Mop

I am nearly six weeks and have noticed the same thing with my shedding grafts - the kink at one end.

I am 5 weeks post op and I am in the same situation. Approx 90% of the grafts have fallen out but around 10% remain and have not fallen out or grown. The ones that fell out had a slight kink at one end. I hope they fall out or grow, I am concerned that they get stuck there and restrict new growth. I hear the new hairs should push them out around 3 months.

Mahmood, I am about 5 weeks and at the stage where most grafts have shed as expected and in the long 3/4 month wait period before they pop up again. Am I satisfied - well I need to wait 6 to 9 months to see the end yield. However, the placement and hairline creation was pleasing. If they grow like that then I will be well chuffed. The scar is healing very well. I had a trico closure and it is almost white with some slight hints of pink. It is hard to detect even so early. Went for a haircut this weekend and my hairdresser did not notice ! I was not asked for blood tests. The staff at Transmed all wear surgical gloves and normal theatre attire so I guess they follow protective measures. Transmed have a full operating theatre on site as they also do some other cosmetic procedures. Whilst some people on this forum may tell you to stay clear of such clinics - I actually drew comfort from the fact their doctors were experienced and skilled in many other areas. If they had only done a few hundred HT I may have been worried but I think it is over 6000.

Mahmood - let me clarify. What I meant by that statement was that there may not be many comments about Transmed on this forum compared to other Clinics because of the language barrier. A clinic in England will be English Speaking as will many of its Clients so a high number may post here, however the main Language spoken at Transmed is Turkish, although some Technicians and the Doctors also speak enough English to communicate all important matters in two way conversation. I imagaine many of their Clients are from that part of the world and not English speaking and not likely to post here. The lack of posts did not put me off - Transmed have performed many thousand ops and have been going since about 1994. There is nothing negative about them here, not even when I search on google. If I can help you with any questions - please ask if about Transmed. Zeynep Turkmen is the english speaking rep from Transmed who I spoke to on the phone and emailed dozens of times before my Op. She will answer all your questions usually the next day. Good luck if that is where you go.

Mahmood - I had my Op at Transmed a month ago. I also consulted with Dr DeVroye - there is no doubt that he is highly regarded and you can see his impressive patient pics here and on his own website. He does a very good consultation and provides a comprehensive report for you. There are some positive comments about Transmed on this site, but like you say, there is more on Dr DeVroye. This may put you off, but let us also assume many people who go to Transmed may not be English speakers, they say they do get many clients from the middle east. In the end, I opted for Transmed as I felt they met the criteria for being recommended. Whilst it is not a consideration for all, but cost and budget did matter to me and having just over 3000 grafts was approximately 30% cheaper than other clinics in UK, Europe and North America. If you do a search of "Transmed" you will find my post on my experience, which was positive. I am in the shedding graft phase, which is normal, before the waiting game for new growth, ideally I should be 12 months post op and confirming my initial impressions !

Natural DHT blockers I use are Green Tea, Soya Products. Saw Palmetto is also highly recommended.

I am day 24 and have not done anything and I play lots of soccer and do weights. I read lots of stuff and one month was my take on the subject, then light weights and lots of reps, heavy weights after 2/3 months. As usual opinions vary.

I read tons of stuff here and on Clinics own web sites. My take - they get fairly fixed by day 3, quite fixed by day 5/6 as you can wash a tad more and well and truly rooted by days 8 to 10 as Clint says.

There are two enzymes that are associated with hair loss and shrink follicles. Propecia only blocks one , whilst Avodart blocks both.

I prefer to keep it a secret as there is always one idiot who will broadcast it and try to embarass you. The way I look at it is, if you were on viagra and had a wild night with a lady friend you would probably want her to think that was the natural you and not a little blue tablet !

I had my HT at Transmed in Turkey 21 days ago and I am from the UK. The only clinic recommended from his website in the UK is Farjo in Manchester. Lots of negative posts about the others ! There are many butchers out there, not recommended that charge bargain prices - dont risk it. All the info is here, get on-line consultations if you can. Check out the blogs and photos, work out your budget. I read and read and read and made the decision based on both quality and price.

Shyguy - unfortunately, I cannot shed any light ,on the question you ask. However - there is quite abit of stuff on the web like attached on half life and how long it works on reducing DHT levels, one such article :- http://www.belgraviacentre.com/dutasteride.htm

Hunter56 - I did not notice any sheds. I think it is the best med I have used. I tried propecia and monoxidol and was not that impressed. I take it every day but I am reviewing that as there is lots of stuff on the web about its half life. Apparently, it stays in the blood for months compared to days/weeks for propecia. That being the case, you could miss odd days and still get all the benefits and reduced cost ! I am still researching that bit. Drew - I used Dr Reddy's but I must admit the generic version was not as effective as the original. It was cheaper then I questioned if Indian production techniques would match those of western countries when it comes to quality control. Shyguy - I have not cycled but when Avodart is so superior , why pop propecia. Try propecia and if it dont work then I would try Avodart. I also use Green tea, soya products as they block DHT naturally. Other natural products are saw palmetto.

