the B spot

Much faster, much easier. Unless of course there are 3-4K+ grafts extracted. From those who have had that done, there seems to be some lingering pain and down time. Still not as difficult a post-op as strip---simply because not being worried about stretching your scar is a huge relief. Take Care, Jason

I think if you looked at Dr. Konior, there is no choice really. If you want to travel out of Chi-town there are additional options, but unless your looking for FUE, Dr. K is one of the best. Take Care, Jason

From the Doctors website: The bottom line is that a hair transplant surgery is a simple exercise for a highly trained surgeon. On a difficulty scale of 1-10, a hair transplant procedure is a 2. I'll pass.

Oh, Ok...well that's why your comments took me off guard a bit!!! When I read it I was like, "What the hell did I do to my guy P?????" You are 100% correct....easternboy needs to do some hard research...imho, he is best served to leave OZ and head north...I see some have suggested Dr. Path...I am not as keen on that approach yet....as time goes by and continue to have happy patients I will certainly come around. Hopefully he will contact you and you can steer him right, having been through what you have, he will listen. Take Care, Jason

Spex This is a perfect example of why FUE can be an excellent choice, using 1.0mm punches or smaller, imho. Other clinics are afraid to show donor scarring because they either overharvest from one portion of the scalp or use large punches. I do believe that as you continue to take from the donor a balance point exists where even if no visible scarring exists, gaps from extractions will serve to pose as scars---creating a moth eaten look. I believe this is individual to each patient with no two patients being alike. Thanks to Dr. Feller we have some excellent information on punch sizes, donor impact, etc..... I hope as we go forward we can continue to unravel the "mystery" of FUE. Cheers Fellas! Jason

No Thanks. Every attempt to automate the HT process has failed or simply underwhelmed. Take a close look at the size of the punches they offer with this machine.

Are you pointing this at me Parable?

Absolutely F. Gump.... there are certainly ways to achieve your goals in the proper hands for our friends down under. This is where the internet is excellent because being forced to chose a clinic vs choosing a clinic because they can meet your needs is huge difference. Take Care, Jason

Eastern--- I think many OZ docs are so expensive because they know a plane ticket from OZ to the State or Canada is expensive. I find the cost of a session down under mirrors the general cost of a HT in the States plus the cost of a plane ticket (1700-2000 USD) What I tell people is your going to pay roughly the same money, so come to the States for work from a doctor with much more transparency and a better reputation. On Dr. Knudson's site 2000 grafts costs 12,650.00 AUS or 11,015.00 USD. In the States 2000 grafts will cost 8-9K from top clinic (9,200 to 10,300 AUS). Add a 2000 flight cost and you basically break even. Your going to have to pay for a few days at a hotel, but overall....not knowing and going to a clinic simply by attrition/lack of real options vs choosing a leading clinic for the same money is a no brainer. Good Luck with everything mate! Jason BTW--I just looked at flight costs---range from 1500-2400.00.

Generally no. For those with very little work done, spread out over the donor, you may be able to pull off a #1. For most a #2 should be fine. My suggestion to you is buzz down to a #2---examine yourself closely, if you look fine, go to a #1, re-evaluate. If you had 1000 grafts you still might be able to pull it off....you can also buzz down to a #2 and have someone look closely at your scalp to see if you have white dots. I hope you share your photos if you decide to buzz down, it would be great to how things have turned out. Take Care, Jason

Hi Stamos, sure...many patients experience slower growth after each successive session. I'm not stating that is the case in your situation, just making you aware of the possibility. Again, I think you look great for 8 months, and you still have some growth and thickening to look forward to in the coming months. I encourage you to continue sharing your results going forward as your HT reaches maturity. Take Care, Jason

Hi Stamos---in patients who have had larger bulkier grafts, it can serve to slow down the growth in a second and 3rd session. Additionally, some of the larger, bulky grafts can cause some blood supply issues, which is why we rarely go very dense around these grafts...because they can compromise growth. I do not know if that is the situation in your case, but I just wanted to let you know this. You still have some growth and softening to look forward to over the course of the next 4-6 months. With that said, I think for 8 months your work looks very good. My opinion is not your opinion, however, so if after 12 months your still feeling like you should have had a different result, you can contact Matt Zupan, Janna or myself and we will talk it out and we will do everything we can to make sure you are 100% satisfied. Dr. Ron would not have it any other way =) Take Care, Jason

