Noodles123

I'm not sure what you guys feel is so unusual about this. The majority of the time the techs are doing the placement of the grafts. The doctor does the extractions and creates the recipient sites. This is how most clinics do it.

I don't see how this is NOT fraud, when he was told the doctor would perform the surgery and yet a tech, and not even necessarily a nurse, performed the surgery.

Did you pay with a credit card? If so, there is a guy who was damaged as well by another doctor, and he was able to convince his credit card company that the surgery constituted fraud. The credit card company did a successful charge back and refunded the money to him. I can't guarantee that this will work, but it's worth the effort. If the doctor was not present and the surgery was done by a tech, then this is a clear cut case of fraud and deception. I would personally give this a shot. And for anyone else out there considering surgery, this is why you should use a credit card, because at least it gives you some options.

Can you expand on this? I'm assuming you mean that losing a lot of miniaturized hairs is more concerning than losing thick terminal hairs.

How far out did you guys have to book? I'm trying to get an idea of the wait....

Actually $7-8 is the going rate pretty much in the US. Of course Europe is different. His FUT rate is something like $4.

So true.... My friend had a transplant done by Rahal 1 year ago this week, and I regularly see his hairline up close and personal. It looks amazing and holds up under even extremely close scrutiny. I actually accompanied him on his trip, and there was a last minute cancellation from another patient on the day of his surgery. Dr. Rahal offered to fit me in since I had him take a quick look at my hairline which I wanted to refine from a previous transplant. Now seeing my friend's result one year later, I'm kicking myself that I didn't take Rahal up his offer. Ugh.....

Last I heard it was in the range of $7-8 per graft for FUE for Dr. Diep.

I get that this was well-intentioned, but what's new here? This has been known since Propecia came onto the market. They specifically state that pregnant women or women who may become pregnant do not handle broken pills.

This observation is so true! I was born with a huge forehead and thin, straight Asian hair which is literally the worst kind of hair you can have in terms of visual density. I had people tell me I looked like I already had a receding hairline in junior / high school. Basically my forehead and hair have been huge insecurities of mine since forever, and I always admired all the other guys with thick, dense hair and straight hairlines. Fast forward many years later, I'm now 33 and have run into old classmates on occasion. It is shocking to see who ended up balding and how aggressive some of their baldness got. I kinda got the last laugh with this one, because I've managed to keep most of my hair with help from finasteride, and got an FUE to lower the hairline. I literally have better hair now than when I was 15. That said, I've reconsidered my usage of fin lately, and have not taken it consistently due to all the negative chatter. I'd be lying if I said I'm not concerned that I'll quickly regress to where I should be without all the interventions. And a great recent example is George W. Bush. He had a dense low hairline through his 2 terms, but is now completely bald in the front. You would think that a man well into his 50s at the time would not get so aggressively bald. FYI, Taylor is not Native American. All his family seems to have come from Europe.

Like a post above said, doing the frontal hairline transplant, and wearing a well constructed hair system right behind it could work well. If your hairline is transplanted densely, it could restore you to a completely non balding look. I'm still surprised that very high Norwood guys don't consider this option. Although I understand most people probably don't want to deal with additional expense and upkeep to do a transplant and hair system combo.

No way in hell they can harvest 7000 FUE grafts in one day. No chance in hell. Dude you need to run, not walk from this clinic. I'm really suspicious of the photos and they look like they might have been lifted from other clinics.

I think Rassman retired.

This comment really caught my attention. So Blake, is it your opinion that finasteride is much riskier than previously thought? Can you outline the "serious consequences" of altering androgen levels for us non-science folks?

This is not good and you are rightfully upset. The problem is that you've clearly continued to recede in the corners and the surgery itself seemed subpar from the beginning. The "good" news is that I believe this is salvageable. I'd say it's time to consider a revision with a top doctor after negotiating a refund with the original physician.

Scar5, why do you keep trying to compare the best of FUE in the best hands, to the worst Strip procedure in the worst of hands. I keep seeing the same argument, that even in the best of hands one can end up with a badly stretched linear scar. Well conversely, in the best of hands, one could also end up with low yield from an FUE procedure. The fact is, in the hands of a good surgeon, the worst case scenario of either procedure is not likely to happen. As far as I know, you haven't even had an FUE procedure. And how does the extraction method have any bearing on graft placement? I don't even see how you can conflate two unrelated issues. I'm not knocking FUE, I had one myself. But let's be honest, a big reason as to why FUE has taken off is because the barriers to entry are a lot less than with FUT, which requires a lot of resources.

These pictures make it really hard to gauge your true improvement. Take a few steps back from the camera and try to recreate the lighting.

You're going to be in great hands. My friend got his FUT from Rahal back in Sept '14, and now 8 months in his hairline is amazing and will only look better. It drastically changed his looks for the better and easily took 10 years off.

This is mind bogglingly good. Ugh... wishing I had bucked the trend and went with tried and true FUT and got it done in one shot.

Wow.... Even a lay person would be able to tell that this clearly is not 3000 grafts. Looks like there was a significant amount of attempts, but only a fraction were actually implanted. I agree with everyone that you should thoroughly document this, as this is clearly far below the standard of care. This is out and out deception. A lot of shady surgeons sometimes try to confuse patients by using "grafts" and "number of hairs" interchangeably, but even if this was "by number of hairs" it would not amount to 3000 hairs. Sorry dude. This guy has no ethics at all, and unfortunately he seems to have wasted a lot of your grafts.

I think one of the dead giveaways with a hair system is too much density. If you got a system that was a little thinner it would be a closer match to the hair at the front. Personally, I think for guys with more advanced balding, the transplanted hairline / system behind transplant solution is pretty ingenuous. If one does not mind the upkeep, you could transplant at a very high density for the first inch or so at the hairline and then wear a very good system behind it.

In a topic discussing the pros and cons of FUE / Strip, that might be okay. But this is someone's personal blog of his experience. No need to undermine his choices.

Hi Garageland, Is the H&W solution only topical finasteride or does it also contain minoxidil? If the result you posted is from a finasteride-only topical, then it seems very compelling. Is there a workaround for US patients who want to get a hold of a topical solution?

OMG this would be amazing. I haven't experienced any major sides, but the thought of taking this forever has been weighing on me. At this point it's been 5-6 years of off and on use of finasteride, and if this proves to be efficacious I would totally get on this. I've seen website online that sell topical dutasteride in conjuction with a dermaroller, but obviously I've questioned whether the solution contains the actual drug at all.

Read of a few sub par results from this doctor on this forum. He charges a ridiculously low price and it's pretty obvious why.