jfally

He does amazing work, and is tremendously underpriced. As more reviews come out his list will only get longer, no doubt. I will not speak out of turn but he eluded to more than a few things in the works that I think are going to increase efficiency in all aspects; initial consult and intake all the way thru actual procedure. What I don’t doubt at all is that quality of service and care will remain where it is now, at 110%. (Side note: ever read the Mexican fisherman parable? Dr Nader is that man, only he’s a hair restoration Dr rather than a fisherman. I believe he’s fully aware of lots of things he could change, which would mean compromise in all areas of his life and his business, and he’s not interested in going that route. Which I fully respect and appreciate.)

And yet I emerged unscathed 🤠 He’s currently booked thru Sept ‘24.

Once a Peaky Blinder, always a Peaky Blinder. 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽

Whey has that effect on many. Try Fairlife ready to drink shakes. They’re made with a lactose enzyme that renders them able to label them “dairy free”. Many of my clients that can’t tolerate whey do great with these. They’re also super super tasty and great consistency on top of bomb macros 👌🏽

2 days post procedure, first 'shower' via Dr Nader's 5/5/5 method. 5 mins pouring room temp water from cup over scalp (recipient + donor). 5 mins *gently massaging via finger tips* the neutral shampoo bubbles over and around entire head. Emphasis on gentle, but still contacting all areas to work it thru. 5 mins again pouring water from cup over entire area to totally remove all shampoo. Follow with *gentle* pat dry. Initial thoughts: Impressed with look of donor area. For basically 3k grafts I thought it'd look much more...violent lol. I admittedly have very sensitive skin so I expect the redness to last longer than it does for many others, but the actual dots/scars I expected to be a lot more graphic looking. I know it's very early so I'm sure the landscape of the area will change and look different as healing happens. Recipient area also looks better than expected. I sprayed the solution Dr Nader gave me at least every 20 mins all day long yesterday onto recipient area so I'm sure that helped keep it moist/hydrated, we'll see what the next week or so holds as it all starts healing up. Heading out for airport and long trip home shortly.

@GoliGoliGoli and I have gone back and forth quite a bit. He encouraged me thru any doubts I had and I owe him another huge thanks. His results most definitely have me very very hopeful!

Pics of grid drawn on, and afterward. Note: I elected to fill in the 'dip' in hopes of future-proofing and adding to anything the meds help shore up. Cool Africa shape to overall aesthetic, me thinks.

Pics from last week (sorry, rough quality). Hairline into mid looking slightly beefier, pointing to new meds stack doing it's thing (confirmed by Dr Nader upon exam with maginifier).

Before Dut/Oral Min (pics sent to Dr Nader last year Oct '22)