Alex, look up Dr. Feller in New York. Go see him. Or PM a fellow poster named Spex to get some information. Your best bet is to start there...I am not aware of any work being done in New Hampshire that is worthy of you choosing to have it done there as opposed to going to New York. Good Luck! Jason

At 23, you should NOT go through with this. There is only one doctor in OZ that does good enough work to do a hairline on you and he would be much more than 7200. I'm with Bill in that I am not so sure your even a candidate, really. Reach out to some of your fellow aussies here, like Parable...talk to them and they will give you the scoop. I would send him a PM if I were you. Cheers, Jason

I'm with Bill---2000 grafts--your thinning right behind the forelock which will eat up 300 or so grafts. The other 1700 should be used to create a slightly conservative, natural hairline that meets your goals, but still retains an eye on the future. I would speak to patients from the UK and get some opinions. At your age and level of loss, I would get on Propecia and do an FUE session. This would not overly tax your donor and leave you set up for future loss should it occur. Strip would be a fine choice as well, as long as you are educated about future loss and additional future sessions. Again, make sure you reach out to others from the UK and most importantly SEE PATIENTS IN PERSON. Take Care, Jason

NO.

Hmmmm...some say doing the trico creates an "anchor" in addition to the closure that can help reduce stretching......I am not necessarily in agreement. The Trico closure itself does not produce thinner scars in and of itself imo---it is designed to help disguise the "non-hair" scar, even if it is thin. While I find the trico a fine addition to the HT industry---great docs were getting great closures beforehand---just without hair growing through them. To answer directly--If you put too much tension on a closure, I do not believe a trico closure will prevent stretchback. If you reduce the tension on a closure to ensure proper closure tension...then the trico is just employed to cause hair to grow through the resulting scar. Hope this helps! Jason

Rider, In my opinion your never going to be able to combine the scars--they are just too far apart imho. You could possibly revise the lower one via strip...but again, that will likely prevent you from doing the corrective work up top. Give where the lower scar is located, it is going to be very susceptible to stretching so given that it is not extremely wide is why I suggested doing some FUE into the scar. BTW--- I want to point out that we do scar revisions for 1500.00 regardless if we are doing a strip session or FUE--it is the same cost....I just want to make sure I point this out so as not to seem I am just recommending FUE "just because"---it is the same difference either way and the method I personally prefer in this situation on the lower scar. Obviously, seeing a top clinic in person by a doctor will give you better answers. It may be that you have such deep diving donor that the lower scar is really not much of a concern. Good Luck Mate! Jason

In speaking to many, observing others, and through our own experience...I believe the biggest hurdle to FUE YIELD is experienced technicians handling and placing the grafts. At SMG we have Janna and several other techs who are simply amazing at their job....I believe if you look at the techs of other "top" docs, they will have 2-3 who have many years of experience handling/placing. FUE grafts are fragile. You cannot handle them roughly, place them roughly into the sites or they will crush. If you introduce speed or put too many people around the patients head...all to just make things faster, I believe this is where the quality control dips drastically. Obviously, extraction of the grafts produces some level of transection--but even so, even if you cut a 3-4 hair graft, you rarely shear the entire graft--your still left with a 1-2 hair graft that can grow. Additionally, the cut graft left in the scalp has a chance to regenerate as well. If you ruin a graft AFTER extraction that is it. Malborn---every doctor has their own staff and approach to FUE. It is not as simple as you have described it. Also, I find your comments directed to Stingray lacking a bit of compassion and understanding. Obviously, when a patient does his research, chooses his doctor and proceeds, he or she expects to achieve a result. REGARDLESS of why a patient is unhappy, the fact is they are unhappy. We all understand that there are results much worse than his...but we are individuals and some issues affect others harder than others. That is the same for a Shapiro patient or any other patient of any other clinic. We have the occasional patient who loves the work, but wanted a bit more, or thought his hairline might be thicker, or wants the temples thicker etc... instead of making the patient feel like they did something wrong, we just take care of them. Other great clinics do the exact same thing. Anyway, hopefully we can turn this thread to something constructive and educational. Take Care, Jason

