Dr. Bruno Pinto - 2025 grafts - Nov. 18th

[JDEE0]

I'll be at week 8 next Thursday, so I'll post a proper update then, but I have noticed a fair bit of itching in the recipient the past week or 2 and from these super close up photo's, it seems like there are baby hairs sprouting, but I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things/they are old miniaturised hairs that were there before surgery.

First picture is from around 2 weeks ago and the second is from a day or 2 ago - looks like there are some fine baby hairs there now that weren't there 2 weeks ago, does anyone think these are some of the grafts beginning to pop through? The pictures are in the exact same area which you can tell by the presence of some short, stalled multi-grafts in the same place in both if you look closely (there are 4 in an almost vertical line towards the right of each pic).

[Curious25]

Nice close up pics - it clearly shows growth is happening, there are a lot more individual hair sprouts visible in the second picture, and the spots and itching are indicative of an initial growth period. This is essentially where the magic begins to happen. You’ll be checking all day everyday, but it’ll still creep up on you out of nowhere one day, as though its just been in one night where a whole load of growth has occurred, and you’ll be left looking at yourself in the mirror in disbelief  . . Wow, I’ve got a hairline again!? 😅 

 

What is your current regime? 

[JDEE0]

11 minutes ago, Curious25 said:

Nice close up pics - it clearly shows growth is happening, there are a lot more individual hair sprouts visible in the second picture, and the spots and itching are indicative of an initial growth period. This is essentially where the magic begins to happen. You’ll be checking all day everyday, but it’ll still creep up on you out of nowhere one day, as though its just been in one night where a whole load of growth has occurred, and you’ll be left looking at yourself in the mirror in disbelief  . . Wow, I’ve got a hairline again!? 😅 

 

What is your current regime? 

Thanks for taking the time to comment! Hopefully it continues on at a steady pace and I have a little bit of early growth, but we will see. It does feel a lot more 'fuzzy' with hair I think as well than it did 2 or 3 weeks ago right after shedding had stopped.

Haha, yeah it will be strange to be taken back a good 8 years or so all of a sudden, I'm sure I'll take a full head of hair far less for granted this time around. I just take 0.5mg of fin daily at the moment, that's all I've ever done since beginning treatment 2 and a half years ago (well, I have played around with dosages and taken between 0.25 - 1mg at different times but I've only ever used finasteride overall). As soon as a topical AA makes it to market, I'll most likely add that in to my regimen and I'm also considering oral minoxidil but haven't decided yet.

 

 

[Curious25]

How about a topical finasteride/dutasteride? 

[JDEE0]

1 minute ago, Curious25 said:

How about a topical finasteride/dutasteride? 

Topical fin, not for me just because of the hassle and relatively small difference in Serum DHT reduction. We pretty much know now that it slashes this from roughly 60-70% to 30 or so, which is good don't get me wrong, but for someone like me who doesn't mind taking fin and has 0 issues, it's not worth the daily application and commitment, I'd much rather just keep using oral.

Topical dut, I would definitely consider. I'll wait for Hassons data to come out on it and re-evaluate, but if it is equally as effective, only reduces serum DHT by 10 percent or so and only has to be applied say weekly, I would be very tempted to make the switch.

[Curious25]

9 minutes ago, JDEE0 said:

Topical dut, I would definitely consider. I'll wait for Hassons data to come out on it and re-evaluate, but if it is equally as effective, only reduces serum DHT by 10 percent or so and only has to be applied say weekly, I would be very tempted to make the switch.

My thoughts exactly. A once a week topical application I am more than happy with. 

Keep up the good work. 

@Rolandas has experienced faster growth by supping oral minox post HT, so that could certainly be of some interest for you to consider also. 

[JDEE0]

28 minutes ago, Curious25 said:

My thoughts exactly. A once a week topical application I am more than happy with. 

Keep up the good work. 

@Rolandas has experienced faster growth by supping oral minox post HT, so that could certainly be of some interest for you to consider also. 

Cheers! Yeah, I have seen Rolandas say so in some of his vids, I'll update in my thread when/if I decide to hop on.

[digi23]

@JDEE0Just one month for the fun to begin!

[JDEE0]

15 hours ago, digi23 said:

@JDEE0Just one month for the fun to begin!

Hopefully so - waiting patiently to get to the point you're at!

[ConnorCrosby]

Early Growth Enterprises called. Said something about exciting times!

[JDEE0]

 

4 hours ago, ConnorCrosby said:

Early Growth Enterprises called. Said something about exciting times!

Haha, hopefully so mate, you'll be at 2 months this week as well right? I'll be keeping an eye out for your update 

[JDEE0]

2 month update:

Tomorrow will be 8 weeks exactly, not much to report really, most of the hairs shed by I would say week 6, maybe 5 percent or so have stayed and kept growing. There is some growth happening, but it's only really visible in zoomed in pictures and I can feel a little bit of fuzz when I run my fingers over the area. 

