Please send me results of what I can expect if I don’t take finasteride

[David____]

I know I will end up as N7 due to male pattern baldness as I’m 33 so I know that unless I take Finasteride I can’t expect a great result. I have decided that 100% I won’t be taking Finasteride. However, I'm still strongly considering to get a transplant tomorrow because:

* I do expect that having a transplant will extend the number of years before I have to shave my head. I expect an extension of at least 2 years maybe pushing me to 36?

* My shaved head with a transplant will look better than without?

Are these decent expectations?

Please can people send me some pictures of people in a similar scenario to me who underwent a transplant and did not take Finasteride.

[HappyMan2021]

First of all it is impossible to predict anyone's final hair loss form with any degree of certainty

Second of all it makes no sense to get a HT just to delay a shaved head by two years (if you could confidently predict final form hairloss, which again, you cant)

If you honestly are ok with a shaved head I would just let your hairloss progress naturally and live au naturale, and just embrace baldness as it happens

Or you can do SMP. But I honestly would rather be naturally bald than be bald but with a fake NW1 buzzcut

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by HappyMan2021

[ALittelTeal]

You owe it to yourself to see if you can get used to the shaved/buzzed look. I got a HT without fin and regret it constantly. I can't stress this enough - try cutting your hair shorter now and save yourself the nightmarish hassle of future procedures that in all likelihood will not give you the results that you hope they will.  

[Hair4Days]

No need to panic. This stuff is just a math equation. If you decide not to take finasteride you need to figure out what your donor capacity is and then measure your recipient zone including projected future loss as you mentioned. If you have say 6000-7000 that can really get you coverage all the way back to the crown. 
 

do you know these numbers?

[Berba11]

12 hours ago, David____ said:

Please can people send me some pictures of people in a similar scenario to me who underwent a transplant and did not take Finasteride.

What?

This forum is littered with threads and journeys by people who have had a HT, many of them do not take finasteride. If you want to know what this will mean long term, then you're asking people to send you photos from the future. Unfortunately we don't yet have time travel figured out, though I hear it's next on Dr Barghouthi's list.

If your long term plan is to shave your head, then do it now and save yourself the hassle and cost of a HT. At the very least, try it for a while as part of your research before surgery. Surgery should always be the last resort.

12 hours ago, David____ said:

My shaved head with a transplant will look better than without?

Depends how short you shave it. If you go too short, you'll expose the scars in the donor area and the gaps between the hairs on top will be bigger than native hair, so it might not look great unless you have a few HT's to get a more homogenous buzz look overall. If it's a slightly longer buzz cut (maybe a grade 3+), it'll look better, but again only if there's full coverage of the scalp.

So will it look better? Probably not, and it will be more challenging to get it to look good.

I think you have two viable options; Shave it off now and just rock that look, or eventually get a HT with a view to chasing down your hair loss with more HT's. Trying to a take a little from column A and a little from column B is just going to get to down a rabbit hole full of problems.

[David____]

9 hours ago, Berba11 said:

What?

This forum is littered with threads and journeys by people who have had a HT, many of them do not take finasteride.

Well I find it hard to find examples of where they explicitly say they don't take Finasteride

 

9 hours ago, Berba11 said:

If your long term plan is to shave your head, then do it now and save yourself the hassle and cost of a HT. At the very least, try it for a while as part of your research before surgery. Surgery should always be the last resort.

Depends how short you shave it. If you go too short, you'll expose the scars in the donor area and the gaps between the hairs on top will be bigger than native hair, so it might not look great unless you have a few HT's to get a more homogenous buzz look overall. If it's a slightly longer buzz cut (maybe a grade 3+), it'll look better, but again only if there's full coverage of the scalp.

So will it look better? Probably not, and it will be more challenging to get it to look good.

I think you have two viable options; Shave it off now and just rock that look, or eventually get a HT with a view to chasing down your hair loss with more HT's. Trying to a take a little from column A and a little from column B is just going to get to down a rabbit hole full of problems.

Right but it might look better for the next few years and it may also look better long term as the hairline could be better even with grade 1?