Pale Rider (one of the top 10 westerns of all time BTW) I think an optimal strategy would depend on how much work you need up top. There is a possibility of approaching your situation in a combination manner. 1st--the thin/properly placed scar can be excised during a strip session...and depending on a laxity/donor density you could end up with 2000-2500 grafts. I recommend keeping a rather conservative approach to the strip session...we want grafts, but we want to heal thin as well. 2nd. Depending on your needs up top, we could then use the FUE option to target additional work up top PLUS, add 300 or so 3-4 hair grafts into the lower scar. I believe this would help you avoid waiting one year between seeing some results. After one year, we could determine what the lower scar looks like and possibly do another low density pass to finish that off.....if we can get even decent growth, it will substantially affect the overall look of the lower scar. Additionally, if we determine that any further work will be done via FUE we could also target the upper scar with some fue as well just to break it up. I believe in your situation you already have the scarring, so getting a solid # of grafts while working on the scarring at the same time is likely a better scenario than waiting. I see no real benefit to you at all by waiting. If you could post some shots of the top of your head it would help as well. Take Care, Jason

Lost, I have talked to many many people about the exact points you have raised. I think what happened is you have Dr. Shapiro with his reputation for excellence and his online transparency collided when we began our FUE process. Another point is aside from Dr. Feller (and more recently a few others) there has always been a "shroud of mystery" associated with others concerning FUE---clinics refuse to disclose punch sizes, refuse to acknowledge poor results, over-hype the benefits and downplay the potential drawbacks. Also, from the beginning we acknowledged our infancy in the FUE arena and we readily offered our support of excellent FUE docs such as Dr. Feller, Dr. Bisanga and Dr. Harris to patients seeking FUE, but were uncomfortable choosing SMG due to lack of results. I think people just look at what we do and they trust us to "do right" by them. We talk about what we do and why. People can see the immediate post-op work and they can see how minimally invasive we keep the procedure. I think your right on point that people are looking at the past work we performed and feel with Dr. Shapiro and our staff, the results will be the same. Again, when I go back to mid 2007 and we started to really set the groundwork one of the fail-safes we talked about was NOT to overwhelm our staff, over-book, over-promise and under-deliver. I have to admit, I am excited about our FUE work, but your 100% right..we should NOT be considered FUE experts...until we have the results to back it up. I believe the guys who are members here who are going to share their experiences will help as well. Take Care, Jason

Janna would like diamonds, I believe! Also, your friendly neighborhood internet rep loves Starbucks. IMHO, it is ALWAYS a good idea to engage the techs, they work hard!!!! The more engaging the patient, upbeat he/she is, the easier it is for the entire staff to feel good. Professionalism is paramount...but happy professionalism can't be beat!!! Jason

Guys, I'm asking as a favor to me....let's just let this one go, cool? Everyone who posted here has something to offer, even if they stepped on a few toes. I believe everyone posted here with good intentions as well. This is still a good thread....of course, Bill and I could referee some form of chat room death match if that is necessary Thanks, Jason

J---there are no knives involved here!!! 3 days of peaceful, comfortable HT surgery. Ok, so maybe not THAT comforting Having had both, FUE is a bit easier to sit through than strip. The post-op is the big difference....not having to worry about your sutures/staples is a big relief.

It is often the practice of unscrupulous clinics to charge for a particular amount of grafts and not do them. This is often one of the reasons they can keep the prices so low. Another red flag is the "up sell" to more grafts once your in the chair.....it is the practice of most ethical clinics to agree on a set graft total and gift these to the patient if they go over. I can tell you that maintaining a proper clinic, equipment, staff and administration is expensive, period. I suggest you see a Coalition doctor in your area, have them examine your scalp and attempt to estimate the amount of incisions and area covered. You could then take this information back to your clinic if there is any issue. Here's the deal with your HT....be calm, wait it out. See how it turns out. Once it grows in, then we can see what your hairline looks like and go from there. I hope this helps!!! Take Care, Jason