Hazy

Shouldn't expect any hair growth in the transplanted follicles, should expect them to shed over 2 weeks then rest. Temporary growth MIGHT happen in a rare few, but this also might just be the hair shaft being expelled by the follicle and giving the appearance of growth.

You'd be a great candidate. The only consideration is I'd think your hairline where it is now and its natural appearance might be better than a transplanted hairline and the risk for a unnatural appearance (thinner than surrounding hair, scarring at implanting site, etc.). It's your face so it's up to you, but maybe spend the money on chemical peel, retinoids, skin care, teeth, etc, would probably get more aesthetic bang for your buck.

Sapphire blades are nice for making the sites, but they likely aren't significantly better than single use metal ones. The difference is sapphire stays sharp longer and the tip is fewer atoms thick, making the cuts less damaging to the tissue and possibly decreasing healing time. Is this actually clinically significant? Probably not.

Minoxidil and other aids (Finasteride) are even more important after transplant, otherwise you run the risk of accelerating loss behind the transplant line.

The issue with curly hair like yours is it continues to curl under the skin which makes it difficult to punch out without slicing the follicular unit in half under the skin, ruining the graft. Not to mention adjacent hairs will curl in different directions. To combat this, the punch operator would use a larger punch (1mm instead of 0.8mm) and may need more attempts. Each attempt will leave a scar and possibly ruin the follicle that is left behind. All that said, you likely needed more attempts with larger punches, and such you will have more scar. You will need to wait for it to grow out to judge, since a lot of the sliced/missed punches due to curl will likely grow back.

Scars tend to itch, whether it's from the donor or recipient site. As with any itching, don't scratch so hard as to break the skin, otherwise it should be fine.

Also the price seems a little steep 🙃

If you consider Minoxidil's mechanism of action as an angiodilator to improve blood flow to the follicle, then potentially a high-tension scalp would have chronically decreased blood flow. It's possible that it contributes and maybe that's why scalp massage or carboxytherapy have possible benefits. It's not likely a MAJOR contributor, but if you'd like to do 15 minute scalp massages daily for the rest of your life then that's one option, otherwise it's going to be a hard time improving your scalp tension.

Blow dry your hair in the morning after the minoxidil (wait 30 minutes) and follow that with Xfusion hair fibers or hair fibers of your choosing (using a spray adapter head), you'll look basically full hair at that point.

FUT is a good idea if you have significant hair loss in the family (NW 6 or 7) since yes technically you can harvest more efficiently, BUT, you have to be OK with leaving your hair roughly the length in the back it is now or maybe a bit shorter. It's really surgeon and patient dependent on how the scar turns out, some people just make wider scars due to collagen laxity or tight scalps, some surgeons just make big scars because their technique needs work. I'd probably recommend going with a FUE since it's easier to hide and you don't have to worry about the scar, honestly it's a tough decision since you're trying to predict your future hair loss (or future hair loss breakthroughs). 4,000 grafts would get you started covering the front and bridge, but I would leave the vertex of the scalp for last or a later procedure. At that number you might be left with a 5cm circumference circle on the vertex that isn't touched, but they may be able to fill around that somewhat in the first procedure (outside of the circle first). One thing going for you is you have a good looking donor right now, the trick will be finding a good medical therapy to STOP further hair loss. If you can do that then you can transplant to good results.

Hello, 1. Norwood 5, maybe heading towards a 6 depending on your family history. 2. You have a decent amount of thinning on the sides and the vertex bald spot is fairly low. I think if they get 3,000 from the donor area at once that would be impressive, they would need to stay fairly narrow in the back to avoid the thinning vertex or retrograde alopecia. Definitely do two procedures, maybe 2,500-3,000 grafts at a time. In the mean time you should be on finasteride oral and minoxidil oral (or topical) as your doctor sees fit, maybe you can recover some of the thinning. Microneedling once a week wouldn't hurt (1.5mm depth). While it would be super great to get 4-5K grafts at a time you need to consider: Grafts don't live forever outside of the scalp and need to be implanted relatively soon, the timing depends on the holding solution they use Planting grafts too close together runs the risk of compromising the blood supply and losing some grafts Because of this, it's likely better to do two reasonably sized procedures (2,500) than one MEGA procedure. I'm curious to see what others think.

Judging by the lot # maybe it's manufacture date was march of 2022 but who knows. Typically minoxidil will last 1-2 years in solution (assuming a vehicle of polyethylene glycol, alcohol, and water like basically every solution is) but I'm not sure what effect dutasteride has on the minoxidil. Worst case scenario it would lose potency.