mister_25

Looking fantastic, your almost there

What about wearing fibers or other concealers everyday?

What characteristics does Dr Zarev and Bisanga say that makes your beard hair different than your scalp hair? Does this mean you are not a candidate for using beard grafts?

So much improvement in such a short time, I bet you are right on the money about two months from now

I've been wearing hats for a little under or over 4 years now, and I did get some "are you balding, is something up" like comments from new acquaintances and such from then on. Generally, the comments bothered me and were made semi-frequently. Until I wore concealer for one night out and then once they had "confirmation" that there is "hair under the hat" they stopped bothering me with it as much. So my advice, is you need to vary with having hair out in its best possible conditions, whilst also having "hat time" if that makes sense.

Temples look really good, excited to see you get more density

@Al - formerly BeHappy Congratulations! You should definitely make a "meet the moderator" topic and share your ideas and anecdotes after your many years of being on the forum

I think that starting a new section is a good idea, I personally see hair transplants and hair restoration in general as a avenue of self improvement. It all contributes to aesthetics anyway which is what we are all chasing so I think it has a relevant place on this forum. I also wanted to thank you and @Z-- in particular for your continued support and help in DMs. You both were very instrumental in helping me find a path forward and I am very grateful for that. What are the benefits of Dermmatch over fibres?

Nothing much really to share, But I'll try to do a small simple update; I'm consulting with other doctors and I have a in person consult booked in 2025. Second Surgery most likely will take place in 2026 (Probably Q4 of 2026). I am attempting to get more in person consults scheduled around the same time so that way I can have a small trip around Europe of consulting with various doctors in person about my capabilities. The spot that had shedded behind the hairline has improved over the past two months, but still will need to be addressed in a second procedure. Otherwise, the hair situation is the same, maybe slightly better or so. Otherwise, I'm getting good at using fibers and have gone out without a hat a couple of times with confidence (with fibers of course). Fibers make me look like I am just "beginning to thin" because of the weak point on my left side hairline, but otherwise with fibers I can pull off a NW2 look pretty well. The issue with fibers for me is that the fibers tend to fall out of the hairline after a couple of hours, so it's something that I'll have to apply in the hairline about 2-3 times a day. The crown and midscalp retain the fibers very well, and I've even seen them stay in for up to three-four days at a time using a hair-spray. Fibers have been absolute godsend on my confidence, I even received one compliment about my hair with them in that really made my week to be honest. If anyone is in a similar position, would highly recommend them. It gives me "breathing room" or even "momentary bouts of confidence and higher self esteem". I somewhat expected this from before the surgery, but during windy days my crown hairs blow upwards and get exposed, because of this I've grown my hair out into a bun to keep the crown hairs in the spot I want them, so that it doesn't get exposed. This works pretty well so far. But it is the only hair style that really works, I am very limited in the styling department. I will for the next couple years be known as "that guy who has his hair in a bun" I had a brief visit with a Dermatologist who has a stake in the HT industry and has trained under a surgeon, and I asked him out of curiosity how much donor he thinks I have left (Asked this a while ago) he said around 3000 grafts but it would be a inaccurate assessment. Right now, since I am in this "waiting" period where my hair will remain stagnant for around 3 years before a second surgery. I am going to put my time, energy and focus onto other aspects about myself that I can improve during this timeframe. Fitness, Diet, Skincare, Teeth, Hands-on Skills and Social Skills as examples, I can always improve and make/create new defining positive features that overpower my primary negative feature (my hair), which will ultimately be getting addressed when the time calls for it. I got this idea from reading a comment that @Der3k7 posted that really stuck with me about being a "self improvement monk" and coming back "levelled up". Don't know why but the nerd in me really took that in lol. So because of this comment, I am not "worrying" as much about my hair in the sense that there is nothing I can do now but there will be things I can do then, I put my time and energy on something that I can do as of now (like hitting the weights at the gym) As for various comments that I never got back to, I'll address some things that I would like to say. I've been really closely looking at my hair since I started Finasteride/Minoxidil back in the beginning of 2021. I've been monitoring it closely under multiple directions, angles, and conditions. I can say with confidence that I have not seen any additional thinning, the only areas that I have lost were very weak miniaturized hairs in the hairline that probably got shock-lossed out from the surgery, but they provided such minimal coverage that it does not weigh on me at all. I asked the doctor for a small amount in the crown to help with covering up, I do not regret this as before my crown was very bald to the point it was a unavoidable baldspot unless I had my donor hairs covering it. Now it looks like a thin spot (that is somewhat covered) without fibers and is filled in (to a much stronger degree, but not fully) with fibers. Before I don't think even fibers would do anything as it was that weak. I apologize if I did not react well about the comments about "forgetting about my 20s, plan for your thirties". I am slowly coming around to the idea that the reality of improving myself especially pertaining to hair is a slower process, and by the time I am in my late 20s (28/29) I can properly reap the rewards from the cautious approach. I am planning to get a second hair transplant nearing the end of 2026 if I can (which will make me almost 27) and that way the one year point for my second surgery will be when I am 27 but almost 28. Thank you for all your suggestions on different surgeons, I have narrowed my list down to three-four potential surgeons that I look on more favorable than others. I am grateful As a additional closing remark I will make, I am over one year on oral minoxidil, and I have not seen as much of a change in my balding areas, but it feels like my donor is almost as thick as what it was before surgery. Dr Hasson after the procedure told me I had alot of Donor hair in the telogen phase that he wanted me to address by starting Oral Minoxidil, could be a placebo but I think that it worked out with what he was saying as II cannot see or feel a difference in donor density. I probably wont be replying to this thread very often. There is something about commenting on this thread that "unbottles" and makes all the repressed feelings and sentiments I have about my hair come out. I hope you can understand.

