Dr. David Josephitis (SMG) | 2,309 grafts | 35 years old | Dec. 20 / 21, 2022

Balding Bad · August 19, 2023

WET HAIR - DIMMER LIGHTING

Balding Bad · August 19, 2023

DRY HAIR

Balding Bad · August 19, 2023

DRY HAIR - DIMMER LIGHTING

Spring15 · August 20, 2023

Different lighting makes it go from looking decent to underwhelming. Probably not the desired outcome you were hoping for but I've definitely seen many worse results

baldfighter · August 20, 2023

I think there has been some improvements.

Balding Bad · August 20, 2023

4 hours ago, Spring15 said:

Different lighting makes it go from looking decent to underwhelming. Probably not the desired outcome you were hoping for but I've definitely seen many worse results

Yeah for sure and wet hair is the most optimal look in my opinion, makes the thinness of the frontal hairline less noticeable, but all bets are off when the dry look settles in.

Definitely not the desired outcome right now, but I think if there continues to be improvement in the coming months it could potentially leave me in a place where I'm overall okay with everything. We'll see though...

Balding Bad · August 20, 2023

2 hours ago, baldfighter said:

I think there has been some improvements.

Yes, for sure marginal improvements. And if the marginal improvements continue it'll hopefully add up to something meaningful. 🤞

Edited August 20, 2023 by Balding Bad

baldfighter · August 20, 2023

50 minutes ago, Balding Bad said:

Yeah for sure and wet hair is the most optimal look in my opinion, makes the thinness of the frontal hairline less noticeable, but all bets are off when the dry look settles in.

That's weird because usually wet hair looks thinner...

Balding Bad · August 20, 2023

54 minutes ago, baldfighter said:

That's weird because usually wet hair looks thinner...

I agree, but do you not think the overall aesthetics/caliber/"density" of my hair look better when it's wet? Or is there no discernible difference in your opinion?

mxnprettynice · August 20, 2023

I would've recommended a more proactive medical treatment, perhaps considering a Cialis + Viagra microdosing combination along with macrodosing minoxidil. However, I believe this approach is most effective in the early stages of a hair transplant. I've developed a new protocol, which I'll discuss in an upcoming hair transplant post. With this protocol, I managed to maintain all my grafts in a perpetual anagen phase. As a result, I experienced no shedding, and the transplanted hairs have continued to grow. It's been nearly a month, and they've shown consistent growth. Baiscally you just need to commit to an aggressive medical regimen for just three months, after which you can discontinue it. Given your youth and health, I believe you'd handle this approach well

baldfighter · August 20, 2023

4 hours ago, Balding Bad said:

I agree, but do you not think the overall aesthetics/caliber/"density" of my hair look better when it's wet? Or is there no discernible difference in your opinion?

I think in your wet hair photos you comb your hair to the right, so the left side actually looks thin, but it gives the impression that the right side looks decent. You can try to do the same to your dry hair, maybe comb your hair to the right and use your hand to keep it down to the scalp, similar to your wet hair picture, and take a picture again.

Balding Bad · August 21, 2023

21 hours ago, mxnprettynice said:

I would've recommended a more proactive medical treatment, perhaps considering a Cialis + Viagra microdosing combination along with macrodosing minoxidil. However, I believe this approach is most effective in the early stages of a hair transplant. I've developed a new protocol, which I'll discuss in an upcoming hair transplant post. With this protocol, I managed to maintain all my grafts in a perpetual anagen phase. As a result, I experienced no shedding, and the transplanted hairs have continued to grow. It's been nearly a month, and they've shown consistent growth. Baiscally you just need to commit to an aggressive medical regimen for just three months, after which you can discontinue it. Given your youth and health, I believe you'd handle this approach well

Sorry, but I don't think the answer to counteract an unwanted/negative side effect from a form of medical intervention is to introduce even more medical intervention. Moreover, my specific negative side has nothing to do with getting or maintaining a woody. My negative side from Fin was altering the consistency of my semen, making it watery. So in that regard, Cialis and/or Viagra would have done nothing to prevent this. Appreciate your suggestion though.

