NARMAK

My apologies, i completely misread your post. You are already on Minoxidil. Do NOT discontinue in that case because any hair relying on it are likely to be lost quicker. Add Finasteride into your routine and Microneedling. It will boost your results significantly. Re-evaluate in 12 months as to how good a candidate you might be for a hair transplant and consult with pretty much everyone realistically you willing to go to. Save up in the meantime and budget accordingly over the 1w months so if the transplant is viable, you're ready to rock and having that money already saved makes it feel like much less of a slog.

That's 100% natural in my eyes. I hope as time goes on you feel much more settled and get the calmness as the results come but hair transplants are a fickle thing when emotions are involved. Just try to remember the basics of what to expect and definitely share your doubts etc. because i think a forum is a great sounding board unlike sometimes your own head where doubts can just rattle around lol. At least here guys can give you that release valve and take away stuff you maybe worried about unnecessarily or prematurely. All the best.

For what it's worth, putting all that other stuff to the side. Thank you for sharing your journey, thoughts and even the points you didn't feel great about. It all helps people when making their decisions and even is something i'm hoping to take on board. I think looking at those pictures, your results pretty solid and if anything, should you personally decide you wanted to have another procedure like so many do to refine and add density, that's a personal choice but you look great to me there for a single pass. The illusion of density is also a perfectly valid comment and what hair transplants give. If people usually go back to add more density and refine, i completely understand that choice top but it is definitely down to the individuals and how they feel about it. I know Armen (@MazAB) is already talking about going back and he's only at 6 months results lol. So it's not about a "bad hair transplant" requiring it at all. It's just the reality of hair transplants imo where "perfect" is a moving goal post for everybody. Good luck as you head to 12+ months OP and really hoping for the best for you.

Honestly, if you hadn't said anything and i just saw you on the street, i'd say that looks like just any normal mature mans hairline. Completely unremarkable in looks which is what imo makes the result even better. Nobody would be able to spot that if they met you right now.

Mate, that looks stonking for 5 months and you still got another 7+ months to go. Really chuffed for you and hoping to see the next few months too. Right now you could easily shove hair fibres into that hair and give it an illusion of looking close to hopefully a fuller thicker 12 month look. I think the donor area isn't looking too bad either. The lower area looks a bit more thin but could be the hair cut playing a part too.

Hey bud, thanks for pointing me to your thread. The extractions and the donor area looks so clean and i genuinely think the density on that post-op looks like just what you'd need. I never like to count my chickens and can already see you my had a wobble over that one area but a hair transplant is a marathon. A 12+ month one and you are very early into the marathon. Just keep to the post-op instructions, be aware of the ugly duckling/shedding phases and fingers crossed you'll get that result you really hoped for the first time.

I think the conditioner trick Melvin shows to wash away that sort of scab residue would probably help OP. It's a fear of mine because i get a dry itchy scalp often, that i am using T-Gel to manage as well as Nizoral, whether hopefully saline spray will do the job for the initial days and then after that, when i might be able to return to using Nizoral. @Melvin- Moderator any thoughts? Usually they say stick to like baby shampoo but when could we post-op look to start using Nizoral and T-gel, regular shampoos etc.?

With 3500 grafts and a competent clinic, i think you should look great and fingers crossed for you. Keep us appraised of your results maybe in a dedicated thread

Sorry, i may have not worded it the best. I have paid a deposit and booked a date in May for the Exclusive Package (120 RS). I will be sharing my journey on here and elsewhere when possible but there is a case on here if you search "Eugenix" with Dr Das which i believe was for 120 RS and the work looked immaculate. Even a single case of 75 RS i saw on YouTube looks like Eugenix still pay the same care and attention to detail. Although as mentioned i felt i wanted peace of mind by having a senior Doctor and technicians involved myself. So i specifically requested Dr Das after having a video consultation with her and she put my mind at ease with the questions i had.

How old are you now? Also, do you have pictures just of the back donor area? Ideally you need to be back on Finasteride because you look like there's hair that could be saved there and Finasteride will continue working past 12+ months. You made a mistake stopping Finasteride imo but there's no time machine but you could probably save what you had. If you are willing to be committed and also do it, you can add in Minoxodil alongside Microneedling and Nizoral with 2% ketoconazole shampoo at the same time. You would have to stick with both though. 2nd option is just Finasteride, Microneedling and Nizoral which is easier to adhere to.