The last 2 pictures show what I'm talking about, the first of which is from a few, I think 2.5 ish, weeks ago and the second is current. Green circles are around some shed but stalled/stuck in the skin grafts to highlight they show the same area and see the difference more easily.

[Britanium]

Thanks for the update 🙏 how’s the donor area looking ? 

[Melvin- Admin]

The pimples are a good sign, but make sure there isn’t a lot. It’s likely due to ingrown hairs.

[JDEE0]

19 minutes ago, JC71 said:

Thanks for the update 🙏 how’s the donor area looking ? 

Looks and feels the same as pre surgery really, I'll post some pics shortly!

[Britanium]

Just now, JDEE0 said:

Looks and feels the same as pre surgery really, I'll post some pics shortly!

Thanks 🙏 

[JDEE0]

3 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

The pimples are a good sign, but make sure there isn’t a lot. It’s likely due to ingrown hairs.

Thanks for the tip, I only really get one or 2 every now and then and I don't really even notice them

[Spaceguy]

Looking good!

We're quite close in postop timeline and my situation is similar, bunch of small thin hairs sprouting out at 2 months post op....lets hope next 2 months will be a game changer for us!

[JDEE0]

24 minutes ago, Spaceguy said:

Looking good!

We're quite close in postop timeline and my situation is similar, bunch of small thin hairs sprouting out at 2 months post op....lets hope next 2 months will be a game changer for us!

Thanks man!

Yeah, I'm following along with your progress mate - things should start happening more noticeably in the next 4-6 weeks!

[Min12]

3 hours ago, JDEE0 said:

2 month update:

Tomorrow will be 8 weeks exactly, not much to report really, most of the hairs shed by I would say week 6, maybe 5 percent or so have stayed and kept growing. There is some growth happening, but it's only really visible in zoomed in pictures and I can feel a little bit of fuzz when I run my fingers over the area. 

The last 2 pictures show what I'm talking about, the first of which is from a few, I think 2.5 ish, weeks ago and the second is current. Green circles are around some shed but stalled/stuck in the skin grafts to highlight they show the same area and see the difference more easily.

You’ve had hair transplanted about an inch below your current hairline and it’s crazy how it’s already grown out in the middle at only 2 months. This is gonna be a home run.

[JDEE0]

3 minutes ago, Min12 said:

You’ve had hair transplanted about an inch below your current hairline and it’s crazy how it’s already grown out in the middle at only 2 months. This is gonna be a home run.

I wish the grafts had grown that much in 2months! I think it's mostly just my native hair coming back in that they shaved, if you look on the first page at my pre-op pics, you'll see I had a fair bit of hair there that they shaved into

[Harry Bosch]

3 hours ago, JDEE0 said:

I wish the grafts had grown that much in 2months! I think it's mostly just my native hair coming back in that they shaved, if you look on the first page at my pre-op pics, you'll see I had a fair bit of hair there that they shaved into

Transition zone ?  To account for future loss of miniaturization?

[JDEE0]

10 minutes ago, Harry Bosch said:

Transition zone ?  To account for future loss of miniaturization?

Yeah, a little of both really, but I think mainly just to transition into my native hair smoothly. Pretty much to make sure it flows into the rest of my hair and so that there isn't a sudden wall or gap between new and old.

[AA1989]

Following with interest. You have done the research and picked an excellent surgeon.

Regarding hairline, I like your conservative approach.

Were you tempted to lower it, considering you used a modest 2k of grafts? 

What is the distance between your glabella and new hairline (blue line on the illustration)?

 

[JDEE0]

8 minutes ago, AA1989 said:

Following with interest. You have done the research and picked an excellent surgeon.

Regarding hairline, I like your conservative approach.

Were you tempted to lower it, considering you used a modest 2k of grafts? 

What is the distance between your glabella and new hairline (blue line on the illustration)?

 

We were originally planning for 2400 grafts, but Dr. Pinto said that my head was a bit smaller than he anticipated haha, also, he designed the right side of the hairline a little more recessed than the left due to my natural asymmetry (which was always the case to be fair) and because the frontal muscle was thicker and higher up on that side apparently.

The height from the tip of my forelock to the green line is about 6cm and to the blue line, just under 6.5cm, maybe 6.3cm. The corners of my hairline are just under 7cm to the same point. So yeah, it is kind of conservative in that I didn't use 3000 grafts to lower it more towards a flatter NW1 style and just went with a solid NW2, but it's still fairly low down overall being essentially between 6-7cm in height across the whole hairline.

To answer your question, I'm overall happy with the height of my central hairline and the left side (any lower than 6-6.5cm as the central point of your hairline is just greedy and a waste of grafts when you're young and have MPB imo), but a part of me wishes I asked for the right side to be a bit more in line with the left height-wise as I know I would just much prefer it. To be honest, I'm already thinking I'll probably go back and get the right side brought down very slightly and a little flatter and also re-build the temple point on the right side a little bit. my left temple point is fine, but the right is set back a little more naturally and isn't squared off properly. Will probably only be like 600 grafts in total, but if I do, I'll wait 2-3 years most likely.

Here's a pic of the height: