i've seen the list of doctors, but would like some user feedback if anyone has had a hair transplant in texas, who did you go to , how much, and how was it? if you have pictures you can post, that would be great. thanks

i've seen the list of doctors, but would like some user feedback if anyone has had a hair transplant in texas, who did you go to , how much, and how was it? if you have pictures you can post, that would be great. thanks

Definitely avoid Dr. Carlos Puig in Houston, Texas. He works for MHR (Medical Hair Restoration) and you should avoid them in general as well. He gave me an unbelievably crappy hair transplant, in fact this hack has practically ruined my life. He's a disgrace to the field of medicine.

Try clicking on the map at the top of the page to see who Pat recommends. If none of the nearby doctors sounds appealing, find the very best doctor you can, and get on a plane and see him. If you were going to get a HEART transplant, you would fly across the globe to see the best doctor you could find. A HAIR transplant shouldn't be any different. The majority of doctors are doing mediocre-looking work at best, and many are doing really lousy work as well. An "okay" looking transplant isn't worth paying a penny for, since it will be one of the first things people will notice about you. You won't necessarily spend any more on an amazing looking one than you would on an awful one, so don't settle for anything less than the best, since you will have to live with it for the rest of your life

How old are you? Where are you on the Norwood scale? Are you using Propecia or Minoxidil? Are you at risk for shock fallout?

arfy,
I'm new here and it looks like this thread is a year old. Why do you say to avoid Dr. Puig, what did he do to you? I'm also in Houston, I just sent off for the info.

Where to start on Dr. Puig?

He specializes in scalp reductions. This is something I recommend you avoid.

He doesn't use microscopes to dissect follicular unit grafts. Click and read the article on this webite called "Best Hair Transplant" This is not Dr. Puig's approach. Dr. Puig is an "old school" doctor using outdated techniques.

I also think Dr. Puig has serious ethical problems. He operated on me when I was 20 years old, and only had some diffuse thinning. The first thing he did was load my hairline up with grafts, where I still had plenty of hair. The consultant Dr. Puig hired promised me that I would get a transplant that was "custom-tailored" to my needs, and it would be "undetectable". Neither of those things were true to any degree. I was told a bunch of other lies, as well. The whole point of Dr. Puig's clinic (where he was the Medical Director) was to snare as many patients as possible. This went on for something like 20 years.

I think Dr. Puig has poor artistic ability as well. He gave me a bowl-shaped hairline that looks lopsided, like the bowl started to slide off of my head.

If you are wondering how something like Dr. Puig's clinic was allowed to continue, it's because it is basically impossible to stop bad doctors and bad clinics from operating on people. Case in point is the Bosley clinic, who has something like thousands of complaints against them, and has had their license suspended in 20 states. Yet they continue to advertise and bring in new clients on a daily basis. Look at the website www.BosleyMedicalViolations.com for more specific details. Let's not single out Bosley though, because the violations listed on their website there are actually fairly common amongst many other clinics, including MHR and NuHart in my opinion. Bosley is simply the most well-known. Dr. Puig operated his clinic (Cleveland Hair Transplant Clinic) in pretty much the same way described on the BosleyMedicalViolations website.

Now Dr. Puig works for MHR (Medical Hair Restoration) another big franchise operation that is quite similar to Bosley, in my opinion. These big franchises care more about mass-marketing than they do about good results. MHR and Dr. Puig do not use the most modern approaches, despite what they say in their TV infomercials.

I've heard that Dr. Puig is not as terrible a surgeon as he was when he worked on me. That is some cold comfort, let me tell you! Dr. Puig has screwed me up so badly, that other doctors are not going to be able to fix me. I am currently spending thousands of dollars and undergoing multiple surgeries to try and undo the damage from Dr. Puig. I was told that the best I should hope for is that I will end up looking "less terrible".

Needless to say, there are many other doctors you could choose, who are MUCH better choices than Dr. Puig. I wouldn't let that guy touch me with a ten-foot pole, if I were you.

Arfy,

Did you see any of Puig's patients before he did your surgery? Or, since you were only 20, were you gullible and believed what he told you without asking the right questions?

__________________
Results of my 1424 FU transplant procedure on 8/16/02 can be viewed at...
http://community.webshots.com/user/ttaco

I see now why you advice against anyone in their early twenties having an ht. How old are you now if I may ask?

