Advice on unshaven FUE/beard to scalp transplant

[Thoro]

Hi all,

I am looking for advice and recommendation regarding unshaven FUE, possibly combined with beard to scalp transplant.

 First some information about me: 

I am a 58 year old male who is fully healthy.  

I had two FUTs when I was 31 and 35 at New Hair Clinic in Sweden (1000 grafts each session) as the temples were thinning a bit.
Years later I noticed thinning on the crown too so I had a 2000 graft FUE at Advanced Hair Clinic in Athens, Greece in 2017. Density was somewhat improved but my frontal area is still a bit thin at the temples and I also still have a thin spot at the crown of the head.  

I have taken 1mg finasteride daily since April 2022 and 5mg oral minoxidil daily since April 2023. This has not noticeably improved density but I have continued to take both in order to strengthen existing hair and not lose any further hair.

I would like to increase the density on the crown and at the front if possible, understanding that the number of donor hairs is limited following previous procedures. For this reason I would consider beard to head transplant instead of, or as a compliment, to the unshaven FUE. 

Due to my work and my social situation I do not want to shave my head for an operation so I am only interested in an unshaven FUE or beard to head transplant.

 

I visited two clinics and got very different responses:

 

Harley Street Hair Clinic in London did not recommend further transplants as they deemed the risk too great of new transplants damaging the existing hairs, possibly resulting in less hairs after the procedure than before due to transection damage.  “One step forward and two back” as they put it.

 Dr Bisanga in Belgium said my donor was still good enough for approximately 1500 grafts and another 500-1000 beard grafts would be enough to give me the desired density. The quoted price was very high though: £8 per graft. He came across as very genuine and professional but I simply cannot afford to spend £16000 or so on a hair transplant, and as my hair loss is not that severe I figured there must be cheaper alternatives.

 So I then started looking at other alternatives around Europe and again got very different opinions:

 Dr Mwamba in Belgium quoted £13000 for 1500 grafts

Dr Geza Sikosplastic in Budapest did not consider my hair loss enough to warrant a transplant

I got the same response from Dr Erdogan at ASMED in Turkey.

Dr Öztan in Turkey did not respond.

Dr Doganay in Turkey did not respond either.

I then got a response from Dr Yaman which was interesting for a number of reasons:

He recommended 3000-3500 grafts with his own Yaman inplanter and quoted $3250 for the procedure, all medicine, airport transfers and 3 nights in a hotel included.

This obviously sounded like a very good price (maybe too good?) so I started doing some research to find out more about Dr Yaman. I found several patients on this forum that seemed pleased with him and the pictures looked good too. I found one very bad review when I did a google search, but I understand that this is the case for every doctor out there.

I do not want to rush into something that I might later regret so I wanted to check with you all if there are any obvious warning signs regarding Dr Yaman?

I realise the limitations of my donor area and cannot see how 3000-3500 grafts could be harvested from it, but Dr Yaman only had my photos to go by of course.

How does his Yaman inplanter differ from the tools used by other surgeons?

Are there other clinics in Europe that I should  for unshaven FUE/body hair transplant?

I live in the UK but am prepared to travel anywhere within Europe.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Tom

PS. Added photos of wet and dry hair.

[colbin]

3000 grafts is a very high number. Where should they be placed?

Perhaps better photos would be helpful