karlsd

ive been on the fence for over 10 years now. im 52 and just really starting to thin to the point that its starting to bother me. I have done an in person consult and online consult in the past with 2 local doctors and did not feel comfy with either. Looking for legit patient referrals for reputable docs with a proven track record to consult with. from my research it seems like FUE is the no brainer for me over FUT; but with a doc who is really good with FUE. Of course i want the best of both world; excellent work and cost efficient; hoping to find a combo of both; thus my willingness to travel. thanks in advance!

guys just a heads up...im gonna delete this thread tonight. i have not changed the way i feel but i dont need any headaches that may come with what i posted...i see that this post is showing up at the top of some searches on this doc. which is a good thing but until i have more concrete evidence im going to err on the side of caution. i have some ideas to prove my theories out.....ill get back to you when i do.

anyone on this board have any proven success?

not being paranoid....there was a staged show being put on for me...buyer beware.

this was a very very weird experience...ive done a consult at another place before who actually charged me which i wasnt happy about.....and this place didnt...of course i was happy about that but still thought it was odd...i was expecting to pay...anyway...i get there and its a multi tenant building...there was a sign outside but once i was inside there was no sign on their door..all the other tenants in this building had a sign but not this place...it was downstairs with no sign....not a big deal but 2 odd things in a row.....so i go in and there are multiple things going on at this place....i didnt pay much attention....fill out the paperwork....and eventually get called in.....i sat in a room for about 10 minutes waiting for the doc alone....he comes in...we chat and i kid you not...starts painting himself out as gods gift of the hair transplant world..."i was the first to bring Neaograft onto LI"..."i can do things no one else can do"...and on and on......says he can fix my entire head in one shot with 3K grafts.......no problem.......i say to myself OK great.....at least hes confident.... then he takes pictures of me...adds me to one of his folders on his IPAD...and proceeds to show me some before and after pictures (yes very odd that what he showed me are not on his websites).......and he kinda struggled to be honest......flipping around back and forth showing me lots of before pictures and telling me their stories....this went on for 10 minutes...saying how no one would help these people but me....finally i had to stop him and say.."can i actually see an after picture??"....im thinking this should be easy..scroll and bam....before....3 months...6 months...1 year...final results......he ended up finding one or 2 but passed up a bunch to selectively show me a few......he explained that he was trying to find people with my particular pattern....which may be true.....but it was just odd how long it was taking him....you would think he would know exaclty where to scroll through. so we get past that.....then he wants to do 3 things........ 1. introduce me to his star tech who he flies in specifically for certain patients who need special treatment 2. meet one of the patients there actually having the procedure. 3. go over pricing with one of his girls. so i meet the tech....VERY friendly....i ask him where hes from...says Dallas....i ask why do you fly back and forth...why not just live in NY?......i was just feeling him out...not trying to be nosey......he joked and said he might as well and gave some story about how he teaches the technique in Dallas........OK so next up meet the patient........ here is where it got a little weird for me...and that little voice in my head kept yelling at me when i left.....so the patient happened to take a bathroom break which left the room they were working on with him vacant and gave them an opportunity to bring me into the room and show me their progress......their were 2 attractive and VERY friendly female techs in there.......lots of smiling and giggling...adn they give me a mask to put over my face....put these glasses on me and ask me to look at these live follicles...they said 1500 in total...i gave a peak.......looked legit i guess..... and right when i was done looking and about to leave the room, the patient comes back.....another SUPER FRIENDLY GUY!...very talkative...very helpful......after hello...it was "are u thinking about getting it done?" "they do it all in one shot here...so im going for it" "i thought it was going to hurt but its a piece of cake"...i small talk back and then its "just let me know if you have any questions you can text me"......he was a young guy who had bandages on the side of his head wrapped around so couldnt see much....i saw the top of his head and yea he looked like he could have been losing it...or had a bad haircut to make it look like he was....just TOO friendly for me...it was just a 10 minute does of TOO friendly for me....this is NY after all...people are not that friendly here....... then it was all business when i sat own with the girl....she had the price sheet ready......no smiling or friendly business here....just dollars......talked about the sliding scale pricing.....all business.. was this a complete staged scam? an acting job? something just didnt smell right here. the way that young guy came in smiling and super friendly seemed so timed and coordinated. if yes, then why? well ill answer my own question...so i get excited and come back in a week with my tax refund.........but then what? they cant just steal my money and get out of dodge. My guess is that they will do the procedure but not give me the promised results and then i got back 2 more times to fill in all the spots missed? is this just a case of false promises and taking advantage of desperate people? i see nothing on the Internet on this guy or his practice other then his website and his past life as a vascular surgeon. or am i imagining it all? trust me id like this to be legit...says he can get 3.5K grafts from my donor area...and i have a relativity small head! all in one session....and i think reasonably priced from what ive researched.....$7/graft for first 1K....$6/graft for 2nd 1K and $5/graft for anything thereafter.....

just had a consult today....i have mixed feelings....promised some things that sound a little too good to be true...but who knows. i cant find anything about this doctor or his practice online..........anyone out there hear of him or have any experiences?

perfectly logical approach and one in which i will take. But my question was more of an economic one. Generally speaking from a state to state perspective, apples to apples......if Doc A in NY is fantastic and Doc B in FL is equally fantastic.....is it even conceivable that Doc B in FL could possibly be 75% less???? I get 25 to even 40% less from one state to another based on the economic disparity between states but 75% seems a bit much.....but hey maybe that's the way things are. Its free enterprise and maybe the big cities are just charging allot more because they can, for the same quality as other states for far less. Im sure most of us considering this as an option would have no issue jumping on a plane, spending a grand to save 5 grand or more for the same quality. So before i spend endless time researching all docs all over the US (i can spend days and weeks on a single state alone, which i have), does this make any sense at all? are there folks out there that chose a doc out of state and were ahppy with their results who paid significantly less than what they would have paid in their own state?? like i said, i expect a 20-30% difference from state to state and in the end if that is all it is realistically then it may not be worth hoping on a plane and getting a room and spending that grand just to save 2 grand. Is it possible to save this much money looking outside of the big cities for similar/same quality work?

from my reasearch....in NY....im looking at 1600-2200 graphs and what looks like $10,500 at a reputable place on LI, NY. I mentioned this to the woman that cut my hair today and she told me that she has a client who had it done in FL....perfect job......can't tell he had it done. Also mentioned that this person was looking at 12K if done in NY and found a place in FL who did the same job for 3K. Is this cost difference possible? i realize big cities will be more expensive than smaller cities for just about anything but this is significant. thoughts comments please