Over at the other forum, no disrespect to Pat and this forum but it took me forever to figure it out over there and i havent even tried here yet, anyway this is a duplicate post i put up over there.

Check them out and form your own opinion on my first surgery with Dr. Ron Shapiro, when i look at them now i think he did me VERY well, ive come along way so far and ive got a way to go but hey thats why im here posting and sharing instead of drinking and joking with my other friends, today i went to Shapiros clinic to get these pics and met Dr Haber & Dr. Paul Rose, they all checked out my surgery from Dr. Hasson and commented that the work was excellent and i was going to look great, Dr. Shapiro also commented that i had more donor left, F@CK YEAH today was a good day!!!!!!!.

Im trying to share this so that anyone with recession as bad as mine was can have hope of letting it grow out and not having to shave to a #1 every 2 frickin days.

Another thing is yeah i know im one UGLY MOFO but soon my hair might cover my face hahahaha, and it hasnt effected my success much because i got a great woman, make good money and overall not depressed about this shit, i just have the power to change it now and im gonna use it.

Thanks for following so far and i will try to update my progress, oh yeah my girl took out my staples yesterday, yeah it stung like a beotch

Sincerely, Mudpuppy

Mud, after looking at your pre-first HT, I have to admit that your donar area looked like crap. I mean that in the nicest way. I just never would have guessed that you could get that many grafts out of it. I can see why Shapiro went conservative with you initially. Man! If you can get 5000k grafts out of that, I must have over 10k left!

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2700 Total Grafts w/ Keene 9/28/05
663 one's = 663
1116 two's = 2232
721 three's = 2163
200 four's = 800
Hair Count = 5858

1000 Total Grafts w/Keene 2/08/07
Mostly combined FU's for 2600+ hairs

My Photo Album

See me at Dr. Keene's Gallery

hey mudpuppy, would love to see your pics bro. i had two surgeries from shapiro myself and waiting on results from my second procedure. In a few months ill probably post some pics too. just wondering if i could get a link to this other forum somehow?

Hey Gorpy, When i first started researching i thought i was going to have great donor because i always had long hair and real thick in back, i started shaving to a #1 or #2 approx. 8 years ago, i never looked at my donor area much until those pictures From Shapiros or a straight side view either, it seems to just creep up on you, needless to say i was humbled and quite bummed when i left my consultation at Shapiros, since taking Propecia for a year and letting it grow out a bit the Doc feels my donor is good and i might have more donor left, so far i have used 5820 graphs, Doctor Shapiro says i might reach 8000 in total, i am only taking that as maybe and im happy i can reach my goals with my plan of 1 more strip and then some small FUE's, also realize that in those consult pics i shaved to the scalp and then spent 2 weeks in the sun on a Tropical island, i dont know if it bleached out my hair or lightened it.

Tropicoo, go to hairlosshelp.com, do a search on "my Shapiro pics are updated on my profile" the click on my website under neath my little Mudpuppy with the Blunt.

I will start to work on my pictures to post on this site

I wanted to post mudpuppy's photo on the HTN so people could see the reason we were conservative with him. When he arrived at our office he had extemely short hair which influenced our evaluation. It looked as if he occiputal area might drop and his lateral donor above the ear was so thin we worried that even with a fine scar it may show.

I am glad that with propecia and with letting his hair grow it looks like he will have more donor than his initial evaluation indicated. If I had seen him at the 7 month point I would most likely have estimated about 2500-2700 for his second session by the way his donor looked to me now. I hope these photo explain to a small degree why we we were more conservative with him intially

Here is mudpuppy's album
mudpuppy album showing inital potential poor donor

As it turned out Victor(Hasson) was able to get 3200 instead of the 2500-2700 I might have done) And he did a great great job. He and Jerry(Wong) do wonderful work. Victor,Jerry and I are friends and I respect thier work tremendously. I never have an issue when patients elect to go to them becuase I know they will get great work.

On another note I want to appologize for not posting as much. I have been so busy lecturing, writing, and talkng to my patients that I have not really spent alot of time on the internet. It has led to some misconceptions about my current approach which has changed alot in the last 2 years. Even my web site is over 9 years old and is out of date. For example I have done a number of cases greater than 4000 FU and have been creating 1 pass densities of 50+ for years. But I vary my approach tremendously depending on the individual. My numbers can range from 1500 over 4000 and my denisties can range from 25 to over 50 in one pass...depending on the situation and patient. Sometimes the more the better but sometimes it may not be the best choice. Over the next few months I plan on posting and sharing more how and why I approach diffent patients. I hope that patients and visitors to the forums find it helpful. I have been told I am a good teacher and have a knack for putting things in perspective . I hope that I can contribute here. The only problem is that I am so compulsive about getting things right that I can spend hours and hours on a page of text..and not finish it...Writing does not come easy to me...talking does.......However I have decided that if I am going to contribute I cannot worry about it being written perfectly. Better to contribute some even if it is not written well than not contribute at all.

