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First time poster. Searching for a surgeon, feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed.


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  • Regular Member

Hi everyone,

So at age 35 I finally find myself in a place (and living situation) where hair restoration is financially possible.

However - given the fact that a) this last year of living with a shaved head has been the darkest of my entire life, and b) my adult ADHD makes focused planning EXTREMELY difficult, I worry my emotions could get the better of me, and I could make a quick and bad choice here - which is why I want to put my case forward to people with years of experience.

I noticed hairloss at 22 when I was still living in Canada. At that time, there wasn't so much discussion around microdosing Finasteride or topical versions, and I let my fear get the best of me. It took about 12 years for me to get to the loss you see in the pics here. 

This was my combover. It worked fairly well and I still have a lot of native hair on the sides. 

I am currently on topical Finasteride .1 per cent, and am sourcing low dose oral minoxidil.

The two restoration surgeons that impressed me most so far have been Dr Bisanga in Belgium, and Dr Bicer in Turkey. As I live in Germany at the moment, I am mostly looking at surgeons on or near to this continent.

 

My question is - as I would need extensive work rebuilding my frontal third, as well as my crown - is there another doctor I haven't found who is better suited to working on my pattern? And am I even a suitable candidate for a procedure?

I am extremely new to all of this again, and am feeling quite naïve and uncomfortable with all this - any and all feedback would be welcomed. 

 

 

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  • Regular Member
16 minutes ago, J.A.C said:

We need to see a pic of your donor area, that would help 👍🏽

Ah okay. As I just recently shaved, I don't know how much use this will be, but here's hoping!

And thank you, I'll look up both those doctors.

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I also vote for Hattingen in Switzerland to start with a big FUT, as you might need more than 4000 Grafts in the first place. 

According to your future Hair loss, you can go on with FUE after and got a bigger amount of Lifetime-graft.

 

Did the same:

5200 FUT, Hattingen

2600 FUE, HLC

 

Starting with FUT was the best descision I ever made. 

 

As I live in Bavaria, driving to Hattingen and back was comfortable as well ;)

 

Edited by devnull
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  • Regular Member
39 minutes ago, devnull said:

I also vote for Hattingen in Switzerland to start with a big FUT, as you might need more than 4000 Grafts in the first place. 

According to your future Hair loss, you can go on with FUE after and got a bigger amount of Lifetime-graft.

 

Did the same:

5200 FUT, Hattingen

2600 FUE, HLC

 

Starting with FUT was the best descision I ever made. 

 

As I live in Bavaria, driving to Hattingen and back was comfortable as well ;)

 

Holy crap this is helpful, thank you!!

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1 hour ago, Severin said:

Devnull, if I can ask...what would an FUT megasession like the one you had cost? I've saved several thousand by now and am considering taking out a small loan as well.

5k Grafts was about ~ 15k€ 

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  • Regular Member
1 hour ago, Ryan Daniel said:

Dr. Bisanga is a great doctor and not far away from you. 

Show us a photo of your donor area with some hair showing please

So I'm KICKING myself for this now...but going through my phone, these are literally the only pics I have of my donor - although I still have a fade haircut, probably making them useless. 

 

When I have my consultation w/dr Bisanga, he'll check my donor with a microscope - I'll check in again with what he tells me.

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44 minutes ago, Severin said:

Ok wow....that's really not so bad at all.

I can only recommend you to go to Hattingen and do a max strip. 
My baldness is really bad, with 25 I was much more bald than you. 
 

The 5200 Grafts was really doing wonders for me, but as I really want to have a illusion of density all over my scalp, in addition to my very fine hair, I need likely to double that amount. 
 

I had 7800 Grafts and still 2500 in my scalp donor. 
 

Without FUT this wouldn’t be possible, and I would be stuck :)

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Germans seem to love Hattingen, consult with him. Dr. Bisanga is a great choice as well so you are on a good path there. 

My own personal bias, I would just completely avoid Turkey. Yes there are objectively good doctors there, but when you are working with a very large graft count you really need personalized dedicated attention, and I'm just not sure youll find that at the super busy touristy Turkish clinics - even the good ones. 

Edited by HappyMan2021
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7 hours ago, devnull said:

I can only recommend you to go to Hattingen and do a max strip. 
My baldness is really bad, with 25 I was much more bald than you. 
 

The 5200 Grafts was really doing wonders for me, but as I really want to have a illusion of density all over my scalp, in addition to my very fine hair, I need likely to double that amount. 
 

I had 7800 Grafts and still 2500 in my scalp donor. 
 

Without FUT this wouldn’t be possible, and I would be stuck :)

Honestly, thank you so much for this post. You've given me a lot of hope and perspective.

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  • Moderators

Make sure you let your hair grow a bit before the consultation.

 

Al

Forum Moderator

(formerly BeHappy)

I am a paid forum moderator for hairrestorationnetwork.com. I am not a Dr. and I do not work for any particular Dr. My opinions are my own and may not reflect the opinions of other moderators or the owner of this site. I am also a hair transplant patient and repair patient. You can view some of my repair journey here.

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5 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

Germans seem to love Hattingen, consult with him. Dr. Bisanga is a great choice as well so you are on a good path there. 

My own personal bias, I would just completely avoid Turkey. Yes there are objectively good doctors there, but when you are working with a very large graft count you really need personalized dedicated attention, and I'm just not sure youll find that at the super busy touristy Turkish clinics - even the good ones. 

And this is GREAT advice, thank you. If it would be Turkey at all, it would only be for dr Bicer - but you raise a very good point.

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