Tiger2050

5 hours ago, Bhl said:

I can't tell all these anecdotes of people on youtube/reddit are genuine or not.. certainly people talk about generics giving them less positive results, and more side effects, some even report massive shedding after switcing to generic from branded.

It’s genuine, a bunch of doctors mention this as well including Cooley and H&W. I believe Cooley recommends Teva brand generic finasteride if you can’t use Propecia. I lost a bit of ground and had massive shedding when I switch from Propecia to an Indian generic, shedding didn’t stop until I switched back to Propecia. I use dutasteride now but if you want to save a bit of money get  the name brand Proscar and split it into quarters.

On 10/7/2022 at 9:17 PM, thetdog666 said:

I started on 2.5mg and had no side so went upto 5mg. Yeah tressless annoys me, to many young imature people on there!

What does the article actually say? Is he a famous doc over in Australia for hairloss?

 

Rodney Sinclair is the doctor that started the oral minoxidil trend. Sinclair was the first doctor to publish studies about oral minoxidil for hair loss and other doctors started prescribing it because of his studies. Sinclair is a co-author on a lot of the major oral minoxidil studies and is currently conducting clinical trials for sublingual minoxidil.

I had this side effect when I tried to increase my dose to 5mg after a few weeks on 2.5mg. About 3 months later I switched to 5 mg and didn’t have the side effect anymore. I suggest trying a lower dose and slowly working your way up to 2.5mg or a dose you can tolerate.

9 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

Lets not hijack OPs thread please. 

No intention of hijacking OPs thread, just providing an example timeline. 14 weeks is very early, I was still in the ugly duckling phase and saw most of my growth between 6-8 months.

Here’s my growth at 8 months, 6 months and 8.5 months (wet with a very bright white light pointed directly at my hair). I had zero growth at 4 months and looked worse than pre-op because of shock loss. You need to wait until 7-8 months before  evaluating growth.

Diep needs to be removed for the recommended surgeons list. I know @Melvin- Moderator had a good result from Diep way back but people also have good results from Turkish hair mills if they are lucky. Diep has way too many repair cases on this forum, he’s a bad surgeon. 

21 hours ago, alopeciaphobia said:

 

1 hour ago, LookMaxx said:

This is why I stopped watching these hairloss YouTubers, clickbaity, watch 20 minutes for 20 seconds content. And it becomes clear they don’t really care about helping their viewers but just getting more views. 
 

The only hairloss youtuber I watch is Kevin, and no surprise his channel is nowhere near as famous as other hairloss channels. Good content is boring content. 

Not really fun to be enticed to watch a video claiming a cure or breakthrough!!11!!1!!! found every few days but that probably brings more views and clicks. 
 

 

Most of these channels also give really bad advice. Matt Dominance and Hairliciosly both have had botched hair transplants and promote Turkish hair mills. 

Cooley is one of the best, all of the very best doctors have a long wait list. I suggest consulting with Konior/Nadimi as well, female hair loss is very different from male hair loss and women aren’t typically good hair transplant candidates. Did Cooley or a dermatologist diagnose your hair loss? Are you taking medication? Oral minoxidil has become very popular for female hair loss over the past 5 years.

1 hour ago, FluffyPanda said:

Perhaps overharvest was the wrong word choice. However, from a number of results I've seen posted here, I still stand by my opinion that they use an unnecessarily high graft count for some work, such as the linked example. Personally, I'd rather go to someone more focused with getting more coverage for fewer grafts, especially in case if another transplant is required down the line, rather than doing super densely packed work that uses a majority of the donor. To each their own, but that's my own opinion on the matter. I'm just a big believer in conserving as much donor as possible.

Hard to say anything about the result you linked since it’s only a few weeks old but that person is a Norwood 4 and needs a lot of grafts. There are also a few Konior results on this forum with underwhelming results because not enough grafts were used. Konior can’t do 3500+ grafts in one surgery even if you need it because he does everything himself.
 

I don’t think there is an issue with poor growth at H&W. H&W just do a lot of grafts in one surgery as opposed to other surgeons who prefer to spread it between multiple sessions. The majority of clinics don’t have the training or staff do mega sessions like H&W. I am a Konior patient because I needed a small amount of grafts but if I was a Norwood 3 or worse who needed a lot of graft I would probably go to H&W. It all depends on your case.

8 hours ago, FluffyPanda said:

Between those two, Konior. I know H&W has a good reputation around here, but I feel like I've seen a lot more posts recently about them overharvesting and using too many grafts whereas Konior seems a lot better at doing more with less.

I have not seen a single post of over harvesting by H&W. Overharvesting means the donor looks depleted and unnatural afterwards. H&W use a lot of grafts and like to dense pack but they also believe the safe donor zone is bigger than other surgeons. For example, there was a patient who got evaluated by Bisanga and told his donor only had 6000 grafts but Hasson told him 10,000. 

Implanting a lot of grafts in one procedure is a skill that most other surgeons can’t do, Konior defers to H&W as the best clinic for mega sessions. 

1 hour ago, WhereIsMyMind said:

update? you should be having decent growth at this point riight?

Most people have zero growth at 3 months unless they are very lucky.