I am excited to see how your results turn out, the temples and hairline design seem like a perfect fit. Your journey has been difficult, and you have persevered well, you are deserving of a great result that we all think you are going to get.

@Gatsby and @BeHappy are the two names that come to my mind. Both have given great advice and have been "in the game" for a long time. They both have a wellspring of knowledge in the HT World, new and old. I also agree with @Rolandas, He has provided the community with a treasure of educational videos that are easy to understand. I'm a bit sad though that he hasn't made any new videos recently

Honestly perfect

100% should be on the list.

I am going to presume yes, I've had stressful periods where I lose hair. I even had lost transplanted hair temporarily and it has somewhat grown back. I do have something interesting to share, if we are talking about Physical Stress. My Cousin who is much older than me (Late Forties, Early Fifties) was a NW1 solid hairline, in a workplace accident he lost a finger and it caused quite the shock in his body. And after that in a span of about 4-6 months he became a significantly diffused NW6

Happy for you man, I've gone through your entire journey and you finally got a big win that you deserved

@Gatsby has in my opinion the most inspiring, incredible journey. Both surgeries were fantastic

@GeneralNorwood I am interested to hear what steps you are considering on moving forward and how you will approach future surgeries from now. I also want to know, has any of the surgeons that you have communicated with told you what type of obstacles will be present because of the poor planning? What type of issues are present now that would not of been there if you have appropriate planning from the beginning.

You look incredible, Couto did a fantastic job.

Crown is looking great dude, happy for you

I actually had a appointment with my trichologist on the 9th to get a microscopic examination, but apparently the person that does it at the clinic had a sick day or a hangover or something. So I was unable to get it done which was the main reason I went there. Also I would probably visit my next surgeon before I get the transplant for a in-person consult, I feel like its the safest and will give me the most educated approach for my situation. My next appointment is in January so I'll try again for the examination. I should also note that when I visited my trichologist I asked him just by eyeballing it and examing it if there was ANYTHING of concern at all in the transplanted/balding zones. And he said no, the only concern I have right now is the Areata in the donor. I mean, right now I wouldn't mind having a transplant that underestimates the amount of grafts I would need if I was told that it was possibility and the yield was fine. It would just mean that I would have to wait for another transplant. Right now my attitude is donor maximization more than anything else. I need my next 2000 grafts to look like 2000 grafts. I am happy with what the crown achieved in the first procedure, but I would still really want to get it filled in some more. As for the front, even though it’s not ideal, It’s something to work with. I’m just stuck with the same hair style that I used pre surgery with no flexibility.

