disTressedHairline

Interesting write up, thank you for taking the time to do it. What involvement did Dr. McGrath have? I didn't know they had techs doing the harvesting. 

Curious about your "oozing" during the procedure, what was your pre-op protocol in the days leading up to surgery? Were there any instructions they provided? 

4 hours ago, Sele said:

Exactly, I think the receptors do not do what they are supposed to do. Some say the receptors are oversensitive to androgens. As I mentioned, my current Total T is between 1500 and 1800 ng/dl. Thats double or even tripple the normal T levels. Free T is 3x higher than norm. Yet I dont feel anything different in terms of libido, confidence, aggression etc. But there are tons of people like me with pfs who didnt had any benefits from TRT. But if the receptors are really oversensitive, TRT would have a negative effect.

I indeed tried low dose Cialis. I tried 5mg every day and dropped that to 2.5mg every day after a week or so. Cialis was one of the things that helped with libido in the beginning. Just as Black Maca extract or Rhodiola did. Even TRT did help in the first 4 weeks. But, as with Finasteride, it seems I am a one in a million case with bad luck when it comes to Cialis. After about 2 weeks on Cialis I noticed vision problems on my right eye. In the center of my eye I felt like I was going blind. I lost about 50% of my vision. Couldnt make the connection to Cialis at first. But luckily around week 4 I did some research and found that Cialis can cause vision problems for some people. I immediately stopped and within 2 weeks the vision turned back to normal. Guess I was lucky. If I would have taken it longer, who knows what would have happened. Yet people on Reddit, just as with Finasteride, dont believe that Cialis can do this.

Yes, it was hairs without a root/shaft. The hairs looked like cutted hairs. So just a hair with nothing under it.

Yeah, Tadalafil (Cialis) and Sildenafil (Viagra) can absolutely cause vision problems, it's a known side, unfortunately. Glad that was fixed when you stopped. 

On 10/17/2023 at 12:50 PM, Sele said:

It was 18 years ago. I just remember I was extremely suicidal after stopping it. I was considering driving against a tree with the car. Had severe CFS. I couldn't go to public places and meeting people without being drunk, due to anxiety. Was sweating waterfalls under my arms, even though I was not hot. Complete lack of libido. Back then I was 25 and had a super hot 21yo Russian girlfriend. We only met on weekends due to long distance and it was so terrible with the lack of libido, I just wanted to sleep. I developed MCAS/Histamine Intolerance and all my body was itching like hell. And the worst was this extreme brain fog. I couldn't follow the school lessons anymore. Low libido, itching, anxiety, cfs, brain fog, still have most of if. Luckily erections are ok. People without fin symptoms say PFS is just in your head. But I didn't know back then that PFS exists, so how can it be in my head. I never made the connection of all these symptoms with finasteride until 2018.

Also anything slightly anti androgenic like Zinc (5ar inhibitor) or B-Vitamins bring me back to pfs hell. Had it just 2 months ago. Took 50mg zinc for 2 weeks and my dick was completely numb for 4 weeks. As if you wear a diaper over your dick. Zero morning wood etc. So, unfortunately, I wont take Fin nor Minoxidil nor anything else that interrupts androgens. I know Minox doesnt, but I see couple people got PFS symptoms from Minox on Forums.

If this HT is successful, I will do a 2nd one covering the rest of the progressing hair loss. Dr. Laorwong said I have about 2K grafts left. But I honestly dont care about my donor area and if it has low density. If he can get out 4-5k grafts more, I am happy to do an SMP for density of the donor and recipient are. But lets wait this one out first and hope grafts survived 

That sounds absolutely horrible, I'm sorry that you have had to deal with this but I really respect you for persevering through it. 

I'm not a doctor - but it looks like your hormones are at the right levels, its just your receptors were somehow "turned off" so your body can't use that testosterone floating around. I could be completely wrong though - I don't have any medical training. 

