NARMAK

Thanks for sharing your update and that side by side imo definitely shows a noticeable difference of how natural the hair now looks compared to before. I haven't got any haircut myself yet so i don't know what's the lowest grade i could go, but i'm hoping to try a 2 Guard at some point to see how things play out. You're about a month ahead of me but the fact that you still have hair ready to sprout and thicken is a good sign imo. Means you're still getting an improvement and hopefully will up to 12-18 months.

It's a discount for the US i guess considering their usual prices. However surprised this wasn't an advert from Turkey lol. Also, that picture makes it look like that hairy creature from The Addams Family getting a HT from that angle.

Welcome to the forum. I can't go through every point but want to help a bit. Your age isn't really young and your hair loss seems really steady for the age but i would strongly recommend you try Finasteride and give it 12+ months. You could actually recover ground around the temple points and might not look as receded/thin which is what i think is bothering you the most at present. You have pretty defined temple points and so you could if you wanted to consider lowering the hairline a little but it would be strongly recommended to ensure you use Finasteride and control the progression of any further hair loss or you'll end up chasing the hair loss. If i was in your situation, i would use Finasteride for 12 to 24 months and then re-evaluate but put money aside for any potential hair transplant. Reputable clinics will sometimes have a wait list so good to do your research. Glad you saved yourself from a hair mill. Unfortunately we live in an image obsessed social media age where hair is manipulated with photoshop to look even better than people have it in real life. I would personally say don't rush. There's nothing in your case that should be causing you massive anxiety and a proper hair style cannot help assist with for now.

Thanks Ray. I think an important part of it for me right now compared to like 2 months ago, is that i'm actually not focusing on my hairline as much and being concerned about those areas where i felt there was more noticeable gaps. I think the temple points where some hair shed and had a bit more of a gappy look seems like it's slowly filling in again, but for people that go through a hair transplant, i think it's really important for me to capture how i felt month to month because there's a lot of other people out there that could be feeling a similar way and then wonder when they might expect things to change and get reassurance. Of course, it's not 100% like for like, but enough to get an idea. I'm grateful i'm not a really late grower, but perhaps being a little bit greedy, i can say i hope there's a little more growth of new hair still coming so that will further add density to the hairline but i do not think anybody should ever be under the illusion that one pass will get them that perfect coverage usually. There's probably an exception here and there including this forum but i think by the end of this and come 12 months, the foundation by and large will be in place like you said. I think generally the trend is a 1st Hair Transplant establishes design and foundation. A 2nd HT can be used for additional density and hairline design refinement. I also think if i were to use it, hair fibres probably would boost the visual look quite a bit. I just don't like the idea of washing my hair out constantly but that's just my lazy side lol

Thanks for the reply. I do definitely think the frontal hairline has thickened and matured quicker than the temple points but i'm taking that as a positive sign that the hair there are the right calibre of hair. I always said my timeline for full maturity was 12-18 months but but i think there's definitely been more positive improvements over the last 2 months too. I think because i had kept such solid density on my frontal hairline and it wasn't drastically lowered down, until you see the transplanted hair fully thicken and mature, there's more of a see through and thinner look there at the moment, but not yo the point i feel like i need to go hide under a hat. I think the framing the temple points and restored hairline have given me is pretty good but medication was such a huge thing for me too. It's actually probably something that i think is still benefiting me as i'm only less than 2 years on Dutasteride so far but i saw really solid changes.

Imo you definitely have hair loss. You're about a Norwood 2. Not really a true Norwood 3 imo but i could see how some might think you're heading there. The issue i do see with your crown image could simply be the lighting or way the hairs parted. It actually is natural to look a bit thinner with the 360 spiral way and how the hair around the area is. Are you currently on any medication or anything? Personally if i had temple points like you did, as a Norwood 2, i probably wouldn't have got a hair transplant but just used medication because with proper hair styling, you can get away with looking solid.

6ish Months Update Apologies for the delay guys. I've taken these pictures to showcase the roughly 6 months results. I've had a bit of an issue trying to capture the images so i will be taking some more soon and with the wet hair and different lighting. Right now, i've got the pictures og the hair just relaxed as it is, for the frontal hairline and both temple point sides and then also with me holding the hair back. Overall i feel like certain areas have filled in a bit more now where there was gaps maybe towards months 4 or so. However i do think those hairs that are there hopefully can thicken up and mature more, because on the relaxed photos, you can see the hairline looks a little more thinner at present.

