Norwood311

Thanks, that pretty much settles it for me, I'm going to Leal. He genuinely seems 10-15 years ahead of basically all other surgeons right now. Pekiner and Keser are very good, as is Konior but Leal is just better. I've got a consult in a few months, hopefully I can get the actual transplant done later this year, they say surgery is around 90 days after the consult. How long do you think I would need to stay in Brazil afterwards, like a week?

Thanks. I think I probably would get some more temple regrowth if I got back on minoxidil, 5ARs don't seem to work well for that, but considering I want a hair transplant soon which would fix my hairline essentially, it just doesn't seem worth bothering with minoxidil and having to go through a shed phase when I start and come off. Especially considering I just started oral dutasteride and it's technically possible I could get the temples back with that, considering it does cause more regrowth than finasteride

Hi guys, I'm a Norwood 2-3 (you can look at my photos on my profile) and I have been using finasteride 1mg a day for almost a year now. Recently I've been adding on 0.5mg of dutasteride (currently taking both as it takes around 3 months for dutasteride to reach steady state plasma concentrations, at which point I will stop taking finasteride) and it's been going very well, no sides. In the past I have used other treatments, to varying degrees of success, topical minoxidil, topical finasteride, microneedling, ketoconazole shampoo, and saw palmetto. Anyway, finasteride seems to have pretty much stopped my hair loss and I'm getting some hairline regrowth (just little hairs for now anyway, but they could become terminal eventually). Dutasteride may work even better, too early to say but I will definitely stay on it. Anyway, I am considering starting minoxidil again because. I think it could help turn the baby hairs terminal, but I also want a hair transplant some time this year. If I were to do that, my concern is the transplanted hairs could become minoxidil dependent and fall out if I ever stop using it. I don't REALLY wanna use topical minoxidl the rest of my life, I hate applying it and how it feels in my hair, so is it better to just stick to oral finasteride/dutasteride and try to simulate all the "regrowth" with a hair transplant? Also, no I do not plan on using oral minoxidil. I don't feel it's safe personally and even topical minoxidil raised my heartrate so oral minoxidil certainly would as well

Thanks for the info. I think what I find most interesting about this strategy is that it's what I've heard Laorwong does as well. He's got a large team that does all the separating and implanting so he can focus on extracting and pre-incisions. His most recent work is getting very good, I still don't think he's as good at designs as Pekiner or Thiago Bianco, but he's probably the best surgeon in his price range. Do you know what size tool Dr Thiago extracts with? I noticed a post that pointed out how Laorwong uses a smaller punch tool than Pekiner, which causes less scarring. What a shame, I was hoping I would get to be number 3 lol. Frankly I'm just grateful it's not MORE than 18k. There's plenty of surgeons that charge far more than that (Konior, Zarev) and they aren't anywhere near as good.