Curious, have you ever talked to a doctor about trying daily low-dose tadalafil (Cialis)? There is extremely limited research that have shown it to increase androgen receptors - granted this was in in vitro cells, not on a normal person and the study was limited. 

Again, I'm not a doctor and I'm sorry if this is against any rules on this forum, I just feel for you in your situation and trying to throw out any ideas that you might explore with a qualified medical professional (not some random HRN lurker like me). Sounds like you have tried many things, and I'm shocked TRT didn't work. 

On 9/23/2023 at 5:10 PM, DontWait said:

5000 grafts FUE across 2 surgeries as a Norwood 4-5a. 2 surgeries were planned from the beginning. 6ish months out from the second. I would have loved to have FUT as an option but my skin has no laxity, very tight. 
I would like a 3rd, small session to address the frontal Crown. 

I did do PRP for both, if nothing else, to speed up growth. I would say do your research and come up with your own conclusions. I will be doing PRP for my third. 

I saw your previous post, but never saw the end result, any chance you can't point me to your before/after in case I missed it? 

And did Dr. Arocha use ARTAS or was it manual extraction? 

Just checking in on your progress amigo, how do you feel about your results so far? 

On 10/5/2023 at 12:49 AM, HatMaster said:

Read my original post, I covered it there.

Oof. Gotcha. It was a sentence among paragraphs but I see it now. I definitely wish you happy growing, like most of us we'll be following your journey and I am ~95% leaning towards Dr. Laorwong for my procedure. Thanks for the great details and inspiration. 

4 hours ago, HatMaster said:

The doctor said it was fine to walk around outside for sightseeing, and other reports from the same clinic say that they spent a lot time visiting temples etc. I had been to Bangkok before and seen most of the tourist sites, so I wasn't too interested in braving the heat and humidity for that regardless of the transplant. I did visit and spend time in some of the big malls, which are pretty cool and have great food courts and movie theaters.

thanks for the response, what kind of head gear did you wear when you did this (if any)? 

 I wish you the best and you're in good hands with Dr. Cuoto. I wish I had that appointment right now .  .  . 

You mentioned Bangkok was hot, did that make it difficult to do anything after your procedure? Were you fairly confined to the hotel due to heat/humidity or not a big deal at all? 

How long did it take your donor to recover from the shock loss? 

On 8/6/2023 at 1:16 AM, gunji said:

My surgery was on the 23rd of July.  I haven’t made a thread just yet. I got home a few hours ago as of this post.  I stayed nearly two weeks in Bangkok post up because I didn’t want to be on a plane for the 20 hour flight back to California till I was past the crucial healing stage.

My thoughts exactly. I want to stay somewhere until the wounds on my donor heal and the scabs on my recipient.

On 2/26/2022 at 3:35 AM, McE said:

Thank you all for you’re replies,has anyone heard of harmony clinic in Cancun? The reason why I am hoping to find one in Cancun is because I have 2 friends that are willing to come along with me and take a vacation,if I was traveling to Mexico alone and getting surgery I don’t think I’d be able to do it,from what I hear Cancun is nice to visit for vacation and since my friends would be doing me a favor coming along with me I don’t feel comfortable asking them to come to another place that isn’t nice.... does anyone know of ANY places in Cancun? There has to be at least one lol?  Or if not does anyone have any other ideas of good places that won’t charge more then 5-7 thousand for 3500 grafts in a nice place anywhere else....? Idk about other places in Mexico,if they have other nice places there for a vacation-plus hair transplant besides Cancun...? What about hairin1day? Has anyone heard about them? Guysss I really need some ideas lol anything would be greatly appreciated!!! 
 

 

Did you ever go to Harmony? I am curious about them. There is another clinic in Cancun that appears to be infamous (not Harmony though) and so I can understand everyone's reservations about them. As far as Hair in 1 Day, I wasn't too impressed with their results. 

Thanks for the posts and for showing your donor, any updates? 

@zepruska

Really great work, congrats! I hope you share the final result. 