Or maybe I'm delusional. I don't really have the luxury of time as I'm in Turkey now and surgery scheduled for tomorrow so I need to make a decision.

Surgeon will use DHI Sapphire and they claim no scarring will be visible? Is that possible?

[Gatsby]

If you have any thoughts whatsoever of shaving your head after having a hair transplant then I would seriously consider canceling surgery. Also terms like Blue Sapphire, DHI, etc are just marketing terms. No surgeon can guarantee that scarring won't be visible. I strongly suggest that you shave your head and get a feel for it now while spending at least a year educating yourself on hair transplants. What they can do and what they cannot do.

[David____]

2 hours ago, Gatsby said:

If you have any thoughts whatsoever of shaving your head after having a hair transplant then I would seriously consider canceling surgery. Also terms like Blue Sapphire, DHI, etc are just marketing terms. No surgeon can guarantee that scarring won't be visible. I strongly suggest that you shave your head and get a feel for it now while spending at least a year educating yourself on hair transplants. What they can do and what they cannot do.

Thanks I think I’ll do this 

[David____]

15 hours ago, Berba11 said:

What?

This forum is littered with threads and journeys by people who have had a HT, many of them do not take finasteride.

I did another deeper look I can’t find any submissions where

* Sub 40 with male pattern baldness and ended up shaving their head due to lack of finasteride 
* Can show the scars of a DHI Sapphire FUE surgery

The closest I found was this guy on YouTube 

 

[Berba11]

9 hours ago, David____ said:

Surgeon will use DHI Sapphire and they claim no scarring will be visible? Is that possible?

Sorry but if you don’t know the answer to this question and the others you’re asking then to be blunt you are not ready for surgery. 
 

Hopefully you still have time to cancel your surgery as I’m guessing the clinic you’re going to are not a good one if these are the marketing gimmicks they are using. 
 

Scarring will be visible when you shave you head, yes. A sapphire blade makes no difference compared with a steal blade. 

[Berba11]

9 hours ago, David____ said:

Right but it might look better for the next few years and it may also look better long term as the hairline could be better even with grade 1?

It may also look worse for the next few years if you blunder into a poor clinic in Turkey off the back of little research & understanding of what makes a good HT and which clinics are producing the most natural looking work  

I explained what you can expect the outcome to look like and the challenges making a buzz cut work after a HT. I’m not sure what else I can add really. 

[Doron Harati]

@David____

if your donor destined to be highly effected by DHT then your HT result won't be impressive for long time, I also agree you shouldn't do HT to delay the bald appearance for 2 years.

Showing you results like this won't give you any reference, I mean you can see results of reference post 1 year result but as a patient coordinator I prefer you'll see a result that will be sustainable on you for the long term.

Right now your situation looks around NW4 maybe NW5, we still need high quality photos of your donor to see if there's a diffused pattern.

I do suggest if you can consider using topical Finasteride, I use it myself without any side effects.

DHI as a "supreme" method, is usually a marketing of hair mills, because it all coming down who is your surgeon, they also usually don't care how you'll look like in the long term, a high skilled surgeon will make a minimum trauma to the donor, but a hair mill can destroy it by overscarring and overharvesting, unfortunately my donor is scarred because I had my 1st horrific HT by Arenamed the hair mill in Turkey, then 3 repairs at HDC.

There's is no advance for the patient to have DHI over FUE, ect.. if it's a poor job then any method can go wrong.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Doron Harati

[David____]

I bailed at the last minute. I flew to Turkey and even got the cannula put in my arm. Moments before payment I felt I had too much FUD due to the consensus on forums like this that a HT is not worth it without Finasteride. I’ll shave my head this week and see how I feel. Even though the surgeon there was confident that it can be done without Finasteride it’s hard to trust him as he isn’t unbiased.

[Berba11]

1 hour ago, David____ said:

I bailed at the last minute. I flew to Turkey and even got the cannula put in my arm. Moments before payment I felt I had too much FUD due to the consensus on forums like this that a HT is not worth it without Finasteride. I’ll shave my head this week and see how I feel. Even though the surgeon there was confident that it can be done without Finasteride it’s hard to trust him as he isn’t unbiased.

