shiba1985

I feel like happyman2021, for being a non surgeon or a non medical person, sure has a lot to say about how a surgeon should go about evaluating his patient. Apparently hanging out on the forum, and having a few hair surgeries makes one an "expert."

I think it is completely fair for a surgeon to ask for an inperson consultation. These same patients that bitch about this (pre op in person consult), will be the same ones that bitch post operatively if their surgery doesn't produce the results. 

"Good surgeons know how to operate, better ones when to operate, and the best when not to operate."

On 1/26/2023 at 9:30 AM, pb3454 said:

 

I discovered this amazing community a bit late unfortunately, but I wanted to share my 1^stHT results so far, and get recommendations for my 2nd HT.

 

1st HT - Jan 2022, Genn Charles, 3300, FUT.  at age 42

Dr Charles, his staff, and clinic were great; 1 patient per day; every professional and clean, etc. 

Obviously  the results aren’t that great, but I know I had a lot of area to cover, and only so much can be done in one transplant.  I also have somewhat thin hair as well.

 

I feel like I don’t really see the results that would have been expected from 3300 grafts, but ill let you guys decide that.

I tried Fin and Min, but i didn't continue due to side effects.  Min was giving me breakouts/rashes on my head, and Fin has side effects im not happy with

I think I have a lot more donor area on the sides, and back below the FUT scar that I can pull from with a FUE procedure.

Ideally I want to drop my hairline by 1 inch in the front, and fill in the bold area on top.

 

I had talked to Vera, Smile, and Hair of Istanbul so far, but I learned they are mills from reading this forum and so im no longer considering those clinics.

Im not too concerned with the price.  I can pay for higher end work, but I just need to make sure I get higher end work.

From reading this forum, i was considering Pekiner, Bicer, Turan, Gur, or Yaman so far.

 

Thanks a lot for all the support on here!

-Phil

This does not look like 3300 grafts. Just calling it as I see it. If it was not a forum recommended doc it would have been called out.

On 1/27/2023 at 5:46 AM, NorwoodSeven said:

Wow, that's huge experience, what made those last 10 years hell after first 15 years of wearing? I wore a hair piece for 6 years (from 18 to 24) and was overall happy with it, except the fact that i wanted to wear my hair combed back but had to comb it down to hide the lace. I didn't hate wearing, i just stopped it spontaneously and went for shaved look with smp. Anyway if i have a ht for my front and temples and eventually will hate wearing a hairpiece i will just shave it and go back to a clean shaven smp look which im rocking now. Fue scars won't be too noticeable and i might smp them too.

Man, i think the same, ьy donor looks sparse because it is short in lenghth. Im back on fin now btw, i don't have much hope on regrowth on top or crown but i think it will make my donor hair thicker. 

 

Guys, i dont think i can pull off a full coverage with hair transplants only, given that im nw7 with a karge head and fine hair, im not that optimistic.

What im talking about is just have a hairline + temples transplant and combine it with low density hair system. Im sure it will look great. 

You should contact @drtaleb barghouti. He has experience with exactly what you are asking for. It is doable as long as you realize it’s a life long commitment.  
dr barghouti has a case posted somewhere that has a hair system in back and transplant in front 

Is your hair really fine?

13 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

you should find a better surgeon. If you truly care about your HT you will be willing to travel. You have already experienced one bad result so you hopefully know how important it is to get right. 

I understand the anxiety of traveling for surgery but its really not a big deal at all. You have already had 1 HT so you should already know it is not a major surgery and you will be fine on a plane. Especially if you only need 200 grafts or so, that is a very very minor amount. 

I am not sure why you keep mentioning this. The hair follicles do not care how old you are. I am 33 and have had 5 HT's so far. Just because someone is young does not mean dealing with this process is any easier. 

It does matter a bit. Older peoples hair follicles are not as robust. The circulation is also not as robust. All the reason though you need a above average HT surgeon to take your case. 

Continue using minoxidil foam. See what it looks like after a year. 

Options include SMP and body to donor area transplants. So taking beard or body hair and putting it in donor area. 

Cheers

yikes. 
still a lot of room to improve. but who was the clinic, what doctor. and any post op pics. with that information we can advice better. 

23 minutes ago, GeneralNorwood said:

Posting monthly updates is destroying relathionships with surgeons? So this means this forum is all about destroying relathionships 🤣

It is a weird predicament to be in. You are right. Most surgeons should have the confidence enough to have their work be upheld to scrutiny. But I have a feeling lot of surgeon get offended by it and may take it out on the patient via passive aggressiveness. 

I wish it was not like that but there are so many different egos and personalities in surgery.

13 hours ago, Milkman555 said:

I’ve been on .5mg Dutasteride since Jan 2020 and 2.5 mg of oral minoxidil since last year. I’ve been on on 1mg of topical Dutasteride 1x week for 2 months and started 1mg pyrilutamide this week. Overkill, absolutely yes, but I want to do all I can. 
 

