mister_25

A lot of people say that the final results are at 12 months. But if you are a slow grower I would say you could argue 18 months. The crown takes longer as well and it is also said that the standard timeframe for the crown is 18 months.

As long as you only commit to that scheduled transplant if you have stabilised your hair loss. I wouldn’t put a major deposit in because if you continue to miniaturise especially in the Norwood 6/7 zone. You will be making a huge mistake as you will need a long term plan to get the most hair on your head whilst maintaining a homogenous and consistent looking donor. If you transplant and then progress into a full Norwood 6 or 7 you will be chasing multiple transplants for your crown whilst also having the potential of miniaturisation on your transplanted areas and miniturization in some of the donor that you once thought was healthy. Make sure you choose a top doctor that is skilled in Norwood 5+ in your case. You won’t get a second chance.

Norwood 5-6. You will need to stabilize your hair loss before you can really be considered a candidate for a HT to begin with. Wait a year on Finasteride/Minoxidil before you consider a hair transplant. Best Norwood 6 surgeons are Dr Pitella, Dr Sethi and Dr Zarev.

1. Curly hair usually provides better results, I been impressed by Dr Mwamba, Bisanga, Eugenix, Zarev in particular for curly hair. Although there are alot of other doctors that are also good. 2. You look to be a Norwood 4 heading into a Norwood 5. 3. If you haven't lost hair for atleast a year, I would consider that stable. Although things are subject to change as you age you get more sensitive to DHT (The reason your losing your hair) so you might cross a threshold where your hair loss begins again. 4. You will need to be on Medication such as Finasteride/Dutasteride to even be considered a candidate by most doctors worth going too. Minoxidil would also be great for your situation as you have a large amount of existing miniaturized hair that can be strengthened. Finasteride is used to slow down or halt balding so that you wont continue hair loss. That way you wont need to get another transplant longer because your natural native hair will be prolonged by medication. 5. 6500 for great density. You can probably get away with somewhere between 4000-5000 grafts. I cant really tell but when you have your donor pulled apart it looks kind of like DUPA. You could get that checked out by a professional.

I’ve been very impressed by Dr Wong of H&W for repair work, I’ve seen quite a few turnarounds performed by him after being botched by hair mills.

Following this because it looks like we have very similar problem areas (and have chosen the same surgeon). Work looks really good.

Update? Should be really strong by now.

In my opinion from observations. 7K Grafts is pretty effective and will give you strong coverage and somewhat strong density if you are a Norwood 5. Once you hit Norwood 6 you will be a in very difficult scenario where you will probably need to use up those 7K + 4K Beard Grafts to get coverage on top. If you hit Norwood 7 you are going to have to accept a degree of thinness/baldness. If you do hit 6/7 you will need to save up and go to someone with a strong and consistent portfolio with skills in BHT.

Looks like a Norwood 3A. Don't even consider a transplant unless you have stabilized your hairloss. If you get a transplant for your frontal third to match your midscalp density and you continue to thin and approach a higher norwood (4/5), you will have a hard time catching up elsewhere.

Beard hair works best in the midscalp in larger quantities due to its nature. It has a shorter Anagen phase and takes on different characteristics than your scalp hair. The reason why it works best in the midscalp is because you are looking at it from above rather than front on where you will notice irregularities and differences will become more apparent. In my opinion beard hair can still work in the crown but it’s a delicate practice and rare skill only found In few doctors.

Simply put, Finasteride + HT is a viable solution and strategy for most people. If you add minoxidil you might be able to strengthen some weaker miniaturized hairs and can get away with less grafts but its doesn't have the same crucial impact a DHT blocker like Finasteride/Dutasteride has because they don't address further hair loss. Best case scenario if you start Finasteride and have a transplant is that you will get a bit of regrowth and stabilize your hair loss. Meaning that there will be less required grafts in total and wont need to worry too much about regression and further thinning in the future. You could describe this as a "win" against hair loss. What's more likely to happen is you will slow down your hair loss to a much more negligible point where its much slower and you will only notice it by comparing photos decades apart rather than years. You might need a touchup around 10-20 years later but should be good. You could also describe this a "win" against hair loss buts its not out of your mind forever, its still something you will need to be consciously aware of for your future. Worst case scenario is that finasteride doesn't do anything for you, or you cant tolerate it due to numerous side effects. You will continue to regress into your "final pattern". Everyone's final pattern is different, some are lucky and only end up Norwood 2. Most end up Norwood 5 or 6 and some are very unlucky and end up Norwood 7. Depending on Quality of donor and final pattern, you might need to accept that you will have to have weakspots/thin patches even if you have a good result. Your donor supply might not be able to meet your demand that is your recipient area. DHT Blockers if you can tolerate them are the most important drug in my opinion against battling hair loss. If you can stop it dead in its tracks that means its a simple "fix your frontal region, fix your crown" in your lifetime rather playing a game of "allocating X amount for the front and X amount for the crown, have X amount in the donor for the possibility of further hair loss in the midscalp"

