I wouldn't recommend anybody see Dr. Walter Unger. He's pretty well known for his research and basically wrote the textbook on hair transplants - but I cannot say the same for him as a surgeon.
Very long story short. He had a perfectly good canvas to work with on me. I was starting to lose hair and wanted some reinforcement and picked the perfect time to do so where nobody would notice. Fast forward 3 months and I have a lot of shock loss - all of which came back, but was probably due to the incision being closed under too much tension. I wore a hat for 3 months, had to withdraw from classes, and was overall a very depressed person. This was the first time in my otherwise extremely elated and confident life where I felt insecure and down about myself. Not because of the balding, but because of the butchery that was done on my head.
I enjoyed a faux hawk type haircut with close cut sides and back (which unger assured me would still be possible within reason) and my my front bangs geled up.
As a result of his procedure and cursory follicle placement in the front, it looks like a parallelogram. I was receding and balding on my left temple. So naturally you would think that he would have transplanted there. Instead, he transplanted more in my right region where I already had strong hair and brought my temple/hairline even more forward than it already was. I guess more hair is good...but not when nothing was done to the region which actually needed attention. So end result is coming out looking more lopsided and worse than when I started.
It's a tough time in my life as I'm trying to forget and move on. I was a good looking individual about to enjoy the prime that was supposed to be my late 20's and I've taken a serious emotional blow by what Unger did to me.
If I ever gain the courage to look past this incident without anger and enormous regret, I will post some pictures I took along the way. Unfortunately, right now, I'm not comfortable enough to do so, let alone look dig through the pictures as they will take me back to a very, very bad time in my life.
I wish you all happiness, and successful hair restorations. I just wanted to put the word out there since there wasn't any to steer me away when I was looking for a HT. All that I heard was how well known he was for his research and concepts and debates.
Small tidbit - I went in for a 1 month post op check up to address my concerns about why I had lost so much hair around the incision area. While I was there I asked why don't you use tricho closure - to which he responded "because then you get ingrown hairs".
Yea. Cheers everybody. If I save just one person from the agony and emotional avalanche that I endured these past few months, then I am glad.
