Odysseus

How did payment work? You obviously didn't schedule and prepay for an odd number like 11,556 grafts. 😄 Did you settle on a target number of grafts that you paid for before the surgery and then you had to pay for all additional grafts after the surgery? Or were any grafts over the number you agreed to free?

I wonder what causes Pittella's scabs to stay on 11+ days (he predicts about 14 days), while Eugenix scabs seem to fall of on day 7 or 8. 🤔 Not that it matters. I'm just curious about what is different. At what point could you safely wear a hat?

Yeah, I noticed the price difference between what you posted and what I was given. That's a helluva rate of inflation in just one month! When a person is talking about 6000 - 8500+ grafts, the difference of a dollar per graft is a huge deal. I think I read that the current annual inflation rate in Brazil is less than 6%, so this price jump is 5 times the inflation rate. But, it's ultimately a supply vs demand issue, I guess. Dr Pittella's practice is getting to be more well-known and popular, so he knows he can ask more.

To be fair, Dr Pitella's clinic also has more than one package and it also determines the doctor that works on you: 1) VIP PACKAGE (MAIN SURGICAL STEPS DONE BY DR PITTELLA) *DR. PITTELLA: - HAIR LINE DESIGN - PRE-INCISIONS (DENSITY, ANGLES ETC) - CRUCIAL EXTRACTION (GRAFTS FOR TEMPLES AND HAIRLINE) - ORCHESTRATE IMPLANTATION *JUNIOR DOCTOR: -EXTRACTIONS MOSTLY DONE BY JUNIOR DOCTOR -IMPLANTATION MOSTLY DONE BY JUNIOR DOCTOR => PER GRAFT VALLUE: 4 USD/GRAFT 2) PRIME PACKAGE (ALL DAY SURGERY DONE PERSONALLY BY DR PITTELLA) *DR. PITTELLA: - HAIR LINE DESIGN - PRE-INCISIONS (DENSITY, ANGLES, DIRECTIONS) - EXTRACTION OF ALL GRAFTS - ORCHESTRATE IMPLANTATION - IMPLANTATION MOSTLY DONE BY DR PITTELLA. => PER GRAFT VALLUE: 5 USD/GRAFT There are also two options for those packages: ***OPTION 1*** -HT FUE in 1 Super-session (>6000 grafts): -Objective: To cover and/or increase density on needed areas. -Number of sessions (days of surgery): ONE DAY ONLY -Total number of grafts: >6000 ***OPTION 2*** -HT FUE in 2 Giga-sessions (4500+4000 grafts): -Objective: To cover and/or increase density on needed areas. -Number of sessions (days): TWO DAYS -Total number of grafts: 8500 I personally don't have any objections to packages like this as long as the doctor that works on me is skilled. It makes sense that a doctor that is in high demand would charge more for his services. By having packages, people who could otherwise not afford a high quality HT has an option.

Okay, here is what I have discovered about where things stand taking oral Finasteride and also 5 mg Tadalafil daily. Out of sheer luck (If you believe in that sort of thing) my Tadalafil shipment arrived early, just hours before the young lady was supposed to come to my house. I promptly popped four pills (giving me a full 20 mg dose, standard to help with erections) and assumed my troubles were over! And on top of having the Tadalafil, it had been 48 hours since I last took any Finasteride...so maybe that would help lessen the side effects. The result? Mr. Friendly was only at about 70% efficiency. 😒 We still had a great time, but, on the inside, I was NOT happy that I wasn't able to give her my best work. Then she came back a few days later and I repeated the 20 mg dose (but now built on a platform of 5 mg a day in the intervening days and not having taken any Finasteride in 5 days). Mr. Friendly was at about 75 - 80%, so I was still disappointed. I want her to get the full experience (thankfully, she is very happy with my other tricks. If that weren't the case, I would be pretty devastated. This is a girl I have wanted for quite a while and she's 20 years younger than I am). So, now I have decided I'm going to follow Melvin's suggestion and split up the Finasteride pills and take them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If that doesn't fix things, I'll have to bite the bullet and get the Xyon topical Finasteride...but that $100/month price tag is painful. But I need my dick to work properly and I want hair, so I have to find something that allows for both.

Murray Avenue Apothecary. I don't want to come across like I'm throwing them under the bus or criticizing them in any way, because I'm not. I always found them to be very helpful and efficient when I reached out to them. And it is very difficult to tell how well a drug is working when its job is to slow down hairloss - because we can't peer into another universe where we didn't take it and compare those results with ours. 🤷‍♂️ But my sense is that it didn't do as good a job as the oral Dut did. I had no noticeable side effects while on the topical Dut.