Are you actually on medication like Finasteride for example at present to prevent future hair loss? Temple points can really help frame the face but i wouldn't say yours look like they would recede drastically much more back. Your age is still liable to leave you receding further on top and usually temple points and hairline have to be done in tandem to maintain a good balance to each other even if its just a small refinement. I guess my thread can give you a slightly better idea of what i mean with images there.

Whilst i do believe people can change, i would be hesitant to select people without a proven track record generally as a Hair Transplant specialist. You have a finite donor and you don't want to be playing Russian Roulette with it Even if unlimited hair clone grafts or whatever became a reality, i would only want to go to somebody experienced and trust my hairline to them because the above is going to cause an explosion in hair mills even more than now. Personally i have talked about even making a commitment to restock my donor area in the future if it becomes a reality so that i can have great density all around.

I will be honest, i hope there's more growth but in the back of my mind, i have a small nagging feeling that i probably have had quite a lot of the growth so far if new hairs. However, if the hair that's sprouting here and there to fill in does darken and mature, i'll be really happy. I think the temple points in particular do feel like i'm more at the halfway point compared to the hairline with how they're not as dark or thickened up yet. Personally i do think that my dandruff/dry skin/inflammation issue has hindered me a but but i can't be 100% scientifically accurate on that. What i do also think is that there could have been a bit of late shedding too which might have possibly caused a bit of lower density and thinning look in that left side. Maybe. It's harder to say. Pictures aren't unfortunately the same as looking in the mirror and noticing things looking a certain way i think.

Well, i guess i shall try post my belated 6 months update soon. I've unfortunately been slammed with work and personal life, but i have given myself time to get all the pictures done soon and uploaded. It's still only 6 months so far and more than 6+ months to go really if i can see some maturity even up until 18 months post-op. I think i'll just draw a line under the above and move forwards.

At a depth of 1.5mm, you are simply not going deep enough to usually cause permanent damage to any potential hair transplant and there's evidence to suggest Microneedling is highly effective for hair regrowth in people alongside Minoxodil or solo. You would need to be incredibly haphazard in Microneedling to cause permanent damage imo.

OP went to get a Hair Transplant from what now appears to be a very dubious clinic, with sub par results that has rebranded itself from when previous forum members had also experienced issues. He had got more grafts extracted than implanted and the clinic attempted typical hair mill deflection tactics when he tried to talk with them.

OP has since clarified it was actually a constructive personal discussion, not necessarily an out of the blue type of criticism message which due to the wording, i thought was at first based on OPs wording, a somewhat insensitive sounding thing since he said how it made him feel. No harm, no foul as they say. I'm sure you would also agree though if somebody did randomly message a vulnerable individual like OP and make a denigrating comment towards him in a vulnerable time like this, that would have been wrong. Obviously we now know the context a bit better, so it's not like that at all.

Report that person to @Melvin- Moderator and they should be reprimanded if that's what they've said. Thank you for having posted the name and i said this before OP but what is done, is done. Please concentrate on your recovery and in 12-18 months time or however long you need, you can feel free to come back here and seek help in finding a solution to any issues you might have. The good apples on here will always help you. There's literally no reason anybody should be giving you any grief whatsoever given your specific situation. Thank you for feeling brave enough to share your story and seek help here.

Dr Sethi is definitely a solid doctor too you can see examples from but the only reason i am hesitant to mention Dr Sethi is because Eugenix seem to have a policy in place where they don't highlight exactly who the doctor is that performed the procedures. Even if you ask, they generally would say all doctors are trained by the founding doctors etc. So, in terms of finding specific temple point work just from Dr Sethi this is made harder by the above.

You definitely have hair loss and whether you should take Finasteride is a personal choice that should be made once you have properly educated yourself and got enough checks done for your health to feel satisfied you can start and measure against if you need to stop or see any side affects. I personally am on medication and would be on the side that says it's safe for the vast majority of users without significant incidence of persistent side affects but there's different opinions out there and ultimately you have to make your mind up and choose whether you want to use it. It is as others have mentioned a more of less lifetime medication or in real terms for as long as you want to keep your native hair. The fact that you aren't taking Finasteride regularly isn't also going to give people enough to go on in terms of telling you what could be side affects but you do have these listed on the medication pamphlets and usually can line them up if they weren't there before.

Dr Cuoto has an entire video on YouTube showcasing some, but if you look at his other videos too, there's plenty of examples. Personally feel like he has great results on the whole.

