M36 | Dr. Bruno Pinto | 1716 grafts | 17 May 2022

[Harry Bosch]

hey gang,

Still surreal, but after more than a year of research & planning, I’ve done the damn thing!

I’ll add more commentary in the upcoming days.  For now, I want to share some initial pre- and post-operative pictures to highlight the work.  Of course, I’d love to see feedback from the pro’s here.  It’s a delicate time psychologically, but that’s one of many reasons this community has been so valuable.  I will be leaning on you all quite a bit in the next year!

Quick shout-out to a few members here who have been impossibly helpful to me.  I have had really great private conversations with @MachoVato @Top Cat @ciaus @Sean @champybaby and many many others!

A few other All-Stars:

@MazAB whose expertise, enthusiasm, and generosity are truly unrivaled 

@JDEE0 the man who first brought Dr. Pinto to my attention and has been so gracious and informative as my day approached

@TorontoMan my spirit animal and OG hairline crusader, who has responded to every question and panicked text like a true friend

__________

I selected Dr. Bruno on the basis of his meticulous involvement and consistently outstanding results, and needless to say I’ve left the clinic in Porto with the highest opinion of him and his team — his coordinator Emilio in particular is an exceptional resource and I encourage anyone planning their own procedure to begin a dialogue with him.

Quick backstory: I started experiencing temporal recession in my early 20s, and the Fin/Min combination was a godsend.  But my response to medication gradually weakened over time, and it became increasingly difficult to style my hair.  You’ll note I have terrific density behind the recession, but this is a double-edged sword: while nobody in day-to-day life would classify me as “balding” aggressively, my hair type (wavy) requires a great deal of time and tactics to wrestle into a good look.  And with the continued slow burn, my hair type makes the recession look even worse.

I can understand if my starting position might not be relatable, but I felt I was still in a sweet spot wherein I could restore a homogenous NW1-ish hairline, protect against continued loss cosmetically, and navigate the ugly duckling phase without too much of a devastation to my fragile ego.  In the end, it was my time to take this leap and turn myself into a “hair star” as Dr. Bruno phrased it.

Here are some pictures from the early stages.  I’ll continue to document the journey as I progress, and share the clinic’s photos as soon as I receive them.

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by Harry Bosch

[Harry Bosch]

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Edited May 19, 2022 by Harry Bosch
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[BaldDude]

Congrats....which fin/min brand did you use?  any side effects?

[Britanium]

Looks like some very nicely refined work, thanks for posting 🙏

[Harry Bosch]

THIS was the unexpected part of the adventure.

Of course I wanted to restore my hairline (“homogeneously, not symmetrically” as Dr. Bruno insisted) while also reinforcing my temple peaks. It’s a really good frame, and it was aggressive as Dr. P could go without encountering the frontalis muscle.

I’ve also felt, like Two-Face Harvey Dent, that I had a good side and a bad side.  The bad side was defined by deeper recession and unhealthy, weaker hair.  As this bad side worsened, the more I had to compensate with an “execute combover” or “power swoop”, literally pulling my hair out to carefully organize this uneven mop into a sharp look.

Turns out the bad side was something more than dysmorphia!  Dr. Bruno found an entire peninsula that had been ravaged by some form of fibrosis, perhaps a childhood injury.  As my hair aged, that region became especially impacted.  We only noticed it after submitting to the full shave (I initially wanted a partial shave in hopes of reintegrated into the summer social scene on a faster timeline).  Altogether it was an extra 200 grafts carefully spread throughout the region, and here’s to hoping it’s a game changer !

[Harry Bosch]

6 minutes ago, BaldBobby said:

Congrats....which fin/min brand did you use?  any side effects?

Generic Finasteride (1.25 mg per day)

Rogaine 5% for years but switched to oral last year.

No sides. Maybe reduced sex drive but that might be more my age ?

[BaldDude]

Just now, Harry Bosch said:

Generic Finasteride (1.25 mg per day)

Rogaine 5% for years but switched to oral last year.

No sides. Maybe reduced sex drive but that might be more my age ?

you never tried topical fin?

[Harry Bosch]

One day post-op

 

[HappyMan2021]

always nice seeing a NW2 transform back into a NW1 😂

[Harry Bosch]

26 minutes ago, BaldBobby said:

you never tried topical fin?

No, I had pretty good response to the pills and think the topical is weaker overall.  Plus, with topicals, compliance is always an issue.  Dr. Pinto even remarked that the amount of sebum on my scalp makes it difficult for any topical to be fully effective.  So my hope is a good result can let me settle in at taking two pills (fin and min) each day and finally getting away from topicals.  Only caveat is a really good topical AA coming to market and giving me the necessary protection to confidently entertain TRT 

[Harry Bosch]

33 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

always nice seeing a NW2 transform back into a NW1 😂

@Curious25 had some good thoughts on this.

Lower NW’s can achieve a substantial cosmetic improvement with with a well-planned and executed surgery.