Oh, I have no doubt whatsoever that the issue is the Finasteride. It did the same thing to me when I tried it 20 years ago (so I switched to oral Dutasteride, which didn't have that side effect). What I'm saying is that the Tadalafil removes the limp dick issue. I was waking up with morning wood on a regular basis despite the Finasteride. If I had the Tadalafil in hand, I wouldn't be in this position. That said, I am leaning toward getting back on oral Dutasteride. The only reason I got on Finasteride again is because Eugenix recommended it so strenuously and I thought I'd give it another try. Until the July switch to oral Finasteride, I had been using topical Dutasteride for years...but I don't think it worked very well. It's my fault that I ran out of Tadalafil. I should have been paying closer attention to how many were left. Now I'm in a bind because the young woman has invited herself to spend the night tomorrow. I was hoping to put off her next visit until late next week when my order might be here...but I'm obviously not going to tell her no. But the situation sucks. And what makes it even worse is that the quickest way to ensure you don't get an erection is to worry about whether you will get an erection! Uuugh. 🤦‍♂️

Thanks for mentioning this. I started oral finasteride at the end of June. I wasn't noticing any sexual side effects at all, but I was also taking 5mg Cialis (Tadalafil) daily for its general health benefits. I ran out of Tadalafil recently and I'm currently waiting for my resupply shipment. Last night I was with a woman that should have had me as hard as a rock, but my dick was worthless. Fortunately, things still went very well (I played it off as "No, tonight is all about you"😅). My mind has been racing all day trying to figure out if my issue was because I'm out of Tadalafil or because of a Finasteride side effect that took 90 days to kick in. I feel a lot better having read your comment. Those pills had better get here soon! By the way, I don't think my dick issue was a "nocebo" case. For those readers who don't know, "A nocebo effect is said to occur when negative expectations of the patient regarding a treatment cause the treatment to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would have." Believe me, I didn't expect Mr. Friendly to let me down the way he did. 🤦‍♂️😄

Dr Barghouthi, I'm sorry that you have to put up with negative attitudes from some. One thing I have observed is that such negativity is unavoidable on the internet. A YouTube video of someone saving puppies from a burning building would inevitably get a certain number of downvotes. Whenever some researcher finally cures cancer, there will be someone in the comment section saying, "Yeah, well what took you so long? All this proves is that you could have done it sooner if you had worked harder." The internet has some negative, unreasonable people. But most people aren't that bad. 🙂👍 Thanks for what you're doing!

I'm sure no one is waiting with bated breathed for any of these pre-procedure updates, but my plan for this thread is to track my entire experience so that others get as many answers as possible to their "What happens if/when...?" questions. So... ...I have postponed my Nov 7th, 2023 procedure. I hated to do it, but I think it is for the best. I started taking oral finasteride and oral minoxidil last month and have seen a lot of shedding since then. I don't want to have a procedure done until all of that settles out. That won't be until February at the soonest, and it would actually be next June if I want to give the meds the full year I have seen recommended. I haven't made a firm decision yet on the new date, but I am leaning towards June. That seems like the wisest thing to do so that Dr. Das can see exactly what she has to deal with. It also lets me see just how far I get with the meds alone. As for Rolston and Eugenix, they were perfectly fine with my decision. There was no "Are you sure?" sales pressure. They were great. I had already paid the non-refundable downpayment, but that downpayment will just be used toward whichever date I choose in the future. So that's the latest news.

Thanks for your advice and insight, gentlemen! 👍

What you will look like depends on what you mean by "partially shaved". Your scabs should be gone by day 7 or 8, but you will probably be red (like a sunburn) in the recipient area. The good thing is that the recipient area is small and on the back of your head. Get there early enough that you get to pick your seat. Try not to sit in the front row where the whole room is looking at the back of your head. Sit in the back or stand in the back corner of the room whenever you aren't giving your presentation.

I started oral Finasteride on June 30th and oral Minoxidil on July 25th. One or both have caused me a significant amount of shedding. While that does suck for now, I take it as a good sign that the hair will look much better when it grows back in. Here's my dilemma: I have a major HT procedure (5500 FUEs) scheduled for Nov 7th. Would it be wise to postpone that for a few months and let the hair grow back in so the doctor has an accurate picture of what she is really dealing with? Or does the significant shedding not matter? Thoughts?

I completely understand the obsessive compulsion to watch the hair grow and worry, but when they say "Give it a year", give it a year. Not 6 months. Not 7 months. Not 10 months. A year.

