slimjerky

Wow looks amazing!  How long did you stay after the procedure and does Dr. P's clinic wash off your scabs?

I can't tell.  Are the bumps only at the base of each follicle?  If so, it could be cobblestoning.  I don't know why but i've heard from a number of doctors that the area below the chin is much more susceptible to cobblestoning.

There seems to be confusion between cobblestoning and orange peel texture as in the pics above.  

This is cobblestoning and apparently is due to not trimming the grafts of excess tissue before implantation.

What happens if the grafts dislodge?  Does the doctor usually re-implant new ones?

Bicer, Keser, Pekiner, HLC, Turan seem to be the best in Turkey that are not hair mills.

2 hours ago, ciaus said:

The 'barber cut' look, when it comes to hairlines and beard lines, tend to look better the darker the person's natural skin tone is. Same goes for guys that get those sharp outlines in their SMP. For those of us with lighter skin the beard and hairlines have to be more subtle and graduated, or we end up with a fake 'doll-like' appearance. 

And that's pretty crazy how much of a shadow he still has after 9 months and shaving it all the way down.  

Is that shadow caused by redness/bruising or thick multi hair grafts?

10 hours ago, SeanToman said:

Personally not a fan but a lot of people seem to like this "barber cut" look.

To  be honest I haven't seen a good beard transplant yet.. it always looks unnatural. 

The only time I think people can get away with it if they're filling in an existing beard, otherwise transplanting a beard onto a completely bald jaw looks strange.

There are some decent ones.  You really need to see the 1 year post op photo to judge because early on they always look fake drawn on.

Magnification loupes are needed during extraction and microscopes to separate hairs into single grafts

2 hours ago, Antlor said:

Some doctors don't use microscopes. Without at least 10x magnification, the follicle may seem to be only 1 hair but in fact there could be a miniaturized hair or hairs hiding in that follicle. Also, using loupes does not provide enough magnification. 

All the Coalition Doctors on the Forum's recommended list must use microscopes.

 

I believe HLC uses 6-8x magnification during extraction but uses microscopes to separate the hairs.  Is this sufficient?

I stumbled upon this youtube video and the guy seems happy but I think it looks horrible mainly due to the straight line of the beard.  Also, when he shaves completely the line never goes away.  I'm guessing this is due to using thicker multi hair grafts and placed on too straight of a line?

Bisanga and Couto come highly recommended outside of Turkey.  Although i'm not sure what their experience with beards are.  I'm also researching and leaning towards Turkey but open to suggestions.

On 7/1/2022 at 5:27 PM, NARMAK said:

I would serious urge you to not go by "my mothers fathers a Norwood 0 so i'll never bald" because hair loss is genetic and from BOTH sides of the family. You may have been lucky so far, but i can assure you from my very own family that not all siblings are the same. My younger brothers for example, one had diffuse thinning and his crown area affected and there's a near 2 year gap. The brother younger than him by a year has started showing diffuse thinning too but looks more diffuse in the middle of his hairline. Part of it may be genetic and part due to vitamin deficiencies etc. but myself, i didn't really have obvious diffuse thinning, kept a pretty strong-ish Norwood 2 sans temple points for near 10 years. So it doesn't always run the same even between siblings.

You know what else contributes to those issues? Getting older. 

Again, it's entirely up to yourself to manage what you feel comfortable with but i always feel there's got to be a balancing of information and then people can make a truly informed decision. 

Ultimately everybody should make and stand by their decisions they choose. I guess just being on a site like this though, it's easy to sometimes see the wisdom in not rushing to decisions as a patient and end up in a worse situation requiring repairs which are financially as well as emotionally a toil. 

I get that the mother's father's thing isn't the only determining factor.  I would think that being in my early 40's i would have seen at least some hair loss by now but it's a risk i'm willing to take.

Yeah, that's why i'm still doing research on doctors.  One of the most important things for me is that the surgeon does the entire procedure and not techs but that doesn't seem very common.

