Hair transplant With and Without medications

[Mr. Clean]

Hi @Melvin- Moderator,

Is there anywhere in the forum that I can see the results of the patients who had transplant but did not take any medications at all? 

I apologize ahead of time if I'm asking too much but is there any way you can group the topics or reviews of the patients who had a hair transplant and is not in any medications? 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

I didn’t take medication for many years. You can see my previous hair transplants if you search them. I have to say, getting an HT without meds isn’t wise unless you’re completely bald.

[A_4_Archan]

@Mr. Clean

There are many such people...you can avoid medication if you don't have enough native hairs on your top to loose or if you have good amount of native hairs and you are okay if you loose them in future...another thing is if your body can't tolerate it than you may not take it...so in those mentioned scenarios you can avoid it....

[Mr. Clean]

2 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I didn’t take medication for many years. You can see my previous hair transplants if you search them. I have to say, getting an HT without meds isn’t wise unless you’re completely bald.

Thank you for the reply Melvin. I guess my question was not clear. I was hoping if there is a specific section in the forum where the people who already had HT but decided not to take medications post their review. If not, can we maybe categorize or set a section where we can read the reviews of those who had HT without meds and another section for those reviews who had HT with meds. In that way we can distinguish and see the results of those people who had HT without meds and those who had HT with meds?

I was reading reviews and I believe some of the people who had HT without meds I've read are capilli21, robertdeniro, balding eye... had impressive results. It would be nice if those reviews would be in one section where we can easily access. Its just a suggestion if its possible. You have done enough to keep this forum running and for that, I am grateful to you.

I apologize for the confusion. 

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

@Mr. Clean,

Hair transplant results will vary with or without taking non-surgical solutions.  While Dr. Rahal does recommend some patients take Propecia/finasteride, there are others that are clearly candidates without having to take it. Below, is a recent result we presented where the patient did not take any finasteride or minoxidil at the time of surgery. He did take minoxidil in the past, but had a bad reaction so he stopped. He never took finasteride, although he said he would consider taking it in the future.

Note that the below patient is just one out of many examples who had a Hair transplant without taking medication.

Note also that this patient had plenty of additional donor hair in the event subsequent procedures are needed. He is also fully in the know regarding the possibility of additional loss, and the possibility of subsequent necessary procedures.  This is true for any and all patients Dr. Rahal performs surgery on.

Hairline

45 Degree Angle

Top

Crown

You can view the actual forum topic below.

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Rahal Hair Transplant

[Mr. Clean]

Thank you for the reply and explanation @Rahal Hair Transplant. I'm very interested to know the long term outcome of the patients who decided not to have medications. I know that there are possibility of additional loss of the native and transplanted hair but that's what I'm interested to see. I got particularly interested after reading the review of @Capelli21and it got my attention because he mentioned in his thread that he never took any medications nor vitamins but just maintained a good and healthy diet and yet his results were amazing on his first HT with @Eugenix Hair Sciences and he had his 2nd transplant last June too. I have seen a lot of excellent outcomes from patients who had HT + meds and now I wanted to see the long term results of those who had HT but opted not to take any meds. 

[mr_peanutbutter]

19 hours ago, Mr. Clean said:

Thank you for the reply and explanation @Rahal Hair Transplant. I'm very interested to know the long term outcome of the patients who decided not to have medications. I know that there are possibility of additional loss of the native and transplanted hair but that's what I'm interested to see. I got particularly interested after reading the review of @Capelli21and it got my attention because he mentioned in his thread that he never took any medications nor vitamins but just maintained a good and healthy diet and yet his results were amazing on his first HT with @Eugenix Hair Sciences and he had his 2nd transplant last June too. I have seen a lot of excellent outcomes from patients who had HT + meds and now I wanted to see the long term results of those who had HT but opted not to take any meds. 

ehm the shortterm outcome of a hairtransplant wont differ that much between a guy on meds vs a guy on non meds

