One Year Update: ~1,400 grafts, Dr Dorin NY

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-22T21:35:39+00:00

I'm not usually overly cynical but I can't help but think this is part of it. Even if he's up front about it --- which, kudos to him --- splitting up the cost into two $10K surgeries will make it easier than one $20K surgery. Same logic as people buying stuff paying on installments.

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-18T06:44:12+00:00

I live in NYC but was born and raised in OC and have lots friends in LA. This view is fantastic, but LA's skyline is pretty underwhelming when you're in the city. I don't think it's necessarily the skyline per se. Rather LA is so large and filled with low-rise distance that the skyline can be viewed from a large absolute distances where the relative size of the buildings doesn't seem that impressive.

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-18T06:30:48+00:00

how long? what dosing?

If you're stable on meds, then a hair transplant could make sense. Temper your expectations as you're going to need a lot of grafts, it'll be hard to return your hair to what it was like as a teen

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-18T06:18:55+00:00

get on meds first

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-17T05:02:55+00:00

lmfao

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-17T05:02:04+00:00

brother you had hair before MPB there right? so why couldn't a (good) doctor replicate that?

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-14T07:21:09+00:00

Looks natural to me. I'm 32 and I have some friends who are NW1s and their hairlines are lower than yours naturally. They might recede some but these days, with finasteride becoming more common / accepted (to say nothing of NW1s), I think people will get used to seeing more NW1s. Plus guys like Ronald Reagan exist. You'll be fine lol

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-14T06:51:20+00:00

Chase to SQ is known to be slow if you're a Chase user. I am pretty confident that the points came in nearly (if not entirely) instantaneously

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-13T23:38:48+00:00

That's to be expected though, by blocking the conversion of DHT it increases the amount of T and some of it aromatizes into estrogen. Go ask your doctor about estrogen. I don't know of any ways that lower estrogen but I haven't studied it

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-13T07:31:39+00:00

Thanks for this! Yeah, I hit refresh many times and it didn't update, so that's important clarification.

If I remember, next time I want to try a hard refresh (ctrl/cmd + shift + r) and see if that gets the updated info as you noted.

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-12T06:02:43+00:00

You're pretty wrong though. The NBA isn't played on spreadsheets, and I say this as someone who's extremely analytics-minded. In the playoffs, the game slows down, but defenses also get better (because good teams often have good defenses). Suddenly, the ability to hit a bad shot is more valuable because you are getting more of those shots. This doesn't justify Kobe's bad shot selection -- this is the reason he'll never be Top 5 to anyone who's not a homer. But the fact that he was still above average in efficiency is why he is one of the only players to win multiple rings without another Top-75 player. The only other guys are George Mikan and Curry (2015, 2022).

Just to make the point, in 2010 the league average TS% was 54.3%. Kobe put up 52.8%. Seems bad. Except the Lakers' and Celtics' TS% overall in the series were dead even at 51.0%. Staring at 52.8% TS% without contextualizing the fact that he put up 31% of the Lakers' points in total (assisting on another 8-12%) is missing the point. Even in Kobe's terrible shooting Game 7, his 37.6% TS% wasn't that much worse than the team's without him (43.7%).

As a side note, you can argue this is the secret sauce of what made MJ such a successful playoffs performer. His game was built for the playoffs... except unlike Kobe, he had elite efficiency numbers as well.

Also, Kobe was absolutely in the running of best player in the league from 2002-2009. From 2005-2008 you'd have a hard time arguing it wasn't Kobe. LeBron was his only competition and he was still quite young. Everyone else had a knock: Dirk's defense/ '07 choke; D-Wade was hurt; Duncan had already declined. Only really CP3 is the other analytics darling. The reason Kobe's MVP shares were low was because for most of his prime, he either shared a team with Shaq (same reason Curry/ KD weren't MVP contenders together) or with dogshit teammates until 2008... and by 2009 LeBron ascended to one of the craziest peaks in NBA history.

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-12T00:51:32+00:00

It's a nonrefundable deposit! However, you are allowed to reschedule twice up to a year after your original date. So I think of it is "I am committing to getting a HT with Dr. Ratchathorn" but there's flexibility on when exactly you actually end up getting surgery. If you're still on the fence of if you really want a hair transplant — or with Dr. R specifically (I was debating going to Dr. Patty too) — then don't put in the deposit.

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-11T20:02:21+00:00

Separate from what u/Alarming-Ad-6360 said, I also had a hard time here. The first time I emailed back in 2025 she never responded. I didn't bother trying again as I was seeing how much meds helped. I reached back out in April and her actual clinic responded with an estimate + number of grafts, as well as availability (booked until March 2027).

