4chanhrn

That's a good idea. Waiting for a reply from Hattingen. I was watching your podcast with Hattingen. Dr. Muresanu says the jury on FUE(especially for high NWs) is still out because you need to harvest from outside traditional safe donor area and FUEs are a relatively new procedure so we haven't seen how the patients would age with them, especially if donor starts to thin. I guess this would be even more of an issue with people not on fin and young. People getting these large FUEs seem to be either on fin or much older(and have stabilized pattern/donor for long time) or both. I'm thinking 1 strip+FUEs with beard/graft after that. Hair loss can progress beyond initial pattern. Your hair loss will just end up naturally how you will lose hair. If you don't plan for it correctly or take that into account then your HT can look weird later. Fin can put the breaks on or help you keep hair that you started with. During consultation I got told that most likely I'm NW6. Although there are some areas of weakness, if I was a NW7, I would have been there by now so should be planning like a NW6.

Thank you. I asked Bloxham and got a similar response. #neverstrip seems to be the consensus and in an ideal world I should be going for a Zarev, Sethi or Pittella, but if one does not have the access to elite surgeons that have worked on NW6/7(I'm not sure you can even book Zarev. Sethi and Pittella would be like 1-1.5 yr wait away and expensive. $5/graft for 6000+grafts adds up quickly), then wouldn't FUE exhaust donor completely if I somehow progress to NW7 vs doing FUT first? That is really my concern. FUT leaves you with lot of grafts in the bank as an insurance policy+Verteportfin could end up giving more grafts down the line. I've been tempted by someone like Nader, who's cheap and excellent(I think I can be persistent in contacting him). There are other good FUE surgeons as well. But worried about FUE not leaving enough in the bank for later. The scar doesn't bother me. What do you think? Here's a good large case Nader handled:

Bloxham said I'll need 2 FUT surgeries of 2500-3500 for full coverage front to back. He said he wants to start with 1 FUT aiming for "as much as possible". He included crown in that estimate and I should still have enough grafts to do FUEs later after that if I really need those grafts/have more loss. That's very interesting. I would love to see your results.

Got it, thanks!

That's not too bad. How much longer do you think you'd need to fly and how did you get the staples removed?

Yea, I know. He's pretty low down on my list(because of his price) and I'm not completely sure I can afford him but it doesn't hurt to ask.

That makes sense. I was always curious about discrepancy in numbers. I've asked it to Bloxham as well. I know we've been spoilt by 10k graft transplants, but 4k was a big transplant just few years back. Also can you tell me how long you had to spend in NYC? I'm guessing till the staples are removed? I'm wondering how much would the hotel costs come to.

Don't you think I need atleast 4000-4500 for front/midscalp? Bloxham said in total would need 5000-7000 grafts with 2 procedures. I'm going to consult with more doctors and see what their opinion is. Different opinions are always good. I'm open to other locations if the price/quality of surgeon is much better. Not strictly restricting myself to North America. I'll contact Konior, thanks.

Do you know why Bloxham's numbers(how much he can extract) from 1 session are much lower than H&Ws? I'm just curious.

For me they are just 4 hr drive away. They are quoting me 4000-4500 grafts for first 1/2 to 3/4 scalp w/ FUT and it comes to 16.3-17.9k USD w/ taxes. Bloxham wants to do 2500-3500 grafts for 14-16k USD(plus flight/hotel costs?) for as much as possible starting from the front. Plus another FUT procedure later down the line if required. H&W is cheaper but I liked Bloxham's planning better. He was also very good answering questions and putting effort into the consultation. I'm looking for a long term plan to address my hair loss(especially because I'm not on a 5ARI) vs a 1 time procedure. I have a call with H&W consultant on Monday to ask questions but it would have been nice if I could talk to the doctor directly. Currently for me both are viable options. I'm taking my time to decide who to go with. I'll be consulting with other doctors as well.

Thank you. Your results look really good. Currently consulting with H&W. I have a call planned with their consultant on Monday. Dr. Wong is world class surgeon. There's no doubt about it. I'm hoping they can help me more with long term planning and I wish I could talk to the doctor directly.

Got it, thanks.

You're not hijacking the thread. It's a good discussion to have. I don't think you need finasteride. I feel it's a good thing for you to lost the hair more susceptible to DHT before you started your journey. I wish the same happened to me lol. Then I can start from a clean slate. I feel planning for you was really well done so you don't need meds as much as others. I'm really impressed. I've filled out Dr. Bloxham's consultation form looking at your case. Do you know what sort of wait time I would be looking at for Dr. Bloxham(or for other clinics)? Also I started Pyrilutamide today.

I'm going to try pyrilutamide(from grey mkt) soon. Although phase 3 trials failed, it did have hair count above baseline after a year, just not a lot above placebo. AAs seem better for maintenance vs regrowth so it could be decent for maintenance with much better side effect profile. IMO this might work as well as topical fin. If you look at trials for oral fin, the hair count over baseline wasn't too impressive either. Kintor's investor presentation heavily stresses on much better safety/side effect profile. Ofcourse you can't have 100% because AAs don't selectively target ARs on scalp, but I think this might be as good as we may get for a while. It's also non steroidal, which is better as far as side effect profile is concerned

I know. Have discussed it above. I've tried almost every variation and spoken to my derm, multiple doctors and their advice was not to take it because my body can't tolerate it. My body is very sensitive to 5AR blockers.