Bucky O Hair

Yea, none of the docs I listed are cheap. I think H&W were the cheapest, but they also usually go really high on the graft count for your crown (3-4K) which could use up too much of your donor and you will want to save it for the future. They are also a technician-heavy clinic, so that's also why they are cheaper. Munib, Konior, and Zarev do all their work on their own...so you're paying for an actual surgeon doing everything. They may have an assistant there cleaning the grafts (after the doc extracts them) but everything from extraction to incision to insertion is all the doctor's work (which is very rare to find). Munib and Zarev are the top-2 docs in the World. Konior shared some good photos with me, but I think the other two just do some mind-blowing stuff (plus I hear that Konior is retiring soon). My experience with Munib was great. He responds to all emails, and he'll just end up just interacting with you on Whatsapp (send you photos and videos of similar cases). He'll do a video consultation with you, and then you have the option to book. He's pretty in-demand, so you'll probably be waiting for over a year. The session wasn't too long (maybe 7am to 1pm). He has a medical office in the Netherlands in a nice little town. His approach is pretty laid back and casual (he won't send you dozens of waivers or documents to sign like some other docs on here do). You just book a hotel nearby and walk over to the clinic. His work is pretty clean and I was out in the town eating at restaurants and cafes the next day, and I didn't look like a bloodied-up Frankenstein monster. Just clean work, no bandages needed. I think both Munib and Zarev use a similar method for extraction, and it results in pretty clean work. In my case, I have larger than normal sized hair follicle bulbs...which would likely result in a high transection rate. If I went to a Turkish hair mill (or even a technician-heavy clinic), I would probably lose half my grafts from transections...so I'm glad I broke the bank and went with Munib, lol. I'll post a collection of photos and sequence them by month when more time passes. But i just attached a photo of me three days postop while I was still in the Netherlands. Most people thought I just had a funky hairstyle and didn't really give me a second look while I was there.

The crown is a tricky, and you will notice that many of the top docs on here have some solid frontal work but no good crown examples (which should be a red flag when doing your research). Also, even with the good crown docs...there seems to be a massive variance in terms of graft estimates. Some clinics will tell you that you need 3500 grafts, but then you will also get some quotes below 2000 grafts. I recently did my crown and I have an almost identical hair type as you. I did a lot of consultations with many of the top clinics before I went forward with my recent crown HT. I narrowed my list to H&W, Zarev, Konior, and Munib Ahmad. I ended up going with Munib. Results look great so far.

The top doctors generally have at least a one year waiting list. Pittella is considered a very good doctor on this forum, so I would assume at least a year (until they confirm with you).

I agree with Dr. Ana. Looking at your photos, you seem to be blessed with thick hair but a mature hairline. This can easily be managed with a new hairstyle (don't slick it back, rather just to the side and/or forward) and going for a dry look (using hair paste instead of gels).

Does it really matter? What is done is done. The best thing to do is go to a reputable surgeon and ask them what they think they can extract from the remaining donor area. IMO, it looks like more than 1000 grafts were removed...but as someone already suggested, they probably transected/damaged more as they were taking out those 1000. A graft punch size of 0.7 is quite small and only the top surgeons are able to remove grafts with that small of a punch size without a high transection rate. They probably removed a lot more, and managed to only get 1000 that weren't totally damaged.

One month is nonsense. After 10 days, you are fine to sleep however you like.

Are you sleeping with a neck pillow or in an elevated position? Sometimes sleeping in an elevated position can aggravate your lower back. After 10 days you should be fine to sleep how you normally do.

If you have the money, then go with Dr. Munib Ahmad or Dr. Tsvetelin Zarev. Both docs manage to do extremely well with limited grafts and have pretty much zero transection due to their technique. They also use the smallest punches and leave virtually no scars (so you can opt to shave it all off if you need to in the future). Considering the cost, this many not be a good use of funds (if it just leads to you having hair for a few years before you shave it off anyway due to further loss as a NW7). But if you're going to get one either way, I wouldn't go to any other clinics for your case.

It sounds like a place that doesn't specialize in hair transplants, and just does a bunch of different cosmetic things. I would stay away. If geography is an issue, you have Dr. Zarev in Bulgaria (which is only a couple of countries over).

I can confirm this. I just had my crown done at FueGenix with Dr. Munib a week ago, and my donor is already all healed up.

