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zepruska

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Everything posted by zepruska

  1. This is what is usually referred to as the "ugly duckling" part of hair transplant recovery and happens in almost every case. It's alarming and frustrating but don't worry! They'll grow back 🙂
  2. Progress is definitely noticeable! And your donor is looking good again, I'm sure you're relieved. 😁
  3. I've also gone through quite the shed in September and October after getting my HT in February. It is shedding in both the recipient areas and areas that were not operated on however so I'm guessing (hoping!) that it's just due to stress and will bounce back soon.
  4. You were definitely blessed with a terrific donor area but also the works looks impeccably clean, congratulations!
  5. I came here to say this. IMO 1200 grafts is not nearly enough to justify a FUT. OP, can you elaborate on this part a little bit?
  6. The results he's been posting here have been impressive, no doubt. I wish we had more in-depth patient reviews of him though!
  7. OK, I took a couple better photos with more consistent lighting and hair length. As you can see, things are once again lookin thin at the hairline and slightly before it. This is about 7.5 months after my initial procedure. I asked Dr. Nader about this, and here's what he said: "Some patients will notice some synchronized shedding, but it always grows back. You are correct in the anagen synchronization causing shedding in a certain area of the scalp. If the hair loss would have been caused by other factors, there would be a more generalized hair loss, and overall thinning, which is not the case. I am almost certain that the hair will grow back. Suggested treatments involve oral multivitamins with biotin, a good healthy diet, and topical treatments such as minoxidil and nizoral shampoo. Any of these or a combination of them should help you regain density slightly faster." I am doing all of this, including an increased dosage of oral minoxidil and MSM capsules. Thanks again guys for pointing out angen synchronization because Dr. Nader seemed to agree that this was the culprit. I guess I'll just keep on keeping on! 👍
  8. Completely normal as far as I know. It took at least 3 months for me to truly start gaining ground after my procedure.
  9. Good luck dude! He is very transparent about his own methods and values so I'm sure if you bring up all of these concerns to him during the pre-procedure consultation he'll give you an honest and measured take.
  10. Hey man, thanks for the fast reply. Someone on Reddit shared the same video with me so I'm glad to hear this isn't totally unheard of. Re: the lighting, I know it's different. Those are the photos I sent to Dr. Nader specifically so I could explain my concerns to him. Thank you for the tips though, I appreciate it!
  11. Seven months post-up OK, things were going great for a while. My hairline and crown were both filling in slowly but surely, the redness on my hairline had dissipated, and the nodular acne on my donor area was no longer an issue. Here's my progress from August (six months): I have, however, been losing ground since around the beginning of September or so. My hairline and crown have thinned considerably, and there's also a thinner spot above one of my temples that wasn't there before. Here are a couple of photos from today, and I think you'll agree that they are not as good as the ones from last month: I texted Dr. Nader about this, and he said that sometimes he sees delayed shedding in transplant patients due to hair growth cycles and that it should regrow in a few months. He also told me to keep up my regimen of dutasteride, oral minoxidil, MSM, biotin, and multivitamins, and to try to reduce the amount of stress in my everyday life. I know that you can't truly judge a transplant until about a year after the procedure, which is totally reasonable. I am just a little concerned that I was seeing steady, linear progress as of last month, and now it feels like I'm heading backwards. Any advice or reassurance would be greatly appreciated. 🙃
  12. Five months post-op Apologies for skipping my fourth month update, but there wasn't much happening. Now there is! I'm attaching two photos; the first is from early June and the second is from early July. I'm definitely noticing increased density in the hairline area, and while there is still a long way to go, I am noticeably above baseline now. As you can see, the redness is also starting to go away. Progress is a little slower on my crown though so I am holding off on posting a photo of that so as not to clutter the thread too much.
  13. Three months post-op I've been back at baseline for a while now, maybe even below. As you can see, the transplanted hairs have completely fallen out, with skin redness the only clue that they were ever there at all. I have been continuing my regimen of dutasteride, oral minoxidil, biotin, and MSM, and while it was a little frustrating at first to watch my density fade, I have no choice but to continue being patient and hope things kick into high gear sometime within the next three months. Also, I have been getting nodular acne on my donor area, which was easily addressed with acne scrub (salicylic acid) from Walmart. Applying it every other day in the shower seems to do the trick. I have not gotten any acne on the transplant area.
