DontWait

I am still growing from my second surgery, haven’t posted anything final. My procedure was manual, Artas wasn’t an option and I believe he mentioned the device has been retired for at least a few years.

5000 grafts FUE across 2 surgeries as a Norwood 4-5a. 2 surgeries were planned from the beginning. 6ish months out from the second. I would have loved to have FUT as an option but my skin has no laxity, very tight. I would like a 3rd, small session to address the frontal Crown. I did do PRP for both, if nothing else, to speed up growth. I would say do your research and come up with your own conclusions. I will be doing PRP for my third.

I was in the same position as you, its not that I couldn’t leave TX, its that I couldn’t imagine going for a surgery and having to travel or not sleep in my home afterwards. Just a comfort level thing. I chose Arocha, happy with results and going again to work a bit further back.

Arocha has an area of his Clinic dedicated to photography. He has the ability to use a high end camera. For all of my before and after pics, he used an iPhone. Doesn’t bother me since I am chronicling my own experience but he is doing himself a disservice. I don’t think it is intentional to hide or obscure results, its just easier for him to whip out his phone. Should probably put more effort in this area.

Not sure I had much to shed in the beginning, lol. My crown does go through a shed every couple months. Always comes back a tad stronger.

6 Month Update:

5 mg/ day.

4 month update. I shed around 50% of the hair. Early growth seems good. Oral Minox is regrowing quite a bit on my juvenile hairline. You can see the weaker looking hair well below my transplanted hair. Crown is doing very good from the minox, but seems to go through frequent shed cycles, which is assume is good. Started oral minox around 6-7 months ago.

Ill be updating my Arocha thread in a couple weeks when I hit 4 months. I am already loving what I am seeing. Arocha is on the very conservative side of things, originally he recommended 2000 for me and after I detailed my goals we went for 3000+ with plans for another session. Most of his work is in the 2000-2500 range based on what I have seen. His designs may not line up to some of the popular styles like super dense hairlines and some of the aggressive temple points. These are just my opinions.

Take a look at my post, I would say I was a "great" responder to those medications, plus Microneedling & LLLT. I really threw the kitchen sink at it. I would say a "good" responder would just gain some in the crown. Even with great medication results, a HT was always on my list. With the meds, keep expectations in check. Be happy with keeping what you have, any new hair is a bonus.

I asked this question in a Patient results thread, but wanted to create a new thread. So what is it that makes a good transplanted hairline? What is the technique, pattern, distribution, etc? How do you create that natural look?

Looks very good.

10 Day wash. Harsh Bathroom Lighting. Density looks pretty good, hopefully 90%+ makes it. But, this was never meant to be only 1 surgery.

Here are my pictures right after the surgery. You will notice some thin hairs below the new hairline, that is regrowth from the medications. We will see what those end up doing in the future, if they grow, cool, free hair :). The donor looks spectacular, in my uneducated opinion. Nice even distribution of extractions (difficult to tell in pic due to lighting) and the punch is so small. I like to wear my hair short, so this was nice to see. MOD: Please delete the above two "reserved" posts, thank you.

Below are some pictures of my baseline 6 months ago, before DUT, MIN & PRP. The other pictures are after 4 months, unfortunately I didn't take pictures after 6 months, right before the HT. They improved a bit over the 4 month pictures, especially the crown.

Reserved

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Hello all, my username is DontWait, as in don't wait to do something about your hair loss. I have been thinning for 10-15 years, and have done nothing until 6 months ago. 6 months ago I decided to get a hair transplant. After reading everything I could I started Dutasteride, oral Minoxidil plus 3x PRP +LLLT. To my surprise my crown came back around 75% or so and I gained some hair up front. Besides PRP, the medications were nearly free (on insurance) and I have zero side effects. Some would say give it another year and see where you are at. That is understandable but I am in my late thirties and have waited long enough. I usually don't post on these kinds of forums but because this forum helped me find Dr. Arocha I would like to pay it forward. Dr. Arocha was great to work with, and our personalities meshed well. He came well recommended and was local to me. In my list of priorities staying local was important but I understand people traveling to go to the Doctor of their choice. During our original consultation we decided on 2500 FUE + PRP. I understand PRP is a debatable topic but it was part of my highly successful original regiment. The day of the surgery I asked him lets go big to 3000+, he obliged. My situation was a bit challenging, from my years of sports injuries I am known as a bleeder. I told him this upfront and he mentioned he had experience with this situation. In terms of hairline, I asked for "age appropriate". I didn't want the hairline of a twenty something but I did want high density behind the hairline. I was told I have an extremely good donor area and enough to lower the hairline if I change my mind in the future. The surgery was performed over two days, and I was the their only patient those two days. I had a team of about 5 people working on/ with me. The most important part, Dr. Arocha was there every step of the way either personally performing the work (extraction, incision, placement) or watching over and giving guidance to his team. It was fun listening to him give guidance to his team, or answering my questions during the surgery. As they say, the devil is in the details. Today is the day after surgery and I have 0 pain or discomfort, I can't believe it.