shiba1985

there are lots of medications, that initially discovered for one reason, end up being used for another down the road. Latisse is one that comes to mind, I believe it was initally approved for glaucoma, but then they realized side effect of long eye lashes, and now used cosmetically for longer eye lashes, and some trials even for male pattern baldness. 

3 hours ago, SeanToman said:

With respect, I've never seen Minoxidil pills priced that cheap.
It's always around £10 for two strips.

It's a medication for hypertension, something doesn't sit well with me.
I'm not convinced of it compared to foam or serums. 

do what you got to do brother. No skin of my back whether u take it or not. you asked a question, and I was giving you the facts. You can have and keep your opinion but its wrong. I dont take it myself, not cause it is not effective but there is a small potential for side effect, and I will not take anything that can cause side effects for a cosmetic reason such as hair loss. 

No not a gimmick. minoxidil working as a vasodilator, is an old school thinking. Its mechanism of action is more complicated and involves molecular signaling at the cGMP level. Some studies, albeit poor quality, show that 5mg oral minoxidil has similar effectiveness as 1 mg finasteride. A 3 month supply of minoxidil would probably cost $10. Gimmicks are usually created to make money. I do not see how anyone would profit from a cheap medication like oral minoxidil. With prp, whether you agree or not, atleast the doctor can charge hundreds of dollar and make money. oral minoxidil will be more effective than the topical as it can reach certain molecular targets that a topical source cant. 

20 hours ago, J.A.C said:

He has been known to refuse cases, not that often thankfully. 🙏

i agree with refusing cases on travel patients, but if that is something that you are going to do, you should make it clear to your patients, that if that happens money will not be refunded. thats bogus to keep the money without providing services, andnot forewarning. i guess it all depends on how clear it was in the contract. I think the clinic should be named so future travel patients to that clinic are not blind sided like this. 

How much were you warned before you paid in full that this was a possibility. I mean if they made you feel like all is ok just fly in, and were blind sided by this, I do feel like clinic is to blame for this. 

If it was more like, hey ur donor area seems questionable, you are welcome to book and come in, but if u are not a candidate you will lose your money, then thats fair game. 

I mean a lot of contracts have concerning language. if you sit and analyze everything you will never move forward with surgery. 

That is unfortunate. Can you post a picture of your donor area for us to see. ?

I dont understand the NDA. If the clinic think they are doing what is right, even if they dont give you money back or give everything back why have a patient sign a NDA. weird. 

Ok I see what you are saying. Maybe a tad bit lower density, but still with your Afro hair that density would give good results. I doubt any clinic transplant 40-45 fu grafts Afro hair per cm2. It’s not needed. Isn’t the native Afro density something like 60 fu grafts cm2 ? So theoretically u should be able to get away with 30 / cm2

To be honest the density looks good to me. Don’t get fixated on the numbers. 40-45 fu grafts/ cm2 doesn’t mean anything. You could have 12 one hair fu grafts and 15 - 2 hair fu grafts, the hair count would be same.  You could have 42 1 hair fu grafts. 
Density numbers to some extent are marketing gimmicks. 

the poor growth either is due to inexperienced staff which is why I am asking where you had surgery? , you have some scalp condition which requires biopsy, or you are just a late grower. 

 

The surgery looks clean. The growth does look off at 8 months but still have time. Where did you have the surgery at his Belgium clinic or one of his “USA” clinics. It doesn’t seem like Dr Mwamba has a medical license to practice in Georgia or USA. If you look up board of medicine he is not a license physician, so who does the surgeries? Or is he using some other physician as a front?

poor growth can occur with the best of surgeons and Dr Mwamba is a really good surgeon, but the poor communication cause being “busy” is not something patient should have to experience.sorry for that. 

On 4/2/2022 at 8:27 AM, eb21007 said:

 

Man you need to chill. Not saying you will have a great result or a bad result but it seems like you need to sort out your emotions cause they are all over the place. 
How can you tell that something is improved cause of meds and not surgery. You definitely look better then pre surgery and looks like the fuzzy appearance before the growth explodes. 
 

37 minutes ago, 3rdtimefail said:

Geeez man....you really think my only option is to shave it off and go SMP? i dont think I ever want to touch SMP again. 

Iv heard of people having up to 4 or 5 HTs....extracting hairs from the neck beard or chest. Anyone think that can be an alternative option for me in 6 more months? im absolutely torn...and just want to find someone who can help me.

your donor area looks pretty badly harvested in the pictures you posted. It may recover some with time but how much only time can tell. 

If you have good beard and chest hair, yes fixing it is an option. However this is not a magical solution. It will be at best acceptable, and probably not "awesome hair". On top of it , it will be VERY expensive and will require multiple sessions. I am stereotyping a bit, but given that you went to a no name clinic in turkey, I am assuming you are somehwat on a budget. (nothing wrong with that, we all are so please dont take it negatively). 

If you are not, and money is not an issue then sure it is salvageable to some degree but dont expect stellar results.  I mean yeh people that have 4 or 5 hair transplants only look good if they plan it properly from the 1st transplant. Most people dont recover from 3 bad hair transplants completely. 

