IMM1979

great write up! good luck with the growth! 

12 minutes ago, Jason Blaha said:

Bruh no offense but of course you are losing hair due to DHT. 

The only reason why you are losing hair in this very typical Male Pattern Baldness/Androgenetic Alopecia pattern is precisely and exactly because your genetic makeup is such that your hair follicles are genetically very sensitive to the little amount of DHT  produced in hair follicles  and prostatic tissue  from Testosterone via 5AR type 2 isoenzyme conversion. 

Serum DHT levels in the blood are totally irrelevant. What matter is  tissue DHT levels within each hair follicle on the scalp and how your androgen receptor  is genetically programmed to respond in a certain way to DHT signalling pathways...

It's very hard to measure DHT levels on the scalp and I think this would require scalp biopsy. I honestly wouldn't even bother with that...

You need to lower by half follicular DHT levels with oral Finasteride/Dutasteride. That will slow down the process of gradual hair miniaturization that eventually leads to permanent and ireversible Male Pattern Baldness. 

99% of men especially diffuse thinners think they are losing hair due to dome kind of "telogen effluvium", biotin or iron deficiency, thyroid dysfunction, scarring alopecia etc...It's a very popular misconception bro.

In reality all they have is classic Androgenic Alopecia caused by genetic sensitivity of the hair follicles to the evil little DHT. 

ANDRO GENETIC alopecia 

Andro = androgens. DHT and T predominantly 

Genetic = your genes. 

Look no further. 

The easiest way to diagnose classic Male Pattern Baldness is to look at someone's hair under microscope. If you have certain hairs that are thinner, weaker, less pigmented than other THEN this is a sign that the typical hair miniaturization caused by DHT is occurring. 

And then it's time to MANN up !!!

@Jason Blahagreat explanation, thank you!! 

Now this is interesting .. got the results of my DHT blood test back.. guess am not losing hair due to DHT! 

Just now, asda said:

yea it makes sense. This punch size is good, casuing less trauma to donor

@asdagood to know! Btw any thoughts on shaving with clippers the recipient area? Most advice seems to be ok after 1.5 to 2 months but my clinic saying 6 months. Big difference.. 

16 hours ago, asda said:

Its not there..You could ask clinic about that information

@asdaactually it was on few of the photos. 0.7-0.8 on one and 0.7-0.75-0.8 on other for punch. does that make sense?

Thanks @Gatsby. We are planning a family now so Fin is a no go for obvious reasons . 

On a separate note, I decided to test my DHT levels, since I refuse to use Fin.. why not?.. results will take 2-3 weeks as they send the bloodwork to the US.. will update. 

@asda thank you. No idea, how do I find this information? I had some photos with grafts in it, could be there?

11 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

Your donor is looking strong @IMM1979. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks @Gatsby. At this stage, are weekly photos useful going forward, or every four weeks better? Seems not much changes week to week.. 

Week 8 photos of ugly duckling phase @Gatsby:) 

@ASMEDMANUALFUE thank you for your message. While I appreciate your comments, please refrain from making further posts on this stream, and instead spend your time helping those patients that have had issues with their transplants in the past. I quote from above, @Nccan, @miko, @110620, @dust78. 

My personal goal is to track my photos over the next year and potentially receive unbiased opinions from fellow hair transplant patients. At this juncture, I do not require opinions from the clinic or their practitioners (unless you are willing to offer advice if you can see that things are NOT going well). I have the contact information for my patient coordinator(s) and will reach out to them if I need further clinical support. Thank you. 

@Aslitarcan sucksI saw Dr Mwamba offering this 0.025% dose on his website. https://www.fueclinic.com/services/treatments/topical-finasteride-0-025/

Hi Melvin, do you have an update on how your progress is since starting with the Lasercap? Thanks

@Aslitarcan sucksi am not angry at all. If you read all my posts you will see issues I had with this clinic. Maybe you did not read them.  I am more amazed at the herd mentality on this forum. For example, there is a huge pro community for Eugenix in India. I personally think they are awful after going for a consult ( incidentally, I am from India and no one in my network has ever heard of them). But, to each their own. Maybe they treat foreigners better. That is always the case when $ are involved. 

Hey all

Topical fin & min at forhims USA is labeled as 6% minoxidil +0.3% finasteride.

Topical fin & min at Sons.co.uk is labeled as 5% minoxidil + 0.1% finasteride.

Trying to understand why the difference in the dosing/is one more effective than another

Thanks!

@mafpethank you for this, great points. Guess it is a learning experience for everyone - my first HT was in 2013 when I knew nothing (will do a separate post about that also) and yes, choosing a place has a lot to do with budget, time and convenience (outside of the surgeon). My first choice was Bicer, but she was booked for a year and I was already going to be in Greece and Turkey so went with option 2 on the list. Let's see how it turns out. Hope for the best, expect the worst!

@Hair transplant is a hugethank you for your comments. Im with you. I dont trust any comments about hair clinics on this forum. My view is stronger than ever that its a herd mentality and people follow each other without conviction or real opinion. The stock market is the same. My impression so far is people on this forum get paid from promoting certain clinics. So in reality, there is nothing special about this site. I will continue to post my photos mainly for myself so I have a record on the progress. 

Thank you @Nccan. Yeah he does have his pride. Im sure he didn’t love it when after the surgery I said to him: “ what did you guys do before finasteride was invented?” 

thanks @EgyI note your points on this. I did receive a pen drive with some photos on it, need to look for it . I can't remember if it has dates but there were a ton of photos. As for this forum, again I see your point, though it seems there is a strong herd mentality towards clinics with a strong bias, rather than genuine opinions. For example, strong bias against Turkish clinics in general (except a handful) but strong positive for Eugenix (this also surprised me, as after my consultation with them I felt pretty uncomfortable to proceed - more on that later). Personally, I had plenty of issues with Asmed too, in particular their business practices, payments, and to some extent overselling.  However, my goal at this point is to document my overall journey and hopefully collect some feedback on the photos. Thanks.

btw anyone have thoughts on using clippers on the transplanted area? ASMED tells patients SIX MONTHS strictly NO Clippers on transplanted part, though I can't really understand the science/logic behind that --> seems most doctors say 1-2 months is fine. Thoughts, anyone?

Thank you @Gatsby! 

Week 7 post haircut photos (back and front). 17 Jun 2022 

Thanks @Gramatik. I went with the premium package and paid up for Erdogan doing incisions. Took some photos post haircut today , curious on your thoughts on donor area.. will post shortly 

My week 7 photos pre-haircut today