Dr Zarev 11,941 grafts. 1st procedure 8,321, 2nd procedure 3,620

[hairman22]

Brillant result

I think if you had your hair flat it would look even better

Easily could say you don't require a 2nd transplant but after the next one you will be 100% cured 

Insane how far ahead Zarev of the rest

[BaldingEye]

Fantastic result. I still can not believe my eyes. 
How has this transformation changed your life? 

[mtb]

6 hours ago, hairman22 said:

Brillant result

I think if you had your hair flat it would look even better

Easily could say you don't require a 2nd transplant but after the next one you will be 100% cured 

Insane how far ahead Zarev of the rest

Yeah, maybe a lower hair style would look thicker. I'll look into it on the other side of surgery. 

 

While it looks good now that's partly because it's all grown in at the same time. Once each hair is on a different growth cycle there will be some thinning so it's important to do the second procedure. 

 

5 hours ago, BaldingEye said:

Fantastic result. I still can not believe my eyes. 
How has this transformation changed your life? 

It's just one less thing to worry about. It's nice to never give it a second thought when I'm getting ready or when I'm out somewhere. 

[Mr. Clean]

16 hours ago, mtb said:

Congratulations for a great outcome @mtb! 

Do you have a curly or wavy hair back then? Or are you also using hair accessories like @HugoX to make them wavy like that? I think the curly hair will give more illusion for coverage compared to keeping it straight.

[mtb]

3 hours ago, Mr. Clean said:

Congratulations for a great outcome @mtb! 

Do you have a curly or wavy hair back then? Or are you also using hair accessories like @HugoX to make them wavy like that? I think the curly hair will give more illusion for coverage compared to keeping it straight.

My hair has been fairly straight my entire life so I was surprise when it grew in curly. However, I've read elsewhere that the first growth cycle of transplanted hair can often be curly. I'm good with it though. I agree with you that it likely provides more visual coverage.

[mtb]

Had my second procedure yesterday. 3620 grafts. Going into the surgery he was estimated 2,000 but I apparently healed very well from the first surgery so more grafts were available. With both procedures that’s a total of 11,941. All of the grafts went toward density. I still have 2,500+ grafts available in reserve to repair additional balding in the future. 
 

As for scarring from the original procedure I couldn’t even see any on my photos. They are very very tiny. I was happy he gave me the option keep the hair from the first surgery at length. I spent 16 hours at the clinic and surgical time was about 11-12 of those hours. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by mtb

[Spring15]

You will be a certified full head after this it's expected. Probably hard to find anyone anywhere ever who has recovered from Norwood 7 to match your density & coverage

[hairman22]

i was thinking you had more grafts left

that sgreat you didnt need to cut short.

Your hair will look incredible in 9 months

Did you lower the hairline?

Edited October 27, 2023 by hairman22

[donpizmeov]

48 minutes ago, hairman22 said:

i was thinking you had more grafts left

that sgreat you didnt need to cut short.

Your hair will look incredible in 9 months

Did you lower the hairline?

He wrote all the grafts went to density, so that means a no to lowering the hairline. 

[ScottishGuy21]

Scarring from your first surgery looks undetectable, wow .
 

Thanks for sharing your journey it’s been a great insight into how one of the true masters of the industry operates 

[asterix0]

1 hour ago, ScottishGuy21 said:

Scarring from your first surgery looks undetectable, wow .
 

Thanks for sharing your journey it’s been a great insight into how one of the true masters of the industry operates 

We can notice it because we know what we are looking for, but I think the average guy on the street wouldnt know. Nevertheless, it's a good example of a better case scenario of what happens if you shave your head after a transplant. 

[Melvin- Admin]

7 hours ago, mtb said:

Had my second procedure yesterday. 3620 grafts. Going into the surgery he was estimated 2,000 but I apparently healed very well from the first surgery so more grafts were available. With both procedures that’s a total of 11,941. All of the grafts went toward density. I still have 2,500+ grafts available in reserve to repair additional balding in the future. 
 

