Hair transplant diary (ongoing)

Sounds dodge,if you suspect something is not right I'd steer clear.

This is the doctor doing surgery there,he seems to be based in Greece.He could be flying in to do procedures, I'd be asking a lot of questions regarding his techs? Do they fly in with him or does he have a team here aswell?

https://www.garagounis.com

Can't find anything about him on Hair Restoration Network.

I am taking a generic version of Finasteride (made by Accord Healthcare Ltd, UK), 1.25mg each Mon, Wed, Fri (as directed by Dr. Tunde of the Dr. Nel's office). Proscar was not available last time I checked.

I am also taking 1.25mg Minoxidil daily.

More dinero for him? He seemed annoyed about the fact I went elsewhere for my SMP procedure, saying that if I wanted to go to him for prescriptions I needed to stick with him for everything, including procedures. Left a bad taste in my mouth to be honest.

I'm just going to be getting my prescriptions via the Laya service going forward as it's cheaper too.

Definitely interested in that spray...seems to minimise the side effects of Fin

You should start micro needling/dermarolling as well, the best results with minox are from people who are doing this

No, he's referring to the tablet form of Minoxidil

So I just submitted the careoncall.ie prescription request for Proscar and it was FREE (not €25) .. again this might only be for Laya customers, but damn that's a bit of an improvement over paying €60 for Dr Nel to prescribe... live and learn

Have also included a request to get a Loniten 5mg Minoxidil prescription so I'll report back if that's successful.

EDIT: They got back to me after about 2 minutes to say the prescription was ready and waiting at the pharmacy.. although it is "Fintrid" rather than "Proscar"! Unfortunately they only prescribe Finasteride so Minox is again something that either Dr Nel, or another GP will have to prescribe.

Will see if the pharmacy can give me Proscar instead of Fintrid if I ask them (and show the previous box)

EDIT 2: Pharmacy said they only stock Proscar so that's sorted ;)

Went here. More time was taken and price was 50% of what Dr Nel was asking for. The technician that performs the procedure does SMP for HRBR so this is a side-line for her and you get the same quality as what you would get in HRBR (at a fraction of the cost).

Free consultation and she'll let you know if you're suitable or not.

Just be aware if you are getting the crown done you will need to avoid sleeping on the back of your head for 24 hours after each procedure (there are up to 3 separate sessions to achieve full coverage)... so this was a bit of a challenge for me as I ALWAYS end up rolling onto my back no matter what is propping me up!

If I get a touch up in a few years I'm going to invest in one of those benches that allow you to sleep on your front.

eh.. a bit sore. Just like tiny pricks on your head. Each session lasts about 3-4 hours iirc, but you get all the breaks and toilet breaks you need.

Price was €1000 for crown and top of head up to hairline (Dr Nel was quoting €2000 just for crown, not top of head as well). Yes very satisfied with it. It makes the overlapping hair look thicker. It looks best once it all settles around a month after the final session. During the sessions it can look REALLY dark, but it sort of settles into a lighter more natural colour after a month.

Will last around 7 years as long as I don't expose it to extreme sunshine for lengthy periods, but since it's under the overlapping hair I find it's protected.

I was in Spain under strong sunshine and it's still fine, though I made sure to wear a bandana whenever I remembered it 😂

Forgot to mention... the aftercare process is a bit of a pain after each session. No sweating for first week or so (no exercise) and no direct hair washing for a week or 2.

i.e. it's ideal if you can work from home during this! Covid was a blessing ironically! 😮

It's a bit of a pain since you need to go back for 2 more sessions a few weeks apart, so in reality it's like you can't exercise for almost 2 months. I felt that pretty badly since up to that point I was swimming in the pool 3 times a week and cycling every 2nd day.

yeah, so crown was main area thinning, and then top was just to increase appearance of density.

Maybe a week after consultation I started the procedure. YMMV. Depends on how busy she is I guess.

Note, SMP works best if you have hair that can cover the area (in order to darken underlying scalp and increase appearance of density), or if you are completely shaved (in order to appear that you have hair in all areas, but just shaved down).

e.g. this is from the gallery as an example of what I mean about having hair overlapping the area https://www.thescalpcare.com/gallery?pgid=jw4xvm2m-d6c0b5a4-0490-4f5c-9d06-754e56489eb6

She won't do the procedure if you aren't suitable anyway, so let her give you the advice.

Regards Finasteride. I was at the doctors and asked her about it and she said just order it of Lloydsonlinedoctor

Finasteride should be enough I wouldnt go taking loads. if you got a HT done I would use minoxidil spray foam to help my hair grow for a year after my HT and then Finasteride should maintain it

.

I did a fair bit of research or r/tressless/ when I was choosing my dermaroller and the recommendation from most was to go for 1mm titanium, but only to use it once a week.

Does make the process a little less hassle than doing it 3 times a week per Dr Nel's instruction as you need to go through a whole disinfection process too each time.

Apparently they need to be replaced every 3 months, but prob depends on how often you use it and maybe using it once a week will let you continue using it for 6 months.

Mine is still sharp after 3 months anyway.

Yeah I dunno.. I'm a bit wary of some of the things Dr Nel recommends nowadays... he initially told me that the dermaroller didn't need to be cleaned as "you can't infect yourself with your own germs" wtf

I did a quick google on using Dettol to clean a dermaroller and came up with this so ymmv

https://whitelotusbeauty.com/blogs/ukblogs/how-to-clean-your-derma-roller-clean-dermaroller

A lot of recommendations are to use isopropyl alcohol 70% so I use this stuff: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00EWVOOH8/

The bottle is huge and each one would prob last a year. I just use a shotglass to do the cleaning which is the perfect size and doesn't waste too much liquid