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic''. Arthur C. Clarke

TTaco
Yes I was gullible, I believed that all doctors were ethical and were practicing medicine to help people. That's how I was raised, to respect doctors as authority figures and experts at what they do. I also assumed that any medical clinic that wasn't on the level, would quickly be closed down by the local authorities. Neither of those things are true. Many doctors are attracted to hair transplantation because it is fast cash, with no insurance or HMO hassles, and it is very easy to do if you don't care about results as much as you do profits. Basically you do the same thing over and over, it's a good field for guys who want to coast along and not have to push themselves or learn anything new (I'm not talking about the handful of good surgeons out there, I'm talking about the average hack, who does hair transplants for the bucks). And I have never ever heard of a successful lawsuit against a hair transplant clinic, or a hair transplant doctor who has had his license taken away. Have you? It's really "anything goes" out there.

As far as seeing previous patients of Dr. Puig's, I was shown photographs that looked like full heads of hair. In retrospect, I would not be surprised if they were just photos of male models who had no hair work done. The consultant himself looked terrible, but he told me they were doing better work than he had gotten. I wish I would have seen that as a sign. Now I know how important it is to see lots of guys in person, that a doctor has worked on. Photos are deceptive.

I did ask some tough questions but I was lied to. For example, I told my consultant I had seen some transplants on the street but that I knew they were very obviously hair transplants. He told me that those guys must not be patients of Dr. Puig's because Dr. Puigs transplants were "undetectable". That was one thing that really sold me... a hair transplant that didn't look like a hair transplant. Of course that was a total BS line he fed me.

This was considered the early days of hair transplants, so nobody would know what questions to ask, because the procedure was not as common then. And there was no such thing as the internet. But Dr. Puig had been doing hair transplants for about 8 or 9 years at that point, so it wasn't that new. I am now in my 40s.

I'm not a stupid guy... I was naieve and they conned me. A lot of other guys got sucked in as well. I once read that half of the guys who wear hair pieces are covering up bad hair transplants. Think about that for a while.

A lot has changed since then, thank God, but on the other hand there is still some BS that hasn't changed much. One thing that is still a big scam in my opinion, is the selling of transplants to young guys who want to "stay ahead of their hair loss". The idea that if you get a hair transplant you will "never have to go bald" is one of the biggest cons there is.

As Dr. Feller wrote, hair transplants look the best and work the best, the balder you are when you get one. Lots of good doctors won't operate on a guy who is less than Norwood 3 or in their early 20s, but there are lots of other clinics out there that try to sell a hair transpant to every guy who walks in with a hair loss problem, no matter what age or Norwood level. Tons of guys are being sold on the surgery before they have even tried things like Propecia first.

I still seem to see lots of new guys who are Norwood 2s who really think a transplant is what they need (and plenty of clinics anxious to sell him one). Since Propecia came out, in my opinion lots of clinics have started marketing the surgery to younger guys. Propecia and more clinics have increased competition, and now hair transplants are being sold to guys who aren't bald enough to need one yet. This can cause all kinds of potential problems later in life. I really worry about the guys who get hair transplants, especially the younger guys. I don't want other guys to end up in my shoes, but I know it is still happening out there. The difficult thing is that the young guys often don't know what a mistake they've made until later in life. Sometimes it can take years to realize the full results of your procedure. That's kind of hard to explain to some guys, especially the guys who think that a hair transplant is going to solve all of their hair loss problems.

The other big issue that most guys here already seem to know about, is that only a small percentage of the clinics are doing an excellent job of the surgery. Only a small percentage of the clinics use the microscopically-dissected FU grafts, most of the clinics out there use outdated techniques like Minigrafts and Micrografts, and don't use microscopes. This is because they make more money doing outdated (faster) techniques. The industry is still dominated by the "hair mill" clinics like Bosley, NuHart and MHR. These clinics are more interested in mass marketing, than they are in getting the best results. I think it is very telling that Dr. Puig currently works for MHR, it says a lot about MHR and also about Dr. Puig as well.

Be careful, guys. It really is a jungle out there.

[This message was edited by arfy on December 02, 2002 at 11:48 PM.]

arfy,
Thanks alot. I really appreciate it. I just stumbled upon this forum and I've seen that you and a few other are very active in educating people about what you know. That's a good thing. I'm not new to the transplants though. I've had 2 procedures done by Bosley (trying to stay ahead), and 2 procedures at NHI.Bosley's work was crap and NHI coverd it up pretty good. Now it's time to do some more again as I'm losing hair behind the HT's. I'll probably put up a post on another thread and try get get some opinions from different doctors and other HT patients.

Arfy,

Nice post, truley helpful, I have a question? From what I gather Propecia has helped you quite a bit (me too!), and I am aware you have hired Dr Bernstien to help correct the past work. Do you think in the future you may have additional harvetstable areas Via FUE ?, or are you just going to do the best with Dr. Bernstien and leave things alone ?

I am curious if you or Dr. Bernstien may have an opinion on FUE for guys that have had a few surgeries?

Thanks !
NW