I'm a perfect example of this, ha ha ha. I got my transplant about a year ago, and have lost the drive to post on here as much since the new hairs grew out. I actually have a second HT coming up very shortly and I am very "ill-prepared" for it, in the sense that I am so laid back about it now that haven't even bothered to book my flight and hotels yet (meanwhile, during my first HT, I was almost over-prepared for it, where I was thinking and planning about it for months in advance). RE: my advice for making the jump... #1: I would assume that you will need 3 hair transplants in your lifetime. Don't assume that the drugs are going to stop progression. Most of the time, they only barely slow down progression anyway. #2: Don't worry too much about the money. Sure, it will probably cost you tens of thousands of dollars, but this is probably over a 15-20 year period. So even if it works out to $3-4 grand per year across that 15-20 year span... that's essentially nothing (if it's meant to correct something that is causing you to dedicate a significant portion of your lifetime on a message board). A lot of people spend that same amount of money annually on all kinds of hobbies or vices. As important as money is...it shouldn't be the main factor when deciding whether you want this or not. You're probably going to blast that cash on something else anyway (like a new car or a couple of extra vacations). Worst case, just use the time you spend posting on here to make more money. #3: It's all about the scarring! IMO, this is by far the biggest risk. Buzzing your head (or trimming it very short) will still be an option in the future...but will a visible FUT or FUE scar cause you issues? I think for most people, a visible FUT scar is a big problem which is why FUE has become the standard now (with many docs no longer offering FUT). FUE scarring seems a lot more manageable, and SMP can be used to mask it (if you ever decide to shave your head in the future). Personally, I did not get any visible FUE scarring on my donor at all, but I was surprised to see (what looks like) scarring on my recipient area. However, it seems to only be seen in certain lighting and now that my hair has grown out there, it cannot be seen at all. So, I'm good for now, but I wonder if in the future this will ever become a problem for me (if I ever decide to buzz my head). I'm tempted to do it now (since maybe some of this scarring has healed up during my post-op healing process) but I won't know for sure. I think scarring is the biggest wildcard, because even if you get a mediocre result (or just continue to thin out more as you age) you still want to have that option to buzz your head. That being said...most people never wet shave their heads anyway. Everyone tends to do a "Jason Statham style" 1-guard or 2-guard trim with the hair clippers, rather than a zero-guard buzz (which would expose your scars). I think going 1 or 2 guard helps in masking any scarring on your scalp.

Nah. No significant change. It's improved enough that I can style my hair a certain way and it looks good, so I've just been doing that these past few months and haven't thought about it. It looks good enough so it doesn't bother me. Re: posting photos...I've been lazy, so I haven't gotten around to posting photos here...but I'll eventually do it ha ha. I'm planning to do my crown very soon as well (I did a bit of shopping around these past few months) and booked something so I will probably post my frontal final results soon (from my first HT), and post the crown post-op results (of my second HT) once I have it done it.

Yes, it's still something I would have done either way and it's definitely an improvement. My only concern is if I did not get the full 50 FU/cm2 and if it's something well below that. We all have finite donor hair, and you always want to max out on yield. I'm always curious as to how people on here actually KNOW that they got full yield. Do you actually count the hairs on your hairline (per cm)?

No. It's the same. Since I am already at 8 months, I am just going to assume that this is roughly the final product. I guess it looks okay, but I got my hopes up hoping for a burst of new hairs during months 4-8 that never came for me. I sent photos in to the clinic for them to comment on my progress, but I think I should wait the year before posting anything on here. How is your progress coming along?

No. I haven't seen any new hair growth other than that initial growth in the Summer. I'm at about 7 months postop, and the progress has really just been hair length, rather than actual new hairs. Not sure if I should continue to expect new hairs, or if this is it in terms of actual new hair count. It's definitely an improvement, but it seems to looks less than the 50 FU/cm2 density that I see posted on this site every day. Then again, I still have more months for growth, so maybe I am a late bloomer and more should come. I actually haven't been thinking of my hair growth or recovery since my hair grew back and I was able to style it again, so I haven't been as active on this site. But I'll post some progress photos once I get closer to the recommended one-year mark.

Both Konior and Ahmad gave great answers to my questions and gave near identical estimates for required grafts (between 2k and 2.4 k grafts), and I liked that because they both look to be very efficient with the grafts they use (which is important to me since I want to preserve as much donor as possible). I also had a meeting with an H&W consultant, but was give a rough estimate of 3.5k-4k grafts (which would wipe my donor out entirely, and confirmed my decision to go with a doctor doing the surgery instead of a technician-heavy one where they usually go very high with the graft count). I also reached out to Zarev, but his assistant said he's booked up for consultations for 2 years, plus another 2 years after that for surgery (which simply doesn't make sense for me). Konior is a lot closer to me geographically (and wouldn't require a flight), so I was initially geared toward Konior so I started consulting with him first. However, he does insist on an in-person consultation (which is fine) but I ended up doing a consultation (via video chat) in the meantime with Ahmad. Ahmad also shared a lot of crown-specific photos and videos, which were very impressive (not many docs like to share their crown results). Both were very responsive. I guess I just jived with Ahmad well (we have similar personalities), and I decided to take geography out of the equation. I didn't end up scheduling an in-person consult with Konior, but I'm sure he would have been good too. Overall cost and graft count estimates were the same (and both had availability in 2024), but I've seen a lot more results from Ahmad (both on this site and what was shared by him with me).