If not for this forum, I'd have never gone through with this procedure, so I owe it to all here to 'give back' and say thanks by providing my experience and review, and will do my best to update regularly and not become one of those people that go dark after month 2 never to return lol. Background on me: -36 year old male -Crown thinning started at 32 years old, hairline started thinning at 33. -Crown MUCH MUCH worse than anything upfront and I was most self-conscious about the big old bald spot on my crown -My hairline looks okay when hair is buzzed, and okay when hair is an inch or so long, but that awkward in between exposes it as a little thinner (more on progress here in meds) -I own a health coaching company, I workout 5-6 days per week, I'm a runner/cyclist/hiker, and lover of all things fitness related -I have a beautiful healthy wife and two beautiful healthy children -If not for my bald crown, I look my age, but with the bald crown I feel it ages me many many years, and naturally is a big blow to my self-confidence My journey -Began looking into treatment options when I was 34. -Family member advised me to look into Finasteride and Minoxidil, started using topical minoxidil at 34 (2 years ago) but was not entirely consistent because I hated how oily it made my hair and some days just couldn't be bothered. -Began buzzing my head to make Min application easier and stuck with it alot more at that point. -Talked to my PCP and was prescribed Fin and began taking that 1.5 years ago. -Researched mucho and saw the science behind Dut, and switched to Dut away from Fin about 10 months ago (zero sides) -Decided in the name of both constant adherance due to maximum ease of use and potentially much better results, to switch to Oral Min 4 months ago. Titrated up to 5mg daily over the first 2 months time and have been at 5mg daily since. EKG/bloods from PCP at start, have experienced no sides at all, and he wants to do a 6mo workup again with another EKG. -Since switching to Oral Min I have most definitely been enjoying some really nice regrowth upfront, and a bit in the crown. Consulting with Dr Nader -I went to a consult at a local clinic where I live (Washington Medical Hair Clinic in Virginia Beach, VA), never actually met the Dr, and a 'consultant' looked at my hair and spoke with me, and recommended 1600 grafts to the crown, cost estimate $8-9k USD depending on graft yield. I got zero warm fuzzies from this encounter start to finish. At this point I knew travel was likely going to need to happen, I considered Eugenix and then came across options in MX, and I'm forever partial to MX due to having Hispanic heritage and multiple great trips to touristy areas of MX (silly reason but whatever lol). -My initial outreach to Dr Nader was in Oct '22. -Hours and hours of researching here and on Reddit told me he was amazing at what he does, he CARES (genuinely hard to find in any profession these days), he is present for entirety of procedure, his results amaze with every next surgery review/report, and the price was much much lower than expected. -Initial outreach consisted of filling out consult form on his website, answering all the questions and providing background on my history/goals, and supplying the pics requested. -Brenda replied a few days later (much ahead of schedule to my delight based on other posts at the time) and gave me some figures based on the pics. Potential treatment based solely on pics/not seeing in person was to be 2k-3k grafts to crown and mid, 1k to hairline to restore but not move down. -These figures sounded MUCH more in line with my thinking vs what my local clinic quoted me. -Spoke with my wife about the decision, and the financials, and what it would mean to/for me, and got the greenlight. -Replied back to Brenda letting her know I'm 'in', and after having to follow up a few times via email and phone call/voicemail after next few weeks, she replied back with a list of dates into the Spring of '23. -I replied back immediately and after some back and forth with schedule conflicts on my side, booked the procedure for Aug '23. -Received an email in May '23 from Dr Nader himself; profusely apologizing, but letting me know he'd been invited to speak at a conference dates of my surgery, so asking if I could move forward/earlier a month. WHY YES DR I SURE CAN! lol -We landed on July 25-26, flights/hotels were booked. Travel/Accomodations -I flew from Norfolk, VA to McAllen,TX via American Airlines and other than the general woes of air travel these days, no issues at all. -Part of Dr. Nader's packages include hotel reimbursement if you stay at one of his partner hotels here in McAllen, so $360 reimbursement for 3 nights at this hotel, and it includes breakfast vouchers (with a really nice breakfast spread to boot!) -My flight arrived super late (11:55pm) and my hotel's shuttle was still running so they picked me up and brought me back to hotel. Safety/Security/Border Crossing into and out of Reynosa/Reynosa Itself -Dr Nader has a private driver(s), mine was Mr Santos. He has been driving for Dr Nader and shuttling his patients to/fro their hotels for 13 years now. He's been driving cabs in Reynosa for 43 years, and now works for Dr Nader as well as driving the shuttle for Holiday Inn Express in Reynosa. Consummate professional. Friendly, cordial, speaks un poco de English, respectful. I asked him about his life, his family, and his experience, and with a little bit of inherent language barrier both ways, we passed the time chatting. He's not technically part of Dr Nader's team, but he still made a great first impression. -25 minutes to get from Cambria Hotel to Dr Nader's clinic. -1 hour to get back to Cambria Hotel from Dr Nader's clinic (have to stop at US Customs/Border Patrol on the return trip, have to present passport and answer a couple questions, plus line is longer heading to US vs on the way into MX from US). Reynosa: -If you follow US headlines, Reynosa is where you go to mingle with the cartel, get kidnapped, get murdered, get held for ransom, etc. -If you go to US State Dept website, Reynosa and the state of Tamaulipas on the whole is on the DO NOT TRAVEL LIST for more political translations of the above line. -I'd be lying if I wasn't stressed/scared in light of a few recent articles popping up regarding the above. Escalated violence, an incident with Americans a few months back, a shallow mass grave found last week,etc. -My MIL sent me article just last week and pleaded with me not go go <---this was tough. -MY ACTUAL EXPERIENCE WITH REYNOSA: -I never feared for my safety. -I never feared for my security. -Mr Santos had us on major roads and Dr Nader's clinic is within 10 minutes