The silver lining is that I probably lost 200-300 grafts since both sides were about evenly distributed from the over 1100 grafts. The right side, while not impressive, is ok. The second transplant still doesn’t have the density I want after 6 months but it’s been a decent improvement.

Which doctor did you select for a 2nd transplant? 

What you refer to as temples is not your temples. It’s the lateral portion of the frontal hairline. Still not a good result. How much refund would you say you would call acceptable? I agree 2k is ridiculous. 

Patients go into hair surgery with the wrong thought process. An average reddittor is thinking how can I jam pack the most amount of grafts into an area. 

The way it should be thought about is how can I create a natural and good coverage with the least amount of grafts possible. 

Hair loss is not going to stop. you want to cover the most ground with the least possible that way you can enjoy a full head of hair for the rest of your life. 

39 minutes ago, airporteffect said:

Totally fair. I think seeing top-tier results from clinics like FUEXPERT have definitely jaded my expectations. Additionally, a bunch of people over on Reddit said that the amount of grafts for the area covered was quite low.

it is not. I think your hair is strong and your result will be just as good as a FUEexpert patient. or close to it. 
 

A lot depends on how strong the patients donor area is. All of Cuotos patient (99%) have to be on finasteride and minoxidil. This leads to a very strong donor area. Your end result directly correlates with how strong the donor area is, and that is why those results are good. 

But even if you see one of his patient that posted a thread, yes he looks great but when you look at his mid scalp density, it is very low. Maybe 20 FU/ cm2 or even lower.  

this is probably average to slightly above average density you can get from one hair transplant. if you are not happy with it, you have unrealistic expectations and need to do a bit more research on the forum. 

The mounts you are referring to is the epidermal cap that comes with the follicle when you punch them out in FUE. Two reasons for not seeing the mounts are

1.) the clinic purposefully trims them during processing. It is a "vestigial" tissue so it is not needed, and looks "ugly" so trimming them looks better for cosmetic

2. If a really small punch is use when going after small follicles, so the epidermal cap is so small that despite not trimming it is not visible. 

If it goes away as the day passes, it is swelling/edema. 
 

It will not . Density was low 

Indeed. Same with topical minox. So if u don’t see yourself using it forever no point on going on it temporarily.  Then finasteride alone. 
 

tbh if I had to just pick one med to be on for hair loss finasteride would be the one. So you are good. 

3 hours ago, Hashi said:

Yeah no hard to explain but it makes sense, I get what you're saying! There's no way of measuring that really, and even if they tried there's too many factors in play..

And I definitely don't want to take minoxidil for life and since it's doesn't affect transplant whatsoever, I'll just stay on finasteride.

What about dutasteride? Is it the same that I should only take it if I plan to use it life long - and that it'll be noticably bad once I stop it? Or would it be ok to take duta two days a week for 3 months like the clinic recommended?

Yes definitely don’t start Dutasteride if you don’t intend to stay on it. You will gain and then lose it all. 
 

KISS - keep it simple 

stay on finasteride and if you want add topical minoxidil. 

I combine 1 scoop of NOW Unflavored whey isolate + 1 scoop of ON chocolate Casein for around 40 ish grams of protein in water + 2 splenda. 

I blend it with magic bullet or any small blender. it tastes good. 

Beautiful 

on the global scale i would say it is the opposite. 75% of transplants are being done as FUE and 25% as FUT. 

Also there are patients that are better served with FUT, that are being misguided into getting an FUE and vice versa. 

Unscrupulous doctors. 

13 minutes ago, asterix0 said:

Dang sorry to hear that. So, I thought the order of operations is, before they shave your head the line is drawn. It is just easier to see visually where it should be that way.

As for the grafts in the temples, well it is difficult to understand without pictures exactly what you mean. But generally the recession in the temples is symmetrical, so before seeing any pictures, it would make sense that the doctor would have to add close to an equal number of grafts to the left temple as to the right one. 

recession in temple is rarely symmetrical. 

Since hair transplant cant get you back to native density, working with patients styling helps with graft efficiency. the OP mentions he styles his hair right to left. 

yikes. what clinic was this?

On 1/8/2023 at 4:44 PM, Dillpickle123 said:

I’m not sure but that def sticks out from all immediate post op pics but the donor always heals fine 

Yeh that is almost a 11 or 12 mm punch. It may heal fine, but at that size you run the risk of damaging adjacent follicles that you are not extracting as there is not enough space.
 

I think some of his latest surgeries the extraction sites look a little bit better.

from personal experience, i have noticed more hair loss from starting stopping meds. then staying on some consistently or not starting them at all.  They say if you stop you go back to what you would have been if you did not take it at all, but how can one truly measure that? whether you were going to progress all the time you were on meds... or not progress.. ahh too complex to explain but get what  i am saying?