Stingray

Ark

Firstly, don't panic. You are only one month out so it is about 7 months too early to be drawing any conclusions from your procedure.

I had a bad Armani HT. The redness, in my case, lasted about 6 months. I also had the bumps to which you refer. In my opinion these improve with time. It helps that i have had a repair procedure with BHR but right now I can't see my bumps at all.

Try to stay calm.

Good luck

SR

Wolfman

Sounds like you are in the same position I was. I turned down the free Armani touch up. If only 30% of the grafts grew the first time it seems unlikely that his success rate would be any higher the second time.

I went to Dr Bisanga to fix my hairline and I am delighted I did.

All the best,

SR

To be honest I don't know anything about Dr Keser so am not qualified to give an opinion.

My advice before choosing a surgeon is to meet patients of theirs in person and failing that to contact patients and get their thoughts. Obviously, it has to be patients that you have found on your own. Asking them to suggest people you can call is pointless as clinics can put you in touch with patients who have had the best results.

As has been mentioned in this thread already - Be wary of all internet forums. Some are better than others. Forums make their money from the advertisers/doctors which means that they have an interest in keeping them happy. An unscrupulous/greedy forum owner could use their moderating powers to that end.

Good luck in your search.

Why take the risk with a Dr who has produced so many poor results. All HT doctors have the occasional bad result but as Sparky has demonstrated some doctors have a lot more than others.

For FUE I would look very closely at Dr Feller, Drs Paul and Ron Shapiro and Dr Bisanga. I think they are all doing very good work.

I have personal experience of Dr Bisanga and so far I am very happy with my choice.

A bad HT sucks. Choose your doctor very carefully.

Julius

With regard to the recipient area it should not make a difference whether it is FUE or FUT as the difference in the two techniques only applies to the extraction method not the implantation.

With FUT you would not be able to have a shaved look anyway as you would have a large strip scar at the back of your head.

Hi Spex

Thanks for the support. Am gulping water as I type and have only looked at the grafts about 40 times this morning... so not too bad, heh.

Dr Bisanga didn't comment on the size of tool that Armani used. I think the white dots speak for themselves though.

All the best,

SR

Markymark - unfortunately it was Armani himself who did my original transplant. Well, he did the incisions. I don't think he ever does extractions. If you are thinking about going to him... Don't. You will regret it.

Here are some more pics

Thanks Spex

Hey guys

I am back in the hotel after my HT with Dr Bisanga at BHR. I am a little knackered as you would expect so I will keep it brief.

From Phil picking me up at the hotel at around 10:20am to Stephen and Phil walking me back to the hotel at around 6:30pm I would describe the experience as excellent.

There is a lovely atmosphere amongst all the staff at BHR which makes the experience all the more relaxing.

Anyways, lots of photos taken before the procedure (which I will post once Phil has sent them to me) of the state of my head including the white dot scarring from my previous Armani procedure.

Then extractions - Dr Bisanga and I decided to avoid the area where a strip would be taken so as to leave a good strip count as a possibility for the future. All the punches were done by Dr Bisanga with a tech extracting the follicles with tweezers.

Had a decent ham baguette somewhere within all that.

Then the placement. Br Bisanga did all the incisions and some of the placements.

The breakdown is as follows:

1 hair = 318

2 hair = 419

3 hair = 227

4 hair = 36

Total grafts = 1000

Total hairs = 1981 (nearly 2 hairs per graft average)

I will post better pictures that BHR took but here is one that I took on my macbook here in the hotel room... Nice. Note that my donor hair and the hair in the recipient areas was shaven too.

Obviously the proof is in the pudding with regards to growth but so far I am very pleased with the experience.

Best wishes,

SR

Hey guys

I thought I would update you all.

I am currently in Brussels as the date of my rescheduled FUE HT with Dr Bisanga is tomorrow. The reason it was so long after my missed appointment in December is that I had to wait till I had sufficient time off law school to allow for recovery.

Anyway, the trip over on the Eurostar is an absolute breeze and was only 2 hours. The hotel around the corner from BHR is perfectly nice and very reasonable (76 Euros a night with breakfast). I had a brief chat with Phil and Dr Bisanga to go over the procedure for tomorrow and I am feeling pretty relaxed about it all.

Just by way of reminder I am having about 1000 grafts. The majority are to rebuild the unnatural and thin Armani hairline and whatever is left to thicken up the right side area where the transplanted grafts meet my natural hairline. I know that in a perfect world I need more than 1000 grafts but I want to see how this goes first before coming back for some more.

I will post pics as and when I have something to show you.

All the best,

SR

Ian

Personally, there isn't a doctor in the UK that I would go to for a HT.

