Guidance regarding my situation

[bdkhalabi]

Hello everyone! 
 

Recently discovered this website from Reddit and love all the information I’ve learned and read from other people’s experiences. I wanted to take this opportunity to get advice regarding my situation, ask a couple of questions, and hopefully/potentially post my own HT results and experience on this forum 😊

I’m planning to do a HT soon (sometime in June/July) in Turkey and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with Fuecapillar. I’ve read the previous reviews on this forum but guess I just want to know more since I might be leaning with them.

Open to other doctors/clinics provided they do great work and it doesn’t break the bank haha. Was thinking to pay around €1.5/graft. 

My hairline is receding pretty bad and I’ve lost a bit in the crown area. Unfortunately my hair is fine, thin, and there’s low density overall. 

I might add more questions to this list but here are some for now:

1. How many grafts do y’all think I need? Does my donor area look suitable? What Norwood would I be classified as? I have attached my photos taken right after drying post-shower  

2. How long does finasteride take to take effect? I think I’ll have to consider it since I’ve been using minoxidil for the longest time (around 2-3 years) but still experience hair loss and shedding. 

3. After a hair transplant, when is the right time to have a haircut?

4. Does anyone know if smoking (specifically vaping) is a major player in hair loss? I have adopted this unhealthy habit but do take care of myself whether it’s working out/eating protein and vegetables/ taking my vitamins. 

Thanks in advance!

 

PS: If I should be posting this somewhere else then feel free to let me know. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by bdkhalabi

[Melvin- Admin]

Do you plan on doing the crown? 
 

Fin takes at least 6 months to evaluate. 
 

you can cut your hair at 3 weeks.

vaping does affect blood flow, best to stop, unless the stress from not smoking is worse. 

 

[bdkhalabi]

Hey @Melvin- Moderator

Yes, I plan on doing the crown as well. Btw just subscribed to your YouTube channel and want to say thanks for all your videos man. They’re all short, concise, and super helpful. Keep up the great work!

[Britanium]

Yes you can find quite a few Dr Turan/Dr Gur (FUECAPILAR) results here on the forum. I would also say that Dr Bicer Is a good choice at €2 per graft. It’s worth saving up for the right Dr/Clinic, it’s not something that you want to be bargain hunting on, €1.5 is the min you should pay per graft, Dr Demirsoy is exactly this cost and would be another choice. 

[Britanium]

You need to be on Fin for at least at least 6 months to a year, most users will keep retaining and hopefully see no side effects. And then obviously stay on it going forward. Depending on the clinic/Dr you choose they may ask you have already been on it for the period I mentioned. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by J.A.C

[Gatsby]

You look young to me and I would highly recommend medical therapy before anything else. You have a lot of hair that you can keep and a lot of hair that you can lose starting your research with a budget in mind. I think you should take your time and find a surgeon who churns out lots of results with a similar hair type to yourself. If you have to go to Turkey I would highly recommend Dr Bicer. Otherwise I would say keep saving and most importantly keep researching. All the best!

[Melvin- Admin]

6 hours ago, bdkhalabi said:

Hey @Melvin- Moderator

Yes, I plan on doing the crown as well. Btw just subscribed to your YouTube channel and want to say thanks for all your videos man. They’re all short, concise, and super helpful. Keep up the great work!

Thanks man appreciate it, I would say around 3,500-4000 for both hairline and crown. Budget prices I would opt for either Eugenix low package or Bicer. Are you from the US?

[NARMAK]

I would honestly urge you OP to get some medication like Finasteride and it could help save some of your hair. I'm also going to recommend if you want to use Nizoral 2% ketoconazole shampoo and add Microneedling in, that can help too. 

Possibly you look like you would honestly benefit from Minoxodil and might be best off using both Finasteride and Minoxodil because of how much thinning it looks like you have in the midscalp. It will probably be best to wait 12 months using Finasteride, Minoxodil, Microneedling and Nizoral before going through any hair transplant. You can do your research and save up for the best place. 

[bdkhalabi]

Thanks for all that have replied!
 

@J.A.C To be honest, I’d just rather go through with a HT than “keep what I have left”. I feel like my hair is too thin and fine that there’s really no point in maintaining what is already a damaged product, you know? And I totally agree that price shouldn’t be the only factor when considering a HT, but if can get a better deal from a doctor with proven results then why not? My fear is that all these clinics tend to raise their prices every year so now is the cheapest I can get it haha. 
 

