mister_25

1 minute ago, Adil Jemil said:

I understand that smile clinic is considered as a hair mill, but whats the big disadvantage in that 

there is a package which u can chose so that the docter him self do most of the work. In that case i dont see a big different other than that they do about 10 hair transplantations a day and dr.bicer does only one.

Most people going into a hair transplant feel vulnerable about their hair enough that they will resort to a surgical procedure in order to fix it. Keep in mind this is a surgical procedure and I would like to make sure the best hands are handling my case. If you go to a hairmill that works on 10 patients a day, with techs mostly performing the procedure it just shows that they don't care about you, they care about your money. A skilled/ethical doctor can manage up to two patients a day.

Even if you choose this package where the doctor does "most" of the work, your just paying for a garbage clinics "doctor" to operate instead of their garbage techs.

If you want examples of what I mean. HLC has a rather decent-good reputation as a clinic in Turkey on this forum, and even with their doctor doing the work himself you can still get a overharvested, destroyed donors like the recent michael hoffmans case on this forum. Now Smile clinic on the other hand, has a poor reputation, over 10 patients a day which is way over what a doctor can reasonably manage. What type of result could you expect?

I recommend going to a Elite Surgeon. There is a forums reccomended list attached at the top of the website. Yet again I'm being a echo chamber but its generally good advice as it lead me to feeling like im in safer hands for my upcoming surgery. In the end the best way to optimize your chances of success is by going to better clinics/surgeons and Smile clinic and all the other garbage hair mills like Aslitarcan, Hair of Istanbul, DR Cinik fall far behind.

Smile is a hair mill, do not go there.

From what I've gathered, Turkey is mostly about marketing and a majority of them are hair mills. Bicer is one of the top options in Turkey though if your looking at the price point. I'm not overly informed about Doctors in Turkey as I decided early on to not play that game so I'm just being a echo chamber of what the community says.

Bicer, FUECAPILAR in Turkey are the ones I would look at.

9 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

Waiting at such a young age is never unnecessary as you are buying time to see which way the hair loss pattern will dictate. I would never rush anyone when it comes to permanent life changing surgery. Even more so in your early 20’s. That’s why I asked if pics could be shared. 

Good point, I was probably thinking of my case a bit to much. I think it depends on a case by case basis. In my case I pretty much had nothing on top (21 Years old. Almost Slick Bald NW5, No sign of going into a 6) but recovered significantly on medication so I know where I will end up as If I continue to thin. Im not a typical case and I presume most 22-25 Year olds that are looking for HTs as a option are those that are Norwood 2-3. If that's the case I would definitely wait.

10 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

In my opinion, 23 is too young for a hair transplant. I would give it a few more years to see how you maintain on the meds. I would also switch from topical minoxidil to oral minoxidil.

He has been on medication for 3-4 years as mentioned when he started minoxidil and finasteride at 19. Isn’t that enough to determine how well he is maintaining on medication? I thought that some clinics (even ones recommended here) believe that as long as you stabilise your hair loss after a given year on medication you could possibly be a decent candidate if you are below the age of 25. Wouldn’t this wait be somewhat unnecessary as he has been on preventive medication for quite some time with presumably stabilised loss because of said medication?

Eugenix has some excellent high norwood cases. Specifically Dr Sethi.

Zarev's result on HugoX is one of the best I've ever seen (Top 5) Based on where he was to where he is now.

H&W have some great cases on Norwood 4-6s (I was a Norwood 5 who recovered to about a Norwood 3 Vertex / Norwood 4 on Medication. I chose Dr Hasson as my upcoming surgeon cause I feel like I am in their range where their best results are.) Regarding the Concerns on them I have had pretty good communication with Doug from H&W through email and addressed one of my concerns from Nordster34s thread with the lack of follow up from Dr Hasson. I asked if I could set up a meeting with him after the operation as a "we made it" talk to discuss post operation and what to expect my results to look like, Doug replied that this is certainly possible to setup.