 

interesting are the long term results…2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years

 

and those experience will be very individual…if you are destinied to become norwood 7 like joe biden or joe rogan your experience will be very different to someone who is genetically destinied to not receed beyond the norwood 3 hairline

 

so you wont get any useful insights at all, nothing that can help you with your own decision

 

 

[Mr. Clean]

I don’t disagree with you, 

5 hours ago, mr_peanutbutter said:

ehm the shortterm outcome of a hairtransplant wont differ that much between a guy on meds vs a guy on non meds

 

interesting are the long term results…2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years

 

and those experience will be very individual…if you are destinied to become norwood 7 like joe biden or joe rogan your experience will be very different to someone who is genetically destinied to not receed beyond the norwood 3 hairline

 

so you wont get any useful insights at all, nothing that can help you with your own decision

 

 

I don’t disagree with you and that’s why I mentioned I’m interested to see the reviews of those who had HT without meds long term results. Most of the reviews I read here that had HT without meds are in high NW 6-7 and it interested me to see their long term results if it’s even sustainable for a person not to be in meds and still will retain the HT hair they had. Anyway of those I read, the span of time that they had HT was between a year to maybe 2. Haven’t read reviews and seen any photos of people who had HT either with or without meds for let’s say greater than 4 years yet. Unless I missed it or haven’t read it yet. 

[mr_peanutbutter]

6 minutes ago, Mr. Clean said:

I don’t disagree with you, 

I don’t disagree with you and that’s why I mentioned I’m interested to see the reviews of those who had HT without meds long term results. Most of the reviews I read here that had HT without meds are in high NW 6-7 and it interested me to see their long term results if it’s even sustainable for a person not to be in meds and still will retain the HT hair they had. Anyway of those I read, the span of time that they had HT was between a year to maybe 2. Haven’t read reviews and seen any photos of people who had HT either with or without meds for let’s say greater than 4 years yet. Unless I missed it or haven’t read it yet. 

oh ok, i get what you mean now

[Melvin- Admin]

If you’re a Norwood 6/7 your HT will thin, probably 15-20% in 20+ years without meds. Donor hair is DHT resistant, not DHT proof. 
 

 

[Mr. Clean]

4 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

If you’re a Norwood 6/7 your HT will thin, probably 15-20% in 20+ years without meds. Donor hair is DHT resistant, not DHT proof. 
 

 

Thank you for this very helpful video @Melvin- Moderator. I hope I found this forum sooner, I still have a lot of catching up to read and I’m learning a lot because of HRN. 

[Emiry]

Everyone has genetics for a Norwood level they’re supposed to reach and when hairloss will start.

NW7 have super thin safe zone in donor which doesn’t fall off. What this means is their donor area (back of head) also suffers hairloss and there is a very thin area going from ear to ear that doesn’t get affected by hairloss. It’s so thin, it’s worthless for hair transplant because then you’re bald in the back and from ear to ear. When a young guy destined for NW7 gets a hair transplant doesn’t take medication, he gets hairloss because remember there is nowhere on his head that is safe except a very thin line of hair so there’s no donor for him, there’s just moving DHT sensitive hairs from back to front. 

NW6 guys have much more safe donor area but again, this doesn’t mean their back of head is all safe zone. Same story, a young guy destined for NW6 gets a hair transplant doesn’t use medication, he will get patchy hairloss in transplanted hair because some of his transplanted hair is from safe zone which survives while some is from unsafe zone which falls off.

There’s really no mystery here. You see some people get hair transplants, don’t use medication and still have the same hair simply because they reached their genetic Norwood level. Then there are some who get HT and lose all the transplanted hair and then some. All you see is individuals genetics. 
 

