Some guys get permanent sides... anyway I'm not questioning you since imo at Norwood 2-2.5 you should wait a few years min and I don't have one (yet), just having a discussion cause it's sunday and I'm bored. You seem overly focused on low percentage outcomes that's all, I'm actually similar to you in terms of risk aversion/minimization, it's important to be aware of the worst case scenarios but you can go too far with it.
NW6 is rare (hair loss works on a bell curve, Norwood 6/7 are on the end of it), and I'd be shocked if Tsuji's type of research doesn't succeed in 20 years considering where he is today and replicel is right around the corner and by all accounts looks like a solid loss halting treatment at minimum. And this is just one man's opinion but a good transplant like the one I posted up there ^ looks 100000% better then a "natural" NW5 sub-human baldcel like he was before, and he could more then double the grafts on there if he wanted like the guy I'll post down below but he's totally satisfied with it as is.
On topic for Christian:
Hopefully soon the replicel/follica/Tsuji combo gives every man a solid head of hair back. We have SO much more hope then guys did even 10-15 years ago, let alone 20-30. We had to get through those doldrums of study/experimentation to get where we are now.
This depends entirely on your donor and honestly I just don't agree except in cases where the guy has a very weak/limited donor. I've got equally thick hair everywhere except the top of my head, I could FUE until the end of time and 4k graft strips are not wide on that kind of healthy thick donor, there are plenty to go around especially considering the odds are good that I won't go past a NW5 given my pattern and family loss and the general percentages of the Norwood scale.
Since talk is cheap, here's a guy who's had around
10k grafts total, the first 2k were a semi-failure (they're the forelock), the rest were Dr. Hasson strip. I'll let you be the judge but to me he wayy overdid it, he could've/should've stopped 3-4k grafts earlier and kept them in the bank but he said he consulted with Lorenzo after all that stripping who told him he has 4k FUE in the bank. First transplant at 26, he's 35 now, claims his hair is pretty fine which makes the results even more insane. His sides were high so it's not totally comparable to the other guy but it illustrates the point, look at all that f*****g hair lmao. Dunno if I'm allowed to link to another hair site but if anyone wants the link to any of these cases I've posted just pm me.
This right here is what we're all hoping Tsuji/replicel accomplishes.
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I'll shut up now before Christian Miller yells at me again, lol!