This reddit user Pretty_Business is (as far as I know) the second patient to post his results from Thiago Bianco on the english internet. This guy is NOT FUE3300 (even though the results are so similar). In fact, I think this procedure might be slightly better and it's only been 9 months. According to him, the transplant was around over 4000 grafts and looks to be possibly EVEN DENSER than FUE3300's incredible results, which would put it around 75-90 hairs per cubic centimeter. Completely unreal. There is basically no surgeon on earth who can go THAT DENSE in one procedure (I have heard of some surgeons getting up to 80-100 hairs per cm after doing multiple procedures, but never in a single one). Not to mention his design aesthetics are phenomenal, the dude is an artist. FUE3300 and Pretty_Business are, in my opinion, the two best hair transplants I've ever seen. So let's get into WHY. Why exactly does this result look so good? What separates Thiago Bianco? Well the most obvious reason is the density. Dr Thiago Bianco has seemed to have figured out how to transplant at densities higher than was once though possible. Very few surgeons rarely go above 50 hairs per cubic centimeter, LET ALONE 70, because you risk scalp necrosis the higher you go. Basically the hairs don't get enough blood and they atrophy and die. How did Dr Thiago get around this? I don't know everything he does, but I do know a few very unique things: Dr Thiago Bianco places his patients under general anesthesia. This is not common for hair transplants (most docs just use local anesthesia) and potentially dangerous for patients with heart conditions. But this allows him to work much faster without worrying about patient discomfort and it may even relax the scalp more and make extracting and implanting easier for him. He places his patients into an hyperbaric chamber immediately after surgery. These are used to speed up wound healing by providing higher levels of oxygen in an enclosed environment. This is VERY unique, he may very well be the only hair transplant surgeon doing this. He immediately places his patients on a oral medication consisting of Viagra, Cialis, minoxidil, and some supplements for 3 months. All these meds are vasodilators meaning they increase blood flow to the scalp and increase the odds of graft survival after surgery. He works with multiple surgeons during surgery. I am not sure how much of the procedure Dr Thiago actually does himself, some say all he does is cut the implants and selects grafts, no one can really say because they're unconscious during the surgery. But the results speak for themselves, he has a team of fellow surgeons that help him work far more quickly and keep the grafts outside the scalp for minimal time. That said, density is just ONE factor of his great results. The second aspect that stands out the most to me is that he does temple points very well, basically the portion in front of the ear. Notice even many top surgeons rarely ever to temple points, like Pekiner for example, a true master of hairlines but never does temples. Temples are basically the hardest part of the procedure. The angulation is completely different and the hair follicle width is thinner, so thicker hairs look fake. Worse yet, you can't even really cover a poor result with longer hair like you can with the hairline. Dr Thiago Bianco seems to be using nape hair, thin hairs along the neckline to do his hairlines and temple lines. He also does very aggressive and sharp temples, which just look phenomenal, very elegant and youthful. But more importantly, he just understands natural angulation, he's good at so many things but implant angles and graft selection seem to be his most impressive skills to me. He genuinely seems like the best surgeon in the world at angulation, graft selection, and graft survival. Some may say, isn't nape hair not in the "safe zone"? And they would be right, retrograde alopecia is a real problem many men have (basically hairloss moving from the BACK of your head upwards) but if you don't have hair loss genetics like FUE3300 or if you're on finasteride or dutasteride like Pretty_Business, this shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure there's stuff I've missed, but that's what impresses me the most. Now on to the criticisms! No surgeon is "perfect", I would say Dr Thiago's biggest flaws is we just don't have more results to look at. There's only two on reddit and a handful of instagram photos. I've definitely noticed he tends to mostly do procedures on lower Norwood men (maybe NW2 - NW3) with thick, dark hair follicles and fantastic donor regions. These are all big advantages to a surgeon, they allow for greater visual density and possibly even better graft survival. He has definitely done procedures on men with greater hair loss, but those results really aren't that impressive. They're very good, don't get me wrong, but they're results many surgeons could pull off. However, his ultra-high density hairline and temple procedures are basically the best possible with currently technology. I do think he's very possibly the best surgeon in the world right now. But what do you guys think? Any ways he could improve? I think the biggest thing he could do is start using verteporfin into the donor region after surgery to try and stop scarring and grow back donor hairs. Who knows, maybe he's already trying this out?

So I actually don't hate the first hairline photo. the issue is my forehead is really, really wide and I probably need my temple points brought in a bit. Pekiner doesn't do that and Laorwong doesn't do it well. Leal does do temple points, but only on certain patients and he charges twice as much. I am personally not worried about losing more hair in the future, I am on finasteride and plan to stay on, the amount of guys who start finasteride with my level of hair loss (Norwood 2-3) and continue losing hair is minuscule, even over 10 years. And while the density won't be the same as native with Pekiner or Laorwong, Leal gets very very close to native density, especially on guys with thick follicles like myself.