To answer some of the comments I think it’s 70-75% Yield overall, the crown met my expectations fully and I have no issues with the results for my crown as of this first procedure. Frontal third is like 55-65% what I imagined it to be. I lost some native hair at the very front of the hairline that contributed a small amount, but ultimately they were very weak and deep in the miniaturisation phase. The rest of the hair that I would have lost made up almost 0 coverage and would only grow a couple of millimeters in the course of three years, this is especially obvious in the right corner. I have not seen any regression since I started finasteride, you can take a look at my Finasteride thread and you can see where I started from and where I was pre surgery, I may of temporarily shedded due to stopping topical minoxidil but it looks like that has grown back as of now. I definitely have hang ups on balding early, I do want to say that I am going to therapy for this, that’s about all I can think of to address that problem, if anyone else has any advice on this I’m willing to listen. I’m not getting any surgery in 2024, I’m aiming for 2025 or 2026. Partly because I am taking time on considering my options, I also want to address my areata within this time and perhaps transition into Dutasteride. Is that a reasonable approach? I don’t exactly know what to say anymore about people criticising me over my expectations. I did the sensible thing when looking for answers, asking my surgeon. If you think I’m childish, delusional, mentally unstable, brick-wall, gullible, hyper-neurotic, circus monkey, whatever you want to label me fine. But I only put my trust in my surgeons words, was I wrong to hold on when he reaffirmed my expectations and goals as attainable? I want to also put emphasis on the fact that while the general consensus is that my result is “subpar”. Dr Hasson describes it as “excellent and the result he was looking for”. There is most certainly a mismatch to what the majority here believes the result is, and what the doctor believes the result is. It is also does not match what I was told or implied. Overall though, I am adjusting my expectations into something less due to my limited donor capacity that I was only recently made aware of. I am probably going to have to live with a somewhat bald crown because I probably want to use all my remaining grafts bolstering the front. This is very disheartening for me because I was led to believe that it would be full along with the rest of the balding zones after all my surgeries. I just want to say, that in no way am I rewarded for this post and the transparency I provide. I think it’s quite obvious that I shared how vulnerable I am about my hair, and my emotions associated with it. Anyone can go back looking on this thread and see I asked questions over and over again that usually devolve into tirades that aren’t much to do with the question itself. It’s whatever though because at the end of the day, receiving new questions like do I have fine hair or coarse led me to search the answer and narrow down factors that I had against me and for me. I just don’t appreciate when the topics falls outside the realm of hair. @consequence I am always grateful to comments that tell me the truth of the matter, rather than buttering me up with falsehoods that I would like to hear. However basic flat statements like “Any ethical surgeon should reject you as a patient, your mindset is a recipe for disaster” is a largely unhelpful statement, what am I as a HT patient who is mid way in his journey am supposed to get out of that? You didn’t give reasoning as to why it would be a recipe for disaster, and I am unsure on how my mindset is a issue considering people had reiterated to me constantly that my approach and mindset was not a issue before hand. And the closing comment of “it’s just hair” is diminishing of what I put in. I put in time and energy researching, waiting for the procedure, waiting for the results to unfold, time working hours at my job, financial resources towards the procedure, efforts to conceal the ugly duckling phase by dodging social outings. All for the promise that I could greatly rectify the thing that bothers me most, and a “middle of the road” or “subpar” result is obviously not what I am looking for. So no it’s not just hair, it’s years of effort, hard work, insecurity, confidence issues and more. I like many other people, do not want to be labelled as a “hyper neurotic, brick-wall, unthoughtful, mentally unstable circus monkey” who also is destined for a middling result that won’t last after asking the poster to leave my thread alone from their input. I’m not sure where you got “unthoughtful and brick wall” from considering I literally got a dutasteride prescription per your own advice. Also when you say “no more comments from me on your thread because, frankly, it's like talking to a brick wall.” You do realise you posted two comments in response right? Just to clarify, the reason I was hesitant to begin dutasteride is I’ve seen cases on r/Tressless of people switching from finasteride to dutasteride and losing hair fast because it did not work for them. I don’t think it is as simple as 70% DHT reduction to 90% DHT Reduction. Regardless, any decision about my hair and scalp I proceed with absolute caution and always research first. I am a week away from the one year mark, so my result is practically finished. I’m not entirely sure if I want to continue updating this post for reasons that should be fairly obvious. And you all know how I feel about my transplant anyways. Out of all surgeons, regardless of location and budget, can anyone tell me who you would go too if you were me and why you would go to them? So far my list has been narrowed down to Couto, Ferreira, Konior and Ahmad for a second surgeon.

