Thank you for your thoughtful response and advice. Unfortunately it was just a little late because I had another consultation with Dr. Laorwong and paid a booking deposit just a few hours before your post haha.
You are correct that I'm pressuring myself to get it done before I leave, but it's not really an impulse decision for me. My first HT consult was 10 years ago, and honestly I should've gotten on meds back then. That being said, I can't really picture that they'll make that much of a difference in the front as my hairline has been gone for so long. I already know that I'll need a 2nd procedure in a year for the crown, so maybe the meds will help for that. It feels like if I don't get the surgery and then also don't experience significant regrowth, it will be a much bigger regret for me in a year for my hair to be in the same state as it is now... especially if I'm not able to come back to Thailand at that point.
I've seen many people here and elsewhere recommend Dr. Laorwong and say he is an excellent choice of surgeon with solid results, so I don't think he's necessarily the "wrong" surgeon. The current plan is a combo procedure, 2000 grafts FUT + 2500 FUE, done on 1 day. The choice of FUT+FUE was Dr. Path's recommendation because I have a roll of excess skin on the back of my head that theoretically can be improved with a strip surgery. From my research it also appears that utilizing both methods yields the highest amount of grafts from the donor, as currently I need about 7k grafts for full coverage (shown in pic with the gold ring). Dr. Laorwong said that he has done many combo procedures.
I was happy to have finally made a decision on this, and it seemed like a good one. Now I'm having doubts based on what you said. I'm not sure if the clinic would return my ~$900 deposit or not if I cancelled with them... do you still think it's a bad decision to proceed with the surgery in light of the additional details I've laid out?