I am in my early forties and I use avodart. Have done for about 2/3 years. Before that I did use a generic version of Avodart from India called Dutas ( avodart is also called Dutasteride ). I did not like the fact it was shipped from a pacific island ( heat,storage, etc..) I tried propecia - nothing impressive there. I would say that with Avodart - lots of finer hairs sprung up around my crown and hairloss was pretty much halted elsewhere. No side affects to report.

AKClinics in India was one of the places I considered before I found my eventual choice thanks to this website, their website seems impressive enough :- http://thehairclinicindia.com/ Except there are very few pictures, before and after. They claim the Transection rate for FUT is 10 - 60 % and only 5 - 10 % for FUE, which is all they do. This is totally wrong ??? Surely FUT is more more effective in preserving FUs ? And they claim to be members of the ISHRS ? I get the impression that this is quite an easy membership to obtain if you are already a Doctor ? Is this just an assumption ?

AKClinics in India was one of the places I considered before I found my eventual choice thanks to this website, their website seems impressive enough :- http://thehairclinicindia.com/ Except there are very few pictures, before and after. They claim the Transection rate for FUT is 10 - 60 % and only 5 - 10 % for FUE, which is all they do. This is totally wrong ??? Surely FUT is more more effective in preserving FUs ? And they claim to be members of the ISHRS ? I get the impression that this is quite an easy membership to obtain if you are already a Doctor ? Is this just an assumption ?

Pink - there have been Doctors here who have been recommended and then unrecommended. A Doctor can get recommended and standards can drop, if we ( the patients ) consistently rate some Docs as average ( say D ) then it gives the people on this site who are still thinking about a HT something else to consider. I would expect the moderators for this site have done a good job in setting a standard to be recommended. The purpose of my thread is then to further differentiate, ie Outstanding, Very Good, Good, Average, Satisfactory or worse ! If you read the threads, the advice is do research, check results, visit clinics, speak to former patients etc... just being recommended is just one part.

Of course there are two alternatives that will ensure you no longer have to suffer oral sex if its a problem :- a) Just say No b) Or marry your girlfriend The latter has been clinically proven to stop all BJs in their tracks !

Speegs - lol - I did originally mention another more populous state for Doctor D but then I changed it thinking there may be one Doctor based there who might think I am writing about him and then threaten Lawsuit ! ( just hope there is no Doc in Alaska ! )

thanatopsis_awry - You make some really valid points in your response. Many things are subjective as you say. Leeson - looks like you are one step ahead of the game already - just wondering the difference between not happy and negative ? I guess what I think the scoring system should be is an agregate of various criteria. It would be good to benchmark for comparison, using my criteria (a) to (g) above with a big weighting on final result, then we could say ( hypothetically ):- a) Doctor A based in New York, 156 results posted in last year, average score 9.0 b) Doctor B based in Seattle, 78 results posted in last year, average score 8.1 c) Doctor C based in India, 55 results posted in Last year, average score 8.8 d) Doctor D based in Alaska - 63 results posted in Last year, average score 5.6 Whilst A,B,C would indicate high standards and results - you would avoid D ! Even if he has posted a few good results, is a member of the coalition, member of ISHRS, has a great CV and impressive website. Just an idea, I am day 7 after my HT ( happy so far ) and obviously alot of time on my hands in my personal downtime !

When we buy something from ebay - we rate the transaction to help others, sometimes to promote a seller and sometimes to make sure nobody else buys crap off them and gets ripped off ! Unlike ebay where we can write off a few badly spent pounds, the investment in HT runs into many thousands and our health ! I guess we could do the same with HT Clinics, it is easy for a Clinic to do 1000 ops and publish the best 20 results on a website. The other 980 ( bad ones ) remain off the net amd people assume its a great place. The only way we can ensure that the best and consistent Clinics and Doctors remain is to weed out the poor ones. Not everyone wants to publish photos and blogs because it is a confidential and personal matter. However, we could have a scoring system to support our words , for example :- a) Customer Care b) Experience on the day of Op c) Pre - instructions d) Post Instructions e) Results after 9 months f) Results after 12 months g) Scar healing We score each area with marks out of ten, we add commentary and before/after pics to back up what we say. It could be very valuable feedback to Clinics. I have a strong desire to help others make the best decision and promotional photos, great websites are one thing but you cant beat direct customer feedback. I appreciate Pat and Bill do an outstanding job visiting Clinics and checking standards but I think a visit can be like a Job Interview - some Clinics can give a very polished and accomplished account of themselfs on the day whilst under scrutiny. When I read something written saying I am "satisfied" or "happy" - I sometimes wonder how satisfied or how happy - a scoring system is one way to measure that. I use a website called TripAdvisor for booking hotels and they use a scoring system, which is I find invaluable.

