PupDaddy

Hi ready4Hair, You are considering two excellent ht physicians, both with generally solid track records. But I wonder if maybe you aren't presenting yourself with a false equivalency by equating a 3,000 - 4,500 graft FUT outcome with a 2,000 - 2,5000 graft FUE outcome. If anything, it takes more FUE grafts than FUT grafts for a comparable result, not the other way around. I understand your point about cherry-picking multi-hair follicular units via FUE, but that isn't likely to close the gap in yield and coverage of an additional 1,000 - 2,500 grafts harvested via strip and dissected under a microscope. I also think maybe your'e not completely understanding what the determines the size of a strip taken and the appearance of the resulting scar. There are two components to a strip -- length and width. The length of the strip is usually about the same whether the target is 2,500 grafts or 4,500 grafts, for example. The width of the strip taken is generally the differentiating factor between a smaller FUT session and a larger one. However, a wider strip doesn't necessarily equate to a wider scar. The keys are the amount of scalp laxity the patient has and the surgeon's ability to close the wound without tension. I suppose what I'm saying is that as between a Rahal FUT and a Reddy FUE, you should probably consider a comparable numbers of grafts in making your choice. Dr. Reddy is conservative with the number of grafts he will transplant per FUE surgery. My sense is that you would require two FUE surgeries by Dr. Reddy to achieve the density you could expect to achieve from a 4,000 - 4,5000 strip transplant performed by Dr. Rahal (assuming your scalp laxity and donor density allow for a strip procedure of that magnitude). Just my 2 cents. Good luck!

JimHal, The reason for the dramatic difference in price quotes as between the two clinics you mentioned is that at one of them, a hair transplant surgeon operates on you (Asmed - Dr. Koray Erdogan) whereas at the other, technicians operate on you (The Maral Clinic). Dr. Erdogan is recommended by Hair Restoration Network, as are several other Turkish hair restoration physicians.

Techs can't legally cut or drill into patients' scalps in Turkey either (according to Dr. K and MikroFUE) yet many docs and clinics there have chosen simply to flaunt the law -- including, apparently, the doc and clinic that MikroFUE represents, which has techs not only doing the FUE excisions and extractions but also the cutting/drilling of the graft recipient incisions.

Olmert, Can you please clarify your question? Are you asking: 1. Why do some people think doctors perform FUE excisions and extractions better than tech's? 2. Why do some people think doctors layout and create FUE graft recipient site incisions better than tech's? 3. Why do some people think doctors perform FUE implantation/seating of grafts into recipient sites better than tech's? These are three distinct tasks (except in the case of implanter pens, which combine tasks 2 and 3). Does your question include all three? One of them? Two of them? Which one(s)? Also, does your question assume that the country's or state's medical laws and regulations permit techs to perform the tasks encompassed in your question, or does your question consider the legalities irrelevant?

Really nice, ultra refined, natural work here, and utterly appropriate for this gentleman. Dr. Bernstein is conservative with strip size, graft count, and planning for future loss. A different approach than some coalition/recommended docs, but excellent work nonetheless and an excellent use of just 2365 grafts for the area covered. I agree that a top down shot would be nice, but isn't really necessary.

The issue goes beyond techs doing extractions.It goes to techs actually cutting the recipient incisions into the patient's scalp -- the task that defines the artistry, skill, and talent of the hair restoration surgeons recommended here. The issue also involves the lack of credibility and illegalitty of the clinic that 1966kph promotes so vigorously here. Let us not forget that the clinic's representative first claimed that the doctor who owns the clinic performs the hair transplants from start to finish, and to drive the point homoe emphasize that Turkey's medical rules and regulations only permit aesthetic surgeons to perform hair transplant operations. Only after some patients off the clinic spilled the beans did the clinic's representative fess up and admit that technnicians -- not the doctor whose name is on the door (who actually spends his days doing nose jobs, face lifts, and other cosmetic surgeries) -- perform the clinic's hair transplants from start to finish. This clinic's represetative then quickly changed his story to claim that the doctor-ower "supervised" the technician-performed hair transplants. That revised story was quickly brought into doubt after a patient of the clinic disclosed that the doctor lefft the premises to go home while this patiennt was still being (illegally) operated on by the clinic's technicians. If there was nothing untoward about technicians performing hair transplants -- including cutting the graft recipient incisions into the patients' scalps, using a motorized needle drill no less -- then why the efforts to mislead and deceive? I don't think this forum needs to be in the business of recommending or otherwise promoting illegally operating hair mills offering techician-performed hair transplants as a sideline to plastic surgeries. If hair transplant patients want to risk their precious, finitie donor follicles to such clinics and have technicians illegally perform cosmetic surgery on them in exchange for bottom-dollar pricing, that's their business (there are reportedly 500 such shady outfits doing business in Turkey at any given time). But imo, a forum such as this one, which purports to screen and recommend the best of the best hair transplant surgeons, need not and should not involve itself in promoting this cut-rate underbelly of the hair transplant world.

What "inherent limitation of the strip technique" (vs. FUE) are you referring to? I can't for the life of me figure out what you're talking about.

Looks good, but a 26 year-old diffuse thinner is generally the sort of patient who would be better served stripping out first. He could have gotten this cosmetic result from a first strip surgery and then, likely in his thirties or early forties, had a second good strip surgery. Decades down the road, he would then have good, untouched reserves above and below the strip scar to harvest what might be needed via FUE.