True, I'm all the more better for having these people out of my life. It was a shock when its happened and the feelings are definitely lingering, but I am better without them then with them.

This comment is so ridiculous, gave me a good chuckle. My attitude surrounding my hair is that I am unhappy with what the transplant has achieved because it does not meet the expectations that we’re reinforced by the doctor. And I want to resolve this issue with the best capabilities preferably earlier than later. This is the most common mindset people have on here. Are they all disasters waiting to happen? What my “process” is before surgery, I will research, follow and do everything to make myself the best possible candidate. So far what I’ve done and what I am doing is; Stabilise my hair loss Three years Finasteride Usage Three years Minoxidil Usage (Almost one year of Oral Minoxidil) Changed diet and lifestyle to address overall health Will spend whatever money he needs on his hair, not going for budget options Actively converses on forums with regular users looking for advice Actually follows said advice Sees a therapist to address the mental side of it all So someone that actively wants to do something about his hair, researches and does the informed decisions based on his research but is still unhappy because expectations aren’t met and still wants to meet those expectations by going through multiple surgeries is a “recipe for disaster”. You must be joking. I am not the type of person that likes back and forth arguments, so instead I'll just ask you this respectfully. Don’t comment on my thread anymore. I don’t value your input enough to look past the condescending comments.

Just to reiterate, these are observations that give me a cautious approach and attitude towards Pekiner, if they were addressed then I can look past these. But they havent been. I've seen some cases with poor growth in highly dense packed areas on Reddit. The growth was poor enough where I would label it a "Disaster" I tried to find them but was unable to, so if you want to dismiss this point I think its rather fair of you to do so. And quotes from this user in another thread I find inexcusable.

