Raskolnikov

9 month update (from May 2023)

Six Month Update: the texture of the implanted hairs are becoming more fine (and more natural looking), some of the hairs are wavy/curly (which I will gladly take, as I have naturally straight hair), and my confidence with the ladies (and success) has been a night and day difference. Really glad I made the decision to do a hair transplant. Thanks for all of the help and support along the way! *No hair product used in these photos*

Haha thanks brother, I’d at least like to look young while I still am young!

Not sure how to reply directly to you, but I just posted an update with photos. It’s been fun following your journey as well! @Vann

Alright guys… here’s an update: 4.5 months post-op and I couldn’t be happier with the results so far. Here are some photos I took this morning with different types of lighting. To compare the difference, I’ve also attached two photos from April 2022. Curious to hear your thoughts. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

7 weeks post-op. Doesn’t look too bad from the front, but the left side is a sore sight to the eyes. Hoping to see some new hairs sprout up in the next couple of weeks. I’ve taken an “extended” trip to SE Asia this fall in order to pass time.

The photos above are: -2 weeks post-op -1 month post-op -6 weeks post-op

10 days post-op. Most of the crusts are gone. Feeling super relieved that life will soon be back to normal.

That is a great question. When I first started taking it spring 2021, I was in the middle of my season (track and field) and I was concerned about the same thing (finasteride impacting my DHT levels) so I stopped. However, at the conclusion of my season I started taking finasteride again and haven’t missed a day since. I did make progress this year in my sport so I’m thinking that if there are any effects on sports performance, they’re marginal. But who knows?

Thank you for such a thoughtful response. I hope things turn out well and that finasteride prevents further hair loss. Even so, you’re completely right—it’s possible that I lose everything behind the new hair, and if that happens, I made a grave mistake. I suppose my 23 year old self is more of a risk-taker than my future (potentially bald) self would like.😉 As far as what I wrote concerning post-op care and how a lot could go wrong if the patient doesn’t do everything in his power to increase the likelihood of a successful transplant, I am not stating that failed hair transplants aren’t the results of doctors. That would be silly, especially considering how many hair mills are out there. “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” I could’ve written about all the things that doctors do wrong, but there are plenty of people who have already done that. Instead, I intended to pose a different way of viewing things amidst all the noise that is made by patients blaming doctors. Perhaps the majority of the patients that are blaming the doctors really did get screwed over. And of course, my comment is for people who are healthy individuals who are ideal candidates for a hair transplant. I’ve been on Finasteride for 16 months and it has been so helpful in helping stabilize and even regrow my existing hair.

I agree with you. I didn’t ask the doctors how much I have available in my donor area, but Dr. Cengiz (the one who did my procedure) told me that if I want/need to have another FUE procedure in the future (hopefully I don’t, but you never know..) I have an exceptional donor area and have enough for “several more procedures.”

23 years old. Stabilized hair loss after one year on finasteride. In early March I browsed this forum (as well as Reddit) and narrowed my choices to Dr. Pekiner and HLC, both based in Ankara, Turkey. At the time, I was hoping to have Dr. Pekiner do my procedure, but it was several weeks before his advisor responded to my email/initial inquiry. HLC quoted me 2200-2600 grafts. Dr. Pekiner quoted me 3000 grafts. Initially, HLC recommended that I wait a couple of years to do a transplant, but since I insisted that I would take finasteride for the rest of my life (and I wished to proceed with the procedure) they accepted, and wrote "nevertheless, we will not plan an aggressive/low hairline, due to your age. (...) we can rebuild the hairline and close the temples. We will also give the front area more density." For now, I will not allocate any energy to describing the minute details of my time at HLC, as many others on this forum have already painted an accurate portrait of how the clinic operates, etc. That said, I'm an open book, and I'll answer any questions that are asked below. For starters, I feel extremely lucky. One of the main concerns that many people have with HLC—myself included—is that you don't know which doctor (or how many doctors) will do your procedure. As of last week, there are four doctors who complete the procedures: Dr. Cengiz, Elif, Umut and Bekir. This means that the clinic will, at most, take on 2-3 new patients each day (because there is a roll-over from the previous day—some patients require two days). Only one other guy was set to have his procedure the same day(s) as me, and as it turns out, he had to cancel. I'm uncertain whether his cancellation significantly affected the itinerary for my procedure, but I'd like to think that his cancellation is partly the reason why Dr. Cengiz was the only doctor who worked on me over the course of two days. Additionally, I was the only patient he worked on both days. Since my procedure last week, I've had a thought that has repeatedly resurfaced, and I'd like to hear what others think. Every once in a while, we see results from clinics that are subpar—HLC included. Of course, the clinic and doctors always receives the blame. I contend that the patients should be held more accountable. I'm an NCAA athlete, and I do my best to maintain a healthy lifestyle: I eat a nutritious diet, I've never smoked cigarettes, and I don't drink alcohol. I take a scoop of AG1 (formerly known as Athletic Greens) each morning. It leaves me to wonder how critical our post-op daily routines may play a role in the success of our hair transplant. I think as humans it's only natural to deflect responsibility onto others, and when we are at fault, we seldom admit it. Instead of blaming the doctor when the desired results aren't achieved, we should instead ask ourselves what we did different than the other 80-90% of patients (an arbitrary number) who received a good result. To be sure, I am not making the claim that doctors don't make mistakes. Instead, I think that considering how crucial post-op care is during the first month, the patients should be held just as responsible (if not more) for the success of their results—specifically and especially if they had their procedure done at a reputable clinic. day 1 post-op day 5 post-op day 7 post-op