  14. This is shaping up to be an amazing result, congratulations man!
  15. Hey guys, I understand the concerns but I must tell you that I felt safe at all times before, during, and after my procedure. The driver Dr. Nader works with does this regularly and they seem to have a solid working relationship, so it's not like it's some random taxi driver taking you across the border and back. The area is definitely a little run-down but I didn't feel like it was unsafe. Dr. Nader's office itself is a little under-the-radar so it's not like you'll be drawing a ton of attention to yourself either.
  16. Thanks for posting this Melvin. His progress from months 4-6 was incredible!
  17. One month post-op I'm starting to see the transplanted hairs shed. It's especially noticeable in the hairline, where I'm about back to where I started, except now you can see red skin where the grafts were placed. Expected, of course. All I can do is continue my regimen of supplements and medications and be patient. On the plus side, the donor area is looking awesome IMO. There is still some slight patchiness but I don't think the average person would be able to tell anything has been done there now. I'm probably going to get a haircut next weekend so we'll see how it looks after that. All in all, I noticed that recently I forgot I even got a hair transplant, which I guess is good! There is no pain, discomfort, or itching. Hopefully I can avoid the worst of the ugly duckling phase since Dr. Nader did not shave my entire head, as I don't think anyone notices or cares about the redness on my hairline. Thanks y'all!
  18. Two weeks post-op I'm very pleased with how things are going, though I haven't entered the "ugly duckling" phase yet. Not much visible difference in the grafted areas. The illusion of added density that the grafted hairs provides makes me very optimistic of what the final results will look like after they've grown back on their own. The donor area, meanwhile, looks like it still has a little way to go. I don't think anyone who hasn't gotten a hair transplant themselves would notice though. It's a little itchy (hence the redness) but there is no other pain or discomfort. I just ran out of the baby shampoo Dr. Nader gave me this morning, and he gave me the green light to go back to my usual Head & Shoulders + Nizoral (twice per week) regimen. Also, a few days ago I got a prescription for oral minoxidil from my dermatologist. I explained that I recently underwent a FUE procedure (I thought it important to mention the specific type of procedure), who I had it with, and how it went, and that in the future I would like to take minoxidil orally rather than topically. After telling me of all the potential side effects, she wrote me prescription for 2.5 mg of oral minoxidil, though I've been instructed to take 1.25 mg per day for a couple months to see how my body adjusts and to ensure that I won't have any side effects. If all goes well then I'll get bumped up to 2.5 mg per day; needless to say, I'm very excited about this (I really don't like the greasy feeling of topical minoxidil), and through GoodRx it is actually cheaper for me to do it this way than it is for the usual Kirkland topical route. Again, I know this isn't a very exciting thread compared to many others on this forum, so thank you for sticking with me.
  19. Thank you man! I am very pleasantly surprised at how my donor is bouncing back. Yes, that's the document I received. It's possible he raised his prices but those are IMO still very very affordable for the quality of care you'll receive. I guess one thing I neglected to mention in my original post is that my consultation was last October, so things with his pricing might have changed since then.
