Hey Everyone,

Since its snowing up here in the NE, I thought I would update my blog with some new pics.

Moderator Note:

Ten days after originally posting (x number of before and after photos) Repoman deleted all but one of the photos presented in this album. However, his before and after photos can be viewed on his blog by clicking here.

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Dr. Feller - 3,168 grafts on 3/27/08

http://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com....asp?WebID=689

My thoughts are that I would be very disappointed with the results and Dr. Feller should address sooner than later. sorry

Hey Repo---
My guess is that you planned it with Dr. Feller so you could comb it forward-- am I right? I'm wondering if he weighed it heavily that way in order to maximize the illusion for that number of grafts in that size area.
Huge difference between when you comb it back and forward. You've still have some months of growth ahead of you too. I'm not sure if you'd mentioned it on your blog or not, but had you gotten previous work prior to Dr. Feller?

Repo-man,

Do you have any before pictures ? How many grafts did you have ?

**** UPDATE: JANUARY 5, 2008 ******

Repoman visited my office last Thursday and we took photos of the hair in several different styles. We also took pics with the hair wet and the hair dry.

I can't state the importance of proper styling more strongly. Without it, most hair transplants are near useless.

THE VERY FINE AND UNRULY HAIR IN FRONT OF THE TRANSPLANT IS WHAT'S LEFT OF HIS ORIGINAL HAIRLINE AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TRANSPLANT. SEVERAL PEOPLE VIEWING REPOMAN'S POST OP PHOTOS HAVE MISTAKEN THIS DYING HAIR FOR HIS TRANSPLANTED HAIRLINE, IT IS NOT.

Here is a video of the hair WET being combed backwards and forwards:

http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...o/repoman-clip-2.wmv

Here are his nine month 'AFTER' photos:

http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...epoman/after-9/1.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...epoman/after-9/2.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...epoman/after-9/3.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...epoman/after-9/4.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...epoman/after-9/5.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...epoman/after-9/6.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...epoman/after-9/7.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...epoman/after-9/8.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...epoman/after-9/9.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...poman/after-9/10.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...poman/after-9/11.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...poman/after-9/12.jpg

Here are his 9 month 'BEFORE/AFTER' photos:

http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...re-after-9-mos/1.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...re-after-9-mos/2.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...re-after-9-mos/3.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...re-after-9-mos/4.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...re-after-9-mos/5.jpg

http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...re-after-9-mos/6.jpg


Repo,
I don't remember your identity and don't have your medical chart, but I will address your post and those of the other with the information currently available.

In answer to your question, YES you still have thickening coming. I don't consider the HT result final until you have hit the 14 month mark. By then 98% of patients are about as thick and grown as they are ever going to get. I have seen some amazing exceptions, but by and large 14 months is my cut off. So you have some time to go.

This post, and a few of the responses from viewers, create some important points worth talking about.

1. The very first point to be made is how hard it is to tell what benefit, if any, a patient received from his HT from photographs. As TonySC pointed out, there are no before pictures with which to compare.
I have found repo's before pics from his blog and put them together:

http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...an/beforeafter/1.jpg

http://www.fellermedicaldata.c...an/beforeafter/1.jpg


In my opinion, it looks as if Repo has benefitted quite a bit from the surgery when the hair is styled properly. Which brings me to the next point

2. Hairstyling is key in HT, ESPECIALLY after only ONE procedure. There are very few exceptions to this rule. Sometimes I know in advance what style the patient will utilize after the HT so we plan accordingly, OR we perform the HT in the best manner possible and whatever hairstyle best suites the HT after growth, usually becomes the one that is ultimately adopted. Since I don't know which of my patients repoman is, I can't say if we planned his HT with an eye toward combing the hair forward as Ceaser already suggested in his post. From looking at the 4 day post op photos:

http://www.fellermedicaldata.com/images/repoman/3.jpg
http://www.fellermedicaldata.com/images/repoman/4.jpg

I can only conclude that this may have been the case. The density is not as tight as I normally pack HTs at and this may have been for one of two reasons:

1. Repoman was more interested in covering more area than density.
2. I determined during the surgery that it was best to leave more space betweent the grafts which necessitated covering a wider area.
3. Repoman wanted me to place the grafts in such a way as to favor the "Ceaser" style (combed forward) after growth.

Perhaps Repoman remembers and can tell us.

3. The next point is continuing hairloss. If you look at the top of the head and the crown where the surgery was peformed, you can see that he lost more of his original hair. If you look at the edges of his fringe hair, you will see a significant decrease in density as well as further recession. That's a problem with HT that must always be kept in mind and why I try not to count on surrounding hair too much in my presurgical planning.