Let’s see here… Why would they quote him 5000 grafts? Because he was basically bald from the hairline all the way to the crown. I saw it myself—it looked bad. To quote him anything less would be a job half-done. Sure, in hindsight it’s easy to say that they should have asked for better pictures/videos of the donor. Even so, it’s very difficult to tell by pictures/videos alone. This is a risk that each of us incurs when we choose to travel abroad for a hair transplant. Lastly, and most importantly: the sunk cost fallacy. Why didn’t they at least do 1500-2000 grafts since he’s “already there”? Again, 1500-2000 grafts wouldn’t suffice for his level of baldness. Assuming he booked his flights a few months in advance, and with the knowledge that he took a direct flight from Paris to Ankara (he told me so), his roundtrip tickets could be as low as $212. If anything, he is incredibly lucky that they had the integrity to not do anything to his head, even if it is undesirable for both parties. https://www.google.com/travel/flights/booking?tfs=CBwQAhpJagwIAxIIL20vMDVxdGoSCjIwMjItMTEtMDNyCwgDEgcvbS8wanl3IiAKA09SWRIKMjAyMi0xMS0wMxoDRVNCKgJUTzIEMzI5MBpJagsIAxIHL20vMGp5dxIKMjAyMi0xMS0xN3IMCAMSCC9tLzA1cXRqIiAKA0VTQhIKMjAyMi0xMS0xNxoDT1JZKgJUTzIEMzI5MXABggELCP___________wFAAUgBmAEB&tfu=CmxDalJJY1VneVpIaGxVbmc0UlZWQlRVZ3hTMUZDUnkwdExTMHRMUzB0TFhkemRXUXhOMEZCUVVGQlIweDBVMDVOUmxSclZVRkJFZ1pVVHpNeU9URWFDd2pWbnhjUUFob0RWRkpaT0J4dzVxVUISAggB

EDIT: the reason for sharing this is because many people on this thread are discussing the ethics of HLC. While it’s undesirable to travel to Turkey only to find out that your donor area is too depleted to have an aesthetically-pleasing transplant, I contend that an unethical doctor would proceed with the transplant at the expense of the patient while the ethical doctor would be radically honest—and send the patient home without a procedure. Also, we don’t know what happened during the consultation. We can speculate, but let’s not get into conjecture.

Hi guys. I’ve been lurking on this website for quite sometime, as I’m preparing to have my procedure completed at HLC next week. This morning, I read this seemingly credible article (attached below) and it claims that “In PRP group, all subjects had >75% hair regrowth at 6 months, density of >75% grafts was noticed in 12 patients at 4 weeks meaning reduced fall of transplanted hair during catagen phase. New hair growth started at 8 weeks in 16 patients and redness over recipient area completely disappeared in 19 patients at 3 months of surgery and activity in dormant follicles as fine thread like hair was noticed besides the thick transplanted hair in all subjects. In non-PRP group, four patients had >75% hair regrowth at 6 months; none showed >75% graft density at 4 weeks, and 13 subjects showed dormant follicle activity at 4 months. The number of patients having lengthier hairs was significantly more in PRP group.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5064679/ This being the case, it is only natural that I would want to do PRP injections during my FUE procedure. Does anyone know if HLC offers PRP with FUE? I know they offer PRP, but it’s not clear whether that is a separate treatment. Thanks for the help!