Dr Hasson thinks the results are excellent so I think the offer of a free touch-up or refund is off the table if they were to say that. Also the doctor said I have coarse hair, and when you look at any hair transplant material, coarse hair transplants are always fuller than medium or finer hair transplants. This was also discussed on this thread if you go back a couple of pages. I've tried by combing in all sorts of ways, my hair falls flat against the skin because of the very little volume, no matter how I part it. Slick back looks the most natural because the hair naturally gets pressed closer towards the scalp anyway. I have to live with the weak hairline for now. Its "passable" as long as I'm not in direct lighting. I'm probably going to "test" dutasteride by starting on Fin 6 times a week and Dut 1 times a week, and slowly over the course of a year work my way up to 7 days usage. I got a prescription for Oral Dutasteride now but I havent ordered any. You nailed it on the head about the failed expectations, All these people downplaying by saying you still "got a significant improvement" fail to see the reality of the situation. Regardless its a significant improvement, or even if this is somehow 100% growth. The doctor told me, in person, at his clinic after I directly asked him "Are my expectations achievable, and reasonable" and he said they were, this is what I set in my mind as my expectation due to his response, this is what was reinforced into me. I will say without a doubt the peak of my self hatred was about 1-2 months into minoxidil usage when I had shed all my hair from minoxidil. And in-spite of the disappointment that was my hair transplant, I don't nearly hate myself as much as I did back then. My point is, I don't think I am suffering Finasteride induced depression. Pretty sure its body image based and how I was treated during that. My social life worsened on both ends, one side from my depression affecting my on my confidence to say witty things, joke or to mingle and share personal matters and opinions without being judged/rejected. On this end this was entirely on my behalf because the simple answer is if I didn't care about my body image whatsoever then It wouldn't affect this at all. But the other side was and is completely outside my control and it genuinely changed how I was treated. When I went NW3 but still rather thick and full hair, I was still mocked, excluded, a topic of gossip, a example of "what not to be", etc. When my balding progressed into NW4, I straight up was mocked relentlessly, whenever I had a small disagreement with my "friends" they would just say "I don't have to listen to someone who's balding at 20". That's the type of life I lived for a while, at the end of the day. I felt and was treated as "less". I don't have that type of life now, but I carry that with me. Unlike what everyone says, your personal image matters. If I didn't shower and I smelled horrible, then gossip about me smelling bad and being unhygienic would exist, I would also be excluded more often due to this, who wants to invite someone that smells bad to a bar or club? Same thing with receding/balding, or acne, or fat or anything else society deems "defective, undesirable, unattractive" And the reality is, they probably weren't worthy of being my friends anyway which you are 100% correct on. Regardless some of them removed me from their life, I removed some of them from my life, they are gone now but doesn't mean the damage isn't done. Everyone is the sum of their life experiences, observations, anecdotes. When I went from a non balding man to a balding man, I was simply treated horribly or even ignored and rejected completely by some groups of people that I called my peers and friends. I can change the state of my hair by struggling with everything I have by exhausting a significant amount of my savings, funds, time and energy. But at the end of the day, I cannot change the fact that I was treated horribly by the closest of my peers all because I was balding. That's a part of who I am now, that's something I will have to live with and probably will never go away. I won't adjust finasteride dosage because its working for me how it is, I might be swapping to dutasteride over the coarse of the year. But excluding Saw Palmetto is probably going to happen if I switch to Dutasteride. I'll research into it, but I will probably try it because if it improves my hair then it simply improves my life. That's literally what my life boils down to. But the reality is, I am not made out of money. I exhaust huge financial resources into my hair already as it is and every time I add things like "Personal Trainer, Therapist, Gym Membership, Nutritionist" I just get further away from the future hair transplants. I am leaning towards Konior/Couto the most out of the ones you have listed here. As for Dr Hasson, he has offered a phone call to me but I told him that I want to wait until I hit 12 months, the reason I said this is whenever I had a issue, H&W would just tell me to wait, I do not want to hear that again at 11 months as the reason why my result isn't where I wanted it to be. I just got fibers and tested them for about a day, fibers get my hair going from a 55-65% to about a 90% of where I want to be. Its a good intermediate solution but at the end of the day, it doesn't make me look I'm not balding. My hairline is just too thin, and to high to look like someone at the age of 23. Still I feel like that when I have fibers in, my hair looks "average" and won't give anyone any negative or positive thoughts on it so thats the biggest win I can ask for. Thank you for this. My problem is that I don't get the same fulfillment out of my hobbies that I used to get before hair loss. I associate my hair loss as "losing my youth" and