As for scarring from the original procedure I couldn’t even see any on my photos. They are very very tiny. I was happy he gave me the option keep the hair from the first surgery at length. I spent 16 hours at the clinic and surgical time was about 11-12 of those hours. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No shave, that’s awesome. Were you about to get a sooner date as an existing patient?

[mtb]

22 hours ago, hairman22 said:

i was thinking you had more grafts left

that sgreat you didnt need to cut short.

Your hair will look incredible in 9 months

Did you lower the hairline?

Dr talked to me about lowering and what was involved and we decided not to do it

18 hours ago, ScottishGuy21 said:

Scarring from your first surgery looks undetectable, wow .
 

Thanks for sharing your journey it’s been a great insight into how one of the true masters of the industry operates 

Yes, his tiny scars were definitely a reason I went to him

17 hours ago, asterix0 said:

We can notice it because we know what we are looking for, but I think the average guy on the street wouldnt know. Nevertheless, it's a good example of a better case scenario of what happens if you shave your head after a transplant. 

Yeah I wouldn’t hesitate to shave it. 

15 hours ago, Melvin- Admin said:

No shave, that’s awesome. Were you about to get a sooner date as an existing patient?

I’m not sure I understand the question. When I had my first surgery he blocked out a date for me 10 months out. Many of his surgical days are scheduled for patients coming for their one day second surgeries. 

[Melvin- Admin]

On 10/28/2023 at 12:01 AM, mtb said:

Dr talked to me about lowering and what was involved and we decided not to do it

Yes, his tiny scars were definitely a reason I went to him

Yeah I wouldn’t hesitate to shave it. 

I’m not sure I understand the question. When I had my first surgery he blocked out a date for me 10 months out. Many of his surgical days are scheduled for patients coming for their one day second surgeries. 

Okay, that makes sense 🙏 that’s awesome for his patients.

[Silent123]

On 10/27/2023 at 8:38 AM, mtb said:

Had my second procedure yesterday. 3620 grafts. Going into the surgery he was estimated 2,000 but I apparently healed very well from the first surgery so more grafts were available. With both procedures that’s a total of 11,941. All of the grafts went toward density. I still have 2,500+ grafts available in reserve to repair additional balding in the future. 
 

As for scarring from the original procedure I couldn’t even see any on my photos. They are very very tiny. I was happy he gave me the option keep the hair from the first surgery at length. I spent 16 hours at the clinic and surgical time was about 11-12 of those hours. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey dude, this looks like excellent work ! Happy growing !

[general-etwan]

Insanely good looks.

One thing I just can't help but notice though is how aggressive Zarev seems to be with his classification of the safe donor area. I watched an interview in which he explains he makes a personal evaluation on what a patient's safe donor area is and where the severemost boundary of balding will end in that person's life. In your case, it looks like he considers all the way up to your temples and up high on the side humps to be "safe" from miniaturization. Looks like fantastic work right now; just curious how some of Zarev's most amazing outcomes are going to look a few decades from now. 

[mtb]

1 hour ago, general-etwan said:

Insanely good looks.

One thing I just can't help but notice though is how aggressive Zarev seems to be with his classification of the safe donor area. I watched an interview in which he explains he makes a personal evaluation on what a patient's safe donor area is and where the severemost boundary of balding will end in that person's life. In your case, it looks like he considers all the way up to your temples and up high on the side humps to be "safe" from miniaturization. Looks like fantastic work right now; just curious how some of Zarev's most amazing outcomes are going to look a few decades from now. 

I posted something like this on a different thread:
 

Yeah, it is a large "safe zone". But one I was okay with. My reasons were as follows:

- Dr Zarev can calculated he can still extract an additional 2500+ grafts from my donor in case of future balding

- My balding has been fairly stable for 10 years so lower risk of my NW getting all the way to 7, of course not guaranteed

- No one in my family is a NW7, of course that's only a potential indicator and not a guarantee that I won't go there

- NW7 is only achieved by 7% of the population so lower probability that I'll get there

- I can tolerate oral finasteride and respond well to it which will greatly slow down my possible progression to NW7, of course not guaranteed (talk of sides and permanent sides are greatly overblown)