Hi I am 29 years old, I am at least a Norwood 2, possibly a Norwood 3 (I've always had a large forehead so it's hard to tell) not really any diffuse thinning, just hairline/temple recession. Been on 1mg of finasteride about 8 months, definitely planning on being on it at least a year before I get a transplant and of course staying on finasteride after. I get zero sides, I did try dutasteride for a month but it gave me dry eyes so I switched back. Anyway, aside from my awful hairline I've got really dark and thick hair, not just the density but my individual hairs are really thick, especially on the back of my head. So I would be a really good candidate for a hair transplant, I just need to figure out who I want to go to. I would need a very high density transplant, seeing as I have such a huge contrast between my hair and skin color. Anyway, I've reached out to three surgeons, Laorwong, Pekiner, and Leal, as those appear to be the best guys for hairline work (I have heard good things about Nader and Keser but didn't contact them). I also know how dense they do, Laorwong is around 50cm², Pekiner is 55-60cm², and Leal is apparently up to 70cm² in some cases (though most on his instagram don't look nearly that dense) Laorwong responded first (he's very responsive), he gave the below photo as an example of what he could do for me. He said this would be around 2000 grafts. I asked if he could go lower and he said this below photo would be 2000-2500 grafts. He didn't seem to want to do more than that, though he said he technically could. It's definitely not bad but still not really a huge improvement. Pekiner responded next, he took like a month before he sent me an email with a bunch of information and this below example, which he said would be around 1500 grafts. Again, kinda underwhelming. I mean my hairloss isn't that bad I guess but I had a big forehead and I kinda wanted more improvement than that. I think Pekiner wants to do my surgery in a single day, any more than 1500 would take him at least two I think. I personally want like 3000+ grafts, I have a huge donor hair supply and I wanna use it. Last one is Leal. Leal's representative responded quickly, but he don't do free consults. To even do an online consult I would need to pay him 400 dollars, and even then it wouldn't be with him it would be with someone who works for him. The consult with leal is 800 (this is USD mind you) which seems insane, but maybe he really is the best? I dont know, I definitely don't like that he makes you do full anesthesia, local seems much safer to me. Anyway, what do you guys think? Who should I go to? I'm kind of leaning Pekiner. I could get the online consult with Pekiner I guess but the photos on his instagram aren't really any better than Pekiner and Leal costs twice as much. Though flying to Brazil would be a lot easier than Turkey as I am in the US.

Hi everyone, I am a 28 year old man, currently around a Norwood 3 and considering a hair transplant later this year, likely with Pekiner or possibly Laorwong (I prefer Pekiner's hairline work though, he actually thought I was a Norwood 2 but I think I'm closer to 3). Had online consults with both, got some good info. However, I have been on oral finasteride 1mg for around 9 months and unfortunately I am still losing hair. I understand that I could potentially just be going through another shed, but I do have a family history of some very aggressive male pattern baldness. Both grandpas completely bald, dad is almost completely bald, uncle isn't but he had a transplant and uses finasteride, all of them starting balding very young like I did, late teens early 20s. Fortunately I'm not getting sides from finasteride at all but I do think I probably need oral dutasteride. I have a more severe genetic disposition to balding (i remember the first time someone noticed my hairline was receding and I was only 18!!!) and dutasteride isn't more likely to cause side effects than finasteride according to all the most recent studies. We even have some long term studies on dutasteride, a 5 year Korean study was published not long ago, hopefully we get longer 10 year studies soon! Anyway, i just wanna make sure my hairloss has STOPPED before surgery and want to hopefully grow back a bit and lower the number of grafts I will end up needing (looks like it would be around 2500 based on my level of loss) and could potentially even avoid surgery entirely if I am very lucky and grow back a lot on dut. What do you guys think? Seems like dut is a safer choice before surgery. Plan on using 0.5mg once a day.

Thanks. I do think Laorwong and Pekiner produce very similar, high quality hairlines. However, I personally think Pekiner has the edge just a bit, due to the slightly higher density he aims for, as well as the incredible macro and micro irregularity of the hairlines he produces. Thanks for your input, I think either would be a very good choice for me

I am 28 years old. Currently on 1mg of finasteride a day and 2% keto shampoo a few days a week. I haven't noticed much loss since starting around 6 months ago, I wanna hit 1 year on fin before a transplant. I've sent my photos to Pekiner and Laorwong, they estimated 1500 and 2000-2500 grafts for my case, respectively. Pekiner can do higher density than Laorwong (55 vs 50 hairs per square cm) so I lean towards going to him, but I'm open to others. I've read Shapiro is good, but mostly does FUT. Konior is good but seems overpriced and does lower density, but he can do temple points which Pekiner doesn't seem to do as much of. I'm particularly a fan of Pekiner considering how good he is as irregularity in the hairline, very natural results for patients with similar hair to mine. I would probably try and get around 2200-2500 grafts if he's willing to.