Which clinic did you [sort of] go to?

Your issue isn’t finasteride. Your issue is that you’ve approached the possibility of surgery all wrong, haven’t done your due diligence & haven’t properly considered a long term plan. 

You made an excellent decision to bail out of surgery. 

Edited November 21, 2023 by Berba11

[mr_peanutbutter]

id wait until verteporfin is available

[David____]

41 minutes ago, Berba11 said:

Which clinic did you [sort of] go to?

Your issue isn’t finasteride. Your issue is that you’ve approached the possibility of surgery all wrong, haven’t done your due diligence & haven’t properly considered a long term plan. 

You made an excellent decision to bail out of surgery. 

Thanks

 

Dr Acar Cosmedica was the clinic. Recommended by a friend of a friend who did lots of due diligence and impressive ratings. Does that change things?

Edited November 21, 2023 by David____

[Berba11]

25 minutes ago, David____ said:

Thanks

 

Dr Acar Cosmedica was the clinic. Recommended by a friend of a friend who did lots of due diligence and impressive ratings. Does that change things?

No one on here would recommend you go to Cosmedica, frankly. So yes you dodged a potential bullet.

Your friend of a friend definitely did not do *good* due diligence if they ended up at Cosmedica (even if they did luck out with a good result).

[David____]

Interesting, can you point to some negative experiences?

[David____]

On 11/20/2023 at 4:21 AM, ALittelTeal said:

You owe it to yourself to see if you can get used to the shaved/buzzed look. I got a HT without fin and regret it constantly. I can't stress this enough - try cutting your hair shorter now and save yourself the nightmarish hassle of future procedures that in all likelihood will not give you the results that you hope they will.

 

alright I did it! I had no idea I am so bald haha

Not great, but I think I could live with it if it was a bit more uniform. So I’m considering skin micro pigmentation. I think it’s considered lower risk? ie there’s much less risk of regretting it? Could somebody educate me on the risks of SMP please. Perhaps it looks weird if I start getting grey hair later? Perhaps it will look obviously unnatural? Perhaps it requires a highly skilled person and they are few and far between. 
 

Since I’m in Turkey maybe I should get it done while I’m here? Does anybody have any recommendations for places in Turkey? 
 

I think I’ll start a new thread with these questions if people here aren’t as knowledgeable about SMP?

 

Thanks

[BackFromTheBrink]

12 minutes ago, David____ said:

 

alright I did it! I had no idea I am so bald haha

Not great, but I think I could live with it if it was a bit more uniform. So I’m considering skin micro pigmentation. I think it’s considered lower risk? ie there’s much less risk of regretting it? Could somebody educate me on the risks of SMP please. Perhaps it looks weird if I start getting grey hair later? Perhaps it will look obviously unnatural? Perhaps it requires a highly skilled person and they are few and far between. 
 

Since I’m in Turkey maybe I should get it done while I’m here? Does anybody have any recommendations for places in Turkey? 
 

I think I’ll start a new thread with these questions if people here aren’t as knowledgeable about SMP?

 

Thanks

You could consider some dental work and perhaps a breast augmentation at the same time?

I'm curious, what were they doing with a cannula in your arm? Why didn't they shave your head before doing anything else?

Seriously, get on the plane and take your time to make a long term plan.

Edited November 21, 2023 by BackFromTheBrink

[Nimx]

3 hours ago, BackFromTheBrink said:

take your time to make a long term plan.

May I ask what a long term plan would look like I'm willing to have an HT without finasteride?

I'm asking because I'm starting to feel some information but I really don't know where to start from.

Btw 42yo diffuse thinner nw 3-4 (well I wouldn't use nw scale for diffusers, Ludwig's better in my opinion).

 

Thanks in advance

[BaldDude]

39 minutes ago, Nimx said:

May I ask what a long term plan would look like I'm willing to have an HT without finasteride?

I'm asking because I'm starting to feel some information but I really don't know where to start from.

Btw 42yo diffuse thinner nw 3-4 (well I wouldn't use nw scale for diffusers, Ludwig's better in my opinion).