@Gatsby What does medical therapy entail? Do you mean minoxidil and finasteride? I’ve been on the former for a few years and I’m hopping back on the latter now. 
 

@Melvin- Moderator Yeahh I’m currently residing in Houston. Thanks to your videos I learned about the dermmatch concealer! Wish there was a way to save my receding hairline though haha

 

@NARMAK I’ll definitely consider those options man. I just have to admit; losing my hair is a blow to my self esteem and it sucks watching it get worse. I feel like there’s a ceiling to how much medication will help and I just want the ultimate cure. 

[NARMAK]

2 hours ago, bdkhalabi said:

Thanks for all that have replied!
 

@J.A.C To be honest, I’d just rather go through with a HT than “keep what I have left”. I feel like my hair is too thin and fine that there’s really no point in maintaining what is already a damaged product, you know? And I totally agree that price shouldn’t be the only factor when considering a HT, but if can get a better deal from a doctor with proven results then why not? My fear is that all these clinics tend to raise their prices every year so now is the cheapest I can get it haha. 
 

@Gatsby What does medical therapy entail? Do you mean minoxidil and finasteride? I’ve been on the former for a few years and I’m hopping back on the latter now. 
 

@Melvin- Moderator Yeahh I’m currently residing in Houston. Thanks to your videos I learned about the dermmatch concealer! Wish there was a way to save my receding hairline though haha

 

@NARMAK I’ll definitely consider those options man. I just have to admit; losing my hair is a blow to my self esteem and it sucks watching it get worse. I feel like there’s a ceiling to how much medication will help and I just want the ultimate cure. 

Unfortunately the  "ultimate cure" doesn't exist yet for hair loss and until then, we can only use what we have. Finasteride and Minoxidil have been around for 25+ years and we only now have other treatments trying to get approved and they don't seem to work that much better. They just work differently. 

The biggest game changer could be Stemson Therapeutics clone hair grafts if they can pass and get to human trials soon then to market. It would solve the finite donor issue but that doesn't mean it will be cheap or that you won't have to find a clinic that can do a good job making them look natural when you get a hair transplant. 

Personally i hope i can see it happen in my lifetime and maybe any kids i have that are 20+ could benefit from it circa 2030 onwards but for myself, i can only use what we have and how well it works isn't 100% the same. We can only try. 

[Seeking_advise]

On 3/9/2022 at 9:02 PM, NARMAK said:

I would honestly urge you OP to get some medication like Finasteride and it could help save some of your hair. I'm also going to recommend if you want to use Nizoral 2% ketoconazole shampoo and add Microneedling in, that can help too. 

Possibly you look like you would honestly benefit from Minoxodil and might be best off using both Finasteride and Minoxodil because of how much thinning it looks like you have in the midscalp. It will probably be best to wait 12 months using Finasteride, Minoxodil, Microneedling and Nizoral before going through any hair transplant. You can do your research and save up for the best place. 

Narmark am in the same boat, should I consult a doctor for the dosage for finasteride? 

[Seeking_advise]

Just now, Seeking_advise said:

Narmark am in the same boat, should I consult a doctor for the dosage for finasteride? 

@namark 

[Seeking_advise]

Just now, Seeking_advise said:

@narmark 

 

 

[NARMAK]

54 minutes ago, Seeking_advise said:

Narmark am in the same boat, should I consult a doctor for the dosage for finasteride? 

Hi, 

I don't think you always need to consult a physician for the dosage because they can honestly never tell you what your dosage should be and the tolerance your body has. However there's some rule of thumb they go by. 

Start off by taking 1mg 3x a week. See how you get on for maybe a month. If you start to notice issues, i think you can scale back to 0.5mg, but if you feel fine. You can add another day. Do that for maybe a couple of weeks and then increase to 5x a week until you can maybe do 1mg every day. 

It's usually safer to taper usage and let your body level off but this all also depends on what hair loss you have and your age. Also your location and what the regulations are to obtain a prescription for Finasteride. 

[Seeking_advise]

17 hours ago, NARMAK said:

Hi, 

I don't think you always need to consult a physician for the dosage because they can honestly never tell you what your dosage should be and the tolerance your body has. However there's some rule of thumb they go by. 

