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Bit late with the 9 month update. Here are my photos from today.

6 month update as of today

And here are the pics without excessive lighting and fully dry hair

5 month post HT. I'm still doing 0.5mg fin every other day and everything feels great. The hair growth is very good and I'm delighted with progress. People have commented on how good my hairline is suddenly looking and they don't know about the HT. The bright light phone pics make it look thinner than it looks in the mirror. There are still new hairs coming and certainly in the crown area I can feel lots of little hairs waiting to grow out. The first set of pics are in bright light after a shower where the hair is a little damp so looks thinner. In the next post I will put the pics with dry hair and without excessive bright light

Just to add gym also plays a role in my life and try to lift weights 2 to 3 times a week and play football and tennis so trying to everything to keep body in shape, fit and good testosterone levels lol.

Quite quick. My first post discusses this in detail but the worst of it was gone in the first 10 days. The tenderness in the donor area lasts longer but is light and doesn't affect life probably all ended at 2 months.

Just for an update. I had a transplant in November 2022 and also restarted on fin at 0.5mg every other day 2 months after the transplant. My post discussing this is here

These photos are from today at 3 and a half months. One is with the hair down and the other when I stand the hair up. I'm due a hair cut which is why there is such a difference in length between the new transplanted hairs and my existing hair. Hairline is growing by the day and can feel new hairs waiting to pop out when I rub my hairline. Hope it continues and with the support of fin my crown gets thicker but expect it will take many months to notice the effect.

Here are the photos I sent to Dr Gur at day 90. He was happy with the progress as I have hair growth which many patients don't get at this stage and the donor area is in very good shape. His expectation is that month 4 has 40% of the result normally so definitely a long way to go still. I think the 3 month point is when the hair has started to grow quicker by the day as I look in the mirror. I also think it looks far worse in these pictures from the phone camera than it does in real life in terms of density and hairline height. Regarding my use of finasteride, I think it's been great. From the day I started I think libido has been good and no real performance issues. It's been a month and a half of use and I don't even think about any potential side effects any more. I think the nocebo thing is definitely a big factor as it's the negative thinking which in the 2-3 weeks which I had to get out of my head. Now I don't think about it at all as everything seems to be working normally.

I already gave an update on day 32 in an earlier post. I resumed using minoxidil foam at the one month point. Here are photos from day 60. As you can see a lot of the transplanted hair has fallen out. I had a supply of finasteride gel as well as finasteride pills and had been putting off starting. In the end at this point I decided that with the hair growth using the gel would be difficult as the hair got longer and there would be a danger of me overusing it. I needed a strategy to stop any further hair loss as I knew the untransplanted hairs in the crown and centre would continue to fall out. I decided to go back on to finasteride pills (alongside my current use of minoxidil foam). The strategy I adopted was to go for 0.5mg every other day. This is similar to the approach recommended by Dr Jayaprakash on the Youtube Hair loss show although he says to start with 1mg. The reason I went for 0.5mg was when I used it back between 2013 and 2015 I was on 0.5mg per day and it did a great job in stopping hair loss and increasing density but I stopped due to side effects (As detailed in my first post above). There is a part of me that thinks that was more a nocebo/new marriage nerves. Even this time as soon as I started the fear was on my 'performance downstairs' and it's I could think about. Does it respond, does it stand up lol. So in order to reduce any pressure and to cancel out any 'nocebo' effect I decided to keep quiet about the use of fin (i.e. the wife doesn't know) and I also try to use a placebo cancelling effect by using some maca powder as a supplement to boost energy and libido. Studies show that the effect of 0.5mg and 1mg on DHT is almost the same so I stuck with 0.5mg. Last time I did it daily so this time I thought I would go for every other day. Next post will update on how this strategy went.

Here are a series of posts to provide an update on how things have been going. Firstly I got my photos from the clinic as well as breakdown of grafts. Single grafts: 350 Double grafts: 1350 Triple and quadruple: 1463 Hair index (average grafts) 2.35 Implantation by region - Hairline: 350; Front: 1,850; Vertex: 800 Pre and post op photos are below

Day 32 Just added a few more pictures after my first haircut today. Number 2 machine on the sides and a scissor cut touch up of the top so it looks less of a mess and the hair blends in. Donor has recovered other than some of the bottom parts at the back. Resumed using kirkland minoxidil foam today. I received my 0.005% finasteride gel from farmacia Parati (prescription by Dr knap). Just need to make a decision on whether I want to start on it. Went for the low percentage as that was the one in some studies shown to have the lowest impact on blood dht levels. I probably will start soon as I might as well go in with all weapons while the hair is still growing back to deal with any sheds etc. and perhaps aim to get some improvement in density in the crown and centre in the coming months or at least halt any more loss. Maybe i'll go minoxidil in the morning and fin gel in the evening. Minoxidil once a day is perhaps enough due to its 21 hr half life. Part of me things I should space out fin and minox rather than use both topicals at the same time. This is why I didn't opt for a minox and fin combo formula. (Unscientific hunch that applied together at the time could mean some more fin is at risk of going systemic in the blood. You can tell me if I'm wrong! )

Day 30 update I have attached my pictures. The difference between the recipient area at the front and the rest of the hair in the looks more dramatic in the pictures than in real life and my family say the same thing. In real life the front hair blends in with the rest and only looks to be growing a little slower. My phone camera also likes to make my forehead look bigger than it appears to me in the mirror. You may notice one hair at the front towards the centre that looks a bit out of place and ahead of the rest of the hairline. That was an existing hair and is not a transplanted hair. I guess I can shave that one hair in the future if it looks too out of place. There is still a bit of redness at the recipient area at the front. I also seem to have some dandruff which is expected as it all heals. The donor area sensitivity was there for a quite a while but now seems to have gone mild although is still apparent when pressure is applied. Dr Gur commented that the process is going as expected. Some transplanted hairs have fallen out and others may continue to fall but all are expected to grow back. My donor area has recovered well and I can trim it to 2-3. I have been gentle with my hair and wash it only a couple of times a week still using the shampoo they gave me and do it gently and don't rub it to dry. I have been told since day 14 that I am free to wash it as I please. I have ordered 0.005% topical finasteride and plan to start on it soon as it arrives and hope that that I avoid the sides and maintain what I have. I will also will also probably combine it with minoxidil seeing as I was using it for the past 6 years and so want to retain any benefit that it might have given. I was told by Dr Gur's teams to wait till day 30 before using these topicals. I am waiting for the full HT report from Dr Gur which I hope to have soon.

Here are my photos after my 10th wash (day 11).

Here are my photos following my fifth wash (day 6 if you count the procedure as day 0).