of the border crossing. -Dr Nader's clinic is on second floor of a nicer looking medical clinic, with multiple gates, multiple locks, and security cameras literally everywhere. If there is a 'safest complex' in Reynosa, I'm confident saying it's this complex. -I saw zero guns, knives, heads on stakes, bodies hanging from trees, mass graves, or rubble from shootouts. -It looked not dissimilar from areas of Mexico just outside of major tourist areas (think Cozumel, Cancun, etc if you were to leave the main area and stroll for a mile or two). -Lots of street food vendors, lots of pedestrians, run-down/past it's hey day, but still full of life and full of normal people trying to make a normal living and provide for their families. -To anyone reading, and fearful of Reynosa, I cannot tell you how to feel, but I really truly wish I would not have been as anxious as I was about the safety of this place. -This is not to say you cannot find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that applies to any city in any state. -Your choices and feelings are yours, and I respect that. -I would confidently refer friends/family to Dr Nader now having firsthand experience of traveling through Reynosa, with zero reservations. And I say that genuinely. ANYWHOOOOO To remind, tentative gameplan for procedure (based on Oct '22 pics) was going for 2-3k grafts for the crown and midline, up to 1k to reinforce but not move down the hairline. In between then and now, Oral Minoxidil and Dutasteride have helped me at least a good bit. After filling out paperwork in the lobby upon arrival, I was warmly welcomed by the man, the myth himself, Dr Luis Nader. He invited me into his office and we chatted like two friends just genuinely talking and getting to know each other more. Goals, life, family, personal experiences (mine and his), nothing and everything. In a weird way I didn't want this chat to end, because there's a genuineity to his spirit that you just do not encounter...anywhere. He's a special human. After chatting for a long while and going down many digressions (he and I both), we came back to the reason for my visit; my hair. He took out his trichoscope (not sure what this thing is called?) and plugged it into his laptop via USB, and placed the laptop on his desk so we could both see it clearly. The screen showed a highly magnified view of my hair follicles. Dr Nader got VERY excited with respect to my decision to faithfully take Dut/Oral Min daily and found new growth upon new growth, upfront in the hairline especially. Knowing Oral Min has been in the mix less than 3 months, he was VERY confident than in another 6-8 months time, regrowth from that (based on what he was seeing under magnifcation) would negate need to add hair here now/at present. He gave me the choice ultimately, but highly encouraged me to exercise a bit of patience bc he was as certain as could be without 'promising' that the thinnish areas would really fill out as the year goes on. No grafts needed for the front, that was the decision we agreed upon. Which meant my two day procedure would now be just one day, and 2877 grafts would go to my crown. He arrived at 2877 after drawing a grid pattern on the crown (including a dip that he recommended waiting on, but said he'd not argue if I wanted to fill it in). Once the grid was drawn on, he place 40 dots into each grid, multipled that # of the grid, and oila!, we have our needed graft #. It was 2877. The plan was in motion, and we'd begin in room 1, which was essentially a massage bed I'd lie face down on for the extractions from donor area. For whatever reason, this was my least favorite part. He was VERY accommodating and encouraged me to be vocal if I felt any pain at all, and I did ask him several times for more local anesthesia. The pain itself wasn't anything bad even when I need more anesthesia, I think most of the unpleasantness stemmed moreso from the tiny pain coupled with the lying face down for a couple hours coupled with the sound effects of each next extraction from his implements. Compared to my tattoos (3/4 sleeve one arm, 1/2 on other), this pain was 1 if a tattoo was 10. Evidently I'm turning into a wuss as I age but really I think it was the multiple sensory factor that made the extraction process a bit more unpleasant than I'd expected. After extraction I was escorted to Room 2, where delicious tacos and a diet soda (you get to order from a few choices) were waiting, and I was given the remote to the big screen TV on the wall directly in front of the dentist-chair looking reclining chair where the implantations would occur post-30 minute lunch break. The implantation process went smoothly and all of it was done in Room 2 on reclining chair, other than the bottom row of grids and dip area, which were done back in room laying face down. I will say thru entirety of extraction/implantation, I was conversing every few minutes with Dr Nader as needed, and his staff was working diligently with minimal chatter or small talk or laughter (not that I'd have minded at all). They run a well oiled machine, the manner in which they executed literally every aspect screamed efficiency and high standards, and each tech I interacted with was absolutely as pleasant and professional and accommodating as could be. (As a fellow business owner and employer, I'd be proud to be in Dr Nader's shoes, his team represents him well; a business owner's ultimately goal). After all implantations were done, they cleaned the area well, and wrapped my head in the glorious infamous Civil War era head wrap. Plus a surgical cap to where back to the hotel. Then, back to Dr Nader's office, for thorough walk through of post care instructions, for the next 7 days, but then also outward from there. I was given the meds, the sprays, and the shampoo. Mr Santos took me back to my hotel in McAllen, now I sit here recovering/resting/typing a novel of a post procedure report when I should really be catching up on work. Any questions, anything I've left out, please let me know. If I had it to do over, I'd 1000% choose Dr Nader all over again. He gave me his personal cell # and insisted on frequent updates and any and all questions. He also gave me the surgery report/graft # paperwork and told me it may be useful if I ever need to work with another surgeon in the future at which point I cut him off and told him "No, Dr Nader, as my hair goes, YOU are my surgeon. Whether its next year or 15 years from now or never needed, you're the only one for me." --- My take: If he were in the US, he'd be considered an elite US hair restoration surgeon/Dr, and he could likely charge literally as much as he wanted. He's that good/his team is that good.