From what I've seen from Dr Pitella his results on Norwood 7s or Norwood 6s with Poor donor is absolutely incredible. 

I've also seen some good high norwood cases handled by Dr Mwamba. @captaincalico result is the first one that comes to mind.

7 minutes ago, LookMaxx said:

Why is it bad? If his midscalp or crown balds which is usually not that important anyway, he can use body hair + remaining scalp hair

Hairline is the most important

Midscalp and Crown is very important to me and others. People want to look their best and sometimes to do this you need to go for something more conservative so that way you can age gracefully into it and have higher density across the scalp.  This straight hairline will not look that great when he ages in his later years.

In my opinion, he could of used less grafts about making the hairline as low and straight as possible and achieve some coverage in the crown/midscalp.

Absolutely horrific, this makes me question the legitimacy of the doctors in turkey especially with the fact that I hear that HLC strays far from the hair mill territory. Definitely need to consult with some of the best, especially those that specialise in repair work. I’ve seen some good repair work from Dr Mwamba in Belgium.

It’s actually disgusting that these so called doctors perform these brutalities on people that place their trust in them. 

I haven't had a transplant yet but am going for one. So I cant say from what I don't miss anymore more so I'll just put here what I wish to say goodbye to.

1. Enslaved by hats, everywhere I go, no exceptions or anything. I will cancel my plans If I cant find my hat. 

2. Not touching and readjusting my hat/beanie every two-five minutes. Make that after every set at the gym...

3. Not feeling like the blacksheep of my social circles, I am very young and it stands out and it always comes up in conversation if my hat comes off

4. My hairloss not being a topic of conversation in my social outings anymore

5. The jokes from my mates and mutual friends

6. Looking at the mirror obsessively, taking pictures every month to document my progress on medication and inspecting everything.

7. The freedom of having choices with my hair. I never had any choice as I went to very strict schools growing up and they disapproved of some hairstyles / growing out your hair as a man. I tried growing it out as soon as I graduated then I rapidly thinned never getting to see myself with long hair.

Update?

9 hours ago, Kent said:

Not sure why he took the strip higher up. Possibly it’s my age (I’m 56) and have fairly dense hair (without medication).  The only area I experienced hair loss in was my hair line and corners. 

 

I've noticed this on alot of Hasson FUT procedures, I somewhat remember a post where someone asked why it was so high up and Doug responded with something on the lines of "if the person wants a fade they have more options as the scar is higher up."

I'll be following your progress.
 

Incredible results already, inspiring truly.

if you don’t mind me asking, after reading the plan and where you got extractions. I was curious as to harvesting in your nape as you have retrograde alopecia. I was always under the thought that you don’t harvest areas under the effect of retrograde alopecia as it is prone to further miniaturisation in the future. Did your doctor say anything about this? I watched your video on retrograde alopecia and found it very informative, and Im also wondering why the sides of your nape and not the center. I’m curious as I believe I suffer from retrograde alopecia and was trying to do a comparison based on other people’s surgeries on how many I can get out of my donor.

3 hours ago, Spacedcherry said:

it’s rampant with bad advice, mentally harmful feedback, and people going to hairmills. 
 

About 95% of the results and posts on there have the patient going to hairmills. I was lucky that I saw a referral about this forum on there, otherwise I likely would of went to a hairmill like Hair of Istanbul or Serkan Aygin as at the time the top results on that subreddit are from those hairmills. HRN should 100% be pinned on that subreddit so that people can formulate their own opinions with the necessary tips that you can find here.

Update?

Visiting a dermatologist in a few hours, any last minute conditions/diseases that I should get checked out?

Unreal, absolutely amazing result.

For me when researching, I was determining based on similar norwoods and hair type and the the results. Ultimately these are the surgeons that I choose to operate on me.