the reason I say this is because I went from "freshly graduated from highschool with no balding" to "heavily balding" in the span of a year. I work so hard with all the financial and other resources I have just to offset this, its ruined my perception on enjoying the present, I only care about the future and I consider the present "lost" to me. The thing is, I don't know if I am able to achieve my goals anymore. The assessments about my current donor are about 2000 grafts, which isn't enough to address my level of hairloss in my opinion. On top of this, because of the stress that my hair growth was slow and the responses of the clinic were practically just "wait", I developed alopecia areata from stress. My trichologist straight up told me, that he does not think I am a good hair transplant candidate anymore due to my areata. He is very against it, but he also says that I can't back down from future transplants because I'm already in deep. He never said it but I'm pretty sure he implied im in a really sh*tty situation. At the end of the day, can I expect significant improvement? Yes. Can I expect my goals to be achieved? I don't know, my goals were to just have decent-hair that can pass off as my age. "My Age" refers to whatever age I am at. The world runs on what people think of each other, and this is no different than what people think of H&W or any other clinic/surgeon for that matter. If enough people "think" on this website that Asli Tarcan is a upstanding clinic that provides the best results, than word of mouth will make it known that they are a "upstanding clinic that provides the best results" even if they are grossly wrong. The reason I picked Dr Hasson of H&W is that I "thought" he was "the best and most capable choice for my situation and case". To generalize, people are filled with "individuals" who each have their own personal anecdotes that they willingly go out of their way to share them, and in less common cases even explain them, this happened many times with Clinics like H&W to the point that many people associate H&W as a elite clinic due to their consistent excellent results, the same thing can be undone if people believed there is a new trend where they stopped caring for their practice and their results suffer as a result. If a large group of people come out and say it, then its worth considering and addressing. Konior in my case said that he would do something between 1000-2000 grafts (depending on how much I get placed into the hairline) and that he would select the strongest 2000 hairs/grafts that I have in my donor for the best coverage. After my donor has healed he can then assess how much I have remaining. Can you elaborate on this? I care about how I look now, and the "near future" which is my 20s. 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s even 70s and 80s I am going to care what I look like from before, now and until I die. The reason I put emphasis on 20s, is that very rapidly after I turned into a adult, I went bald which is associated with aging and a undesirable attractive trait. You are only young once, and I want to look good in my physical prime and at the height of my youth. Is that really nonsense? I already actively do what you are saying about building myself up finaicially and discipline wise. If anything, your comment just reinforces that its proabably the best thing I can do outside of addressing my hair. But this does not address the present where I am miserable now, only the future which may or may not have my hair goals met. For the past 3-4 years, I've been obsessed in self improvement, I began gym, self care, reading self help books, dismantling bad habits and assembling good ones, and improving my discipline in ways that apply to all aspects of my life. I can improve in all these aspects and become "better" or "more" than the average person in these ways, but at the end of the day the one way that I am "less" than others overpowers my thinking. Its unhealthy, and I cant change it after years of on and off therapy and so far months of consistent therapy. I am aware that I need to plan for the long term, that much is obvious and because of your comments I have gotten a prescription for Oral Dutasteride. But the whole idea that hair restoration is a marathon and not a race isn't 100% accurate. If I keep playing the waiting game like I have been doing this whole time, I'll be 30 by the time everything is addressed. Whilst I may live to the ages of 80 or so on, I am not young forever. I want to look the best I can for the longest amount of time, and early is better because my youth wont last forever. Small Update now that I am 11.5 months in My previous Areata patch is about 90% filled in, it took a good 1-2 minutes in the office to expose it in a way that was slightly visible. However I developed another one that is smaller than the previous one, my trichologist explained that since I reacted very positively and well to the injections the first time around that this weaker patch is all but guaranteed to really fill in, which is a good thing but still a pain in the ass that I have to go through this a second time. Because I developed this second areata patch, I have more of a understanding of "what causes" my areata loss. I see a very similar circumstance/situation/pattern on the weeks leading up to when I first discover these patches and that is excessive stress to when it hits boiling point. I don't want to elaborate in detail because I find this topic in particular very embarrassing to share publicly, so if anyone is interested in this they can send me a private message and i'll elaborate as long as they keep it private. Outside of that, Not much really to report on, if anything there is slight improvements but not in growth or amount of hair on my head.