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some of the best FUE surgeons who initially tried ARTAS discontinued it after discovering it was not the best harvesting method, and their manual extraction techniques yielded better results ... I would steer away from anyone using ARTAS at least for FUE

your first decision should be the surgeon and it seems you've started to do some research on that front, Hasson & Wong, Konior, Shapiro, Rahal were all on my short list. I'm from the US and did not even consider any clinics overseas. I would almost bet any of these physicians would recommend FUT in your case although they would give also give you the option of going FUE if that's what you wanted. To maximize your donor and plan for future procedures as your hair loss progresses - because you are still young - FUT will ultimately maximize yield and growth rate. I went the FUE route with Dr. Rahal as a personal choice because of my age, need to get back to work as soon as possible, and expectation that I would try to create an age appropriate and not so dense of a result. That was a personal decision, although if I started out earlier - like in my 30's - my expectations would have been very different and I would have likely gone FUT which is still the true and tested method. There also is a wide price gap especially with North American physicians between FUT and FUE pricing - which wasn't an issue for me, but certainly is another factor to consider. Good luck to you.

without pictures depicting your current state of hair loss, no one here can give you an honest opinion or advice

Lorenzo, thanks for sharing your story and so sorry to hear about your cancer battle. Wishing you the very best for a successful outcome with your treatment and upcoming trials.

fantastic density hairline is age appropriate and naturally perfect FUT scar probably high enough so he can wear his hair short or with a fade in lower back incredible, impressive result!

some people just use the word "bald" inappropriately without even realizing it - they see you have a buzz cut and to them, because you've shaved your head you're "bald" - for those of us in the hair loss community, we really know what bald means ... I wouldn't take it personally - I've actually heard the term being used wrong before and when I corrected someone, they said "oh, I just meant he had no hair because he shaved it" ...

congrats on your procedure with Dr. Gabel, you had a decent head of hair before, this procedure will undoubtedly be a big cosmetic improvement.

what type of excision tool was used for the chest and beard? was it the same that was used to extract the grafts from your donor area on your head? looks extremely neat I would guess because of a very small punch size

I personally think Dr. Diep is a bit too aggressive with his hairline placements, sometimes to the point of over-harvesting the donor area. Also, to me, his hairline designs look exactly the same from patient to patient. Sorry if it I sound over-critical, I still see some nice results from his work, but those were some of the personal reasons I did not go with him.

Agreed - I wish I had his head of hair as well!

from someone who also suffers from extensive hair loss, I understand others' comments here about people with much less advanced cases of MPB, but if the techniques are so refined today that someone believes they can benefit from a small procedure, why shouldn't they? it only speaks to how much advancement HT surgery has made over the last few decades for there to be such natural and undetectable results even in small cases such as this one. This patient looked good before, and looks better afterwards - not worse! Congrats to H&W

Listen to your doctor’s instructions or call for clarification but I’ve never heard of spraying newly implanted grafts for over a month - usual practice is hourly post op for first 2 days and then every 2 hours up to the 2 week point and that’s usually it ...

another option to consider to conceal the FUE scarring is Scalp Micro Pigmentation (SMP) - you've stated you only did 550 grafts, which unless the extraction was concentrated in a particular zone instead of a random wider pattern, it should not have been obvious even when you cut your hair short - but check out some SMP posts and reviews and see if that's a viable option for you - certainly much less invasive than having another surgery. good luck

nape hair is not considered to be in the "safe zone" of the donor region for extraction - which means it is susceptible to DHT, miniaturization and dying off - which is why surgeons don't use nape hair, besides the fact that you would be leaving a more obvious FUE scaring in a region of your head that is less able to be concealed by longer hair ..

despite the shock loss complications you endured, this is a definite success story, your result looks absolutely stunning! Whatever else you do to possibly improve the scar, or maybe even address the crown loss with an FUE session, will only make your result an even greater success. Congrats to you!

I'm glad you can appreciate the cosmetic difference from your pre-op state, but definitely lacking in density as you and others have stated. Even your forelock, which appeared strong before surgery, seems more diffuse. Don't know if a second pass might do the trick? But as you've stated, its a decent improvement, just not what I'm sure you hoped for. Best of luck and I hope you continue to see improvement.

you're an early grower! continued success

happy for you HTsoon, your hair looks AMAZING! you offer some of the best advice and comments on this forum so I hope you continue to contribute whenever you can... Happy Holidays!

I just had SMP into a strip scar - it was absolutely painless - just felt a vibrating sensation, not even like a needle prick, again more of a vibrating sensation. And I had no anesthetic whatsoever. You have more pain getting your teeth cleaned at the dentist's office! Nothing to worry about.

I don't mean to sound rude, but your response is very immature and crude actually. At 4 months, yes you continue to HEAL form your surgery. Its not the scars per se, but the nerve endings from your donor. People have experienced "numbness" in their donor for up to a year .... because those nerve endings that were severed continue to reconnect. Beside the fact that your recipient area is only at 4 months and still has 8 months to sprout new growth. I'd call that healing too. Good luck to you -

what size excision punch is Dr. Diep using for FUE? I looked at your post-op pics too, and your donor really looks either over-harvested or the punch size being too large makes it look that way - you'll probably have to wear your hair longer than that on the sides and back to conceal those FUE scars, otherwise your growth in the recipient area looks good, best of luck with continued growth

I had 2 FUE procedures with Dr. Rahal in Ottawa. It's an hour flight from the NY area where I live and its in North America so to me, that's as local as you can get. He's a top notch surgeon and his FUE results are as good as his strip surgeries. I had several consultations with excellent doctors in the US and Canada before settling on Rahal, and I'm glad I did. You also now have Hasson & Wong doing FUE in Canada. I'm sure there are many doctors in the US as well, but these 2 were always on my short list. Good luck.

almost all medical techs in Turkey as well as other countries overseas do the extractions as well as implantation which is why they can charge $2 per graft. It is the standard for the doctor to only perform the incisions. That is not the case in the US where a medical doctor is required to do nearly all aspects of the surgery and why its so much more expensive for a time consuming technique like FUE.

Dr. Feller is a strip physician, an excellent one at that. People traveling to Turkey to see Dr. Erdogan are interested in the less invasive FUE procedure, which Dr. Feller does not offer as a patient choice. Since you've already had a strip surgery with Dr. Feller and were happy with his results, why not go back since you already have an FUT linear scar. FUE would be optimal if you wanted to avoid the linear scar.

PRP will only help with hair miniaturization, if the area you're trying to improve is completely bald because the grafts are dead, PRP will have no effect