When we buy something from ebay - we rate the transaction to help others, sometimes to promote a seller and sometimes to make sure nobody else buys crap off them and gets ripped off ! Unlike ebay where we can write off a few badly spent pounds, the investment in HT runs into many thousands and our health ! I guess we could do the same with HT Clinics, it is easy for a Clinic to do 1000 ops and publish the best 20 results on a website. The other 980 ( bad ones ) remain off the net amd people assume its a great place. The only way we can ensure that the best and consistent Clinics and Doctors remain is to weed out the poor ones. Not everyone wants to publish photos and blogs because it is a confidential and personal matter. However, we could have a scoring system to support our words , for example :- a) Customer Care b) Experience on the day of Op c) Pre - instructions d) Post Instructions e) Results after 9 months f) Results after 12 months g) Scar healing We score each area with marks out of ten, we add commentary and before/after pics to back up what we say. It could be very valuable feedback to Clinics. I have a strong desire to help others make the best decision and promotional photos, great websites are one thing but you cant beat direct customer feedback. I appreciate Pat and Bill do an outstanding job visiting Clinics and checking standards but I think a visit can be like a Job Interview - some Clinics can give a very polished and accomplished account of themselfs on the day whilst under scrutiny. When I read something written saying I am "satisfied" or "happy" - I sometimes wonder how satisfied or how happy - a scoring system is one way to measure that. I use a website called TripAdvisor for booking hotels and they use a scoring system, which is I find invaluable.

Bill - Thanks for your words of encouragement. Whilst Dr Melike was present for the closing stages, Dr Emirali was my main Doctor - cant complain given I had the benefit of two good Doctor's experience for my HT. Edge333 - thanks for your post. All of us want a great natural result at the best possible price ! When I did my research, there are places offering HT for as little as ??1 per graft but they dont have impressive web sites, before/after pictures, may not be recommended, may even pass off other Doctors work as their own, or be members of the ISHRS. You have to be careful mate ! You need to read patient posts, see if the Clinic are well equipped, have experience and a whole load of other factors. When I researched the UK, there was not alot of positives for UK Clinics no matter where I googled. The exception was the Farjo Clinic in Manchester. Belgium and the USA were other alternatives but the costs rise quite abit averaging $4 per graft. In the end, I discovered Transmed and they ticked the boxes for what I wanted and a price somewhere between the bargain basement ??1 Clinics and the more established Clinics in Belgium and USA. There was alot of material showing their attendance at International Conferences, winning awards for research, many years of experience for Doctors and Technicians, impressive before after/pics, good communications, professional microscopes and graft dissection techniques, tricho closure etc... Not everything is black and white and there is a leap of faith involved. I am happy to share any more info to help you but the end result for me is 9 - 12 months away. If you are young and hair loss is slow then I suppose it would pay to hold fire and do some more research. To slow down hair loss there are many natural products apart from Propecia and Avodart. Natural DHT blockers include Saw Palmetto, Green Tea, Soya Products etc..Believe me, I spent 20 odd years trying all sorts of crackpot lotions and potions before I read about the science and our greatest enemy - DHT !!!

