Al - Moderator

I'm going to give you my suggestion which will probably be different than anyone else. If you can get about 2400 beard and chest grafts then use those and leave the scalp donor alone for now. Put 2200 in the crown and just 200 in the front, but keeping them a good distance behind the current hairline just to try to make the frontal area not so see through. Why do this? It lets you get an idea of where you are after it grows in without touching any more scalp donor grafts, so you will still have some scalp donor left for later for you to decide where you need/want them more. You want to see how well the beard and chest grafts grow, so you know where to use the remaining scalp grafts that you haven't touched yet. It puts a small amount of grafts near the front just to give you some frontal thickening, so it isn't too see thorough. Some others will say 200 is not enough, but you don't want to put more up front without getting enough behind it. You already look too front loaded. Get some behind it first. You will only be using 2400 grafts, so the cost savings compared to using 3000 to 3500 may allow you to go to a better clinic as you said you couldn't afford it. You can then save up some money for the next procedure while the first one is growing.

I slept in a recliner chair the first few nights. I did try sleeping propped up in bed with several pillows behind me like you mention, but that was harder to stay upright and harder to fall asleep. Either way, get a neck pillow. It will make sure you can't end up sleeping on the grafts even if you toss and turn and don't stay upright while asleep. I prefer a button front or tie front pillow because that makes sure your head and neck stay in the right position better.

If you can do that then it is much easier to deal with it, but some people don't have that option due to their job. I have to meet hundreds of people daily, some of them I see regularly and some of them are strangers and I have to be wearing a suit jacket and tie with no head covering allowed.

I know a few years ago he was in the $7.50 to 7.75 range.

They post that like it's a good thing!? What is wrong with these clinics?

I'd say 4 to 5 nights.

There are a number of men who end up shaving their heads after having a hair transplant and the ones I've seen seem to have very little to no noticeable scarring, so it should be very similar if you had grafts put into your beard area and then shave the beard later. If you can't find examples of shaved beards then at least try to find some examples of shaved heads after a transplant.

I think most people get depressed in the first few months after a hair transplant. People generally get a hair transplant because they are beginning to get depressed about their hair, so when you start getting shock loss and look worse than you did before the transplant it makes sense that it will really bring some people down. You just have to push through it for a few months and try not to let it get to you. It will generally be about 5 months before it starts to look better than it did pre transplant, so while it takes a year or more to get the full results, it doesn't take nearly that long to get some good improvement from the starting point.

If you are seeing some growth at 4 months then you are on track. The next few months should show some big improvements if everything was done right. It's hard to wait, but that's what you have to do.

I agree with this. Go a week early and spend the week before the procedure sight seeing. You may even try calling up the clinic when you get there and ask if they have any free time during the week to see you just to have the Dr actually evaluate you in person (assuming you haven't had an in person consultation as it's in another country) and get a better idea of what will be done. They may or may not be able to do that depending on their schedule, but if they can it will take a lot of anxiety off of you on the actual day of the procedure. You will already be familiar with your way around the city and you'll know what the actual plan is and you'll have time to go back to the hotel to think about it in case you want to make some changes. Then stay a week afterwards as well, so you can go back for a cleaning the next day and spend a few days letting the swelling go down and most of the scabs come off before you have to get back on a plane to go home.

Consent forms sure have come a long way. You should have seen mine years ago. It was less than one page and basically said I agree to have a hair transplant and they will do it the way they told me and it will turn out the way they said.

I am paying $10 per graft for both beard and chest grafts. I think they used to charge $8.50 for standard scalp FUE, but I don't know if that is still their current price.

It seems like that would be the first thing to try though and see if your sperm improves any with that. If not then you can go further and try cutting out the topical too.

I didn't see any before and after photos on their web site.

True & Dorin is expensive for body hair FUE, but if you are only filling in that small area in the front then it's probably not worth flying to another country just to get a few hundred grafts. With the cost of the flight and hotel it will probably cost you more to travel than to get it done in NY. Also I think you may be fine with using beard hair if you stay just behind the current hairline that you have. I part my hair on the side through all beard and chest grafts and I don't see an issue.

I'm sure all countries have their own varying laws on this, but in the USA elective surgery puts much more of the responsibility on the patient rather than the Dr. I went through this experience years ago and got nowhere. I couldn't even bring a malpractice case to court because the state said the law did not allow it.

If you have a high miniaturization in the donor area then it may mean your donor area is thinning which is why it's not a good idea to do a hair transplant on that person. The transplanted hair will begin thinning at the same rate as it would have if it was left in the donor area and never transplanted.

Did you see any of them in person or was it all done online with pictures. If they only saw pictures of you then it's very likely that their estimates will change (either up or down) once they actually see you in person and go over the plan with you.

If your hair loss is from traction alopecia then you may get results faster. With MPB your body is fighting against you because it is trying to make the hair fall out and you are fighting to keep it, but with traction baldness your body isn't trying to make your hair fall out, so it can be easier to get some of it back if you are still young and haven't had the bald areas very long. The important thing is you need to stop doing whatever it was that was causing the traction loss.

This is my beard area after roughly 2378 grafts have been taken.

This sounds like it could make FUT come back in style. What would be really interesting is to try cutting out some wide existing FUT scars and suturing them back together and injecting this.

You have long hair. Do you pull it back and tie it? Some of that side loss looks like it could be traction alopecia. If that's the case then if you stop pulling it back you may get some regrowth in those areas if you use minoxidil and start microneedling.

It sounds like you are OK with being bald, but would rather have hair if you can get a decent amount of it. If that's the case then I will tell you to forget about a hair transplant or any other hair remedies and stay bald. If you had more existing hair to work with then I'd tell you to go for it, but with your limited donor and since you aren't extremely depressed about the bald look then you will save yourself a lot of money, time, and trouble by staying the way you are. You would feel a lot worse if you ended up with a bad result or even just a small improvement that would make you still feel bald and end up shaving your head anyway, but have to possibly deal with some scars that wouldn't have been there plus the fact that it cost you thousands of dollars. Have a great life.

If you had been using finisteride at least a few months longer rather than only 3 months then I may say go ahead and do the crown too, but I think you should let the finisteride work a while longer before deciding. You may get some decent growth there.

If you had FUT then that's normal. It will take a few months for laxity to come back. If you had FUE I think it's usually more of an all over itchyness rather than a tightening.