 

Thanks in advance

Multiple HT's causing physical and financial pain.

[Nimx]

8 minutes ago, BaldBobby said:

Multiple HT's causing physical and financial pain.

Hehe is that all it takes for a successful long term plan? I can do that (hope) ! 😁

I'm planning my first HT from Dr Gur, conservative approach, 2500 grafts to leave more for future if needed.

Not sure if I have to look for anything else in my plans though 

[BackFromTheBrink]

50 minutes ago, Nimx said:

May I ask what a long term plan would look like I'm willing to have an HT without finasteride?

I'm asking because I'm starting to feel some information but I really don't know where to start from.

Btw 42yo diffuse thinner nw 3-4 (well I wouldn't use nw scale for diffusers, Ludwig's better in my opinion).

 

Thanks in advance

It is difficult given that you will effectively have one hand tied behind your back.

The OP mentioned the possibility of SMP, so there's that to consider.

I'd also assess whether you were prepared to take any other medication. Is it oral finesteride you won't take, or topical too? How about minoxidyl? Have you tried/considered other remedies, such as Saw Palmetto?

If you guesstimate your final hair loss position, what is donor capacity to cover it? How much are you willing to spend? How many surgeries would you consider? When will you have them, and what areas will you focus on. When you're out of donor, what will your final position look like with the surgeries you've had, and now can you make it look natural?

If you're going to have surgery, what type, which doctor is most suitable, what source can you use? Scalp, bears, chest hair?

There are a few surgeons who can perform really high graft surgeries. If it were me, I'd only consider one of them without medication. If I could afford it, someone like Zarev may be able to cover an entire Norwood 6 or 7 pattern while maintaining homogeneity in the donor. His analysis would also give the best approximation of final position before starting your journey.

[Nimx]

2 minutes ago, BackFromTheBrink said:

It is difficult given that you will effectively have one hand tied behind your back.

The OP mentioned the possibility of SMP, so there's that to consider.

I'd also assess whether you were prepared to take any other medication. Is it oral finesteride you won't take, or topical too? How about minoxidyl? Have you tried/considered other remedies, such as Saw Palmetto?

If you guesstimate your final hair loss position, what is donor capacity to cover it? How much are you willing to spend? How many surgeries would you consider? When will you have them, and what areas will you focus on. When you're out of donor, what will your final position look like with the surgeries you've had, and now can you make it look natural?

If you're going to have surgery, what type, which doctor is most suitable, what source can you use? Scalp, bears, chest hair?

There are a few surgeons who can perform really high graft surgeries. If it were me, I'd only consider one of them without medication. If I could afford it, someone like Zarev may be able to cover an entire Norwood 6 or 7 pattern while maintaining homogeneity in the donor. His analysis would also give the best approximation of final position before starting your journey.

Well, that's quite some question.

Mate, first of all thank you for your time really appreciate it.

Well, I can't take oral Finasteride, I may try topical in hope it doesn't impact me but ,of course, it is just a last resort.

That said yes ,I started using minoxidil, dermaroll, saw palmetto and other supposedly DHT blockers both oral and topical. No sides (actually I feel better and my blood work are damn great).

I'll try to add also red light therapy (it's not expensive and giving a try won't hurt)

Not sure about my donor yet, I will ask for sure to have an estimate.

About where and costs, as I said in other post well I'm avoiding hair mills but still trying to save money for future HTs.

So I chose a Dr Gut who does just couple of patients a day and have read nice reviews. It is a well balanced decision in my opinion, given my financial investment.

How many HT ? I don't know yet, if it need to be 2 or 3, it's ok. 

At the moment 2.5-3k max grafts have been estimated for good coverage based on actual situation.

Uhm about the other questions yeah, I have plenty of beard and chest hairs to be used if necessary in years to come.

My alopecia is quite slow , steady for all my life starting from 25 till now 23 years later.

Of course I will look into new meds that will come out if they are suitable (pyri, verteporfin, whatever... I keep updated).

Sorry if my answers have been confusing, lot of questions and I may have missed something 😅