If you quit finasteride after a year of using it, you will lose the benefits of finasteride (preventing balding). If you quit minoxidil after a year of using it, you will lose the benefits of minoxidil (regrowth/strengthening of hair) The best way to think of hair loss medication is think of it as treatment and not a cure. Treatments are ongoing and once stopped you will lose the benefits of said treatment. Whilst a cure for hair loss does not exist because there is no "one and done" pill/therapy that you can do.

I wouldn't consider yourself a Norwood 3V. I would probably say you've just begun your transition into a Norwood 4. The crown is too large in my opinion to be called "beginning phases" of crown loss which is what Norwood 3 Vertex is. Its a slick bald patch that you commonly see in Norwood 4/5 patients. Judging by my observations from all the transplants I've seen. You have a large amount of native hair left over and I think something around 2000 in the front and 2000 in your crown throughout your lifetime could be sufficient if you don't lose a significant amount of your native hair.. Maybe a tiny bit sprinkled in the midscalp if it looks thinner in certain conditions (wet/harsh lighting).

I saw the video posted by Eugenix today and all I have to say is WOW! I think this is the best managed 4000 grafts I’ve ever seen. Crazy how much of a difference that this transplant has done for you.

Faults from the doctor/technicians are the usual reason on poor survival rate like how long the hairs were handled outside the body and how they were handled. Other reasons can be on the patients side such as underlying scalp conditions. I think its almost unheard of for every single graft to not take, you can be unlucky and have a majority but there are bound to be a few that survive.

Can you PM me the forum or the post that was removed involving Hasson's case? Interested in this.

From what I gather, beard grafts work best in the midscalp. Beard hairs will adapt and mimic a scalp graft but not exactly. This inconsistency with your beard hair grafts compared to scalp grafts and native hair will be mostly undetectable in the midscalp because you are not directly looking at it like the hairline / back of the the crown. Although it can still be used in the crown for good results unlike the hairline which requires solely your finer single hair grafts.

One of the best results I've ever seen, the difference is massive and it looks great even in that last photo where it is wet in harsh lighting.

Dr Wong has excellent results and donor management on Norwood 6 patients. As mentioned above he is highly skilled in both FUt and FUe meaning he will give good judgement on what you could use.

Mostly just hearsay that I’ve come across on Reddit, HRN, And YouTube.

As stated previously it depends on your case. In my opinion and what others have stated in other threads. Bisanga is definitely the guy to go if you have blonde hair and you are in the Norwood 2-5 Range. He is also a good choice for afro hair. He is one of the more versatile doctors out there and is one of the best choices.

Looks great Melvin. Dr Sethi works miracles and your hair looks great when wet.

Fantastic results, this transformation should go on a HT hall of fame. Did you get any photos of wet hair?

No surgeon is perfect, every surgeon has unhappy customers/patients. Sometimes poor growth happens and its outside of the surgeons hands.