I thought I would share my experience for my HT done with Transmed in Turkey 2 days ago. Given everything I have taken from this site, it is only fair that some 'payback' is due, and I can help someone else make an informed decision. Hence this long post, there are not too many items like this on Transmed on this Forum so hopefully this will provide much information to the those still making their mind up - the silent lurkers as I once was. I had it done on Monday, two days ago, after much research on the web. My research was based on the websites of Transmed, ISHRS and much of it here. My goals were to achieve a realistic result with a recommended Clinic within a budget ??“ in Europe to reduce travel. I was somehere around a Norwood 3 to 4. I had sent them some photos earlier and they estimated that I would need somewhere between 2500 to 3000 grafts. Between my initial contact and HT itself, I sent numerous questions to their English speaking rep ??“ Zeynep. She answered my many questions usually the next day, I also spoke on the phone. We agreed a small deposit ( approx 10% ) and then sorted out travel arrangements and date. I booked my own flights and hotel accommodation, which I emailed to Zeynep. She arranged for a driver to pick me at the Airport on Sunday and drop me at my Hotel. Nice to see a man waiting with your name on a board, you feel quite welcome. I was again picked up at 07:45 at the Hotel by their driver the next day and had my consultation with Dr Emirali. He checked my laxity and rigged a magnifying sensor to a PC to check my donor density, which I could see, amazing seeing 2 and 3 unit FU's. He said he would need 2800 FU's for my objectives. He drew a curved line on my forehead as my new hairline, which was what I mentally had already planned wished for and was happy to agree. He gave me a Valium tablet to help me stay calm. I then went downstairs and paid the balance in Euros and photos were taken for their own records. I was back up and on the surgical couch at 08:45. After a trim in the donor area, then came the worst bit, the application of anethestic to the donor area. It was not at all pleasant and I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes whilst a kind Technician Lab held my hand ! It is 30 seconds of pain. With that over, the next stages of strip removal and being stapled were painless, you can sense tugging and movement but it does not hurt. Then the strip was handed to five technicians, who got to work straightaway dissecting grafts into Units under the microscopes with binocular style viewing pieces. At this point, I was happy watching the TV with the remote in my hand watching my favourite weekend football matches, slightly spoiled by knowing Manchester United had won ! Then came another 30 second of pain as the anethestic was applied to my forehead region and recipient areas. Dr Emirali then created the sites for the FU's ??“ I did not feel any pain. Then the team of Technicians set to work on my scalp and started to place the FU's ??“ there were usually 3 or 4 doing this work. Dr Emirali would come periodically and inspect the work and then leave. I must have dozed off 2 or 3 times whilst this was being done. I had no problem with this as Transmed have been long established ( 1994 ) and have claimed to have done thousands of HTs and the team of Technicians have many years of experience ??“ I felt I was in safe hands. They brought me drinks and the Technicians swopped around a little ??“ for their lunch and other breaks I guess but the work continued well into the afternoon. At that point Dr Melike ( founder of the Clinic and Surgeon ) herself came and did an inspection. She then came back with full Surgeon Gown with Dr Emirali and did the last 30 to 45 minutes of work. I was told the strip yielded far more grafts ??“ 3172 in fact. I was aware that further sites were then created and FU's inserted ??“ no waste and no extra cost ??“ a nice gesture of goodwill. It was pleasing to see these two Doctors working on my HT, it felt as if they were refining and polishing the final parts of the procedure. Just before 3.00pm ??“ I was done, one painkilling jab in the buttock was given. I went to another room where my hair around the donor was washed. Zeynep came back and offered me some late lunch in their canteen, which was also a nice touch. I left with a bandage on the donor site and tennis band to prevent swelling and a hat to hide my peppered head. Again, their driver took me to my Hotel. I was given a bag with medications , lotions and shampoos provided as well as gel packs ??“ for painkillers, antibiotics, swelling. Next morning, their driver picked me up again for a wash at the clinic and more photos. Then I was off to the airport and back home to England. Today, the swelling has kicked in ??“ its not pretty ( some may argue was I ever !!! ). Overall, everything Transmed say on the website and said to me in emails was done as promised. The one slight change was that I had staples instead of sutures. What I gather from opinions here, they are probably better. I have no issues. The Nurse I booked in England to remove the sutures does not have staple remover so I ordered one off ebay ready for day 10 and removal. I was a long way from home ( Istanbul spans both Asia and Europe ) but I was very well looked after by Transmed and cannot fault what appears to be a very proffesional outfit. Obviously the end result is what defines success and I will keep posting and add pics as well so we will have to wait 9 ??“ 12 months for that I understand. I feel very positive about my experience so far. It cost me ??142 for flight and accommodation. Add a bit for other things such as meals and the trip is quite cheap. Distance should not be a barrier when doing big sessions. If I had gone to London, it would probably have cost me more ! My only regrets ??“ firstly staying in budget accomodation. Whilst OK, the lack of a room fridge / freezer for the gel packs was a problem but I kept asking the hotel kitchen and staff to freeze them for me. Secondly, forgetting to take off those blue plastic bags you place over your shoes in medical facilities. I did take them off just outside the departure lounge at the airport, I think the armed security guards were slightly bemused by the slight of a man wearing a tennis sweat band, a funny hat and plastic bags over his shoes. Good job they did stop me and ask to look check out my head ! Now that would have taken some explaining !!!

I have been lurking on this website for some time as a guest - finally joined today to say thanks. It is by far, the best resource available for anyone thinking of a HT -and I have googled the lot. I have been losing my hair since my teens and now I am in my early forties. I have tried propecia, minoxidol, generic dutas and now Avodart. I believe Avodart has virtually stopped any further loss. Having read the forums, blogs and checked out the photos I have booked an appointment with Transmed in Turkey in the near future. I will hopefully share the experience with this forum so I too can help someone like me who has long sought answers to hairloss and struggled with the effects. Once again thanks for helping me make the decision and move forward.