I have decided to have my next ht with Dr Bisanga.

Good luck

Jotronic

Did you not have any swelling post op? 3 days post op I looked like the Elephant Man.

Dr Madhu took two strips from the same surgery?

Does this mean that you have two scars?

I have seen patients with two strip scars but never from the same surgery.

Is this correct or have I misunderstood your post?

Yeah, unbelievable, a little bit of snow and the entirety of the UK collapses. It happens every year too.

Dr Bisanga's office has been very understanding and have offered to reschedule for early next year without cost.

I have to say that their customer service so far has been absolutely first class.

Yeah, is a real shame.

At least I wasn't one of the people trapped in the trains which probably would of happened had I headed down the night before.

Well, I was meant to be having my procedure with Dr Bisanga today but unfortunately Eurostar have decided to have a crises which resulted in all services being canceled.

Eurostar Chaos

Dr Bisanga's office has been really good about it and we are looking to rearrange a date early next year.

It's a bit annoying if for no other reason than I have had to forgo Christmas booze for the last few days. Heh!

SMG are one of the absolute best when it comes to the state of your recipient post procedure.

Saying that everyone is different when it comes to healing times. How much time off can you take before you have to go back to work?

I think both Bisanga (I am having a FUE procedure with him this weekend) and Hasson and Wong are excellent clinics. You would be in good hands with either but you should also consider a few other clinics.

Both Dr Feller and Shapiro Medical Group do top quality strip work. Definitely worth checking them out.

Bring the wig in for your doctor to have a look at and see what he says. I would think that you would struggle to wear it for at least a 7-14 days as your head is a little tender post op. I wore a hat but I made sure that no material was touching the recipient area. I don't think you will have that luxury with a wig.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement guys.

I will definitely provide updates regularly.

Madison

Think very carefully about how you want to proceed. I would place a very large wager that as a 24 year old NW5 that you will want a subsequent procedure as 3000 grafts doesn't go that far on a NW5.

You need to think how you are going to pay for those later procedures.

Hey guys

I thought I would start a new thread as I am scheduled for a FUE session with Dr Bisanga on 19th December.

As many of you will know I had a FUE procedure with Dr Armani about 2 years ago. 2425 grafts onto my NW3 head. The results were poor to say the least. Although I was offered a touch up I decided not to let Dr Armani touch my head again. I haven't had much option but to put it down to experience and move on.

You can see my pics on the attached weblog and although they look pretty bad the reality is that when my hair is grown out and with a bit of concealer I can pretty much get away with it. However, I would really like to get to a position where I didn't have to wear concealer and I could not have that constant hair worry. You know that feeling when you tense up when a girl playfully runs her hands through your hair?

My plan is to have approximately 1000 FUE grafts into the transplanted area to create the hairline that Dr Armani failed to do. I realise that 1000 FUE is probably a bit less than I need but I think it is enough to make a significant cosmetic difference and it will allow me to assess the results without using too much more of my donor hair. Once this procedure has grown in I will reassess where I am. I haven't ruled out going down the strip route at some point later on.

I spent a long time deciding on the doctor that I wanted to go to. I think since I have begun my hair transplant decision I have consulted with 6 docs in person and several more via the internet. I have emailed dozens of patients and even have a facebook friend out of it. For this 2nd procedure I eventually narrowed it down to either Dr Bisanga or Dr Ron Shapiro. I have had a lot of contact with Phil from Dr Bisanga's office and Jason from Dr Shapiro's office. Both have been fantastic and I would feel completely confident with either Dr. The choice eventually came down to one of scheduling and the fact that, living in London, Brussels is cheaper and more convenient to get to and from.

Well, I have to say I am nervous and excited. I am not looking forward to the actual procedure but I am hopeful that it will be worth it in the end. I will keep everyone updated on the progress of my 2nd round in the chair and am happy to answer any questions that people have.

Best wishes,

Stingray

I too would disagree with virtually all of the original post.

Healing time recipient area - 14 days? Not likely

Natural results: Strip = possibly and FUE = yes? WTF. That doesn't even make sense.

Also the OP left out a couple of biggies like how many grafts can be transplanted in a single sitting and cost.

Don't get me wrong. I like FUE but the above post is misleading and should be ignored in my opinion.

In my opinion you are much better of traveling outside of the UK. Check out Dr Bisanga at BHR (Brussels). He appears to be doing some great work. He is only 3 hours from London on the Eurostar.

WS7

Thanks for the report and keep us updated.

All the best.

SR

You can see in the after pics where my natural hair is and where my pluggy Armani hairline is.