Start off by taking 1mg 3x a week. See how you get on for maybe a month. If you start to notice issues, i think you can scale back to 0.5mg, but if you feel fine. You can add another day. Do that for maybe a couple of weeks and then increase to 5x a week until you can maybe do 1mg every day. 

It's usually safer to taper usage and let your body level off but this all also depends on what hair loss you have and your age. Also your location and what the regulations are to obtain a prescription for Finasteride. 

Thank you 

[Seeking_advise]

16 minutes ago, Seeking_advise said:

Thank you 

I am 42 and don’t know what kind of hair loss I have. Trying to attach some photos. 

[NARMAK]

11 minutes ago, Seeking_advise said:

I am 42 and don’t know what kind of hair loss I have. Trying to attach some photos. 

Thanks for providing the pictures. You are somewhere around a Norwood 4 to Norwood 5. Finsateride will still help you keep the majority of the hair hopefully on the top and if you add some Microneedling into the mix once a week with a derma pen at 1 to 1.5mm it might help thicken that crown area up a bit more too 

Ultimately you would benefit from a hair transplant but i think you would have to settle for the higher mature hairline design. The whole midscalp to frontal area looks like it would take a lot of grafts and without knowing what your beard is like, it's hard to say whether it could be used. 

Hope that helps a bit but use the forums recommend doctors list to send out some pictures you gave above to them and see what they advise. 

All the best. 

[Seeking_advise]

17 minutes ago, NARMAK said:

Thanks for providing the pictures. You are somewhere around a Norwood 4 to Norwood 5. Finsateride will still help you keep the majority of the hair hopefully on the top and if you add some Microneedling into the mix once a week with a derma pen at 1 to 1.5mm it might help thicken that crown area up a bit more too 

Ultimately you would benefit from a hair transplant but i think you would have to settle for the higher mature hairline design. The whole midscalp to frontal area looks like it would take a lot of grafts and without knowing what your beard is like, it's hard to say whether it could be used. 

Hope that helps a bit but use the forums recommend doctors list to send out some pictures you gave above to them and see what they advise. 

All the best. 

Thank you, am an Asian so have very light beard. Had I started the finasteride earlier, would I have avoided this situation or was this bound to happen. 

[Ajamilo]

I would have canceled and go with the medications. You can easily recover from this or recover a lot before you do a hair transplant. 

 You are diffuse thinning so basically the finasteride combined with oral minoxidil could recover most of this in 1 years.  

[NARMAK]

26 minutes ago, Seeking_advise said:

Thank you, am an Asian so have very light beard. Had I started the finasteride earlier, would I have avoided this situation or was this bound to happen. 

Honestly it's difficult to say and nobody can give you a definitive but depending on your individual hair loss situation say even 10 years ago, there's a chance you may have been able to preserve more hair. 

Unfortunately Finasteride is not a magical remedy and there are those that despite taking it will still lose hair because their genetics are probe to aggressive hair loss but Finasteride does what it can and if they hadn't been on it, likely may have been even more aggressive. 

Personally i like to stick with an average example and that's that most people probably slow their hair loss down. So depending on how much hair you had say in mid 20s, early 30s etc. you may have kept more than you have now. Don't dwell on it and the past. Just do what you can from here. 

Thanks for telling about the beard. Has your hair loss been stable for a little while now? Taking Finasteride will probably still help but it just helps knowing if your hair loss has slowed down because if so, you might more easily be a hair transplant candidate unlike somebody say in their early 20s who's a Norwood 3 and still losing ground even with medication. 

[Seeking_advise]

2 hours ago, NARMAK said:

Honestly it's difficult to say and nobody can give you a definitive but depending on your individual hair loss situation say even 10 years ago, there's a chance you may have been able to preserve more hair. 

Unfortunately Finasteride is not a magical remedy and there are those that despite taking it will still lose hair because their genetics are probe to aggressive hair loss but Finasteride does what it can and if they hadn't been on it, likely may have been even more aggressive. 

Personally i like to stick with an average example and that's that most people probably slow their hair loss down. So depending on how much hair you had say in mid 20s, early 30s etc. you may have kept more than you have now. Don't dwell on it and the past. Just do what you can from here. 

Thanks for telling about the beard. Has your hair loss been stable for a little while now? Taking Finasteride will probably still help but it just helps knowing if your hair loss has slowed down because if so, you might more easily be a hair transplant candidate unlike somebody say in their early 20s who's a Norwood 3 and still losing ground even with medication. 