Yep. Bring your passport if US citizen for the return trip.

Flew into McAllen. Even landing at 11:55pm I was able to utilize my hotel’s free airport shuttle upon landing. Utilized his partner hotel (Cambria) and his chauffeur (Mr Santos) who picked me up from and brought me back to my hotel. You actually end up getting reimbursed the hotel cost which was cheap to begin with relative to how nice it is. And Mr Santos was great. He’s driven various cabs/shuttles in Reynosa for 43 years, has been working for Dr Nader for 13 years. Friendly and cordial and ideal driver for the area 👌🏽

Had my procedure today with him. I spent the last week mad anxious about security concerns with Reynosa. 1000% waste of my energy looking back. I was zero, total zero, concerned at any point during the shuttle there/back or while in his office which is extremely secure (gated/cameras/etc).

I’m someone that goes to gym 4-6 days per week, lifts heavy, does cardio, and always targets 12-15k steps outside of exercise daily. Naturally 2-4 weeks of rest is not appealing at all to me but I do understand and appreciate that strong recommendation in the name of healing/optimal growth odds. My tentative gameplan is to head to my local indoor shopping mall (or Target or Walmart) and walk (leisurely walk as if I were there to shop) daily for the first two weeks. It’s air conditioned and I can stroll for 20-60 mins and feel like I’m not just slimming around. I’m also looking at this training pivot as a forced deload period where I anticipate random aches and pains and strains healing bc I’m not great at taking rest weeks regularly. That’ll be my “exercise”.

This is surely a hotly debated subject. "TRT" has different meanings for different people. Some say they're doing TRT and in reality are way far past that, into 'steroid' territory. Most Dr guided TRT is somewhere 80-200/mg per week, averages dosages seemingly in the 100-120 range. Over and above that, it's typically past TRT ranges and those are steroid cycles, hopefully done for very brief periods if longevity/long term health is on that person's radar. I've researched this topic tons and my findings have led me to believe that if one is pre-disposed to MPB, depending on their TRT dosage, they can in fact speed up rate of loss depending on their TRT dosage. Eg if they were a NW2 at 33 and without TRT would've been a NW6 at 43, but added TRT dosages 200+ into the mix, they could arrive at NW6 in muuuuuch lesser time. More test = more DHT to synthesize. Less test = less DHT to synthesize.

