Senior Member Panamera13 Posted December 13, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 13, 2020 (edited) Keeping it short...I have tried everything from Rogaine/Big 3/Massage Oils/Laser Cap/Vitamins/Biotin/Micro Needling....Absolutely no improvement or growth. Propecia/Fin gave me side effect so had to stop. Haven't tried the non-oral version of Fin but thinking about it. I have a question specific to PRP+ACELL or Exosome therapy - the cost is around $3500.00 and wondering if there's any case from this site where someone got positive results. On the docs websites (Amiya Prasad/McGrath Medical etc) there are a bunch of cases but I want some reviews from old timers here. https://mcgrathmedical.com/news/dr-mcgrath-presents-acell-prp-on-abc13-houston-tx/ https://nyhairloss.com/hair-regeneration-photos/ Also, There's PRP deals on Groupon for $500.00-$600.00 (no ACELL etc, just regular PRP) from some well established spa clinics owned by docs - Has anyone tried those? please share thoughts/feedback. Edited December 13, 2020 by Panamera13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member UnbaldEagle Posted December 13, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 13, 2020 1 hour ago, Panamera13 said: Keeping it short...I have tried everything from Rogaine/Big 3/Massage Oils/Laser Cap/Vitamins/Biotin/Micro Needling....Absolutely no improvement or growth. Propecia/Fin gave me side effect so had to stop. Haven't tried the non-oral version of Fin but thinking about it. I have a question specific to PRP+ACELL or Exosome therapy - the cost is around $3500.00 and wondering if there's any case from this site where someone got positive results. On the docs websites (Amiya Prasad/McGrath Medical etc) there are a bunch of cases but I want some reviews from old timers here. https://mcgrathmedical.com/news/dr-mcgrath-presents-acell-prp-on-abc13-houston-tx/ https://nyhairloss.com/hair-regeneration-photos/ Also, There's PRP deals on Groupon for $500.00-$600.00 (no ACELL etc, just regular PRP) from some well established spa clinics owned by docs - Has anyone tried those? please share thoughts/feedback. So you tried all those treatments and absolutely no improvement? Not even maintenance? How long you've been on finasteride? I had a PRP and waiting for its result, from what I've seen anecdotally it works, however the gains are not permanent, you have to repeat the sessions every year or so. It's pretty much like minox hair. I've been looking into exosomes and couldn't find any scientific evidence, but I think it's in the PRP category. Currently the only surgeon I know who advocates it is McGrath. He's a questionable surgeon here, but I think his work is decent and he's got great experience. I like his Ultra Density approach, where he'd transplant the outdated micro and mini grafts into areas that need density (not the hairline too as opposed to the days when it was all we had). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member UnbaldEagle Posted December 13, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 13, 2020 (edited) Also, I don't wanna play the devil's advocate, but it seems like most of your hair is gone and it would be difficult to resurrect long dormant follicles unless you go down a near castrating anti-androgen route, and you won't do fin no more, so.. how about a hair transplant? 3000-4000 grafts and you could be a NW3 vertex or so, not the best density, but an absolute improvement from where you are now. Edited December 13, 2020 by UnbaldEagle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Panamera13 Posted December 13, 2020 Author Senior Member Share Posted December 13, 2020 7 minutes ago, UnbaldEagle said: So you tried all those treatments and absolutely no improvement? Not even maintenance? How long you've been on finasteride? I had a PRP and waiting for its result, from what I've seen anecdotally it works, however the gains are not permanent, you have to repeat the sessions every year or so. It's pretty much like minox hair. I've been looking into exosomes and couldn't find any scientific evidence, but I think it's in the PRP category. Currently the only surgeon I know who advocates it is McGrath. He's a questionable surgeon here, but I think his work is decent and he's got great experience. I like his Ultra Density approach, where he'd transplant the outdated micro and mini grafts into areas that need density (not the hairline too as opposed to the days when it was all we had). Thx for the reply. Can you share some pics of your hair if you're ok. Would love to follow your progress. Dr McGrath is is Texas and so am I so that's a good thing, he even has an office in Houston which is local for me. Dr Amiya Prasad is in NYC but I can go there if needed but I want to see if anyone here has had any luck with "Regenerative medicine". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Panamera13 Posted December 13, 2020 Author Senior Member Share Posted December 13, 2020 3 minutes ago, UnbaldEagle said: Also, I don't wanna play the devil's advocate, but it seems like most of your hair is gone and it would be difficult to resurrect long dormant follicles unless you go down a near castrating anti-androgen route, and you won't do fin no more, so.. how about a hair transplant? 3000-4000 grafts and you could be a NW3 vertex or so, not the best density, but an absolute improvement from where you are now. I'm totally realistic in my expectations. I know I can't get a full head of hair and I just want decent frontal coverage and some crown coverage (and use toppik as necessary). I hate my hair now...can't believe I could comb my hair in 2018 and in less than two yrs pretty much gone even with all the different things I tried. Fin didn't work for me but I want to try topical fin. PRP/ACell/Exosome are very expensive so I wanted some real life examples before making a 3500 spend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Style22 Posted December 13, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 13, 2020 I had Exosomes around 5 months ago with McGrath. 10 cc's over the entire scalp. Unfortunately no results. I know they are having some patients respond really well but I also know there a plenty of non responders out there as well. We'll see if anything happens in the coming months but as of today it was a huge waist of money. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member UnbaldEagle Posted December 13, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 13, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Panamera13 said: Thx for the reply. Can you share some pics of your hair if you're ok. Would love to follow your progress. Dr McGrath is is Texas and so am I so that's a good thing, he even has an office in Houston which is local for me. Dr Amiya Prasad is in NYC but I can go there if needed but I want to see if anyone here has had any luck with "Regenerative medicine". Sure, here's my own thread: 1800 grafts FUE with Dr. Kyriakos Maras - HDC Truth is, I'd be a NW6-7 by now given the family history and how aggressive my MPB is, the hair that you see before my recent transplant is due to 11 years of treatment of nearly chemically castrating myself. Besides the "big 3", I've been on high dose spironolactone and various other HRT stuff, as well as trying pretty much everything else from growth stimulants to experimental drugs, etc. My own experience and what I've seen from countless reports on hair loss forums, the only way to regain hair treatment-wise IF you don't take action in the first 1-2 years of experiencing MPB is to pretty much nuke all DHT and testosterone from your system, which would then lead inevitably to some effeminizing side effects if you don't mind these. Good thing is I had a PRP for the non-transplant areas so if I have any improvement in those areas it will be due to PRP and nothing else. Will let you know either way. From what I gathered based on patient reports on various forums, it works better than minoxidil at turning vellus hair to terminal. You seem to have lots of miniaturized hair left so might just be a very good solution. I didn't know it's so expensive in the US. 