I've contacted a few, Eugenix I don't think is that good, Feriduni and Pekiner are booked out. Keser does very few grafts per day, Bisanga I've heard isn't very good. I haven't heard of the rest of them. Is there any one surgeon in particular that you think would be particularly good for me? That I would actually be able to see sometime next year (even if it's late 2024)? Because at the moment the only one I can see that has good results and is taking 2024 appointments is Laorwong. Would I just have to get on a waiting list for anyone else?

So I've looked into a few of them. Couto seems to be booked out for several years, so he isn't really an option. De Freitas does row implants, so that's not really an option either, I might wanna cut my hair short sometimes and rows just don't look as good. Pinto apparently does rows too. No idea about Ferreira but I've heard he's booked out several years too Who specifically should I be considering?

I appreciate your input but I wish you could have been more specific as to which surgeons I should be considering or who you think would do the best job on me. I feel kind of overwhelmed, I don't really know who is truly better or who is just hype. Even Konior has some patients that are upset with their results so I really don't know which surgeon to trust.

Do you have some examples of cases like mine Konior has done? Or Couto? I understand the idea of wanting to use fewer overall grafts, but at the same time you can't ever achieve true density unless you use more. How dense do you think Konior would make my hairline? I'll try and schedule a consult with him soon. Also, would Nadimi be worth considering, or should I just go with Konior? Thanks

I am willing to consider any surgeon on earth, I want the best possible result so price isn't really a factor to me. However, as far as I can tell most of the benefits of higher priced surgeons aren't really seen at my Norwood level. I'm only Norwood 3, which is still pretty bad, but I don't have diffuse thinning so essentially all I need is hairline work and possibly some upper temple restoration, but even that doesn't need to be perfect as I tend to wear my hair long in the front. Dr Laorwong is generally considered very good, the only somewhat negative reviews I've seen are from 5 or 6 years ago. But he's also way, way cheaper than Konior, like 1/4 the cost, which does make me think the quality is just going to be worse. Even if I get 3000 or more grafts (and he thinks I need less, more like 2500) it still would be well under 10k, which is far less than Konior or FUEgenix (Dr Ahmed I think?). However, I can actually get in with Laorwong. Guys like Couto or Pekiner aren't even taking new patients apparently. The higher priced guys like Konior can always get you in too, the real benefit with Konior is I wouldn't need to travel as far as I live in the US. But would there be any benefit? Could I get better angulation, more growth, or less scarring going to Konior? The main things I want are relatively high density (AT LEAST 50 hairs per cm^2), good hairline design, and possibly some temple restoration, but mostly high up, close to the hairline. And I would definitely prefer FUE over FUT, but maybe FUT is better for me? Not sure What do you guys think? Is a more expensive surgeon worth it? Even if it's only 50% percent better, I think that's worth paying more because this is something that I want to last my whole life and I don't want some messed up donor region. Konior generally has very good outcomes, especially for guys like me and almost zero scarring. Frankly I think these are very comparable results. Maybe the photos are too low resolution but I don't see a major difference. If anything I think Laorwong's results look a bit better, and the photos are higher resolution. But Laorwong does a TON of surgeries, I worry he may be inconsistent, but I haven't seen any evidence he is. https://hairtransplantnetwork.com/dr-kongiat-laorwong/patient/hairline-restoration-fue-2540-grafts-7-months-post-op https://hairtransplantnetwork.com/dr-raymond-konior/patient/raymond-konior-md-chicago-hair-institute-2884-graft-hairline-restoration Is Konior really worth paying 25 thousand dollars more? I just don't know. But the idea of going outside the US for surgery is definitely odd to me. I mean what if I have complications and need to go back? Not exactly and easy thing to do.