Top Five HT Doctors*

1) Konior - Excellent results and from what I've gathered consistent and safe as he does all the steps himself. Safest bet.

2) Hasson - Has been in the industry for a long time and his contributions to it are excellent. He has operated on many people with similar loss patterns to myself with consistent results. I struggled to find poor results from him but managed to find a few subpar ones and about two full failures. The best result I've ever seen after months of researching was a Hasson case

3) Couto - The first hair transplant surgeon I ever heard of, got a recommendation of his clinics YouTube channel and ultimately inspired me to look into HT as a possible solution.  Great results with people on a similar scale/pattern as myself. Able to make low graft count surgeries look very dense and natural

4) Zarev - That one particular case of a Norwood 6 with 10000 grafts with FUE is inspiring, excellent donor management, great survival rate on what can be considered a high difficulty case.

5) Pradeep - Zoomsters results are no joke. Inspiring and makes me believe everyone has a chance if they take the right approach

Other surgeons that I would choose to operate on me are Bisanga, Mwamba, Freitas and Ferreira

Bottom Three Butchers

1) Dr Cinik - I think this one stands out the most, I saw a reddit post of a guy getting absolutely butchered and his donor destroyed. Then Dr Cinik himself posted a response to it coaxing the patient into doxxing himself by saying "how disingenuous this person is, no record of this result at the clinic, give us your full name address blah blah blah if you were truly were a genuine patient." Imagine going to a country overseas to undergo a surgical procedure that hopefully will give you what you want to boost your confidence and end up worse than what you came in as, butchered donor to the point where repair is unlikely and threatened with legal action and mocked by the Dr himself. Pathetic

2) Aslitarcan - Saw a reddit user called ratethisclinic recently who just got nothing out of it. Feels like they pick up a bunch of teenage interns to do surgery or something

3) Now hair time - Only seen poor results from this clinic, never good ones.

Hey everyone, in a few days I am going to see two different dermatologists to ask questions and check out my scalp for diseases/conditions that could interfere with my upcoming transplant.

What are some diseases and conditions that I should ask for them to check when I visit? Specifically ones that will compromise the growth or add difficulty to a hair transplant procedure.

I am also 22 and going for a hair transplant with Hasson and Wong. I asked Doug from H & W what makes me a good candidate and he replied with

• Good Donor Hair
• Use of Medication (Finasteride at the time of the email for 13 months, now 17 months)
• Manageable area to cover

Although my case is more severe than yours, I don't think they would accept a patient that they didn't believe was a good candidate. You should definitely stabilize your hair loss before you consider a transplant regardless of your age.

1 hour ago, Dev123 said:

I know this is a loaded question, but do you think there is any merit in getting a transplant in a few years after I (presumably/hopefully) stabilize?

How I see it and in my opinion as someone the same age as you, you have a chance with your first line of defense being medication. I was fortunate to get regrowth and went from borderline bald to having significantly better hair on top.  If you aren't happy with the results of medication then you can consider a hair transplant but only if you've stabilized your hair loss for a extended period of time. If you do not stabilize your hair loss right now you will head into Norwood 4 as I can see small miniaturization in your midscalp.

If you would like to see my results on medication, I posted it in a previous thread if that would help you get peace of mind or be more optimistic. 

Best of luck!

11 hours ago, Mike10 said:

I do not know man. what norwood level are you?

Norwood 5. My front is very thin, I have a somewhat strong mid scalp but some work in it would still go a long way and a almost bald crown although on a phone consultation with Doug from H & W he did mention that my crown was quite small. I would probably need two procedures according to the consultation. I’ll post some photos later.

EDIT: Here are some photos to give you a idea of where I'm at.