- Even further, Dr. Zarev says in extreme cases he can take up to 70%-80% of scalp grafts for very advanced Norwoods (so an additional 1.5k to 2k grafts for me beyond the 2500 mentioned above), however this does require the patient to keep donor areas very short (nearly skin fade) which I saw as an acceptable option but a last option

- I have a decent beard and can likely get 2k-3k grafts from it if there is big-time thinning in the recipient area

- I'm also okay with SMP to add the illusion of coverage/density

-I'm comfortable with an FUT procedure as a possibility down the road if recipient areas thin 

-Or in the case that nothing above works and I'm thinning greatly in the transplanted region I'm okay to shave my head and I chose Dr. Zarev because the scarring from his procedure is essentially non existent unless you’re eye is two inches from my scalp  

Just my my through process when making my decision. There are many things to consider and additional treatments if needed. I don't feel it's likely that it'll come to that for me but maybe. However, I knew the risks and the ways to mitigate and made my decision accordingly. He did say that due to his spreading the grafts around that if/when any of them miniaturize they will do so in diffuse way mimicking the normal thinning pattern but would be age appropriate. Further, Dr Zarev has been doing this for 10-12+ years so there is some history behind what he’s doing. 
 

@general-etwan

Edited October 31, 2023 by mtb

[TrainingDay]

wow

[Stewie]

2 hours ago, general-etwan said:

where the severemost boundary of balding will end in that person's life

What do you mean end in their life? ie taking to far and hitting a vital area or you mean just where that persons baldness might end in their lifetime? I have to agree with his approach though and my first two surgeries only took from the traditional safe area and hit it quite hard and I had to really push Eugenix to do the same as what has been done here and want one last surgery to push it a bit further and homogenise  it even more. I think if its been stable for so long then it is not a bad way to go with it, I was aggressive balding at 17 and pretty much NW6 from 21 onwards with pretty much no change since then, which seems to be the trait on the male side of the family

[mr_peanutbutter]

donor after 8k grafts…

 

 

insane result from dr.zarev as always

[general-etwan]

3 hours ago, Stewie said:

What do you mean end in their life? ie taking to far and hitting a vital area or you mean just where that persons baldness might end in their lifetime? I have to agree with his approach though and my first two surgeries only took from the traditional safe area and hit it quite hard and I had to really push Eugenix to do the same as what has been done here and want one last surgery to push it a bit further and homogenise  it even more. I think if its been stable for so long then it is not a bad way to go with it, I was aggressive balding at 17 and pretty much NW6 from 21 onwards with pretty much no change since then, which seems to be the trait on the male side of the family

Yeah I mean the boundary at which the balding will stop at during someone’s life. In Zarev’s words, he makes an evaluation of where balding will stop in a person, and based on that, he can draw the safe donor region as being right up to that predicted line. 

[Stewie]

3 hours ago, general-etwan said:

Yeah I mean the boundary at which the balding will stop at during someone’s life. In Zarev’s words, he makes an evaluation of where balding will stop in a person, and based on that, he can draw the safe donor region as being right up to that predicted line. 

Thats what I thought you meant, just that the Dr who did my first surgery said you have arteries above the ear near the front so It can be dodgy taking from there and they advise against it, not sure if thats true or not?

[Melvin- Admin]

This is exactly how it should be on a Norwood 6, the borders of the safe zone should BE harvested, and the border should BE grafted. This way there’s no gap. 

 

In many ways, Zarev is ahead of his time. A lot of doctors shy away from this to be safe, but I don’t agree. The final result looks better with the gaps being filled.

In my case, the hair below the border has always been my strongest and healthiest hair. It’s been 10 years since my first HT and the hair is still the strongest and thickest. 

[MC117]

Yes, he is clearly looking at the miniaturization with his camera and for how long you've been balding and your family's hair state. He also assesses what the worst could be in the case of a norwood 7 which is easy to measure based on your occipital area position and the borders on the sides.

He is within the safe zone. He also saw many people years and years after and there was no change. 

[asterix0]

This is what allows for more grafts to be taken, because optically to the human eye we look for patterns/discrepancies, which cannot be found so easily when you do homogenous extraction over the entire viable donor.