  20. Hi everyone, I wanted to share my recent experience with Dr. Luis Nader in Reynosa, Mexico. I have been browsing this forum and the Hair Transplants subreddit for a long time and both were instrumental in helping me make my choice, so a huge thank-you to everyone up front because without this community, my procedure would probably never have happened. My background I'm a 29-year old (30 in June) male who used to have very thick hair. My crown began thinning and my hairline began receding when I was around 22 or 23. I have been using topical minoxidil since 2017, oral finasteride since 2018, then later switched to dutasteride in 2020, and while this regimen yielded noticeable results in terms of stopping my balding, I had clearly reached a plateau where my hairline would never be fully restored and my crown would always be thinner than the rest of my hair -- frustrating to say the least. I figured that a hair transplant was the only way to continue. I started doing my research and narrowed my options to Turkey and Mexico. I'm not exactly rolling in money at the moment (any reputable clinic in the United States was basically out of the question) and I found several clinics in both countries that, through lots of anecdotal evidence shared on this forum and others, seemed to be good choices for my budget. I eventually settled on Mexico and chose Dr. Nader (I also considered Dr. Cortez in Tijuana) because I liked how the travel across the border was included in the package. I don't leave the country often so this was important to me. The consultation Here's where I got lucky! I found Dr. Nader's phone number on the internet and decided to reach out via text because I had read that communication with his office via email can be slow. The number was indeed Dr. Nader and he was very polite about redirecting me to his website to fill out the consultation form, which I guess is the "right" way to do it. I felt bad about it but the process was very simple; just a few questions about my background, my health habits, and my history of hair loss, and of course some photos of my hair and what my goals were. A few days later, his assistant Brenda reached out to me via email and presented me with their pricing options. The more grafts you get, the less Dr. Nader charges per graft. Brenda said that according to my photos, I'd need between 2,500-3,000 grafts (more on this later), which came out to just over $7,000 total; I informed Brenda of my choice and she then sent me a list of dates they had available. I settled on Friday, February 17 so I could have the weekend to travel and recover. Dr. Nader himself then emailed me and went over the basics, such as payment, transportation, and hotels. They have a partnership of sorts with the Cambria in McAllen, TX which I took them up on: $95 per night plus meal vouchers, which would be deducted from the cost of my procedure anyway. Here are photos of my hairline and crown prior to the procedure. Note the unevenness up front, and please, no comments about my gigantic forehead! 😁 The procedure I flew into McAllen the night before. I waited at the airport for about 10 minutes before a driver picked me up and took me to the Cambria. It is a very nice and modern hotel in a quiet, peaceful area; I'm from Chicago, so needless to say the warmth, the palm trees, and the general ambiance was quite the culture shock for me! The following morning, Dr. Nader's driver picked me up around 7:30 and took me across the border into Reynosa. As other Dr. Nader patients have noted, you do not need a passport to get into Mexico, only to get back into the United States. Prior to the operation, I was asked to fill out some basic paperwork, which again asked about my health habits, as well as my consent for the clinic to take photos. They gave the option to blur out my face, which I readily accepted. The clinic itself is pretty quaint, but it is welcoming, clean, and seems up-to-date to me, so I had absolutely no qualms there. Dr. Nader then took me into his office so we could discuss the procedure. This was, simply put, a mind-easing experience. He is a soft-spoken, down-to-earth man who asked me a lot of questions about myself and my goals, and fully answered any questions I had about the procedure, the medications, and the post-op instructions. When I mentioned I had switched from finasteride to dutasteride, he explained the difference to me while offering his own artist's impression of the mechanism of action, which told me all I needed to know about how invested he is in the scientific aspect of heir loss! He also told stories of his own hair loss and restoration journey and of hair restoration conferences he speaks at around the world. When he examined my hair up close, he immediately noted how dense my donor area was (that was a relief!) and that I probably wouldn't need as many grafts as initially thought. He explained that while he *could* pack grafts in very densely, the thickness of my donor area would probably result in many triple- and quadruple-hair grafts, and he didn't want to risk damaging the native hair that was still intact. I definitely appreciated this! He also used a microscope-type tool (I have no clue what it's actually called so someone will have to help me out here) that enlarged pictures of my scalp on his laptop, where I could see that perhaps I wasn't as bald as I initially thought I was. After that, he mapped out the graft sites on my hairline and crown and offered to leave my native hair intact instead of shaving it. I told him that it wouldn't be an issue at all if he wanted to shave my head, but he insisted that it wouldn't be an issue. As for the procedure itself, things went very smoothly. First came the extraction, which took maybe an hour and a half. I laid down on my stomach on a bench while Dr. Nader extracted the grafts from my donor area, which was completely painless as he and his techs gave me plenty of local anesthetic. It wasn't the most comfortable experience, but there was no pain whatsoever, just a plucking feeling here and there. Lunch was tacos. Not much to say here other than add me to the list of satisfied customers. 