Bill - Seemiller

I highly doubt that any physician you have seen has stated with certainty that minoxidil is the culprit. There are so many things that can contribute to and causes sexual dysfunction and just because minoxidil is correlated, doesn’t mean that it causes sexual dysfunction. Again, you are likely not going to be convinced by any of us and it seems that you’re trying to convince us that we are wrong. So I’ll tell you what, if you want us to believe that your doctors have diagnosed your ED due to minoxidil, let’s see something in writing and signed by your doctors. Should also be on your doctors letterhead, not something you create. Either way, I wish you luck. Bill

I second this. I know you said that it’s impossible to style but it isn’t. Obviously, your hair is going to look worse than it is when you come home the transplant part down and spike the rest of it upwards. And you can’t just put a hat on and take it off and take a picture of your hair and say that you’ve gotten a bad result. That said, I do agree that your hair does look a little thin at this stage but you are only six months post-op. I think it’s highly unfair and unreasonable to suggest that you are seeing your final results and that it is a failure. And any other members who jumps in on this bandwagon should be ashamed of themselves. I get it, I really do. You want your results and you want them now. He want them fast. But hair transplant surgery is not a fast process and it takes time for your new hair to grow in. Our veteran members should also be aware of this and should be giving you support and helping to educate you on this fact, not jumping on your bandwagon which fortunately for you, is completely incorrect. No I’m not suggesting that your hair transplant will definitely turn out the way you want, I hope it does and there’s a good chance that it will. But to suggest that it’s destined to be a failure at this stage is just plain foolishness. I suggest giving things time, a full 12 months before deciding whether or not you’ve gotten the results you want and expect. Best wishes, Bill

I agree that your results are looking really nicely so far. If you could post some closer up pictures showing the top of your scalp, outside or inside, that would be great. Things will continue to improve for another six months or so. Best wishes, Bill

Moonlight dancer, You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I’m not exactly sure why you felt the need to single me out and clean that I am “reluctant to except this”. The reality is however you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I’m not exactly sure why you felt the need to single me out and clean that I am “reluctant to except this“. The reality is however, The vast majority of people who have used minoxidil have never experienced any sexual side effects nor any of the other side effects that you are reporting and claiming can happen. Please understand however, that I am not saying that it’s impossible nor am I calling anybody a lunatic crazy as you suggested. But I tend to operate with facts then I do superstition or hearsay. Frankly, having managed this community for over 10 years now, I’ve only heard of a few report sexual side effects due to minoxidil. And out of those who have claimed to have experience sexual side effects due to minoxidil, none of them have seen a physician to rule out other possible causes. In other words, it’s possible that minoxidil users do experience side effects but The causes of their sexual side effects may not be related to the minoxidil. Sexual side effects can be caused by many things and to this day, I haven’t heard or seen any authority in the medical field make any sort of claim that minoxidil may produce sexual side effects. Again, I am willing to keep an open mind but in my opinion, if somebody happens to be on minoxidil and is experiencing sexual side effects, they should seek the counsel of a physician immediately. Best wishes, Bill

Keysersoze, I agree that your hair transplant came out a bit Finn although I don’t know the details of your case so I don’t know if they’re supposed to be expected or not. But I do know however, is that you can easily get this “prepared“ by undergoing another hair transplant with an expert physician such as those recommended on the Hair Transolant Network. See https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/Consult-a-Physician/hair-transplant-surgeons.asp for a list of hair restoration surgeons that we recommend. Best Wishes, Bill

Literalno, I’m a little confused because this appears to be your topic and you also reported your own topic. Were you just reporting it because you wanted me to respond to you? If that’s the case, then please don’t report things, just send me a private message with a link and ask for my feedback. That said, everything you’re saying is perfectly normal. The scabbing/crusting is presenting an illusion that there are big spaces between hairs but simply put, everything is fine. It sounds like others have already offered you some reassurance as did Dr. Rahal. Bought hopefully my assurance will help you as well. Best wishes, Bill

Hello everyone, I just wanted to let you know that we are aware that there is currently an issue with the discussion forum displaying all of our images. I have a message into software support, our developer and our webmaster Hans. I suspect one if not all of them will be able to find and resolve the issue. I just wanted to let everyone know that we are aware of the issue and we are working quickly to resolve it. I apologize for the inconvenience but we do expect things to be resolved as quickly as possible. Onwards and Upwards, Bill

Soulcages, If everything was going well for the first year and then things went downhill from there, it is likely you are experiencing the progression of male pattern baldness, which is to be expected if you still have a good amount of natural hair and you’re young. This is one of the reasons why non-surgical solutions such as Propecia and Rogaine are suggested which may help to slow down or even stop the progression of hair loss I only clarify the above because it almost sounds like you’re saying that the hair transplant is a failure because things started getting worse after a year. If you’re happy and you’re after your hair transplant, you likely already saw your final results and anything that is shedding or disappearing is likely more natural hair. I may be wrong, so if I am, posting photos will certainly help assuming to post photos before surgery, 12 months after and photos of your hair now. Best wishes, Bill