DHI is not a harvest technique. The clinic is jacking you around and gaslighting you at the same time. Which is not surprising given the quality of work. 

There is no easy way out of this, if a way at all. If you are not happy with the way its looking right now, probably best bet is to shave it all off, and try SMP look. 

Sorry you had to be subjected to this.

Growth happened from recent FUE surgery or a surgery 3 years ago? Any pics?

2 hours ago, Loic75300 said:

If I've been there, it's because I have two friends who also had more than 5000 there and a awesome result.

no doubt when it works it looks amazing.

When I first started reading your thread, I was like wow 5000+ in one sitting. This guy will have great coverage all in one surgery. 
 

As I see your recent photos, it reiterates to me why time and time again, most top level clinics will want you to divide large coverage areas into multiple procedure. If some thing fails, you are not out by 5000 grafts and you can go back to the drawing board. 
 

having said that, you are still early and according to Melvin there are late bloomers so you may be one of them. Unfortunately besides trying to focus on something else (work gym etc) there is not much you can do right now.

40 minutes ago, JoeMan said:

How many surgeries have you had if you don't mind me asking? Honest question here...How many weekend procedures have you had?

What I don't understand is why some people come here to ridicule someone with honest concerns. Sure, this might not be something that you would be concerned with but if @SadMan2021 is, that doesn't make him a bad patient that scrutinizes "small shit". I'm not sure how your post helps support him, but instead you seem to try to belittle him and make him sound crazy for asking such a question. 

And if asking your Dr's office this question turns them off, then they have bad customer service. If they can't qualm someone's fears on minor issues with a quick text then maybe they need a new patient coordinator. I bet they get way more silly questions than this. 

Two surgeries.

Ok go for it, ask doctors all kinds of questions. Ask them how much sleep they had the night before? When was the last time they drank alcohol? What they have for breakfast? 
you get the point. Where does it stop? 
 

the assumption to asking asinine question is that you will get a honest answer. And the reality is an unscrupulous physician will give you a dishonest answer, and convince you regardless. While an honest physician will possibly be turned off by irrelevant questions like this. 

listen I get it, you have to do your research and it is difficult to do that in this field, but Dr Mwamba is not some fly by doctor that has popped up his shop over night. He is a well regarded veteran in the field. You have done your research and selected him for a reason, to analyze what day and time of surgery etc. is neurotic. Just being blunt with you. . 
 

100% not a red flag. You sound like you would be an annoying patient overanalyzing every small shit. You have selected Dr Mwamba have some faith. I hope you didnt ask. 

There is nothing wrong with that hairline shape. Do not overthink it.  You should never be afraid to speak up as a patient, but there is a fine line between advocating for yourself and being an annoying patient that continues to split hair losing sight of the long term results due to some neurotic OCD type of behaviours most of us hair patients seem to have. 😝

How many grafts is that? 

On 3/8/2022 at 8:44 PM, Melvin- Moderator said:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t clomid an aromatase inhibitor? Generally, this is used as post-cycle therapy (PCT) for those who do a cycle anabolic steroids. Are you on TRT? 

It is a SERM. Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator. It is used off label for TRT as it increases your testosterone. Benefit of using clomid would be it keeps your Pituitary active, and its your "own" testosterone. Fertility is maintained. 

2 hours ago, Gatsby said:

I have had SMP in the old donor scars but one thing I would like from the 'pubic plucking' is to vascularize the donor area by having grafts placed into the scar tissue. If the grafts grow in all the better!

delete

4 hours ago, Gatsby said:

Well I for one can actually admit that I ended up using 232 pubic grafts to fill in old and ugly donor scars in the back of my head. I don’t know how many will survive as I am only 6 weeks post op. But with my curly hair type I think it was worth it and means any beard grafts left can be used in the future if need be for another procedure. 

video works for me.

i would be very curious to know how this turns out. keep us posted. I am sure it will grow. It seems to be "tough" hair. 

Can someone summarize this. Unable to view video? 
has anyone tried it and if so how were the results. I believe the sebaceous gland doesn’t grow back once transplanted so sweating shouldn’t be an issue. 

4 hours ago, Doron Harati said:

I was botched terribly by Arenamed clinic in Turkey on my 1st HT, was overharvested with 5000 grafts in 1 day surgery with medical malpractice, thankfully I was saved by the paramedics in ambulance and escorted in a wheelchair, luckliy a year after I had a repair by Dr. Maras at HDC clinic which I am very happy with the result.

I don't bring my case as a reference for @FUE_DHI_5250, but from my experience as a coordinator of HDC clinic, it's very rare the clinic approve a candidate for 5000 grafts session, it happens but very few have such a strong donor that the doctor can verify for minimum trauma to the donor with good preservation result, those sessions take around 2-3 surgery days.

I agree completely with @DrTBarghouthi for 5000 grafts are huge amount to cover your area.

I posted a thread with a paitent that had necrosis from his 1st procedure due for making the slits too deep.

You still have a lot of time to heal and recover from the procedure.

OMG man. this is horrible. I am glad you are ok in the end. 

Maybe they will say it is "4000 hairs" not 4000 FU grafts. 

Lets assume even if the grafts are not visible, the cuts surely are.