The ART of hair restoration lies mainly in the creation of the recipient incisions for the grafts: their location, density, angulation, direction, depth, and layout/design, and the tools used to make them. The very best hair restoration surgeons, i.e., those consistently achieving results that closely mimic nature, are the best at planning and executing impeccable recipient sites, usually using custom sized-custom cut (to the width and depth of the extracted grafts) blades, making mostly lateral slit incisions. "Populating" the recipient area is actually a two-step process: the first step is cutting/creating the recipient incisions, which is where the artistry comes in (and should only be done by talented, experienced hair restoration physician, imo), and the second is seating the grafts into those recipient sites, which is more ministerial and route and can be handled by well-trained technicians. The only top-grade doc I know of who still does some of the graft seatings himself is Dr. Konior, who likes to seat some or all of the frontal hairline grafts. A minority of well known (FUE-only) surgeons, such as Drs. Lorenzo and Doganay, use implanter pens to simultaneously create/cut the recipient sites and implant/seat the grafts. Their cosmetic results, while okay, can't rival the artistry and naturalness of the best work done by docs using custom sized-custom cut blades to make lateral slit recipient incisions, imo. Second in terms of artistry/naturalness are talented docs using needles to make the graft recipient incisions. Dr. Diep comes to mind as one such doc.

Really nice work! Especially given the high contrast between the patient's hair color and scalp color.

Wow! Just beautiful. Dr. Diep continues to impress with his FUE work. The patient was lucky to have a strong existing frontal forelock, but the surrounding work blends beautifully, and I don't know how Dr. Diep achieved this with just 2,000 grafts.

The more pertinent question to ask, hairweare, is whether Matt wants a renowned hair transplant surgeon with decades of experience, an established aesthetic and sense of artistry, and a long track record of exceptional documented results, to map out and create the thousands of recipient sites for his precious donor grafts using state-of-the-art tools and technique (by going with one of his three choices or with Dr. Erdogen), or whether he wants a technician with a power drill performing this task (by going to one of the illegally operating Turkish technician transplant clinics I believe you are referring to). Matt -- for what it's worth, of the three outstanding surgeons you've mentioned, and given the criteria you mentioned, my personal choice would be Feriduni, with Bisanga a close second. I think their hairline work is a bit more natural, i.e., more closely mimics nature, than Dr. Lorenzo's only because Dr. Lorenzo uses implanter pens to make the recipient sites and simultaneously "inject" the grafts into them, which to me can produce somewhat less natural hairline work than an accomplished physician using custom sized (to the grafts), custom cut blades to make laterally oriented recipient slits for the grafts -- as practiced by Drs. Feriduni and Bisanga. Just my view.

Holy cow, dude. You're coming along great! For just a tad over 5 months, this is incredible. Congrats to you and to Dr. Diep.

Non-promotional, MicroFUE? Please.

I like this result very much. Excellent distribution of 2000 grafts. Very natural. I do wish every doc posting results would include photos of graft placement.

Publishers, Please put a stop to MikroFUE's continuous spamming of this board to promote The Maral Klinic and its technician-performed hair transplants (while denigrating the Coalition and Recommended physicians here). Both are evident in this, his latest thinly veiled promotional thread. He is rapidly turning the FUE section into The Maral Klinic section, rendering it worthless.

Of course, an ill-advised extraction pattern, graft damage and transection, and surrounding damage is just the extraction side of the equation. The $2,000 technician-performed transplants at the clinic in question also involve technicians mapping out and making all the recipient sites, using a motorized drill no less, to make the execution of this cosmetically critical task "easier." I'm with Matt1978. You couldn't pay me to submit to a bargain-basement FUE hair transplant performed by low paid technicians, set up as a sideline to a doctor's plastic surgery practice, in violation of that country's medical laws. The idiom, penny-wise and pound-foolish comes to mind -- the "pound" being one's precious, finite donor and the long term devastating consequences (financially and emotionally) of a botched transplant.

Wow, Wow, Wow! Did I mention Wow? Truly gorgeous work here by Dr. Maras. This is one of the few FUE restorations I've seen that rival the very best FUT restorations. Thanks for posting!

Gorgeous work. This lucky guy has a good head of hair to start with. Now he has a great head of hair.

This is very nice work! Excellent design and result given this patient's starting point and characteristics.

For your particular situation and stated desires, I'd say that Dr. Diep is a good fit. He isn't shy about relatively aggressive facial framing for higher Norwoods, and his work is generally solid, sometimes exceptional.

Very, very good work by Dr. Wong on a patient with aggressive hair loss and fine caliber hair, which make for a real challenge.

This looks to be beautiful, natural work with a minimal number of grafts. Well done!

To me (based on a quick glance), Dr. Chueco's work looks very similar to Dr. Lorenzo's, and most look very good. A couple of the posted results look a bit sparse, but that might be because those particular patients had not yet had a second session to enhance density. As you probably know, patients of Dr. Lorenzo who require more than, say, 2,500 - 2,900 grafts for a top notch result undergo 2 FUE sessions, separated by approximately 8 months. Let us know your impressions following your consult. Good luck!

Wow! Just. Wow. What a gorgeous transformation! This is what the artistry of hair restoration is about. I just hope that Dr. K can resist the temptation to abandon his 1 surgery-per-day, 1 tech team approach given the high demand for his services. The consistent quality he and his tech team achieve by focusing exclusively on 1 patient per surgical day, with Dr. K handling most of the heavy lifting himself, speaks for itself. Unfortunately, this patient-oriented approach to hair transplantation is becoming a rarity.