The senior doctors and technicians are part of the 120 RS option, so it's up to you to decide whether you feel that's worth the jump. Personally i did for a bit more piece of mind and getting to know about the experience of others on here it also seems to be a good budget option for those more concerned about seniority/experience of both Doctors/Technicians. However i have seen work done on the 75 RS package and it looks really clean too.

You can use a regular derma roller off Amazon but i've recently bought a Derma pen and probably over the longer term its a better investment and more effective. You can probably get one that's well regarded like a Dr Pen M8 if you want, but i got a more generic version. I recommended only starting Finasteride because it's probably going to be easier to adhere to by taking 1 pill a day depending on whether you're willing to take that. You could start off though 2-3x a week and the taper up if you like so as to get the body used to the drop in DHT which could potentially mitigate any side affects. I know you're probably eager to get a HT sooner but if you are willing to be patient over a 12-24 month period the plan would be as follows: 12 Months Finasteride + Microneedling with a derma roller/pen then reasses and decide whether to add Minoxodil and wait another 12 months or go for a hair transplant after 12 months if you don't want to add Minoxidil. Personally i have kept Minoxodil in my back pocket for now. Mainly because i have no idea whether i would stick to the topical 2x a day and also because i don't think i'm able to get a hold of the oral Minoxodil easily in the UK. That said, in the US there is a possibility to get a topical Finasteride and Minoxodil combo. I know that's a lot of information chucked at you so feel free to ask anything else.

Great advice for OP and your journey is something i constantly say a LOT of young guys can learn from. For all the so called advancements we apparently have made in FUE etc. there's still exponentially so many more bad outcomes due to the explosion in demand and inadequate skill set of clinics globally. It's literally creating an epidemic of men that are going to be left high and dry, but also in a selfish but negative way i would say these same people even if there's like 25% of them, they will swamp the reputable clinics looking for a repair and be willing to pay, which means prices across the board could rise at the reputable places for even virgin scalp hair transplants. That's sheerly down to supply and demand issues. I unfortunately didn't hit the jackpot recently lol, so i don't have that luxury of being able to probably save for ages and ages, and even then imho there comes a point where paying more money isn't guaranteed to give a better result. The doctor just has the demand to justify higher pricing. Such is the way markets all seem to work.

In terms of Dutasteride. I actually skipped Finasteride entirely and went nuclear off the bat with 0.5mg everyday of Dutasteride. My primary reason was that my research led to me checking studies where scalp DHT was reduced 41% on Finasteride 1mg/day and 51% on Dutasteride 0.5mg/day. The difference in body serum DHT though is like 90% reduction which is why its probably got more side affects for a lot of people sensitive to those changes. Personally speaking i had sides that i was willing to tolerate. Those included lower libido, some brain fog and i would say my mood changed and this probably took my a month or so to start levelling off due to the reduced body serum DHT but now as i come to around Month 10 of using Dutasteride i would say things have rebounded a fair bit. I wouldn't say i have brain fog anymore really, not exactly the most remembering even before use so i'd say i'm back to that sorta ballpark. Libido definitely tracked back towards baseline. Not 100% there at all and probably won't be but between 70-80% now. Sometimes i think as we get older, we naturally have a reduction compared to our late teens and 20s though, so that's something to be mindful of too. That said, maybe i'd even say as low as 50-60% at times if i have stress in my life. Everything in terms of the plumbing however seems to work fine as they would say. However, i would strongly urge guys to workout and eat well, i'm trying to do that because it's also a big factor in that area. Overall, going nuclear with Dutasteride seems to be working out. I think i even saw some regrowth and managed to save hair that might have been on the cusp albeit i wish i had started on Finasteride maybe 10+ years ago and i wouldn't have been trying to play catch up with Dutasteride. Microneedling also requires time to work just like Finasteride and Minoxodil so should be evaluated over a 12+ month period. I would however say the positive thing about it is that you are more likely to get more "permanent" results that stick around once you stop using Microneedling unlike stopping Minoxodil i guess as long as you block DHT on the scalp. I would say to anybody coming from Finasteride. Taper the dosage. Start at 1x per week replacement and then 2x and so on, till you feel your body has levelled out and slowly adjusted to the reduced DHT and you can get a feel for any potential side affects.