Hope to be in touch soon

Ron Shapiro

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Doc,

Thanks for providing the particulars of Mudpuppy's condition and insight into your thinking. As so often happens when all the facts are in, I agree with your assessment and judgment.

I know I have benefited greatly from your input and sound judgment, which has guided much of the philosophy and evolution of this community over the years. I know your active participation on this forum will elevate the level of discussion and will be much appreciated.

I do think people's perception of your work, along with other members of the Coalition, is in need of updating ??“ especially in regards to session sizes. So often there is a mismatch between the reality of a physician's surgical work and people's perception of it on the forums.

Often this is due to clinics simply not participating on this and other forums. Thus their work is out of sight and out of mind. It reminds me of the proverbial question - "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it did it make a sound?" On this forum the question could be "If a surgeon does outstanding hair transplantation and no one sees it on the forum will anyone know it?"

Thus the few clinics who cultivate an active presence on the forums get most of the attention, discussion and ultimately patients.

I believe there are many very quiet gem in the rough clinics who are doing large sessions of outstanding ultra refined follicular grafting like you but who get little or no mention of their work on this and other forums.

Fortunately most of these gems are members of the Coalition and thus do get some amount of recognition for their work online.

But I'd like to see more information about all great clinics on our forum. I think this ultimately serves potential patients better, while giving great clinics the recognition they deserve.

I hope that your involvement in sharing your results and surgical philosophy will act as an example to your colleagues.

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Ron

Try Dragon Naturally speaking Preferred voice recognition software (version 8.1+). With a bit of training - not much - you will be able to dictate into the textbox of forums and also use it in letters etc.. word,

It really is good technology. If you do not already use such software give it a try

sparky

Sparky, man that program is pretty cool! You just can't talk super fast, but it is usefull for the hands free approach!

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6721 transplanted grafts
13,906 hairs
Performed by Dr. Ron Shapiro

Dr. Ron Shapiro and Dr. Paul Shapiro are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

Dr. Shapiro,

Many thanks for your kind words regarding the work that we perform at H&W. Coming from you we could not receive any better compliment.

All,

It is really rewarding to see a physician of the stature of Ron Shapiro starting to adopt our philosophy in hair restoration surgery. Hopefully other physicians will follow Dr. Shapiro's lead and that one day large sessions of ultra refined follicular unit transplantation will become the standard of care in our specialty.

I'm certain that Dr. Shapiro's continued involvement on these forums will provide much new insight and depth to the online discussions.

Victor Hasson MD

I will look into the Dragon technology. Sounds cool and it may work with the new Nextect software I am implementing at the clinic

Nice hearing from you Victor . I hear you are going on vacation soon. You work so hard you deserve it. Thanks for the compliment. But you and Jerry deserve yours as well.

I had a question for you if you dont mind answereing on the forum.

A 3000-4000 FU session is not that difficult to do at least for me and you .

But the 4500-5500-6000 sessions take more skill and technique and I think (or am curious)a specially qualified patient.

When you do a 4500-5500 session what qualifications do you require. Specificall with respect to the donor area. I am also curious about how long and wide a strip do you usually need. I know it varies with donor density.

The reason I asked was yesterday I did a patient who was a virgin (with respect to hair tranplants) and I felt he could use 4500+ FU. He fit my criteria for a larger session(i.e He was a type 5, no hair in the recipeint area to shock, had very very loose donor so I could take a wide strip without tension or much risk of a scar, his donor density was only average however ) So I took a strip that was about 1.8mm x28 cm wide ( usually a 1.0x25 gives me 2500 FU) and expected 4000+ but only got 3800 FU. Not a small session but I had thought I would get over 4000. The case of cource turned out great and he will look great but I was disapointed that I did not get over 4000FU this time.

I have been reluctant to take strips wider than 2.0 so the only patients Ihave gotten over 4000 FU with have been those with very above average density.

So I am curious about what the size of your strip is for the 4500-5000 cases. Is it the same I took but these patietns have very very good density (above average) or do you go wider sometimes if they are loose enough that you dont think the risk of tension is significant.

I hope you dont mind me asking on the forum but I think knowing your approach and thought in this area would be very enlightening to all both physician and potiential patients.

Take care Ron

It would be educational to know and maybe it would be of interest and educational when your patients that do these very large session post to get an idea of how thier particualr donor ranked compared to average and how much was needed.

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