Rafael Manelli

If I were on a budget I’d rather pay for 1000 grafts with natural placement and 97% yield than 2000 grafts that look pluggy and 30% of them die.

This. People go to Turkey for the price - but in that case you should be looking for price itself, not location. And you should never compromise quality to cut costs. No surgery is better than bad surgery. That said, the 4 doctors you listed seem to be decent and esteemed picks here. I’d choose any of them over a random unknown doctor, but that’s not saying much.

It’s clearly a huge improvement.

Good documentation . Are you happy with the result?

That is why I said I'd do this hairline "if donor were sufficient". In other words this is the most aggressive I'd go.

True, but you can't rely on someone being trained by a good mentor as a stand in for actual ability. The surgeon must stand on his own merit.

It won’t harm the grafts at all at your stage. Not a chance. Buzz away.

Tiger Wds could train me in golf but that doesn’t mean I’ll get to his level.

It’s easy to dwell on regret. But you have a lot to look forward to.

Wise words. I believe the OP means “one and done” in the sense that this procedure should fill all he wants filled for now, and give him the desired appearance. But he can’t rule out the possibility of further thinning.

You’re kidding, right? Your hair is phenomenal. I don’t see any problem here. Your photo as a kid is a great example of how the hairline matures normally by the way. Notice all the ultra fine hairs at the very front and particularly in the temples. Those tend to be so sensitive to DHT that they fall off even in a Norwood class 1 adult, which is what you are.

Definitely looks good.

Coming along very well for 5 months and this number of grafts.

Your right temple especially looks like it contained a high number of sparse but terminal hairs. Unusual for someone who isn’t a repair patient. I chuckle when you say you didn’t expect it to take so long. That’s typical for dr Mwamba. He often takes several days to do a session that other clinics will do in one day. That’s because he does FUE the right way, slowly, carefully, taking his time to respect such a delicate and demanding procedure, and he takes commendable responsibility, doing more of the work himself than most docs. As a result he tends to get good results. Everything here looks good. You’ve got great donor and the design looks dense and appropriate. Expect success.

Dr Hasson has actually done FUE for years now. I will agree with you that there’s no single best doctor, just the best doctor for a particular patient. Dr Zarev is one of the most meticulous, perfectionistic surgeons in the industry. His cases are certainly the result of “min-maxing” the expanded donor zone in patients with well endowed donor. He takes a long time to analyse every square inch of the donor.

Getting ahold of Zarev seems to be like catching a Leprechaun at the end of a rainbow. But he would be the perfect guest. 18000 scalp grafts beggars belief, and with only FUE no less. Donor of the gods.

I love it. After all this time, still so few doctors can match Dr Hasson. But I wonder how answers to this topic would be different now? Certainly a blast from the past.

The podcasts are always quality

You’ve done the right thing by coming here of all places, at the beginning of your (alleged) hair loss. Your crown looks normal. All the hair on the scalp originates with the crown embryologically, and radiates in a spiral from the middle of it. Because the hairs naturally splay out from each other, it is typically the most transparent area of the entire scalp - if you take a comb or your fingers and spread your hair at the front you’ll see scalp too. That’s what the crown is like. To be sure, the best thing you can do is post photos of your crown from before the alleged thinning, when it was fuller, if possible. But I suspect that it has always been like that. The photos you’ve posted already are great quality. If you could also post quality photos of the hairline it would help too.

She took the grafts from a rather restricted area. I’m surprised she didn’t spread the extraction zone for their towards the temple. FUE megasessions are risky but you have very strong donor and pocked a good doc so best of luck.

When the dr said any lower and the hairline would be sitting on muscle, he meant the frontalis muscle in the forehead. That’s the natural border for the limit of the haurline. Yours is quite high. Good luck!

It looks normal

Because OP already had his transplant

Poor dissection causes transection

Your donor doesn’t look particularly great but it doesn’t look particularly terrible either. The thinning area is huge. This would be a class 6. You could do a transplant, but without meds, your native hair will continue to thin and you’ll be right back where you started, at least visually. With meds you have a chance but not a guarantee.