Lmao. On a serious note though, that's just a damn good hairline. I'm not a fan of where the hairlines so low that the temple points look really tiny and boxed in very small. I think the aesthetics of the hairline he has in that picture perfect encapsulate the difference between a childs hairline and a man's. The way it frames and blends with the beard makes him just look really distinguished imo. He has that balance of being able to be youthful or mature looking simply by way of what styling he decides to go with and even maybe trimming the beard down to a more stylish design. Okay, i'm gonna quit the man crushing 😛

I think the OP just needs to clarify what they meant by remove because it is causing confusion between whether its about permanently removing all implanted follicles or a repair for FUE done incorrectly with angles etc. Donor areas a precious enough finite commodity that simply burning off grafts even via laser isn't always necessary. I know @Gatsbycan probably attest to having made such a tough decision but in his case, it was probably at the time the only option. I wonder if he may have done things differently in the current era of what is available.

Yeah, i know but when you like been living without those sweet, sweet temple points since like 16/17, i can't help but get hair greed on that part lol That said, i also am grateful i'm having a start point of around a Norwood 2 which means hopefully if the medication can take care of the heavy lifting to maintain what i had, i could hopefully enjoy having a much more solid hairline for some time to come. Armen maintained incredibly well on Finasteride, if i can be anything close to that for as long as he did using Dutasteride i would be incredibly happy. Hopefully by the time Stemson get some clone grafts, maybe we can all be greedy

Thanks for the sage advice and yeah, i definitely want to listen to the input of the doctor for sure. I do think i'm trying to be as realistic as possible with the design for my hairline and the potential grafts it will require. Ultimately like you, i want to nail things the first time. Even in many ways from a density PoV, i want to find a balance where they can nail it down first time out. I have honestly gone back and forth probably on the temple points more than the distance from glabella of the hairline. I feel they are going to be the most impactful on any hair transplant i would get. I do think overall you don't want them really narrow and i know some might think this is unrealistic of me, but i feel like Jake Gyllenhaal's hairline is like 100% the sort of inspiration i'm going for in terms of design. It's more flat and lower on the temporal areas and the temple points are not vertical but just a touch behind which i love aesthetically. They're also framed in such a way they don't look like a narrow box closing it in too much like a juvenile hairline but nicely sitting towards the outer edge of the eyebrows about a 1/3rd of the way almost. Now, normally i think that would be an incredibly ambitious hairline but as a Norwood 2, i think i could get fairly close and by jove i'm gonna try lol.

Without knowing how far your loss is, there's few who can probably even guess what good Finasteride would have done once you hit Norwood 6. That said, medication can still potentially keep hair in the donor area looking better for longer. A lot of people don't actually seem to realise that donor hair is also susceptible to DHT albeit its a lot more resistant but the band of donor hair considered "permanent" is in a very small area. So taking medication can help with transplanted hair too imo unlike how the vast majority might see it. Albeit i would tweak the dosage to like say 1-2x a week with 1mg. Ultimately you should research and save for somebody competent and reputable and this forums a great place to help answer questions.

I think people will never not freak out about this stuff. The good ol' chestnut is: "Well what if i'm not like him, i'm different?!" So they freak out anyways lol. Hopefully this will help quite a few people who maybe can become a bit more tempered with patient education. I do think that people don't think long term enough. Like in many ways, 12 months is short term too but they literally want to see that instant gratification i think. It's just the Amazon effect of "Want it and want it now(!)". Before we used to have 3-5 working days expectations for stuff ordered online to get to us if not more and not it's literally like person orders something 11.59pm and wants it the next day before 12pm. So yeah, things are definitely more unrealistic in the current social media age and i don't think the fact that these Instagram based hair mills are making things easier when they also probably use photo shop to enhance their results. Wavy lines on straight panels where women digitally try to nip/tuck themselves is common and sometimes obvious, but for men and hair touch ups, it's harder to spot i'd argue. More subtle but effective in many ways and it draws people in deceptively. I'm glad there's people like yourself able to be candid and open each step of the way on what to realistically expect, how it really looks and just making guys feel reassured they're generally not the only person experiencing this and alone.