Vinza, Platelet rich plasma has been used as a standalone hair loss treatment however, it’s success appears to be marginal at best. PRP is often used as a storage solution for grafts during hair transplant surgery and seems to keep them pretty well hydrated during the procedure. Some hair surgeons even swear by it and believe it is a better storage solution than standard saline solution. Personally however, I’ve never been overly impressed with any real results from PRP as a standalone hair loss treatment and personally wouldn’t waste my time or money getting it done. However, others may have a different opinion and I would be interested to hear what other members have to say… In particular, those who had it done. Best wishes, Bill

Back2clas, This is indeed an old topic, presented in 2014. But I do agree that it’s an interesting topic to consider and discuss today. Now, I can’t speak for what Dr. Karadeniz is doing today however, he definitely was very passionate about doing the procedures mostly himself back then… In particular, harvesting follicular units from the donor area. But it is interesting to hear how things may or may not have changed. That said, it does appear that most clinics who perform FUE have technicians either assisting or directly performing the excisions during FUE. Back when this practice started, a lot of people were very uncomfortable this however, I think it has become more and more acceptable to patients especially as they continue to see excellent results coming out of a particular clinic. At the end of the day however, the supervising physician is responsible for the results. A good hair transplant surgeon will still remain deeply involved in the procedure by remaining in the room and ensuring that each technician is doing their job correctly and that each follicular unit is perfect with no damage. I know that some positions previously have been criticized for their lack of hands-on involvement however, it appears to be more common place today. However, where I begin to have a major problem is when a physician is sitting at their desk answering emails the entire day while their technicians do all the work with essentially little to no supervision from the hair surgeon. Best wishes, Bill

Even under harsh lighting, when your hair is styled it seems to hold up very well. Obviously, when it’s not styled it’s going to appear a little thin and maybe even when it is styled, but overall I’d say you’ve had a nice result. That said, I think another touch up procedure in the frontal third would add to your density significantly and give you the ultimate results you want. How are you feeling about your results? Bill

Payam, I know that you have concerns but please keep discussion of your experience on your own topic and not on somebody else’s. It seems like you are unintentionally hijacking this topic. This topic should be reserved to discuss the OP’s results not yours. As for the research, I don’t believe that you did bad research, or perhaps you were not thorough but you did select a surgeon that has a history of producing outstanding results. Hang in there, you’re only at five months. Bill

@Payam, I know you have some general concerns, let alone specific ones based on our previous conversation through private messaging and publicly on other topics. But you do need to relax. I don’t know what other people are saying, but I’ve seen what you’ve shown us with the gaps hundreds of times. What you saw is perfectly normal. This is not the result of the grafts, but the scabbing. It makes things look like they are clustered together but they are actually fine. Please do understand, but a lot of people on the real self website are not educated like the people here. You’re going to find all kinds of misinformation over there in addition to other places on the Internet. There’s a reason why this community is well-established and has been around for almost 20 years now. Trust me, what you saw is perfectly normal. Regarding your current progress at five months, you are still exceptionally early on in your hair transplant. Try not to be alarmed. It seems like you’ve been stressed from the beginning. Hair will grow at different speeds and sprout up at different times. Most people don’t even see any signs of new growth until 3 to 5 months. The fact that you’re seeing any growth at five months shows that you’re on schedule. Please just try and relax and honestly, I’ve seen dozens of outstanding results by Dr. Erdogan. Hang in there and relax ? Best wishes, Bill

Did you see my response to you to send me a private message? If one of our recommended surgeons is transplanting anything but single haired follicular units in the hairline, whether or not a technician did it, is simply not acceptable. I will send you a private message since I have not heard from you but this is something that I want to be able to investigate and address with the surgeon. Even if it was because the technician is new, that is still unacceptable. Ultimately, any trained technician should know better and frankly, a physician should never allow an untrained, new technician to operate on a real scalp especially, without being directly supervised. At the end of the day, the surgeon is responsible and poor work reflects on him or her, not the technician. Surgeons are responsible for their technicians. best wishes, Bill

Payam, While at the end of the day it’s the results that matter the most, I do have some concerns in hearing that one of our recommended doctors may be performing surgery on up to four patients per day. I might be able to understand of all for procedures are very small, like 500 to 1500 graft sessions however, to do more than one large mega session a day seems to be asking for trouble if you ask me. That said, no conclusions can be made until we investigate and evaluate the situation. Thus, I will be contacting him to discuss this further. That said, I know that when he first became recommended surgeon, he stated that he was doing only one or two procedures a day which is standard. Are you really sure that all three patients you saw that they were there for surgery? Maybe two of them were there for follow-up visit after their procedure? Why have you not shared this before? Best wishes, Bill

