England

Fantastic write-up and pictures, Jazzy. I had a very similar hairline to you with Dr Feriduni 1 week later, so it's going to be interesting to compare notes over the upcoming months (although I have very light hair)!

I think you will have an excellent result, and look forward to seeing your progress.

Dr Feriduni charged me 4.30 EUR / FUE graft. I had a slightly smaller operation than Ben so I think that shows the sliding scale he mentioned.

Hey,

I had 2,550 grafts via FUE in zones 1, 2 and 3. We had two days scheduled for the op but it ended up being done in a single day session (which was brilliant from my perspective). I had a previous operation with Norton Clinic in UK about 7 years ago, which wasn't... ideal, but not as bad as some cases that I've seen, so the aim was to add density throughout and close off the temples.

I am staying in Hasselt for a while because my journey back is quite long, and they have invited me back to the clinic every day so far for a check-up with the doctor, and a hair-wash and once-over by the nurses. I can't fault service as good as that, they've made the whole process very relaxed and comfortable for me, any little questions or worries I had were just dealt with immediately.

I wont hijack this thread though, I'll be writing up a thorough account on this forum with detailed pictures after I get back home.

Cheers

I would very strongly recommend Feriduni. Had my surgery with him last week and the service and quality of the work was simply unbelievable.

I had consultations with various European docs and also some further afield but went with him in the end, don't regret it at all.

Best of luck!

Looks great! I think you two are a week or so ahead of me, I went to Dr F too :-)

I too think that FUT would probably be best for you given your advanced loss. You will probably need over 5,000 grafts and at this level I think FUT starts to become a better option.

Good luck.

Hi stosh,

To answer your question more directly, I don't know about the areas you mention specifically because I'm based in Europe, I hope you are open to travelling a little bit to get in touch with the very best. You should check out Hasson & Wong (Jotronic), Dr Rahal, Shapiro Medical Group, Dr Feller/Lindsey (Spex) - these are the best surgeons that side of the pond, in my opinion.

Regarding technicians, I would hazard a guess that all of the recommended physicians on this site perform their own procedures, to a lesser or greater extent. Technicians do play an important role in every single surgery though, it's always a team effort and that has a lot of positive implications. If the surgeon had to do every extraction, every graft placement, they would suffer from fatigue and their work would suffer. I believe all of the surgeons I listed due to legal reasons (geographically) only allow the technicians to prepare the grafts and perhaps place them in pre-made pre-angled incisions. In Europe, I believe, this is different and the technicians are allowed to carry out extractions too in FUE - which again is often a good thing. They have just as much specialised experience as the surgeon (this is what they do every day for years and years) and can be rotated to make sure they stay fresh. When you assess the results of a clinic such as those recommended on here, you are also analysing the quality of their technicians.

There are hundreds of individual posters describing their surgery experiences with all of the above named doctors and they always know directly who their surgeon is and deal with them directly, so you should be able to get a good unbiased idea. If you notice all of the clinics I named are named after their surgeons - Dr Hasson & Wong, Dr Rahal, Dr Ron Shapiro etc. When you go with one of these guys you are really going with the best in the US/Canada and you can be sure that they will perform your surgery.

Hope this helps and good luck with your surgery - I strongly urge you to cancel any Neograft procedure you may have booked.

Cheers

Hi Levrais, looks like an excellent result.

All the after pics seem a bit blurry, have you got any better quality ones?

Cheers

Hi Nasser,

I scheduled an appointment with them in January but cancelled because even when prompted they didn't give me any impressive background / qualifications on the doctor in question, I had zero confidence and it would purely have been a convenient place to go. Any clinic which doesn't stand behind their surgeon first and foremost is a big red flag for me.

If I was you I'd look at the Belgian docs eg Bisanga & Feriduni. Further afield I would look at Rahal (I am assuming you want FUE but if you want strip look at Hasson & Wong and SMG as well as the first 3 I named).

Good luck

Because my hair is so light.

The doctor and nurses would struggle to carry out a procedure if they couldn't see the grafts, all of them said I would need to dye it darker to make them stand out more against the skin and make the surgery easier.

Hi guys,

I have been told by many doctors that because my hair is so light, it would be good to dye it before any hair transplant.

Is it best to dye hair a few days earlier, or the night before, or when? For best results.

Cheers

Looks great. The hairs coming through should thicken up nicely and give you a good density.

Thank you for sharing. When was the date of the journal published?

It was published on 21st March (2 days ago):

Here is a link to the study:

Prostaglandin D2 Inhibits Hair Growth and Is Elevated in Bald Scalp of Men with Androgenetic Alopecia

Scientists pinpoint protein linked to baldness

Hair Loss Cure? Recent Discovery of PGD2 (Prostaglandin D2) Brings Hope For Ending Hair Loss

Scientists have discovered a protein linked to male baldness, which could pave the way for new treatments for hair loss in men.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that men with male pattern baldness have three times more of a protein called prostaglandin D2 (PDG2) in the bald patches of their scalps compared with other parts still with hair.

The protein is thought to work by stopping the growth of hair follicle stem cells in the scalp, responsible for hair growth. This means that treatments to suppress the production of PDG2 could potentially be used to prevent hair loss in men.

Male pattern baldness affects eight out of 10 men under the age of 70, and causes hair follicles to shrink and produce microscopic hairs.