Balding Bad · August 21, 2023

17 hours ago, baldfighter said:

I think in your wet hair photos you comb your hair to the right, so the left side actually looks thin, but it gives the impression that the right side looks decent. You can try to do the same to your dry hair, maybe comb your hair to the right and use your hand to keep it down to the scalp, similar to your wet hair picture, and take a picture again.

Objectively speaking, the right side is actually slightly and noticeably better than the left, but yes, I understand what you mean in terms of the direction of styling giving the illusion that it looks better.

In terms of the styling advice for the dry hair, I just would never wear my hair in that manner...it's not a good look for me lol.

needmyhairback · August 27, 2023

Sorry to hear there is not much improvement. What's your plan now? Touch up with a different doctor?

Melvin- Admin · August 28, 2023

@Balding Bad

I’m sorry to heat you’re not happy. There’s improvement for sure, but not where you want it to be. Have you spoken to the clinic?

Balding Bad · August 28, 2023

22 hours ago, needmyhairback said:

Sorry to hear there is not much improvement. What's your plan now? Touch up with a different doctor?

The plan now is to just see how this plays out. I'm still hoping by month 12 it ends up looking half-way decent. I'm no longer expecting a home run, obviously, but if it came come out looking acceptable in all types of lighting conditions without the hairline looking blatantly thin/see through then I can live with it.

I don't want to entirely rule out SMG for a touch up, however I think at this point I'd be leaning towards another clinic.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Balding Bad

Balding Bad · August 28, 2023

6 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

@Balding Bad

I’m sorry to heat you’re not happy. There’s improvement for sure, but not where you want it to be. Have you spoken to the clinic?

Thanks @Melvin- Moderator, appreciate your support in all this. I have indeed spoken to Dr. Joe. I recapped that in my Month 8 post. You may have missed it since it was buried with all the photos I subsequently posted after. Please check out my writeup if you have a chance.

But just to recap, Dr. Joe thinks my progress is "on track" and believes that the majority of my grafts took. I'm not sure how much I agree with his assessment considering there are blatant gaps in the hairline and a real lack of density. Moreover, there's one section at the frontal hairline that's completely bare (which I've circled in previous photos). During the course of our conversation, he did eventually concede he may have been too conservative with the graft count. He did say he wanted to do right by me and offered a free touch up or discounted 2nd procedure. Not sure if I'd be willing to take him up on the offer since I do feel quite underwhelmed with the results thus far, but it's something I'll keep in mind for the time being. I likely wouldn't proceed with a 2nd procedure until 4th quarter of 2024 at the earliest.

There's still 4 months left on the table and I was listening to a podcast the other day where someone mentioned all their concerns went away from months 10-12. I'm hoping the same can happen for me. As I stated in my above mentioned post, I'm no longer expecting a slam-dunk or home run, but I'm still hoping it can turn around in a manner where the hair line looks decent (not see through/thin) in most lighting conditions. We'll see... 🤞

Edited August 28, 2023 by Balding Bad

Melvin- Admin · August 28, 2023

37 minutes ago, Balding Bad said:

Thanks @Melvin- Moderator, appreciate your support in all this. I have indeed spoken to Dr. Joe. I recapped that in my Month 8 post. You may have missed it since it was buried with all the photos I subsequently posted after. Please check out my writeup if you have a chance.

But just to recap, Dr. Joe thinks my progress is "on track" and believes that the majority of my grafts took. I'm not sure how much I agree with his assessment considering there are blatant gaps in the hairline and a real lack of density. Moreover, there's one section at the frontal hairline that's completely bare (which I've circled in previous photos). During the course of our conversation, he did eventually concede he may have been too conservative with the graft count. He did say he wanted to do right by me and offered a free touch up or discounted 2nd procedure. Not sure if I'd be willing to take him up on the offer since I do feel quite underwhelmed with the results thus far, but it's something I'll keep in mind for the time being. I likely wouldn't proceed with a 2nd procedure until 4th quarter of 2024 at the earliest.