Vox, Tone is often difficult to read through text, email and of course, discussion forums. I do apologize if your intention was humor, I guess having been here since 2004, I recall dozens of individuals saying things like “come on Bill“ in a rude way, prompting me to do something. I guess that particular way of getting our attention has become a pet peeve of mine over the years. It’s nothing personal, but knowing you and your sense of humor, I can appreciate where you’re coming from. Like Melvin said, your contributions and participation is certainly appreciated. Sorry if I misinterpreted your intentions - But after years of being badgered by actual route in the visuals to all said the same thing, I suppose you might understand why I interpreted it that way. ? but thanks for being vigilant in keeping this community free from Spammers ? best wishes, Bill

I sure hope that’s not true. The best surgeons perform one or two hair transplant surgeries per day. That is less than 1000 procedures even if it’s two every day. Where are you coming up with these numbers? Where did you hear that Dr. Erdogan performs thousands of hair transplant procedures in a year? Frankly, it sounds like you are making statistics up and if you are going to make these types of dangerous claims, I now need you to provide your source and prove it. Because if he is indeed doing that many procedures a year, we need to contact him to discuss this. That is way too many. Bill

Mick, It’s not that big of a deal but you and I BOTH confirmed that your original question post sounded like you were talking about those 2 doctors being the only ones that posted. You can’t say it’s obvious now considering you made the same mistake. If anything, I too understand after reading it a second time that it’s not what you meant, but it was far from obvious ? And you’re welcome, Bill

Mick, I’m not sure why you edited your initial post, your original message was much better - especially as you admitted that you understand why interpreted it that way. Why did you change it? Best wishes, Bill

Bbreal, Like others have said, the hairline doesn’t look that bad but I can see where there appears to be doubles and maybe possibly even three haired grafts in the hairline. I was going to ask if you originally had more natural hair in the hairline that since fell out and maybe that’s why the grafts were placed that way. However, you said by the doctors on admission, that this was done by one of the technicians that he is sorry. I’ll be honest, I have a huge problem with this. While the hairline doesn’t look bad overall, putting a brand new technician on someone scalp without supervising them is blatantly irresponsible. Furthermore, the technician should have been well trained and known better long before he was ever allowed to touch a human scalp. A surgeon recommended by this community should definitely know better than this. Since you have chosen not to name your surgeon publicly, and I respect your choice - but I ask that you contact me privately so we can discuss this further. Best wishes, Bill

P.s. no more name calling and disrespecting one another please

Guys, I honestly don’t know what all the fighting is about. There are ways to share your genuine opinions without stepping in each other’s toes and resorting to insults. Frankly, hair transplant surgery is a team effort and in many cases, the technicians do the bulk of the work. That said, I personally prefer going to a clinic where the surgeon is the one to harvest the grafts, largely because I’ve been conditioned to believe that any scoring of the skin constitutes surgery. And in the United States, I believe only a surgeon can perform surgery - though this may vary from state to state. As for Turkey and other foreign countries, the rules and laws vary. I will say this however, even if a surgeon has techs extracting the grafts, I feel very strongly that the surgeon should be present for the entire process. Because truthfully, despite that hair transplant surgery is a team effort, the success or failure of the result falls back on the surgeon. At the end of the day however, Dr. Erdogan has proven to produce outstanding results and thus, whatever he is doing at his clinic to get the job done, he is doing it right. Lets find out from the clinic what they have to say about this topic. Best wishes, Bill

Mick, Your initial email made it sound like those were the only two that were the ones who presented examples of their work every month. I informed you that all of our physicians are required to share at least one example of their work every month. Obviously there are a plethora of doctors that share their results. I appreciate you bringing to my attention that a couple doctors are not doing this. I will be contacting them in the next couple of days. Bill

This topic has just been brought to my attention and I have looked at both his recommendation profile and his website. Nowhere does it specify that the doctor harvests the follicular units himself via FUE. It does say that he wears magnification on his head And because that is stated under the heading for extraction, I suppose we could assume that he does the extractions. But since it doesn’t say it anywhere specifically, I think people are jumping to conclusions. That said, we are in the process of drafting in sending an email message to Dr. Erdogan to clarify whether or not he performs any of the extractions himself or not. Besides, it could be a mix of both the doctor and technicians that extract the hair but I do agree that clarification is needed. Best wishes, Bill

Mick, Physicians recommended by our community are required to share at least one example of their recent work and results each month. In fact, all of these can be found in the "Results Posted by Leading Hair Transplant Clinics" forum. Have you not seen these? There are certainly many more doctors than two who share regular examples of their work and results. I hope this helps. Best wishes Bill