Thanks for the reply and further pictures. Tbh, just because you had hair loss, hair transplant shouldn't have ever been your first answer. You really should have tried medication first because now you potentially have to deal with a deleted donor area and other hair loss in the future will leave you with almost no solution. What's done is done. We can't go back and right now all you can do is concentrate on healing up and after 6 months, shock loss if it happened to you should resolve. The rest would be harvesting.

Glad to hear from you OP. I think Dr Cuoto would be an amazing choice and knows how to deal with thicker hair too, but think his wait list is really full for years and even to get in touch for a consultation seems to be closed atm. Drawdownfx is going to Dr De Freitas soon and would probably be a great time to get his experience on how things went for a more personal opinion. I definitely think your case was not handled well at all tbh and i completely understand why you didn't want to return. I do sincerely hope you get the outcome you wanted to all along and i think it's really unfortunate how things unfolded thus far. Thanks again for sharing the full journey with us and i hope you'll keep us in the loop for any future updates if you do get things sorted elsewhere. All the best.

Personally and this is just my opinion, because i think Dr Bloxham is smart enough, he wouldn't mention reinforcing into a persons frontal area willy nilly unless it actually helped because as a surgeon, he would know about the possible permanent shock loss that could arise into native areas without hair loss. Also, "minor side recession" and 3200 grafts doesn't compute for me at all. I had a complete temple point rebuild and frontal hairline restoration at just over 2k grafts and some may say mine wasn't necessarily "minor". 3200 in comparison is more closer to a sizeable operation and for like NW3/4 possibly.

I cannot speak for Eugenix obviously in terms of exactly what they mean by wearing it longer, but just as an observation from own POV, the trends of recent times have been people keeping their hair very, very short around the donor area. Skin fades etc. and obviously that will expose FUE punch scarring more or in some cases even at a slightly higher guard than a skin fade, still leave the hair short enough to not cover over that FUE extraction and give the appearance of the donor being more patchy. Now, with that above said, i actually do not for a second thing that explains what happened in the case of OP at all in terms of the homogeneity of the extractions and other issues that arose. Also, you are correct, we only see the cases people share, but just like the majority of satisfied people don't share experiences and those with negative experiences tend to share more, with Eugenix having obviously expanded more and gaining popularity, i think it was only natural to end up at a point where we perhaps saw this happen where more people with issues may come forwards. Overall though as a proportion, i would still err to think the incidence of negative cases is likely smaller than positive outcomes. That doesn't mean it in any way, shape or form excuses the clinic whether it is Eugenix or elsewhere from having had those issues which are clinic side having happened and its on them to address. I think this thread did unfortunately show the response at the time wasn't what we expected and perhaps, i would also have the same issues as OP if i maybe did go shorter on the sides even to a more "reasonable" guard of 2/3, and if that happened, i can assure you, i would 1 million percent not be happy. Visually my hair appears without issues in terms of donor at the current length and i do actually prefer to keep it longer, but a few have also asked me about the donor area, and the truth is apart from the 1st month post-op shots, i don't really have much more pictures with short hair.

I personally looked at OPs case and it did cause me concern for my own procedure at the time which was coming up. Personally speaking, i feel like the clinic didn't nail everything as perfectly for myself as they could have either but i wouldn't call things generally as a trend "bad" from Eugenix. Although there are definitely isolated cases like this that are not a good showing for them given their reputation. However, i think on balance, they're definitely a more professional outfit than most hair mills you see sucker people in and completely ruin them. I hope OP is doing well and found a solution as it has been some time since his last update.

Yeah, i don't quite know why, but i feel like it actually lost some density in that area from how it looked from Months 4 and 5ish, to now. Perhaps it could be late shedding which would be unusual but a possibility i guess and may regrow in and look more full again. I was only focusing on the specific part of the front left hairline that's looking thinner and a bit more patchy. If you look to the parts left and right of that patch, that's all pretty much transplanted and has more density. I felt it was a pretty obvious disconnect between the two. I just don't know why though. Hopefully it'll catch up soon and fill in again to look better. I'll be taking more photos to do a proper 6 months update soon. I'll also give different lighting.

I have taken one picture with flash when i was trying to highlight the thinner frontal patch on the left of the frontal hairline. If i'm perfectly honest overall though, flash makes it look worse because it exposes the illusion of density even more so. There's a different light in a part of the house that also more harshly exposes the hairline overall too. I may just take photos in that for comparison purposes too just to highlight to people the "Illusion of Density" we deal with in HTs i guess. For now, here's a couple pictures with the flash of the frontal hairline patch that's concerned me leading into Month 6.