I wouldn't say H&W are hit or miss. They are definitely at the top of the game (enough so that Hasson is the surgeon I chose for my surgery). Its that different surgeons have different skillsets. (In my case I want someone that is good at Norwood 4s and 5s) Zarev for example is in my opinion the best if you are a high Norwood with good donor. Whilst Pitella has outstanding results on average and poor donors at grade 7. Sethi is great at high difficulty cases such as complex repair patients and also a wizard at using beard grafts. If I was a Norwood 7 I would be very picky with the surgeon I would choose. It just makes sense to go to the best the harder your case is. Hair mills can sometimes succeed but when do you ever see a result of theirs that impresses you that is a Norwood 4+? Never. The truth is the more extensive your loss the more difficult a case you are. The more extensive the loss the more grafts you need to transplant and the donor zone can only handle so much, that's why I put alot of emphasis on Pitella and Sethi who have shown their skills with beard/body hair whilst whilst keeping the donor visually intact as much as possible. while H&W are great at Norwood 6/7 they are much more aggressive with their graft counts in lower Norwood's going for higher densities with less sessions. That's where their skills show, still a good option but not their "sweetspot" if that makes any sense. I can't really elaborate on Dr Behnam, I don't really know much of him as he never flew on my radar of recommended surgeons in the first place. I personally think the whole no reply ghosting thing is unprofessional and would probably carry over into his aftercare. You wouldn't want to get ghosted when asking questions to a doctor that performed surgery on you. The result you get is dependent on how much donor you have. If you have DUPA, you can't guarantee any of your donor to be stable so its always a gamble. If you have retrograde your donor capacity is reduced by either a small or modest amount. Same thing with beard, if you can't grow much of a beard, then you could say your overall donor everywhere on your body is reduced. Depends on what your definition of hopeless is. You might not be able to get the appearance of full coverage but you could get the appearance of thinning somewhat whilst still getting a balanced look. The simple answer is that hair transplants are a supply/demand issue. If you are a Norwood 7 which is the worst case scenario on balding on top but you had superhuman donor that was three times denser than the average person then you could get a full head of hair. Whilst someone who was a Norwood 4 with poor donor has a more manageable area to cover and most likely could get a full head of hair again. Yet again another factor is hair characteristics. 1000 grafts from someone with fine hair might look the same as 500 Grafts from someone with coarse hair. Scalp hair is always the primary source that is used for hair transplants. Some doctors like Pitella and Zarev go into deep formulated plans where they overharvest in a homogenous way that makes them have a thinner donor area but you aren't able to notice it because its not patchy. That way you can get a larger amount of grafts out of a area whilst still having a good result. Beard hair is the 2nd best alternative to scalp hair. Beard hair is coarse/thicker but has a lower anagen phase (meaning grows out for a shorter time frame). In addition from what I've gathered beard hair can be a bit harder to tame than scalp hair and doesn't behave as well when used in large amounts without regular scalp hair mixed in. As good as beard hair can be recently as shown by Eugenix you can end up like a user called track_rat who has these untamable beard hairs that he will need to use a straightener or some other solution on. In addition beard hair can only be used so much outside of this as it will look much more unnatural in your hairline because finer single hair grafts are used. Meaning the best place to place it in is the midscalp and then the crown. If you don't have the best beard hair and still need the grafts, body hair is the final alternative and from what I've gathered has a much lower survival rate (although a quote on a thread from Pitella says otherwise) and has much less coverage value. Its only used in advanced cases but it doesn't do much heavy lifting on your result. You do rely on your beard/scalp hair at a high norwood case but body hair can really scale up your result. There was a result that was posted by Eugenix a while ago that had incredible body hair characteristics that did a big amount of heavy lifting. If I find it ill edit this post with it below Take a look at this case from Pitella who had 3276 Beard Grafts and 1065 Chest Hair Grafts whilst having what Dr Pitella describes as Poor Donor. Poor Donor, Thin Hair, Large head. These are all poor combinations going against this patient and he had nothing on top. Even though he has the appearance on thinning on top. It looks somewhat "normal" and "homogenized" whilst having a strong but high hairline which complements his look when looking at him straight on. Obviously there is a large amount of illusion at play with the homogenized harvesting and hair style to complement but considering the fact that he was a almost a worst case scenario to having hair that looks this on top I would consider this a very successful transplant. Here is another example from what Pitella describes as a Average Donor with minimal beard grafts (995) used. To answer you question summarized. You might not be able to get full coverage, but you can still get a impressive hair transplant result that makes you have the appearance of thinning but with hair on top if your willing to compromise and have styles that complement your hair (the illusion of density). You might not be able to achieve full coverage but you might be able to get something on the lines of "Strong Frontal Hairline with diminishing results in the midscalp that slowly approaches the state of thinning in the crown" which all things considered is a massive difference where as you start as a Slick bald in a Norwood 7 zone. In the end donor capacity matters just as much as your Norwood grade.