GoliGoliGoli

2 hours ago, jondoeuk said:

Tretinoin upregulates follicular sulfotransferase enzymes, which metabolise minoxidil to its active metabolite, minoxidil sulfate Tretinoin enhances minoxidil response in androgenetic alopecia patients by upregulating follicular sulfotransferase enzymes - Sharma - 2019 - Dermatologic Therapy - Wiley Online Library

Is anyone selling a good minox/tret foam or liquid? 

On 7/26/2023 at 5:00 PM, adert said:

I am also concerned about this. I knew 3160 grafts and it is not enough to cover the area, and i will need 1-2 procedures more. I am confused atm as the hair are quite weak and honestly expected better result. Also i am thinking why do i have some holes in my hair like there, i didnt have it before. I dont want to sound negative, just confused. 

My family noticed it too: 

This area can be seen to be quite thin in one of the first set of pics you posted.

I'm kind of surprised, for 3100 grafts you guys tried to cover a very large area. Even still, I would have expected better yield at this point. You still do have lots of time left to grow though. What was the discussion like when you and Gur were planning the surgery? Did you request you wanted the 3100 grafts spread out to give some density all over? 

21 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

when you think about it, being a hair transplant patient actually would put you at higher risk for the above 🤣. In general getting a hair transplant implies you have more $$$ than the average person

What was your wait time for surgery?

 

Not so much. Cartel higher ups highly discourage their underlings from targeting American's. They don't want the US government on their back causing issues for their business, and they know going after American's is a surefire way to bring that sort of heat down on them. The last thing they want is some American getting killed or robbed. 

Just now, jfally said:

Whey has that effect on many. 
 

Try Fairlife ready to drink shakes. They’re made with a lactose enzyme that renders them able to label them “dairy free”. 
 

Many of my clients that can’t tolerate whey do great with these. They’re also super super tasty and great consistency on top of bomb macros 👌🏽

 

Thanks I'll check those out. I recently came across a video recommending Gelatin powder in place of whey so I ordered up some "great lakes grassfed beef gelatin" to give it a shot. 

Great write up. I actually got a bit nostalgic reading it because my experience, like yours, was extremely pleasant and actually quite fun. I also remember being impressed with how quiet and focused his techs were. I'm not kidding when I say "monk-like" is a good description of them - very confidence inspiring on a day when you have a lot going on in your head. 

Like you I also remembering being impressed at Nader's insistence that I send him regular updates. I've actually sent him hardly any just because I feel like he probably gets inundated with them, and I also haven't had any reason for concern, so I figured I'd hold off until month 9 or so before shooting him an update. The few times I did text him in the first month he responded same day.

Great write up and very comprehensive reference for future patients on what it's like on surgery day with Nader. Happy growing! 

3 hours ago, MazAB said:

Thanks @Shadman! My BPM went from 65 to 80 when I started taking 2.5mg. I've since cut it down to 0.625mg daily and that seems to have gotten me around the high sixty to low seventy mark. What I may have to experiment with is how I react to topical once I start microneedling. Since more of the drug will go systemic in the body thru better absorption, would that potentially cause the same issue? Also, I want to do more research around how resting heart rate is affected long term with the drug, and if it could have negative effects on your cardiovascular system over the course of your life. 

The biggest problem is that not much has been tested from that perspective. Until it is FDA approved for hairloss, I'm hesitant to continue on it long term. 

I would also say, after listening to Kevin Mann's clip on Oral Minoxidil, it also got me thinking more about the overall safety of the drug for long term use. I've attached the link here if anyone is interested, and would love to have anyone's opinion on this topic, as I do consider this to be a very big decision on how I move forward with my home hair care.

 

There's been a lot of discussion recently about this video in the thread below. I'm a topical Min user, and frankly despite what Kevin says about the safety of topical I'm even concerned with how much goes systemic just from topical application with no microneedling.  Especially because I usually just use enough to cover the entire "area of concern" instead of only using to like the half a cap full that I believe is recommended on the bottle. I guess the question is how much topical is equivalent to say 0.5 mg of oral in terms of systemic absorption? 

BTW, thanks for the recommendation on the Slick Gorilla styling powder. Worked great to reduce the frizzines both in my transplanted hair and native hair and makes it easier to style. 

3 minutes ago, Heisenberg said:

Well, I must be an exception, as with that South African lady who developed pericardial effusion etc., who was on far less than 5mg daily, as I was only on 2.5mg, and I noticed serious side effects within a week. Something doesn't seem to add up.

To be fair, in your case there is really no "evidence" that you had serious side effects. I'm not saying you didn't by any means, but your case isn't as clear cut as the South African woman. 

13 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

To dispel the misinformation about patients being excluded, I’m posting Dr. Vaños response. 

Kevin shows this quote from the paper  in his video. To me, this reads that anyone taking OM taking for less than 3 months was excluded from being observed in the study. Otherwise the range would be 0-79 months?
 

I’m happy to be wrong here (And even happier for my chume Kevin to be wrong) but I don’t see anything in the above texts that addresses his question. 

24 minutes ago, Heisenberg said:

Does that potentially mean that some patients stopped using the drug in less than 3 months in due to side effects?

Well, it just means that anyone who stopped prior to being on it for 3 months weren't included in the study.

There was some talk about this in a thread a few weeks back around the confusion of who was and wasn't included in that study. 

15 minutes ago, BackFromTheBrink said:

There have been several large retrospective analysis of patients using oral minoxidyl and no serious safety concerns were reported from any of the patients. 

Which studies? The one most people mention is the one of approximately 1400 patients, but I'm pretty sure they only looked at patients who had already been using OM for 3 months. 

Does whey wreak havoc on anyone else's digestive system? I've even bought an expensive one that is supposed to be easier on digestion, but no luck

@ArochaAngel4247 This patient had a previous HT in his hairline it looks like? 