Dude this is phenomenal!!! Knowing the crown is slower and really 12-18mos it's still growing/thickening/maturing, you are sitting pretty. Crazy fast/stellar results upfront are prob skewing your feelings about the crown but you are in great shape man. Especially knowing you've got 2-3k left in donor for future, you are in a great spot to be able to go back later and add density where you desire. If this is 6 mos, the 12 mo update will be crazy good.

I've nothing to offer but as a VB resident myself, just damn. I'm so sorry man. Found this thread when I did a quick search:

SO much wisdom in here and I most definitely concur with the sentiment. Naturally we all fixate on what we are most self conscious about. When we spend so much time, mental energy, and money, trying to fix some of these trouble areas, certainly we'll then be that much more critical of them on the other side of the 'solution'. Sort of reminds me of the super fit fitness models on social media that will post candid photos from a photo shoot showing the pic to be used from the shoot, and then a pic of them w/out filters and not 'sucking in', looking entirely different, taken literally 10 seconds apart. We don't see them out in the wild/real life looking anything other than the normal selves. Folks don't see us from 5" away with a magnifying glass trying to look at crazy particular angles or hair parted methodically to find some open real estate. That's usually us, to ourselves. Great post man.

If it's something you'd still be interested, perhaps working with your Dr to try again with a very slow increase til settling at minimum effective dose you're able to tolerate? I remember reading 2.5mg oral daily is equivalent to twice daily topical 5% but it wasn't a credible source so take that with a grain of salt.

I apologize as I'm guilty of having not scrolled up/back enough evidently! I will always err on side of deferring to someone's personal firsthand experience; nobody knows our own body than we do. My intent wasn't to dismiss your firsthand experience, my words were how much fear mongering there is and how likely it is to deter folks from using the very few meds available to help combat MPB. I'm wired to overthink everything so after reading plenty of initial scare posts regarding sides for all these meds, I make a marked effort these days to never read that stuff, and I've been totally fine using both Dut and Oral Min. Clearly you had a different experience with OM, sorry man! It does leave me curious about certain posts where people mention what you did and then a day or a week later, no more sides to speak of. But I totally understand not wanting to stay the course in hopes that stabbing chest pains diminish, that'd be a hard sell lol.

Anxiety attacks are often described as stabbing chest pain. Anxiety on the whole can lead to symptoms folk describe as cardio/chest/heart related. Breathing difficulties. Etc. I actually agree with much of what you're saying above but I do believe that there's alot of nuance to this conversation.

Man this would be one we'd all love to see now a couple years later, has to be dynamite!

6 days out from my procedure with Dr Nader. I was booked for August but he emailed me a couple months back, let me know he was invited to speak/present at an industry conference those dates and apologized and asked if I'd be available a month sooner. Will post a detailed thread on the other side Tentative plan is 2000-2500 grafts to my crown area, 1,000 give or take (all depends on donor) into restoring the hairline and any leftover into mid. If we can get close to 4k it'll be split into a two day procedure. All correspondence has been timely after the initial outreach (which definitely took solid time as everyone knows) and some of my questions that have popped up either Brenda or Dr Nader have been VERY fast in the couple weeks leading up to surgery.

Agreed 100%. If you go into almost anything convinced of how it's going to go, it'll probably indeed 'go' that way. Sit for a test you're convinced you're going to fail, odds are you score much lower than if you went in either neutral or optimistic. In driving, motos especially, they tell us to look thru the curve. If we fixate on the guardrail at the apex, much higher chance of wiping out. Instead look thru the curve and do not fixate, look where you're going not down at your front wheel or over side to the guardrail you don't want to hit.

My surgery date is 6 days out. In my pre-op instructions, I was advised to discontinue use of topical Min 7 days prior to surgery. I take oral Min and was told zero reason to discontinue oral. May I ask why you'd cease topical Min 3 mos prior, that was advice given by your Dr?