Pic 1: Hair combed back, bathroom lighting, taken on the HD lens on my Iphone (Taken in July)

Pic 2: Hair Combed Back, darker lighting (early morning, without a overhead light) HD lens on my Iphone (Taken in July)

Pic 3: Hair parted from the middle. Bathroom Lighting, HD lens on my Iphone (Taken in July)

Pic 4: Hair wet with Minoxidil, Combed back, Bathroom Lighting, Selfie Camera on my Iphone (Taken in June)

Pic 5 and Pic 6: Holding up the long terminal hairs that are on my mid scalp. Note: I haven't cut my hair in 3 years, I started minoxidil in March 2021. Those hairs I am holding are about 3 years of growth and were not shedded when starting minoxidil, whilst I do have miniaturized hairs that are somewhat long but pale in comparison. Selfie Camera on my Iphone (Taken in July)

Pic 7: Crown, Spread part and made to look as bad as possible, Bathroom Lighting, (Cant remember which camera) (Taken in July)

Pic 8, Pic 9 and Pic 10: Taken by my Trichologist on Feburary 2021. Before medication. (These pictures were taken when I was 20 years old. Hard to look at) (Started Saw Palmetto the day these were taken, 2 weeks later started Oral Finasteride 1mg, two after that started Topical Minoxidil 7% 2mL once a day)

11 hours ago, Hope everything is nova said:

Actually you are going to be operated mostly by the technicians from Hasson & Wong clinic. 

Dr. Hasson will only perform the planning and incisions. 

Extractions and Implantation is done by the technicians.

I am aware of this, Although I believe that this is mostly standard that the doctor does incisions and the technicians with years of experience and trained under the doctors often become very talented and skilled at extractions and implantation.

I chose Dr Hasson cause I’ve noticed that most of his work is quite dense and he is very consistent. After researching many pages worth of his results on this forum I was only able to find about 5 disappointing results and out of those 5 you could consider 2 to be failures. I also chose him due to the years of experience and his contributions to the industry, his reputation that this and other forums have of him. There were also other reasons such as that Vancouver is a bit familiar to me as I have family over there. 

39 minutes ago, Mike10 said:

you're only 22 and you're already doing surgery.?Who is your surgeon?

Dr Hasson from Hasson and Wong

9 hours ago, Hope everything is nova said:

I would totally second what Gasthoerer said. 

I ALWAYS recommend doing a small test surgery first to evalute the graft survival. 

Way too many patients make the mistake of  going with a large procedure....

I've seen sooo many cases of guys throughout the years especially who are Norwood 4-5 and get 5000 grafts megassion and there is literally ZERO survival....

Most famous cases on this forum are the numerous ASMED bad results. But I've also seen a few  poor cases from reputable places such as Hasson & Wong and I remember even one from Dr. Couto on belicapelli ! 

So yes you are right. The risk of poor survival exists. Even with top doctors and even if you are on medication and doing everything right. Sad but true...

Hair transplant is always a big gamble and a lottery. You can never guess the outcome and it is important to be prepared mentally for it and you have to accept that before going forward and getting surgery. It's like playing poker. 

You have to accept the possibility of failure and losing it all before you start gambling...

Also discuss that specific aspect with your surgeon. Ask him openly what if things go wrong and my grafts don't grow back ? Will I be given a refund in case of total failure or free touch-up in case of sligthly  subpar result ? 

But of course it is a very bad idea to return to the same place if they give a bad result in the first place...

All in all, your chances of sucess should be quite high if you go to a great surgeon and if you are medication. But be prepared psychologically for all scenarios. 

There is not much more you can do except 3 things

1. Chosing a great doctor with a history of good and consistent results and as few bad results as possible. Remember no doctor is perfect. There is no such doctor that hasn't messed up at least one patient. For every great cherry picked result that you see online, there at least 5 or 10 unhappy patients with subpar results. 

2. Being on medication at least 6 months to a year prior to surgery in order to strengthen both your donor as well as the native miniaturized hairs on the recipient area and hopefully improve the outcome of your surgery. 

3. Checking with a very experienced trichologist if you are experiencing a rare skin condition such as scarring alopecia, Lichen Planopilaris, folliculitis etc... that may jeopardize the growth of the grafts. 