😄 🤦‍♂️

Having read through this thread and the various opinions presented (some fair to Dr Sethi and some less fair, imo), I guess I'll toss mine on the fire. I have no doubt that Dr. Sethi believed he could accomplish what he said he could accomplish. And none of us knows yet why things turned out the way they did. It might have nothing to do with Dr Sethi and his work. It might be biological. We. Don't. Know. I can't help but roll my eyes when I read guys say things like, "I could have told you at a glance that your case was hopeless." Is that based on their years of surgical training and experience? 🙄 I think it's likely that, had @Gatsby and @Zoomstergotten a bad result, they would have told them that their cases were obviously hopeless and Dr. Sethi was wrong to try to help them. But, since Dr. Sethi gave them near miraculous results... 🤷‍♂️ Now, having spoken in Dr Sethi's defense, I have to add that I think it's likely that Eugenix has hurt themselves, not because of Tony's results, but because of how they responded to him. Part of Eugenix's excellent reputation is built on their skill, but part of it also rests on their often-praised customer service. Story after story after story here in the forum recounts how wonderful the Eugenix team is at taking care of those who have put their trust in them. It is a huge selling point. I think every prospective patient has, somewhere in the back of his mind, the question, "What if something goes seriously wrong?" The last message any service business wants to send is "If something goes wrong, we will treat you as a lower priority than we treat those patients who haven't had their procedures yet." That would be a terrible message - but, based on Tony's account of events (which Eugenix characterizes differently, but doesn't really dispute), that is the message that is being sent, imo. I would be willing to bet that some people who planned to go to Eugenix have put their plans on hold because of the Eugenix response to Tony's case. Again, not because of his result (which, again, we don't understand yet), but because the response seems almost indifferent or unconcerned. I'll even admit that, though I am genuinely confident that everything will go great with my Eugenix procedure, I have a little more hesitation now than I did. Enough that even I started to consider Dr. Pittella. I'm not to the point of abandoning my Eugenix plans yet, but the thought has occurred to me...and Brazil is a lot closer than India. But, for now, I still prefer Eugenix. (After reading this, we'll see if they still prefer me! 😅) Having offended both sides now, I am going to raise my shields and await the incoming photon torpedoes! 😄

Thanks for the great write-up of your experience! As you know, they are very helpful!

This was my reaction to the post, as well. I can understand some people having concerns about oral minoxidil (although I haven't had any negative side effects so far), but RU58841 is more dangerous, in my opinion.

I just had a Google Meet with Dr Das and Rolston and we discussed my proposed plan. Right now it seems like the best plan is the original one. The main reason for this is that Dr Das is concerned that I might not have the option for a later crown procedure if I have used those 3000 beard grafts in my donor area. After my in-person consultation, I was under the impression that I might have enough beard hair to address both donor and crown. That may or may not be the case. Dr Das will have a clearer picture of what she has to work with when she can examine me in person under the microscope. If it turns out I have sufficient beard hair to replenish my donor area in a later procedure, I will do so. As I told Dr Das on the call, I trust her expertise way more than I trust my guesses. 😉

That was the original plan (between 5200 and 5500 FUEs in one session to completely fill in the front, temples, top, and crown), but I am looking into altering that plan. I am arranging a call with the medical rep to discuss my new preference of leaving my crown alone to give the oral Finasteride and oral Minoxidil a year to see what they will do. Instead, I want to do the following: Proposed Harvest from Scalp and Sidelocks: 2500 to address my hairline, temples, and top (with the priority being in that order) Proposed Harvest from Beard: 3000 to replenish my donor area and fill in my scars My thinking is this: I would rather have scalp donor hair on the top of my head than beard hair because it will cycle and grow like scalp hair should and because it looks best. I am 100% comfortable with the idea of beard hair in my donor area, however. By "refilling" the donor area with beard hair, I should be able to harvest more scalp hair from there in the future, if necessary. And I might even be able to exchange that future donor scalp hair with more beard hair, since Dr Sethi says I have enough beard hair to "cover all of Chicago." So I might be able to have scalp hair exclusively on the top and crown and still maintain what appears to be a full donor area. And I might not even need any more procedures after this upcoming one if the meds work well for me.

How does Dr. Pittella manage to consistently find so many FUEs that he can move? The donor areas of many/most of his patients that I've seen here on the forum look average, but he still manages to be able to find 10,000 - 12,000 available donor follicles he can move. I don't get it. 🤷‍♂️

I'm curious why you want to go to Turkey for a HT if you live in the US? If cost is the factor making you look at Turkey, why aren't you also considering India (Eugenix, for example) or Brazil (Dr Felipe Pittella)?

Ah, gotcha. Thanks!

Thanks. Yeah, I am hoping to be a great responder to the oral minoxidil in particular (with no heart-related side effects). I'm a little worried that the neck pillow might not be enough, but, to be honest, I am thinking of rolling the dice. Filling in those scars is very important to me.

What are "threads"?