YodaHead

Mother’s side!

Your donor area doesn’t look great, but i think you can go with a very conservative hairline and get enough hair from back and sides to get some density on the front and mid-scalp. I don’t think you have enough to cover the crown fully since the bald area looks big, plus as you said there’s not much hope from beard or chest. You will also have to stay on minoxidil and finasteride to keep the existing hair for as long as possible. I feel this can be done if you go to the right surgeon.

Looks neat! Should have a solid density!

The responses so far definitely helps clarify a few doubts i have had. As someone who is relatively new to researching hairloss, it was very easy to simply think that everyone has to take finasteride if they are going to have a HT. In fact, most of the videos and articles i came across just stop at this high-level instruction, without getting into the details/specific scenarios of when/to whom it is less helpful vs. very helpful vs. may not even be helpful. Ofcourse, there is not going to be a clear/definitive answer, but for people that are going to commit taking such medication forever need to understand this detail (of where they fall on the spectrum) to better evaluate the risks vs rewards.

That makes sense. Thanks guys!

No doubt finasteride protects existing hair; however, is there any definite study on whether it helps the transplanted hair (assuming the transplated hair are taken from a “safe” donor area and/or beard and/or chest)? If someone is full-on NW 7 and gets a transplant using safe donor areas—will he really benefit from finasteride—considering hair from safe donor zone are anyways dht resistant. thoughts?

@From Brazil - Hello there! Would love to see an update on your result!

I understand that HT surgeons do not prefer beard/chest as a primary donor area mainly because of the difference in the growth life-cycle and texture of the hair as compared to the head hair. HOWEVER, does anyone know/have researched if there is also substantial difference in the rate of survivability of hair taken from beard/chest as compared to head hair? Basically, if total 300 grafts (let’s say single hair) are transplanted—100 from back of the head (safe zone), 100 from beard, and 100 from chest—then is it fair to say that more head hair will grow out then the ones taken from beard/chest?

You cannot go wrong with either Dr Sethi or Pittella. Talk to both and see who you prefer after the initial consultation.

Look into Dr. Pittella in brazil. He gets awesome results for NW6/7 cases.

No need to lower the hairline at all. Also, you don’t need a HT at the moment. It’s a different thing if you ‘want’ it.

Looks very good! Natural and dense enough! As and when the crown is done—it will look exceptional! What meds are you taking? If any.

Grafts appear a bit too far apart. It does not match to the density of your existing hair immediately behind the transplants. Of course, add to that, the unnatural lines of transplant—all together makes this a poor result. Does it look any better with dry hair?

This should be the crash course for anyone starting to research hairloss and treatments.

I wouldn’t. What you currently have going looks pretty good and natural. 1. Temple’s don’t always look natural, mainly because natural hair in that region are typically very fine—which is very difficult to replicate. 2. It especially does not add much if you are anyways going to keep it like in the photo. 3. Save every last of your precious/finite donor hair for future needs in other areas. Not saying that it is a bad idea if you really want it, but I wouldn’t do it if I was in the same situation.

The work looks just so clean and precise. I am betting on an excellent result! Also, Dr. Pittella has two packages—one in which he does everything including the implantation (Prime package), and another in which he does everything except the implantation (VIP package). Which one did you pick? Keep us posted. Cheers!

@jaybr6 - Theoretically it should be doable since you would be inserting new hair follicles with the hair transplant. It would be helpful to hear it from a professional though. But you will also need to think about other factors: 1. Head hair may not be of the same texture/thickness and the difference may be visible. How about taking from other parts of your beard and spread it out?—just floating an idea. Not sure how practical it is. 2. If you do decide to use your head hair as donor, can you be certain that you will not need/want these precious/finite hair for covering male pattern baldness in future? 3. You might want to find a surgeon who have had the experience of doing beard transplants—rather than finding a surgeon that has great head HT experience but 0 beard transplant.

Looks promising! Keep us upsated on your progress. Good luck 👍🏼

At a 2-month mark, this looks pretty good and on track for a very good result. Keep us posted. Good luck 👍

I understand that starting finesteride earlier is always beneficial; however, does it really matter (in terms of long term HT results) whether you start now and delay the HT vs. have the HT now and immediately start the fin? For e.g - Person A starts fin in Jan-2023, have HT in Jan-2024, and remain on fin. VS. - Person B does the HT in Jan-2023, and then start fin immediately. Now, if we are to evaluate both persons in Jan-2025, everything else being equal, do we expect that Person A will have better results? How about in Jan-2026? Long term?

@GoliGoliGoli- Thank you. Yes, I definitely see your point. If i understand correctly, you are saying that hair used from outside of the safe donor areas will ultimately be affected by DHT and may require additional HT? What if i am able to get enough grafts from the safe donor area + beard + chest? (a big IF)?. Also, wanted to point out that although my head appears large in pictures, it really is smaller than average head size—this may/may not matter.

For me, I dropped the idea of HS because: 1. Confidence - The idea of wearing a HS, knowing that most people looking at my head immediately know that it is a HS would definitely hurt my confidence. Now, how true my assumption and fear is—I don’t know. 2. Practicality - I sweat a lot on my head, especially when eating spicy food—which is what i eat everyday. Plus, I exercise every other day. Honestly, i don’t know if it’s a big deal but i just thought it will not be very comfortable and will feel like have a hat/cap on all the time. I could be wrong but yet another assumption. 3. Cost - I am in my mid 30s and the long term cost of HS is not that small.

I visited a dermatologist last week. He checked and confirmed that my hairloss is a typical male pattern baldness and nothing else. He thinks i would be a good candidate for HT. He got me started on following meds and suggested that I wait for a few months and then go for HT. He got me started on oral minoxidil 2.5, AND a topical compound, which is basically a single solution containing mix of minoxidil + Finesteride + Tretinoin. I never knew that there are special pharmacies that create compound mix based on doctor prescription. I have a call setup with Eugenix tomorrow to further discuss HT options. Eugenix and Pittella are the two i am leaning towards based on research so far. Depending on how the conversation goes with them + the cost….I will decide. In any case, I have definitely made up my mind about getting HT.

@Chiku You have had quite the journey! Looking forward to the latest pics and wishing you the best.

@markrahim You mentioned you had FUT done in past. Did the transplanted hair not survive or are those the one we currently see at the top? If HT is an option for you, then you will need to work with a good surgeon (eg Eugenix or Pittella) to figure out the math about availability of donor and expectation. You will have to use beard and/or chest hair for sure in any case.