All the best and good luck ! 🙏

Thank you for the input. I do have a 4000-4500 graft transplant scheduled with Dr Hasson and it’s getting quite close. I don’t think I would be able reschedule just for a small 400-600 graft transplant although I wish I could. The emotional baggage that comes with this procedure is a heavy burden on myself for various factors (early 20s, regressed to a high norwood quite early, bullying and affecting opportunities in life) And I just wish for people to not mock me everyday for being 22 and having the hair of someone in their 50s

I will schedule a appointment with my trichologist as early as I can. I might even contact the clinic and ask getting a small 100-150 graft procedure locally as a test before my surgery with dr Hasson in December would be plausible or a good Idea.

A small question though. If your physiology was against you and you did your test procedure and the results were pretty poor. Do you just give up on the HT and move on to a hair system or SMP? Emotionally it’s taken a massive toll on my Self esteem and confidence, and even with the advice which I’ve seen before which is “prepare for all scenarios” I just don’t think I would be able to, it’s not just affecting my looks and confidence but my real life relationships, friendships and opportunities as well.

I also have done a blood test outside of this hair transplant for another problem that came up recently and I’m awaiting for the results. Anything in particular I should look at or ask?

Also is there any signs that a person would respond well to the transplant? Such as responders to minoxidil or Finasteride or anything like that?

Once again thank you for the input, if you have any other advice that I could possibly do and or incorporate into my life to increase yield/survival rate/etc. Please let me know

Hey everyone, I have a FUE hair transplant coming up nearing the end of the year and I'm super nervous but also excited. I've done research and I am going to a reputable surgeon and clinic and I'm definitely focused on trying to get the best result possible.

However one thing that makes me really nervous is the topic of Patient Physiology. From what I've seen, even if you get impeccable work done by a top doctor, you are true and diligent to the post operative care and you have stabilized your hair loss for over a year, on the correct medication, healthy lifestyle and healthy diet and you have all these factors in your favor. You can still get a bad result and poor survival rate because of your own physiology.

I'd like to ask how would I know before I jump in the procedure that my own physiology would be against me? This is one of my biggest fears, I've eliminated a lot of the obstacles. I've been on Finasteride and Minoxidil for over a year (16 Months Minoxidil, 17 Months Finasteride) which has stabilized and given me regrowth, I've decided to not cheap out of my money and are going to a elite clinic and surgeon, I don't smoke or drink alcohol or do any hard drugs and I'm trying to lead a healthy lifestyle (working on the diet + been exercising somewhat regularly for over a year).

Is there a test that I could do and I could send the results of that test to the surgeon and ask them about it? Like a blood test or a scalp biopsy. Is there anything I should look at? I don't have any diagnosed scalp conditions or anything like that. 

Otherwise what are things that I can do that would greatly up my chances of a successful surgery. Really interested to hear about this as I see patient physiology thrown around in the forums a few times as justification for bad healing or bad survival rate, and would like to eliminate this obstacle before my surgery and also to ease my nerves.

Hi everyone, I've been lurking here for about four months as I have a HT coming up later this year.

My surgeon has told me to quit minoxidil before my procedure (by atleast 6 weeks) and I wanted to ask how should I go about it. Should I cold turkey it? Or should I progressively use lower and lower dosages until I stop using it. Is it also possible for the terminal hairs I've strengthened from minoxidil to be "held on" by finasteride. I've been using Finasteride without issue for 16 months and Minoxidil for 15 months. I've seen decent regrowth (Very Thin Midscalp to a 'Illusion' of density on the midscalp, and a small tuft of hair on my frontal)

I also wanted to ask that presuming you have halted your hair-loss with Finasteride, and you've quit Minoxidil for a surgery, and then restart shortly after. Would you be able to get to your previous gains of Minoxidil? Or is that gone for good?