4Godot

looks amazing, I had my consultation a few weeks back and am. about to book in for surgery. Appreciate your sharing!

On 4/5/2024 at 6:06 PM, RoundRock said:

The resulting transplant had about 80% of the grafts fail as you can see in the final image I posted above, and even if it had been successful the line has no variation and looks unnatural to me. Dr. Nel did maybe 10% of the implants and his staff did the rest. There was a noticeable difference in technique, where the staff pushed so hard that I heard a 'crunch' each time, I assume it was some fascia breaking in my scalp but I didn't know if that was normal or not so I didn't say anything. It didn't happen when Dr. Nel was putting them in. The procedure cost in excess of €10k, and Blackrock would have been at least double that.

I haven't gotten an appointment with Dr. Couto yet, but I have tried. In December 2024 he will be making appointments for consultations in summer 2025 for procedures in summer 2026. Really hoping to catch a slot ASAP. Can I ask how you found your appointment?

Sorry missed this at the time. Just dogged persistence to be honest. I emailed initially and did the online assessment, was told I'd require an in person and to try again on January 1st. Did that and got an appointment for 18 months later! So yeah, I'd say patience is the main thing. I did hear of a few people getting lucky with cancellations, might be worth a try if you're based in Dublin as the trip to Madrid is fairly painless. Good luck

On 4/29/2024 at 4:01 PM, Diff-thinner said:

I was very surprised with the cut, all day I wanted to get home to see what the donor looked like, I’m not sure what your thoughts are on how visible it is but I asked for the same cut I get every time and from my eyes it looks hardly noticeable and maybe even with some smp would be undetectable. 
 

 

 

Thanks again for the info. Honestly the donor looks amazing to me, I've seen that area look more irritated and inflamed post fade just from barbers razors and so on! Personally I'd sacrifice quite a lot in the aesthetics of the donor area were it a choice between that and density/shaping of recipient area, but looks like you don't have to make that call anytime soon.

I've seen many other instances where, once you look for it, you can definitely see a thinned out donor area, but I'd say this is undetectable to all intents and purposes in your case. 

Looks excellent to man! Especially donor area. How noticeable is the redness of recipient area in normal/average light? Do you still have to cover it up in any way? I'd say you're lucky have enough hair too that you can get away with still have an sharp looking cut while it grows in

5 hours ago, sunsurfhair said:

Same for me. Absolute god send. 5mg for over a year already. Zero sides. 

Do people generally feel oral minoxidil could halt or substantially slow hair loss by itself? Or only as an adjunct? I really dont do well with the hormonal/ finasteride meds

1 hour ago, Youth_Again said:

Really happy with the design and temples, just missing that density at the front to do any hairstyle I want.. 

Gotcha, yeah at least you know of all the transplant issues to have it's the easiest fix, and that's worst case scenario.

Got my first meeting with Couto next month

2 minutes ago, Youth_Again said:

I can wear them down like a French crop or fringe no problem. Density looks excellent 

doctor told me to brush my hair twice a day to fix that wavy kink look and train them. I apparently missed that 😅

Huh interesting, very good to know! Are you pretty happy with the rest of the transplant (apart from hairline)?

1 hour ago, Youth_Again said:

Thanks, I’m just bit concerned on the hairline density, I can’t have my hair backwards because of that…

Just curious, does it sit normally otherwise? Like if you wanted to wear it down in a fringe it'd do that? Just know a few people who've had HTs and reckon the transplanted hair always has kinda a wave or kink in it, so they basically have to wear it up

Just curious, what other issues did you have with the transplant? I think I looked at this Dr and the Black Rock place a year or two back. Both seemed very pricey with very mixed results even in their own galleries. I eventually managed to get an appointment with Dr Cuoto, did you manage to get an appointment there yet?

oh gotcha, I thought you couldn't wear a cap for a month or so after procedure? Not so?

I have a friend buzzed his right down for like 3/4 months then had enough hair to grow it out and kinda comb over the red/growing areas in hairline after that. I guess it depends on implantation method or whatever but it just looked like a regular shaved head, no big red patches or anything.

Plus he REALLY appreciated having hair once it grew in! Not for everyone I know but it is a way of avoiding caps-in-stange-scenarios situation!  

The only experience I've had with fibers is seeing them run when people were sweating at the gym! But some people swear by them.

looks good brother! do you have a strategy in mind? Hats? Shaved down?

I think that's a good sign of ethics, makes me trust him more. Also just sent you a quick pm!

Yeah this is very encouraging for me, as I was kindof vacillating slightly on Couto for treatment for a few months there (after years of thinking he was the holy grail of HTs).

You've inspired me to push ahead as we're in similar positions.

