Ccd99

It could be there was some early progress, but I honestly couldn't tell until the 3 month mark, that's when I was convinced the medication is working for me. Thanks, yes I do plan on creating a progress thread here when the time comes. Absolutely, finasteride will reduce scalp DHT and hopefully prevent further loss, whilst minoxidil will thicken existing hairs and possibly also regrow hair / turn vellus hairs into terminal hairs. Statistically speaking finasteride/minoxidil is effective for most people (studies can tell you the exact %), so it is statistically not likely that you will not benefit, I think you should just try it for 3-6 months and monitor for progress, if after 6 months you are continuing to lose hair then you can simply stop the meds. I personally believe a positive mind/outlook helps too! Definitely have hope and remain optimistic! Dr Ferreira is similar in this regard and will only do upto 3500 grafts per procedure (split over 2 consecutive days), there is a good reason for this and it is to avoid overharvesting and allow them to evaluate progress and yield for the 2nd procedure. I am positive that Dr Pinto will have no issues taking on a NW5+ patient but it just means you need multiple procedures, so for example you would have your first surgery for 3500 grafts and then say 9 months later your second surgery for whichever amount of grafts are still required.

I am not entirely unsure why Dr Guerreiro would suggest that.. seems the contrary of what any reasonable HT doctor would advise. Yes 12 months sounds right, I myself have seen tremendous benefit from using medication, and I am only at the 9 month mark (feel free to take a look at my thread for progress photos if you are interested in what meds can do). Fair enough, you are right he does charge €4 now - I have my surgery later in September with Dr Ferreira that's why I asked, I know what you mean about the waiting list, I got lucky and grabbed a cancelled consultation slot.

In my honest opinion I would go with what Dr Pinto says, it is always a good idea to stabilise your hairloss with meds before a hair transplant intervention. Multiple reasons for this: Stop shedding of existing weaker hairs that are DHT sensitive, once stabilised the idea is that you will not lose more hair due to DHT and it means the doctor can plan your hair transplant better, otherwise you risk losing hair behind the hair transplant and have to go for another surgery later in the future (if your donor even allows). Improve hair thickness overall (both recipient and donor), this means there will be more coverage through your existing hair and therefore less grafts required. Potential to improve hair density in both recipient and donor areas, e.g. regrowth of hair (I admit not everyone sees this kind of regrowth but those that respond well may) Curious, how come you did not consider Dr Bruno Ferreira in Espinho, Porto?

Sorry to hear about your father, hope he is doing better now. With regards to dense packing, out of curiosity what sort of density in terms of grafts per square centimetre do you aim for? (for the hairline, as well as mid-scalp and crown).

Great result! Congratulations

I never understand why clinics take pre-op pics wet hair and post-op pics dry hair, it's not a fair comparison IMO

Dr Epameinondas Bonaros has some good results on his Instagram, worth looking into!

I take 2.5mg in the morning (9 am) and 2.5mg at night (9pm). Minoxidil has a 4 hour halflife iirc, so after 12 hours there is not much left in your bloodstream, so splitting it up like this keeps side effects to a minimum whilst also able to make the most of the drug.

Your donor looks good, has recovered well for 14 days post-op for your 2nd surgery. All the best with your progress! I have heard second transplants sometimes grow in faster, not sure how true it is but hopefully you see results by month 3/4.

Thank you for the insight Dr!

Nice work, very dense for 4200 grafts and such a big surface area! What was the size of recipient area and what sort of density was this implanted at?

Very nice result! Happy for you. Do you happen to know at which density Dr Keser implanted at (FU grafts / square cm)?

I would love for an opportunity for a consult with Dr. Zarev! But I cannot afford his off-schedule pricing so that's not an option unfortunately. I tried using ScalpScan but I am having troubles making it work, it keeps saying "Not Enough Light" so I just gave up on getting it to work! I think it needs to be in a well-lit room with a proper lighting setup. EDIT: Yes I am aware 90+ is rare, and I was very surprised myself. Dr Ferreira did say I have some miniaturisation in my donor but despite the miniaturisation he said it's easily 100 fu's per cm^2. In all honesty my whole life I've always been told by people that my side and back hair is very dense, so it's good to know the numbers back that up. I know I have enough donor capacity to provide full coverage, but I hope it can be done in a way to minimise FUE scarring as I like to have my hair as a short fade.

Everyone is different! I may be fortunate with a good donor, but I am a NW5 diffuse so I will need quite a lot of grafts for full coverage. 65-75 is very decent in terms of density, most people have a graft to hair ratio of 2.05-2.25 so assuming you're in that range you're looking at 140 to 160 hairs per cm^2. Remember other characteristics are equally as important to help with the illusion of density, such as as hair color, scalp/skin color, and of course hair thickness. Someone with thick hair but a bad skin/hair contrast will need more grafts vs someone with a white or pale skin and light blonde hair.

I would say less than 60 fu/cm^2 is poor, between 60-80 fu/cm^2 is average, and more than 80 fu/cm^2 is above average. I saw Dr Bruno Ferreira and was told I have a great donor area with about 100 fu/cm^2, I also have a lot of doubles, triples and quadruples so this would easily translate to more than 200 hairs/cm^2. So, if you want some photos on what an "above average" donor area looks like you can take a look at my consultation report and photos of my donor area on my thread - link below:

It's entirely possible you may never shed the transplanted hair, if so consider yourself lucky! This happens to maybe 5-10% of hair transplant patients (from what I remember), no ugly duckling phase for you!

@mr_peanutbutter this might be a good watch for you, Dr Lorenzo goes into detail how DUPA is diagnosed and what he looks for in terms of miniaturization in the donor (he mentions 15%): Full video below:

Exactly, this is why I never understand people who say there is no need for them to take DHT inhibitors like fin/dut because they've "lost most of their hair anyway" or "not going to lose any more hair because I'm in 40s" The reality is not all donor hair is DHT resistant, and over time DHT will work away and miniaturise some donor hair too (not necessarily all). I jumped on meds about 8 months ago and back then I went in for a consultation with the same doctor and he told me I have miniaturisation in the donor, but it was around 15% or so, still less than 20% and he advised to continue meds. So when I saw him again recently for a follow up he was very pleased to see that Dut has effectively reversed the donor hair miniaturisation, putting me in a better position for a hair transplant intervention.

My local HT surgeon informed me that anything less than 20% is considered normal and not DUPA. I have some miniaturization in my donor but the doctor said it's about 5% which is fairly normal and he said he wouldn't be concerned unless it was more than 20%.

Looking great, very economical use of grafts both the first HT and your second HT, nice work by Dr Keser!

Stellar result, very impressive @Dr. Ahmed Altan I have some questions: 0.7mm is a small punch, the donor site must be looking good with respect to scars? Is the patient on any medication? Could you share some photos at day 0 after the extraction and implantation?

Great results for only 6 months, the style suits you as well, looking like Harvey Specter now 😎

Fantastic result! I initially thought the hairline position looked a bit low when drawn in the pre-op pic but in the final result it suits his face shape well.

If it's a 3 guard then that equates to 10mm length, most surgeons use a punch size of 0.8mm-0.9mm therefore I would have expected any scarring to be hidden, in your case we can still see the extraction to some degree so it can only mean 2 things: 1) yes there was some overharvesting unfortunately (more likely) 2) you've always had less density in your donor area and it is showing now (less likely) If you're going to Dr. Couto you are in great hands! Might be a good idea to get his opinion on the matter too.

What clipper guard did the barber use? Do you have any photos immediately post op (so we can see the extraction pattern)? Either way SMP would definitely help camouflage that yes