I've genuinely had enough, need advice. Potential for hair transplant?

[GUVEN]

Hi all. I've been contemplating a hair transplant for several years, but I've gotten to a stage in which I've genuinely had enough and feel that if I don't put myself out there then I'll never have the courage to go ahead and get one. My issue is finding a surgeon whose able to give me the results I want. The markets an absolute mine field.

I've been taking Rogaine "Extra Strength" for several months, after coming on and off of it over the course of a few years, after feeling that I saw no results. However I'm not on any other medication. I also try to use branded shampoos and hair balms, recently buying and using the "Hair Growth Routine" package from scandinavianbiolabs after a friend recommended it; probably snake oil but who knows.

To get to the point, the reason I've been putting off hair transplants is due to the fact that I feel like they mostly look obvious and unnatural... good results appear to be quite rare. Picking the wrong surgeon and having a bad transplant scares the $..T out of me. However, I'm at a stage now where I think that a reputable surgeon can't make things look any worse than they currently are.

I need a hair transplant with a focus on a natural look - this is the most important thing for me, and probably for most believe people if I'm honest? I have no idea who to use, as most surgeons portfolios are a mixed bag of good and bad hair transplants.

I've been browsing these forums for months, watching YouTube videos for years and trying to keep track of hair transplant studies and experiments, but it looks like I have no choice but to bite the bullet and find a good surgeon.

It appears that a surgeon named Dr. Juan Couto is producing some good results, however his website is deliberately offline, apparently due to high demand? I also got in contact with a clinic in the UK, namely Dr Edward Maitland Balls' Maitland clinic, however their response to my online query was that my donor area was "weak" and that surgery would not be an appropriate option for me. I was quite disheartened to be honest, but there's not much I can do about their reply except move on.

Is there anybody here that can give me solid advice, an opinion on my hair type and what my options are? I've genuinely had enough, it's crushing my confidence and constantly on my mind. I feel like I can't move forward with my life, as stupid as it sounds.

I'm 31 years old and from the United Kingdom.

Note: Don't be nice... be honest.

[Sunset Dune]

If you go to a reputable surgeon you’ll get natural results, if you go cheap and decide on a hair mill in Istanbul you will get unnatural poor results.

The most important factors in getting the best results from a hair transplant are the quality of your donor, your surgeon and how bad your hair loss is. Higher stages of balding will need more grafts.

In your particular situation you might as well get a hair transplant considering your hairline and frontal region is heavily receded and you have thinning on the crown. It can’t really get any worse than it already is otherwise you will continue wasting your time and losing more years of life from the low confidence hair loss brings. Women care about looks and hair is an important factor in that department.
 

Your donor however doesn’t appear that great so you may need to commit to hair loss medication first otherwise you risk getting rejected by any reputable clinic. 

Edited May 10, 2023 by Sunset Dune

[Gatsby]

You appear to have some retrograde alopecia above the ears which is common. The first port of call would be to see your doctor and take finasteride (I'm not a doctor). The reason being that it will stabalize your hair loss and potentially improve your hair in terms of density and you may regain some ground that you have lost. This will put you in a much stronger position for surgery with the need for less grafts to be used. As to minoxidil you may want to consider oral minoxidil as personally I found this to be of far more benefit than topical minoxidil. It made all of my scalp hair and beard much thicker. Remember that MPB is progressive over the lifespan. So you need a surgeon who will plan your surgery for this. Surgeons such as Dr Couto are booked well in advance for good reason. Have a look at the forum's recommended surgeons and look for patient results that match your hair now and have the same goals that you are after. Wishing you all the best.

[A_4_Archan]

You have to be on medication religiously ...try oral minoxidil and finasteride for at least 8-10 months after consulting a good doctor ...once the medication works on you..your candidature for the surgery will improve ...till than do your research about doctors ....you can consult dr munib ahmad ,dr bisanga or some one as such and see what they aadvice you....imo i don't think that you can't be a candidate for surgery in future ...i don't see such a bad donor from pics ....you can go to a good local surgery to get your donor checked ...

[BurnieBurns]

Topical minoxidil is near useless as a monotherapy. You'd be very unwise not try finasteride for at least a year before even thinking about surgery

'medicated shampoos' and other lotions and potions aren't even worth a glance

Edited May 10, 2023 by BurnieBurns

[mr_peanutbutter]

looks like op will heading to norwood 5/6 in the foreseeable future (since op is just barely 30 it could be worse in 30 years or so though)

 

so if you are nor willing to take finasteride you should take this into account and opt for not sp agressive hairline, density etc.. you also should be prepared for future ht. you should also consider fut as a combination of ft + fue tends to give 1.000 and more grafts over lifetime. this only if your scalp has high laxity though

 

it looks like you have rather coarse hair and good beard which is good

 

 

 

[GUVEN]

I'd like to start by saying thank you to all of those who've jumped to leave a comment for me, you've all probably got better things to be doing with your time, so I genuinely appreciate the effort - thanks!

I've decided to start Finasteride today, I didn't want to, but I've no real choice it seems. I've started by taking 0.25mg and I'll aim to take it every day, totalling up to 1.75mg a week. I'm looking to introduce it gently into my system in order to see how my body reacts. Ultimately, I think 1.75mg is incredibly conservative given the state of my hair currently, however I'll look to build towards 3mg of FIN a week over time? Any thoughts on this? I'll obviously keep my daily Rogaine efforts in place alongside the introduction of FIN.

It appears from the comments that no one whose reputable will touch me without me being on medication besides topical Rogaine. I guess this buys me some time to research further and pray to God that some better medical/technological treatments come to light.

One thing I need clarity on: Why is the transplant space such a mess? It seems that almost every single surgeon has their pros and cons. I've gone through the doctors with the highest accreditations and some of them have some really awful results, whilst others whom aren't at the cutting edge appear to have incredible ones. Going through each and every doctors results is fine, but it's mind numbing trying to make a sound choice in this space. I know that throughout the web, there's numerous guides and "top 10s", including a help post on these forums, but honestly I feel like I'm getting nowhere. I know that people fake results etc. but some of the surgeons with the best reputations in the industry have some questionable results too.

We've sent people to space, but can't fix hair? So frustrating. Sometimes I think that solving/fixing the problem isn't important, as the industry makes more money selling snake oil on a subscription basis rather than solving the issue directly.

[mr_peanutbutter]

@guven people like pittella operared on patients way worse then you and pittella puts noone on finasteride too

i think even without fin you wouldnt be a total hopeless case since you have coarse hair and good beard genetics.

however without fin you will receed morr and the hair journey will be more expensive and the end result less pleasing

[Chutchins]

Yeah, finasteride is important. I didn't want to take it but I've seen too many good results from it to ignore the obvious any longer.  No problems so far. Also, no improvements but no continued loss so it's a wash which is fine. I was told that if it holds me in place then that's a good foundation to build on. 

[Gatsby]

6 hours ago, Chutchins said:

Yeah, finasteride is important. I didn't want to take it but I've seen too many good results from it to ignore the obvious any longer.  No problems so far. Also, no improvements but no continued loss so it's a wash which is fine. I was told that if it holds me in place then that's a good foundation to build on. 

It only has to keep your hair at it's current state and you've won. Anything on top of this is a bonus. All the best!

[MachoVato]

You have more hair loss than I did when I got my first transplant. And yes, you seem to have some retrograde but not bad. The good news is that you have a strong beard. For transplants, that's not the best donor area but it can really help with adding density.

I would look for doctors with experience in using beard as a donor area.