Yes , the hair loss has not been very drastic. It has slowed down but not stopped. 

[NARMAK]

1 hour ago, Seeking_advise said:

Yes , the hair loss has not been very drastic. It has slowed down but not stopped. 

If the hair loss has slowed down and probably at a much slower rate now then Finasteride can probably help you maintain. 

As a general average, most people who are experience hair loss do so in a pattern hence the term "Male Pattern Baldness" and that's what the Norwood Scale for hair loss. However, it isn't perfect and there's always a few real life examples that won't match exactly. 

The hair loss usually is thought of as more aggression in your teens, 20s and then slows a bit towards your 30s and by your 40s the kind of hair loss you have should be more slower but it will continue. Depending on how aggressive it can be and when you started with hair loss, Finasteride may or may not save you from things. It all comes down to genetics but it will at the very least slow it down as much as it possibly can. 

Just start Finasteride in your case, save what you have left and another benefit may be that it helps thicken the donor area. A lot of people overlook this key aspect. Donor area is DHT sensitive too. Whilst it may be more resistant, it's not immune to the effects and boosting a DHT block with Finasteride helps keep them much healthier for longer. Age will as always degrade our bodies and nothing will stop that i think, but there's a few things we can do. 

Just save up, do your research and decide the best clinic for you if you choose to get a hair transplant. 

Good luck. 

[Seeking_advise]

8 hours ago, NARMAK said:

If the hair loss has slowed down and probably at a much slower rate now then Finasteride can probably help you maintain. 

As a general average, most people who are experience hair loss do so in a pattern hence the term "Male Pattern Baldness" and that's what the Norwood Scale for hair loss. However, it isn't perfect and there's always a few real life examples that won't match exactly. 

The hair loss usually is thought of as more aggression in your teens, 20s and then slows a bit towards your 30s and by your 40s the kind of hair loss you have should be more slower but it will continue. Depending on how aggressive it can be and when you started with hair loss, Finasteride may or may not save you from things. It all comes down to genetics but it will at the very least slow it down as much as it possibly can. 

Just start Finasteride in your case, save what you have left and another benefit may be that it helps thicken the donor area. A lot of people overlook this key aspect. Donor area is DHT sensitive too. Whilst it may be more resistant, it's not immune to the effects and boosting a DHT block with Finasteride helps keep them much healthier for longer. Age will as always degrade our bodies and nothing will stop that i think, but there's a few things we can do. 

Just save up, do your research and decide the best clinic for you if you choose to get a hair transplant. 

Good luck. 

Thank you. I was thinking exactly the same about helping the donor areas. I am researching some clinics from Turkey and Delhi( India). I found in India that the Doctors are the ones involved in the whole process. To be honest, it’s not so easy to choose as the bodies n results are almost similar. 

[ANDYMAL]

If one is to go to Eugenix, and have a HT, is their 7 day package of medication, inclusive of Finasteride, and Minoxidil?

Will they also give you a prescription for it, to take back home, or is it incumbent upon you to do this on arrival?

Never taken or used them before, but will be going there in April, for a HT, and thought what is it that they will provide, and what will i need to get back home?

thanks.

Andy.

 

[NARMAK]

6 hours ago, Seeking_advise said:

Thank you. I was thinking exactly the same about helping the donor areas. I am researching some clinics from Turkey and Delhi( India). I found in India that the Doctors are the ones involved in the whole process. To be honest, it’s not so easy to choose as the bodies n results are almost similar. 

I'd recommended you look at the forum list of recommended clinics and send out consultations. See what they advise and you can get an idea of grafts required and cost. 

 

5 hours ago, ANDYMAL said:

If one is to go to Eugenix, and have a HT, is their 7 day package of medication, inclusive of Finasteride, and Minoxidil?

Will they also give you a prescription for it, to take back home, or is it incumbent upon you to do this on arrival?

Never taken or used them before, but will be going there in April, for a HT, and thought what is it that they will provide, and what will i need to get back home?

thanks.

Andy.

 

Whilst i haven't had my procedure yet, there is a video on their YouTube that details what they provide. 

I believe you can purchase the Finasteride if you wish to do so whilst there and get a prescription from them. Likely the same with Minoxidil also being able to be purchased but just as a reference, you can buy Minoxidil without a prescription even probably in your own country. 

Most market it under the brand Rogaine/Regaine (UK). There's also generic versions like Kirkland etc.