For me, the shape of my recession coupled with my hair type — think Don King’s hair on Timothee Chalamet’s face — meant my hair looked bad without intense, time-consuming styling tricks.  My goal was to look good and not “less bald” and hopefully it works out that way.

Plus, if the surgery hits, spending only 5 minutes to style your hair vs. 15-20 minutes extrapolated over a decade+ is another key benefit, too, imo 🤞🏼

[TorontoMan]

Very clean work, donor looks untouched and the density all over the rest of your head is A1. I laughed at the shoutout 👊

[ciaus]

Re-drawing your battle lines early in the war like this is a great strategy. Not only to protect fragile egos , but it also gives your doctor less guesswork and more surrounding reference hair for the most natural result!

[JDEE0]

Haha, thanks for the shout-out, man. Glad to have been of help, you’re a good guy and you deserve that NW 1 coming your way!

Work looks impeccable as to be expected from Dr. P and as you already know, your starting position combined with the work done has put you in pretty much the best position anyone could be in to come out looking like you’ve never lost a single hair in your life. 
 

Surprised to see you went for the full shave in the end haha, but I think it was a good shout tbh as you’ll just look like you’ve got a short hair cut in a months time. 
 

Very happy for you mate, and I’ll certainly be following along! Congrats man.

[therambler]

Booked in with Dr. Pinto next week so been on the lookout for any posts from his patients! Congrats on the surgery and making a great choice! Work looks super clean.  You're starting from a great base in comparison to me though 😀

[Mike10]

Do you have maybe pictures with longer hair pre Op?  

[Harry Bosch]

44 minutes ago, Mike10 said:

Do you have maybe pictures with longer hair pre Op?  

Yes!  I’ll share the clinic’s pics as soon as a I get them.  Will totally clarify my goals, who I wanted this, and the exact parameters of Dr. Pinto’s work

[Harry Bosch]

1 hour ago, therambler said:

Booked in with Dr. Pinto next week so been on the lookout for any posts from his patients! Congrats on the surgery and making a great choice! Work looks super clean.  You're starting from a great base in comparison to me though 😀

From the instant he greets you at the door, you’ll feel at ease.  DM with any questions and I’ll share anything I can to help.  You’ll do great, brother 

[Harry Bosch]

2 hours ago, JDEE0 said:

Haha, thanks for the shout-out, man. Glad to have been of help, you’re a good guy and you deserve that NW 1 coming your way!

Work looks impeccable as to be expected from Dr. P and as you already know, your starting position combined with the work done has put you in pretty much the best position anyone could be in to come out looking like you’ve never lost a single hair in your life. 
 

Surprised to see you went for the full shave in the end haha, but I think it was a good shout tbh as you’ll just look like you’ve got a short hair cut in a months time. 
 

Very happy for you mate, and I’ll certainly be following along! Congrats man.

Thanks mate.

The full shave was his insistence, so I listened.  And it turned out to be a good call bc it led us to the discovery of that fibrotic peninsula region in which he decided to disperse another 200 grafts.

Everything you said about him and his team was spot on.  Hopefully I’m right there with at the finish line in the Pinto Success Stories soon enough !

[Harry Bosch]

9 hours ago, ciaus said:

Re-drawing your battle lines early in the war like this is a great strategy. Not only to protect fragile egos , but it also gives your doctor less guesswork and more surrounding reference hair for the most natural result!

Something like that!

It might be reasonably early in the overall progression of alopecia, however this battle has been waging for like 12-13 years.

My feeling was the commitment to medication got me here, and I was in a good position to confidently intervene now — redraw the battle lines — while still young enough to enjoy a somewhat aggressive, totally natural result without fear of noticeable near-term loss behind the implantations.  And aligning myself with a younger surgeon who can accommodate my future needs.

He told me the overall change won’t be radical, but that subtle redrawing as you described while amount to a substantial change for me, both in terms of aesthetics and convenience, and hopefully buy some more years as well.

🤞🏼

[MazAB]

So happy for you brother! Now let the days, weeks, and months of progress begin. The work is beautiful. So clean and refined. You did everything right so now you can sit back and enjoy the ride! 

[Harry Bosch]

6 hours ago, MazAB said:

So happy for you brother! Now let the days, weeks, and months of progress begin. The work is beautiful. So clean and refined. You did everything right so now you can sit back and enjoy the ride! 

Thanks man. You are obviously a big help to me and many others who are finding their way.  My post-op supplement stack also has your fingerprints all over it!  

You’d really enjoy talking with Dr. Bruno btw.  Not just the nuts and bolts of the surgical process and anatomical factors, but also his thoughts on ethnicities, hair types, globalization (he believes Iberian based surgeons are doing really good work bc they are exposed to such a melting pot of hair types - traces it back to the early days of European exploration and colonization).

I’d pay to see a conference where you, him, and Dr. Sethi were the keynotes !

[Harry Bosch]

One week pics.  Outdoor conditions after the AM head wash:

 

[Harry Bosch]

a few more featuring temporal angles & the temple peaks:

 

[Harry Bosch]