I would say if you are on medication and Minoxidil alongside Microneedling and noticing it thinning, you might benefit from trying to now switch to Dutasteride 0.5mg on some days. Some people introduce it 1x to 2x a week alongside Finasteride. Firstly, what is your Finasteride dose? 1mg everyday? Microneedling also will take longer than 2 months to show up as effective. You need to really allow a similar timescale of 12+ months to let results fully manifest. Overall you look like a Norwood 2, very early stages of hair loss and since you been on medication and stuff for 5 years, you done well to catch it where you did. If you haven't been using 1mg of Finasteride every day, then increasing the dose might help and you should be able to check in 3-6 months time, but you may be ready to switch to Dutasteride.

If you have been maintaining on Finasteride then it's doing its job tbh. Finsateride is designed to stop you losing more hair where possible by slowing the progression or halting it via scalp DHT inhibition. Without having any before pictures its usually harder to tell what progress you had. Sometimes it's very subtle. I would personally in your situation start using Minoxidil in combination with Microneedling once you hit the 12 month mark. A 10 year Japanese study has shown that Finasteride if effective will continue to work but the issue usually is people don't tend to keep track that long. Sometimes even stopping. Minoxodil 2x a day is usually the biggest adherence issue imo with it being a topical. That's why oral Minoxodil is gaining more traction recently but i personally don't know if there's been any real studies on combined oral Finasteride and Minoxidil use. I would say its easier to use an oral for Finasteride and topical for Minoxidil in combination with a derma pen at 1-1.5mm depth once a week. You actually can then try consult with some places and do your research as well as save up. Your hair loss pattern isn't also that looking because it seems the loss is more diffused.

The PRP and Laser Cap sounds like an attempt to extract money out of you imho. I would urge you to take Finasteride and give it 12 months to see how that affects you because if you hop onto Minoxodil at the same time, you don't know which treatments yielded which results. That said, use a derma pen and start Microneedling once a week at 1-1.5mm depths. It will probably give you much better results than just Finasteride alone and its proven to have any results last longer after stopping use unlike the hair that fall once Minoxodil is stopped. Personally i don't think the science to the price/effort of using PRP and laser caps is worth it for the results. In fact, you could probably benefit a bit more for the price by adding a 2% ketoconazole shampoo like Nizoral into the mix for its Anti-Androgen properties. Overall, get a few more consultations but medication and hair restoration for 12 months should be the focus if you haven't done so previously.

Online reviews have become so manipulated and easy to fake, that those sites hosting them have become useless. Sites like this show off real patient results abd can be tracked over a 12+ month period usually. We've got people on here who went to those places with "5* reviews" on similar sites and got really poor results. Remember, if somebody doesn't have a clue about what to actually look for when getting a hair transplant, the following happens: "Oh, i wanted more hair on my head where i could see it didn't look as bald. They did that. 5*". Yet nowhere in that are we ever told about whether the person knows they were over harvested, if there's issues of thinning etc. If you basically look at hair transplants as having to hit the criteria this forum and others expect, then that 5* review would easily be a 0 or 1 and maybe in extremely rare cases a 2. Be glad you ended up here, do your research and do it right the first time you go for tour hair transplant if you do decide to opt for it. Medication and hair restoration should be your first stop though.

It's one of those situations where if you work in a specific field, then people you interact with daily are suffering from X, Y, Z issue and in your dermatologists case if people usually with hair loss show those signs and mention them but don't have any other medication they take, probably gets linked and stopped as a precaution and best practice from their PoV. Especially if they were the prescribing physician too. Bottom line, 98% of men imo don't seem to get side affects that probably can't be managed to reap the benefits and of the circa 2% that probably get side affects the vast majority recover once use is discontinued. Melvin on here is candid about not using due to side affects which he has all my respect for but also because he tells people to give it a try too before any hair transplants are thought of as a hair restoration method. Ultimately we're at the mercy of our genetics when it comes to hair loss, medication or not. Hopeful one day soon, it will be possible to use clone grafts like Stemson Therapeutics are working on, but also hopefully not limited to people with a big wallet for long.