I was diagnosed NW5’ish (I am NW1 or 2 now I think) but there was absolutely zero doubt in my mind I am going to NW6 if I was foolish enough to not take medication. I could see miniaturisation in back of my head. I don’t know if I am destined for NW7 and I don’t want to find out. If I stop medication now my transplanted hairs will fall and I will get patchy areas of loss or maybe totally bald because when the surgeon was taking my donor area he told me I had so many hairs sleeping and in very weak condition.

Check BeHappy profile, poor guy that’s what happens when you’re destined to be a NW7 get transplants and reach your level. 

 

I have seen NW8 I think, I mean their loss is so severe, that thin line of NW7 is like drawn with a pencil. Horrible thing man, just horrible 

[Grouse]

Again, I'm confused how we can definitively say that people destined to be NW6 / NW7 cannot do a transplant without meds. Here's several examples of NW6 / 7 patients with strong results that were fully bald on top. Several, including Bandi90 and Pitella's cases, that appear to have poor donor even.

 

Why would these people be able to have a result, but other NW6 / 7 cannot? Perhaps their donor will thin out over time, but no hair transplant is permanent forever. 

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[Melvin- Admin]

33 minutes ago, Grouse said:

Again, I'm confused how we can definitively say that people destined to be NW6 / NW7 cannot do a transplant without meds. Here's several examples of NW6 / 7 patients with strong results that were fully bald on top. Several, including Bandi90 and Pitella's cases, that appear to have poor donor even.

 

Why would these people be able to have a result, but other NW6 / 7 cannot? Perhaps their donor will thin out over time, but no hair transplant is permanent forever. 

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All of these patients are on medication. @Bandit90 is on finasteride. All of Dr. Pittella’s patients are on oral minoxidil. 

[Grouse]

Fair! But minoxidil alone doesn't really stop hairloss like Fin or other AA's, right? I wasn't aware Bandit was on fin.

Tough life out here for those of us that get sides from AA's.

[Hairwolf]

On 8/23/2023 at 10:00 PM, Melvin- Moderator said:

I didn’t take medication for many years. You can see my previous hair transplants if you search them. I have to say, getting an HT without meds isn’t wise unless you’re completely bald.

You are not taking Oral medication but you are taking topicals right? Think the OP is referring to someone going ‘cold turkey’

[hairman22]

On 8/25/2023 at 10:53 PM, Melvin- Moderator said:

All of these patients are on medication. @Bandit90 is on finasteride. All of Dr. Pittella’s patients are on oral minoxidil. 

Do you think Oral Minoxidil can stop most people reaching a higher Nw level.

Like for instance maybe someone is destined for NW6-7 but if taken early OM can can stop you at Nw3-4 for example?

Maybe OM workd best for donor. Im suing it myself but i do think long term it is kinda unknown how well it will work.

[Gatsby]

As a Norwood 7 I believe strongly that medication is a bonus. Perhaps less of need than a Norwood 2 who has a lot to lose. But by the time you get to Norwood 7 your donor is often compromised by a previous surgery or the donor hair itself is limited and in poor shape. Oral minoxidil and topical finasteride have really helped me to the point that it allowed me to have a second surgery utilizing well over 6K scalp grafts in total!

[Al - Moderator]

On 8/25/2023 at 1:01 AM, Emiry said:

Check BeHappy profile, poor guy that’s what happens when you’re destined to be a NW7 get transplants and reach your level. 

 

After my transplants in the 80s and 90s when Finasteride came out, I took it for 11 years and lost a lot of hair anyway. I think it helped a bit the first couple of years, but after that it started falling out anyway, so basically it didn't make a difference whether I was on meds or not.

 

[Al - Moderator]

3 minutes ago, BeHappy said:

 

After my transplants in the 80s and 90s when Finasteride came out, I took it for 11 years and lost a lot of hair anyway. I think it helped a bit the first couple of years, but after that it started falling out anyway, so basically it didn't make a difference whether I was on meds or not.

 

 

And to add to that, it was thinning out my chest hair which I needed for body hair to scalp transplants, so I would have actually been better off if I never touched finasteride at all.

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by BeHappy