V2.Schneider

On 6/25/2023 at 7:45 PM, A_4_Archan said:

Imo The only thing concerning is your donor ...its looking patchy though it may get well with time....can you please post the pre op pic of your donor and the latest one for the comparison...and yeh pics with good lighting which can be assessed properly ...

A 4 Archan, before photos and today with a number 3 cut. I don't usually go longer on the back because I have awful curly hair.

The visibility of all that skin is a little worrying. Is that a normal result?

On 6/25/2023 at 7:43 PM, Shadman said:

@V2.Schneider

For the bald patches in your donor, you can start oral minoxidil after having the consultantion with the doctors. It'll definitely strengthen your donor. It would be also less expensive than SMP.

Thanks shadman, actually i've been on oral minoxidil since 2017. I feel like i'm a non responder but it's not bad to keep taking as a precaution.

Hello. Just wanted to give an update on my procedure done in New Delhi. The hair is looking best at a #4 buzz cut with the new hairline taking shape. I'm happy with the front right side but the left side seems a little weak. In addition I already had a corridor of thin hair which connected the left peak with the thinning crown. Possibly then that part of the scalp is not getting great circulation.

The crown I think is slightly better but I can still see large patches of skin. It's really hard to tell with the crown because I was never completely bald there. Can I expect the skin to be covered over the coming months? Eugenix tell me the crown will not grow fully until 12-16 months post op. My donor area has visible patches of skin which I would consider covering with SMP in the future. Please let me know your thoughts

Word to the wise: for those looking into getting transplants, you can build it up in your mind to be a big thing that's going to change your whole life and outlook. But in my view now, it's only a modest cosmetic procedure fixing something which other people didn't really notice / weren't fussed about. It's not a quick fix that will instantly turn you into a Calvin Klein model and it's probably not going to sway the opinion of that person you have a crush on :P.

On 1/3/2023 at 9:50 PM, WhereIsMyMind said:

thats why everyone responds to oral and only 40% to topical.

Ohh I wish that was true for me. Five years on oral minoxidil of varying doses, five years on finasteride and/or dutasteride. I'm a non responder to everything I try .

Hopefully the transplant will come good eventually.

I did a search on this term but could not locate any threads on these forums? Sorry if it's been covered.

Has anyone had experience with a US company called Daniel Alain who claim to have a minoxidil response test (MRT) which determines whether or not you will respond to oral/topical minoxidil? This is the first I heard of anything like it.

The test is done on a hair sample to determine if the enzyme sulfotransferase (SULT1A1) is present in your hair. The theory is that minoxidil doesn't cause hair growth itself but only once it's converted to minoxidil sulfate by the enzyme sulfotransferase. Some people have low SULT1A1 enzyme activity and theoretically would be non-responders to minoxidil.

The company claims to have a topical SULT1A1 booster product if your test comes back as a non-responder, but you have to buy their expensive formulated minoxidil product. They say it's only available in America so i'm not sure how i'd get hold of it in Australia.

It's all snazzy and clearly they've paid a lot for packaging and marketing - but is it legit ?

I've worked in compounding pharmacy and I can say it's been extremely rare to get scripts for topical spironolactone, maybe say 5 scripts in 8 years. I'm not saying it won't work but just that it's not something doctors in Australia are prescribing.

I'm very interested in doing this TrichoTest but my dermatologist hasn't heard of it. What country are you in, and how can I get one done from Australia? Can it help predict if i'd be more responsive to finasteride or dutasteride?

On 10/17/2022 at 11:36 PM, Gramatik said:

So it seems like techs did the most parts of your procedure and Dr Arrika was not coming to the surgery room to supervise the techs? You were expecting from her to be more involved in your procedure than she actually did?

Yes, the package said procedure 'lead by Dr. Bansal' so I thought more supervision would happen. I'm not even sure crucial extraction was done by her - it's hard to tell with my head down, anaesthetised and nobody explaining things to me.

18 hours ago, follically challenged said:

Did the eyelashes STAY long or just initially seem longer...? I'm curious. Thanks!

If I applied bimatoprost to my eyelashes for 7 days they would grow twice as long. Then after just once every 2 weeks kept them long. In the US this stuff is called Latisse and is sold as a cosmetic. I don't use it anymore as it makes the skin under my eyes really red. I believe some research has been done on treating scalp hair with it. Unfortunately it is extremely expensive as scalp treatment. Some compounding pharmacies have it and can make it up, for example in combination with topical minoxidil and finasteride/dutasteride.

14 hours ago, BaldV said:

looks good, how many did you put on the hairline and how many on the crown?

I'm not sure - does the chart below help to understand? I think initial estimates were 1000 on crown, 2200 on hairline. But I did say I wanted to focus on crown density.

Thanks

I have followed this forum for a while without an account and it guided my choice of clinics towards Eugenix in Gurugram (New Delhi, India) where I had my surgery last week.

Quickly about myself I am 35. I knew I had widow’s peaks but it didn’t actually occur to me that I was balding until I was 28 and I saw a photo someone had taken of my crown and I was alarmed. Immediately I got on medication and in 7 years there has been only minor progression. My dermatologist says I’m a Norwood 3A with some possible retrograde alopecia on my sides.

Treatments I have tried and I think have prevented further loss and enhanced existing follicles:

Oral Dutasteride 0.5mg
Oral Finasteride 2.5mg
Oral Minoxidil 5mg
Topical Minoxidil 7%

Treatments I have tried and I really doubt do anything:

Biotin
Saw palmetto
Ketoconazole shampoo
Lasermax
Skin needling
Lumigan eye drops (Bimatoprost) - incidentally this works amazingly to lengthen my eye-lashes

Eugenix runs a professional operation. Administration staff are all friendly. They ask you to perform certain blood tests to determine your suitability for transplant (full blood count, diabetes screen, hepatitis, HIV, blood clotting factors). They check your blood pressure and pulse the day before surgery, as well as sensitivity testing for local anaesthetics. They extract your blood on the day, centrifuge it and seperate the PRP to inject into your recipient area.

I paid for the premium package where Dr. Bansal designed the hairline and performed the slits. However apart from this I don’t remember her actually being in the surgery room much supervising. So it did occur to me that maybe I could have gone for a cheaper package and had the same result.

The surgery itself was not stressful. They can give you Alprazolam if you are nervous. They let me play my own Spotify playlist over the speakers for 6 hours which was an amazing comfort. The anaesthesia is good, stings a bit going in, but you don’t feel the extraction or implantation, and I just let them know when I felt pain and they injected more lidocaine. Lunch is provided for you.

A lot of people kept walking in and out of the surgery room, taking things from the shelves or talking to the surgery staff. That was a bit weird and chaotic and I don’t think would happen in surgery in my country. Another frustrating thing was there were very few people who introduced themselves so basically I didn’t know who was operating on me or what their role was, technician or surgeon etc

Eugenix provides you with a private car to and from your hotel. The Premium Package includes 2 nights accomodation and they offered The Westin. I chose to stay at the cheaper Hilton which was just as easy to walk to. The after-care team was very good to me. For the next few days I came in and they dressed my wounds. They provide you with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory (my forehead swelled like The Elephant Man). You also have to use a saline spray every hour. Be warned the ABs are quite strong and I think are giving me diarrhoea.

Hope everything goes fine for me. I guess I’ll post an update when I start freaking out about the shedding and shock loss period. But I’m pretty confident Eugenix was the right choice.

Also I’m posting my photos here because I can have control over it, but I requested that Eugenix blur my face on their website.

Beau