There's still 4 months left on the table and I was listening to a podcast the other day where someone mentioned all their concerns went away from months 10-12. I'm hoping the same can happen for me. As I stated in my above mentioned post, I'm no longer expecting a slam-dunk or home run, but I'm still hoping it can turn around in a manner where the hair line looks decent (not see through/thin) in most lighting conditions. We'll see... 🤞

I’m glad he’s standing by his work. I think he may have been too conservative. Let’s see how the next few months turn out. If you’re 80% there, I think going back to get as close to 100% would make sense.

Balding Bad · August 29, 2023

4 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I’m glad he’s standing by his work. I think he may have been too conservative. Let’s see how the next few months turn out. If you’re 80% there, I think going back to get as close to 100% would make sense.

Exactly. If the final results at 12 months end up being an overall 80% then I could live with that and even be open to returning for a touch up. I'm kinda leaning towards that not actually being the case, but I am open to miracles as well! lol

AfroDan · August 29, 2023

Have you spoken to Dr. Shapiro? It is his practice, he may know what went wrong.

Would you consider having him do the free touch up?

Balding Bad · September 3, 2023

On 8/29/2023 at 2:45 AM, AfroDan said:

Have you spoken to Dr. Shapiro? It is his practice, he may know what went wrong.

Would you consider having him do the free touch up?

Nope, only with Dr. Joe since he was the one who performed my procedure, but you do raise a good point. Wonder what he would have to say about the current outcome.

My understanding is that Dr. Shapiro is more experienced with FUT and he relies on Dr. Joe for FUE, so considering Dr. Shapiro for a touch up may not make the most sense, but appreciate the idea.

baldfighter · September 25, 2023

How is it going? Please update us

Edited September 25, 2023 by baldfighter

Balding Bad · September 28, 2023

On 9/24/2023 at 8:16 PM, baldfighter said:

How is it going? Please update us

Thanks for checking in. I took photos on Friday with the intent to upload them, but I've just been slacking. Will try to get them up by tomorrow. Appreciate the nudge.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Balding Bad

Balding Bad · September 28, 2023

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 UPDATE (275 DAYS POST-OP [9 MONTHS])

Apologies for the tardiness. Taking and editing these photos is a very time consuming process, taking on average about 2 hours to do. So without any meaningful progress (in regards to hair growth), it's a bit difficult to stay motivated with being punctual. That being said, even though I'm posting on 09/28, I did make sure to snap the photos on 09/22 to attempt to properly reflect the 9 month mark.

In my opinion, there hasn't been any substantial improvement over Month 8. In fact, in certain photos, there appears to actually be a regression. The frontal hair almost seems slightly thinner compared to last month. Also, in shots where my head is completely tilted, it looks like my crown is weakening? Although, can't tell if that's how it's always been actually...

I'm still on my regular Fin regiment of every other day at .25mg tablets. No noticeable negative sides...yet. And hopefully, I will not exhibit any symptoms of such.

Anyways, at 9 months I'm essentially 75% of the way there since there's only 3 months remaining. I think given my current progress, this is more or less what the final end result will be. I'm realistically not expecting any drastic type of improvements, but I, of course, welcome any eleventh hour miracles!

I still think my hair looks the best when wet and the worst when dry due to the blatant sparseness/thinness (see through effect). I continue to wear a hat whenever possible. When I must style my hair I am still resorting to my concealment trick. So basically nothing has changed since I underwent this procedure last December, which is truly disappointing. I will say that overall, it's a marginal improvement from where I started pre-op, but this has not been life-changing in the least.

From a straight head-on angle, my hair looks fine...but that seems to be the only acceptable vantage point, which is too restrictive. Any head tilt reveals blatant thinning in the front, so basically anyone taller than me or if I'm sitting down will see that I'm clearly suffering from hair loss.

Rating at Month 9 still remains at 4 out of 10.

WET HAIR