😕 What I'd suggest in your case is topical dutasteride. Due to the size of the molecule it won't penetrate past the subcutaneous layer therefore it's not going systemic, just acting locally and without any side effects. As topical finasteride's efficacy (especially with dermarolling) seems to be matching the oral administration, I can only speculate topical dutasteride to be more effective than oral finasteride. Or Breezula as soon as it gets approved by the FDA, hopefully next year. If you do any topical antiandrogen, I highly suggest combining it with microneedling though. Edited December 13, 2020 by UnbaldEagle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member UnbaldEagle Posted December 13, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 13, 2020 2 hours ago, Panamera13 said: I'm totally realistic in my expectations. I know I can't get a full head of hair and I just want decent frontal coverage and some crown coverage (and use toppik as necessary). I hate my hair now...can't believe I could comb my hair in 2018 and in less than two yrs pretty much gone even with all the different things I tried. Fin didn't work for me but I want to try topical fin. PRP/ACell/Exosome are very expensive so I wanted some real life examples before making a 3500 spend. I understand and feel you, buddy. Damn, losing so much hair in only 2 years while trying out so many treatments must be very, very disheartening. Wish I could help more. Like I said earlier, go for topical dutasteride, safer, less side effects, more efficacy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Mycroft Posted December 14, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 14, 2020 The most likely outcome for you would be that those hairs you can see in your picture will thicken and lengthen to be closer to their original strength. If you have some vellus hairs you may see those get some pigment and grow out a bit more to have more cosmetic value. Based on the description of your goal I think you'd have to be an exceptional responder to the treatment to get what you're hoping for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Panamera13 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Senior Member Share Posted December 14, 2020 18 hours ago, UnbaldEagle said: it would be difficult to resurrect long dormant follicles unless you go down a near castrating anti-androgen route Thx for the reply buddy. This option would be super extreme for me, I wasn't even able to handle the Fin side effects and stopped it. I'm curious if you chose this route? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Panamera13 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Senior Member Share Posted December 14, 2020 17 hours ago, Style22 said: I had Exosomes around 5 months ago with McGrath. 10 cc's over the entire scalp. Unfortunately no results. I know they are having some patients respond really well but I also know there a plenty of non responders out there as well. We'll see if anything happens in the coming months but as of today it was a huge waist of money. This is the exact info/example I was looking for. 3500 is a lot of money so we need to understand if these things work at all before jumping the gun. For now it seems all the "Great responders" of these therapies are on the docs websites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Mycroft Posted December 14, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 14, 2020 I will say I had a good response to PRP+Acell that improved my hair thickness and density a fair bit. Even improved the frontal coverage which is less typical. However, in my case I still had quite a bit of obvious native hair on my head and a somewhat high density of vellus/super miniaturized hair, so my suspicion is that this was a key factor in my response. Like I said, I'm not a doctor but my read of your situation is that you are more likely to see marginal benefit, if any. Haven't tried exosomes, but although I'm interested I feel as though my positive response to PRP probably means I wouldn't see much additional improvement from exosomes. The clinics I've talked to generally agree that it is a step up, but none of them are saying it's leagues beyond what they were able to do with PRP. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Panamera13 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Senior Member Share Posted December 14, 2020 3 minutes ago, Mycroft said: I will say I had a good response to PRP+Acell that improved my hair thickness and density a fair bit. Even improved the frontal coverage which is less typical. Can you share some pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Mycroft Posted December 14, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 14, 2020 Sure thing. I put a link to my thread below with before and after pictures about six months from my first treatment. I did another one around twelve months from the first treatment and it's now been 14 or 15 since that second treatment. Not rushing off to do more because of COVID caution and I'm also trying to get a better feel for how long my physiology might retain the results rather than just relying on a general recommendation. The photos attached to this post are photos of my hair taken just now at your request. https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/53847-prp-with-dr-arocha/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Panamera13 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Senior Member Share Posted December 14, 2020 18 minutes ago, Mycroft said: Sure thing. I put a link to my thread below with before and after pictures about six months from my first treatment. https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/53847-prp-with-dr-arocha/ You have so much hair LOL. You're not bald at all and I hope you stay that way. Good thing is you did PRP and other checks even before your hairfall got worst so very good timing and good results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Mycroft Posted December 14, 2020 Senior Member Share Posted December 14, 2020 Haha thanks. A few of the spots that were in the worst shape are still a little weaker than others and can be noticed, but I'm feeling good about the progress I've made and hopefully I can maintain most of it for a while to come. As you said, I was very fortunate with the timing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Member Panamera13 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Senior Member Share Posted December 14, 2020 I reached out to ACELL last yr and they told me Acell is NOT authorized for use in Hair/PRP.. but I guess it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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