😋 The actual grafting took perhaps 3 hours. It was no less comfortable than sitting in a dentist's chair (probably more so, honestly). Once again, Dr. Nader and his team used lots of local anesthetic, and while the hairline grafting was a tad painful, Dr. Nader was always willing to pause and apply more anesthetic when asked. The crown grafting, on the other hand, didn't hurt a single bit. During this process, I watched The Last Dance (go Bulls!) on Netflix, which definitely helped pass the time. The post-op After the procedure, Dr. Nader and his team bandaged me up and escorted me back to his office, where we discussed the results: Single: 207 Double: 304 Triple: 653 Quadruple: 171 Total: 1335 This was, obviously, not even close to as many grafts as I had anticipated, but during our pre-op discussion I told him that I would rather keep things conservative. Through my experience and those I've seen from others, I get the impression that Dr. Nader is not one to over-harvest or pack too densely if he doesn't need to, and he explained to me that due to the thickness of my donor area, he actually had to go out of his way to find singles to put into my hairline -- a good thing, of course! We then went over the basic post-op instructions, where he gave me antibiotics, pain medication, and anti-inflammatory medication, and a comprehensive print-out of directions on when to take the meds, how to care for my scalp in the following days, and how to shower. Once again, he took the time to answer any questions I had, clearly wanting to make sure I was comfortable with how to take care of myself. He also encouraged me to text him with progress photos, which I thought was a nice touch. Now, here is what really sealed the deal for me, and ultimately why I would not hesitate to recommend Dr. Nader. When we discussed payment, he said that I came to him anticipating to pay for a 2,500-3,000 graft procedure, but only got 1,335 grafts. So he charged me for the 1,335 grafts at the 3,000 graft rate, which came out to just under $3,000. Yes, you read that correctly. No, I couldn't believe it either. I asked him "are you sure??" about a billion times, to which he waved me off and said that he's the "worst salesman in the business." I have to agree with that, but he's also a hell of a surgeon, and an incredibly ethical doctor. I felt privileged to have worked with him. Here are two post-op photos I took the day after the procedure, and a photo of the donor area after my first shower: The recovery (nine days post-op) Dr. Nader's post-op instructions were very clear and also very reasonable. I was to sleep on my back for the two nights following the procedure, and for the next week, I was to wash my head by pouring water over it with a cup and gently massaging it with baby shampoo, avoiding any sort of water pressure. He told me loose-fitting hats and beanies are perfectly acceptable and that he's never had a patient lose a graft because of a hat before. His rule of thumb: if it's looser than a rubber band, you can wear it after your procedure. This didn't worry me as much after I learned that he wouldn't have to shave my entire scalp, but it was still nice to know. As for my regimen, I have resumed taking dutasteride, but have not yet resumed the topical minoxidil. Dr. Nader advised I wait a couple of weeks, which I am more than OK with. I reached out to my dermatologist to see if they would prescribe me oral minoxidil instead; Dr. Nader shared his own story about that with me, saying that it helped him grow "beautiful" hair on his hands, lol. I have also added 1000 mg MSM and 1000 mcg Biotin daily until my grafted hair sheds and regrows on its own. I am now nine days after my procedure, and most of the scabbing seems to have dispersed. I also got a haircut (Dr. Nader OK'd this) to blend what was shaved with what was left alone, and I think things are looking pretty good! The conclusion I could not be happier with how my procedure with Dr. Nader went. He's a very honest, down-to-earth man with a great sense of humor who I can tell really cares about his patients. I'm still very, very early in my journey, of course, and am awaiting the dreaded "ugly duckling" phase, though I'm hoping that my conservative number of grafts will make it bearable and that I'll be, at worst, back to how I was before the procedure for a few months before I start seeing the results I was looking for. I know this is not an enormous procedure comparatively speaking, and my photos are not as detailed (or graphic, lol) as others who have shared their experiences. I wanted, however, to give back to the community that helped me make this choice, and to ultimately give another vote of confidence to Dr. Nader, who I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone. Thank you for reading! 🥰
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