Agree with @A_4_Archan - you're going to have a lot of tiny open wounds in an area that is perfect for bacteria, no since in risking it. You can always rebuild good gut bacteria by eating a proper diet and avoiding junk. 

Just. wow. Congrats, you already won and you're not even done. 

On 7/1/2023 at 12:51 AM, Happychap said:

1 month in.  Think it's looking ok?

Your final result is going to look so good, congrats on getting this done. By this time next year, you're going to feel great. 

How was the journey back to NZ from Bangkok? Did you have scabs or redness in your donor? I know so many people travel after this, but for some reason, this is the most uncomfortable part for me. I fear people are going to look at me in disgust seeing me flying post-op. Hope I'm just overthinking this . . . 

Always a question when people disappear after a procedure. I'm guessing (hoping) that they are so happy that they don't think about hair loss anymore, thus, they don't come back here as it's not on their mind. 

Hope you see this @N1CK and come back and give us some news. 

15 hours ago, RobertoDeNiro said:

I share some photos of when I turned 2 months and 2 days.
Full desert. And the donor area with shockloss.

I let my beard grow but my wife didn't like it very much 🤣

 

 

 

That has to be the toughest time, especially with the shockloss. 

How long before your donor went back to normal?

On 6/24/2023 at 6:01 AM, Big Rome said:

are you on medication to prevent future loss? you are very young & could suffer more loss in the near future if not. The UK clinic I would stay clear off, never heard of the other one 

If he's not experiencing hairloss it's not wise to go on meds, sounds like he wants this purely to correct his hairline

Hoping that you see this and come to give us an update

Always disappointed when there's a ghost and post - especially with no photos. But, I hope they are so happy with their result that they don't think about hairloss anymore. 

Great results for 6.5 months, by now its been over a year+ - could you show us a final result?

4 hours ago, Ramsey said:

Hello everyone!! So I am vacationing in Italy and saw that more comments have come up on this thread. Time for me to point out an important detail. I am dentist is Florida. Much of my work is cosmetic. See it at (www.RitterandRamsey.com)

I have one goal in my work. The goal is to MEET or EXCEED my client’s expectations!! Other dentists may try to critique my work but they never understand the actual desires of the client…also, I never actually give a s**t of another dentists opinions. So with that said….

Juan Couto EXCEEDED my expectations!!! By the way, the nicest guy ever!! But as far as the result…

Yes…”hair line”, “density”, “natural”…whatever..

Everyone will see the result different based on their preferences…and that’s ok!! I love it!!

But I, the client, love it!!! Holy f**k….I love it and I love Juan. As far as I am concerned, no one and I mean NO ONE, has the same consistent results as Juan Couto!! Show me another person on Instagram with more consistent  results…I searched the entire planet and could go anywhere I wanted. I chose Juan and never looked back!! 
 

With all that said…enjoy your journey. Do your research!!! Don’t choose cheap (like all the guys in Turkey)!!! You have one chance to do it right!!! For me….Juan Couto FOREVER!

Hers my pic today poolside….letting it all grow out!!

Hey, first of all, I apologize if my comment caused any offense, it wasn't the intention, but I can see how it may have been annoying to read. Sorry for that. 

I think some of us are "armchair quarterbacks" when it comes to this because we spend so much of our time obsessing over the details of this particular surgery/procedure. With that, we lose sight of what matters the most - is the patient satisfied/happy with the results? You clearly are and should be. I would be too. 

Because of this, you definitely look better and feel happy with the result. 

I'm happy you got in to see Dr. Couto, I wish I could, as I truly believe he is one of the best surgeons in this craft. It's just tough to get an appointment, but I think we can all understand why that is - he's only one man, and he can only do so much in a day. 

Maybe one day I'll get my chance, and I'll get a procedure that makes me as happy as you are.

I hope you enjoy your vacation in Italy, thanks for your reviews and responses, and congrats on such a great transformation.

Cheers.