Curious

Look at the photos of baldlivesmatter's donor area, taken within the first couple of days of surgery and within seven days of surgery, and compare them to the same photos of the donor areas of patients of Drs. Konior and Bisanga. It's fairly obvious what is happening in my opinion.

The donor area on the right side looks over-harvested.

Your work looks very good, but the transplanted hairline looks very low, especially for someone having a transplant in their 20's. How did you go about deciding where to place the hairline?

You should try taking a lower dosage of finasteride to hold onto as much hair as you can until a better product is available. It seems like something might be out in the marketplace within the next 2-3 years.

The doctor should have turned you down. You're too young for a transplant with such minimal hair loss, especially when you haven't given finasteride a chance to work.

It depends on how far you are destined to go genetically without an anti-DHT med. Are you someone who is on his way to a NW7 or worse?

Any increase in DHT puts hair at risk. If you started taking niacinamide and then months later you noticed that you've lost hair, that's a good reason to stop taking it.

Why do you take niacinamide?

Why don't you go back to 1 mg and see if you can regain what you lost over the last 6 months or stop further recession.

Well it depends upon what the NDA says. The doctor also has the right to run his office as he wishes to, so long as he doesn't violate any statutes.

How long did you take finasteride for before you began to suffer side effects?

It's hard to tell how your hair looks based on your photos if you've done a comb over. Again, it would be a mistake to stop finasteride, lose more hair on top and then have a transplant, in part, to replace that hair. If your doctor won't prescribe finasteride for you, then change your doctor. If you're not having an adverse reaction to the drug, I don't understand where your doctor is coming from. You need to plan for the long term, having hair that looks acceptable to you, into your 60s and 70s, considering where you are now and what you have left in your donor. Of course your family history of hair loss is a big factor.

A big factor would be your age. I think you look good and do not need another HT based on the two photos you posted. If you are taking Propecia and maintaining your hair without side effects, you should keep taking it. You should try and keep as much of your hair for as long as possible, which is harder to do as you get older.

Did you have some of the old plugs removed? How did it work out?

I had beard extractions under the chin and on the neck, no one can tell any difference. The skin is relatively loose there, so perhaps the lack of tension on the extraction site is why there is no visible scar.

At your age you should leave the crown alone and save precious donor hair for the front if it's needed. Based on your photos, it looks like your surgeon made the right call in placing the grafts.

The windows on a car will not block UV, they are too thin. The windshield will block most UV rays because it is thicker. If you are fair skinned it is worth spending the money on a quality window tint that will block 98% UVa and UVb, especially for the side windows. Incidentally, when it is cloudy outside, about 80% of normal UV still comes through.

You must have had a tall glass of Irish whiskey before you wrote that.

You need a hat with an SPF of 50, a baseball cap is largely ineffective at blocking UV rays.

According to my dermatologist, 3.5 minutes of direct sunlight begins to effect the skin. If you're going out in the sun, you should wear a hat.

It certainly has spread the word as to who does good work and who doesn't. The forums and improved technology have increased the likelihood that the average patient will receive a good result.

Hair follicles grow close together and a portion of the follicles grow under the surface of the skin. The key to a good FUE is to minimize the trauma and scarring, and to extract a follicle without damaging the adjacent follicle, which is not easy to do.

Compare the photos of your donor area to the FUE post-op photos of the donor area of patients of Dr. Konior or Dr. Gabel. I think you'll notice a difference.

I would be concerned, based on the photos of the donor, that in the process of extracting targeted follicles, the doctor sliced through adjacent follicular units.

As to how visible the FUE scars will be, will also depend on how well you heal.