krice83

I posted last week about any reviews of surgeons in the San Francisco area. I had a consultation with Dr. John Diep. We did a Skype consultation that went well. I think it went as well as a Skype consult can go. About the Skype Consultation: Dr. Diep was courteous and listened to my thoughts, suggestions and questions about hair loss. He did seem a little busy and didn't go into much detail about the procedure. (later I had to end up calling the clinic back and ask additional questions that came to mind). I would have liked to get a few more questions answered by Dr. Diep but at the time I couldn't think of any. All in all, I feel pretty confident in his abilities (He has many documented on youtube) and decided to go ahead and book the HT for April 22nd! I am pretty excited about it. Here's a summary of what Dr. Diep told me over the phone: I am a norwood class 3. He is going to fix my receding hairline using the FUE method and is shooting for 2000 grafts. He reassured me that he can achieve the results I am looking for. ( I sure hope he is not blowing smoke) I put down the $1000 deposit yesterday to hold the surgery date. We live in the midsouth and are over 1000 miles away from his office. I would have really liked to get an in person consultation, but it's just not feasible at this time to fly out there for a day and then fly back. Immediately after putting down the deposit to hold the surgery date, I received 4 emails from his staff. They contained various information and attached documents to sign and read. Things to expect during the surgery, to what to do before and after the surgery. They stated they would provide some type of "antibacterial" type hair scrub that is to be used the morning of the procedure after I wash my hair. Also, In the emails, for the very first time it was ever mentioned, They told me about "A-CELL". I have no idea about this. They said that it is fairly new and it is an injection into the scalp. They said it was $500, and that it was not mandatory and no one knows exactly how it works or even if it works. Has anyone heard about this? It is any good? Is it worth another $500? I am still a bit nervous. I know that no results are guaranteed. The paperwork even explains that they can not guarantee that any or even all of the grafts will actually take root and grow. I understand this is just a formality. But it would suck if I got no results. SO Dr. Diep charges $7 a graft using the FUE method. Even though it is more expensive than the strip method which is priced at "$4 a graft", I feel it is better for me as I am still young and Dr. Diep is very experienced doing FUE and getting good results. I plan on documenting the entire experience from the day before all the way to the 1 year follow up. I'll be traveling with my laptop and camera . Stick with me through this journey! Would love to get some support, suggestions. After booking the Procedure yesterday, I am having some feelings of guilt and selfishness today. I'm sure it will pass over the next few weeks but at the moment it is bothering me. Here we go... now time to start counting down the days!

I was considering having a HT with Dr. Diep this April 2014, but your comments are concerning to me. Especially the fact that he misses the small details, ie- direction of hairs and donor sites. Did you have a procedure done by Dr. Diep?

Thanks for the article! I am wondering if I am fitting in that category of "haste". It is something I have wanted done for a long time, but recently I have felt a "now or never" feeling.

Hello everyone, I am new here! I am a Caucasian male, 30 yrs old with a receding hairline. It has been getting progressively worse and has made me very self conscious about the way I look. I no longer can wear my hair the way I used to and started to grow my hair out to hide my balding. I have been taking generic finastride once nightly for about 4 months now and try to put the rogain foam on when I remember, I just hate that stuff because it's messy and I have kids that always want to play with my hair. Just in the past year it really struck me hard when my barber said, "Hey man, you are going bald up here. See how it's getting thin around your hairline? In a year or so this will all be bald." Since his comment a year ago, I swear I look in the mirror every morning and it looks like I have less hair than when I went to bed. I have noticed that since taking the finastride, I have had less hair come out in the shower. So, I do think that it has helped or at least slowed down the process. I have an upcoming trip to San Francisco. I am looking for advice on a good HT surgeon near San Francisco. I am already traveling out to to California for my wife to have cosmetic surgery and would like to get the HT for me while we are out there. Knock out two birds with one stone(hopefully). I have a Skype consultation set up with Dr. John Diep for next Thursday(I will post about that after the skype consultation). I looked at some of his patient photo's and thought that the results looked pretty good. After reading through some of the discussions on here for a while, i heard some one say that a lot of these surgeons never post pictures of the "bad experiences/results." That worries me a lot. I mean, I don't think that my hair could get any worse, but what a waste it would be to spend all the money and get no results. Just from the different photo's I have looked at around the web and the number of grafts some people have had, I think I will need between 1500 and 2000 grafts(just my estimate, might not be close). I would be grateful if anyone could post about Dr. Diep and their experience and about how the results turned out from the HT. Also, his office told me that the day I Schedule the surgery, they require a $1000 deposit to hold the date. Anyone heard of that and is that industry standard practice? The only other Doctor I saw was a Dr in Oakland. I can't recall the name, but it didn't look like his patient after photos were very successful. Tonight when I get home I will post up some pictures so you guys can tell me what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts and get some guidance from some of you that have been down this road before. Any and all help is appreciated! Thanks everyone!