From what I've gathered, the general consensus on this board is that you should be on Finasteride and Minoxidil (ideally both orally). Many are using Dutasteride too, in addition to Finasteride, however I think Dutasteride users are still in the minority. The docs I spoke with were kind of all over the place. Only some of them asked if I was even on anything. One was completely against Minox and pretty much said it was junk. Another was against Finasteride and no longer prescribes it. One was very into topicals (instead of oral meds) and offered to prescribe oral Dutasteride. I think ultimately the docs are focused on hair transplants, so they won't really get into the drug regimen talk.

Your transplant is comprised of thousands of grafts. If you prematurely rub or hit your scalp in the first week or so, you may lose of grafts but in the grand scheme of things, it will be insignificant. Honestly, I know a guy who got a hair transplant earlier this year and was wearing tight fitting hats after only a few days. I was cringing when he kept pulling the hat off his head, on and off. I kept telling him to stop. He also didn't even really wear hats to protect himself from the sun and I hung out with him on the beach when he was like 4 months postop. He wore no hat all day while in the sun, even though you're supposed to wait 6 months. I doubt that was the first time he went out in the sun that long during his postop recovery too. I remember his scalp being red for at least three months, and I was thinking it was probably because he wasn't taking care of it, or maybe from the sun, or who knows what else. He's definitely not the type of guy that would spend any time applying postop saline sprays, he likes to work out (and he likley didn't take a month off from the gym after his HT), and I even remember him drinking while he was still on his postop antibiotics. His results... Perfectly fine. His hair transplant is as good as the best ones I've seen on this site.

Funny that this comparison came up. I am planning for my crown, and just had consultations online with both of them. I am planning to go with Ahmad.

People go back to the same clinic because of money reasons (because the clinic is doing it pro bono). Normally, if you are dissatisfied with a hair transplant, it doesn't really make sense to go back to the clinic who didn't do it right the first time. That's generally common sense, unless the clinic pinpoints exactly what went wrong and can guarantee that it won't happen again (which they would never do).

I had multiple consultations with the top surgeons recommended on this board, and I was surprised at the range of answers I received. Very different from what the general consensus is on this forum.

3200 grafts in the front half of my head. I had no shockloss, redness for about three months, a bit of recipient scarring, but no donor scarring, and my remaining donor looks good for at least another HT or two. Planning for the crown next year, but at the same time, I would like to see the final results of this front HT first.

The shed will happen and your hair will look worse than it did pre-transplant. 2 month mark is the ugliest period. Based on your pre-op photos, you will look better than you did pre-op by the 4 month mark. Just keep the hair growing and don't shave your head, just trim the sides and back to keep it clean.

I would like to keep my hair short, ha ha. But I had deeply receded temples that I would have to comb hairs over it to hide (and have to grow my hair out to about 2-3 inches)...but I hate the shaggyness of the hairstyle. I have to grow my hair about 3 inches everywhere to cover the receded temples, but my hair on top has thinned out so it looks worse when long. I am only 4.5 months postop (I went to Rahal) but my temples are beginning to fill, so I will be able to finally cut my hair shorter (to probably 1 inch lengths) without having to always think about having to hide my temples anymore. I also have a big bald spot on my crown, so I need to address that as well. My plan was to get a hair transplant to simply eliminate the PATTERN (receded temples and circle bald spot on the crown) and enjoy it for as long as possible, then buzz it shorter as it thins out (with possible future transplants and SMP to fill in any future bald spots). The jury is still out on the results, but we'll see if this plan works.

You have a good shaped head and beard. I am similar to you in this regard in both hair loss pattern and even hair type/color. I also do not take any meds. I am trying for a full, front to back, hair transplant in two sessions. I just did the first one in April. I am planning for the crown session early next year. My plan is to do FUE, get full coverage, but with the understanding that it won't be original density. Wearing hair short or longer in certain areas can work well, if you know how to style it. As my native hairs continue to fall out over time, I can buzz the head on a two-guard with clippers, and sport a nicer buzzed look (with a better framed hairline). I'll eventually post photos on here. We'll see how it goes.