Xanadu

1 hour ago, jc80220 said:

I've been leaving the shampoo on as advised by the clinic then trying to gently massage the scabs off, but they're not coming off so easily. However after I've rinsed my hair with water I can pretty much gently glide my hand over my head and the scabs come off. Is this okay to do, or is it bad to remove scabs from a wet head?

If you are three weeks in, just get them off. Use your fingers (not nails). Wet hair is fine if that works for you.

7 hours ago, mr_peanutbutter said:

go to eugenix, you will need beard hair for sure

Not necessarily. I went to Eugenix and they said that my donor was excellent and beard not needed. Etwan is another example of a NW6/7 who didn't use any beard.

On 2/16/2023 at 5:06 AM, Curious25 said:

I think 99% of holllywood are on either finasteride or dutasteride. 
 

It’s similar to pondering whether the likes of Chris Hemsworth or Huw Jackman take PED’s for certain roles. 
 

Multi billion dollar industry. You do what you’ve got to do. 

For sure.

On 2/9/2023 at 7:29 PM, Z-- said:

This is cleanest post-OP I've ever seen for 5k+ grafts. Absolutely beautiful looking work. Are you comfortable sharing a price-per-graft ballpark?

 

Yes, I cannot think of a better looking post-op. It looks so dense and homogenous yet natural. Perfect.

On 12/19/2022 at 4:26 PM, mtb said:

I’d like to share my experience with Dr. Zarev from Bulgaria. My procedure will take place in just a couple of weeks. I have spent the last 2 years doing extensive research on surgeons and after consulting with many top physicians in the world I feel that Dr. Zarev is the best surgeon in the world for FUE-scalp-only procedures for Norwood 6’s and 7’s.  

 

My journey through hair loss has been a long one. I started receding and thinning at age 18. I reached advance Norwood 5 status by about 27/28 years old. At that point I was about to take a blade to my scalp and move on with my life but happened upon a mail order hair system company and thought I’d give it a shot as a last ditch effort. Things worked out pretty well. Enough to keep me with hair until age 38 when I discovered clinics like Eugenix, Hasson and Wong, and others. At this point I have been a full blown NW6 for about 10 years now. To that point I had been told and assumed there would never be enough grafts to be extracted to cover my balding areas and have it look decent. However, there had been significant advancements in FUE procedures. I did consults with Drs Cooley, Shapiro, Keene, C***, H&W, ASMED, Eugenix, Civas, FUE Capilar. All of them were impressive. I’m sure I would have a great shot at a positive result with any of them.

 

But as my very last stop I decided to chat with Dr. Zarev. He only would give a consultation in person, so I flew to Bulgaria to be examined by him. I was absolutely impressed by the level of detailed analysis he performed in his consultation. The first step was a discussion of him asking questions about my history and my goals. This was extensive and I could tell he was very knowledgeable on the topics we discussed. The second step was his showing me many before/afters of patients with cases very similar to mine both in terms of donor and recipient area needs. He also showed me pictures of patients who were spectacular transformations, far greater that what I was in need of. The third step was the detailed analysis of my scalp: Many microcamera pictures, traditional camera pictures, hair line design, calculations for each part of my scalp, calculations for densities and so on. It was a very thorough consultation and I felt very confident in his abilities.

 

I felt a little hesitation because there were not many personal accounts of his patients. But a big thanks to @Hugo for sharing his journey. Also, I found four other guys who had excellent results with Dr. Zarev. They shared their experiences with me and I found that very helpful. Two were Bulgarian and one was Greek so not likely that they’d ever end up on this forum or any other English language forum. I also felt good that others in the greater transplant community had very positive things to say about Dr. Zarev. Matt Dominance, JT, etc.  

 

I’m scheduled to have 6,000 grafts in my first procedure and an additional 4,000 in another procedure 9 months from now. I’m looking forward to the journey and just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this forum who has been so helpful along my journey. I’ll be sure to post updates along the way.

This looks like some of the most impressive work I have seen.

You said two procedures are planned. But it seems your entire bald area was covered in the first procedure.

So what is the second for?

