icemanfish

Thanks everyone for your honest advice. Sounds like I need to have a good long talk with a dermatologist, reanalyse my options with regards to medication and increase my budget (which sounds like this forum's version of Lawyer up, hit the gym, delete facebook). Increasing my budget is feasible - it just means that I'll need to delay making a start with it until I'm a bit more comfortable financially - but it sounds like that might be a good idea anyway. I guess I can try out the shaved look in the meantime 😎. God bless all of you, including those trying to change my mind on Fin. I wouldn't want you to say anything other than what you truly believe is the best advice for my situation, so it's all appreciated. I'll keep you updated with what I end up doing.

Hi All! I've been thinking about getting a HT for a long time now, but only recently came into money that might enable it. Since then, I've been consulting surgeons, reading about the forum, and attempting to understand how my particular situation applies to various available treatments. I just want to say how grateful I am to have come across this site, which is a treasure trove of honest advice and experiences in the internet's sea of misinformation, advertising and hype. So far, I've come away with a few solid conclusions: 1.) If I got a HT, it would be in Turkey, and I would budget £5,000 (5.855 EUR) for it. I initially thought the best idea would be to stay in the UK, relying on our consumer protections, but after looking into a very dodgy-seeming clinic in London that was asking for only £2,000 and seemed to be more focused on protecting their reputation with fake reviews than offering a quality service and honest advice, I decided to look abroad. I have consulted two surgeries that seemed to be appropriate for my price range: Dr Resul Yaman and Turan/Gur at FUECAPILAR. Yaman quoted me £2,800 for an all-in package with 4,500 grafts, to be completed in one day. I was initially worried about the 'Hair mill'-esque implications of this, but I've come to the conclusion that he offers a quality service for the price, but that I shouldn't expect anything as extraordinary as what De Freitas can offer. The assistant I was talking to was also honest about failure rates, what I should expect etc. Dr. Turan reccomended I take a step back and take Finasteride and Minoxodil 5% for 6-9 months. I greatly appreciate the honesty here and it speaks to the integrity of the doctor, but taking a heavy regimen of medication for the remainder of my life is not an acceptable solution for me (see below) and I'd prefer not to wait another half a year, when I feel like I'm at the right stage of my life to undertake this kind of surgery. So, currently I'm just looking at the proposal made by Yaman. 2.) I should only realistically expect the result being a 'mature hairline', and not necessarily maximum density. I'm thinking this is simply more reliably achievable than aiming for a complete transformation via one surgery, especially with my unwillingness to commit to a heavy regimen of medication, and the thing I'm most self-conscious about is the crown at the moment. 3.) That I'm not willing to accept the side effects of Finasteride, and I can't realistically commit to a regimen of topical minoxidil. When I first started reading about Hair transplants, I thought they were simply a more expensive, permanent version of these, and that getting a HT precludes the need for other medical solutions. I can see that the informed opinion here is that you kinda need to use medication alongside your HT, else the rest of your existing hair will fall out anyway and you'll need another one down the road. Still, the side effects, no matter how rare, are to me personally pretty unacceptable for Fin - I just can't accept the potential hormonal effects that it has; my personal perspective is that I'd rather go shaved than risk that. I also can't allow commiting to topical minoxidil, despite it seeming like the obvious solutions, as my work and social circumstances do not allow for me to be consistent with it - there would be regular periods of going two weeks without it. As such, the only realistic option for me is oral minoxidil, or some alternative like laser therapy (though I'm not sure how good laser therapy really is, and if it's another thing like topical minoxidil that I'd need to stick to for the rest of my life). I also wouldn't necessarily mind having to take a second transplant down the line to 'refresh', or else go shaved at some point. So, that's what I've gathered. Now, I'd like to arm you guys with some info about my particular case and some images of my current situation (see blow), and ask some specific questions I've got about getting a HT under these conditions. So, aside from the images, I think it's important to note that I've never had a HT before, that I don't smoke or drink (ever), I exercise regularly and don't have any serious health conditions. I first noticed my hair thinning in 2014 - I'm 30 now. It feels like it's been very gradually progressing over the course of many years - I've heard other people say that it's common to lose 50-100 hairs a day, and I don't think I've ever experienced that, but maybe I'm just unobservant in the shower. 1.) Do you think getting a HT is a good idea for me at all? I've seen some discussion to the effect that if you aren't willing to do Fin then it's not worth bothering with, but I'm still kinda keen, even if it would only delay my baldness by a decade or so. I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts and advice. 2.) If I did go through with it, is Yaman a good choice for my particular case? He's one of this site's recommended doctors, but I know he's definitely more on the 'budget' end of things there, and people have posted results with him that are imperfect, but I think I'm willing to accept the risk of those, from what I've seen. As I say, I'm not expecting miracles at this stage. 3.) Is my Donor area strong enough for the potential of multiple surgeries? It's always hard to tell from images alone, I know, but I've seen some people offer some very useful advice on this based on image albums that have been uploaded. 4.) Is going for a HT with no intention of including a consistent medical regimen alongside it a completely stupid idea? I'm currently thinking that's the majority opinion, but I'm still stubbornly attached to the idea of a HT being a permanent 'fix' to fully let it go. If it is, feel free to tell me straight so I can feel encouraged to start on something. I would welcome any other comments/ advice/corrections as well. And, if I do go through with a HT, I'll be sure to provide you guys with an account of how it goes to repay you!