Yes I'm 8 months post op with Nader.

Long waitlist is a sign of a good surgeon. 

4 minutes ago, Big Rome said:

this is very true 👏🏻👏🏻 some of the hairmills in Turkey have literally millions of ‘followers’ 

Not only that, if you message some of these clinics on Whatsapp one time you end up needing to block them because they will forever hound you with messages. Whereas if a Dr is bad or slow at responding back it probably means they're super involved in the process and thus don't have the ability to "scale up", and also aren't hungry for business because they are fully booked. 

Maybe it's because I'm a Naderite, but it's always seemed like a green flag when a surgeon gets by with minimal social media/web presence. If you're running a successful HT clinic with little web presence it speaks to the fact that your results are good enough that you're getting enough business on word of mouth and don't need to go fishing for prospective clients. 

@asterix0 It's a bit hard to make a judgement seeing as how in the above pic you are 4 days from having 1300 grafts removed.

I don't doubt the validity of your point, but it's hard to make a judgement based on this pic due to the recentness of the operation. So as you said in original post, would be good to see some other cases that aren't so immediately post op. 

31 minutes ago, coolbreeze said:

This is my concern. Can you post pics? would be very helpful.

Agree, @asterix0 would be very useful for us all if you could share pictures. 

10 minutes ago, BaldBobby said:

I haven't seen Gur's work, who do you think is better?

I'm not sure, that's why I was asking you!

They both seem pretty awesome, @Grant Giller result with Gur looked really great.

15 minutes ago, BaldBobby said:

I'd go with Turan 

Why Turan over Gur? 

4 minutes ago, MazAB said:

It is definitely normal at 8 months, however even at a year when it all settles down and you have less of the kinky growth factor, you are still dealing with hairs transplanted far apart that can't support each other as well as closely packed native hairs. Because transplanted hairs are always far apart compared to native hairs, you don't have the benefit of the hairs supporting each other and keeping each other in line, especially with longer growth. I've noticed when using any oil based product, or even like the products I suggested it helps a ton with taming. 

The biggest game changer for me though was the 2nd transplant. Having greater density now, the hairs support each other much better and cooperate. No better fix than more density in my opinion. 

Interesting thanks for clarifying. I've been using the slick gorilla seal salt spray but have recently moved to an aerosol based high hold hair spray to "lock" the style in better. Just yesterday I purchased the slick gorilla powder and am excited to give that a try. 

13 hours ago, MazAB said:

 I have personally struggled a bit with hard to tame transplanted hair as many do, but these products allow me to bend and shape the style I want without any effort. Absolutely love them, and find it helps with added density as well.

Would you mind elaborating on this a bit more? Do you get a bit of the "Birds nest" effect when not styled? I'm about 8 months post-op and also am dealing with some hard to tame hairs in my crown especially when fresh off a shampoo. I know this is very normal for 8 months but I'm curious to hear your experience as far as whether it was all of the transplanted hairs that are hard to tame or only certain areas, and whether it went away with time after your 1st transplant. 

29 minutes ago, StillAlive said:

This thread is solid gold @Melvin- Moderator. Should have its own golden pin button on top of the site, really, same as the recommended surgeons

There is no question in my mind that I now look a thousand times better than before my transplant and thankfully, I'm at an age and stage in my life where I don't feel the need to go crazy with transplant-on-transplant, chasing some unattainable 'perfect' ideal. 

I got my transplant exactly because my baldness got to a degree where I felt it was altering what I 'felt' as my true face. Once my hairline was back and I recognized the dude in the mirror again, I was and continue to be, delighted. Anything else is just gravy on top. 

This is a very healthy outlook and is generally why I think most guys shouldn't get HT's until they're pretty far gone where what they get in a first pass is a major aesthetic improvement. There was a case of a guy on here who was NW2 and got I think 2000 grafts to fix his hairline and give him temples points, and he ended up being disappointed with the result and feeling like he needed a 2nd pass more density. HT's will not return you to your "heyday" in a single pass. I think people get caught in a trap of chasing the ideal hairline with ideal density and it's really not a great idea unless you have tons of money in the bank. 

7 minutes ago, Sunset Dune said:

“Illusion of density” isn’t the case for everyone, sure if you’re stage 5 and up you’ve already lost most of your hair and a hair transplant would give you that “illusion of density” but if you still have a good amount of hair on your head with above average donor and quality hair characteristics a transplant can do wonders and actually bring your hair back to the way it was in the heyday. 

Have you had a HT? They do not return you to your "heyday", at least not in a single pass. 

11 minutes ago, Heisenberg said:

True that, but that would be a remarkable coincidence in my case, as this is the first time that I have experienced this, and it happened around a week after starting oral minoxidil, which happens to mess with your heart (that's what it was intended to do).

Any acid reflux in your past? 

14 minutes ago, Heisenberg said:

You're essentially arguing that the risks of taking the drug are merely my subjective opinion, when you have previously agreed that all pharmaceuticals carry a risk of side effects. 

I have only repeated what has been overtly declared by Pfizer themselves. I've not stated anything that Pfizer has not. To that end, I have not blown things out of proportion, and only a fool would not be mindful of the possible side effects before taking a drug.

I think he was replying to jfally's comment not yours. 

I am a big believer in the nocebo effect. Hell, I'm such a hippy that I even believe in the power on manifesting outcomes via your own thoughts in terms of say your career or your relationships (Shoutout to the Monroe Insitute). 

On the other hand, I also believe that it's quite possible that it's not a great idea to be taking a medication for baldness that was originally designed for hypertension, only for it to be basically discontinued for that purpose due to side effects (Albeit at higher doses). 

We walk a fine line here, chumes!