A previous study found that bald areas of the scalp contain the same number of stem cells as normal hair-growing parts of the scalp in the same person, but contain fewer mature cells.

This suggested that the scalp was lacking an activator or something was inhibiting hair follicle stem cells from growing.

In this study, researchers looked at samples of scalp tissue from balding and non-bald spots of more than 20 men with male pattern baldness. Levels of PGD2 were found to be three times higher in the bald patches compared with areas where hair was still growing.

This was also confirmed at the genetic level; PGD2 genes were shown to be more active in bald tissue samples.

When PGD2 was added to hair follicles cultured in the lab, it was "significantly shorter," the study found.

They authors wrote: "Our findings should lead directly to new treatments for the most common cause of hair loss in men.

"The potential for developing these compounds into topical formulations for treating AGA (androgenic alopecia) should elicit great interest moving forward."

The study is published in Science Translational Medicine.

Some bad doctors / technicians is not the same as all of them being bad. The results of clinics speak for themselves.

Bad technicians will harm a strip operation too - they cut the grafts either way.

Many doctors say that the technicians are actually more specialised at the extracting since that is all they do, and therefore do it at least as well or better than the doctor can.

Thanks Spanker. My results are very natural, especially under normal room lighting. Even under the harsh lights, when the hair looks thinner and see through, it is still natural. The only unnaturalness that remains is from the cobblestoning from my first procedure before SMG. But this is only visible under the worst of lighting conditions, and you really have to be very close and look for it to see it now. The additional density from my most recent procedure has really disguised the poor results from my first procedure before SMG.

 

After three procedures (one poor, two great), I will gladly take the "illusion of density" I enjoy now over no illusion at all.

 

P.S. Good luck with your upcoming consultations. We are all eagerly awaiting the full report!

Aaron, honestly, your results are absolutely fantastic. You don't look like a balding guy at all, not even close. I bet even if your hair does look thin in certain lights, nobody looks close enough to notice, and as has been said, even guys with full heads of hair can have the same effect happen to them.

And hopefully Ben will post his 5 month pics on Wednesday this week ;-)

Exceptional result

Hi Guys,

 

So I have now been in contact with Dr. Feriduni based in Belgium.

 

His case studies on his site look amazing and they have been extremely helpful thus far.

 

Anyone out there have first hand experiance with this surgeon?

 

Thanks

 

Sam

Hi Sam,

I've been for an in-person consultation with Dr Feriduni, met some of his patients and his nursing staff, and I only have positive things to say. Of all the clinics and doctors I visited and had consultations with (I've spent a lot of time researching), theirs was the most professional as was he. He is also a genuinely nice guy - that much is obvious.

I would say he's almost artistic in the way he looks at hair transplants. He has thousands of amazing case studies on his computer, both FUE and FUT - he really should post more of them online because he is very consistent.

Ben (MBPsucks) on here had 3,000 grafts with him recently so you should look him up (Search for 2968 Feriduni and he'll pop up).

Overall I'd strongly recommend him, for both FUE or FUT.

Cheers

a rep from true and dorin replied that he thinks some hair were just cut so i am hoping they may come back sooner.

Hey Mikie,

This makes a lot more sense than shock loss during the procedure. Shock loss is a gradual response from the body to the trauma of surgery, I've not seen examples where there was a pile of hair on the floor of the surgery room due to shock loss.

This is why my first question was whether or not they cut the hair and the fact that they did cut some is very good news for you.

If it's just been cut it should be growing already (unless you also have some shock loss over the next few weeks).

Best of luck and I'm sure it'll all grow back for you!

OK, it's very difficult to see the full extent of any shockloss because of the scabs from the procedure.

How long after your operation was the 2nd picture taken? It looks immediate post-op.

I'm sure some others can either confirm or correct me on this, but shock loss doesn't happen while the surgery is taking place, I believe it happens days or weeks later once your body fully reacts to the procedure. In theory, you should enter the surgery with the same number of hairs that you leave with.

Did you have any of your hair cut to help with the procedure?

How long before your surgery was the first picture taken?

Hey MikieB - I'm struggling to work out which picture is which.

The first picture is the before picture, I assume?

The second picture looks to be immediately post op.

Where's the after pictures?

Thought I should check out your story, chris

Honestly, your results already look excellent. Your hair before looked better than a lot of people end up with after their surgery.

Congrats and it's only the beginning.

Thanks for the feedback and opinion - i'll take it on board and really appreciate it.

 

Getting attacked and maligned and called a "brainwasher" for example amongst other slanderers things in the past via aliases can get very tiresome and dealing with individuals online with agendas can also take its toll as time is precious. Certain individuals get outed others just prod enough to stay under the moderators radar and play what they think is a clever little game.

 

Best of luck and glad to hear you are researching well. Every post on every forum - wow ! Quite an accomplishment.

 

Best

SPEX

Fair enough, I understand you have to deal with your fair share of 'trolls' - it's always the way on the internet. I also apologise for describing it as 'brainwashing' - that was too far.

I've only read every thread containing the word 'FUE', lol (and probably about 25% of the rest)

By the way, I do respect what you say, and I have taken on board your views regarding FUE. At the very least it's certainly helped to ground my expectations.

Cheers