One thing i forgot to ask you, did he mention anything about implanting amongst existing hairs? To add density? I've seen him do it in some cases but not others

This looks amazing to me man, both the recovery and the shape/density. 

cool, great to know. Appreciate the advice! I'm definitely leaning towards a more "conservative" approach.

Thanks again

Thanks man! Just curious, did you feel like he slightly lowered the middle of the hairline, even from where it is naturally? Just something I've noticed from some up close pics of his other surgeries, I guess he's mainly reinforcing the hairline, but seems to often go a little beyond that with lowering/ framing. 

From what I know of these things, this looks great to me! Also, even if it is closer to 1500 he's done a lot with it. I have a consultation with Dr Couto next month so fascinated by your account and to see how it progresses. Couto's results that I have seen, with very very few exceptions, seem to range from amazing to very very good, so I'd be very confident if I was you.

Do you have any before pics?

Best of luck with everything!

8 hours ago, xabi86 said:

Did you order your prescription through curemyhairloss.com?

No I've never used the service as I decided to get off finasteride all together, it was recommended to me by another user here but can't find the thread right now I'm afraid

1 hour ago, We Got This said:

Can anyone other than ArthurSam give give your review?

Hey, I've been using it for just about 3 months now. I'd pretty much agree with your experience except my shedding has gone from pretty drastic to minimal and I haven't noticed any loss. My hair feels better in general, better volume. Nothing drastic but it's encouraging.

I've been on oral minoxidil for a year before starting Cosmerna. The real issue for me is the quantity/ application, if it's genuinely localized and isolated to application area (which we better hope it is) how the f is one supposed to spread 1 ml over the whole scalp? I've read you can dilute with water but due to the applicator and storage, that's not the easiest thing to do in this case. So yeah, I ran out early on first bottle. That said, I've seen enough to give it at least 6 months before re-evaluating.

Good luck

1 hour ago, xabi86 said:

do you know how much 0.01% topical fin per dose is equivalent to in mg of oral fin

Well dosage wise, my understanding was always 0.1 of topical is equivalent is the equivalent of 1 mg tab. In terms of absorption etc, I've seen a lot of charts with these or similar numbers:

I'm not sure if this was gel or alcohol solution, but this is why a lot of Drs say 0.025 is plenty, and Hims seems, to me, to be on the high side. And I'd guess anyone who has no problems with that dosage would have few problems with oral. Especially as Hims doesn't use any particularly specialized kind of carrier/ solution

9 minutes ago, xabi86 said:

Thanks. Do you think one if better than the other between FP and Agencia?

I wonder what the difference is between Lipofin and non-Lipofin. I am a novice at this when it comes to topical fin.

No worries. The only thing I know of is that FP has gel solutions, which in theory are less likely to go systemic, but this is still in the realms of speculation. Other than that anagenica is just easy as it's direct purchase through their site

21 minutes ago, xabi86 said:

has anyone else had the same problem with them i.e delayed responses? 

I had probably similar wait with Farmacia Parati but they did get back in the end, just to say I needed prescription from EU Dr. Anagenica I just bought straight from the site, didn't really need to interact for what I needed. Just a note though, their "Lipofin" solution is still just a liquid, not a gel, which I had expected from description

7 hours ago, xabi86 said:

Also, do you know how I can get a prescription for them please?

Yeah I guess check in with user @Melvin- Admin mentioned, once you email FP they'll then ask for a prescription. I believe there was a service recommended by curemyhairloss.com , that's a dermatologist in Sweden who writes prescriptions. I haven't use this site though

17 minutes ago, xabi86 said:

Anything else you or someone else in the forum can recommend which will have lower dosage or something similar to Xyon

Oh gotcha, sorry. Farmacia Parati offer low strength solutions in a gel I believe is similar to Xyons, you just need a prescription from a European Dr (as in a Dr with a European license).  Could also try Anagenica site for very low dose finasteride, albeit in a non-gel solution

Hey, I used Hims spray in US, and at the lower dose, I think 0.1, (they also offer the higher dose) which is more equivalent to the oral fin recommended daily pill dosage. I did have all the same sides as  had with oral, they just took longer to manifest. For my money that dose is unnecessarily high but if you didn't get sides from the pills you should be fine. The research (and a few Drs I've spoken with) have suggested it can be effective as low a dose as 0.025, which you can get at anegenica online. 

The thing with Hims is that the vehicle really wouldn't be particularly effective at keeping the drug in the scalp. The consensus seems to be that gels like the one xyon uses are probably going to be better at minimizing systemic absorption.

Again though, I'm very prone to sides with finasteride and dutasteride, many people can tolerate doses this high and higher. If you were ok with the pill you should be fine.

Good luck!