Am I a good candidate for FUE? Any doctor recommendation in Turkey?

[joerazor]

I am a 30 year old guy that has been shedding for the past 4 years. (All my uncles from my mother's side are bald)

I tried Minoxidil for a few months, but for some reason, my hair didn't react well with it. Never tried any other type of medication as reading the side-effects always scared me.

Have been using concealers like Nanogen and Dermatch for the past 2 years, but right not I am in the phase where I feel that concealers will not be as effective as they used to most of my frontal area getting bald, with not much hair for hair fibres to hold to. And my hairline has receded a LOT! (During the past 2 years, I think I spent like $40/month on cosmetics which is around $1000)

Losing my hair made my self esteem and ego drop like a brick in a deep ocean! I am not enjoying life like I used to for a lot of reasons:

- When my friends go to the beach or pool, I cannot jump in since I am too scared that my hair concealers will show what I have been hiding.
- When I am sleeping over, I am always worried of staining the pillow and making a fool out of myself. (Oh look, this guy sh!t his pillow)
- Windy? Rainy? Damn, I hate that! My concealers wont like that type of weather.
- Tried shaving off my hair, my head has this oval shape and I look like ET.

As you can see, this is turning into a nightmare.

I have reached to the point where I have finally considered having an FUE transplant. I have attached a couple of photos showing the front and back of my head!

Can you please help answer these questions for me?

1) Am I a good candidate for FUE?
2) How many hair grafts do you think I will need to cover all this hairloss?
3) Who is the best doctor(s) in Turkey that I can start exchanging emails with and see how I can proceed from here.
4) Should I wait more time before the hair transplant? Or can I start it now? (I am not shedding much lately, I find no hairs on my pillows when I wake up and I just see 3-5 hairs drop in the sink whenever I wash my hair)
5) Do you think an FUE will make my hair look very full?
6) How much will this process cost (Approximately)

Thank you in advance. Any advice will be truly appreciated...

 

[arfy]

Why Turkey?

Minoxidil can cause shedding at first, if you stick with it you should hopefully stabilize and even rebound a tiny bit. I don't know if I agree with the decision to jump right into surgery next, it would be prudent (in my opinion) to try to save your existing hair with Proscar or Propecia (or generic versions). Some guys get side effects. Some guys also get good results and no side effects. I dunno, these are big decisions.

You're a diffuse thinner, which is bad. You're losing hair in the front and crown, also bad. It indicates a higher level of hair loss eventually. Isolated loss in the front only is considered more desirable, the crown requires a lot of grafts and some guys can't address that area like they wish. It's impossible to predict the future and how your hair loss will progress. The problem with transplanting into areas where you still have hair is that you risk telogen effluvium ("shock loss"). The "surgical insult" can cause shedding of your existing hair. Sometimes it comes back though. But not always. Some guys with bad luck have gotten transplants and ended up with less hair after surgery, that's the risk when transplanting into areas where you still have hair. If your hair is rapidly miniaturizing, shock loss could even happen in areas not directly being transplanted. It depends on how much "at risk" the current hairs are.

On the positive side, it seems like you have coarse hair (generally a plus for better coverage).

This is a big topic with lots of issues, I hate seeing anonymous guys playing "armchair doctor" online and rattling off graft estimates for other anonymous guys. Even the doctors can't give accurate estimates, often times (it's hard to predict). If you go visit 6 different doctors, they might tell you six different things. I don't see any clear-cut recommendations for you, I think all your options will have pros and cons. If I were you, I would consider surgery a last resort.

I don't recommend surgery but you could go on a purely informational visit to Hasson & Wong in Vancouver, just to learn what they think. They are new to FUE so you probably shouldn't pick them, but they are generally honest, so talking to them will help you understand the basic issues involved. Then go talk to some other doctors, and see what they say. Don't be in a hurry, you can make mistakes that way.

 

[joerazor]

Arfy, thank you for your reply. I appreciate that!!

I have used minoxidil for a couple of months and didn't get very decent results. I understand that it might take 2 years for results to show up, but at the end of the day, minoxidil is just a temporary solution as all new hairs right after I discontinue.

As for finasteride.. I am quite afraid from the side effects which is why I do not want to give this a shot.. Which is why I am leaning more towards a Hair Transplant (FUE in particular)

I was wondering what balding norwood scale I am in. I would appreciate if you can let me know.. I am guessing I am NW4 or NW5, but not sure though.

Any other members who would like to answer my post, they are most welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[arfy]

Hard to rate you on the Norwood scale - I usually think it's more important to discuss where you're destined to end up at, instead of where you are right at this moment. You look like a "future" Norwood 5 or 6 to me. Right now, it's hard to say. But you seem to have diffuse hair loss all over the top of your head. Thinning usually indicates you will have a lot more future hair loss from those areas. This also means that when thinking about transplants, guys like you in particular need to beware of shock loss (accelerated hair loss caused by surgery... "telogen effluvium"). Sometimes that "shocked" hair grows back, but sometimes it doesn't. It depends on how strong those hairs were before surgery.

Since you still have a decent amount of original hair, it would make sense to consider using Finasteride or Dutasteride to try to retain as much hair as possible. That's what those drugs seem to be best at doing (preventing hair loss -- not reversing hair loss). There are pros and cons to using those drugs. However, there are pros and cons to surgery too. There is no perfect solution for most people. If you were able to stop or slow future hair loss with drugs, that would be good. It would also mean additional protection against "shock loss" if you did decide to get a hair transplant. And the best transplant results are often seen in guys who were able to keep a lot of original hair, and then had some transplanted hair combined with the original hair they were able to keep (the more original hair, the better). Many clinics would encourage you to get on drugs before surgery for a year or more, for those reasons.