On 7/5/2022 at 4:36 AM, Knarff said:

Hello, did you try to contact Dr Bicer via What’s app?

I booked a beard transplant with her in January 2023.

I could try that, I initially did email.  What made you select Bicer?  I don't think i've seen any beard transplant photos she's done.

On 7/4/2022 at 2:45 AM, Gatsby said:

Yep. @DrTBarghouthi has shown excellent work in beard results! 👌

Thanks, ill check out some of his work.

20 hours ago, sukh123 said:

this is a bit like finasteride scaremongering, these side effects like bloated face and aging is so far fetched. 

It's not fear mongering.  There are actual studies of minox affecting colllagen.  Trust me, i've done tons of research and there are numerous reports of eye bags, dark circles, and wrinkles, even despite stopping usage.  

20 hours ago, NARMAK said:

Again, it's only a possibility of that side affect and imo, given the much more permanent results that stick around with you, i would usually recommend people give that a go than blow precious scalp donor on a beard. 

My own beard has a few weak spots i notice but overall i'm incredibly blessed i guess on account of my ethnic background having solid beards but the hairs more thick and coarse, it also begins to curl at certain lengths. Whereas my scalp hair is more medium thickness. 

So hypothetically if you had a huge amount like in your original post of up to 2200, that's a significant amount imo. That's actually more than i just had for my hair transplant which was a shade over 2000 grafts with a complete temple point restoration and lowering of the hairline. 

If you ever bald to a high enough grade and aren't on medication to slow/stop it as much as possible, you may come to regret using scalp hair for the beard. 

Again, it's entirely up to you. It's always an elective procedure and i'm 100% the last person to try stop people self improving except in very extreme sort of cases where somebody may have body dysmorphia and stuff. 

Ultimately you could have a competent team dissect multi grafts into singles but you will need to probably keep doing research to find just the right fit if you go through with it. 

I get what you're saying, but i'm pretty confident I won't go bald because of my mother's father.  There's always a risk though.  From the beard transplants i've seen, 1500-2000 seem to be on the lower end. I've seen much more, mainly guys that barely have any facial hair at all.  I have a decent base with some patchiness.  I did email Pekiner and he mentioned that any multi grafts get separated using microscopes.

11 hours ago, Fue3361 said:

Have you tried minoxidil * microneedling for 6+ months.  Quite a few people have massive results when combining the two.  
 

Even a scenario where you only get subpar results, it can still lower the amount of grafts you end up needing but a few hundred or more.

The possible side effects are scaring me from trying (Aging, bloated face, etc).  That stuff is not good for your body even though some people have good results.  Not worth the risk imo.

I've been doing a good amount of research and i've narrowed it down to HLC or Pekiner.  Bicer I contacted but was hard to get a response.  The main reason I am choosing Turkey is because I feel they do a higher volume of transplants and also it seems they do a lot of beards.  I couldn't find much info on beard transplants from some of the other well known doctors in Europe or any before and after photos.

They both recommended around the same number of grafts HLC (1600-2200) and Pekiner (1600).  The price is mostly the same as well 2.7-2.8.  I hear a lot of good things about HLC but I don't have as much comfort because you don't know which doctor will do the procedure.  Does anyone have any feedback between these two?

My main concerns/questions are below:

1. Angle - I want to ensure the hair grows at an angle down and following my existing hair direction.  I understand the angle is determined by the holes created.

2. Using singles only - I know singles are recommended for beard transplants but I see some doing doubles or even triples.  Does anyone know if either of these only do singles?  I know some doctors split up the hairs into singles if needed.

3. I'm especially worried about cobblestoning.  Any idea how this happens?

4. I want the beard lines to be somewhat uneven, maybe more spread out and sporadic and then it gets more and more dense towards the bottom.  Some of these surgeries look too fake because the beard line is too defined.

5. Do they both use microscopes and same technique?

Do you just put the single grafts in the top half near the line and the doubles in the bottom half?

Looks great!  How many grafts for the beard and did they use single for the beard line?