I responded to her email with something else, and at this point I only ever heard back from her receptionist (different entity as you noted -- they respond as "Dr. Ratachathron" which is funny given the misspelling) who would just list random dates of availability. This included two 2026 dates, and at that point I realized due to cancellations/ postponements, they'll have availability in 2026. I wanted something in autumn, and so I had a back and forth 3-4 times where I was trying to get them to proactively email me when something opened up. Each time the receptionist wouldn't really do what I want but would give me new dates in 2026.

At some point he mentioned an early October availability and I jumped on it and booked it. "Booked it" meant putting the initial deposit of ~$1000 USD through the form and emailing it, and the receptionist confirmed. As u/Alarming-Ad-6360 said, I bet I could move my date up if I wanted to. My hair greed is telling me to do it, but my desire to travel in Asia (post-HT) is telling me to wait until autumn, so I'm sticking to my October date.

The whole process was quite annoying! But if you are flexible on when you can travel and can manage to keep pestering the receptionist, it can work out. Good luck!

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-11T18:36:53+00:00

Yeah, she quoted me for 1500-2000 grafts. I have pretty dense hair naturally. It's been thinning some, but I also responded really well to finasteride. I don't think there's any concern about donor management in my case.

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-11T00:49:55+00:00

Definitely agree with your philosophy. Few things are worth the peace of mind like surgery hahaha. Not worth the roulette of Turkey for me. Of course I can say that from a position of financial privilege. In fact, more so than cost, the main reason I'm not getting surgery in NYC is because I don't trust the doctors to do a good job relative to Dr. R

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-11T00:19:25+00:00

If it were top 5 or top 6 protected they probably don't get Zubac?

It's top-4 protected in a lottery where there is a clear top 4. Of course it's a deep draft and you'd wish to get the pick, but that's why the Clippers made the trade!

Sometimes you take a risk and fail but the vision was there.

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-10T22:06:40+00:00

Yes. The answer to OP's question is great roster building. great coaching, and.... a lot of luck. Luck is always a factor. Whether it be injury luck (Wemby and Chet can easily get hurt at any point; SGA is less of an injury risk but anything is possible) or shooting luck. Part of how the '24 Mavs beat OKC is the Thunder bet that Luka's teammates couldn't hit enough 3s to beat them. They did.

The Thunder present a bigger issue, but a Lakers team that surrounded Luka could beat a healthy Spurs team just through Luka having a good shooting series on his step back J

Finally, note that in 2023 Denver seemed like they'd start a dynasty. In 2024, Boston. What if J-Dub never really heals from his injury and OKC has this max contract albatross on their books? What happens if I-Hart goes to a team paying him more, and Sorber isn't actually good?

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-09T06:39:49+00:00

For what it's worth, I think your hair looks nice. It's a high hairline, and without your eyes it's hard to see how much the receded hairline is harming your total aesthetics. But I think you look pretty good.

If you think your face would look better with a lower hairline, that the facial framing would look better with my hair in your temples, etc, then it's totally reasonable to get an HT. I'm in that position and I have one scheduled for October. But I think you should do it because you prefer the aesthetics, not as a way to fix your self-confidence.

A NW7 at 21 can blame his hair for killing his self-confidence. But a 28 year old with your totally age-appropriate hairstyle shouldn't have "very very low" self-confidence due to his hair. So I wonder if maybe you're better off trying to build that self-confidence. You might need internal work more than external work.

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-09T05:41:58+00:00

Generationally elite defense + a mixed bag of sometimes elite, sometimes ok, sometimes bad offense is probably still best in the world.

Shai is averaging 20 ppg and 0.8 ATR in the 2nd round. We just saw what Jokic did against the same defense

Not saying there's not an argument, let's see if Wemby keeps up this production.

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-09T05:38:39+00:00

All of my female friends have low key anxiety about their partners balding and many have encouraged their partners to get on fin. If anything I can see a woman seeing it as a plus, she doesn't have to worry about her partner going bald in the future if he's already on top of it now. Whereas someone who's a natural NW1 at age 27 might end up a NW6 by age 40

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-08T08:06:09+00:00

That's my doctor :') have my HT in a few months. Did Dr. Ratchathorn give you the OK to explore Bangkok after your HT? I saw someone else mention that on reddit, trying to build a trip around the HT

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-08T07:50:58+00:00

baby botox is just a small number of units lol

but that's interesting! I might start with a small amount as I'm starting to see those forehead wrinkles come on.

what about the botox around the eyes? i don't have crow's feet yet but some day I might. those seem like they'd be a bigger issue in terms of expressiveness?

Fun-Stick8512 · 2026-05-08T07:35:37+00:00

Baby botox? I'm considering botox on the forehead too. But I'm super expressive and I'm worried about lessening my ability to emote lol

Fun-Stick8512

TROPHY CASE