Provide density? I thought most doctors preferred to avoid planting grafts in between other tightly placed grafts - just like patients with diffuse thinning are usually not good candidates because planting in between existing grafts risks damaging them.

6 hours ago, general-etwan said:

I think 1.5-2 weeks after the HT

Cheers mate

His forehead completely wrinkle free.. I imagine he never smiles or frowns… because if he does his hair moves.

On 1/30/2023 at 5:48 AM, general-etwan said:

4.5 months update. A bit unsure about progression; part of me feels like growth has stalled but maybe it's an illusion due to really ugly duckling stage of some areas thickening and others not, yet. I have not cut any hair on the top since the HT. Also, I'm dealing with 2 concerns:

My retrograde alopecia above my ears seems to have worsened and it is unfortunately very apparent at this hair length. Yes, they took some grafts from that area of the head, but not many (most on the side of the head were taken from higher up). I had this retrograde alopecia pre-HT, obviously, but it looks worse than ever. When I buzz my hair shorter it's less noticeable, and I assume if I grow it longer it will be less noticeable too...but at this length it's unfortunately bad. 

Also, I'm getting quite a bit of acne-type bumps on the scalp regularly; a few times every week. Not sure why as I'm very clean, wash my head twice every day and use both Dove and Ketoconazole shampoo. I'm using minoxidil, pyrilutamide, and RU58841 daily so not sure if it's one of those causing it or not.

How much more progress should I realistically expect in the next few months? I feel like I saw a lot of early growth compared to most people. Most people don't seem to notice major growth until about 4 months but mine started at 2 months and months 2-4 saw pretty significant growth for me. So, not sure how much more to expect...   

After the HT when did you start using the Ketoconazole shampoo?

1 hour ago, general-etwan said:

Super good! Really feel the growth and thickening kicking in now. Can’t even explain how renewed it feels.

My hair looked like such garbage for the past several years that I just buzzed the back and sides and went many weeks in between and let the hair on my neck grow wild cuz I didn’t care/lazy. I plan on going in to a barber next week for a trim up/fade just a bit do update around the back and sides. Willing to pay a few bucks a week again to look sharper. 

That's great to hear. Really great!

And do share pics after that trip to the Barber.

On 2/10/2023 at 1:15 AM, general-etwan said:

4.75 months, laying flat with no product in:

 

@Eugenix Hair Sciences How we lookin?!

At 4 months you were not completely happy and wondering if your progress had stalled somewhat.

How do you feel now?

On 1/11/2023 at 2:02 AM, Melvin- Moderator said:

Hmm, maybe I should film a tutorial. I think you went up too high. You should stop right here. 

Once the crown is grown out a bit you could blend into #2. Keep the bottom a zero middle a #1.  I wouldn’t recommend going so short, because you have to blend the demarcation line so it fades gradually into where its thicker. 
 

Here’s how I did it. The bottom portion was very thin. But blended it wasn’t as visible. 
 

This was years ago before I had any grafts placed in my crown.

When I get to that stage in a couple of months and if I need it, then I'll come for that tutorial

I don't think it is too low. I agree that it should not be lower for sure, but I think it will look good.

51 minutes ago, Niko1 said:

1 month after HT 2000 grafts. Imo about 65% of the grafts have not Shed.

Donor management looks good given the very rough starting point

On 9/28/2021 at 6:11 PM, Melvin- Moderator said:

I’m not sure he got good growth on the first one. 

Yes, It doesn't look like it.

On 2/6/2023 at 6:17 PM, MazAB said:

Month 4 

Got my first haircut after the procedure and my barber could not believe how undetectable the FUE scars were. Best he's ever seen, and he's been cutting hair for 15 years and has seen hundreds of transplants. He also mentioned that it was the best hair job he's ever seen in terms of naturalism from the hairline to temple points, and that if I never told him anything, he would not have known I had a hair transplant. Getting confirmation like that from someone who makes hair their daily business and has nothing to gain, only reaffirms my decision to go with @Eugenix Hair Sciences.  And to think that it's only the beginning of the gains that I will realize after this 2nd procedure is mind blowing to me.