5 hours ago, lindros88 said:

What side effects did you have on finasteride and how long were you on it for? I have heard that before

I was on fin for 4.5 years. I used name brand Propecia for the first 2 years and never had any issues. I noticed a slight decrease in erection quality and morning erections when I switched brands of finasteride to generic manufactured by Ascend Laboratories. Found out later that Ascend Laboratories has been in trouble with the FDA several times for not meeting quality control standards. I also shed a lot more hair on Ascend brand finasteride compared to Propecia.

After switching to dutasteride my libidio is higher than it was pre-fin. I have used name brand Avodart for about an year with no issues but I also tried generics manufactured by Epic Pharma and Teva. I am pretty sure the Teva branded dutasteride gave me side effects, I stopped getting morning erections on this brand. I cycled on/off Teva brand dutasteride several times because I bought a 1 year supply and was hoping it was just nocebo but my morning erections always stopped after a few weeks. No morning erection issues with Avodart or Epic Pharma.

Looks really good. IMO any high norwood under the age of 30 should start with an FUT mega session at H&W for the best possible outcome.

6 hours ago, lindros88 said:

Just want to drop a line here and say 5mg Cialis completely fixed any finasteride issue I had telling me it was likely mental/nocebo.

I had some mild side effects from finasteride and used to sometimes takes Cialis for an extra boost however I switched to dutasteride about an year ago and have no side effects. Dutasteride actually increased my libido and makes me feel like a horny 16 year old lol.

I looked worse than I did pre-surgery up until the 6.5 month mark. Very similar case to yours, about a 1000 grafts to improve density in the hairline and slight lowering. I know it’s hard but try not to think about your hair until the 6 month mark. I was driving myself crazy and just buzzed it off around 5 months post surgery and stopped obsessively checking my hair.

Looks incredible. I bet you’re very tempted to get another surgery with the remaining 1500 beard grafts since this worked out so well. Do you notice a visual or texture difference between scalp and beard grafts?

On 9/11/2022 at 6:06 PM, jim1973 said:

Update: took the plunge and switched from topical MIN to oral MIN (1.25mg).  I also begin adding in oral Dutasteride twice/week (every 3 days) and still take my oral Finasteride on the other 5 days.  I also began taking a few products from Nutrafol (DHT blocker and probiotics) around the same time.  I'm about 30-45 days in and I just noticed that the Nutrafol products contain Saw Palmetto.  I'm experiencing a pretty significant shed.  I'd like to think its because of this new regimen but I was already shedding well before these products, which caused me to take all of these actions recently in the first place.  I'm really hoping that this shed will subside really soon as its going quick.  Now I'm second guessing if my regimen of combining Fin, Dut and Saw Palmetto as DHT inhibitors is too much.  No real side effects other than the hair falling out at just the touch of my head, which is concerning.  

You’re likely shedding because you quit topical min cold turkey and switched to oral min. Speaking from personal experience, stopping topical min causes a long shed, even if you are on oral min, that could last up to 7-8 months. Just wait it out for an year, don’t get back on topical min or change anything about your regimen, constantly switching medications will cause more shedding. You can probably ditch the Nutrafol, it’s likely not doing much.

27 minutes ago, sunsurfhair said:

I would go with Wong too 

OP I would also consider getting a consultation with Hasson. The clinic allows you to choose between Hasson or Wong, both are great at FUT but Hasson has more cases doing FUT mega sessions than just about any surgeon in the world. 

4 hours ago, Everyday_Platypus said:

On fin, min, and microneedling since Mar 22.  Switched to dut last month.  Definitely lacking density but stabilized at like maybe a NW5 and grew out what remained on top for some coverage at least.  A little bit of regrowth in the temples and forelock but nothing crazy.  But at least I'm getting some confidence back.  Just kicking myself for not starting sooner

Norwood 5 at age 30 means you should definitely go FUT for your first procedure. Strongly recommend Wong over Bloxham. Hasson and Wong are probably the best in North America for high norwoods and best in the world at FUT mega sessions.

9 minutes ago, John1991 said:

So what was Feller's reason for being against large sessions of FUE?  Is he bad too?  And aren't they both fundamentally correct that you allow yourself the most lifetime grafts by starting with strip?

Yes, Feller was a dinosaur who trained Bloxham and promoted a lot of anti-FUE propaganda because his clinic is not good at it. Most of the top doctors who are excellent at both FUE and FUT (H&W, Bisanga, Konior, Shapiro, etc) agree you get a few more lifetime grafts doing FUT first. However, Feller and Bloxham have a bunch of YouTube videos saying you get poor growth from FUE grafts which is not true when FUE is done properly, the growth is equally good compared to FUT.

Wong has a much stronger reputation and has been doing surgery for a very long time. Bloxham seems like a decent surgeon but he’s pretty new and I don’t like the misinformation he promotes on his YouTube channel about FUE being the devil. All of the anti-FUE propaganda Bloxham spreads is because he’s not good at FUE.Get an evaluation from a surgeon who is great at both FUE and FUT like Wong, Konior or Shapiro.

Was this Hattingen? Looks very natural. It’s not possible to achieve native density with one surgery.

Wait 12 months before considering a touch-up, 7 months is way too early. Most doctors avoid dense packing in areas with existing native hair because of shock loss, especially if the native hair is miniaturized like in your case. Do not go to HMR if you want a touch up, use the next 5 months to do more research. Here’s a recent HMR result:

Here’s an example of a patient who had poor growth at 8 months and didn’t get  his full results until 18 months.