it seems to work!" and as I said, I did not have any reference for sex until this point.

3 minutes ago, Gokuhairline said:

i dont understand ? just shave it all and look like a normal bald person..why would you look freakishly unless theres scars ? 

because there is scars in the back from 4000 fue grafts. for instance, this dude here does not look like a normal bald person imho: https://www.google.com/search?q=benedikt+höwedes&sxsrf=AOaemvIM9-fb-sis01rWu7II72Z36G_SYA:1636560582867&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwigp8ehl470AhX6g_0HHRS6AX0Q_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=2304&bih=1130&dpr=0.83#imgrc=m7dtyLJiJdtgxM

1 minute ago, Gokuhairline said:

no amount of hair is worth any side effects specially sexual side effects....good luck, hope it gets better. 

thanks for your answer. However, do you think I would look totally freakish if the balding continues? I am really scared of looking disastrous.

Hey together,

I unfortunately am in a pretty stupid situation. The thing is that I have had a hair transplant at 22 after I already had quite a good amount of hair loss. I was on Finasteride 1mg for approximately one year when I did the procedure and 2 years after the procedue.  I had 4000 Grafts done via FUE. I am 25 now and off the Finasteride for 2,5 months, but with small intervals of trying different dosages or topical Finasteride within these 2.5 months.  I was never really sexually active before the transplant and did not realise that I actually had softer erections on the Finasteride, which are not hard enough for sexual intercourse. It was not Placebo, after it happened the first time, I thought it is just inexperience, but when it happened over and over again, it was hard to deny that it was probably the Finasteride. So I got off the Finasteride and things got better. I have also tried to reduce the dosage and to try it topically, but I feel the same with each of these attempts. However, now I have already done a transplant, so I am not exactly sure how to proceed from here. Will I look freakish if I just accept the hair loss of the non-transplanted hair or would it look relatively normal? Can I still somehow avoid a disaster without taking Finasteride? I am asking because my goal isn't necessarily to have great hair anymore, but to look like a normal bald dude would be enough for me, without weird looking grafts in my hair line and a very noticeable scarring in my donor. I wanna avoid a disaster. I actually think the hair transplant clinic did a really good job, but I did not realize that my erections aren't as they should be. I currently do not really know how to proceed, I obiously need to find a solution to my erection problem, and also would like to avoid looking like a freak in a year or so. I really appreciate your help, I do not really find a solution for my problem right now.