I may start coloring my hair again, but still debating. Would love to get opinions on that from all of you. 

 

 

 

Salt n pepper looks good on you

True for me. 

Some clinics seem to be good at certain things, but not as strong at other aspects.

For example, Eugenics are generally fairly successful at high NW cases. On the other hand many of their results, while being fairly successful considering the starting point, are not very densely packed. Even the more successful ones like this new one seem to be a bit low density in the hairline:

So which clinics are especially good at hairlinedesity? Mr Rolandas seems to have pretty high density in the hairline. So does Mattdominance and many others. Are there any clinics that consistently produce good density hairlines?

Very unlikely to have anything to do with finasteride. It could be minoxidil though.

On 2/11/2023 at 6:48 PM, Hou said:

Hi friends, I am having my surgery with Eugenix next month in late March, so excited and nervous! I've got two questions:

1) What kind of shampoo or brand are you guys using post-op? Eugenix recommends Dove, hair therapy w/ keratin) but I can't find it in amazon (I live in USA). 
 

2) For those who traveled from US (US citizens) what type of visa did you apply for? I know I can apply for either a tourist e-visa or a medical e-visa but any recommendations? I think tourist visa costs less not sure though. 

Thanks

Baby shampoo.

Tourist visa. Smooth, simple and worked perfectly.

On 2/3/2023 at 3:52 PM, Rafael Manelli said:

Here's a riddle for you.

Graft excision in FUE is done with a punch, effectively a hollow drill. A large amount of total material is removed, in area and volume. 

But recipient incisions are done with a simple blade. They just stab your head. They don't remove an equal amount of material as they insert. To do that one would imagine they'd use a drill with roughly the same diameter as the punch.

So how are they able to fit grafts in the holes without expanding your head by the volume/area of the grafts?

All the answers about how and why a drill and slits are used, I think you already know.

I understand your question, and you are of course right that more is added than taken away. The only answer is elasticity I believe.

On 1/16/2023 at 5:21 PM, abrorkhasanov said:

Day 10 Update:

After early panic of scabs not going away, they are fortunately now are all gone. (Greatly appreciate @Berba11for the gauge tip, that worked beautifully)

Transplanted hair looks great, fingers crossed they will grow in equally nice.

Donor zone has recovered from perspective of pain and redness at least, however, it's looking fairly sparse, I was obviously aware that should have been expected with how poor my zone was, but can I it will fill in a bit later on (hope oral minox and fin help with that a bit also)

Apart from that very happy with the progress, will most definitely shave the back with a guard as soon as I can lol.

Looks good. You are about a week ahead of me with the same no grafts and same place.

10 hours ago, Zoomster said:

4 month update 

Well folks. ..another month goes by and more improvement Im glad to report ..the subtle  touch ups have made a real difference with the temple points and widows peak continuing to improve and strengthen up ..its all very exciting as at 4 months the party is really only starting .. I’m attaching a breakdown of the total graft counts over the 3 procedures for those that are interested .

Been some journey that’s for sure ..and am so glad that I finally made the decision to pull the trigger and go get on that plane .

Wishing you all luck in your research and procedures to come .

Karl 

 

 

 

 

Looks really good Karl, and I have always thought that this was the perfect length for you.

On 11/30/2022 at 4:00 AM, general-etwan said:

2.5 months progress from side profile look. I feel like the growing is going very well. It's not much yet in the grand scheme of things but I am already extremely happy with the way things are looking. I no longer have a smooth head. 😂

PS: I don't care about my retrograde alopecia. Not a big deal. Hair on the top of the head is soooo much more important.

I agree.

By the way - was this the time when the redness went away?

On 1/31/2023 at 5:41 AM, Gatsby said:

Today is day seven since my last procedure. I have religiously been spraying my head with saline every two hours up until today. I have just completed my hair wash and 99% of the scabs are now gone. 👍

 

Great length for you. Looks very dense.

On 2/10/2023 at 10:11 AM, Gatsby said:

I think if anything the beard grafts added in my second procedure will at least help vascularize the scarring in the donor. 

donor looks good mate