4. Determining where the hair transplant was performed is a bit of an art. To the untrained eye, areas that were not covered by the transplant may be misconceived as areas that simply didn't grow. That's why I take so many photos and include photos where the transplant area is demarked in purple pen. But since I don't know which of my patients Repo is, I can't post those photos.
I can, however, point out that if you look at the 4 day post op photos you can get a good sense of the shape of the transplant. You will notice that the back is slanted higher on the left than the right. That's a good landmark to use when comparing the befores to the afters. When you get a fix on the area I transplanted, his growth is rather good:
In this after photo from the right profile, you can clearly see the slant I was talking about.

http://www.fellermedicaldata.c.../repoman/after/3.jpg

This leads me to believe that by choice, or default, we decided to implant these grafts in such a way for Repo to comb his hair from left to right. A style not represented in any of the photos. Again, perhaps Repo can tell us. For the record, when I planned my own HT, I also slanted my transplant to be higher in the back left because I knew I would comb it from left to right. This is called polarizing the HT and it is a very useful tool for making an HT look fuller than it really is.

5. The size of the head and bald areas is another variable that we are always wresling with as HT doctors. In Repos case his head is BIG..nothing personal. But the associated bald areas are also very large. 3,000 grafts may sound like alot, but on a head like this it can get swallowed up pretty quickly. Look at the 4 day post op pics and you can see how we try to customize the surgery to his particular bald pattern with an eye toward maximizing coverage after growth.

6. Skin type, as dictated by race and ethnicity also play key roles. From the photos Repoman looks of East Indian extraction. Again, I'm not sure, so you will have to tell us Repo. Anyway, Asian hair should rarely be as dense packed as Euro/American hair becuase the follicles are a bit larger and fragile. The bottoms of the follicular units tend to splay out more and therfore require slightly larger slits. Larger slits require slightly more space between slits and so on.

So if you compare this 3,000 graft case to one like the one I did on Thanna, you will see a huge difference. There is no one size fits all.

In my opinion I think the results are average and typical for the post op time and believe there is more thickening and coverage to come.

Grow well, Repo

__________________
Feller Medical, PC
Great Neck, NY

Dr. Alan Feller is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

Providing Hair Transplants and Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Treatments

how many grafts????

thanks for posting!!!

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http://i41.tinypic.com/33dwk79.jpg

repo-man,

Before pictures and the number of grafts would help us evaluate your progress at this point. I'm not sure how anyone can comment on it otherwise.

You will have more thickening to come since 8 months is still pretty early.

Your hair looks pretty decent in the front combed down it seems.

Best wishes,

Bill

__________________
Managing Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog and the Hair Loss Forum and Social Community

View our hair loss articles on EZineArticles.com

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To learn about how I restored my hair, view my my hair loss website.

Remember, true beauty radiates from within, not from the skin.

I am not a medical professional and my words should not be taken as medical advice. All opinions and views shared are my own.

Thanks to all and Dr. Feller for all the posts, questions and comments.

- My apologies if my blog address didn't show up earlier, but I'm including the direct link for comparison. There are pictures before HT and at intervals following the procedure.
www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/...e-page.asp?WebID=689

- The pictures do look vastly different because of the way its combed as mentioned by several posters and Dr. Feller. Prior to my hair loss, I always combed back my hair but as the hair loss began in my early 20s, I switched over to the combed forward look. I did mention that I would eventually like to go back to combing back my hair. Before the HT, I knew that I planned on getting more than 1 HT, which is why Dr Feller dense-packed 3,000 hairs in the frontal 1/3. I'm of East Indian origin and Dr Feller mentioned that since I had a darker scalp, it would give the illusion that it was thicker than it actually was. I'm not quite sure why it doesn't appear to be as densely packed, but I was keen on density vs coverage.

While its good to hear that I should be expecting more growth, I'm not quite sure on how much more growth expecially with what I have thus far. Also, it seems like some areas have not grown in at all (my right side towards the back) and I'm not sure of what to make of it.

__________________
Dr. Feller - 3,168 grafts on 3/27/08

http://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com....asp?WebID=689

repo, i recall month 8 as being a big growth spurt month for me in both my hts. a lot can happen in the next few months so be patient.

that being said, i can understand your concern if you want to style your hair back. it definitely looks tons fuller combed forward. either way, i'm sure if you planned accordingly you can reach the density goals you desire with a 2nd ht if this one doesn't suffice.

__________________
HT #1: Karamikian Unknown # of grafts Sept.2006

HT#2 Nov.23rd, 2007
Dr.Feller
Almost 3200 grafts via strip

HT#3 April 2010
Fue 200/side into temple points

HT#4 February 2011

My Hair Loss Website - Hair Transplant with Dr. Feller

im sorry, but some of you guys are making it seem like he has plenty more growth yet and improvement left.. i just dont see it... will it thicken a little?? sure. will it make any kind of real cosmetic improvement from his current state?? i would say more than likely it wont this late in the game.. im sorry to say and i HOPE i am dead wrong.

this is not a good result and you deserve to not be thrilled. your styling options are VERY limited(one) ... for 3000+ grafts i would want to see more.... from wht i see you have 2 options either use another HT to thinken the area ALREADY worked on and MAYBE a little further back on your midscalp(if your donor allows), however your crown will remain pretty bare..... OR.. option 2 is try to get as much overall coverage are you possibly can overthe large area you have remaining, but you will have an overall THIN look....
of course what you can achieve depends on how much donor you have left....

ive seen plenty of great work from dr. feller, this is not one of them... perhaps consider another top strip doc/clinic for your 2nd go around.....