Noodles123

Some great points brought up here. I do believe that the rash of poor results is due in part to many doctors jumping into the cosmetic fields. Here in LA, there are med spas that offer hair transplants, invariably through the use of the machines. The cosmetic medicine arena has exploded because many doctors realize that you do not need any special kind of licensing to be a "cosmetic surgeon." Cosmetic surgery is the wild wild west of medicine. Oftentimes many of these so-called "cosmetic surgeons" have literally taken just a weekend course, and then set up shop offering all kinds of procedures that traditionally were the purview of true Plastic Surgeons. The end result is that you have family doctors opening up med spas and doing botox and injections, and yes hair transplants. This is also compounded by the fact that most lay people assume that "cosmetic surgeon" is the same as a "plastic surgeon." A doctor can only legally call him / herself a Plastic Surgeon if they are board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, which is the only one recognized as one of the 24 specialty boards recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS).

He did nearly 2800 FUE grafts in one sitting? That's quite a bit for a one day session. I'm guessing this had to be with the motor right?

Sorry, those 1 star reviews sound completely bogus. Of the 3 negative reviews, one was not a review of his work at all. What the hell kind of person throws a tantrum because a first rate doctor doesn't honor the ridiculous discount from a competitor. Those 1 star reviews just smack of hit and run online slandering.

Lost 1-2 hairs? Really? Hardly anything to be concerned about. You have an amazing hairline.

Omg, it gets worse. Seriously? "Micro Grafting" ? That is straight up prehistoric, archaic bulls***. No reputable clinic even uses the word micro-grafting let alone consider it as a viable technique. Run for the hills dude.

Very disturbing information. Clearly, just from the description of the procedure alone it was obvious that something was very wrong with this doctor. I hope this patient is okay.

Haters gonna hate... In all areas of life, the ones that criticize you do it because they thrive on being snarky and negative. I guarantee these same people would sing a different tune if they started balding and being the butt of jokes.

If one's goal is to lower the hairline and place hairs directly in front of the existing hairline (where it is bare skin), is it really necessary to shave the hairline?

In my mind, Rahal is tops for just sheer artistry. The hairlines look youthful, natural, and dense. The caveat being though that he has presented mainly lower Norwoods, hence the better final result. A close second though would be H&W for technical skill (super high megasessions).

I think we need to know who these doctors are that are employing fly by night techs....

The most critical factor, more so than the choice of FUE or FUT, always boils down to the surgeon. You must pick the best surgeon for either technique. I have had one FUE procedure, and while I don't have a linear scar, I now have obvious thinning of the donor area. Moreover, the diffused scarring may potentially make future FUE procedures difficult. FUE may have significant advantages, but those become moot in the hands of a less than skilled surgeon.

Is one's Norwood level where you are at currently, or is it the general pattern that you are heading towards? Some combination of both?

What's the latest with this case?

I agree. At this point the best are in Canada or Europe - strip or FUE.

Gonna chime in here. If you were a NW3 or N4 then perhaps an FUE would work. There's just a lot of ground to cover here and since you stated you want maximum coverage, I think you have to seriously consider strip. My personal experience is that the surgery and aftermath are a pretty tough period to get through. I did a modest FUE procedure, and it has made a cosmetic difference, but at some point I will probably get it touched up for more density. Plus, I did have visible thinning in the back, which takes away the main selling point of FUE for me (cutting my hair extra short). If I could go back in time, I would have gone with a top clinic like H&W or Rahal, do strip, and maximumize results in one pass. For the same money, I would have a lot more hair but would have to wear my hair slightly longer in the back, which I have to do now anyway. The thought of going through the recovery, hiding out, redness, massive shockloss (mostly recovered), and waiting all over again is stressful enough.

The rest of the portfolio shows the same issues.

No disrespect, but you were surprised by this after the fact? I hope you did enough research into your physician. Good luck.

This is an underwhelming result. For the amount of grafts you would have expected a more dramatic effect. Even with dark lighting in the after photos, the yield is less than expected.

OMG, this is outrageous. They had the audacity to say "it looks great, right on track"? I'm sorry you had to go through this. Under no circumstances should you even entertain the idea of a free procedure. Being that you've already had 3500 grafts, you cannot afford to waste those precious remaining grafts.

Looks like you were smart to follow your intuition, and potentially dodged a bullet. From my cursory research, seems like Armani developed a pretty bad reputation.

Mickey, the extraction pattern is exactly how it appears. You described it exactly. On one side it stops abruptly in that pattern. Nothing was extracted from the sides, and it was all concentrated on the back. The part that baffles me is that one side is passable, but the right side (shown in the pictures) was not done well. With a strip scar, you can make a case for the scar being less than optimal due to physiology. This is not that situation. This was clearly not a well thought out extraction pattern. I realize this will cause issues down the road if I get further work, be it FUE or FUT. Either option would be problematic. You can imagine how I feel a little stuck. To the original poster though, whether it be FUE or FUT go to the best and your risks will be minimized. Everything has it's risks but you want to make calculated risks.

Mickey, I don't even think you would need a pre-op photo, because you can just look at the hair right next to the donor area. There is a clear mismatch in density.

Well thanks guys for being generous, but let's be real here, for 1500 grafts it's pretty thinned out. If the extractions were spread out more and less localized in one area, edges feathered out, and if it wasn't done in an obvious rectangular pattern, it would be much less noticeable. But I got all three working against me. Too many grafts taken from a small area, the periphery was not feathered out, and it should have been in a diffused pattern. Honestly, it would have been easier to explain a longish scar in one area than an entire diffusely thinning area in an odd pattern that clearly shows it has been tampered with. Somewhat embarrassing each time I get my hair cut. This is the conundrum I'm stuck in though, because if my hair is thinned out this much from just 1500 grafts, how could it withstand another procedure? And if I go the FUT route in the future to avoid more thinning of the donor, there's less density in the back to camouflage a strip scar. I would have a thinned out area, and a strip scar! Sheesh.... The point is that FUE scarring can be troubling. About the physician, I'm not really ready to name names yet, but I'm thinking of bringing this up to him because this is a legit concern. I think that at some point, I would have to do a SMP procedure to camouflage this obviously thinned area. Right now, I look okay and hoping that I don't bald much more because of the aforementioned issues. I hope that I hold steady with the meds.

A less than ideal extraction pattern can result in obviously thinned out areas. It happened to me after only a 1500 graft FUE procedure. Luckily, the result up front is decent, but the extraction pattern which has clearly left a thinned out, sharply demarcated area in the back stops me from being completely happy with my procedure. This picture is with a # 3 hair clipper, and it already looks obvious. The main reason I got FUE was to allow for shorter hair styles with no obvious signs of surgery. Now I have to wear my hair a little bit longer in the back anyway. Sometimes I wonder if I went with strip with a top clinic like H&W or Rahal, I could have gotten more hair for the same money since I really don't have the option to wear my hair super short as is...

If you looked at the "regular" cases he's presented (i.e cases not complicated by previous botched hair transplants), they are almost universally unimpressive.